February+16,+2011

The following is a brief account of the team's discussion.


 * The next Advisory Team meeting is scheduled for March 16th at 3:30 p.m. at Cambridge Springs ES.
 * The project budget and timeline have been revised to reflect actual expenses and activities. These revisions will be sent to Richard Kress, the Dept. of Edu. grant adviser for the Art in Action project.
 * The second technology training, through which Camillle will instruct teachers on editing basics, uploading documentation to the wikispace, and using online resources and equipment, should be scheduled shortly for each school. Second District has tentatively selected Wednesday, April 6th (after 11 a.m.) as a possible date. Union City has tentatively selected Wednesday, April 13th (after 11 a.m.) as a possible date. Before finalizing these dates, they will need to be confirmed with Camille. A date will need to be worked out with Cambridge Springs.
 * Of the residencies that have yet to be finalized, Cambridge Springs has chosen three candidates for the visual arts residency, and a single candidate for the theater residency. Confirmation will be made by Holly. Union City would like to contract with the "puppet guy" for their theater residency. Again, confirmation will be made by Holly. Second District's music residency scheduled for this project year has been moved to the second project year (Fall 2011). Rosemary reported that Mary Knish is the chosen music residency artist.
 * The model employed at Second District for teacher/artist residency planning worked very well. The classroom teachers having residencies this year and their chosen artists and the school's specials teachers spent half a day with Holly, Jan and Camille to discuss arts integration, lesson planning and expectations. It was suggested that this model be considered by the other two schools.
 * Jo Vargo reported that Cambridge Springs is very excited about the Step Afrika! field trip scheduled for March 28th, and she expects tickets to go quickly.
 * An update on the project evaluation...Contact has been made with identity brokers from each school and they have been asked to provide benchmark data. A control school for Second District has not been identified. Connie suggested several schools for consideration and volunteered to contact those schools' administrators to compare demographic data. A small group (art specialists, ArtsErie and Keystone) is scheduled to meet at Keystone February 18th at 10 am to finalize the project SMART objectives. Training on the assessment tools has been done at Second District, and is scheduled for March 8th at Union City and March 31st at Cambridge Springs. The idea that the remaining two trainings be modeled after Second District's - residency planning would occur for half the day and assessment training for the second half. Full-day substitutes could be hired for each day.
 * In preparation for the April 11th Art in Action training, Jo Vargo is working with teachers who took Rosemary's graduate course. Her teachers have offered to conduct 3 20-minute mini lessons. Training participants can rotate through all three lessons within an hour. The suggestion was for Rosemary to use the first hour of the training to provide context for what the teachers will share. It would be very helpful to Jo and her teachers if ArtsErie and the art specialists could meet 1-2 weeks before the training to plan.
 * The final training has been scheduled for Saturday, May 21st (preferably in the morning) at the Erie Art Museum. Kelly Armor has asked to meet with ArtsErie and the art specialists prior to the event for planning purposes.
 * A teaching artists showcase at the Riverside Inn sometime within June 8th-11th is in the planning stage. The date selected will depend on school schedules and the artists' conference occurring at the same time at the Mercyhurst D'Angelo PAC.