VH1 Save The Music Foundation

Source: rayolight146

rosindav:

Some great pictures from our 2013 senior solo recital!

alexismichelle:

As a big proponent of arts in public schools, I was super honored to be be featured in the most recent issue of Music Alive!  For those of you unfamiliar, Music Alive is an educational music magazine developed specifically for music classes in grade 5 - 10.  The purpose of the Cool Careers section is to highlight opportunities in the music industry beyond performing.  (Photo Credit: Jared Goralnick)

mscakemixer:

Yesterday a civil war reenactment trio came and played for our 7th grade music students. They were funny, educational, and very interactive. The kids all had the “this is so awesome” face.

“When the world told them they couldn’t play, they did it anyway.”

Check out “The Girls in the Band”, directed by Judy Chaikin, and produced by Michael Greene, chronicling the challenges and triumphs of female musicians breaking into the male dominated world of big band, swing and jazz music. Set against a stark background of sexism and racism, The Girls in the Band paints a definitive picture of these courageous women and their unheralded journey from the 1930’s to the present day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6XDjh8gRGg

www.thegirlsintheband.com

Steam Not Stem | Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics

nottyh:

“A half a mind is a terrible thing to waste!”

Please Help Support Music Education

acmenes:

That’s me, a performer, composer, and music educator from New Jersey. I am the founder of the A.C Menes School of Music, a music school based in NJ that currently teaches about 50 students, who study guitar, piano, voice, saxophone, ukulele, and percussion.

Part of the reason why I decided to become a private music teacher is because I saw that music programs were always being cut from schools. Music education benefits children in so many ways. Check out this article to read about some of ways music benefits children. 

When children study music, they become better at other subjects as well, such as English and Math. They use more of their brain than children who don’t study music. They even become better communicators. They don’t have to study music all their lives to enjoy these benefits, either. 

The students studying at the A.C Menes School of Music are mostly children, though we teach some adults as well. Every one of our students is enthusiastic about music. We’ve had two recitals already, and the students have all expressed how much fun it is to go on stage and perform!

Since our students love performing, I wanted to plan for them a really amazing experience. I wanted them to perform at Brookdale Park in Montclair, NJ, for hundreds of people. The children are all very excited at this prospect. However, it won’t be possible if we don’t raise enough money on our Kickstarter page. 

We’re more than halfway through our campaign, and have only raised $435 of our $2000 goal. With only 12 days left, I am very worried that we aren’t going to make goal. We’re still going to make music no matter what happens on Kickstarter, but I really want my students to have this opportunity to share their love of music with the Montclair community.

Please take a moment to reblog, donate, or both. Performing is hugely beneficial for children- it gives them confidence, self-discipline, helps them overcome anxieties, and most of all, they find that they truly enjoy doing it! 

A big thank-you from our students, staff, and myself.

-Alyssa

Founder of the A.C Menes School of Music

Source: jguigs

• 1: Children who study music tend to have larger vocabularies and more advanced reading skills than their peers who do not participate in music lessons.
• 2: Studying music primes the brain to comprehend speech in a noisy background. *Children with learning disabilities or dyslexia who tend to lose focus with more noise could benefit greatly from music lessons.
• 3: Research shows that music is to the brain as physical exercise is to the human body. Music tones the brain for auditory fitness and allows it to decipher between tone and pitch.
• 4: Children who study a musical instrument are more likely to excel in all of their studies, work better in teams, have enhanced critical thinking skills, stay in school, and pursue further education.
• 5: In the past, secondary students who participate in a musical group at school reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs).
• 6: Schools with music programs have an estimated 90.2 percent graduation rate and 93.9 percent attendance rate compared to schools without music education who average 72.9 percent graduation and 84.9 percent attendance.
• 7: Regardless of socioeconomic status or school district, students who participate in high-quality music programs score 22 percent better on English and 20 percent better on Math standardized exams.
• 8: Much like expert technical skills, mastery in arts and humanities is closely correlated to high earnings.
• 9: A study from Columbia University revealed that students who study arts are more cooperative with their teachers and peers, have higher levels of self-confidence, and are more equipped to express themselves and their ideas.
• 10: Elementary age children who are involved in music lessons show greater brain development and memory improvement within a year than children who receive no musical training.
• 11: Learning and mastering a musical instrument improves the way the brain breaks down and understands human language, making music students more apt to pick up a second language.

"Everything I Need To Know I Learned in Music Class"

futuremusiceducator:

Amazing article! And love the business framework!

Memphis City Schools: MCS Music Education Program Receives National Recognition

mcsk12:

Memphis City Schools has been named one of the “2013 Best Communities for Music Education in America” by the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation (NAMM). MCS is one of 307 school districts from across the nation to receive this recognition. This honor recognizes the collaborative…

Starving Michigan schools: Capital City Lansing schools eliminate ALL art, music and phys. ed. teachers

onamissiontocivilize:

To hear Governor Snyder tell it, Republicans haven’t reduced school funding. Everything is great for Michigan schools, he will tell you. If you want the real story, however, start attending your local school board meetings and listen to the decision-makers grappling with ever-shrinking budgets that have them choosing between offering our educators the wages and benefits they deserve and shutting down schools and eliminating programs. The reality is that our state government is starving our K-12 public schools and those chickens are beginning to come home to roost.

This past week, the Lansing Public School District announced that it is firing all 87 physical education, music and art teachers:

Lansing elementary students will soon say goodbye to all their art, music, and gym teachers.

They’re among 87 staff positions getting the ax this year.

The district’s got to scrape together $6 million in savings…

Now the remaining teachers need to find a way to work all that art, music and gym curriculum into their regular classrooms.

Teacher association president Patti Seidl says they’re already working to figure out how to team teach those subjects in each grade. {…}

Here’s an extra challenge: teachers also gave up their planning time in this round of negotiations. When it comes to lesson planning or grading, some middle school teachers are now down to just a 24-minute lunch break, says Seidl.

Plus, between paying more for health care premiums and salary concessions, Lansing teachers are now making what they did back in 2005.

So, not only will classroom teachers will now have to integrate art, music and phys. ed. into their daily routine, adding additional tasks to those they already have, they’ll have less time to plan for it so will be working at home more after their normal working hours AND we’re paying them less and offering less benefits.

It isn’t just Lansing schools, by the way. The Michigan Department of Education estimates that there are 108,000 students who don’t receive any arts education in their schools.

If there was ever a group that deserves the right to “Go Galt“, public school teachers are it.

The fact is, this goes way beyond the screwing of public school teachers. Obviously the elimination of phys. ed. is likely to have negative implications on the health of Lansing school kids and will raise health care costs in the long-term. But there’s something even more harmful to our state in the elimination of arts programs. It is a short-sighted action that will have long-term negative effects that will do great harm to our state’s economy.

The impact on the economic future of Michigan has to do with our state’s residents’ collective entrepreneurship. How? Consider this quote by Sandra S. Ruppert, the Director of the Arts Education Partnership:

Creativity is the precursor to innovation and the cornerstone of entrepreneurship. It is essential to the design and development of new products, services and processes.

The idea that arts curricula benefit the creative thinking processes that stimulate entrepreneurial activities that, in turn, generate economic health and growth isn’t new and it’s now part of mainstream thinking when it comes to educational priorities. Here’s former Education Secretary Arne Duncan in remarks he made at the Arts Education Partnership National Forum in 2010:

I believe that arts education can help build the case for the importance of a well-rounded, content-rich curriculum in at least three ways.

First, the arts significantly boost student achievement, reduce discipline problems, and increase the odds that students will go on to graduate from college. Second, arts education is essential to stimulating the creativity and innovation that will prove critical to young Americans competing in a global economy. And last, but not least, the arts are valuable for their own sake, and they empower students to create and appreciate aesthetic works. {…}

Low-income students who play in the orchestra or band are more than twice as likely to perform at the highest levels in math as peers who do not play music. In James Catterall’s well-known longitudinal study, Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art, low-income students at arts-rich high schools were more than twice as likely to earn a B.A. as low-income students at arts-poor high schools.

English language learners at arts-rich high schools were also far more likely than their peers at arts-poor high schools to go on to college.

In addition to the creation of an “entrepreneurship class”, Duncan refers to the positive impacts on graduation rates and the overall academic achievement of students receiving a well-rounded education that includes the arts. He’s not making this stuff up. Studies show that students that receive arts education:

• Are likely to be more proficient at reading, writing, and math
• Have improved literacy skills
• Show improved academic achievement levels
• Have higher attendance, graduation rates, and standardized test scores
• Have higher IQ levels

The other night on Tony Trupiano’s radio show, Tony asked me if I think that state budgets are moral documents. I absolutely DO believe this. With budgets, we tell our citizens what we value; what we think is most important. Vice President Joe Biden puts it this way, talking about Republicans’ attitudes about education:

They say and they talk about valuing education… My dad used to have an expression…‘Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget and I will tell you what you value.’ Don’t tell me you value women in the workplace and you don’t hire any women. And don’t tell me you value education and you won’t invest in it…it looks as though they’ve decided that public education is not worth the investment anymore.

Michigan Republicans, led by Governor Rick Snyder — a man who claims to value education and wants to reinvigorate our economy now and into the future — have a budget that tells you absolutely everything you need to know about their self-proclaimed “valuing” of education.

Put simply: they do not.

At best, our schools are a place to pull hundreds of millions of dollars from to give tax breaks to their corporate friends and benefactors. At worst, they’re cash cows. Profit centers. Opportunities to be privatized and turned into profit-making ventures where investment in our kids’ futures and educational outcomes take a backseat to bottom lines and earnings statements.

We are starving our schools and it’s going to harm our kids and our state far, far into the future.

Help Keep Music In My Old Elementary School!

thenarnian:

The school district I graduated from is threatening to cut all elementary school music programs. That means no band or orchestra programs until middle school, and likely fewer students participating in music programs in middle school and high school.  That’s not okay!  Music is an integral part of cognitive development and public education.

Above is a link to a change.org petition.  If everyone who read this could sign and reblog, I and the students this will impact would greatly appreciate it!

melissamellymel:

It’s official… I’m an alumni of SJSU.

We love this! 

msdrbeat:

From WeAreTeachers