PROJECT GOALS. The 2008-2009 school year marked the 7th year of Empire State Partnership between the Arts in Education Institute of Western New York and Kalfas Magnet Elementary School (Niagara Falls City School District.)

For Year 1 of the dissemination phase of ESP this school year, Kalfas Magnet Elementary School partnered with Niagara Street Elementary. The goal of this on-going partnership is "Sharing Best Practices." The work for this dissemination partnership was centered around a visual art unit offered by the Institute entitled, "Stepping Into Art: Jennifer Steinkamp." Both schools  worked with the Institute in extensive professional development and planning sessions to determine how "best practices" can be shared between both schools as they prepare for the arts learning experience together, which included sharing teaching strategies, use of technology, student and teacher work, fostering collaboration, and building community pride. AT the end of the school year, students from both schools were selected and used PhotoStory, a computer program , to document their work in the classroom for this unit of study. Students curated the PhotoStory, selecting work visual and written work from their peers to be used in their story.

Year 2 of the Dissemination project will be focused on the music of Afro-Rican Jazz trombonist William Cepeda. Cepeda created Afro-Rican Jazz, a style of music that stemmed from his diverse background and community, combining African, Puerto Rican, and Caribbean Music. As this music stemmed from Cepeda's community, students will be creating writing pieces connected to places in their community, and creating performance pieces from their writing work. Students from both schools will be involved in the documentation of our project work.

HISTORY OF PARTNERSHIP. The ESP project at Kalfas is the result of enthusiastic participation in the Institute's aesthetic education program during the 2001-2002 school year. While implementing both the magnet theme and a literacy-based reform design, the school leadership encouraged the pursuit of intensive arts integration that would have a long-term impact upon teaching and learning within the school and its community. The ESP project with the Arts in Education Institute of WNY has enabled Kalfas Magnet to expand upon the magnet theme of "Communication" (verbal and non-verbal) and to strengthen curriculum goals, especially in regard to literacy, while supporting the school-based arts specialists.

To date, the ESP teacher participation has included representation from all grade levels (PreK to 6th grade), with emphasis placed upon the early childhood level (Pre-K and Kindergarten). The Institute has provided year-round professional development for participating teachers and teaching artists on such topics as: connecting literacy and the arts, elements of effective partnerships, evaluation and assessment, and complimentary lesson design focused on specific works of art and/or artistic disciplines. In-classroom teaching artist residencies have explored artworks from local, national, and international performing and visual artists within the disciplines of music, dance, theatre, visual arts and architecture.

The 2008 - 2009 school year will focus on the literature based connections found in the theatre works being offered by the Institute:

• "The Boxcar Children"-stage adaptation of the books by Gertrude Chandler Warner, presented by Theatre of Youth.
• "Go Dog. Go!"-stage adaptation of the book by P.D. Eastman, presented by Theatre of Youth.

In addition to theatre, the ESP Dissemination Project will also focus on a music unit of study:

• William Cepeda: Afro-Rican Jazz

"The Arts in Education Institute offers such a diverse body of aesthetic art that even if our school district did have special area classes for the Pre-K level, the students still wouldn't get to have the same kind of experiences. Arts in Education not only gives you performances but allows you to examine and respond to the different art forms in a way that enhances the regular education program. It is process, not product, based education." Diana Guerrucci, Kalfas Magnet Elementary (Pre-K teacher)

Achievements:

• The ESP project between Kalfas Magnet and Arts in Education Institute of WNY was proud to be a part of the ArtWorks for Kids showcase presented at CommonGround 2005 in Buffalo. This event was the result of participation in the Western New York Regional Leadership Network.
• Representatives from the Kalfas ESP team were asked to share best practices with other teachers during the Arts in Education Institute's annual summer professional development event. The presentation was focused on the implementation of an architecture unit of study in early childhood classrooms, and was made by two teachers (Pre-K and K), the ESP architecture teaching-artist, and the ESP coordinator.
• Niagara Falls City School District and the Arts in Education Institute of WNY were recently awarded a three-year U.S. Department of Education grant for arts-in-education to implement discipline-specific arts integration in core curriculum areas to advance student achievement and teaching methods. This model collaboration-"Redefining Texts: Expanding Learning through the Arts"- was enabled by the success of the Empire State Partnership between Kalfas Magnet and the Institute. Kalfas Magnet is one of five schools that will participate in the "Redefining Texts" project.
• Year-round professional development for teachers (ESP Summer Seminar, the Institute's "Summer Session", the Institute's "Action Research in the Arts" workshop) made eligible for credit/hours through the Niagara Falls City School District Teacher Resource Center.
• Participating teacher contributions from summer professional development published in the Institute's Resource Manuals, curriculum guides distributed to teaching artists and teachers regionally.
• Classroom partnerships between teaching artists and Kalfas teachers are used as models for Institute teaching artist training. Planning sessions and classroom residencies are often laboratories for new and innovative practices within arts in education.
• Kalfas planned and designed a whole-school visual arts learning experience, focused upon the expression of community values through abstract sculpture. Under the guidance of an Institute Teaching Artist and the Kalfas Visual Arts instructor, students collaboratively designed a large-scale sculptural work that was installed on school grounds. A field study was conducted at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, where students examined and researched contemporary artists and abstract sculptural artworks. The student-created art installation was unveiled in September 2007 as part of Kalfas' 50th anniversary celebration.
• As a result of year 1 of ESP Dissemination, Kalfas and Niagara Street have begun to develop model of school-wide arts collaboration between their buildings which we intend to disseminate through the Niagara Falls City School District.
• Teachers and students continue to enjoy the benefits of a cross-school arts sharing experience, providing site visits for students to each school, and bringing teachers together from both buildings for professional development opportunities throughout the school year.