Make a simple website for your art class.  Please have some images available and you can build a site of your own during the workshop!

Presenter: Ava Scott is an art teacher at Yates Arts in Education Magnet School in Schenectady.  She has been a magnet school specialist, a middle and high school art teacher, a fifth grade classroom teacher and adjunct faculty in art education at Syracuse University.

Explore a method of engaging students in successful contour line drawing skills beginning with the 4th grade level!  Drawing is an essential building block of any arts program, and many of us dread it.  Here's a way to engage your students and help them to see!

Presenter: Natalie Boburka has been an art teacher in Schenectady for the past 19 years. She has developed programs for different agencies.  She is a co-owner of Boburka Studios located on Jay Street in Schenectady.

Experiment with glue-line relief printmaking using cardboard and basic supplies. This economical yet creative application can be used with a variety of age groups. It is appropriate for portraits, still life genre, landscapes, and seascapes. Students can use the cardboard "plate" to make a relief collage at the end.

Presenter: Linda Graf  is an award-winning retired art teacher of 30 plus years in the Lansingburgh and Bethlehem school districts. She is past chairperson of NYSATA section 6 and currently volunteers and exhibits with several area arts organizations.

This workshop will explore the wide array of possibilities for creating art from found, salvaged, scavenged, and repurposed materials.  Participants will view a selection of artworks created from recycled materials and will learn how to collect, experiment and create with materials that would otherwise end up in the landfill.  The session will culminate with a hands-on experience turning concepts into artistic creation.

Presenter: Dr. Pat Barbanell has a long history as a writer and teacher in arts and education.  Among her many  activities has been a life-long study of innovative use of recycled materials in  third world cultural arts, in museum and gallery arts, and in the art classroom.  Dr. Barbanell works as a supervisor of student teachers for SUNY New Paltz. She is a past president of the NYS Art Teachers Association (NYSATA) and currently serves as the group’s State Advocacy Chair and E-News Editor. 

Scholar Thomas Homer Dixon describes the "ingenuity gap" - the space between problems that arise and our ability to solve them - as growing today at an alarming rate (in business, industry, education, the environment and world affairs).   Author Ken Robinson proclaims we are "Out of Our Minds" in America to have sidelined creativity and the arts when every layer of American society from elementary education to supply-side economics is starved for more imagination, more original thinking, more creative intelligence.  Presenter John Cimino takes a look inside the arts at the habits of mind linked to creativity, ingenuity and imaginative insight.  He also reviews recent findings in the field of neuroscience exploring the brain's unique experience of the arts and the role of the arts in shaping our most fundamental habits of mind.  Lastly, Cimino takes us into the realm of big business, higher education, science and global issues to experience these habits of mind in action.

Presenter: John Cimino is founding president of Creative Leaps International and The Learning Arts. Educated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Manhattan and Juilliard Schools of Music, Cimino holds a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective and has created innovative educational initiatives for projects of the White House, the Center for Creative Leadership, numerous Fortune 500 companies and universities as well as international consortia on the arts, education, business and sustainable technologies. He is also an award winning opera singer.

This workshop is co-sponsored by The New York State Alliance for Arts Education (NYSAAE)

This workshop will introduce teachers to the musical cultures of the Middle East and India.  Though listening, performing and lesson planning, teachers will develop a number of ways to meet the national standards in music while introducing students to the music of other cultures.  

Presenter: David Gleason is a pianist and music educator.  He received an M.A. in music from Tufts University where he studied ethnomusicology and composition.  As an ethnomusicologist he researched Caribbean folk and popular music in Puerto Rico and Cuba.  He also studied music education and jazz studies at the Crane School of Music and has taught music in the Schenectady City School District and at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Materials required: String instrument(s) of your choice, sheet music (any orchestral ensemble arrangements you would like to play through and discuss teaching relevant strategies) please bring multiple copies of each part if possible to accommodate each teacher in the workshop.  All levels and styles of string music are welcome; you may also bring an audio recording device if you choose. Goal: Playing through arrangements, we will discuss teaching strategies for each piece, musical considerations, technical trouble spots, etc. By exposing each other to new repertoire and performing on our primary (or secondary) instrument we will gain knowledge of our craft and develop personal relationships across districts and buildings.  

Presenter: Mike Lawrence is in his sixth year of teaching string students in grades 3-8 in the Schenectady City School District. He recently received a master's degree in music education from Boston University. He currently plays both upright and electric bass as a sideman with a variety of musicians.

This class will be for those who wish to learn some of the more common basic repairs on band instruments.  Feel free to bring your instruments and ask questions.

Presenter: Art Shillito went to Red Wing Technical College to learn to repair instruments.  Red Wing is one of the 3 colleges in the country that has a full time Band Instrument Repair Program. After college, I worked for 6 years at Hansen's Music House in Greenville, Michigan. In 2000, I moved to New York and opened the Brass and Woodwind Shop in Burnt Hills.

In this high energy workshop, participants will exercise their bodies and minds as they learn and investigate excerpts from the American Dance Legacy Institute’s Repertory Etudes Collection. They will also explore user-friendly ways to integrate dance into the school curriculum, particularly language arts and social studies. Participants will leave the workshop with practical strategies for bringing dance to their students and to their colleagues in other disciplines as well as the arts.

Presenter: Members of American Dance Legacy Institute team will lead the sessions. The American Dance Legacy Institute (ADLI) was founded in 1994 at Brown University. Led by Carolyn Adams and Julie Adams Strandberg, ADLI is dedicated to enabling all individuals to participate, as primary collaborators, in the creation and perpetuation of America’s dance heritage. ADLI fulfills its mission by developing interactive materials, including the unique Repertory Etudes, short dances based on signature works of American choreographers. Repertory Etudes are available to the public for study, viewing, and performance on an ongoing basis with no royalties and minimal restrictions. ADLI also conducts a range of access and education programs that emphasize hands-on experiences and provide an environment where people can share common knowledge around ADLI’s resources and programs.

Are you looking for authentic Latin grooves for your ensembles or music classes?  This workshop will introduce teachers to the fundamentals of Latin music including call and response and the clave.  Teachers will explore musical styles from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Argentina through listening and performing.

Presenter: David Gleason is a pianist and music educator.  He received an M.A. in music from Tufts University where he studied ethnomusicology and composition.  As an ethnomusicologist he researched Caribbean folk and popular music in Puerto Rico and Cuba.  He also studied music education and jazz studies at the Crane School of Music and has taught music in the Schenectady City School District and at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

This course is for string teachers who would like to learn some of the basics of string instrument maintenance and repair. There are many small jobs that can be done that will help keep instruments out of the repair shop: setting sound-posts, making new pegs, lowering the bridge and upper nut, gluing seams and cleaning are some of the topics we will cover. Although this is a "hands-on" course, time will be spent on theory and general knowledge of repairs so that are no prerequisites other than interest patience. Please bring one or two full size violins or cellos, especially those that need gluing of seams, and an old towel to work on.

Presenter: Francis Morris graduated from the world renowned violin-making school in Mittenwald, Germany. After employment with the shop of Fritz Baumgartner and Sons of Basel, Switzerland where he did restoration work, he worked with two of this country’s foremost shops: Hans Weisshaar and Son, and Robert Cauer in Los Angeles. Mr. Morris was accepted as a full member in the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers and won an Award for Violin Tone during the Violin Society of America’s 2002 International Competition. He currently restores instruments and makes violins in his shop near Tanglewood in the Berkshires Hills of Massachusetts.

Composing in the elementary classroom is a noisy endevour but it's necessary to allow our students to demonstrate--through actual making music--what they really know about music.   Since not everyone has a keyboard lab to go to, composing will be discussed in the context of a general music classroom with typical classroom instruments (xylophones, tambourines, etc.). Come get ideas and lesson plans for composition projects that will cover all the elements of music in a fun and musically expressive way!

Presenter: Lisa Longe received her bachelors and masters degrees in music education from SUNY Potsdam.  Her graduate studies and thesis focused on qualitative research of elementary-aged  children’s compositions.  She has been teaching music in Schenectady for six years.

A look at how to make choreographing a musical accessible, fun and successful for the teacher. Taught by NYSTI 's Sue Caputo. Learn the techniques and the tools in this hands- ( and feet) on workshop.

Presenter: Sue Caputo is a member of the staff of the New York State Theatre Institute.

Teaching Exhibits involve hands on or at least brains on for your students.  More than just a way to show off good work, the teaching exhibit asks the viewer to think and engage. Consider creating an exhibit that asks students to identify objects or skills.  For example, sentences with missing punctuation that can be fixed from a choice of pre made cards with punctuation marks.  Another example is each child recording the solution to a problem on the exhibit as part of teaching data collection. Exhibits with questions and lift panels for answers engage the viewer and their minds. Use neutral colors (black, white, grey or faded pastels) to show work off to its greatest advantage.  Include text to explain the exhibit.
Kids as Curators allows students to take collections and decide how to display them.
The skills needed are: Measurement and fractions (how much space and how many things do we have); Finding the mean (art is hung at the average viewer’s eye level, they would find the mean);  Descriptive writing (the exhibit needs text to explain the work to the viewer); Higher order thinking skills (why did we choose the work we did, why did we hang it the way we did – is it chronological like a timeline? Is it alphabetical by the artists’ name? Did you hang it up using some other method of grouping the work? – students should be able to discuss and support their decisions); Socialization and public speaking (before the show, the students discuss how to put it together. After the show is hung, the students have an opening and take visitors through the work, acting as docents).
Consider allowing the students to take one board in your room to do a monthly exhibit.  It can be done independently as a center with older students.  Use their work, postcards, calendar pictures etc.

Presenter: Ava Scott is an art teacher at Yates Arts in Education Magnet School in Schenectady.  She has been a magnet school specialist, a middle and high school art teacher, a fifth grade classroom teacher and adjunct faculty in art education at Syracuse University.

Stuck on ideas?  You will create teacher products and receive instructions for several projects, including projects to help you with assessment.  This is a hands on class exploring several media so, be prepared to immerse yourself!

Presenter: Natalie Boburka has been an art teacher in Schenectady for the past 19 years. She has developed programs for different agencies.  She is a co-owner of Boburka Studios located on Jay Street in Schenectady.

Offered in conjunction with the Albany Institute's special exhibition, Hudson River Panorama: 400 Years of History, Art and Culture, participants in this hands-on workshop will create Gyotaku and learn how to integrate this printing process into science and social studies curricula. Gyotaku (gyo=fish, taku=rubbing) was invented in the early 1800's in Japan by fishermen to document the size and types of fish they caught. Prints were brought back and displayed in the homes of the fishermen either on walls or in journals. Using rubber casts of fish native to the Hudson Valley participants will learn how successfully create their own Gyotaku and relate this art making experience to the study of the Hudson River including tides and estuary habitats, fish anatomy and environmental stewardship.

Presenter: Erika Sanger is Director of Education at the Albany Institute of History & Art. Her 22 years of experience working in the arts includes Curator of Education at the Asheville Art Museum and Director of Development at Penland School of Crafts in NC. She has held positions of increasing responsibility in the education departments of the International Center of Photography, The Jewish Museum, The New-York Historical Society, and The Brooklyn Museum of Art. Erika received a BFA from Clark University, Worcester, MA and an MA from New York University's Department of Art and Art Professions. 

For students, learning to organize artwork in a dynamically effective and efficient way is essential in their preparation of a portfolio for art school or as a supplement to their application for college. Using iPhoto you will learn how students can develop their portfolio digitally and maintain and add to it as part of the art learning process. Learn how you and your students will be able to access their work immediately for print or CD and webpage presentations. You will also discover how this digital “cataloging” method can be used to simplify the grading process and the selection of artwork for district level and regional art shows.

Presenter: Scott Walroth is currently the Director of Art for the Niskayuna Central School District. He is responsible for the K-12 art curriculum and teaches two sections of Advanced Studio Art Honors. Mr. Walroth attended Suny Potsdam, St. Lawrence University, received an MFA with honors in papermaking/printmaking from Syracuse University and holds an S.A.S from the college of St. Rose. Mr. Walroth has been an advocate for the use of technology in Art since 1986 and has developed and offered numerous workshops combining the two. He continues to pursue his own work as an artist in a variety of mediums.