Greetings From DoDDS-E Visual
And Performing Arts Coordinator

Eric Measells

In the fall EMEA Journal I presented our Visual and Performing Arts Community Strategic Plan for the year. We have had successes and we continue to have challenges. As I have visited several schools and met with arts teachers, the dedication, hard work, and talent of our colleagues energizes me. We should continue to be proud of what our arts teachers are doing for students in spite of the challenges we confront daily.

Evidence of Increased Student Achievement has been noted with the displaying of student work - whether visual or performance-based - at conferences and in communities. However, we need to blow our own horns (pun intended) more by showing a wider audience what our arts students do. Our DoDDS-E events are representative of all our schools, but we need to look at the application process to insure that more students are motivated to participate. We gathered data on student participation in high school arts classes and found that 62% of students are in arts classes. Of that, 33% are in music classes including over 4600 students with instruments in their hands. But, lower PTR and full day kindergarten are placing challenges on contact time for music and art instruction in the elementary schools.

Our goals to insure that every school had the adopted curriculum materials has met with some success in that a comprehensive list of missing materials is in the hands of the departments that can do something about it...fingers crossed. Technology in the arts still remains a challenge. Identifying software that will allow us to meet the standards; finding hardware and the operating system that will support our needs; incorporating support; and providing training are big challenges for our team.

I could fill the page with our woes of trying to provide adequate and appropriate professional development for arts teachers. Budgets and professional development days for this year were set last year before my position was established. An additional 33% cut in our DoDDS-E budget has been a painful addendum to the problem. We continue to seek information on teacher needs and ways of presenting training to meet those needs.

Our partnership building has been great. EMEA has been a great resource for us, and with continued communication, the partnership will continue to grow. Colleagues from other departments in the DoDDS-Europe offices go out of their way to support the arts at conferences, events, and media publications. The publication of teacher names and schools has opened communications among our arts community. We still plan to establish a cadre of teacher leaders to provide input on arts events, training, and materials needs.

Many of you have asked me if I am enjoying being in this seat. I enjoy a challenge, and this position is rich with challenges. What I enjoy most is successfully meeting a challenge. We have a long way to go, but with the support of lovers of music and dedicated music educators like you who make up EMEA, we can provide a quality program for all students. We can make a difference.