We are coming to the end of rewriting the elementary art curriculum for Metro Nashville Public Schools. I am blessed to be working with some amazing art teachers! Three of us were on the team the last time it was rewritten in 2007: Janet, Daryl, and myself. The team in 2007 was a good bit larger, but I think that a smaller team has its advantages. The new addition to the team is Tim, and it is always good to have fresh blood in the mix that can ask questions that we may not have considered. We met once before school was out along with all the other arts writing teams for our district. Our state standards were rewritten last year(another team I was blessed to be a part of) for all the arts, and got their final approval in the fall. They want a standards based curriculum in place at the start of the 2011-2012 school year. So we have to have everything finished by July 1st! We were given 7 days to complete this task(we got to select what days we worked over the summer..which is pretty awesome). We have one day left to wrap everything up & plan the training we'll be leading Aug. 1st & 2nd! The main thing we have left is to create unit plans for each 9 weeks. These are only going to be suggested ideas for the teachers, allowing them to see how a semester of standards and curriculum can be turned into a handy dandy unit. I am taking on Kindergarten. The new curriculum is set up so that all the elementary art teachers in Nashville(90+) are teaching the same concepts "AROUND" the same time. We are an extremely transient school district, and kids bounce from school to school throughout the year. This will have teachers in about the same place so kids are not missing any major skills. It does however, allow for much freedom in how the skills are taught so that each teacher can bring their own flavor to the table! I'm pretty excited about the final document. I wish I could share it here, but it's the property of MNPS...and I don't think I'll be allowed.
