PRESIDENT'S GREETING

September 2010-11

Welcome back to 2010-11 school year. Please watch your "snail mail "mailboxes as important MATA info was mailed to you this week. You should receive it by Monday September 13th. I am thrilled to officially begin my stint as president of MATA. Each new school year brings promises and new beginnings. It is my hope to truly lead our organization into the 21st century. You will soon learn that I love all things digital. I think with the current web 2.0 applications that are out there classrooms and artists can connect in ways they never could before. It is my hope as president to host a few workshops that will leave you inspired to try just one or two new technologies that you hadn't known about before.

I have dabbled in a number of web 2.0 applications including flickr, wikis, nings, voicethreads, animoto, blogs and more. I have learned that for every 3 things I know how to use there are about 10 more out there that are slightly different and maybe better or not. I try not to get overwhelmed. Each school year I make up my mind to add 2 or 3 new things to the repetoire of web 2.0 tools I'm already using or to better integrate the ones I already know about. What does this have to do with art and teaching? LOTS!

Just by using the internet and these new tools you could Skype with a nationally renowned artist and bring them into your classroom, literally...or should I say virtually? This summer I experienced Skype for the first time. I attended the Milwaukee Digital Media Conference at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The MDMC was phenomenal. Most of the keynote speakers spoke to us via Skype. We could see them live and they could see us. It was a pretty cool way to interact. I also really starting using Twitter for the first time this summer because of the conference. Being at a conference and having a live Twitter feed with all the conference goers tweets displayed in real time adds another level of interactivity and knowedge entirely. I used to tweet and think who cares what I'm doing, but I learned this summer that Twitter can be a link to educators from around the world. You can ask any question about anything you're trying to do and literally have an answer in just a few minutes. Tweets that enhance your educational knowledge and personal learning network (PLN) are incredibly valuable and go well beyond the tweets that let all your followers know that you just ordered a venti latte! If you want to follow me my Twitter id is: @bellafiore3

I hope you might consider trying even one new technology this year in your art classroom or personal pursuit of art. I have met art educators from all over the world through the Internet and love the knowledge and expertise they've added to my box of teaching tools. I look forward to meeting each of you in person soon. Make sure you save the date, October 14th at 6:30 for our October Meet and Greet at the Ale House. Until then best of luck inspiring your students and making beautiful art.