| ARTS ACTIVE PARENT
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| Join in celebrating Art IS Education 2008 in honor of national Arts Education Month in March by attending or presenting an arts learning event this spring. Share the arts learning happening in your school and community. Join with thousands of other Alameda County residents as one voice advocating for a high quality education for every child, in every school, every day! ATTEND EVENTS throughout the county to discover how students are learning through the arts across subject areas, grade levels and school districts. Check the Art IS Education web site and the listings in this newsletter for ideas. Most especially, attend the events at your school, whether or not your child is directly involved. SUPPORT YOUR SCHOOL EVENTS by attending, but also by offering to volunteer in whatever ways they need. Download the free promotion kit from our website for templates for posters, flyers, and postcards that you can customize and help publicize all your school arts events this spring. Post your event on the Art IS Education websiteto inform our community countywide. Simply fill in the form and your event will be listed through the interactive map on our homepage at www.artiseducation.org. BECOME AN ADVOCATE FOR ARTS LEARNING by contacting your elected officials, community leaders, and media. Learn how by attending a panel discussion on March 8 that will give you the knowledge and tools to be a powerful advocate for our shared vision for a high quality education for every child, in every school, every day. See
information about the panel in the story to the right. 100
Families Program Wednesday evenings are special this spring for a group of West Oakland families. The 100 Families Program is bringing them together each week to eat a meal and make art together. This time, families are creating board games about their own family dynamics, their obstacles and strengths. Families create their own identifying symbols, their game boards, and all the parts and pieces they need. The game was created by artist/architect Anthony Hall, shown explaining the parts of the game board here.
The other photos (including the one at the very top of this newsletter) show participating families absorbed in making their game pieces. Over the course of a 10-week 100 Families session, families become closer and form friendships with neighbors while working in different mediums to create artwork under the guidance of community-minded teaching artists. The program, called "100 Families Oakland: Art and Social Change," has worked with groups of families in several Oakland neighborhoods over the last two years.
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How
Arts Activist Parents Can Affect Public Policy How can parents and community members influence policy to make a better future for all our children? The state budget crisis, NCLB, funding shifts, and other big issues sometimes seem beyond our control, but in a democracy every citizen has the right to speak up and help shape our society. Find out how to make your voice heard in the public policy conversations going on now in City Hall, Sacramento, and Washington DC. In this workshop you will hear from a panel of key staff members of your current elected officials. You'll learn about the best ways to make contact, how to follow up, when to visit and when to invite. You'll receive information that will make a practical difference in your future relationship with people who make policy in your neighborhood and world. Panelists: This panel discussion is offered as one of the workshops in our exciting "Dreams Create Hope" Arts Learning Anchor Schools Conference March 7-8. (See story.) For information about attending the panel discussion only, without signing up for the conference, please send an inquiry to artsactiveparent@yahoo.com. The
Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership Join us to explore how 40 Arts Learning Anchor Schools in Berkeley, Emery and Oakland Unified School Districts are leveraging the arts to create outstanding classrooms for every child, in every school, every day. This inspiring conference is inquiry based, classroom centered and focused on quality arts integration. Events
include: For more information and to enroll visit www.artiseducation.org
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Parent Coordinator Sharon Higgins is stepping down after seven years of serving the families of Bret Harte Middle School.
At a recent reception in the school's Parent Center, well-wishers gathered to celebrate her many contributions to the school. The above photo shows Sharon with Bob Blackburn, who is a former OUSD Assistant Superintendent, Emeritus Professor & Chair in Educational Leadership at CSUEB, and a board member for the Marcus Foster Educational Institute. Parent Centers, once a luxury of private schools, are now more and more common on all kinds of school campuses. These centers help parents negotiate the school systems and bureaucracies by providing a safe place and other parents to help with information gathering and problem solving. They can also provide paths to increased parent involvement, which we know is correlated with higher student achievement. The Bret Harte Parent Center is also staffed by seven year Parent Coordinator Eva La, who assists Cantonese, Mandarin, and Vietnamese speaking families, and Gerarda Gonzales who assists Spanish speaking. Departing coordinator Sharon Higgins will be replaced by Brandelyn Castine.
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Free and Inexpensive things to do with your kids in March (and beyond!) |
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| 5th
Annual OUSD Orchestra Festival
San
Leandro AP Studio Art Annual Art Show 5TH
ANNUAL Dance IS Festival, An Art IS Education Month Event Mirrors
of Mumbai, a play about an Indian family struggling to find its
way in a time of globalization and rapid change. The production, which
uses traditional and contemporary music, dance and theatrical forms, is
based on a series of interviews conducted by Opera Piccola collaborators
in India last spring. |
The
Art in Open Court: People
Like Me 2008 "It's My Nature" Coming up in April, May, and June: Art
Lets Kids March to Their Own Beat The
KIDS' CHALK ART PROJECT in Alameda |
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