Information Sessions

Thank you all for your continued interest in Unlocking the Light. This is to remind you all that there are two information sessions coming up next week. Below you will find directions to both sessions.

1. August 23, 2006 12-2 p.m.

Hampshire Educational Collaborative

97 Hawley Street

Northampton, MA 01060

Directions:

FROM I-90 AND/OR I-91: Take MassPike I-90 to Exit 4 to I-91 North to Exit 18 to Route 5 North, toward downtown Northampton. Continue on Route 5 approximately 1/2 mile and turn right onto Holyoke Street. Take first left onto Hawley Street (just beyond railroad underpass) and look for the light green building on the left side. The HEC Main Office is about 1/10 mile up on the left - a new, light green, two-story building with cream trim. Please enter through main door at RIGHT SIDE of building. To reach our facility at 228 Pleasant Street (Route 5), go just PAST Holyoke Street to Short Street. Number 228 is a red brick building on the right side of Route 5, adjacent to Short Street.

FROM ROUTE 9: Located at the east end of downtown Northampton, Hawley Street intersects with Route 9 between the railroad underpass and the Northampton Post Office. There is a traffic light at the intersection. From Amherst and other points east, take the first left after the Post Office; from the west, take the first right after the railroad underpass onto Hawley Street. HEC is on the right side of the street, about 4/10 of a mile down, past Universal Health & Fitness. If you are traveling to our facility at 228 Pleasant Street (Route 5), continue on Hawley Street past the HEC main office building; at the end of the street turn right onto Holyoke Street; then turn right again onto Route 5 North. Number 228 is a red brick building located just a short way up the street on the right side, at the intersection of Short Street.

97 HAWLEY STREET PARKING: Visitors may park in the two lots by the HEC building or, if space is not available, please park on the street.

2. August 24, 2006 2-4 p.m.

Massachusetts Cultural Council

10 St. James Avenue, 3rd Floor

Boston, MA 02116

Directions:

Massachusetts Cultural Council
10 St. James Ave., 3rd Floor
Boston, MA 02116-3803

Tel: 617-727-3668
Toll Free (in MA only): 800-232-0960
Fax: 617-727-0044
TTY: 617-338-9153
Email: mcc@art.state.ma.us

DRIVING

From points West:
From Massachusetts Turnpike Eastbound (Route 90) take Exit 22 towards Copley Square. Continue straight onto Stuart Street and go three blocks down, past the intersection at Berkeley Street. At the set of lights (at the intersection of Stuart and Arlington streets), you will see the MCC building on the left (glass awning with Landry & Arcari rug store). Turn right on Arlington and one block down there are parking lots on either side of the street.

From points North:
From the Expressway (Route 93 Southbound) take Exit 26 for Storrow Drive Westbound. Then take the Copley Square Exit. Turn left on Beacon Street and immediately turn right onto Arlington Street. You will pass St. James Avenue on your right (the Park Plaza Hotel will be on your left). The MCC building is on the corner. Continue on Arlington Street through the intersection and one block down there are two parking lots on either side of the street.

From points South:
Take Route 93 North (Expressway) to Exit 20 toward South Station. Take the Frontage Road exit on the left toward South Station and Back Bay. Follow signs to Back Bay and turn left onto East Berkeley Street. Continue on East Berkeley and turn right onto Berkeley Street. Turn right on Stuart Street. At the set of lights, at the corner of the intersection with Arlington Street, you will see the back of the MCC building on the left (glass awning with Landry & Arcari rug store). Turn right on Arlington and one block down there are two parking lots on either side of the street.

Additional Parking*
The Parking Garage under 10 St. James Avenue is $30.00 per day (hourly rates apply). (NOTE: The parking garage at 10 St. James will be closed for repairs until October 1, 2006.)
Parking at the Charles Street Parking Garage at 144 Charles Street is $26.00 per day (hourly rates apply).
Parking at the Radisson Hotel at 200 Stuart Street is $26.00 per day.
Parking at the Motor Mart Garage at 26 Park Plaza is $18.00 per day.

*Please note: MCC can not guarantee rates, and they are subject to change

Boston Area Bidders Conference for UTL

The Massachusetts Cultural Council has offered a boardroom for our Boston area bidders conference. It will take place on August 24, 2006 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.. I will be there to answer any questions or concerns about the application process for Artist-Educators seeking work through UTL. The Massachusetts Cultural Council is located at 10 St. James Ave • 3rd floor • Boston, MA • 02116. Please feel free to contact me for more information.

And remember for those of you in Central or Western Massachusetts, there will be a bidders conference on August 23, 2006 from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Hampshire Educational Collaborative, which is located at 97 Hawley Street, Northampton, MA 01060.

Unlocking the Light:

Integrating the Arts in Juvenile Justice Education

CALL FOR ARTIST-EDUCATORS

DEADLINE

September 15, 2006

Questions?

Contact Derek Fenner, Project Coordinator

Unlocking the Light: Integrating the Arts in Juvenile Justice Education

Office: 617-740-0300

Cell: 413-320-2434

Email: dfenner@collaborative.org

Overview

The Hampshire Educational Collaborative (HEC) has received a three-year, $1,050,000 Professional Development for Arts Educators grant under the U.S. Department of Education discretionary/competitive grants program. HEC will provide a three-year program of professional development focused on integration of the arts into the core academic curriculum for teachers serving students in residential facilities under the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS). The majority of the students in DYS facilities come from high-risk, high-poverty backgrounds.

Through participation in a comprehensive professional development program, all DYS teachers will study, practice and refine the integration of multiple art forms into their instruction in English language arts, social studies, math and science. Components of the program will include an annual in-service training day, regional workshops, artist-educator residencies in institutional classrooms, and ongoing follow-up coaching from artist-educators. HEC will craft a new website to supply DYS teachers with examples of arts-based lessons that take into account the special circumstances of the incarcerated juvenile offender population and that connect to state and national academic standards.

About the Hampshire Educational Collaborative

The Hampshire Educational Collaborative is a nonprofit,

multi-service agency linking educators,

schools, families, and communities to opportunities and resources that advance student learning.

For more information on the Hampshire Educational Collaborative please visit our website at www.collaborative.org

About Unlocking the Light:

Integrating the Arts in Juvenile Justice Education

INTRODUCTION

The Hampshire Educational Collaborative (HEC) has designed a three-year comprehensive professional development program focused on integration of the arts into the core academic curriculum for all teachers serving students in residential facilities under the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS). The majority of the 1,500 students in DYS facilities come from high-risk, high-poverty, high-truancy backgrounds; most are in DYS custody because they are charged with or have been found to have committed a crime. These are youth that in the past have expressed themselves mainly through violence or breaking the law. Integrating arts into their studies offers them a crucial opportunity to express themselves in a constructive way. Learning through the arts empowers at-risk students to see themselves succeeding in a school setting, which changes their perception of themselves and their own potential.

DEMOGRAPHIC OF TARGET POPULATION

On any given day, the DYS system has about 185 teachers and 1,500 students in 58 residential facilities in 25 sites across the state.

DYS teachers have an extraordinarily difficult job. Over half of their students received services for abused/neglected children prior to commitment, 86% are from non-traditional homes, and many report high levels of prior drug and alcohol use. Students typically have poor school attendance records and are below grade level in most subjects. Students are in DYS facilities for a limited time but, for some, it is their longest continuous exposure to secondary education. Thus, DYS teachers want to use strategies that produce significant results. We believe that arts integration has proven to be such a strategy, and can be used as a powerful enhancement tool, with which to cross the boundaries of all disciplines, connecting students to their own learning in new and exciting ways.

PROJECT DESIGN

This project is complex. It involves in-depth training using a range of art forms and focusing on four academic subjects for 185 teachers who teach in 58 facilities in 25 sites; it is guided in part by the artist-educator’s collaboration with teacher-recipients; it involves training for teachers who must address multiple grade levels in one classroom; it aims to change the nature of teachers’ instruction; it aims to improve the achievement of students who have chronically failed in school; it involves bringing trainers into maximum security facilities; and it requires that trainers become familiar with the rules and challenges inherent in teaching incarcerated juvenile offenders.

Goal for DYS Teachers:

Increase the capacity of 185 DYS teachers to provide high quality, research-based arts education linked to challenging academic standards in the core curriculum.

Outcomes:

· Teachers will have a sustained impact in their approach to teaching, by learning methods of using the arts as an instructional tool, to add creativity into classroom teaching strategies.

· Teachers will have a new perspective on their students, by having tapped into new ways of student learning.

· Teachers will have a deeper understanding of the state standards through connections with art forms.

· Teachers will be able to effectively continue their work in arts-integration with the tools they learned in their residency.

Objectives/Activities:

· Provide one annual full day of arts-integration training at a joint session for all DYS teachers.

· Provide a minimum of 10 regional arts-integration workshops to serve a minimum of 65 DYS teachers in one year, reaching all teachers by the end of three years.

· Provide a minimum of one long-term, intensive artist-in-residence program in each DYS facility, involving all DYS teachers by the end of three years.

· Provide a minimum of 6 hours of coaching support to 65 DYS teachers in each year, reaching all teachers by the end of three years.

· Train and support a roundtable group of DYS educators as a statewide leadership team to sustain and advance the integration of arts into the core curriculum.

· Identify, document and facilitate sharing of specific effective strategies used in this project.

Goal for DYS Students:

Increase the performance and achievement of DYS students in core subjects through their active involvement in the arts.

Outcomes:

· Students will have gained a new perspective on their teacher, having seen them in a different teaching role.

· Students will have gained confidence in the subject matter being taught through arts-integration.

· Students behavior will be modified in a positive way through the implementation of arts-integration.

Objectives:

· Expose all students in DYS facilities to multiple art forms through standards-based arts projects.

· Engage students’ special needs and untapped strengths through standards-based arts projects.

· Improve student attention and motivation in the classroom through arts integration into the curriculum.

· Conduct focus groups with students to obtain feedback on arts integration program.

Criteria for Trainers

• Must be artists passionate about their art form
• Must have demonstrated expertise as trainers of secondary school teachers
• Must have demonstrated expertise in designing arts-based lesson plans that connect to state and national curriculum standards
• Must have experience working with students and educators in school settings
• Must have the capacity to create innovative, effective, in-depth residency programs that promote the integration of the arts into the core academics of English language arts, history, math and science
• Must have the ability to tailor residency programs to the specific needs of students, teachers, and line-staff, and be willing to work in a DYS environment, which can include but is not limited to:
• Working in a high-risk environment and understanding the security concerns of the environment when teaching in each facility
• Working with a limited amount of supplies, dictated by each facility director and staff
• Working with the knowledge that a day of classes can be cancelled for a “lock-down” or other disciplinary action by the unit director, and that the day will need to be made up to complete the residency
• Must be willing to participate in a HEC training session, no more than one day and offered regionally, on special challenges involved in teaching an incarcerated juvenile offender population
• Must be willing to submit to a CORI background check on all individuals who will be working in DYS facilities
• Preferred: experience working with youth at risk
• Members of minority group with high representation in DYS settings encouraged to apply, as HEC welcomes all qualified applicants and is EOA/AA/A

Areas of Need

Classroom Residencies:

These are classroom residencies in which a highly qualified artist-educator or team of artist-educators will make multiple, extended visits to a chosen facility and work with both students and teachers there, demonstrating lesson planning and modeling instructional strategies. The culmination of each residency in this project will be a final student product, such as an exhibit of student art, a performance of an original play, the production of a music CD, or a creative writing anthology.

These residencies will include the following components:

Initial Regional Planning Workshops:

Before the actual classroom residency begins, the artist-educator will lead planning sessions with the classroom teacher, linking specific art forms to specific academic standards in English language arts, social studies, math and science. Workshops will include practice time for designing lesson plans and improving instructional delivery. These workshops are to be the primer before classroom residencies occur to begin engaging teachers with the possibilities of arts-integrated instruction. These workshops will specifically revolve around the design of the classroom residency and the collaboration between the artist-educator and the classroom teacher. These workshops will be no more than one day and will be scheduled during a school day by the Program Coordinator with the artist-educator, the classroom teacher, and the appropriate administrators for the facility.

Residencies:

Due to the complex nature of planning required to work within DYS facilities, all scheduling will be done through the Project Coordinator. Schedules and residencies will be individualized for each artist-educator or artist-educator group working with the teachers and staff at the chosen facilities. In the first year of the grant no more than 65 teachers will participate in classroom residencies with the following breakdown of content area: 1/3 math and science AND 2/3 humanities (English language arts and social studies). Pay will be a set rate, to be determined, per residency, by the Project Director and Project Coordinator. Supply budgets will be determined by the Project Coordinator in collaboration with the artist-educator group. Residencies may be delivered to more than one teacher at a time. Special attention will be paid to artist-educators and groups who can service multiple residencies throughout the year. Residencies:

• Must last between eight and ten days
• Must take place during the school day
• Must take place during the calendar school year (based on local districts), including not delivering residencies during the Massachusetts MCAS schedule
• Must take place after October 15, 2006 and before June 1^st, 2007 for the school year and after July 5^th, 2007 and before September 1^st, 2007 for the summer session
• Must deliver professional development arts-integrated training, by co-teaching with classroom teachers in their content area
• Must deliver at least three hours per day of activities and training based on the needs of the project and requirements of meeting with all of the classroom teachers students

Coaching:

The same artist-educators who led workshops and/or residencies will perform follow-up coaching where necessary and be available by email, telephone, and in person to assist teachers with problems, questions, and refinements. This coaching time will not exceed a total of six hours, with an hourly rate to be determined by the Project Director and the Project Coordinator.

Response Instructions

Please include the following items in your proposal.

• Name of Individual or Group
• Social Security or Employer Identification Number
• Address/Telephone/Email/Web Address
• Contact Name and Telephone Number/Email Address if different
• Primary Artistic Disciplines
• Experience working with young people
• Experience in the delivery of Professional Development delivered to teachers in school settings in the areas of Arts-Integration
• Two letters of reference relevant to your work as an artist-educator
• Experience and examples of artist-educator residencies

Please describe an actual residency lasting five days or more that you have conducted during the past three years in collaboration with educators. Include the following:

· Describe your preparation and planning prior to the project

· How did you identify the educational needs of students and teachers

· Discuss activities you used to accomplish your goals and objectives

· Indicate the alignment between the lesson(s) and the Massachusetts Curriculum Standards for English language arts, social studies, science, and/or mathematics

· Indicate how you assessed student and teacher learning

· An abstract of an idea for a residency for Unlocking the Light

In this please include:

· A short narrative describing the concept, themes, instructional sequence, and activities

· Discussion of how your proposed residency aligns with the Massachusetts Curriculum Standards for English language arts, social studies, science, and/or mathematics

· Your proposed residency’s learning goals for students and for your partnering classroom teachers

· Your own learning goals for the proposed residency and/or participation in Unlocking the Light

· Areas of the state you are willing to work in

· Number of 8-10 day residencies you would be willing to take on

· Your fee and other costs for proposed residencies

· Support Material

If you provide audio, visual, or technological material for review, please indicate if you would like your source material returned. To have support material returned by mail, you must provide a self-addressed envelope or box with sufficient postage. HEC assumes no responsibility for material lost or damaged in the mail nor for mailing costs. If you would like to schedule a pick-up time, please let us know who to contact.

Successful applicants will be contacted no later than October 13, 2006 to set up a meeting and or an interview.

At this point we are looking for a one-year commitment, but are hoping to maintain working relationships for the entire grant period of three years.

An online weblog will have this information made available as well as updated answers to all questions asked by applicants. It can be viewed at

http://unlocking-the-light.blogspot.com

Please send all materials and applications to:

Metro Youth Service Center

Attn: Derek Fenner

425 Harvard Street

Dorchester, MA 02124

Electronic submissions should be sent to:

Derek Fenner dfenner@collaborative.org

Information Sessions

August 23, 2006 Hampshire Educational Collaborative

12-2 p.m. 97 Hawley Street

Northampton, MA 01060

tba A meeting in the Metro Boston Area

This meeting is still scheduled. Please check the weblog for updated information on this session.