Melissa Callahan, Arts Integration Specialist at Kellond Elementary uses the Smart Board for choral singing.
"One of the ways the SMART Board technology has enhanced my students' literacy skills is through shared reading followed by choral singing. Every quarter I choose a song that I teach to the entire school, one class at a time. I type up the lyrics of the song using Microsoft PowerPoint and insert pictures and graphics that correspond with the words. The word/picture relationship is especially effective in reaching my English Language Learners. When II first introduce the song we read the words chorally as they are projected onto the Smart Board. Then I teach the song echo-style, using one slide at a time from the PowerPoint presentation. Finally we sing the song together, while watching the lyrics on the Smart Board at the beginning of each OMA class. At the end of each quarter, I wheel my SMART Board over to the multi-purpose room where hold our awards assemblies. We begin the assembly by sing the song of the quarter as a school. The students delight in the chance to perform the song in a large group. Parents and families attend these assemblies, so it is a wonderful opportunity to inform them about the OMA Program. Because the words are projected onto the SMART Board, even the parents can sing along."
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John Snavely, Arts Integration Specialist at Howell Elementary has this to say about composing with the SMART Board.
“One of the most interesting applications is for the students to be able to compose music by clicking the appropriate note value then touching the music staff with their finger for the note to appear. If they are not happy with the placement of the note it may be touched again and dragged up or down. Another great use is for student to be able to write carefully on the board and then have their word changed into print. Also students may use the interactive typewriter on the board to enter a word. One more favorite use is to bring up a virtual keyboard enabling a student from the class to choose a sound and actually play music on the board for the class to see and hear!”
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Jennifer Cain, Arts Integration Specialist at Van Horne Elementary says
“The SMART Board is an amazing tool for the integration of musical skills and concepts into core curriculum. These include, but are certainly not limited to, reading music, composing music, recognizing and identifying musical symbols, and music history. Students are able to obtain success visually through the large projection, kinesthetically through the interaction with the board, and aurally through programs that play many different sounds for all subjects. Students are engaged and eager to learn and participate when using the Smart Board.”
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Cragin band in the spotlight
Congratulations to the Cragin Elementary School Fifth Grade Beginning Band who received a Superior rating (the highest possible rating ) at the Arizona Music Educators Association Elementary/Junior High School Solo and Ensemble Festival on February 16, 2008 at Pima College West Campus. This is the first time that a beginning elementary band from TUSD has ever attended this festival.
The students, who began playing their band instruments in September 2007, performed two full-length band pieces: “Eagle Summit March” by John O-Reilly and Mark Williams, and “Slip and Slide” by Ralph Ford which featured the trombone section with fun glissandos.
The Cragin Band performed for a full house of family and friends. Adjudicator Karin Nolan wrote “Wow! Big sound. Great constrasts in dynamics, especially in the second song. Strong group!”
The Cragin Band is led by Shirley Maddox, a music educator, graduate of the University of Arizona, who been teaching band for 20 years in the Tucson Unified School District, the last nine years teaching at five mid-town elementary schools. Shirley has been instrumental at developing the OMA instrumental program and is regarded as a master music specialist in TUSD.
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Brazilian composer to work with OMA
Brazilian composer Raimundo Penaforte has been commissioned by the OMA Foundation and Arizona Friends of Chamber Music to compose an original piece for OMA middle school orchestral students. The first step in this process will be Penaforte’s visit to Vail Middle School in late April to work with 7th and 8th grade students under the tutelage of orchestral teacher Ann Williams. Penaforte will observe, conduct, and conference with Mrs. Williams and the students prior to writing this original composition. The composition will be premiered at the 2009 OMA Showcase. Deepest gratitude is expressed to Dr. Marilyn Heins, the mastermind behind this commissioned project, and Jean-Paul Bierny, the President of the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music who championed the project from its inception.
Raimundo Penaforte is one of the most creative and captivating Brazilian musicians of his generation. Inspired by a broad range of musical genres that span classical, Latin, Jazz and traditional folkloric music from his native Brazil, Penaforte has appeared nationally and internationally as a composer, conductor and performer. His works have been featured at concerts in Europe, Canada, Japan, Brazil and the United States at such venues as Lincoln Center, The White House and The Kennedy Center.
As an instrumentalist Penaforte has collaborated with notable musical artists such as Latin music star Ruben Blades, folk icon Richie Havens, jazz luminary Maynard Ferguson, klesmer clarinetist Giora Feidman, and Brazilian pianist Dom Salvador among many others. Born in the city of Recife in Pernambuco, Brazil, Penaforte has studied at Hardin-Summons University, New York University and The Juilliard School. His life and work were featured in a documentary film produced for Brazilian television in 2000 titled “Oque o Raimundo Quer” (“What Raimundo Wants”). He currently resides in New York City where, in addition to his work as a composer and performer, he is a Teaching Artist for the Third Street Music School.
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OMA Program Selected for Harvard Arts Study
Harvard University announced October 3 that Opening Minds Through the Arts (OMA) has been selected from 121 applicants nationwide to participate as a case study site in the university’s year-long Project Zero research study on the arts in the classroom.
The study, Qualities of Quality: Excellence in Arts Education and How to Achieve It, aims to better understand the critical elements of high quality arts teaching and learning. It will identify effective strategies for creating these experiences for school age youth in diverse settings. The study is funded by the Wallace Foundation.
“While there were many strong candidates for participation in this study, your application stood out for its compelling perspective and thoughtful articulation on the subject of quality in arts education,” wrote Project Zero’s principal investigator Steve Seidel in a letter to Dr. Joan Ashcraft, TUSD’s director of Fine & Performing Arts/OMA. “We believe your participation in this project promises to enrich our investigation.”
Dr. Ashcraft was elated when she learned the OMA Program was selected. “OMA is privileged to be a part of the Qualities of Quality study,” she said. “This is a great opportunity for TUSD, and we’re enthusiastically looking forward to what we’ll learn from the study as well as what we’ll contribute to it.”
Project Zero is an educational research group in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. A team of four principal investigators and several research assistants will work on the study over a 12-month period, and a 100-page report will be published in December 2007.
In an intensive two-day visit to the OMA Program on October 23-24, the Harvard Team examined all components of the OMA Program.
The team visited schools and observed classrooms; interviewed principals, teachers, students, TUSD central administrators and a governing board member; participated in meetings with parents, OMA Foundation board members, the programs’ staff and professional development team and Tucson Federal Credit Union executives who sponsor two OMA schools.
At the end of the site visit team members stated they were exceptionally impressed with what they found. If OMA chooses, they said it could become a national model for arts integration programs in schools within five years. They also noted that among other significant qualities they observed was “the amount of children’s and teachers’ laughter we heard in the classrooms and hallways.”
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US Department of Education includes OMA in national conference schedule
At the invitation of U.S. Department of Education, Dr. Joan Ashcraft, Director of Fine and Performing Arts, gave presentations on OMA this summer in five cities nationwide–Denver, St. Paul, Pittsburg, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.–as part of USDOE’s Teacher-to-Teacher Conferences.
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