If you'd like to teach your students about Greg Mortenson and his message of hope and service, you can use the following resources as a starting point.

www.threecupsoftea.com  Go here to find out about three versions of the book, Three Cups of Tea, including a young adult version and a picture book for younger children.

http://www.penniesforpeace.org  This website is extremely useful for schools. The Toolkit has curriculum in geography, language arts and math for grades K-12 that relate to the book.  You can also download maps, stickers, photos and implementation tools for fundraising with your students. They can contribute pennies to "promote and support community-based education, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan." 


If you'd like to create art with your students about this book, you can explore many themes, including service, community and Islamic customs. The following links can be a starting point if you'd like to create Islamic inspired designs (this can tie into math lessons very well.)
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/middle15.html
Designs With Circles
Ramadan and the Phases of the Moon
Tesselations
Book on Creating Islamic Patterns Including CD Rom (Advanced)


Please contact Alisa Petersen for more information about this exciting event, and how you can involve your students.  




 
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Greg Mortenson from the book, "Three Cups of Tea" will speak at SUU on February 1st.  School teachers and students in Iron County have been invited to participate in this event by reading the book and creating art or service projects about it.  Mortenson has three versions of this book, including a middle school chapter book and a picture book for younger readers.  Teachers from all schools will meet on October 13th at SUU to discuss possibilities.  If you are interested in attending this meeting, please contact Alisa Petersen @ironmail.org for more information.
 
Richard Jenkins, who visited Iron County last January to teach several comics workshops, was recently interviewed by CNN.  He was participating in the International VSA Festival, an arts organization for people with disabilities.  We loved Richard's visit to our school district last year and it's good to see and hear about him again.  Take a minute to take a look.
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artsFUSION is bringing acting coach Karen De Mauro to Iron County from September 16th through the 21st. Karen De Mauro’s thirty years of teaching insure disciplined, relevant, creative encounters that combine core content in joyful, thought provoking ways. Participate in the deep, fullbodied learning that occurs during simulations, reenactments, interviews, and exciting short games that touch on social studies, science, and literature.  These workshops use a storybased approach to integrated curriculum.

She'll also teach how to increase public speaking and presentation skills for high school students.  Don't miss the opportunity to learn from this highly recommended presenter.  To attend, fill out and send in the appropriate form below .

elem._flier_demauro.pdf
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middle_school_flier_demauro.pdf
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h.s._flier_demauro.pdf
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SUU Dance students are planning a wonderful in-school workshop to teach 4th graders more about dance. They will visit the elementary schools on March 22nd.  Download the attached flier for more information.
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This Friday nearly 1000 students from our elementary and high schools will be attending a matinee performance by the Cathedral of the Madeleine Choir.  The performance is at the Heritage Theater and is sponsored by the Cedar City Music Arts.

Music samples are available at their website. Follow this link to share these samples with your class: Music Samples

The following information is from the CCMA website:

The Cathedral of the Madeleine Choir sings in the new year and the new decade! Established in 1909, The Choir consists of adult members and choristers of the Madeleine Choir School. Its principal purpose is to serve the Cathedral church of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. The Choir sings a variety of liturgical music that spans every period in music history from Gregorian chant to contemporary. They are dedicated to preserving the hallowed heritage of sacred music and sing the works of Palestrina, Victoria and Mozart regularly.

They have sung with Ballet West, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the San Francisco Opera and the Utah Symphony and Opera. Thus far the choir has toured internationally six times, encompassing Rome, Assisi, Florence, Munich, Vienna, Madrid, Sevilla and Segovia. They have been broadcast on radio and TV and have four CDs available with a fifth arriving soon.
 
Richard Jensen visited Cedar City last week and conducted three workshops for teachers about teaching children to create comics. Nearly 50 teachers attended these workshops (some even drove in from other districts) and we all learned a lot.

Teachers were impressed with the packet of materials that Jenkins provided. His lessons were classroom ready and he suggested ways to change and adapt his projects to fit within any subject.  He has clearly spent a lot of time preparing his material for teachers. In his words, "I knew how to make comics, but I was less sure just how to teach them. So, I looked to the classroom teachers with whom I worked. I would often ask them; are these steps making sense to you? are there any parts of this process that you think need improvement? is this something that you think that you could replicate? Gradually, I was able to refine my comics lesson to a well tested formula with a high degree of success for the students and teachers."

Teachers commented that they loved having time to complete a project in the workshop and they would use his materials right away in the classroom. Jenkins enjoyed his time in Cedar City.  If you missed the workshop, or are interested in finding out more about Richard Jenkins, visit his website:  http://www.studiohijinx.com/
 
This summer Martha Bayer (Fiddlers Canyon Elementary) attended iDEA. That's the Interactive Digital Education Academy, a week-long workshop where teachers learn the ins and outs of creating films with students.  In their words, iDEA, "offers K-12 educators immersive, high-quality, innovative professional development and support to integrate the filmmaking process into core content instruction. Participants receive a comprehensive, standards-linked filmmaking curriculum and learn how to produce Public Service Announcements (PSAs), instructional videos, stop motion projects, and other short films."

Since her return, Martha Bayer has created two films with her third grade students. Take a minute to view them, they are fantastic.

Halloween Math Movie
Public Service Announcements
 
The first of the Cedar City Music Arts student matinees is fast approaching. We currently have 700 students signed up to attend and we couldn't be more excited.
The matinee will run from 10 to approximately 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday, November 4th. Students will hear selections from:

Rondo Brilliante  by Franz Schubert
Violin/Piano Sonata in A Major by Cesar Franck

Sonata No 1 in f minor by Sergei Prokofiev
Carmen Fantasie by Bizet/Hubay

If your class is attending this event, please download and use the Audience Etiquette Guide as well as the background information. These guides include great pre and post discussion topics for your class.  Also follow these links to find music samples to play to your students.

Elena Urioste Music Samples
Robert Thies Music Samples

audience_etiquette.pdf
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ARTS EDUCATION AWARENESS PROGRAM
Thursday, October 8th from 6:00-7:00 pm
Iron Springs Elementary School

Iron Springs, Escalante Valley and North Elementary schools have been piloting a new program in arts education, funded by the Utah Legislature. Come learn about the progress these schools have made after the first year of the program. Attendees of this Arts Night will view student artwork; meet Program Director Janet Wolf and one of Utah’s leading philanthropists, Beverley Taylor Sorenson; and discover what they can do to help secure this program in Iron County.

Last year, the Utah State Legislature passed a bill to fund the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program (BTSALP), a program that provides quality “integrated arts learning” in 20 districts and 52 schools across Utah.  It currently serves approximately 30,000 students.  

The BTSALP has enabled local art specialists Mona Woolsey (Escalante Valley and North Elementary) and Alisa Petersen (Iron Springs) to use visual arts to reinforce core content areas of study such as math and literacy.  Our pilot schools are also participating in a pioneering study of how the arts impact academic performance, social skills, creativity and self-worth. Preliminary findings suggest that this arts-enriched educational program has a dramatic effect on many aspects of a child’s elementary education experience. Most impressive are the observed improvements in confidence, focus, and overall ability to succeed in school and life.

This excellent program has been funded for two years; however, the initial plan was to test the program for four years. Unless continued funding is awarded, the important assessment aspects of the program will be incomplete. Students and teachers will lose the powerful tool of integrated arts learning.

The Arts Night at Iron Springs will help raise awareness and support of this program and its goals. The North Starz Choir will perform at 6:00 pm, followed by an address from Beverley Taylor Sorenson, the visionary behind this statewide program.  Following her address, there will be a gallery stroll of student artwork from all three schools, parents will be able to visit the Iron Springs Art classroom, and a special exhibit of Navajo Weaving from the Utah Arts Council will be on display.

Join the cause by attending this event and finding out how you might help to support this essential arts program.