November 8, 2020

We had a wonderful day of workshops and collaboration because of you. Small groups working together on special interests in the morning led by some talented colleagues and now you ready to use these tools to effectively improve your practice.

In the afternoon our Arts for Every Child Sessions included Arts Education and Special Education, Arts Education and Our ESL Students and Arts Education with a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Focus. This was just the starting point of these important conversations and I grateful to you for your focus, commitment and feedback so we can continue to build our resources together,

For those of you who missed our closing activity it is called Apology, Appreciation and A Ha Moments. This is a great activity to use at the end of a lesson or a unit to build a community of empathy in your classroom. Some examples of comments that were shared include:

• "I apologize if my sense of humor has hurt anyone in this group. That is never my intent and I want you to know how much I respect what a vulnerable place you are all in right now."
• "I appreciate Ben Smock. We have always been colleagues but because we have had the opportunity to work on PD together I think I am now lucky enough to call us friends"
• "I appreciate the support everyone gave me as I presented PD today- I was really nervous and you made me feel so safe"
• "I appreciate that we have PD in Framingham that is pertinent to the arts teachers. That is so rare in other districts."
• "I appreciate the theatre arts teachers for being so willing to have these hard conversations around diversity in our program"

I am also including the link to the Google Slide show we all created as a part of our opening hour together. This Making Thinking Visible Exercise is GREAT for remote learning. The source can be a TED Talk, a Youtube video, a piece of music, a dance or a piece of art or poetry. It gets kids out of their heads and into creating with their classmates. If you give it a try please let me know.

FHSDC is pleased to announce that we will begin the Fall 2020 Virtual Season with our "Books Alive": Theatre for Young Audiences Series.

6 Teams of Drama Company members will be creating five minute short film versions of elementary school story books. These pieces will be completely student adapted, directed, designed and performed. All pieces will be edited by members of Framingham High School studios. These film adaptations will be utilized by art teachers across the district.

Please help Ethan to spread the word about Tonal Eclipse auditions at FHS. We all know how hard it is to recruit in this virtual world. Great video Ethan

District leaders from across the country are joining QuaverEd Co-Founder Graham Hepburn and his team to discuss the unique challenges facing music departments this year and to brainstorm solutions for the future together! Donna will be attending this meeting and bringing with her the questions and suggestions that you may have about Quaver. Donna is asking that you please take a moment to put your questions and/or suggestions that you may have in this document so that we can represent you at this meeting. Please type in "None" if you have none so that follow up will not be necessary. Thanks and have a great day! Ellen

Happy Birthday to two of our favorites! Ellen's birthday is Monday November 9 and Chris Brindley's birthday is Wednesday Nov. 11! He always gets his birthday off!

If you have a second to wish them a good day I know they would appreciate it.

Now go outside for a walk and have a great Sunday afternoon!

Director, Fine and Performing Arts Department

Email: dwresinski@framingham.k12.ma.us
Website: https://www.framingham.k12.ma.us/Domain/74
Phone: 508 782 7770
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FraminghamFPA/

:Let me know what you are reading and we will share the titles in this newsletter!