Black Mountain

Black Mountain College, a college that never became an accredited college but had the greatest impact onthe arts in history. The college started with John Andrew Rice and his oposition to the conventional. As time went Josef Albers and Charles Olson would become charismatic leaders of Black Mountain.

Troupe Disney

Why try to re-invent the wheel? As I was searching the internet I came across an article/paper that was written by Douglas Karalis, for a docturate program in Dowling College. It is excellently written and sumarizes Troupe Disney beautifully ....

Walt Disney created a world of imagination that has transformed popular culture while simultaneously providing other organizations with a model of a “Great Group.” Troupe Disney has been able to not only survive and to thrive for more than 40 years after the death of their founder because of Walt’s vision and his developing a definition of Disney in generations of dreamers. The success of this company and the great groups that have existed within the Disney Kingdom owe all of their allegiance to the vision that Walt Disney himself created more than 80 years ago with the creation of a little cartoon mouse that for a brief moment was almost named Mortimer. That little mouse however was named Mickey and his name became that under the advice of Walt’s wife, Lillian. That initial collaboration can be considered the initial building block of all the groups that have lived, laughed, and imagined in Disney World.
Disney’s, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” came out of Walt’s desire to create a feature length animated film after visiting Europe where he witnessed a theater that instead of showing a feature film, strung together a bunch of Walt’s cartoon shorts that were usually shown before the feature. His vision for doing what had never been done before, coupled with his use of new technology, made Snow White even more magical and memorable because the film was the first to use Technicolor. That pioneering spirit continues to this day to be a driving force behind the great groups that make up Disney today while being driven by the vision of creating a “Disney” film.
Disney created his name and vision early in the formation of Disney productions by having final say in all that was released to the public and putting his name and his name alone on it. Walt did this because he wanted the public to know that when they saw a Disney film they were guaranteed “good family entertainment.” Eventually, others were given credit, but not before the name of Disney had permeated every household. Walt did not do all of this alone. The over 300 artists that worked for him did so not for credit, but to be part of something great… part of something that was going to change the world.
Walt’s brother Roy simultaneously helped to establish the name of Disney by his merchandising genius and his authority to oversee all financial aspects of his brother’s creative genius. Roy kept an eye on the money and when necessary constrained the creative genius that was flowing behind the walls of the Disney troupe. This merchandising attached to the “good family entertainment” that was synonymous with Disney continues to serve Disney to this day by nostalgic aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and grandfathers that purchase Disney merchandise not with consumer pressure but with reminiscent smiles and thoughts of yesteryear. A great example of this is when a man that had just come out of a viewing of 101 Dalmatians was asked why he did not bring a child to the show and he replied, “I did bring a child. I brought myself.”
The greatest testament to Walt Disney has to come from his nephew Roy Jr., whom Walt supposedly referred to as the “idiot nephew.” However, this did not detract from Roy Jr.’s belief in Walt’s vision. After the release of “The Black Cauldron” Disney seemed to be starting to crumble, but Roy Jr. revitalized, re-visioned, and refocused his uncle’s dream to put out a major animated film every year. He did this with the help of Michael Eisner while simultaneously preventing a takeover by Saul Steinberg (source).
This revitalized vision that Roy Jr. created helped to bring about the most successful period that Disney has ever seen. The impact created a new dynamic within the culture of all the animators and permeated all other members involved in Disney productions. Great groups are driven by something greater than themselves, Jim Collins would call this the “Hedgehog Concept”, and Walt Disney defined it as “Good Family Entertainment” that always seeks to incorporate new technology. I think that the ultimate success of Disney was and is its ability to support its members in all their creative endeavors allowing the vision to be truly shared.

Welcome to Cohort My Cohort!

On a warm night in September a group of people came together to form the Mineola Cohort. I sat looking at each face wondering what everyone was thinking??? Some people knew each other in the group so you already began to see who was friends with who. Dr. Thornburg, who brought the Cohort together, asked if we would go around the room and introduce ourselves. Of course, we had to tell our name, what school we were from and why we were there. And so it began...Hi my name is Jennifer Maichen I am from Mineola MS and I am a Resource room teacher, Hi I am Joe Owens and I am from Mineola MS and I am a Music teacher, Hi I am Allison Maffetone and I work in Willis Ave. in Mineola and I am a Special Ed Kinndergarten teacher, Hi I am Maura Lewinger and I work at UCP as a Speech and Language teacher, Hi I am Lisa Occione sister of Allison and I work in Fork Lane in Hicksville and I am First grade Special Ed teacher, I am Nancy Ruisi, I also teach at Fork Lane in Hicksville and I teach 4th grade inclusion, Hi I am Jessica Iafrate and I work with Nancy and Lisa also, I am a Fourth grade teacher. Hi I am, John Squillace I work in Elmont High School as a math teacher, Hi I am Dayna Contento and I work in Elmont HS as well andI am an English teacher, Hi I am James Hegmann and I work in Elmont HS teaching Social Studies and coach for Mineola Boys Basketball team. Hi I am Michael Graham and I work in Elmont HS as the attendance dean, Hi am Diane Turner and I am aBusiness teacher in Carey HS. Hi I am Mary Spirit and I work in Sachem HS as a Family and Consumer Science teacher, Hi I am Julie and I work in NYC as a Fourth grade teacher....Oh no it's my turn... Hi I am Sharon Macken and I work for Nassau BOCES as a Student Support Specialist for e-Schooldata...ok are those crickets I hear??? I feel like everyone is staring at me like an alien visiting from outer space, what everyone doesn't know is that I hope to eventually say Hi I am Sharon Macken and I work in the Mineola School District as the Chief Information Officer. I am sure I will still get some strange looks but at least I will feel like I will belong to a School District. What I didn't know is that some of the people in this room will become some of my closest friends and in essence I will be part of something greater than any school district, I will be part of a Cohort that is made up of many personalities, come from many different backgrounds and share many different view points but we all came together for a reason and I believe it is because we were all meant to meet each other and create something great!