Reprint of NYT Article February 2, 2010 Creative Commons license 2011
Op-Ed Contributor
By SUSAN ENGEL
New Marlborough, Mass.

THE Obama administration is planning some big changes to how we measure the success or failure of schools and how we apportion federal money based on those assessments. It’s great that the administration is trying to undertake reforms, but if we want to make sure all children learn, we will need to overhaul the curriculum itself. Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.
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By Lesli A. Maxwell

Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.

Thousands of California public schools face the prospect of slashing up to a week of instruction, canceling bus services, or laying off nonteaching staff in the middle of this school year because state revenues are expected to fall below what the governor and lawmakers counted on when they approved an $86 billion general fund budget last June.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office—the nonpartisan fiscal adviser to California’s state lawmakers—predictsRequires Adobe Acrobat Reader the state treasury will be down as much as $3.7 billion, which would automatically trigger up to $2 billion in midyear spending cuts in public programs that will fall hard on K-12 education. The analyst is also projecting a $13 billion shortfall in next year’s budget.
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A lovely story of random acts of kindness and art
Reprinted from NPR Creative Commons license

12:29 pm

November 30, 2011

by Robert Krulwich

He? She? It? Whoever it is, the Phantom Sculptor is suddenly back!
Book sculpture man standing outside
Enlarge Chris Scott/Flickr

As I recently reported, somebody has been dropping glorious little paper sculptures into libraries and museums all over Edinburgh, Scotland, and we’ve just heard (thank you, alert reader Paul Smith) that there are now three more.

And they will be the last.

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Elaine Cimino Studios is offering the Born to Draw Drawing for Holidays and Special Occasions
Children’s Drawing Workshop on Dec. 20th

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Building community through Arts projects is in
the 9th year of service to the Albuquerque, NM community!

Despite the doors being open for 9 years Off center Community Art Project was a surprise to me.
in the Afternoons and early evenings anyone can walk into OFFCenter and start making arts. Supplies are there for children and adults. Workshops are help in both arts and crafts

OFFCenter believes in artmaking as central to community building.

Shared creative expression leads to shared visions and the emergence of a compassionate collective life.

OFFCenter is a community artspace located in downtown Albuquerque. Home to a studio, gallery and sales shop, anyone in the community is welcome to come to OFFCenter to make and buy art.

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I was looking back at past students works from 1999 – 2006, at Santa Fe Community College. I was a drawing, painting and art history adjunct instructor and helped co-found, write grants and was the project director of the summer series program, Make Your Mark, that offered Visual and Performing Arts program college credit to high school students. We received a yearly $15,000 grant from the NEA and NMArts program.

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http://youtu.be/LQhSXcyDHLA

Under the banner of high-tech progress, corporate lobbyists have rammed through legislation privatizing K-12 education across the country.
in New Mexico http://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/11%20Regular/final/SB0427.pdf

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Shel Silverstein

Years from Now
Although I cannot see your face
As you flip these poems awhile,
Somewhere from some far-off place
I hear you laughing —and I smile.
Shel Silverstein

The dedication of Shel’s new book of poems published by Harper-Collins grabbed me. The simplicity and elegance of his line drawings makes drawing look so simple putting a pen to paper or a stylus to a tablet. What I found creative about looking at the Harper-Collins webpage was that it also included classroom activities. Activity guide was created by Sue Ornstein, a first-grade teacher in the Byram Hills School District in Armonk, New York.

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http://youtu.be/iG9CE55wbtY