PERKINS 

 

 Laura Kranzel’s Fast Facts Blog

Our new Magnet Coordinator Laura Kranzel is now sharing her inspiring weekly blog entries with this website. Thanks, Laura.

Read More from Laura here


 
From: Kranzel Laura
Posted On: Thursday, November 13, 2008
Conversation: FFF 11/14
 
Well, today's FF is a bit different than others...  Please click on both links to learn about how utilizing movement, song, and drama have the ability to excellerate and expand learning and understanding.  It also shows how those "real world" connections are critical. 
 
This link: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/PersonOfWeek/story?id=6158740&page=1  will take you to a news article with a video (on the left side of the page and worth watching!).
 
This link: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1854865,00.html?imw=Y  contains a video of the performance. 
 
It is amazing how much these 6th and 7th graders must have learned about the real political issues and how their understanding was deepened by using something that they relate to and creating something that they enjoy and value!  Integrating curriculum at its' best!
 

From: Laura Kranzel
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008
Conversation: 11/7 Fast Facts Friday!

From “A Conversation with Derek E. Gordon” (artsedge.kennedycenter.org/content/3270)
(Executive Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Former Senior Vice President for the Kennedy Center)

“…The arts are a great equalizer in terms of economic and social discrepancies. They have a way of leveling the playing field, allowing individuals to progress in life more effectively. perception of students – particularly young
students.”

“…The arts challenge students of all ages, and engage them in a way that is often more kinesthetic, and perhaps more emotionally satisfying , than the “traditional” approach to teaching a text.”

“It’s always interesting to look at schools that have the highest test scores on standardized tests. Generally, you will find that the arts are a part of the curriculum…”

Isn’t the last quote on the money?  No wonder Perkins is consistently an A or B school!


From: Laura Kranzel
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2008
Conversation: Happy Halloween!  Fast Facts Friday!! 10/31

Arts for Academic Achievement (AAA) was a study implemented with the Minneapolis Public Schools in partnership with the Perpich Center for Arts Education. The project was based on the belief that students benefit from a curriculum that includes both disciplinary-based instruction in the arts and non-arts instruction that is enhanced by integrating the arts.

This evaluation of the initiative revealed changes in three areas:

1 Artists felt they deepened their sense of mission, expanded their professional networks, and learned valuable assessment skills.

2 Teachers, according to participating artists, increased their ability to collaborate, grew in their ability to integrate the arts, and made changes in their practice;

3 Schools, according to artist informants, improved in terms of school climate and the sense of community as a result of the arts integration work.

Werner, L. R. (2002). Artist, teacher, and school change through Arts for Academic Achievement: Artists reflect
on long-term partnering as a means of achieving change. Minneapolis, MN: Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement.


From: Kranzel Laura
Posted On: Saturday, October 25, 2008 6:17 AM
Posted to: Perkins ES
Conversation: Stupendous Saturday!!
 

So, when Fast Facts Friday flies by...you move on to Stupendous Saturday!!  Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Right brain rising factoid of the day

Published June 12th, 2008

“If every artist in the American workforce banded together, their ranks would be double the size of the U.S. Army. More Americans identify their primary occupation as artist than as lawyer, doctor, police officer or farm worker.”(Source:  NY Times, 6/12/08, citing a new NEA report)


From: Laura Kranzel
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008
Conversation: Fast Facts Friday 10/17

Straight from the Florida Art Educator's Association Annual Conference in Orlando:

93% of Americans say "the arts make learning in school more exciting and interesting".

91% of Americans think the arts help children "learn to communicate well in developing speaking and writing skills".

90% of Americans feel that by exposure to the arts in school makes children "become more tolerant of other cultures".

80% of Americans say in learning about and participating in the arts, children "learn skills that can be useful in a job".

Pretty interesting and definitely powerful!
Have a fantastic weekend!!


From: Kranzel Laura
Posted On: Friday, October 10, 2008
Posted to: Perkins ES
Conversation: I'll Bet You Thought I Forgot!!

Nope, I did not forget that it was FAST FACTS FRIDAY!!!  I am just a little behind schedule...so, here it is:

"...21 percent of students of low socioeconomic status who had been exposed to music scored higher in math versus just 11 percent of those who had not.  By 12th grade, the figures grew to 33 percent and 16 percent, respectively, suggesting a cumulative value to music education."  Champions of Change by, Catterall, Chapleau, and Iwanaga (1999)

Wow!  Imagine the cumulative effect that the Perkins’ students benefit from starting at this level!  


From: Kranzel Laura
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008
Subject: Guess what...

It's Fast Facts FRIDAY!!!

"At Columbia University, Judith Burton's study of more than 2,000 children found that those in an arts curriculum were far superior in creative thinking, self-concepts, problem-solving, self-expression, risk-taking, and cooperation than those who were not."  

Burton, J.M., Horowitz, R., and Abeles, H., (1999). Learning in and Through the Arts: Curriculum Implications. In. Ted Fisk (Edi.). Champions of Change. Washington, DC: Arts Education Partnership.


From: Kranzel Laura
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2008
Subject: Fast Facts Friday 9/26

This is from www.keepartsinschools.com


"The reality is that a quality education must include exposure to the arts. Participation in the arts allows us to discover and nurture strengths in students that would otherwise lie dormant or be channeled into negative behaviors. The arts open doors to self-discovery."

Nenna Freelon, recording artist and six-time Grammy winner

Ebony Magazine, June 2008


From: Kranzel Laura
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008
Subject: Fast Facts Friday

Disclaimer:  This Fast Facts Friday post is not as "fast" as originally intended...but it is FANTASTIC!

Elliott Eisner, a Professor of Education at Stanford University has identified 10 lessons which are clarified through the study of Art in the schools.

Ten Lessons the Arts Teach

1.      The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail.

2.      The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.

3.      The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.

4.      The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem-solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.

5.      The arts make vivid the fact that words do not, in their literal form or number, exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.
 

6.      The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. The arts traffic in subtleties.

7.      The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which images become real.

8.      The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.

9.      The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.

10. The arts’ position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.


From: Kranzel Laura
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008
Subject: Fast Facts Friday!

The Arts:

  • Improve kids' overall academic performance.

  • Show that kids actively engaged in arts education are likely to have higher test scores than those with little to no involvement.

  • Develop skills needed by the 21st century workforce: critical thinking, creative problem solving, effective communication, teamwork and more.

  • Teach kids to be more tolerant and open.

  • Allow kids to express themselves creatively and bolster their self-confidence.

  • Keep students engaged in school and less likely to drop out.

www.americansforthearts.org


From: Kranzel Laura
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2008
Subject: Fast Facts Friday! - ENJOY and TGIF

ARTS EDUCATION...

Strongly impacts the developmental growth of every child and has been proven to help level the "learning field" across socio-economic boundaries. (Involvement in the Arts and Success in Secondary School, James S. Catterall, The  UCLA Imagination Project, Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, UCLA, Americans for the Arts Monograph, January 1998)

"The arts humanize the curriculum while affirming the interconnectedness of all forms of knowing. They are a powerful means to improve general education."

Charles Fowler


From: Kranzel Laura
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2008
Subject: Fast Facts Friday!

Good Morning All!!  TGIF!  After an amazing first full week of school and two action packed nights of Open House...you are all more than deserving of a 3 day weekend - I hope it is a fun but relaxing little break! 

Anyway, I was thinking about trying something new - Fast Facts Friday. There are tons of research documents supporting the Arts (especially the integration of the Arts) and how study in the Arts promotes student achievement.  Perkins - The Center for the Arts and International Studies is that research in progress.  Unfortunately, we are at times weighed down by federal, state and district mandates...which can lead to a shift in beliefs about integration and what is "critical" to teach. 

Hopefully Fast Facts Friday will help bring some of the research and beliefs systems to the forefront in a quick and easy way (because doubtfully anyone has time to read research papers and statistics frequently.) So, to kick off this Fast Facts Friday: 

"Elementary school students made improvements in reading when it was integrated with visual arts, specifically the elements of art and design: line, shape, color, unity, space, emphasis (Richards, 2003)."

A little tidbit to keep in mind...have a fantastic weekend!

Laura 

 


Perkins Elementary School • 2205 18th Avenue South, St. Petersburg FL 33712
727 893 2117 •  fax 727 893 1113
Principal: Robert E. Lister

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