Day 118 - Christina Chang, Burlington High School Art Department

Lessons from Max....:

I had the pleasure of taking my first class at the Art Students League of New York a few weeks ago. Founded in 1875 by artists and for artists, the Art Students League of New York has been instrumental in shaping America's legacy in the fine arts. Many renowned artists have honed their skills at the League, which is dedicated to sustaining the great tradition of training artists. Today, more than 2,500 students of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels, study at the League each month. Click here to see a short film about the League by Dale Schierholt.  

I spent the a week with artist Max Ginsburg. Here are some of his oil paintings:

During my weeklong workshop with Max I learned the following:

• Painting is a challenging, difficult and rewarding
• Teaching feeds your painting- Max also worked as a high school art educator for many years 
• Many of the people in Max's paintings are former students
• Painting color, form, and light are all technical skills that can be improved 
• Max is a master at using his brush to create the human form, it was a delight to watch and observe him paint
• Max describes himself as a "social realist". He depicts NYC and the people who inhabit it, he has a message that he wants to share and political views that he expresses in his paintings. His work is much more than just figurative work, but he expresses his point of view and captures the human spirit

Here is a portrait painting that I created during the workshop.

Day 117 - Dr. Eric Conti - Superintendent of Schools

“Every Kid Needs a Champion”:
Inspiring Ted Talk!

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Day 116 - Patrick Larkin, Assistant Superintendent

5 Ways For Teachers To Get Quality PD This Summer: This post first appeared on Edudemic.

1. Attend (or start) a summer Edcamp

For the third consecutive summer, our district will host an Edcamp each Tuesday morning in Burlington, MA. These informal sessions are open to educators from Burlington and beyond who feel like gathering to lead their own learning. Attendees assemble each week and decide what topics will be the focal point for their learning. We provide members of our Instructional Technology staff (including our high school students) to support those looking to expand their skills with technology integration. In addition, teachers from Burlington can earn in-service credits or Professional Development Points for their attendance.

This model could be replicated anywhere! All you need to do is pick some dates, provide a space, and invite local educators. Trust me – if you plan it, they will come.

2. Attend A Multiple-Day Workshop

Most of the teachers whom I know hate taking one day off from their classroom during the school year, and they would never consider missing consecutive days for a workshop of any kind. The amount of additional advanced planning, combined with the time away from their students, is just too much for these folks to bear! Well, there is no time better than the summer months to escape the guilt of missing a day of school and treat yourself to a quality learning opportunity with educators and taught by other educators. Check out the summer-long list of workshops offered by EdTech Teacher’s staff of classroom practitioners.

3. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)

The beauty of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is that most of the learning opportunities can be done regardless of time and place. You can choose what you learn, when you learn, and where you learn. If you are anywhere with a wireless signal, and you want to try the MOOC experience, then your only dilemma is choosing from the extensive list of options out there.  A great place to begin your search is at www.mooc.ca, a comprehensive list of MOOC’s maintained by Stephen Downes.

If you are looking for a less intimidating option, you could also enlist a group of colleagues and run through the some of the topics from the educational-technology focused #ETMOOC which ran between January and March of this year. The important part here is to find a space where passionate educators can find a topic of common interest and share their learning journey regardless of space or time.

4. Participate in a Weekly Twitter Chat

If you are an educator, then there is a Twitter chat for you. Check out this awesome Google Spreadsheet of Twitter chats broken down by nights of the week that was created by@thomascmurray and @cevans5095.  There are literally chats for every grade level and discipline that you could imagine. My suggestion would be to speak to your district or building administrator about earning credits towards recertification for your participation (in MA we call these credits Professional Development Points). You could use storify to archive your participation in the chats and incorporate your tweets into a reflective blog post to provide documentation of your learning.

If you need help getting started with Twitter, check out Erin Klein’s great video that appeared on Edudemic last week.

5. Just Hang Out

If you haven’t experienced the capabilities in a Google+ Hangout, you are missing out! Check out the schedule of Education On Air sessions that is available to educators for free learning opportunities. Educators could also create their own hangouts for colleagues to discuss a pertinent topic, collaborate on curriculum work, or even do a book discussion. The possibilities are literally endless, and the hangouts allow you to record the sessions to have for future reference. At the very least, I encourage you to try a hangout with one or two friends to see how easy it is to set up and utilize the numerous built-in functions.

Given all of the avenues available for professional development, 2013 could be the best summer ever! What a great time to take advantage of these opportunities to advance your own learning!

Day 115 - Burlington Public Schools EdTech Team

Upcoming Events in Burlington:


As the school year gets close to an end, Burlington is just getting started with events for educators. Burlington Public Schools and the BPS EdTech Team will be hosting several free events this spring and summer. Join us for great conversations about education and technology. We will provide professional development sessions and time to collaborate with educators from across the country. Our goal is to break down the isolation in education and help teachers work with each other to create powerful learning resources.

EdCampxEDU

Saturday, June 1
EdCampxEDU is Burlington’s first student organized and lead Edcamp event. Burlington students have been planning the event which will feature conversations about education and technology. Edcamps are an incredible response to poor educational professional development. Edcamps provide educators with the opportunity to learn from each other in comfortable environments using conversations and sharing of ideas.

EdCampxEDU is a free event but registration is required. Please see the event site for more details.

Third Annual Massachusetts Digital Publication Collaborative

Wednesday, June 26 – Friday, June 28
MADPC is our annual digital curriculum event. The BPS EdTech team helps provide a starting point for the curation of digital resources and materials. Through PD sessions and collaborative time for common curriculum area teachers, participants are able to develop ideas, lessons, and courses for digital classes and 1:1 environments. This event is great for anyone who uses technology in the classroom or wants to learn about how to better integrate technology.
Please note – participants do not need to attend all three days. Please attend for as much time as you can. Due to the extra snow days for many school districts this year we will feature similar PD sessions each day so that you don’t miss some of the opportunities.
The event is free but registration is required. Please visit the event site for more details.

BPS EdCamp Summer Tuesdays

Summer Tuesdays 9am-12pm
Each Tuesday in the summer Burlington Public Schools hosts Edcamp sessions. This year the sessions will be held at our newly remodeled middle school Library Learning Commons. Join members of our team for conversations about many educational topics.
These sessions are open and do not require registration. Please join us for any BPS Summer Edcamp that you can attend.
Stay tuned to this blog and follow our team on Twitter for updates and more information about the events.

Day 114 - Tara Olshaw, Memorial School Fourth Grade

(title unknown):

Last week we were lucky enough to have Bol Thiik visit us from Winchester to tell us about his experience as a "Lost Boys". What? You have never heard of the Lost Boys? Well, you should really check out their amazing story in the  Boston Globe or learn how to support the building of a school for needy children  Lost Boys Support.  We all walked away from Bol's visit with a new appreciation for learning in Burlington.

Day 113 - Patrick Larkin, Assistant Superintendent

Some Thoughts On Ed. Reform...: One of the best pieces I have read on the education reform agenda in our country appeared in The Atlantic a couple weeks ago.  The article, titled The Coming Revolution in Public Education, was written by John Tierney, a former professor and independent school teacher.  

As a father of three chidlren in the K-12 public school system, I wonder how others feel about the direction of our country's education reform efforts.  It is understandable that a reform agenda that capitalizes on  a scoreboard that tells us which schools (and teachers) are "winning" and "losing," would be appealing due to its simplicity. Unfortunately, there is no simple solution to the current issues that our nation's schools face and any effort to make it seem otherwise are misguided.

Here are a few excerpts from Tierney's piece that should cause us all to reflect a bit on the current education agenda:

• Policies that aim to reduce variability by reducing teacher discretion not only preclude learning from situational adaptation to policy goals, they also can impede effective teaching."

• As The Nation magazine reported in 2011: "The research consensus has been clear and unchanging for more than a decade: at most, teaching accounts for about 15 percent of student achievement outcomes, while socioeconomic factors account for about 60 percent."

• ...these companies (driving ed. reform efforts) are enriching themselves and their executives from taxpayers' dollars - Pearson's pre-tax profits soaring by 72 percent in 2011. 

• If you want to read a detailed and damning appraisal of the secretive and error-ridden testing business, read this 2003 report by Kathleen Rhoades and George Madaus of Boston College's Lynch School of Education. 

• David Sirota has reported, "The reason America's overall scores on such tests are far lower is because high poverty schools produce far worse results -- and as the most economically unequal society in the industrialized world, we have far more poverty than our competitors, bringing down our overall scores accordingly." Addressing poverty and inequality are the keys to serving America's educational needs. 

Day 112 Christina Chang - Burlington High School Art Department

When Tragedy Strikes Create Art:

What a week.... Hard to digest everything that happened. Many times I thought of you- my students, since we were on vacation I wanted many times to talk to you about how you were doing and digesting all of the feelings and emotions that go along side a tragedy. I wanted to talk to you about how this is a great time to create art. Art is a healthy way to deal with all of the emotions you may be feeling.

Many artists use art as a means to deal with tragedy. Here are just a few works of art created after tragic events.

Probably Picasso's most famous work, Guernica is certainly the his most powerful political statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during Spanish Civil War.

Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention.
http://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp

The tragic events that occurred on December 14 at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., ended 26 lives and left the entire nation confused, angry and anxious. Artist Jeremy Collins reacted by channeling his complex emotions and desire to help into a two-color sketch conveying the massive community of friends, community members and absolute strangers willing to send their prayers and support to the victims.

After receiving an overwhelming response to the piece on Facebook, Collins put the prints up for sale, using proceeds to help pay for families' funeral costs. Collins spreads his message, "the world mourns with you all," through this powerful portrait.

National September 11 Memorial & Museum
Honoring the lives of those who were lost is at the heart of our mission.  Occupying eight of the 16 acres at the World Trade Center, the Memorial is a tribute to the past and a place of hope for the future.

Lady Liberty
Lady Liberty, a Statue of Liberty replica, stood honor guard outside the firehouse of Engine 54/Ladder 4/Battalion 9. The firehouse lost 15 of their men at the World Trade Center on 9/11. How Lady Liberty appeared outside the firehouse is unknown, but its presence encouraged the public to leave messages and tributes. Explore the Lady Liberty statue and learn more about the ornaments that adorn it and the stories of tribute behind them.