What does 2016 school code change mean?

In 2016, teachers will have to demonstrate student growth as a part of their evaluations. I think this reality hasn't really sunk in for many educators. I'll offer some things to keep in mind and suggestions to help make this change a positive one.

Watch out for:
1. Your district wanting to use ACT or PSAE data for every teacher. This sounds simple but I can see this happening fairly easily.

2. Districts rushing into an evaluation metric for you. The arts aren't mandated by the state so be sure they won't be first in line to be discussed. Your administration will need time to come up with something positive.

3. Metrics that significantly alter your classroom for a negative effect. Whatever you choose, be sure it measures what you currently doing. Assessment should be an organic experience and if you haven't been doing it, get on the band wagon.

Suggestions for help:
1. Start planning now. This change could take a year or two to get right so that would mean you have two to three years to develop something.

2. Communicate with local districts. Talk to your friends. Find out what they're doing.

3. Ask yourself what kind of evidence shows what you want kids to know. Should their range, dexterity, and endurance be assed? There's ways to do all three. Should musicianship and aesthetic sensitivity be assessed? There are ways for those too!

You have to think this one through. Ultimately, it will help your teaching.

Performance Counts Act Part 2

Ok, I've now read the two drafts of the remarkable legislation. Here are my thoughts:

1. I know this is fast, but I think they need to ratify this. I talked to some fellow union reps and they were concerned they could not offer input.........I don't buy it. The NEA has had plenty of time to give an alternative and could have led this. If they are complaining that someone beat the to punch, they're right. Now get over it. Most union members still have no clue what's happening.

2. The media coverage has sucked. I would expect more from the largest legislation to sweep through the state.

3. Teachers will still have more job security than the private sector if the bill passes.

4. I've heard a few teachers say that they are worried that an unsatisfactory rating will be easy to get. I don't think so. If you have to soon document growth, an unsatisfactory would be much more black and white. Did the students learn according to the district model? If yes, than good luck being rated unsatisfactory.

5. Can teachers advocate for higher salaries if they are giving up job security? I think so.

6. How will this affect the arts? That is a good question. I think there are too many unknowns to answer.

Final day in ATL

Now that I've had some semblance of sleep, here is our final day review and my final thoughts.

We arose to load our buses and eat our last hotel breakfast. We drove to an empty street in downtown to line up for the parade. They put all the bands on the same street, and our kids were serenaded by the Robert Morris College band with some southern hip-hop.

The parade was short but we had a bus behind us with the world's loudest air horn. I had to talk to the parade officials about the inappropriateness of the situation. After a fast change, we ate at CNN and moved onto the world of Coke. Our kids got to sample Coke from around the world. My favorite was Italy. We changed back and went into fan fest with all the South Carolina and FSU fans. The FSU band was LOUD and rockin'.

We took our nosebleed seats, hung out for a few minutes and the kids took their positions underneath the stadium. The kids played the National Anthem and patriotic medley. They did a great job.

We returned to our seats to watch some of the game. The kids headed back for halftime and that's the clip from ESPN that we've seen. The band headed back to the buses and changed into their bus clothes. Some kids crashed right away and others decided to stay up all night. No one made it on my bus! By sunrise it was a new year and nearly the end of a great trip. We pulled into BHS to smiling parents.

I have traveled the world as a musician. There is something remarkable about performing music for another person that changes you. Being able to watch my students experiences this past week has been special. I've seen them grow as humans and as musicians. I saw people thank bus drivers and help their colleagues into hotel rooms. I saw kids let all their inhibitions go on the dance floor but most importantly, I saw kids have fun with their friends and ultimately, that's what they'll remember. That moment that will crystalize in their memory and stay with them forever. In an age when high school kids are inundated with school work, jobs, and band rehearsals, it was rewarded for them to have a safe place to be themselves, to be kids.

ATL day 3

After waking up some really tired kids, we ate breakfast and took the thirty minute bus ride to the Georgia dome for the massed rehearsal. There were nine marching band waiting for us and it was LOUD! The students rehearsed the national anthem together while the colorguard practiced their work. The CEO and founder of Chick-Fil-A brought his trumpet and played with the students. He even gave them a brief talk about keeping music in their lives.

Next, we got the students into their formation (humongous) and rehearsed the patriotic medley for pregame.

The halftime music went well and what was supposed to be a four hour rehearsal was cut short by an hour because the students were so prepared.

We returned to the buses and ate lunch at the CNN center (large foodcourt). We split the kids into two groups and took the CNN tour.

After returning to the hotel, we had about 90 minutes before the kids had to be ready for the awards ceremony and dance.

The dinner was nice and seeing all of the kids looking so good and clean was great.

We ended up winning marching percussion and had the highest score of any of the marching group. Concert and jazz took 3rd.

Our kids then took unofficial first place in dance moves and booty shaking. Wait until you see the pictures!!!!

We got back at 11:15 and lights out was midnight.

Ben

ATL day 2

The kids performed three times yesterday! We got 9 hours of sleep and woke up to a great buffet breakfast. Our concert band performed first, followed by our jazz band. Both groups were clinic-ed. Concert band had Gary Smith, direct emeritus of the
Marching Illini. Mr. Heath was his first graduate assistant in the 70's when he started at the school.

Jazz band had the former director of the Geogia Tech band. He switched up some things for them and they sounded great.

We then went to Dr. Martin Luther King National historical site. That was moving. The students visited his tomb and were able to see his former church, and multiple exhibits on his life. We all viewed a movie a out his up-bringing. That was incredible.

We then bused over to Olympic park and the kids blew off some steam in ultimate frizzbee. We walked over to the Georgia Dome and the drumline warmed up for their contest. The was a band from Alabama an in true southern style, they had featured twirlers and high steppers. It was cool for our kids to see something like that. Another state finalist band from Flordia performed. They were very good.

Our drumline took the stage and they had a clinic. The clinician pulled the kids in and said this: "y'all are good. I think you're ready for harder music."

Our buses then loaded and we invaded Dave and Buster's. I am not kidding when I say that we cleaned out the tickets by buying every stuffed animal they had.

Lights out was midnight and we woke them up at nine.

Ben

Atlanta Day 1

What a day! Our kids stayed up all night watching movies and playing card games. We commandeered an IHOP to the surprise of their manager (who was very kind) and went on merry way to Stone Mountain park.

The kids took the gondola to the top of the rock, which gives you a view of the entire area. We watching southerners all bundled up in super snow suits, they aren't used to 30 degree weather.

We then ate at the Varsity which is the largest drive-in in the world.

Our hotel is VERY nice. There are nine marching bands here!!! Tons of kids walking around (one kid dropped an ihome off of the ninth story-not one of our's).

We had lights out at 11 and the kids got 9 hours of sleep. Hopefully they are rested.

Thanks,
Ben

Performance Counts Act

Merry Christmas,

If you haven't heard, there's a huge bill about to be tackled by the Illinois house and senate. This bill would make massive changes to the Illinois School Code, the governing rules for school district operating. Here is what the gist of the bill is:

1. School districts have to show school growth on their 2012-2013 report card. That's going to be difficult, unless districts stick to just standardized test scores. (So no one will mention the arts or other subjects.)

2. Tenure is completely different. If a teacher gets rated unsatisfactory, they could possibly go before the superintendent, a board representative, and a union representative. Three things can then happen: 1. They are recommended to be dismissed. 2. They are recommended to be reinstated. Or, 3. They are recommended to be returned to first year tenure status!!!!!!!! The reason that is so huge is because when you aren't tenured, the district can dismiss you without a reason. Another huge issue is the ruling can't be appealed and there is no hearing officer.

3. Striking is made more difficult due to a more complicated mediation process.

There are more changes but I think these three are the biggest and carry the more weight.

Point 1 is infuriating but that might be premature of me. Point 3 isn't really a big deal unless you work is a bad district that has poor compensation and benefits.

Point 2 is huge. I wonder how many districts will make personnel moves on teachers that used to be untouchable. I also wonder if this will improve job mobility, which has been a problem since the recession.

The next five years are going to be interesting.

Does it constitute teacher bashing?

Anyone who has been paying attention to the national debates going on right now, have heard about the new documentary Waiting for Superman. I was sitting in the Music Education annex at Illinois two weeks ago discussing all of the education reform speak and I have to say, I'm always skeptical of a national discussion that involves non-professionals. I'm not arguing that people who can think intellectually about schools and improvement can't add to the conversation (i.e. Malcolm Gladwell), but I do think that politicians and members of the buisness community struggle to add any meaning or crystalize an argument.

Compare the education debate to global warming. You'll hear people state there is no possible way climate change could be true. Rarely do you see an actual scientist with a seat at the table. Stop a natural resources professors on any college campus and ask them about global warming. The media is so far behind on this issue.

So if education is treated in the same way, why would we expect a different outcome? I think that's why teachers feel "touchy" about this entire debate. They don't feel that they have a seat at the table, much like scientists.

The people representing them or usually union leaders. Weigarten does alright when it comes to speaking for teachers but I think this is a much more complicated issue. Yes, teachers who don't perform well need to be fired. Yes, teachers who don't stay current with important trends, lack focus later in their career, or who turn out to be lazy once they're tenured need to be fired. That's pretty obvious.

But, back to my original question. Does a film like Waiting for Superman constitute teacher bashing? I would have to say NO.

Here's why:

1. While teachers are at fault in many scenarios, they can't be blamed for everything problematic in education because...

2. When controlled for poverty, students fair much better and when controlled for parental support.....

3. ....students also fair much better.

What about the way we evaluate schools? We now expect many more students to go to college in the same system that wasn't set up for that kind of intellecutal heavy lifting. Should every child be expected to do well in high school? Some of the world's greatest minds were horrible in school and yet we hold it up on this pedestal. This is a much deeper debate than the short time I've spent on it here.

I'm back

This exercise took a back seat to a school year that required more of me and drew my attention to other places. I've read some excellent books, had some invigorating conversations, and heard excellent music made by high school students.

I'm back online now, ready to rock.

Peace,
MC

A rebuttal to teacher pay

Alright,

Let's add to the teacher pay argument....

If you scroll down, you can see my argument for a new teacher pay system. You can also see Mr. Jaworski's comments. I agree with quite a bit that he said. I'll point out some things that might be interesting.

1. I agree that tenure doesn't make much sense for anyone under higher ed. If tenure only meant due process and collective bargaining, I would be fine with it. Really, those are the only things I would want/need. Automatic job security doesn't do anyone any good.

2. Sure, the suburbs are just a representation and don't have the issues as urban or even some rural districts. Incentives would be fine for those districts. I agree.

5. I stand by my opinion that teachers need to prove over time their excellence. One year is not a good indicator, positive or negative. Maybe the bench mark could be smaller, but I still feel payments should happen over the period of years with larger increases then quicker advancement with smaller increments.

I'm not sure how the unions are going to respond to this, especially the NEA. I've also had some interesting convos with older teachers at my school. I wish more young teachers were involved in the debate and I wish they were actually working in the schools and not just working in policy or wonks writing papers.

Lollapalooza 2009

Yes, it was insane. Check out MSTRKRFT. They were nuts.



Here's how they ended, epic.





Actually, this was last....

Quick Follow-up...

Coincidentally, a friend of mine from U of I was let go of her job in L.A. due to budget cuts. A columnist for the L.A. Times wrote a story about it. Here it is.

It's a quick read and doesn't necessarily reflect my views on teacher performance and tenure. But, I want to direct your attention to the comments section of the column. People have some very definite opinions on tenure and its place in education. I point this out to illustrate the complexity that this issue has professionally and politically.

-NJ

Another Perspective on Performance Pay and Let's Talk about Tenure

I've always been a fan of performance pay for teachers. It makes complete sense to me. Part of that might be because my Mom worked in a school district that uses a points system to help establish pay increases. She has said that the system felt fair and that there was a way for teachers to appeal how many points they received that year, but that her building principal had told her that nobody had ever utilized it (another indication of it's perceived fairness).

Apparently, that district is in the process of changing their merit pay system - with input from teachers and community members. Check it out here (it's actually interesting).

I appreciate Mr. Collins' discussion of this topic. I'm going to quickly hit each of his talking points and add my own thoughts - all in the name of a good discussion. You can reference his thoughts on the post below.

1) I'm still not sold on the idea of tenure in K-12 education. I can clearly see a need for a tenure system at a research institution like the University of Illinois - professors are doing research and need to know they can publish controversial findings without any retribution. What's the equivalency in a middle school?

I've heard the argument that tenure protects the more experienced teachers (read: expensive) from being fired as a way to save costs and tt also encourages teachers to stick around knowing they have some job security. I can see some validity in those points, but administrators and school boards DO want to keep GOOD teachers - it reflects positively on them to have the community see that they're keeping good teachers that are educating their students. And, with a merit pay system in place, it would become the responsibility of administrators to hold their teachers accountable for their effectiveness. I think a positive, effective work environment is the key to keeping teachers around (especially if money is not an incentive, as Mr. Collins claims).

2) True. Teachers don't enter teaching to become rich. However, for a large percentage of the country, an average teacher salary isn't enough - they want/need more (depending on a large variety of factors) and probably think that fact a lot. If you provided them with a way to make more money in the long term, they will do it - just like the type 75 certifications. If you tell them that they can make more money by being a "better" teacher, you don't think that would be an incentive? Keep in mind that not everybody works in a suburban Chicago school where teachers MIGHT make enough money for a small increase to simply "not be worth it".

3) Yes, hard work and excellence MUST be rewarded.

4) This system sounds interesting. I'd be for it.

5) I don't necessarily like the idea that incremental increases can't be made every year in your salary. Couldn't you just make the benchmarks smaller? That's a better way to gauge how a teacher is doing - in my opinion - as opposed to having a benchmark a few years off and hoping that it all works out.

In the end, I think that we agree that the system needs to change and it sounds like Mr. Collins is PRO merit pay in SOME fashion. I guess most of my resistance is to the idea of tenure. I just feel that having some sort of merit system is a better way to reward the teachers you want to keep.

Bring on the comments!

Mr. J

Performance Pay for Teachers

I used to be a huge fan. I don't like the current system, that's not a secret, but I think the changes needed are tremendous. Let me attempt to outline my points.

1. Tenure should only outline due process. There are to many obstacles for getting rid of poor teachers. Michelle Rhee in DC discovered that and has made the issue much more......public. Simply put, its too easy to get rid of non-tenured teachers, and too difficult to get rid of tenured ones.

2. Teachers enter the profession despite the pay. Teachers in the suburbs are payed well for the most part, teachers in urban, under-funded schools are severely underpaid. But, again, no one really uses this as a reason to enter teaching. People enter finance and business for reasons that could be considered much more financially motivated. Thus, incentives shouldn't be a large part of the teacher salary equation.

3. That being said, hard work and excellence should be rewarded in some way. The only incentive right now is to become more educated with degrees that don't necessarily pertain to what actually goes on in the classroom. Yes, I'm talking about the influx of people getting their Type 75 certification.

4. I think a teacher's salary should remain the same for the first two years. The only hoops they should need to get through would be getting used to their job and becoming better in the classroom. If the school decides to re-new their contract, they receive a large salary increase and begin work on a three year plan become tenured. In this they will have work towards goals outlined by their particular department. (This is much similar to a college tenure process). A community of teachers serve as their 'committee' and take them through the process. Their pay remains the same for three years with a very large boost after tenure.

5. At this point, benchmarks are delegated at specific points. Yes, that means you can't just get paid more every year. Pay increases coincide with these benchmarks.

Obviously this is a dream scenario, there's plenty wrong with it. The current system makes sense and works fine. I'm just trying to shred some ideas. My opinion on this has changed over the course of the summer.

Back from summer

I'm back everyone. This summer, although its not over, has been quick. I went whitewater rafting for the first time up in Carbondale, CO. I hiked to the Maroon Bells in Aspen. I taught down at Smith Walbridge. Now I have WAY too much to do. I got a phone call from school everyday on vacation. With the major transitions currently taking place, I knew that it would happen. Oh well, such is life. I promise to get back on track here now that I'm back.

The Dream

Illinois vs. Northwestern at Wrigley in 2010? Ah, yeah. Dueling pianos at Sluggers afterward anyone?

The National Standards of Music

National Standards are gaining more and more ground in DC. Read this article first. As always, arts are left out of the discussion. I doubt many people care, but I believe that long term, this is important for the arts to get on the same menu as English, Math and Science. There already are national standards for the arts.

Will these be recognized? How will national standards in math and English be incorporated to current ones?

To be honest, the Illinois State Learning Standards are worthless for the arts. Read them, and then return to the national standards. Even a layman can see how much better the national standards are.

I wish there was more accountability in the arts. I wish our assessments were reported in the school report card. I'm not sure how many arts educators agree with me. School accountability is here to stay and I think some subjects have been slow on the uptake. Can you imagine schools losing federal funds because their don't meet AYP based on the arts. Can you imagine administrators losing their jobs? I can only see positives from this.

What would my standards look like? Here are two general points:

1. Students must be able to create art.
2. Students must be able to appraise art. (Notice I did not use appreciate.)

The first point is probably WAY ahead of the second. Let's be honest, we really aren't good at teaching art appraisal. We struggle to appraise teacher quality for heaven's sake! Hopefully the national standards are more intricate and go further than what we currently have. Many people claim this would lead to a national curriculum. Um......did I miss something? Don't we already have that somewhat? All students take two standardized tests (ACT, SAT) which reflect basic curricular material. All students take similar subjects and I believe most curriculum are already fairly close to each other. You lose autonomy for accountability but you gain quality. More on this soon....

Cedar Point Recap

A play by play of Cedar Point.....

We left at midnight in a slight downpour. I was worried about the weather, considering it was looking bad on weather.com. The bus ride was nice, the roads were clear and we were able to make record time. We arrived at McDonalds, yes, The McDonalds, and ate breakfast. I tried their iced mocha, not impressed. We left for the park in slight rain and cloudy skies. When we arrived twenty minutes later, we gathered under a pavilion and waited for almost an hour and a half. We warmed up and ran through the fight song. The rain showed no sign of letting up. At 10:13, our guides came out and we lined up. The parade had begun!!! We marched through the park and around a small loop. Our total time was 8 minutes. But, the best part was the rain suddenly stopped!! I coudn't believe our luck. We quickly put the instruments away and headed back into the park for 11.5 hours of rollar coasters.

I hung out with the "not so sure if rollar coasters are our thing" group all day. We had a great time. I played my wealth down in Time Crisis, my favorite arcade game. I was also witness to perhaps the world's most insane ride, the Dragster. This ride shoots you to 120 mph in two seconds and then up 22 stories. Yes, straight up. And then, straigt down. The total time is 14 seconds. It's nuts. In fact, they built grandstands just so people could watch. We cheered as every Batavia kid bravely took their place.

The kids had a great time as they piled back on the bus at 10:20 pm. Within minutes, the bus was silent and we were on our way back. Not only had we dodged rain, but the park was barely populated because of a poor weather forcast.

We arrived at AGS around 4 am and I arrived at my place around 6 am. I slept until 5 pm the next day.

Best band trip ever.

Mister Rogers and The Expression of Care

My name is Nicholas Jaworski and I'm a new contributor to this blog. However, I don't want to spend any energy in explaining who I am - since I hope that my posts will reflect my philosophies about music education.

If you've wandered over to this blog, take 6 minutes to watch the entire video below. The date is May 1, 1969 (40 years ago!) and President Nixon wants to cut public television funding in half to help fund the war in Vietnam. Enter Fred Rogers. He's been producing his television show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" on PBS for a couple of years. His goal is to convince the stuffy and cynical members of Congress to spend $20 Million on public broadcasting. The ending is simply cinematic.



His words are simple and beautiful. Mister Rogers has something to teach all of us concerning the "inner drama of childhood" and "the neighborhood expression of care". Music educators have a unique opportunity to reach out to students in order to help them express their own inner thoughts and feelings. This responsibility can manifest itself in numerous ways. Sometimes it means that students are physically creating new works to share with the world. And other times the simple act of working hard and succeeding at something is a profound expression of a student's work ethic and potential.

Those of us who are music educators must remember that our obligations to our students greatly outweigh our personal ambitions for our ensembles and classrooms. We must hold ourselves accountable for the experiences we provide our students in order to help foster a sense of curiosity in music and the arts.

As a side note, Mister Rogers had a degree in music composition and wrote all of the music on his show. So, I'm just saying - music is awesome.

Band Camp Update

WOW. Where to begin?

Last week was all about two things: getting to know the kids and developing fundamentals. I think I have most of the new names down at this point. The kids have been incredible. Never in my wildest dreams could I ever imagine Batavia kids doing what these kids have done. (Remember, I a Batavia High alum, class of 2001.) They have worked hard every day, every hour and every minute. What I have been the most impressed with, with all the positives I've witnessed, has been how incredibly nice and caring all the kids are. They pick each other up, they support each other, they joke around with each other, and they can sprint like wild to a swing set!! The story here is that because we are at AGS, we have a massive swing set and playground next to the field. You would never believe these are high school kids because the second we take a break (remember, we teach for 50 minutes and give them a 10 minute break) the kids are off to play on the monkey bars, swings, and yes..............the slide.

I give them a break because they seem tired and then, BAM! it's the Jungle Book all over again.

The AGS staff and principal, Sandy Miller, have been GREAT. Mrs. Miller's son Josh was one of my best friends growing up so it's fun to be back hanging out in Mrs. Miller's 'crib'. I probably slept over at her house a dozen times over my middle school years.

The neighbors have been 'colorful'. A few are confused as to why the aesthetic education afforded to Batavia High School students accounts for frequencies existing in or around their place of residence. Or, in other words, we are loud. I've told them that a generous donation to the Batavia High School Band Budget (BHSBB) would really help in noise reduction. They didn't think that was a good solution.

The kids can now go forward and backwards (we'll learn how to march sideways in August). Please encourage your students to 'show off' their new skills for you in the living room. Tell them to keep the heel vertical!

We also began playing through our show which is yet to be named. We are playing the music of Aaron Copland. The show will be around 7:30 minutes and is being designed by the famous Alan Spaeth. He's a monster in the marching band world and we're lucky to have him. I'll keep more details of the show on this blog. Our arrangers are Don Hill (another huge name) and myself (not a huge name). You can see some of his work here. In fact, the opener, that's marching band lingo for the first piece in a show, is Lincoln Portrait by Aaron Copland, the same opener we are using. The drill designer is Andrew Packer of Marian Catholic High School. For those of you who are new to the competitive marching band world, Marian Catholic is like the Yankees, Red Wings, Lakers, and Patriots put together.

The kids are really excited to show off their work. Please join us at the Cornboil the Friday before school begins.

Tomorrow night we head to Cedar Point. Pray for good weather.

Book Review- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Good book. I think I liked Outliers so much that I have a hard time calling this one great. It's certainly worth reading by anyone. His main thesis is there remains a 'point' at which things, movements, trends, fads, plagues, 'tip'. They all-of-the-sudden grow or decline at incredible rates. What fascinated me was his first point about spreading a message. He designates three groups: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. Connectors are important because they obviously connect people and things. Gladwell defines Mavens are experts in their field. They are important because they ultimately decide how "well" something works and what changes need to occur before it can become marketable. Salesmen obviously sell the item in question and market it to the right people. Sorry for the Cliff Notes version, but one of my biggest qualms with book reviews is too much review and not enough dialogue. So here's the dialogue portion......

I was thinking about what this means for education, and I have come up with the following:

1. Schools need people who realize that students have a "tipping point".
This is why we (educators) work so hard. Eventually, even the most difficult situations can be improved and once success has increased everything to a certain point, things will grow considerably. I guess this is what people meant with, "stay the course."

2. Faculties need Salesmen, Connectors, and Mavens.
I consider myself a Maven-Salesmen mutant. All three can be powerful forces in schools, and the good news is they don't have to all come from the faculty. Administrators are crucial here. They are often in charge of selling messages, concepts, and ideas to faculty, students, and parents. This can be difficult. Consider the faculty member who is an expert in their subject area as they enter administration. You would hope they understand their "salesmen" role. Also, consider the faculty member who can communicate well with anyone yet has a hard time with subject matter (good knowledge, poor pedagogy). They might be better administrators. Enter the argument: the best teachers don't always make the best administration and vise versa.

3. Knowing yourself and playing to your strengths is important.
I often walk into schools that have weak arts programs. When I learn more, the tendency seems to be trying to accomplish too much. If your a band director and you're not good at marching band, it would be a good idea to NOT put too much into it. Focus on your strengths. If you WANT to be good, great, find some marching band Mavens and get after it! Kids need to experience excellent. I think we've stretched kids so much in schools that they struggle to understand what sacrifice and hard work to a few groups is all about. Think about this, we have increased extra-curricular sports but participation hasn't increased at the same rate. Yes, it is better to offer more, but many kids play three sports locking out others. Obviously this is a gross generalization. Many students do quite well in multiple activities. I'm more focused on the arts programs that do too much. How many schools have excellent arts programs? (I'm sure at least one of you has said, well, define excellent.) They do exist and there are many excellent arts teachers and many great examples of student work, but as I think of the local schools in Chicago, only a few jump out as excellent. What will it take for the other schools to tip?

Movie Review- Terminator: Salvation

I loved this movie. Christian Bale is good but the Terminator 1000 is great. The story is effective, the screen play works (although Bale is a little over the top when he talks on the radio), and the action is incredible. The only thing I was a little disappointed in was the music. (Are you surprised?) Danny Elfman wrote the score and it's.........................boring. The 6/4 leitmoif is great, but something melodic to counter would be great. That's the reason John Williams is so good. He understood the strength of melody and theme. We don't get that in Terminator.

I hope they make a sequel. The action alone is enough. The machine design work and I hope they can make Skynet more intellectual next time. If the machine's evolve, how can the resistance continue to fight?

5 out of 5 drumsticks

Movie Review- Star Trek

All I can say is WOW. This movie kicked butt from beginning to end. I'm a Next Generation fan and haven't watched much of the original series. Maybe I'm not the best judge of Star Trek quality. Whatever, the movie rocked. The action was great, the screen play was good and I actually enjoyed the acting. I appreciated the fact that the background story didn't take long to lead to the present story. Sometimes this happens with prequels. They fall in love with the story and at the end, they have to make a movie happen in twenty minutes.

For instance, The Hobbit, coming out in 2011 I believe, has been cut into two movies. THANK YOU!!! 1. I think they'll be great, Jackson is an executive producer. 2. They can take time for the story and time to develop the plot enough for the movies. I think DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons were much too short for the amount of material they could have covered. But, honestly, they were boring movies to me.

5 out of 5 drumsticks for Star Trek.

Terminator: Salvation will be up either prior to Memorial Day or just after it.

Movie Review-Angels and Demons

I saw this Friday. OK, but why did they change so much stuff?

Out of 5 drumsticks. I give it 1.5. There is a 1 drumstick penalty for not being on IMAX.

Full Court Press

On ESPN.com, Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Tipping Point, Outliers, and Blink, argues for the use of the full court press for underdogs.

Check it out here. Gladwell puts up some more info on his blog here.

When thinking about education and how this relates to schools, I couldn't help but think that a full court press is just what some kids need. They need a completely different model than that currently available. They need change. Major change. So what does that look like?

Book Review- The Power of Music by Daniel Barenboim

I just finished this wonderful book while enjoying a nice Seattle's best cookie and cream shake at Borders (one of my favorites).

If you don't know, Barenboim is the former musical director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His musical advocacy is well documented, but this work really brings everything to a head.

Why do we need music? Barenboim ventures into the interconnectedness of the subject through his experiences. He speaks about how morality and music are related. Music has a certain life span. It's existential existence is finite. Through our own ways of keeping music present in time, we in turn learn to increase our own life. Barenboim also speaks about a subject dear to him; the Israle-Palestein conflict in the mideast. Barenboim imigrated to Israel from Argentina and was invited to perform in Germany in 1954 on piano. He declined because the Holocaust was too much in the minds of Jews at that time. He has become a strong advocate of a two-state solution and equal rights for Palestinians. His work in the region has drawn much praise and he maintains that through music, the conflict can be studied and some form of resolution can be made.

I highly recommend this book.

Check out this dude let Tchaikovsky 4 rip!!

What will happen during PLC's?

I've heard from a number of you who want more information on PLC's and late start Thursdays. You might wonder what students in the music department will be doing. We're still in the planning stages, but here are some things we are considering:

1. Quiet areas for students who wish to practice.
2. Playing Exam make-ups via SmartMusic (more on that later)
3. Student-run Sectionals

We have more ideas and the good news is we'll have the flexibility to change our activities based on our needs.

A New Direction

Today was a good day. Dr. Hichens was appointed principal of BHS! How much better can things get? Personally, I have always felt Dr. Hichens would be great at directing the school to new levels of excellence and at navigating these challenging economic times.

I've decided to take this blog on a different path. I'm going to use it for school and also, a few things I find interesting from time to time. Feel free to comment parents and anyone else who has nothing better to do.

Assessment

The first order of business here will be that of assessment. As fine arts educators, we are facing an interesting crossroad. As other subjects begin their "stint" of standardized testing, will we ever be asked to do the same? My guess is yes. I have read the recent NYT articles on Bloomberg's plans to assess every subject, a plan that extends well beyond what NCLB does. Some of my colleagues argue that the fine arts cannot be assessed. I don't think their philosophical apology will do much though. The complexity of standardizing a test for the fine arts might be too difficult for the United States. Other countries, UK and Australia, have programs in place. Will be borrow from them?

Hello!

After searching the web for a blog regarding current issues in the fine arts, I decided to have a go. We'll see how this pans out. I have been inspired by a number of blogs set up by current educators.