Now.

Under Construction

Alas, we have been too busy DOING Superflux to blog about Superflux. The situation will be rectified in the near future, most likely.

- The Management

Professional Development Exchange (PDX)

That's the name we've come up with for the events we'll be scheduling this month and next. You give and you get! 

After all, isn't it better to give AND to receive?

Calendars!

Little by little, we're getting people's schedules together in the Superflux calendars. Click on the "All Superflux Calendars" link to see what days in February and March are looking best for the most people. Beginning in a week or two, these are the days we'll try to schedule planning and collaboration sessions.

Welcome to the first full-scale Superflux Collective project

From January 27, 2009 email:

Greetings!

You are receiving this Superflux Collective email because: 1) you are an artist, 2) you are an educator, 3) you are a parent, 4) you are an arts or education or arts-in-education administrator or staff member, or 5) because I just think you are awesome. (If you DO NOT want to continue to receive Superflux Collective updates and info, please reply to this email with a big NO! and I will be sure to take you off the list. Otherwise, you'll keep hearing what the collective is up to, without any obligation to do anything ever.)

If we don't know one another personally, my name is Mike Halverson and I've been active in the NYC arts-in-education community for several years as an administrator, workshop leader, and all-around collaborator. Last November, along with 19 other members of our community, I co-founded the Superflux Collective as an informal assemblage of professional artist and educators with the mission of "providing high-quality, low-cost training and support for teaching and learning in and through the arts both on-site and online for maximum impact and flexibility at minimum cost." Our goal is to connect ourselves and our resources, as directly as possible, with the vast demand we believe teaching and learning in and through the arts can address. The collective now includes roughly 80 participants in New York, California, Colorado, Illinois, Virginia, Texas and Washington, DC.

One week ago, you should have received an email about the first full-scale Superflux Collective project in New York City: a series of half-day, peer professional development (PD) exchanges to be filmed for online broadcast to serve teachers in the NYC school system -- and nationwide -- and to document and disseminate the very best of our work. If you offer PD, if you are looking for PD experiences, or if you have colleagues, friends, or co-workers who offer or want PD in NYC, or if you have important ideas about how PD should be done, this is an excellent -- and free! -- opportunity to give and to receive. Let me know if you want to hear more.

First of all, I want to extend a huge THANK YOU to everyone who responded so quickly to last week's email. Wheels are beginning to turn, and your responses are being factored into plans for scheduling in February and March. If you haven't yet, please send me a brief email with your availability in the next two months for collaborations on weekdays between about 9am and 1pm. A simple list of dates would be great. I want to add that the course descriptions and lesson components I've outlined on the www.superflux.us website (under the heading "SUPPLY," then click on items in the menu ) are not set in stone, but should provide a framework to base these events upon. Maybe you have better ideas, or ways you would adapt these lessons -- wonderful! Let's talk about that. The more collaborative all this is, the better.

For everyone else, if you're interested and available for a few days of collaboration in February and/or March, and you haven't yet replied, please let me know. I don't want to leave anyone out, but I also don't want to annoy you with too many messages. I know you're all extremely busy people.

The best kind of replies I could hope for would be:

- Version One:      "YES! I'm available the following dates: Feb 12, 16, 24, March 9, 19, 23." (For example.)

- Version Two:      "YES! Though I'm not available in February or March, keep me in the loop." (This is also what I'll assume if you don't reply at all. Tricky!)

- Version Three:    "NO! Count me out. Stop emailing me." (I can take it.)

Meanwhile, my very best regards. Please forward this message to anyone I've overlooked, anyone who might be interested, just plain anyone.

I remain your colleague, collaborator, and friend,

Mike Halverson

mike@superflux.us

 

Superflux in February

From January 19 email:

I'm writing to you on a great occasion, and looking forward to another great and momentous occasion tomorrow. And after that, well, that's when the work really begins, doesn't it? I hope you won't mind my inviting you to take part in something I'm committing my next several weeks to.

ONE: THE PROPOSAL

Until now, the Superflux Collective has been about 50% wishful thinking and 50% email exchanges, and sporadic, breathless conversations around brilliant ideas for teacher professional development in arts-in-education. Until now! Last week, after months of writing, editing, and negotiating, I submitted a detailed proposal for an online professional development course in "teaching and learning in and through the arts" to a company called Knowledge Delivery Systems (www.kdsi.org). My proposal draws together the many ideas we've discussed, in a survey of what I want to present as the best arts-ed PD currently offered by our community.

                  For a close look at what I'm offering KDS, take a look at this: http://superflux.us/sflxmenu.html. Click on any lesson description for details of the individual components of each proposed online lesson. You will see that a lot of ground is covered, and that I've incorporated dozens of ideas from people in our community. (Everyone will be credited on KDS.)

TWO: THE PITCH

The curriculum experts at KDS are very excited about what we're offering, and envision a vast online audience reaching deep into public schools and universities nationwide - even internationally. So now is the time to put these lesson plans into action for the video cameras. Are you interested?

                  If you are, this is what I propose: Rather than attempt to coordinate teaching and filming schedules with schools and the DOE, I would like to bring a large group of us together for a few dates to teach each other in front of the KDS camera team. The learners will be our peers from our arts-in-education community, and they will also rotate to teach you these lessons in visual arts, music, movement, theater, multi-discipline, applied arts, technology and arts-in-ed administration. It's a great opportunity to share our work with each other, and to simultaneously put it out there for teachers in schools in the most convenient form possible online.

                  I've worked out a survey schedule that would allow 20 or 30 of us, in small groups, to team-teach two lessons and receive two lessons from each other, all in a single day. I will take care of booking classroom space in Manhattan and Brooklyn to do this four or five times in February. If you could join in the adventure for one day, it would be fantastic. Two days would be double fantastic. Do it as many times as you like!

                  Why? What's in it for you? Well, 1) It's Free! 2) It's a great chance to collaborate with members of our brilliant community! 3) It's a way to learn new skills and methods for your own work in a fun, lively setting! And 4) The final product, the online course, will be available on KDSI.org from anywhere on earth for you to use as a demo of your work, a combination virtual business card and work sample!

THREE: TIME FOR ACTION

So I have just one question: are you interested in doing this? If so, I will ask you to 1) commit to a brief planning meeting in the coming few weeks, and 2) give up a single day (or 4!) in February, from roughly 9am to 1pm, to team-teach a few of the lessons from the list on the Superflux website (that link, above).

                  Please take a moment to send me a simple YES! or NO! regarding February, and then I'll start working on scheduling. (If you can't do this one, trust me, there will be plenty of Superfluxing opportunities in the future.) And if you know anyone else who might like to take part in this project, as an instructor, as a learner, or just to help out, please let me know. The more the merrier!

Signed sincerely your friend,

Mike Halverson

 

 

Mission

The Superflux Collective:

- is an informal assemblage of professional artists and educators providing high-quality, low-cost training and support for teaching and learning in and through the arts.

- provides professional development and training in cutting-edge, arts-based learning for teachers and tutors of all subjects both on-site and online for maximum impact and flexibility at minimum cost.

- creates opportunities for artists and educators to serve learners directly in both on-site and online contexts