Title
"UNLESS THE MIND CATCH FIRE..."	A keynote Concert of Ideas in musical form designed to inspire and spark thinking
CREATIVITY AND THE NEW STANDARDS	Using creative thinking to interpret and implement the new standards in music education.
AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO THE NEW STANDARDS	How music and art can be a link and a facilitator across the curriculum
A CREATIVE APPROACH TO THE NEW THEATER STANDARDS
INVESTIGATING CREATIVITY & STYLES OF THINKING IN THE CLASSROOM	Knowing your own mind and the minds of your students
ARTS INFUSION LEARNING	Art, music & the sound of ideas across the curriculum
INNER BALANCE	Mind-Body techniques for stress managment & peak performance in the classroom.
ART & SCIENCE  EQUALLY EXPRESSIONS OF THE MIND
OF COLOR AND COURAGE	Role models for life issues: issues & strategies for the classroom teacher
PERFORMANCE MASTER CLASS	Work on your own performance skills share your learning with your students
CREATING SUCCESSFUL "INFORMANCES"

"UNLESS THE MIND CATCH FIRE..."

A Keynote Concert of Ideas to Inspire and Spark Thinking

As we live, we are transmitters of life. - D. H. Lawrence

We are transmitters. Natural transmitters of mysterious transmissions.

Whatever it is we as parents and teachers give or transmit to our children and colleagues, it is far more important than the mastery of subject. It is very much palpable essences of ourselves and our impulses toward growth. We are transmitters of life…or the absence of life. Our choice is clear. - Creative Leaps International

Designed especially for educators, "Unless the Mind Catch Fire..." explores and celebrates themes of creativity, empowerment, and learning by bringing to life (through performance) the ideas of famous poets, writers, and thinkers.  Participants are challenged to seek within themselves their own spiritual and mythic connections to these giants of imagination and personal vision. Led by acclaimed baritone and learning consultant, John J. Cimino, Jr., a team of virtuoso performers sets the stage for a journey of self-transformation: inviting participants one and all to be touched and changed by the empowering experience of art.

  

"Unless the Mind Catch Fire..." was first created for New York State's Educators of the Gifted and Talented.  Since then, it has toured the country in special editions as the keynote component of numerous professional development conferences, including audiences of Fortune 500 executives, IBM mathematicians and physicists, "The Initiative for Better Learning" School Leadership Institute in Orlando, Florida, and the Center for Excellence in Municipal Management (CEMM) in Washington, D.C.

Read a firsthand account of "Unless the Mind Catch Fire" by renowned author and arts education consultant Eric Booth

*For all teachers and administrators

CREATIVITY AND THE NEW STANDARDS

USING CREATIVE THINKING TO INTERPRET AND IMPLEMENT THE NEW STANDARDS IN MUSIC EDUCATION

Working with anything new takes some getting used to.  Engaging our creativity can make that process fun and set the stage for personal mastery and inventiveness.  This session will introduce three forms of creativity- adaptive, innovativeand generative creativity - and help participants identify their preferred style of creativity while extending their comfort level with the differing creative styles of other people.  Participants will then practice applying creative thinking in various forms to the interpretation and implementation of the new standards in music education.  Working creatively within the traditional guidelines (adaptive creativity), working creatively beyond the traditional guidelines (innovative creativity), working creatively to nurture mutually uplifting relationships among the partners in learning (generative creativity) - ll three forms will be explored as inventive pathways into the practical applications of the new standards.  The presentation will include and exciting live  performance by Mr. Cimino and ample opportunity for questions and discussion of best practices.  Above all, participants will be invited to call upon their love of music and teaching and infuse that life energy into their creative planning, their lifelong learning and their work in the classroom.

*For art and music specialists

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO THE NEW STANDARDS

HOW MUSIC AND ART CAN BE A LINK AND A FACILITATOR ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

Interdisciplinary thinking is the art of making connections- the more connections, the more lively, multi-dimensional and meaningful the learning experience.  More that anything else, the new standards are seeking precisely this goal: to deepen and vivify learning by stimulating the mind, imagination and senses at multiple levels and througha variety of modalities.  Music, perhaps more than any other discipline, is bursting with rich cross-disciplinary connections- to math, science, literature, language studies, history, global studies and athletics.  And every well developed connection not only adds dimension to students understanding of music but lights a fire under the appeal of learning in all directions.  This workshop session will help and encourage music teachers to stand center stage within the learning process and envision their links to other subject areas across academic curriculum.  The presentation will include an exciting live performance by Mr. Cimino and ample opportunity for questionsand discussion of est practices.  Above all, participants will be invited to call upon their love of music and teaching and infuse that life energy into their creative planning, their lifelong learning and their work in the classroom.

*For music and art specialists and classroom teachers

A CREATIVE APPROACH TO THE NEW THEATER STANDARDS

This workshop will be in two parts.  The first 30 minutes will explain in depth the benefits of classroom teacher improvisations and will introduce facilitation techniques for music teachers.

Theater improvs will make students more knowledgeable about themselves.  They will learn torytelling, literary criticism and character analysis.  They develop imagination and intuition and learn to concentrate their energies and share what they know.  Offer theater games and improvs in your class and you will be applying and developing all six core standards at once.

The second half of the workshop will introduce ways the music teachers can collaborate with core curriculum teachers to  produce multi media social, historical, political and cultural events in their school.  specific exciting examples of collaborations that have met the content standards will be discussed.

*For music and art Specialists and classroom teachers                 

INVESTIGATING CREATIVITY & STYLES OF THINKING IN THE CLASSROOM

KNOWING YOUR OWN MIND AND THE MINDS OF YOUR STUDENTS

It has been said that the creative leap is a leap of faith, but be assured, itis a well-trained leap of faith.  Innovative artists, scientists and trouble-shooters  cultivate thinking skills which prime them for unique perceptions, original insights and novel solutions.  Sensory doors are opened, judgmentis suspended, scholarship is extended, play and fancy are liberated in flightsof imagination, boundaries are traversed, re-drawn or  dissolved, intuition and experimentation are empowered. INVESTIGATING CREATIVITY & STYLES OF THINKING IN THE CLASSROOM is a highly interactive, invigorating and challenging workshop for anyone interested in creativity and its personal and strategic applications.  Together we explore the creative interplay of perception, imagination, memory and meaning-making as we endeavor to understand the distinctive thinking processes of successful artists, scientists and other original thinkers.  Participants seek to identify their own habits of thinking and perceptual "fences" and explore personallythe unique benefits of thinking across boundaries.  These bonus insights are linked back to our personal skills with visual images and other representations of complex phenomena including music, fractal geometry and poetry.  Interpretation and meaning making are linked as well to or aesthetic sensibilities, our tolerance for ambiguity, surprise and our capacity for self recognition within "the big picture" of our world.  Hands-on/minds-on experiments alternate with practical applications for the professional workplace and some genuine surprises from the arts and sciences.

*For all teachers and administrators

ARTS INFUSION LEARNING

ART, MUSIC & THE SOUND OF IDEAS ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

Designed for academic specialists, grade level teachers and art teachers, Arts Infusion Learning immerses participants in learning experiences born of the arts but innovatively applied straight across the disciplines.  How does an educator hook into thearts for enhancement of teaching and presentational style?  What precisely do "non-artist" professionals need to know to collaborate successfully with their artistic colleagues?  This Arts Infusion Learning workshop elaborates on the strategies and techniques documented in the

Kennedy Center's report on "The Power of the Arts to Transform Education" as researched and implemented through more than 20 years of fieldwork by the educational practitioners of Associated Solo Artists, Inc.'s own The Learning Arts division.  How do the learning modalities of the arts increase a person's grasp of concepts rooted in other disciplines?  What is the "bonus of insight" that comes from the "double description" approach of interdisciplinary learning?  What are the learnings unique to the arts which nurture people most profoundly and essentially?  How can one take best advantage ofthe motivational benefits of arts infusion?  Dozens of lively practical applications connecting musical ideas and activities to concepts in science, visual arts, literature, mythology, creativity, problem solving and cultural history are brought to life via "live" performances, participatory experiments and demonstrationsand a candid discussion of the challenges of integrative planning with teaching colleagues from other disciplines.

*For academic specialist, grade  level teachers and art teachers

INNER BALANCE

MIND-BODY TECHNIQUES FOR STRESS MANAGEMENT AND PEAK PERFORMANCE IN THE CLASSROOM

This special edition of Inner Balance introduces teachers of all grade levels to an array of innovative techniques for managing stress and achieving peak performance in the classroom and out of the classroom.  Participants are provided friendly, accessible training aimed at greater understanding of the mind-body connection, specifically the physical and emotional factors whose interplay most influence our self-esteem, strength, focus and decision making as well as our inner sense of power, our stress levels and overall feeling of balance.  Activities begin with exercises to improve personal and interpersonal awareness, and then also communicationaland relational skills.  Participants explore kinesthetically the increased powers of focus and observation which accompany a state of deep relaxation.  (This state is immediately recognizable as nourishing and balancingand a condition too infrequently encountered in the daily routine.  Using practical and uniquely simple techniques, participants learn how the desired energy-enhancing, mind-clearing state can be created anywhere at any time.)  Body alignment, deep breathing, visualization, an introduction to Alexander technique and Ideal Performance State Training, improvisation and other theater techniques also comprise the Inner Balance journey.  Very importantly, teachers will also learn how to pass stress management skills to their students to improve students' personal well being and success in the classroom.  An open discussionof lifelong health, wellness and personal aspirations bring Inner Balance to conclusion and set the tone for continued renewal.

*For all teachers and administrators

ART & SCIENCE  EQUALLY

EXPRESSIONS OF THE MIND

"Man is unique not because he does science and not because he does art, but because art and science equally are expressions of his mind." (Jacob Bronowski)  This edition of Art and Science Equally, designed specifically for science and math teachers, explores the reach and power of science, the essence of mathematical thinking, interdisciplinarity, arts integration, multiple intelligences, working with non-technically trained colleagues across the disciplines, the teacher as leader, role model and lead learner, and rekindling motivation in oneself and others.  "Physics is sound thinking."  The meaning is famously clear.  "Music is sound thinking."  The meanings are beguiling and several.  This workshop opens with elegant statements of music and equally elegant statements of physics, and seeks to discover what is true of both.  What does it mean "to explain something?"  We hear what physics has to say about music and what music have to say about physics.  We also take a moment to reconsider what each of these disciplines has to say about the world we live in.  Presenters Cimino and Albagli, both accomplished musician-scientists and educators, lead a guided tour through the disciplines along paths less traveled exploring the meanings which art and science equally create and express.  Inventions for the musical imagination are juxtaposed with thought experiments from the scientists' notebooks and the words and works of Pythagoras, Kepler, Galileo,

Newton and Einstein.  A "Concert Harvest of Ideas" rounds out the workshop with all the participants contributing their insights and perspectives as theme and variation within an imaginative musical framework mounted by the presenters.

*For math and science teachers

OF COLOR AND COURAGE

ROLE MODELS FOR LIFE ISSUES: ISSUES & STRATEGIES FOR THE CLASSROOM TEACHER

In ethnically diverse communities, issues of race and learning strategies which answer special needs must often take center stage in our classrooms.  Of Color and Courage takes an enlightened, compassionate look at the "real life" needs of African American students and what you can do to make a difference in your classroom.  The accent is on "whole-life skills" - those skills which vitally undergird our sense of self, our aspirations, motivations, our sense of the future and the importance and meaning we attach to our educations.  Certainly, every teacher tries to nurture these skills in her students, but for some students, these skills mark the difference between a life of purpose and a life of despair.  Of Color and Courage opens with stories of persons of color who have made great contributions to society - individuals past and present whose ideas, dreams and aspirations continue to affect our everyday lives.  These role models in turn open the door to questions which challenge us all as educators and as a society.. Live performance, discussion, working groups on practical issues in the classroom, and an award winning PBS video "The Musical Legacy of Roland Hayes"  hosted by Avery Brooks and workshop presenter Paul Spencer Adkins, a rising star of his own generation, a documentary producer, educator and opera singer.

*For all teachers and administrators

PERFORMANCE MASTER CLASS

WORK ON YOUR OWN PERFORMANCE SKILLS; SHARE YOUR LEARNING WITH YOUR STUDENTS

Take some time for yourself as an artist and performer.  Review and renew what you know about bringing music to life through your own performance.  This is a user friendly, non-competitive master class for teachers of music and singing.  Bring in some music to work on (classical, theatrical. Broadway, pop).  Discover the sense of dynamism in every moment of every song.  Develop performance techniques that will move your audiences and re-awaken your students to the joy of making music.  Designed for success at any performance level - beginners to pro.  This workshop has proven to be an invaluable tool for teachers to learn practices which foster self-esteem, focus and creativity while improving performance and presentational skills - techniques which cross any discipline and continue throughout one's learning life.

*For music teachers

CREATING SUCCESSFUL "INFORMANCES"

More than any other performance format, the "informance" has proven itself the key to effective artist residencies in schools and communities across the USA.  Invented by Affiliate Artists, Inc.  more than two decades ago, the "informance" is a friendly mixture of  performance and conversation ideal for bringing performers, students and new comers to the arts closer together.  The creative development of a successful personal "informance" by any performer (vocalist, instrumentalist, actor or dancer) is a process which marries artistry with self knowledge and people skills.  Presenter Paul Spencer Adkins, principal tenor of Associated Solo Artists and a former Affiliate Artist himself, is a master teacher of informance techniques at several leading universities.  Mr. Adkins will demonstrate the artform, discuss training in informance techniques for young performers and offer guidance to performer-teachers wishing to acquire and polish their valuable skills.

*For art and music specialists