EDUCATE OHIO EDUCATORS
Not long after school bells rang across the state signaling summer vacation, 121 teachers from 25 Ohio counties started back to the classroom for two learning and self-enrichment programs sponsored by the Ohio Arts Council.
For a week in June, teachers and administrators participated in The Experience of Writing, a seminar at Wright State University's main campus in Dayton. They completed a writing project and discussed teaching strategies with a nationally-known faculty including poets Christopher Merrill and Nikki Finney, fiction writers Constance Pierce and Frank Dobson and nonfiction writer Nancy Mairs.
A report from the College
Entrance Examination
Board shows that students
who have studied the arts
four or more years
averaged 59 points higher
on the verbal portion of the
SAT exam and 44 points
higher on the math portion.
The institute is a nationally recognized, 10-year old program for Ohio educators who want to learn more about media art and technology to take back to their classrooms. The institute, co-sponsored by the Ohio Arts Council and Ohio University, runs every July on the OU campus. Ohio University offers participating teachers full scholarships toward graduate credit for their work.
Teachers from all corners of the state participate in an intensive, hands-on experience working with digital imaging, video and photographic tools. They learn by doing. Workshop leaders have included Academy Award and Emmy Award nominees and eminent practitioners from across the country. This year, new workshop leaders include Chicago-based filmmaker Yvonne Welbon, who is working on a major documentary about African American women in the cinema, and New York-based Alex Rivera, whose films explore the American immigrant experience from a Latino perspective.
Teachers at The
Experience of Writing look
over some new books.
This newsletter aims to keep Ohio's
decision makers informed about the
work of the state's arts agency.
vWe'd like this to be a two-way
street. If you have comments about
the OAC's involvement in your
District or area of expertise please
send them to Beth Fisher at the
address below. Thanks for reading
The Ohio Arts Council, a state
agency established in 1965, builds
the state through the arts -
economically and culturally -
preserving the past, enhancing the
present and enriching the future for
all Ohioans. The Council believes
the arts should be shared by the
people of Ohio. The arts arise from
public, individual and organizational
efforts. The OAC supports those
efforts.
Ohio Arts Council
727 E. Main Street
Colbumus, OH 43205-1796
614/ 466-2613
