Blogs & Online Sources

wpengine Leave a Comment Anti-racist, Black Lives Matter, Joni Starr, National Arts Education Association

Over my career as a theatre practitioner and educator, I have heard and also said many times that theatre is a reflection of the human condition. So wow! Now, in this time of civil turmoil...

Rebecca Arndt Leave a Comment COVID-19, MAEIA, Remote Learning

For the last 20 years I have had the pleasure of teaching elementary general music grades K-5. Every year it seems that we are being asked to add more into our instruction even though it may...

Karrie LaFave Leave a Comment dance, Formative Assessment, music, Students, theatre

At this time of COVID 19 and the breakneck speed of shifts to online learning, I want to discuss the use of formative assessment. Michigan uses this definition of formative assessment within its

Karrie LaFave Leave a Comment Colleen Shoup, COVID-19, dance, MAEIA, Remote Learning, Theater, visual arts

“Can we do clay…….Pleeeeease?”  This was a question from one of my 4th grade art students during our first Zoom meeting for Remote Learning-Art.  “Uhhhh, no?” was my response. Unfortunately, when our school district...

Karrie LaFave Leave a Comment dance, music, Online Learning, Online Teaching, Performance Assessment, theatre, visual arts

As stated before, we find ourselves in unprecedented times and with the possibility of adapting your teaching to online platforms, we at MAEIA are here for you. In a previous posting we asked educators to...

Heather Vaughan-Southard Leave a Comment COVID-19, dance, music, Online Learning, Resources, theatre, visual arts

In light of COVID-19 and our commitment to support arts educators and families, the MAEIA social media pages will be ramping up our posts sharing tools and resources to keep kids creating. Find us on

Heather Vaughan-Southard Leave a Comment Adaptation, assessments, dance, MAEIA, music, Online Learning, theatre, visual arts

As we find ourselves in unprecedented times, with the possibility of adapting your teaching to online platforms, we at MAEIA are here for you. Though our assessment catalog is not a bank of lesson plans,...

wpengine Leave a Comment Courageous Creativity, creativity, dance, Joni Starr, MAEIA, music, theatre, visual arts

This is an unprecedented time. Our regular routine has been disrupted, human interactions are minimized and our relationship to the future has been compromised. The question is: Who do you choose to be in response?...

Cathy DePentu Leave a Comment arts education, Cathy DePentu, MAEIA, music

What does that even mean? Does it mean we just have fun all the time? No. Does it mean that we don’t work at what we do? Absolutely not. Does it mean that I...

Holly Olszewski Leave a Comment arts assessment, arts education, assessment, Holly Olszewski, MAEIA, music, Performance Assessment

I hear many complaints about assessment from my colleagues, those in my subject area and others. When I am in a good mood, I try to counter their complaints with “Assessment is great!”, “Assessment helps...