NOTE for [Arts Editor, the Canberra Times] Helen Musa: I'm sending two pieces. A short piece (275 words) which I think could be used on the Arts page and a longer piece (485 words) which seems better on the Education page. On the other hand you can use some of each if you like and as you like. They want bookings made by February 28, which is probably too soon for publication(?), but I would still include the phone numbers anyway.
Some extra points, in case you need them for your speech:
The conference theme is aimed not just at "breaking down the barriers", but at breaking down (deconstructing, I think) the concept of cultural constructs, and coming to understand different cultural constructions through the arts.
Have they sent you the green sheet with the program on it? It's got terrible typos in it - claimed to be the result of a Level 1 teacher typing it overload.
The major purpose of the workshops is motivational, based on research (according to Phil) which shows a) arts teachers need constant renewal, mostly so that they don't feel so alone; b) arts teachers need opportunities to be artists - to make art, at whatever level, so they have the confidence to work directly with their students.
Another benefit of the workshops is that specialist teachers who are mainly in high schools and colleges are presenting workshops which will include a large proportion of primary teachers as participants, and it is hoped that communication between the sectors will be enhanced.
THEATRE BY FRANK MCKONE
artstart '97 is a program of speakers, workshops and performances presented by ACTATA - the ACT Arts Teachers Association. This year begins with The Arts Bites Back, Friday March 7, 1997, 4.30 - 7.30 pm at the Australian National Gallery and Saturday March 8, all day, at the O'Connell Centre, Griffith.
The keynote speakers are the Arts Editor of The Canberra Times, Helen Musa; Indigenous Arts Liaison Officer, Rob Russell; community theatre director Dominic Mico; and script writer Graham Pitt. This diverse set of speakers will set the scene on Friday night for teachers to put themselves through their artistic paces on Saturday.
The essence of the program is in the theme: Towards a Diverse Cultural Understanding. Workshops cover anything from African dance, studio media production, music in the primary classroom, through to curriculum course writing - bring your own disk!
Performances are by Sabrina Kabibi (African Soukousse dance), The Jigsaw Company (Intaglio), Caroline Chisholm High School (Body Bags), ACT Drama Association (Neither Here Nor There), Southern Aurora Jazz Band and, to celebrate International Women's Day, the Australian Education Union Women's Choir.
Many teachers want to be able to put the arts into their classroom programs and here is the way to begin, by participating, experiencing, appreciating and understanding. It's a packed program with lots of choices, but this will be the first in a series which ACTATA will provide in their professional development program for teachers across the arts and from pre-school to college.
ACTATA is a new cross-arts body, so there will also be the first ACTATA AGM - and a dinner if you book in fast. Ring Phil Hopkins on 205 7676 or Naomi Nicholson on 205 6125.
__________________________________________________________________
EDUCATION BY FRANK MCKONE
There is an old myth, perpetuated by George Bernard Shaw, who should have known better, that those who can, do and those who can't, teach. Arts teachers in Canberra are organising their professional development to debunk this too common view.
artstart '97: The Arts Bites Back is an evening of keynote speakers, on Friday March 7, followed by a full Saturday of workshops and performances designed to help any teacher - from pre-school to college - learn arts skills which they can pass on in the classroom. The program is centred on the understanding that a teacher in the arts needs to be a maker of art: you can't teach without doing.
Of course, professional development can't happen without money. artstart '97 is the program of a quite new body, ACTATA - ACT Arts Teachers Association. The Drama, Music, Visual Art, Media, and Dance professional associations have joined with the Canberra Cultural Centre, the Australian Catholic University's Arts Factory and NAAE (National Affiliation of Arts Educators) based at University of Canberra and have successfully bid for funds from the National Professional Development Program.
Earlier in the 1990's the Federal Government's enquiry into the status of teaching reported that, though teachers provided most of their own professional development through their own associations, teacher-leaders were not rewarded with credentials or remuneration. New arrangements were made for the ACT Department of Education to channel funding, made available through the University of Canberra, through to the teacher associations.
The present Federal Government has cut the National PD Program in its previous form, but a reincarnation is possible through another new body which is in the process of birthing: each state and territory will have a Council of Professional Associations of teachers (covering all curriculum areas) and funds will be channelled through this body.
The Arts Bites Back, using funds handed over last year, has the theme Towards a Diverse Cultural Understanding, even though governments seem to favour centralisation and hierarchy. Yet it is also true according to Phil Hopkins (previously Curriculum Executive Officer for the Arts and now teaching at Lanyon High School) that teachers from the different arts areas have come to appreciate the cross-flow of ideas and experiences in ACTATA - and perhaps the Council of Professional Associations will also become an effective co-operative body. In the interim, the ACT no longer has an arts curriculum officer despite the fact that the arts is one of the key learning areas.
Hopefully the new system can be working by the time last year's money runs out - and, hopefully, this government will provide enough funding for the Council to avoid becoming the centre of bitter conflict between different subject areas.
In the meantime, teachers should book to "Heart Start Your Year with Artstart" by ringing Phil Hopkins on 205 7676 or Naomi Nicholson on 205 6125. Registration is $20, which includes all catering for Friday evening and Saturday.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Tuesday, 25 February 1997
Sunday, 23 February 1997
1997: The Shoe-Horn Sonata by John Misto
The Shoe-Horn Sonata by John Misto. Reading directed by Eulea Kiraly. The Company at Currong Theatre, Sunday February 23, 1997.
The Company began this year's monthly Sunday readings (book on 247 1561) with excellent performances in heat and humidity so bad that everyone agreed to Phil McKenzie's motion that the second half be played outdoors. Though this meant I sat on a rock, both Pat Hutchinson and Helen Vaughan-Roberts maintained my focus. Last year's high standards are clearly established again for 1997.
Why hold readings? Eulea Kiraly explained there are reasons anew each month. Hers was to test this script, winner of the 1995 Australia Remembers National Play Competition, with the intention of full production next year.
The author's reason for writing the play is a justification for production: "In 1995 the United Nations announced that more civilians now die in war than soldiers. Yet they have no equivalent of Anzac Day on which their suffering is recognised. They are simply forgotten....Although the characters of [Australian nurse] Bridie and [English schoolgirl] Sheila are fictional, every incident they describe is true and occurred between 1942 [when they were captured off Singapore] and 1995 [when they met again after 50 years to be interviewed on television]." Their story is horrific and poignant: an indictment of the stupidity of war.
Unfortunately because, I suggest, the TV documentary interviewer provides no critical analysis, all we hear is one side of the history and the play seems to gratuitously reinforce anti-Japanese attitudes. I am sure this was not John Misto's intention, but this is the effect: the script needs more work to put the women's experiences into another context, not to undermine the truth or impact of their story, but to give it greater credence.
I think the journalist making the documentary needs to become more than a male voice-over: perhaps a modern woman making her decisions about how to present these women's war-time experiences and their inevitably biassed attitudes. In their personal relationship, the war finally ends after 50 years of misunderstanding. This idea has to be made a clear symbol for people of all nations to respond to. This for me is the challenge in presenting a full production of The Shoe-Horn Sonata.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
The Company began this year's monthly Sunday readings (book on 247 1561) with excellent performances in heat and humidity so bad that everyone agreed to Phil McKenzie's motion that the second half be played outdoors. Though this meant I sat on a rock, both Pat Hutchinson and Helen Vaughan-Roberts maintained my focus. Last year's high standards are clearly established again for 1997.
Why hold readings? Eulea Kiraly explained there are reasons anew each month. Hers was to test this script, winner of the 1995 Australia Remembers National Play Competition, with the intention of full production next year.
The author's reason for writing the play is a justification for production: "In 1995 the United Nations announced that more civilians now die in war than soldiers. Yet they have no equivalent of Anzac Day on which their suffering is recognised. They are simply forgotten....Although the characters of [Australian nurse] Bridie and [English schoolgirl] Sheila are fictional, every incident they describe is true and occurred between 1942 [when they were captured off Singapore] and 1995 [when they met again after 50 years to be interviewed on television]." Their story is horrific and poignant: an indictment of the stupidity of war.
Unfortunately because, I suggest, the TV documentary interviewer provides no critical analysis, all we hear is one side of the history and the play seems to gratuitously reinforce anti-Japanese attitudes. I am sure this was not John Misto's intention, but this is the effect: the script needs more work to put the women's experiences into another context, not to undermine the truth or impact of their story, but to give it greater credence.
I think the journalist making the documentary needs to become more than a male voice-over: perhaps a modern woman making her decisions about how to present these women's war-time experiences and their inevitably biassed attitudes. In their personal relationship, the war finally ends after 50 years of misunderstanding. This idea has to be made a clear symbol for people of all nations to respond to. This for me is the challenge in presenting a full production of The Shoe-Horn Sonata.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Saturday, 8 February 1997
1997: The Tempest by William Shakespeare on Aspen Island
The Tempest on Aspen Island. Directed by Nicholas Bolonkin. February 7 to March 1, 1997, Tuesdays to Sundays 8 pm.
National Summer Shakespeare presentations are an established ritual, and deservedly so. The Tempest, stylistically a conventional production, gains much and loses a little from being performed on Aspen Island. It's strength is the accuracy of the language - accessible Shakespeare in which the sense of every speech is clear.
The spirit world of the island became manifest when the opening storm scene blew up gusty breezes in the trees and Prospero's star appeared as a spectacular meteor over the lake. Each night will be different as far as these natural portents go, but the Carillon tower is an impressive cell for Prospero and cyclorama for lighting effects.
The production is quite spare, focussing on the text and the plot. For my taste, there could have been much more movement, particularly when Prospero recounts the background story to Miranda. I found myself looking for a larger, more magical Prospero to show his power over the whole island. However, as the action moved around the audience, the story began to tell itself and we were drawn in.
Acoustics are problematical, usually because, with the audience in the centre and the action alternating from one side to the other, someone on the edge as I was could find the more distant voices hard to hear. My thought would be to place the audience in four groups so that action could surround them or could take place in the centre for scenes where the words needed to be clearly distinguishable.
Ian Macdonald's music - some Purcell, Dr Arne and his own compositions - and the surround sound effects made the atmosphere come alive, with some nice singing from the spirits. Kate Early's Ariel held together what otherwise can be scattered scenes: her relationship with Prospero was strong and her singing, recorder playing and quality of movement kept up our interest in the character.
There was a relaxed warmth in the air on opening night. I see The Tempest as a worthwhile community event, connecting people from the university and theatre scenes, with an audience looking to renew their acquaintance with an old friend - Shakespeare.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
National Summer Shakespeare presentations are an established ritual, and deservedly so. The Tempest, stylistically a conventional production, gains much and loses a little from being performed on Aspen Island. It's strength is the accuracy of the language - accessible Shakespeare in which the sense of every speech is clear.
The spirit world of the island became manifest when the opening storm scene blew up gusty breezes in the trees and Prospero's star appeared as a spectacular meteor over the lake. Each night will be different as far as these natural portents go, but the Carillon tower is an impressive cell for Prospero and cyclorama for lighting effects.
The production is quite spare, focussing on the text and the plot. For my taste, there could have been much more movement, particularly when Prospero recounts the background story to Miranda. I found myself looking for a larger, more magical Prospero to show his power over the whole island. However, as the action moved around the audience, the story began to tell itself and we were drawn in.
Acoustics are problematical, usually because, with the audience in the centre and the action alternating from one side to the other, someone on the edge as I was could find the more distant voices hard to hear. My thought would be to place the audience in four groups so that action could surround them or could take place in the centre for scenes where the words needed to be clearly distinguishable.
Ian Macdonald's music - some Purcell, Dr Arne and his own compositions - and the surround sound effects made the atmosphere come alive, with some nice singing from the spirits. Kate Early's Ariel held together what otherwise can be scattered scenes: her relationship with Prospero was strong and her singing, recorder playing and quality of movement kept up our interest in the character.
There was a relaxed warmth in the air on opening night. I see The Tempest as a worthwhile community event, connecting people from the university and theatre scenes, with an audience looking to renew their acquaintance with an old friend - Shakespeare.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Friday, 7 February 1997
1997: Tony Delarte - Alive at The School of Arts Cafe
Tony Delarte - Alive at The School of Arts Cafe, Queanbeyan. February 6, 7 and 8, 1997. Professional Cabaret.
"If it's de-lightful, if it's de-lovely, it's delarte" says this "sophisticated, sensuous, unassuming megastar" direct from the Purple Pussycat Lounge, Las Vegas - if you can believe it.
Tony Delarte is an interesting character, probably a cousin of Frank Sinatra, even down to the Ol' Blue Eyes, except that he admits to the influence of his Mafioso family. This explains why his technical assistant "accidentally" fell out of his Lear Jet after not doing so good at the Pussycat - and why therefore his (real) assistant had not rehearsed the tape cues. In truth this was the only weakness of the show, though Tony used improvised ironic patter to cover up pretty well.
Patter and banter and direct participation with audience members made what I had feared might have been a simply nostalgic cabaret night into an enjoyable evening of parody. Delarte's turned down mouth and hooded eyes, presented in crafty profile, created a Sinatra-like character with that horribly smooth style and a voice almost as rounded and certainly with the characteristic tonal quality of the godfather of cabaret.
We found ourselves tracing a musical miscellany from songs like "I've got you under my skin" (a little lumpy), through Paul Anka (the Shakespeare of pop music); a rap about rap called "C-rap"; techno gym workout music with accompanying video of Succulente and Slab and a doll to work out with that you can eat afterwards; bar blues so sad that, Delarte claimed, a patron threatened suicide at the toilets out back during interval; Phantom of the Opera in strictly nightclub style; singing along with his cousin Louise Ciccone (Madonna - another family success story) doing her pop thing with Don't Cry for Me, Argentina; and ending with the love theme from Strictly Ballroom, Love is in the Air. And much more.
The food is good, the entertainment great - a hot night in Queanbeyan, the cultural centre of the South East. Or as Delarte's version of Sinatra sings: "New York, New York - just like Queanbeyan - the city that never sleeps. That's where I wanna be."
© Frank McKone, Canberra
"If it's de-lightful, if it's de-lovely, it's delarte" says this "sophisticated, sensuous, unassuming megastar" direct from the Purple Pussycat Lounge, Las Vegas - if you can believe it.
Tony Delarte is an interesting character, probably a cousin of Frank Sinatra, even down to the Ol' Blue Eyes, except that he admits to the influence of his Mafioso family. This explains why his technical assistant "accidentally" fell out of his Lear Jet after not doing so good at the Pussycat - and why therefore his (real) assistant had not rehearsed the tape cues. In truth this was the only weakness of the show, though Tony used improvised ironic patter to cover up pretty well.
Patter and banter and direct participation with audience members made what I had feared might have been a simply nostalgic cabaret night into an enjoyable evening of parody. Delarte's turned down mouth and hooded eyes, presented in crafty profile, created a Sinatra-like character with that horribly smooth style and a voice almost as rounded and certainly with the characteristic tonal quality of the godfather of cabaret.
We found ourselves tracing a musical miscellany from songs like "I've got you under my skin" (a little lumpy), through Paul Anka (the Shakespeare of pop music); a rap about rap called "C-rap"; techno gym workout music with accompanying video of Succulente and Slab and a doll to work out with that you can eat afterwards; bar blues so sad that, Delarte claimed, a patron threatened suicide at the toilets out back during interval; Phantom of the Opera in strictly nightclub style; singing along with his cousin Louise Ciccone (Madonna - another family success story) doing her pop thing with Don't Cry for Me, Argentina; and ending with the love theme from Strictly Ballroom, Love is in the Air. And much more.
The food is good, the entertainment great - a hot night in Queanbeyan, the cultural centre of the South East. Or as Delarte's version of Sinatra sings: "New York, New York - just like Queanbeyan - the city that never sleeps. That's where I wanna be."
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Monday, 3 February 1997
1997: Education feature article on Using Your Brain, inservice conference for teachers
EDUCATION BY FRANK MCKONE
[For further information see http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-howard-gardner-interview . Link added 22 September 2015]
When Hawker Brownlow, education publishers, advertised a conference in the second last week of January, during peak Australian beach time, they thought perhaps 300 teachers would attend. But from across Australia, New Zealand and further afield, some 800 people found $400 a more than worthwhile investment, including a dozen from the ACT. Here was a summer school par excellence: with Professor Howard Gardner from the Harvard Graduate School of Education the main presenter, who would not forego three days of sun and sand?
Titled Using Your Brain, this conference at the World Congress Centre, Melbourne, was important not simply because innovative ideas about teaching were given philosophical support, and certainly not as a self-congratulatory talk-fest. Here, at last, real information was presented which scientifically backs the creative approaches which teachers in Australia and Canberra in particular have been experimenting with, developing and improving for more than 20 years.
Professor Gardner told his research story, backed by detailed sessions on teaching practice from already locally known American authors Dr David Lazear (Seven Pathways of Learning) and Dr Robin Fogarty (Blueprints for Thinking in the Co-operative Classroom), as well as widely respected Australian consultants Dr Julia Atkin and Dr John Baird.
The story begins in Paris, 1900, but you won't see it at the National Gallery. A psychologist, Alfred Binet, was asked to "devise some kind of a measure that would predict which youngsters would succeed and which would fail in the primary grades of Paris schools." For nearly a century since then we have lived with the IQ (Intelligence Quotient), which depends on the idea that people's different types of abilities are aspects of just one thing: General Intelligence (g), and convenient tests can be made up to measure 'g' with the average set at 100. People's results can range from very low (below 60 IQ) to occasional prodigies (above 200 IQ).
However, in 1983, after 4 years' research, Gardner published Frames of Mind and introduced the theory of multiple intelligences. He discovered by studying gifted children and brain-damaged people that people's different types of abilities could not be added together and averaged to make 'g'. 80 years after Binet, neurological studies of the brain showed probably seven different "intelligences", only two of which were measured by the standard IQ tests. Each intelligence is distinct, with its own centre in the brain. Some people are good in all seven areas, but each of us has our own personal profile which makes us different from the next person.
Pencil and paper IQ tests only measure Verbal-Linguistic and Logical-Mathematical intelligences. Some others can measure Visual-Spatial intelligence. But the 'g' approach ignored the Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Musical-Rhythmic and Bodily-Kinaesthetic intelligences. As a consequence, our education systems in the western world valued only those areas which could be measured, while the rest have been vilified as Mickey Mouse.
The Multiple Intelligence theory is scientifically derived from neurological studies. More recent techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) support Gardner's theory more strongly today than 15 years ago, and it seems that there may be two more intelligences yet to be revealed - Naturalist and Existential - though claims for these have yet to be thoroughly researched.
Australian teachers have long been suspicious of 'g'. Cook Primary School, with Judy Perry at the helm, has made a special project of teaching through multiple intelligences. Dr Baird's Melbourne-based Project for Enhancing Effective Learning has been widely successful in Scandinavia. Dr Julia Atkin, from Harden - only a short distance from Canberra - works in schools throughout Australia demonstrating her highly practical, how-to-do-it application of learning and thinking theory.
Thanks to this conference, teachers can teach and assess their students' learning not just on tests of the old kind, but by using visual materials; activities like drama, dance, music and song; group interaction activities (interpersonal intelligence); and especially "processfolios". These are collections of activities which students present which reveal the process and progress of their learning in any subject area. Students enhance their intrapersonal intelligence as they publicly reflect on their folios, reassessing their strengths and weaknesses. This is called "metacognition" - thinking about one's own thinking. Where conventional tests, through fear of failure, often cause people's thinking to shut down and rely on simple memorising, processfolios cause people's thinking to open up and expand - and so they learn much more, and more quickly.
Gardner talks of "education for understanding" (not going to school just to get a higher score). If the IQ represents the 20th Century, then multiple intelligences (MI) is the educational stuff of the 21st.
(Note [sent with submission to The Canberra Times]: Photos of the ACT contingent were taken by Irene Lind, Principal, Lyneham Primary School)
© Frank McKone, Canberra
[For further information see http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-howard-gardner-interview . Link added 22 September 2015]
When Hawker Brownlow, education publishers, advertised a conference in the second last week of January, during peak Australian beach time, they thought perhaps 300 teachers would attend. But from across Australia, New Zealand and further afield, some 800 people found $400 a more than worthwhile investment, including a dozen from the ACT. Here was a summer school par excellence: with Professor Howard Gardner from the Harvard Graduate School of Education the main presenter, who would not forego three days of sun and sand?
Titled Using Your Brain, this conference at the World Congress Centre, Melbourne, was important not simply because innovative ideas about teaching were given philosophical support, and certainly not as a self-congratulatory talk-fest. Here, at last, real information was presented which scientifically backs the creative approaches which teachers in Australia and Canberra in particular have been experimenting with, developing and improving for more than 20 years.
Professor Gardner told his research story, backed by detailed sessions on teaching practice from already locally known American authors Dr David Lazear (Seven Pathways of Learning) and Dr Robin Fogarty (Blueprints for Thinking in the Co-operative Classroom), as well as widely respected Australian consultants Dr Julia Atkin and Dr John Baird.
The story begins in Paris, 1900, but you won't see it at the National Gallery. A psychologist, Alfred Binet, was asked to "devise some kind of a measure that would predict which youngsters would succeed and which would fail in the primary grades of Paris schools." For nearly a century since then we have lived with the IQ (Intelligence Quotient), which depends on the idea that people's different types of abilities are aspects of just one thing: General Intelligence (g), and convenient tests can be made up to measure 'g' with the average set at 100. People's results can range from very low (below 60 IQ) to occasional prodigies (above 200 IQ).
However, in 1983, after 4 years' research, Gardner published Frames of Mind and introduced the theory of multiple intelligences. He discovered by studying gifted children and brain-damaged people that people's different types of abilities could not be added together and averaged to make 'g'. 80 years after Binet, neurological studies of the brain showed probably seven different "intelligences", only two of which were measured by the standard IQ tests. Each intelligence is distinct, with its own centre in the brain. Some people are good in all seven areas, but each of us has our own personal profile which makes us different from the next person.
Pencil and paper IQ tests only measure Verbal-Linguistic and Logical-Mathematical intelligences. Some others can measure Visual-Spatial intelligence. But the 'g' approach ignored the Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Musical-Rhythmic and Bodily-Kinaesthetic intelligences. As a consequence, our education systems in the western world valued only those areas which could be measured, while the rest have been vilified as Mickey Mouse.
The Multiple Intelligence theory is scientifically derived from neurological studies. More recent techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) support Gardner's theory more strongly today than 15 years ago, and it seems that there may be two more intelligences yet to be revealed - Naturalist and Existential - though claims for these have yet to be thoroughly researched.
Australian teachers have long been suspicious of 'g'. Cook Primary School, with Judy Perry at the helm, has made a special project of teaching through multiple intelligences. Dr Baird's Melbourne-based Project for Enhancing Effective Learning has been widely successful in Scandinavia. Dr Julia Atkin, from Harden - only a short distance from Canberra - works in schools throughout Australia demonstrating her highly practical, how-to-do-it application of learning and thinking theory.
Thanks to this conference, teachers can teach and assess their students' learning not just on tests of the old kind, but by using visual materials; activities like drama, dance, music and song; group interaction activities (interpersonal intelligence); and especially "processfolios". These are collections of activities which students present which reveal the process and progress of their learning in any subject area. Students enhance their intrapersonal intelligence as they publicly reflect on their folios, reassessing their strengths and weaknesses. This is called "metacognition" - thinking about one's own thinking. Where conventional tests, through fear of failure, often cause people's thinking to shut down and rely on simple memorising, processfolios cause people's thinking to open up and expand - and so they learn much more, and more quickly.
Gardner talks of "education for understanding" (not going to school just to get a higher score). If the IQ represents the 20th Century, then multiple intelligences (MI) is the educational stuff of the 21st.
(Note [sent with submission to The Canberra Times]: Photos of the ACT contingent were taken by Irene Lind, Principal, Lyneham Primary School)
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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