Submitted by: Aedin Larkin

Present: Nick, Carrie, Joan and Aedín

We spoke about the drama position and how the hiring process was coming along. It is a very big job- 110%. Megan used to direct the HS musical and when she stopped Joanne took it over on top of her full workload.

What is the structure of the performing art department? We talked about presenting a restructure proposal of our department to our administration. The HS may benefit from an additional drama teacher to teach technical theater. There is nowhere to build sets nor do we have the full time personnel to support kids who want to work with their hands in theater. We don’t have the full scope of the curriculum from the 4’s through 12th grade and we need to begin collecting information from the members of our department to find out what their job description entails and what their curriculum looks like.

Some questions we asked ourselves: What is the philosophy driving the performing arts at LREI? What does access and equity in the PA department look like?

Difficulties that have arisen this year include lack of management over the PA spaces and calendar. Calendar in general – scheduling shows/performances alongside trips. It would be helpful to have one person in charge of spaces.

Upcoming Events:
Protest Music Elective (Nick) Wednesday April, 13th 9:00am
PA Night Middle School April 20th
MS musical May 19,20, 22
Spring Festival of Plays and PA Saturday May 21st
Spring Concert May 26th
LREI Street Fair June 4th

We began looking at the Curriculum Assessment Tool/ ideas for summer working groups and started documenting HERE.

Next time we meet we will continue the discussion and think about specific approaches to teaching and pedagogy.

Submitted by: Aedín Larkin

Present: Nick, Susan, Damon, Carrie, Aedín, Joan, Deborah, Kalil, Kristina (remote), Katherine (remote)

We took some time to acknowledge the changes and their impact on our department. 

We discussed how the meeting time for our department is not ideal as we can rarely all meet together after school due to rehearsals. Moving forward and thinking about next year we would like the administrative team to look at our schedules to see if there is a solution to this.

Individually we have been examining our curriculum for bias. Due to the lack of frequency in our meetings (the last time we met as a department was in October), it has not been possible to have a collaborative group discussion about the steps we are taking to de-bias our curriculum or the tools and resources that we use. We would like to think about how to have these discussions as a team in a more creative way.

For our next meeting, we will try to find a time that works so that the majority of us can attend. We will share what we have been working on individually and discuss the tools we have been using this year.  

We spoke about the summer working group and we will begin to think about and gather information to share with this group.

Submitted by: Joanne Magee

Due to multiple rehearsals and commitments this week, the department will meet at another time.

Submitted by: Joanne Magee

Perf Arts Meeting: 10/12 R108

Attended: Joanne, Carrie, Nick, Katherine, Aedín, in zoom; Kristina and Susan

Absent: Damon, Joan and Deborah. 

1.On a practical level do we need to address anything;  Spaces? Schedule? Anything? 

• Winter Concert: Planning . Date? What is it going to look like? Logistical pieces. What are the students working towards? 
• Nick said maybe we are going to be divisional 
• LS 3rd and 4th grade are joined together so how will that work? 
• MS 6th grade band to share in the concert?
• HS – Susan and Damon to weigh in. 
• Masks to get- Susan 
• Susan has spoken to Mark about this – we will follow up very soon. 

2. Nick, Carrie and Damon would like to create an inventory of instruments. Maybe use barcodes to log things in and out. 
3. Katherine is teaching the 9th grade Dance rotation. Teaser, introduction. Rotation is now until spring break- so in the final trimester the students have a choice. New to HS this year. 

• Is there a chance for Deborah, Kristina and Katherine to meet up and talk about the program? Joanne can join/ host if preferable. 

4. Bravo to Carrie (all kudos to Margaret and Damon! -Carrie) for starting a 6th grade Beginners band.
5. Bravo to Joan who is in full rehearsal for OUR TOWN. 

• We will be working on a ticket/seating plan for the PAC. Joanne and Joan to meet and plan. 

6. HS mission statement work being done in weekly HS meetings – can we help?Margaret Paul has helped with this. 
7. Start the ball rolling on K-12 Overall Mission Statement – 

• Let’s look at what we had and then make updates. 

8. Start the ball rolling on the website for Perf Arts updates– 

• looks like the website needs some attention- to be continued.  

9. Continued DEI work this year- creating a system/ protocol for routine reflection of work we are doing.  

• Pedagogical practice 
• Equitable grading 
• Inclusive curriculum 
• Socio- economic awareness was brought up this year. How do we normalize middle class life in this school. How can we partici[pate in reducing shame in identity?

Submitted by: Joanne Magee

3/3 Meeting.

Members of the department continued with our evidence of curriculum focus and discussed ways of showing a variety of evidence.

We addressed the continued challenges of teaching our disciplines and in the LS not being able to teach students due to covid protocols. They have rarely seen students for the arts. In MS Desks have been taped in place preventing any flexibility for us to clear space in a room for Dance or Drama. Instrumental programs are limited. The challenges have been seriously compromising but teachers are doing everything in their power to provide the best experiences under the circumstances.

Joanne will start putting a document together to report back all our work on DEI.

Submitted by: Joanne Magee

Performing Arts meeting: 2/24/21 3:45

Performing Arts teachers shared summaries of the changes made in areas of our curriculum, thus far and re-emphasized the work that was already within our curriculums with regards to diversity and inclusion. Summaries included anecdotal examples of the work we have been doing, units we have designed and our general perspective as facilitators of our subject/art form.

Our work emphasizes inclusivity of students of non- dominant backgrounds, multiple points of access, and addressing and removing possible biases within the material or approach.  We have been transparent in our teaching with our students and have become skilled in questioning our material, our approach and our responses. The range of our starting points and various perspectives determines the level of change and redesign in our work.

Within our reflections we continue tuning into the specific identities of our students and pulling resources from a variety of different perspectives.

We have added resources into our curriculum, we have removed material that created discomfort for students with a non- dominant /”white centric” perspective.

We are meeting again next week to continue to share and discuss next steps, next areas to address.

Teachers continue to work using a large collection of DEI resources on hand.

Submitted by: Joanne L Magee

DEI Departmental Meeting 11/11/20

Joan took notes, hosted as Joanne was in final rehearsals for the MS PLAY. 

In attendance:

Joan, Damon, Kristina, Susan, Carrie, Aedín, Peggy, Nick

Folks want to have a conversation over questions posed in DEI doc. 

• There was a great deal of discussion about the arts, how to teach but not appropriate. How to cover material within a performance based class.

Members got through one question all affirming that having a discussion about the prompts (and taking notes) was a more organic way of processing the document that we’re required to fill out.

Members will prepare to come in January with an example of work( several works)  that demonstrate change, and if we have nothing to change, we can talk about how we already practice inclusivity and how we reach our students of color in our teaching. 

Submitted by: Joanne Magee

4:08 start

Peggy, Damon, Aedín, Carrie, Susan, Nick, Joan and Deborah and myself- Joanne attended.

Our department had an authentic, passionate conversation where we addressed challenges, feelings and attitudes around the DEI work in our subject areas. 

We agreed to create a document to answer the questions and to see which ones felt more connected to our line of work. We concluded that our focus includes: 

• What material we can/ should teach? 
• What material we can rehearse and perform? 
• How best can we serve the population of our students from grade to grade and year to year with inclusivity and equity?
• We addressed how over many years, awareness has evolved and that we have been and will continue to  focus on examining what we teach and how we teach it to better serve our students and our community.
• We addressed how we need to move away from “White Centrism” and we will continue to examine the content of our curriculum and make changes.

Did not meet so teachers could work on curriculum. Joanne, Susan and Maria all in final rehearsals for Newsies.

Most degree of success in Music with curriculum recording. Dance and Drama somewhat covered. Joanne still hopeful we can continue next year now that many new teachers have at least taught their classes once.

Peggy, Aedin, Susan, Nick, Dimitry Joanne attended (Sara, Meghan, Joan Maria and Damon all part-time and not available) 

Continued our work on curriculum recording and discussed complexity of being inclusive to students while creating a “bar” for the bands. Music teachers discussed how we can create options for students who need to start somewhere to learn skills and develop experience before becoming a member of the school’s ensembles.(Nick is planning on giving students access to learning/ developing their skills in an x-block that would allow them to join an ensemble once they have reached a level of proficiency.)  Also discussed how classes need to progress in the high school. If an introductory class is offered it could lead to an advanced class. This requires those subject teachers to plan what constitutes advanced learning. ( For example, Meghan and Joan offer a variety of options that they could plan/discuss) Discussed the challenges of the 8th – 9th grades where we gain about 50% of students who have not been in our classes in middle school so 9th grade almost feels like a step back for our LREI students. How can we find solutions to challenge those already skilled at the same time as those not having been in the class before? Dance offerings are available but Peggy expressed a lack of students signing up so the classes don’t go ahead. We are planning to continue to work on supporting the  Dance curriculum to give students access to dance beyond 9th grade. Continued with filling in our curriculum for our courses.