General Program Information
CommonGround is the annual New York State arts-in-education conference that brings over 250 administrators, teachers, teaching artists, and community members together for three days of policy setting, planning, exchange of skills and inspirational speakers. This gathering contributes to fresh curriculum design, school reform and new models for classroom learning.
CommonGround 2009 is sponsored by Partners for Arts Education and the New York State Council on the Arts in collaboration with: New York State Education Department, New York State Alliance for Arts Education, Association of Teaching Artists, BOCES Arts-In-Education Network, and Empire State Partnerships.
Conference Workshops:
See the schedule of workshops here. These are the various "strands" we will use as organizing principles for the conference offerings:
CORE KNOWLEDGE: How does the field of NYS AIE work?
- Where does one go to for resources?
- How do individuals advance & grow?
- Which elements of the field are still confusing?
CURRICULUM and ASSESSMENT: How do we design deep and relevant opportunities for students and adults for sustainable curriculum design?
EDUCATION REFORM: How can education policy and practice transform our global community?
- How do we look beyond the school, district, state to reform and reformers?
- What has been tried? What does success look like? When can something be tried in a new context?
- What are the current larger issues and buzzwords that we must be aware of?
STUDY GROUPS: New this year!
- CommonGround is offering some special topic study sessions in response to needs of the field. These are small group dialogues that delve deeper into workshop topics or gather data from participants for use in future policy reform.
CREATIVE ENGAGEMENT: New this year!
- The last session Thursday is devoted to art making and appreciation. There will be offerings for creating art in all forms as well as an opportunity to tour the State Museum’s exhibits.
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