DEADLINES and SUGGESTED TIMELINE!!
- Monday, September 21 (or earlier) – Announce your Reflections Program and invite students to participate
- Monday, October 19 – Units should collect and judge all entries
- Tuesday, November 8 – All unit entries* being forwarded to Glendale Council PTA must be delivered to the Council Offices no later than noon.
- Week of November 16 - Judging for Council Reflections entries.
- Week of December 7– Announcement of Council Awards (emails will be sent to Chairs, Presidents and Principals, letters will be sent to all students). Delivery of artwork being forwarded to 1st District for Judging at District level (This is done by Council 1st VP or by Council President.)
- TBD – 1st District Awards Reception (Award winners will receive calls, attendance by invitation only, except for award winning student’s PTA unit chairpersons, presidents and principals, directions will be forwarded as needed)
- Week of January 23 – Display of all Reflections Artwork in School District Board Room
- Tuesday, February 7 – School Board Recognition of Council PTA Award Winners, 7:00 p.m. (Art forms awarded at this time to be determined)
- Tuesday, February 21 - School Board Recognition of Council PTA Award Winners, 7:00 p.m. (Art forms awarded at this time to be determined)
- Thursday, March 22– Most (or all??) student artwork will be returned to PTA unit Presidents at Council Board Meeting.
*Each PTA Unit may submit no more than four entries in each arts category (i.e., Visual Arts, 4; Photography, 4; Music Composition, 4; Literature, 4; Dance, 4; Video/Film, 4) for a total of no more than 24 entries per unit. No more than 4 entries per arts category will be accepted, even if the total unit submissions are LESS THAN 24.
Promoting the PTA Reflections Program
Once you’ve established the deadline for student submissions, promote the
Reflections Program to families and students, as well as teachers. (Reflections
Program submissions may be developed in or outside of school as long as the
entries are new pieces inspired by the current year’s theme and created expressly
for the program.) The school’s art, music, theater, film, dance, and photography
teachers can be strong allies in encouraging all students to participate.
Consider kicking off the program with a PTA-hosted arts night at which you share
the submission deadline, rules, and Student Entry Form (see below). Promotional
fliers for the program are available at PTA.org/reflections in both English and
Spanish. Be sure to also include Reflections Program information and reminders in
PTA/school newsletters and websites. In all promotions, include the student
submission deadline and contact information for where to direct questions.
Distributing the General Student Participation Rules,
Arts Area Rules, and Student Entry Form
General Student Participation Rules and Arts Area Rules
All students must adhere to the General Student Participation Rules as well as the
rules for their specific arts area. Provide teachers with the rules in advance. Then
distribute all rules, as well as the Student Entry Form, to families and students
through a kick-off meeting, other PTA or school events, fine arts classes, newsletters,
and the PTA/school website. Be prepared to answer questions.
Student Entry Form
In order to be accepted, each entry submitted must include a completed and signed
Student Entry Form. The form must have the signatures of both the student and
the parent/guardian, unless the student is 18 years old. If the student is 18 or
over, only the student’s signature is required. Entries submitted without the
entry form or the appropriate signatures will be disqualified.
Do not change the legal section of the Student Entry Form. The legal permission
section gives PTA, including the national PTA organization and all local, council,
district/region, and state PTAs, permission to use student artworks for publicity
purposes. It gives PTA rights to use the artworks in public presentations, publications,
promotions, galleries, programs, etc., in print, electronic, and multimedia formats.
Student Entry Forms need to be on 8½-inch by 11-inch (8½" x 11") paper. Do not
reduce the size of the form.
The Student Entry Form is available in English and Spanish. All Student Entry Forms
submitted in Spanish must have an English translation attached.
Required Artist Statement
Each entry must include an artist statement. The purpose of this statement is for the
child to explain how the entry relates to, embodies, or is inspired by the national
theme. The statement should not exceed 250 words; there is no minimum length. The
Student Entry Form provides a space for the artist statement; if the statement does
not fit in the space given, it may be written on a separate sheet and attached to the Student Entry Form. Make sure the student’s full name appears on any sheet
attached to the Student Entry Form.
Local PTA Information
Before submitting entries to the next level of judging, complete the local PTA
information at the bottom of the Student Entry Forms. All information is required.
Please provide the official PTA/PTSA name; this will be used in student recognition.
You may want to type in the information before copying and distributing the form.
Requirements for the Student Entry Form for Photography and Visual Arts Entries
Place the original signed Student Entry Form in a sheet protector and tape the sheet
protector to the back of the artwork using masking tape. The form is designed so that
the sheet can be folded in half for judging purposes. Please do not tape the form
directly to the artwork; make sure the form is in a sheet protector. Taping the form
directly to the artwork makes it difficult to photocopy the form without risking
damaging the work. For any artwork being sent to the next level of judging, you are
required to send the original Student Entry Form on with the winning piece. Please
make a copy of all Student Entry Forms that are sent to the next level of judging.
Keep this information until the piece has been returned to the child.
Consent Forms
The PTA requires that signed consent forms be submitted along with the
Student Entry Form for all individuals who appear in a dance choreography, film production,
or photography entry—and if it includes images of an individual, a literature or visual arts entry.
If an individual appearing in an entry is under the age of 18, parental consent should also
be obtained and submitted. Keep a copy of the consent forms on file.
Collecting Entries
As artwork is submitted, catalog the entries for judging. Keep all Student Entry
Forms with the original artwork. Check for obvious disqualifications due to size or
length of entry (see the requirements given in the arts area rules), medium, or
plagiarized or resubmitted entries).
Recognizing Award Recipients
Each unit determines how it will recognize and award participants. Formal award
ceremonies, certificates of participation, ribbons, and plaques are some types of
recognition. In addition, units may recognize students by publishing photography,
visual arts, and literature entries in local newsletters; hosting a Reflections Program
exhibit; or creating an online gallery or special publication of award-winning entries.
Submitting Entries to the Next Level of Judging = Council PTA
All entries must be submitted in the appropriate format, as described below and
are due to Glendale Council PTA Office by noon on November 9, 2010. Include the Unit Form A and a signed student entry form for each entry.
Each Schoo/PTA Unit may submit no more than four entries in each arts category (i.e., Visual Arts, 4; Photography, 4; Music Composition, 4; Literature, 4; Dance, 4; Video/Film, 4) for a total of no more than 24 entries per unit. No more than 4 entries per arts category will be accepted, even if the total unit submissions are LESS THAN 24.
You may wish to only do the following for the 4 pieces from each category that are moving on to Council competition and not for every entry at the unit level.
Literature entries: Send the original and two copies of each literature entry.
Paperclip the duplicate copies of the entry to the original. The student’s name
should be written on the back of each page of the original and the copies. Submit
the entry in a manila file folder with the Student Entry Form stapled to the back of
the folder, or slip the Student Entry Form, original, and two copies into a clear sheet
protector. Keep a copy of the entry for your files. Make sure all copies are clearly
legible. This may prove difficult when copying handwritten entries. Check all copies
before sending them to the next level of judging.
Musical composition entries: Send each musical composition entry with the CD/DVD in a
plastic or cardboard containers and, if applicable, the score in its own large
envelope with the Student Entry Form in a clear sheet protector secured to the
outside of the envelope. Any musical composition entries that include a score should
have the student’s name written on the back of each page of the score. Using Sharpee ONLY! Put student name, Council and school on CD's. NO LABELS!! Keep a
copy of the score and a CD for your files.
Dance choreography and film production
entries: Send each dance choreography
and film production entry—the CD/DVD in plastic or cardboard container—in their
own large envelope with the Student Entry
Form in a clear sheet protector secured to
the outside of the envelope. Using Sharpee ONLY! Put student name, Council and school on CD's. NO LABELS!! Keep a copy
of the CD/DVD for your files. All dance
choreography and film production entries
must be saved as a file on the CDs/DVDs, not
as a CDs/DVDs movie.
Photography and visual arts entries:
Place all entries in a portfolio case with your school's name on the outside.
Please do not staple, tape, glue, or otherwise affix Student Entry Forms directly
to an envelope or a piece of artwork. Place the form in a clear sheet protector
and attach the sheet protector to the envelope or artwork.
Originality
All entries into the Reflections Program must be new pieces of artwork inspired by
the current year’s theme and created expressly for the program. Artwork produced
before the dissemination of the theme or created and used for another competition
or program may not be submitted.
Each entry must be the original work of one student only. An adult may not alter
the creative integrity of a student’s work. Because the program is designed to
encourage and recognize each student’s individual creativity, help from an adult or
collaboration with other students is not allowed. Only one student may be recognized
as the award recipient for each entry. Other individuals may appear in or perform a
student’s work, but the work itself—the dance choreography or film production
(including screenplay, camerawork, and directing) or musical composition (including
written score and any lyrics), etc.—must be the creative product of one student only.
(See the specific arts area rules for details.)
Use of copyrighted material is prohibited in the literature, musical composition, visual
arts, and photography categories. This includes the use of copyrighted cartoon
characters or other such material.
Examples of copyrighted materials:
- Cartoon characters from television, videos, and comic books are copyrighted.
Even if the character is in a new setting, the character itself is copyrighted and
is not to be used.
- Copyrighted material from the Internet is not to be used.
- Advertisements and advertising ideas from print, film, TV, or radio are not to
be used.
- Using a musical theme from an existing copyrighted composition (printed
music) is not acceptable.
- Copyrighted recorded music is not to be used.
- Copyrighted photographs, especially from print media, are not to be used.
- Copyrighted photographs or stock photography may not be used as a subject
for any visual arts entries.
Use of copyrighted music in dance choreography and film production entries is
acceptable. The title, composer, and performer of any music used must be credited
and documented on the Student Entry Form. Use of any other copyrighted material
is prohibited.
Misuse of the above materials constitutes plagiarism—taking and using another’s
ideas, words, or inventions as one’s own.
Please note: Photographs, visual artworks, and films may include public places,
well-known products, trademarks, or certain other copyrighted material as long as
that copyrighted material is incidental to the subject matter of the piece and/or is a
smaller element of a whole. The resulting work cannot try to establish an association
between the student and the trademark/business/ material, or influence the
purchase/non-purchase of the trademarked good.
Visual arts collages may include portions of existing copyrighted works, such as
photographs, magazine clippings, Internet images, and type cut out of a newspaper,
as long as those portions of copyrighted works are used to create a completely new
and different work of art. A collage should be judged for its whole, not by its parts,
and whether the resulting work stands as a creative, original work of art on its own.
Plagiarized and Resubmitted Entries
Occasionally, entries submitted to the Reflections Program are ineligible. Two of the
most common reasons for declaring an entry ineligible are plagiarism and
resubmission. The Reflections Program rules define plagiarism as taking and using another person’s ideas, writings, or inventions as one’s own. The rules also state that
only new pieces of artwork inspired by the theme are acceptable. If a student
submits an entry that was created and submitted the previous year, it is ineligible
because all artwork needs to express the current year’s theme. Recommended
procedures for dealing with both plagiarized and resubmitted entries follow.
Most pieces that have been plagiarized fall in the visual arts category; however,
the other categories are vulnerable as well. When students use another artist’s work
to gain recognition from PTA, a remedy is needed to protect the integrity of the
program.
Here’s what you can do to maintain the Reflections Program’s integrity:
- Assume that there will be entries that are not original.
- Institute a process to confirm originality.
- Alert judges to the possibility that some pieces might not be original.
- Seek judges’ guidance for determining originality if a piece is questionable.
- Check questionable entries via the Internet. Google is a great tool. For
example, if the submitted visual arts entry or photograph is of a famous
person, type in that person’s name and search listed websites to see if the
image is from a book cover or a collection of published photos.
The discovery that an artwork is ineligible can be very disappointing. The rules
clearly state that plagiarized entries should be disqualified and returned to the
student. All levels of the program—local, council, district/region, state, and
national—need to be unified in their efforts to deal with this issue. The following
are necessary procedures for managing a plagiarized or resubmitted work:
- At the level of discovery, return the piece to the student and let the student
know why the piece has been disqualified. If the piece is discovered at the
council, district/region, state, or national level, the arts chair at that level will
notify the local arts chair that the submitted piece is ineligible and then return it
to the student.
- If judging has already occurred at the level of discovery, have the level-ofdiscovery
arts chair (and prior-level arts chair, if applicable) determine if
awards (including award money, pins, certificates, etc.) should be returned.
- If judging has not occurred at the level of discovery, have the prior-level arts
chair determine if the award should be returned (if applicable).
- If it is not too late, identify another piece for recognition and forward that
piece to the next level.
The arts chair and local unit will need to work with the student and the student’s family
to help the student understand the seriousness of copying someone else’s work and
claiming it as their own. School counselors or teachers might also be able to provide
assistance in helping the student deal with the discovery and the consequences.
Questions? Contact Kathy Cuza kathycuza@yahoo.com |
