PTA Local Reflections JudgingPre-judging, judging and post-judging

Pre-Judging

• Two weeks before remind your school and your PTA of the deadline! NOVEMBER 7TH.

• Keep Building Support and Excitement for the program (Social Media, newsletters, fliers, etc.) until the last day!

• Do you know anyone who might donate to one of the finalist a gift card? Get the word out early to you sphere of influence for donations for your finalists to use in your celebration at your school.

Pre-Judging• Try to recruit 6-9 judges – Refer to How to find judges in the PTA Arts in

Education guide – p.31 (find judges out of Plano ISD, McKinney ISD, Allen ISD and Collin County Community College – also artists in Allen and local areas). Remember you can also ask your art teachers to swap with a school to judge i.e. Hart art teachers can judge Puster, etc.

◦ Obviously the more judges the less time you and they have to dedicate

◦ The more judges in specific areas the higher quality of evaluation i.e. dance teacher for dance, painter for visual arts, etc.

◦ Have an odd number of judges so there’s a tie breaker, the most important factor to determine the tie breaker is which entry is more expressive of the theme “The world would be a better place if…”

Pre-Judging

• Collect all the entries at the front office – check every week from what I’ve heard they all are at the last minute!

• You store and transport your art submissions in a safe clean place until your school judges vote.

• Use the Excel Spreadsheet for all entries so you can keep track of who advances and who gets what ribbon.

• Go on line and register the entries that are advancing to the Council Level at www.pta.org/reflections the detailed guide is in the PTA arts in Education Chair Guide on pp. 38-39 -There’s a powerpoint guide for on-line entries too.

• English as a second language might need a translator so check ahead for any entries that may need one before judging.

Pre-Judging

• BEFORE JUDGING pre-calculate 20% of each group of entries you have received i.e. 20% of dance Pre-k – 2nd grade, 20% of dance 3rd – 5th grade, etc. 20% of film pre-k -2nd grade, etc. so the judges know how many can advance before they judge.

• Make 1.5 copies of the entry forms – the half on the back of the entry with no name and a full one for you – MAKE SURE YOU NOTE ON THE ½ ENTRY THE NUMBER YOU ASSIGN THEM ON YOUR SPREADSHEET – I.E. Willow Springs 2 (WS2).

• As student entries are turned in, please make sure the entry form is complete and signed – if not follow up to get it completed before judging. Also please check each entry as they are turned in that the specific rules were followed.

Pre-Judging

• Ask a friend or colleague to assist you the day of judging as far as helping the judges, getting info, checking rules, getting coffee, etc. – just to make sure everything goes smoothly.

• Show your Lovejoy spirit - treat judges kindly, have ready snacks, water, coffee, and tea.

• If you can host it at your house or a clubhouse you will have more flexibility – you can also reserve any space at the schools – just call your school or the red school house to reserve.

• Pre-send them the scoring sheet, judging rules and the judging rubric to review ahead of time.

Pre-JUDGING• Send out the literature files to the judges a few days

before judging can save you time (depending on the number of entries – you might want to make it a week).

• They can review it before the judging - it takes about 5 minutes to read each one and some classes make it mandatory to submit a paper so your school may have a number of entries to deal with – it’s your call.

• DAY OF JUDGING REVIEW THE JUDGING RULES, RUBRIC AND NUMBER OF ENTRIES THEY CAN ADVANCE IN EACH AREA

Judging Rubric

• Interpretation of theme “The world would be a better place if…” up to 20 points

• Artistic Merit – how creative the art piece is? Up to 12 points

• Mastery of Medium – skill and techniques of the art form up to 8 points

• Ties are determined by the art that best represents this years theme “The world would be a better place if…”

Judging Age Groups

• Primary - Pre-k – 2nd grade

• Intermediate - 3rd – 5th Grade

• Middle School 6th-8th Grade

• High School 9th-12th

• Special Artists (Special ED) – separate category but still graded by age group

Award Levels• Award of excellence – Top 20%

• Award of Merit – very good interpretations of the theme and executed very well – % up to you

• Honorable Mention – good interpretations of the theme and executed good – % up to you

• Participation Award – Every student should be recognized

• If one of the judges doubts the students works or that he or she did the work, then it needs to be discussed without hesitation.

Judging• KEEP GOOD RECORDS – know whose art is whose and who is

advancing (WS1, WS16, etc.) .

• BRING A LAPTOP, IPAD, etc. YOU WILL NEED TO PLAY VIDEO OF FILM AND DANCE FOR THE JUDGES.

• Have an assistant to help with the judges get things for them and when they discuss art too long - to help them move on.

• All arts categories and grade divisions must be judged separately.

• If there is only one entry in a category the judges have to decide if they advance or not.

• The rule is 20% in each category and division. So 1-5 entries advance one, 6-10 entries advance two, 11-15 entries advance three, etc. always round up to the next whole number.

• The special arts category is judged the same way 20% dance, 20% visual arts, etc.

Judging Process• Judges have been trained in the Rubric, the score card

and tie breaker rules.

• The Judges should look at the art, have a brief discussion between the three of them on their opinion or if they have questions, then they score on their card. Usually you or your assistant will sit at the front of the desk and play the dance or film piece on your laptop for the judges.

• At the end of their judging a category, you take the scorecards and determine based on their collective scores which art work advances.

• If there is a tie, they must relook at the art, have another discussion and then determine which piece advances.

• If your judges finish their area, i.e. visual art, you can ask them to participate in another area that is unfinished.

Judging• The judging Excel spreadsheet is your primary tool to

determine the levels of achievement as well as:

◦ Logging incoming art work

◦ Assigning judges

◦ Recording scores

◦ Determine levels of achievement: Award of Excellence, Award of Merit, Honorable Mention or Participation Award

• Have your judges determine the top 20%. After you look at their ballots, you can determine the other three categories: merit, honorable mention and participation based on their scorecards. When determining which entries go into the other award categories be aware of your ribbon budget.

DAY OF JUDGING• Do a pre-training the day of Judging - before judging –

tell the judges the criteria (no judging family, friends, etc.) , points and tie breakers and show them the score card you want them to keep.

• Tell the judges the 20% rule – as an example I’d tell them “when you look at literature you can pick (Blank #) to advance”.

• Feed judges snacks and have coffee, tea and water.

• If you are working through lunch – arrange lunch for judges if it is too much to judge for one day – call time out and regroup another day as long as it is before Nov. 19th.

POST JUDGING• Place ribbon order with me.

• Supply your PTA council with a list of the entries advancing to the council level.

• Have your schools recognition ceremony before the winter break.

• Notify parents of those advancing to attend, not tell their kids and bring their camera.

• At the local celebration, explain to the parents the program, the process of judging i.e. different categories and grade levels, the criteria and that the theme made the most impact on judging, who your judges were and that you oversaw a fair process.

POST JUDGING• Give ribbons of excellence and certificates out to the

level advancing, and ribbons to everyone else at the next levels – make sure the Principle is there. Return all art to the students who are not advancing.

• If you really want to go all out for those kids advancing you could give small gifts – Puster last year gave out Spirit Ribbons for the kids backpacks that I heard was low cost and a big hit!! Wendy Boots did this awesome deed – contact Lindsay Thomas your co-chair at Puster if interested.

• When pieces are submitted to the council level, I will need a copy of your spreadsheet and a copy of the full student submission slip.

POST JUDGING• Make sure entries advancing are properly protected for

transportation and storage.

• Go on line and register the entries that are advancing to the Council Level at www.pta.org/reflections the detailed guide is in the PTA arts in Education Chair Guide pp. 38-39.

• Recognize your judges and thank them for their participation and if possible it would be polite to send them a hand written thank you card for helping you out and Lovejoy ISD.

• Make time with me to go over all your advancing art on or before Nov. 19th.

FINAL CELEBRATION• THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5TH 7 PM – 9 PM (hopefully not -

I’m shooting for 1 hour) at LHS Auditorium.

• The superintendent or assistant superintendent will present all students going to state.

• Please ask your principle to attend – please be there by 6:30 – you and your principle or assistant principle will be closing out your school by announcing and giving the awards to the students.

• Then all the chairs will present ribbons to the students that will not go to state school by school – ideally you will be calling the names of students and their award, i.e. merit, honorable mention, etc, and your principal will hand them their ribbon and shake their hand.

FINAL CELEBRATION• So I will open the ceremony, myself and the

superintendent or someone of the administration gives out the state awards and presents the power point of everyone going to state.

• Then we start with Puster, LES and Hart and then move to Sloan, Willow and the high school to present the awards for the other levels not going to state.

• You will be on stage with the microphone calling names and your principle handing out ribbons. THEN MOSTLY THAT’S IT FOR YOU!!!!

• After state, I’ll get the art work back to you to give back to the students unless they go to nationals MARCH 2ND. YEA!