US Asst. Secretary of Education Peter Cunninghan on Education, Creativity, and the Arts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiWg3edBawg

US Department of Education Arts Magnet Blue Ribbon School in Baton Rouge, LA

http://www.youtube.com/user/usedgov#p/search/0/EONzNXrNZVU

NEA Webcast on Creative Placemaking Now Available Online

 This panel discussion on the role of the arts and the creative community in creating livable, sustainable communities is now available at:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/9570386

Panel participants include Richard Florida, author The Rise of the Creative Class and The Great Reset; Tim Jones, president & CEO of Toronto Artscape; Rick Lowe, founder of Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas; Ann Markusen, director of the Project on Regional and Industrial Economics at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute; and moderator Carol Coletta, CEO of CEOs for Cities.

Following are some of what I heard from the panel this afternoon:

• Creative Places/Spaces engender:
  • Optimism
  • Inspiration
  • Curiosity
  • Learning

Rick Lowe, Founder, Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas

• Creativity is a major factor in growth and change in the world.

• Places that are truly creative have creativity that permeates all areas and levels. Arts and culture are strategic catalysts that can help inspire more people.

• People care about arts and culture. When you look at what gives people a good deal of happiness….the aesthetic sense of a place, creative places are multi-dimensional.

• It’s time to move beyond putting creativity and the arts on display. The real challenge of our time is to put creativity to work.

• We have to enhance the creative capacities of kids not destroy them.

Watch and listen. Let us know what you hear by going starting a discussion at:

http://mivpaa.blogspot.com/

The Michigan Film Office and Education

The Michigan Film Office provides information on film, television, and digital media related programs in Michigan including state universities, community colleges, and trade schools.

In order to teach a trade, occupation or vocation for a fee or consideration of any kind you must be licensed to operate a proprietary school by the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth (Reference: MCL 395.101). We will not be posting training opportunities except from licensed providers. For more information please go to www.michiganps.net 

Announcement

One of the goals of the Michigan Film Office has been to create and put in place educational competencies for all entities planning to offer training to develop new Michigan crew for the growing film industry.
Michigan Film Industry Job Competencies have been adopted by Michigan Film Office Advisory Council. These competencies are a standard that schools may voluntarily adopt as their measure to insure we have a skilled, trained, and quality educated film production workforce. Students may also refer to them as a guide to insure they are receiving the necessary education to be an effective candidate for a film production job in Michigan.

Link: Michigan Film Industry Competencies (pdf)
When considering a school students may want to ask the following questions as a guide to insuring they receive a quality education that properly prepares them for employment in the film production industry.

1. Is the school accredited and/ or licensed?
2. Does the school voluntarily agree to adopt the ‘Michigan Film Industry Job Competencies”?
3. Does the school have any job placement assistance, how many former students are working in the business, and what type of jobs do they have ?
4. Does the school have any relationships with the film unions , prospective employers, production houses , or producers?
5. Are there former students available you can speak with?
6. What length and costs are the programs they offer?
7. Are the instructors professionals in the field they are teaching and do they have credits to their name on productions?
8. Are there any complaints against the school? Were they resolved in a timely and effective manner?
9. What type of equipment and facility does the school utilize?
10. Does the school offer specific classes in the field you are planning on entering?

The answer to these questions will help the prospective student make an informed decision as to the best school for their specific needs.
If you have any questions please contact:
Richard Jewell
Workforce Development Manager
(517) 241-8589
jewellr@michigan.org

http://www.michiganfilmoffice.org/Jobs-and-Training/Education/Default.aspx

Let's Save Michigan

http://letssavemichigan.com/blog/

Michigan can emerge from the current downturn stronger, more livable, and more likely to withstand future economic crises—but only if we convince our elected officials to put the right policies in place. To save Michigan, we must come together and fight for smart redevelopment and a rededication to our cities. Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, and other struggling cities shouldn’t be abandoned to sprawl and blight. They should be transformed into centers for culture and innovation to attract a talented workforce and tomorrow’s growth industries.
“The point of cities is multiplicity of choice,” Jane Jacobs once wrote. We completely agree. Downtowns should be dynamic hubs where jobs, stores, restaurants, and other amenities are all within walking distance. Through sustainable urban planning and careful tax-incentive programs, we can carve out vibrant neighborhoods in Michigan’s city centers, attracting a diverse mix of businesses and residents. Urge your state and local officials to support mixed-use buildings, people-centric zoning policies, and tax incentives for investing in cities.
We want to foster more livable cities through the development of alternative modes of transportation. As we work to resurrect our cities and streets, we must keep pedestrians and cyclists in mind. Urban neighborhoods are best experienced from the sidewalk, among the people, at ground level. Demand that your elected officials endorse public-transportation solutions, bicycle-friendly roads, and pedestrian-friendly open areas.
The state must dedicate itself to improving and maintaining quality of life for all residents. Funding for parks, public services, and the arts isn’t a luxury—it’s critical to the health of our cities and our state, and every Michigan resident’s future. We must be mindful of fiscal realities, but we must not allow our cities to be stripped of their unique character. Insist that your legislators embrace policies that support museums, restaurants, bars, libraries, and performance spaces—the lifeblood of vibrant cities

By changing its approach to its cities, Michigan can attract and keep a dynamic workforce that will carry the state through the end of the 21st century—and beyond.
Won’t you join our fight?

Student Voice and Film in Exploring Identity

Researcher Erica Halversion discusses the role of film-making in identity construction for adolescents.

Detroit Diary: Detroiter is a Finalist in Poetry Out Loud

Detroit Diary: Detroiter is a Finalist in Poetry Out Loud

Creativity in the Classroom by Dave Gray, founder and CEO of XPLANE, the visual thinking company.

Futurist Alvin Toffler once said that mass education has both an overt and a covert curriculum. The overt curriculum was “reading, writing and arithmetic, a bit of history and other subjects.”1 But beneath it, he said, lay an invisible or “covert curriculum” which consisted of three courses: one in punctuality, one in obedience and one in rote, repetitive work.

This makes sense when you look at the history of U.S. education. The public school system was introduced during the industrial revolution, which spanned from about 1840-1920. In 1840, most of the population (about 90 percent) lived in rural communities, and by 1920, the urban/rural split was about 50/50, as workers migrated to cities to work in factories.

The industrial revolution radically changed the way we turned raw materials into products. It changed the way goods were collected, processed, exchanged, distributed and ultimately controlled. This changed not only how we organized our work but how we organized society.

The factory teaching model that Toffler describes was successful throughout most of the 20th century. It is so deeply embedded in our educational system that it’s sometimes hard to see. We don’t notice it because it’s how we learned when we were in school – it’s how we were trained to be the people we are today.
But today’s world brings new challenges, for which many of us find ourselves unprepared. New technologies with massive processing power are connecting more people to more information than was previously conceivable. The amount of new information in the world doubles every two years. It’s predicted that by 2015 it will double every week.

Like the industrial revolution, this new information revolution is shifting the way we collect, process, exchange, distribute and control a key asset – information. This new economy requires a new kind of worker, with different skills, methods and approaches.

It also requires a rethinking of our educational system. What should a new, revised curriculum look like? For clues, let’s examine the fundamental differences between industrial work and knowledge work.
How do we prepare students for a world that’s undergoing such radical change, a world where none of us have ever been and many of us still don’t understand? We need a system that looks at teaching differently; that rewards breadth of vision and creativity and recognizes a diversity of viewpoints.

To continue reading, go to: Creativity in the Classroom

Michigan Teaching School Tries Something New - NPR

 Larry Abramson/NPR

America's teachers' colleges are facing some pressure to reinvent themselves.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has been leading the assault, with a series of speeches calling for better teacher training. Duncan says it's crucial that education schools revamp their curricula so they can help replace a wave of baby boomers who will soon retire from teaching.

One university is trying to rebuild its teacher-training program from the ground up.
At the University of Michigan School of Education, Dean Deborah Ball and her faculty have taken apart their training program and reassembled it, trying to figure out what skills teachers really need.

Katie Westin, a senior at the University of Michigan and a student teacher, says that when she compares notes with teachers-in-training at other schools, it's clear that her program is more hands-on.

 

 

Katie Westin, a senior at the University of Michigan and a student teacher, says that when she compares notes with teachers-in-training at other schools, it's clear that her program is more hands-on.

"We expect people to be reliably able to carry out that work. We don't seem to have that same level of expectation or requirement around teaching," Ball says.

Teacher Education Initiative
The program overhaul — an ongoing process that began five years ago — is called the Teacher Education Initiative. It will cut the number of classes students must take, and it will turn time in the classroom into an experience that is tightly focused on problem solving.

"Image the difference between learning about child development, which is unquestionably helpful, and learning how to have a sensible interaction with a child, which permits you to know exactly what's going wrong right now with that child's reading, or why is this error occurring over and over again in math. That's actually being able to do something with that knowledge," Ball says.

The program stresses what teachers have to do, not simply what they have to know.

Professor Robert Bain says that when the effort is finished, the education program will no longer be a series of courses students have to take, "but rather a program that's building on these experiences, much like most professional schools, like a good med school or law school."

The university has also picked up an idea from medical school: rounds.

You can see the idea in action at North Middle School in Belleville, Mich. Teacher Steve Hudock is talking to four University of Michigan student teachers before seventh and eighth graders arrive for a class on comparative religion.

Read The Series

Lesson Plans: What Makes A Great Teacher?

This is one of several schools these budding teachers will visit as they learn to analyze various teaching problems in different settings. Here, it's how to deal with students in small groups.
Bain says that before class, he demonstrated how the teachers-in-training might approach this challenge.
"What their job is, is to practice the experience with actual students, but then also look to see how Mr. Hudock, a skilled teacher, does the exact same sorts of things," Bain says.
Student teacher Katie Westin says that when she compares notes with teaching students in other programs, she notices a big difference.
"We take on more of an interactive role, I think, than some of the other programs do, because we actually lead lessons, and we get to work with the students in group activities."

Hands-On Training
Once the religion class is over, the group sits down with Hudock and talks about what worked and what didn't.

Hudock says this is a lot different than the student-teaching experience he had 15 years ago.