Edutopia - October/November 2008 - (Page 21)

such as animal trainers, to demystify opera. Now that the price for “cheap seats” at the opera theater box of⇒ce have been lowered to $15, opera doesn’t cost much more than a movie like Shrek. Stepping Up to the Plate Slugger Barry Bonds is no longer a prime attraction for San Francisco baseball fans, but last year the Giants teamed up with the city’s opera company to present another famous strongman, the hero of Samson and Delilah, by Camille Saint-Saens. As the ancient tale of seduction, treachery, and revenge played on a 103-foot screen in high-de⇒nition audio and video, 23,000 people watched and listened. “I get high just thinking about it,” says Marcia Lazer, the San Francisco Opera’s director of marketing. The hunt for converts continues. Now, the San Francisco Opera offers specially condensed, family-friendly, English-language productions of The Magic Flute and The Little Prince. In New York City, the Met transmitted live operas to ⇒ve public schools, each equiped with state-of-the-art movie theater equipment. Online, though, the conversion has been spotty. The Houston Grand Opera blog hasn’t been updated in months. The San Francisco Opera’s Facebook page has only twenty-three friends. And no company seems to have taken advantage of YouTube yet, though searching for individual opera stars can bring up snippets of their performances. However, this fall, the Met’s Web site will begin Met Digital, streaming on demand from the Met’s audio and video library for fees that will be announced at launch but opera of⇒cials say will be reasonable. Other companies will no doubt follow suit, as the Internet is where the young audience can be found. Can Second Life avatars singing arias be far behind? “What we have is an amazing product,” says Matthew Shilvock, the San Francisco Opera’s general director, “if we can package and expose it to people in the right way.” e Carol Pogash is a former writer for the San Francisco Examiner and Forbes ASAP whose stories appear frequently in the New York Times. If you teach it, they will learn PEARSON SUPPLEMENTAL SOLUTIONS It’s every teacher’s dream—a classroom full of motivated, accomplished students all learning together. And yet, the reality is that in the classroom of today, diverse students with differing abilities and learning styles need extra support and instruction to achieve their best. This is what you can give them with Pearson Supplemental Solutions. Visit PearsonSchool.com/TeachIt for more information COURTESY OF THE METROPOLITAN OPERA OUR NEWEST SOLUTION THE MUSIC MUSES Learn how your students can see the Metropolitan Opera at a local theatre at DRA2 Handheld - Tango Edition Free yourself from paper assessments today FOD-EDU-0908 edutopia.org/metropolitan-opera http://www.PearsonSchool.com/TeachIt http://www.PearsonSchool.com/TeachIt http://www.edutopia.org/metropolitan-opera

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Edutopia - October/November 2008

Edutopia - October/November 2008 Contents UpFront Feedback Dispatches Sage Advice Ask Ellen Head of Class Cool Schools Design: Lessons from the Mall The Bucks Start Here Go Global: Virgil Rocks Big Ideas: Powerful Learning Mapping Their Futures Heart & Soul Pop Quiz: Suze Orman

Edutopia - October/November 2008

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