In No Particular Order...

I have not posted in a while because I have been FLAT OUT!! In no particular order these are the things I have been involved in..

I have worked really hard with my Adult Education Singing Group and we performed four shows of A Christmas Carol.  Ok, so we mostly sang several songs as old fashioned "Carolers" outside the auditorium before the show, and we sang ONE song in the show, "Caroling, Caroling" as carolers from Scrooge's past, but that being said, we had to work hard to do that, and make it sound good.  I was very proud of my students, many of whom are quite shy and it was their first time performing anywhere.  It was a positive experience, and fun was definitely had by all.  The director said, "You are now required to do this every year for the rest of all time!"  We will see about that, but it was surely a great experience and I would love to be involved with it again next year for sure!

I played piano for the chorus concert as well, last week.  That is always a thrill, and the brand new piano in the auditorium is lovely to play and I enjoyed the whole experience.  The students were a little worried I might make some mistakes, but I was happy because any mistakes I made you could hardly hear!  It is always great fun to play for these students, because the conductor is my former student, so I love working with her and helping her with her amazing chorus!

I sang in church for two weekends in a row, solos that are of a holiday nature, and the second weekend we had a wonderful experience running a carol sing with the congregation after church.  We had the organ and the trumpet to accompany us.  The highlight for me was singing with my colleague, the other nice person who sings solo when I am not there, she is an alto, so she and I did a duet of Stille Nacht in German with harmony, that was a lovely moment..we didn't even practice it before hand, we just sang it and it was delightful and right in tune! Pros we are!!

I am now officially done for performances for the holiday season, and am happy to be just teaching and not constantly practicing or preparing people for a performance.  No more of that until January when Willy Wonka Jr begins on the 6th! See you then! Happy Holidays to all!

Essay about Chapter 3 of Eric Jensen's Arts with the Brain in Mind

                                                      Arts with the Brain in Mind
                                                                   Chapter 3
In this chapter, Eric Jensen discusses many aspects of the benefits of the visual arts on the brain.  Art creation includes many categories and disciplines including theater work, lighting, scenery, film-making, as well as painting and photography and drawing.  It is a huge field, which I never realized, and has been around for over a million years.  The history of art-making does create a stronger case for the need to have it, although again, isn’t it obvious that it is essential for organizing ideas, for understanding the use and need for space, for documentation of life experiences.  It is, as he said, “a visual sketchpad for thinking”, or as Picasso wrote, “Painting is another way of keeping a diary.” I know that making art is not exactly my strong suit, but I will still try to create a picture to understand how to set up a room with furniture, for example, or I will document my life by taking photographs with my phone, such a great and easy pleasure now, even without talent or expertise.  In other words, it does absolutely confirm one’s need or “urge” to draw.

Jensen says, “Artmaking is the realization of our intuition in the physical world.”  He means that creating art is not a passive process, because our eyes see the world, and then register what we see.  That is not the end of the process though, because after we have noticed and registered what we see, we interpret it and and it gets into a routine of back and forth input and export and re-ordering.  It is not a passive process because you can see things in different ways, and make choices in your brain and judgments about how you interpret what you see.  For example, a cube can be seen in several ways.  This develops a bias about how you see the world and helps with demonstrating that process of thinking.  The parts of the brain that are involved in mediating emotional responses, and creating bias about art,  include the thalamus, amygdala and reward pathway from the top of the brain stem through to the ventral frontal lobes.

There are many correlations with visual arts and higher college board scores.  This shows the connection with cognition.  As is the case with music studies, visual arts develop a sense of focus and discipline, as it takes time, patience, and grit to complete a piece of artwork.  It also fosters a strong work ethic and teamwork, just like music creation.  A student said, “When we do art, we represent what we want to see, when we do science, we represent what someone else wants us to see.”  This helps with feelings, emotions, complex situations that need to be processed, and students can benefit in all ways by showing emotions and telling stories through their art. 
This reminded me of the famous artist, Mark Bradford, who learned how to create art using pieces of paper that he needed for hair styling.  He has recently become a multi-millionaire, but has re-vitalized and put a great deal of his money into his old neighbourhood.  His art shows how he has processed his difficult childhood, how he has dealt with problems in his neighbourhood, such as racism, police brutality, and homophobia. Clearly, Mark was a gifted individual, and even without formal training, he was able to accomplish so much sharing his life story and advocating for a better world using his art.  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/artist-mark-bradford-the-60-minutes-interview-2019-05-
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There are multiple reasons art and artmaking should be a part of every curriculum. It has been shown that autistic children often see the world through pictures, and some have a highly developed sense of spatial understanding, including a natural ability to draw.  There have been studies done in underperforming schools that show that introducing art and artistic projects for learning have helped with motivation and engagement.  The research shows that the visual arts encourage limitless avenues for imagination, help in self-identity, multiple ways to think, learn and create, as well as a “deepened sense of faith and mystery of life.”  With so many jobs becoming automated, the arts are the way of the future, as ways of thinking and creativity will become and already are in the greatest need.  Jensen says, which I agree, “The most valued skills, the talents in highest demand in this new century will be creativity, imagination and emotional expression.”

Awesome information from last night's Fresh Chapters!!

• Additional Presenter Notes – October 31, 2019 (Session 1, Arts with the Brain in Mind) 
• (Commonly agreed upon) 21st Century Skills 
• • Critical thinking, problem solving, reasoning, analysis, interpretation, synthesizing information 
• • Research skills and practices, interrogative questioning 
• • Creativity, artistry, curiosity, imagination, innovation, personal expression 
• • Perseverance, self-direction, planning, self-discipline, adaptability, initiative 
• • Oral and written communication, public speaking and presenting, listening 
• • Leadership, teamwork, collaboration, cooperation, facility in using virtual workspaces 
• • Information and communication technology (ICT) literacy, media and internet literacy, data interpretation and analysis, computer programming 
• • Civic, ethical, and social-justice literacy 
• • Economic and financial literacy, entrepreneurialism 
• • Global awareness, multicultural literacy, humanitarianism 
• • Scientific literacy and reasoning, the scientific method 
• • Environmental and conservation literacy, ecosystems understanding 
• • Health and wellness literacy, including nutrition, diet, exercise, and public health and safety 
• An interesting article from Tony Wagner that addresses what his research indicates what students SHOULD be learning, and what they are actually GETTING for schooling: 

New Questions for The Magic Flute and Answers

Papageno tries to hang himself on a tree but is saved, who is he saved by, and what do they say to him?

Papageno tries to hang himself on a tree, but is suddenly stopped by the three spirits that inform him that if he uses the magic bells, than he will find true happiness. (The three spirits are little boys that work for the queen of the night.)



What is another thing Papageno’s bell’s can do?

When Papageno rings his bells, it makes animals all around them dance in glee, most likely on beat to how fast he rings the bells. The animals all around him go to him and dance around him in circles.



How excactly does Tamino feel when the three spirits show him a picture of Pamina?

            Tamino feels like he was falling in love with her, just from looking at the picture, so he felt determined to save her from the “evil” Sorastro. (Even though the queen of the night is more “evil” than he is.)

What does the queen of the night send the three ladies to save Tamino from?

She sends the three ladies to save Tamino from a giant serpent, that the queen of night sent herself. (She sent the serpent herself (which prince Tamino didn’t know) and sent the three ladies that work for her to save him so she would look good.)

Out of the queen and Sorastro, who is actually the bad guy?

The queen is actually the evil one, she just tried to make herself look better so she could become the new ruler of the realm they live in.

When Monostatos tried to kiss the sleeping Pamina, he was interrupted by someone, who was he interrupted by?

When Monostatos tried to kiss the slumbering Pamina, he was interrupted by the queen of the night, Pamina’s mother.

During the whole story, what does Papageno long for?

He longs to have a wife that he can spend the rest of his time with, so he wont be lonely for the rest of his life.

Where does the whole story take place?

The whole story takes place in a magical, mythical land between the sun and the moon. (That’s why there is a queen of the night and a king of the sun.)

Why is this oprah called “The Magic Flute”?

The oprah is called the magic flute because of how the three ladies gave Tamino a magic flute, that somewhat guides them along their journey.

What does Papageno boast to Tamino about towards the beginning of the story?

Papageno boasts to Tamino about how he killed the giant serpent, saving Tamino, which isn’t actually true. (He says a lie and decides to just continue playing along with it.)

Diversity Statement # 1

Diversity Statement

It is my solemn vow that I will make my classroom a safe environment for all who enter into it.  There will be mutual respect for all, no matter what your orientation is, religious, sexual, or otherwise.  No matter what race, creed, color or gender you are, you will have an equal voice in this classroom.  Your thoughts have meaning to all the teachers and students who enter this room, and you will be heard today and forever into the future.  Each student shall be treated with humble and thoughtful consideration, and will be known as an individual with total respect for their personal learning needs.  I shall be your co-pilot, but you shall be my co-pilot as well, helping me to teach you better as time passes.  This statement will be re-visited as the world continues to bring challenges to all students, teachers, parents and families.  Susan Frank, music teacher, 5/6

Implicit Bias Part two

We had a big meeting with Mindbridge yesterday after school from 2-3:30.  I think everyone was tired, plus they know we have another meeting on Friday about Universal Design for Learning with a group called CAST all day, so I think it was stressing everyone out.  I know that even the people who are on board with the work we are doing felt overwhelmed and found it difficult to participate. 

That being said, it was still an interesting and fulfilling afternoon about what we have learned and where we might need to go from here.  I found it all fascinating, and terrifying, and confusing.  I was overwhelmed at the end of the afternoon, because there was a big discussion about someone's wall saying, "All lives matter", which was painted by a student long before the "Black Lives Matter" movement began.  The student painted it on a teacher's wall, because he felt really moved by how safe and protected and respected he felt in that teacher's classroom.  If you understand the context, it makes a lot of sense.  However, the "Black Lives Matter" movement has changed our understanding of "All Lives Matter" which is problematic to their world, their belief system, their thought process, and you can't use it anymore without fear of repercussions.  We have very few African American students in our school, but it would only take one evening of parents of a child to see this and react negatively to it.  We are trying to learn about other cultures, feelings of others, we are trying to learn EMPATHY in a big way so we can teach it to our students.  If we fight about this, it could look like you truly are biased, prejudiced and even racist. 

The other discussion was about the fact that we have so little diversity in York, that it makes it hard to make a cause for training in this area.  Or do we?  We have socio-economic diversity, we have people who are challenged in different ways, we have younger and older teachers, we have people whose sexual orientation is diverse, etc.. we have other types of diversity.  If we don't teach empathy, no matter what the differences are, we cannot truly say we are open-minded and working on our implicit bias.  Yes, bias helps us stay safe, and locked down and secure, but it also creates cliques, and jokes at other's expense, and triangulation, and thoughtlessness, and eventually we are we? 

I feel like after this session, we know what implicit bias means, (your elephant, your driver) and we know that we need to be more sensitive to others no matter what we might believe.  We need to be open-minded to do this work, and people need to be made aware of their bias, even if they don't think it exists.  It does.

Where do you stand? EXEMPLAR

Where do you stand?  You can’t change your own personality.

To answer this question, you must think about the definition of personality.  What does this word mean?  Personality is the combination of qualities that make up a person, cause them to be recognizable to others in their groups, and make them able to be successful in the world.  Personality includes both nature and nurture, qualities you are born with, such as your disposition, your temperament, and your ability to manage feelings and thoughts.  It also includes your moral character, and your ability to be empathetic or sympathetic.

 I share these qualities, because if you can change your personality, there is a lot you have to work through to do it.  If you were born into a family with issues, you may have picked up many qualities from your family that are hard to change.  These may be coping mechanisms developed over many years to manage the dysfunction in the family.  It may take a great deal of personal work, practice, meditation and changing of rituals and routines to develop a new personality.

That being said, I believe it is not impossible.  I believe that if a person wants to change the way they react to stimuli, the way they treat others, the way they live, a person can do this, with help.  There are many programs out there for people to help get rid of bad habits, like hypnosis, religion, meditation, yoga, exercise, to name just a few.  This won’t change an entire personality, but it may be just the catalyst to begin doing so.  Discipline and support are the key elements to change in all ways, and personality is no different in this case.  A personality is a multi-tiered and complex structure, and all elements of it are intertwined, so taking any aspect of it will affect any other aspect of it.  This makes it also more possible to do, because all elements of a personality are interconnected. 

I have changed certain parts of my personality which have changed the entire structure.  I was in a long-term relationship for more than half my life with a person who caused me to act in very specific ways.  I was made to feel lesser than, which affected my level of confidence in all aspects of my life.  I was forced to be submissive in the relationship, and deferred in every part of my life, causing me to experience low level depression and anxiety all the time.  As soon as this person left, I went into therapy, which changed my entire life after a period of time.  I was able to change my personality, and I became more confident in every aspect of my life, I was able to find a new partner and have true agency in the relationship, I learned how to manage my money and now have great savings for my retirement, I was able to change my relationships with my children so I have agency in those places as well, and I was able to make large decisions in my life, that I had never been able to do before.  Because of this, I was more patient in my work, I was more patient with myself, and more understanding of others, no matter what the circumstances.  I became more aware of my biases and changed those parts of myself as well, to become a better, more thoughtful person.  I believe my basic nature was good to begin with, but I had gotten into some very bad and self-defeating attitudes and messages that went through my head continuously, which affected my entire personality.  I am a healthier person because of the changes I have made, but I could not have done it without the great support of my friends, family, my new partner, my colleagues, my students, my therapist, and most of all, the discipline that I created around myself to keep the work going:  journaling, prayer, meditation, breathing techniques, letter writing, working out, running, being in nature, and listening to the still small voice inside of me.