A little off-color at times but very funny.
Browsing posts in the ‘Everything Else’ category
An assessment of arts education
New York State Alliance for Arts Education notes that the National Assessment Governing Board released the 2008 National Assessment in Educational Progress in the Arts on June 15th. They note:
On the whole, the report shows that Arts education has held steady but gained little ground over the past ten years. Some highlights for the report of surveyed schools:
8% do not offer music instruction
14% do not offer visual arts instruction
8% offer music instruction less than once a week
10% off visual arts instruction less than once a weekOf eight-graders who attended surveyed schools during the 2008:
57% received music instruction at least three or four times a week
47% received visual arts instruction at least three or four times a weekPerhaps most startling is the omission of dance and theatre education statistics. The reason? There were not enough schools providing instruction in these areas to provide a statistically relevant sample.
Encouraging were the comments of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan:
—This Arts Report Card should challenge all of us to make K-12 arts programs more available to America’s children and youth. Such programs not only engage students’ creativity and academic commitment today, but they uniquely equip them for future success and fulfillment. We can and should do better for America’s students.—
Here in New York, NYSAAE is working in conjunction with the NYS Department of Education on the inclusion of ten questions to gather an overview of arts education, as part of the 2009 Basic Education Data Survey, distributed to every school in New York State. It is our hope that this census will provide data that will be beneficial to the dialog on the current state of arts offerings, and their impact on student achievement…
More information on upcoming arts education programs, professional development forums, calls for papers, and job opportunities can be found by subscribing to the Alliance’s newsletter.
Coffee, Kawa, Café
On the heels of recent news regarding the health benefits of coffee Erin Kennedy writes an Ode to Coffee:
As I was sipping my piping hot, freshly ground Starbucks House Blend, I thought, —ahhhh—. I’m not sure what it is about coffee, but I love it. Caffeinated or not, I love coffee. The smell, the taste, the culture. I need it, have to have it, would hate to live without it.
I am from a family of huge coffee drinkers. My parents always had a pot of it going. I loved the smell, but hated the taste of it (they drank it black). When I was 19, my boyfriend at the time drank it and, wanting to impress him of course, I started as well. My love affair with coffee continued long after college and long after the boyfriend. What a wonderful courtship it has been…
Thanks to Sharad Verma for the link to the article.
Whether you call it coffee, kawa, café, caffè, kaffee, coffi, кофе, káva, koffie, kahvi, kávé, kahve, or кава enjoy.
Blogging will be limited – Jedziemy na wakacje
The family and I are off for a few days of R&R. Poems will be posted, but not much else. Enjoy the week and Independence Day.
…and
By the numbers
1For those who like stats and numbers, and for the sake of reflection:
- I have been blogging for 47 months, nearly 4 years.
- I have written 3,015 posts and 44 pages.
- I have developed 2 WordPress plugins and my site uses 17 widgets.
- My posts fall under 16 categories and 347 tags.
- The site contains 241 homilies.
- There are 778 comments from visitors.
- The blog has been spammed 137,774 times.
What is blogging all about
1John Guzlowski writes about blogging in Blogging for Dollars!–A Self-Interview at Salon:
Let me begin this self-interview by saying that I wouldn’t cross the street to interview myself.
One of my favorite writers is Isaac Bashevis Singer, a man who gave more than a million interviews. Once, an interviewer asked him who his favorite writer was and what would he like to say to him if he were interviewing him.
What did Singer say?
He said his favorite writer was Dostoevsky (a surprising answer) and that he wouldn’t cross the street to talk to him…
I’ve met some of the most interesting, dynamic, and engaging people through this blog, people I not only respect, even though our views may be divergent at times, but people I would love to have as real-life friends, folks who will sit down with you over a cup of coffee, tea, a glass of beer, or a shot of vodka and just be. Thanks for bringing the message home John.
Voices — Roots and Branches of New York Folk Music
The New York Folklore Society is holding a benefit gala on Friday, May 29th in Schenectady, New York. All proceeds will benefit the New York Folklore Society, a service organization dedicated to the study, promotion, and continuation of New York’s diverse folklore and folklife. Details as follows:
Proctors’ Theatre, 432 State Street, Schenectady
Reception/Meet the Artists at 5:30 p.m. in Robb Alley, Proctors
Concert begins at 7:00 p.m. in the GE Theater of ProctorsPlease join us for a benefit event featuring some of New York’s favorite musicians – traditional as well as performer/interpreters. Featured performers (a tentative list) include ballad singer Colleen Cleveland, Senegalese drummer and dancer Fode Sissoko, singer/songwriter Dan Berggren, Abenaki storyteller and musician Joe Bruchac, multi-instrumentalist John Kirk and Cedar Stanistreet, and performer/interpreters Kim and Reggie Harris.
Reception and Concert $40.00
Concert only $20.00
(a $1.50 surcharge will be added via the box office at Proctor’s Theatre)Tickets Available through the New York Folklore Society, 518-346-7008 or through Proctor’s box office. A portion of the ticket price is tax deductible.
Review of Into the Desperate Country
John Guzlowski reviews and recommends Jeff Vande Zande’s novel Into the Desperate Country
From the first page I was reading not because I had to be reading but because what was happening was fresh and engaging. Jeff’s created a novel with a hero, Stan Carter, who blends the kind of plausible motivation and implausible action that you see in the really best novels. Stan’s lost his wife and daughter in a car accident, and in his mourning he’s gone up to the vacation cabin he shared with them in Northern Michigan. Up there, while he’s trying to pull himself together, trying to make sense of what happened, he discovers that he hasn’t been making payments on either his cabin or his house, and both are to be repossessed…
Schools of Distinction in Arts Education – nominations due
Know a New York School that Goes Above and Beyond in Arts Education? Nominate them for the Schools of Distinction in Arts Education Award!
Deadline: Friday, March 27, 2009.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Schools of Distinction in Arts Education awards program provides an important outlet for expanding recognition of the role individual schools play in providing a creative learning environment for outstanding student achievement.
This award provides a great opportunity for the New York State Alliance for Arts Education to highlight a New York school that has developed exemplary arts education programs. State winners are submitted for consideration at the national level, where they receive an honorarium, a plaque for display, and the opportunity to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
To be considered for the State level of this award, your school’s arts education program should have most of the following characteristics:
- Your school should teach all the arts (music, dance, visual arts, and theatre) as specific disciplines as well as integrated into other subject areas.
- Your program should use creative approaches to learning, provide appropriate learning environments for teaching the arts, and recognize that the arts are critical and essential to education.
- Your program should provide opportunities for parental involvement in the educational lives of their children.
- Your program should provide students various opportunities for learning about other cultures through the arts, enabling them to explore differences in ways that are devoid of cultural bias.
- Your program should provide community connections that build value and respect for the community by offering students diverse experiences beyond the classroom.
To learn more about this award, and to download an application, please go to the NYSAAE projects website.
