CLEVELAND EDUCATORS HONORED

Cleveland Opera on Tour baritone Brian Johnson and Clevland Municipal Elementary School students in the opening scene of The Barber of Seville.

Young Audiences of Greater Cleveland (YAGC) recently selected two Cleveland area educators as recipients of the 2003 Arts Educator Awards. The Arts Educator Awards celebrate educators from all disciplines who use the arts in their classrooms to enrich education. The goal of the awards is to celebrate, promote and advocate for the arts in schools.

Amy Fishbach, director of primary art education at the Agnon School in Beachwood, received the Primary School Arts Educator Award. Since 1993, Fishbach has taken her students beyond the study of art to determine their own artistic style and voice, putting the child at the center of the learning process. She also has paired art lessons with other core subjects in many innovative ways, including a lesson using the work of Russian abstract painter, Wassily Kandinsky, to explain mathematical concepts.

Judith Ryder, director of Cleveland Opera on Tour, received the Arts Educator Champion Award. Under Ryder's leadership, Cleveland Opera on Tour has used opera as an effective tool to enhance the learning experience. Through this education and community outreach program, children create and produce original or famous operas and integrate the process into the core curriculum. For example, the Barber of Seville is used as a catalyst for examining the culture, history and language of Spain. (con't page 3)

READING ROAD TRIP PLANNED FOR OHIO STUDENTS

The Ohio Arts Council is partnering with Dayton's ThinkTV, the Mazer Corporation and WCET/Cincinnati to develop an innovative multimedia program to engage and stimulate young readers while building literacy skills. With a generous funding award of $750,000 from the Ohio Educational Telecommunications Network, The Ohio Reading Road Trip will include print, video, DVD, Internet and broadcast resources designed to help students improve reading skills by sparking their interest in reading.

The Ohio Reading Road Trip will be an interactive language arts program targeted specifically to the learning needs of 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. The program targets this age group because research has shown that learning motivation declines in the middle school years. As students face the physical, social and emotional changes associated with adolescence, their enthusiasm for school often wanes. (con't page 3)

Opera Companies Join Forces To Survive Tough Economic Climate CATCO Restructuring: Collaborating with CAPA Nearly Half of Americans Volunteer