Why the Arts in Education?
The arts engage mind, body, and heart actively in learning. They literally breathe life into concepts and ideas in science, math, language arts, and social studies engaging the senses through movement, sound, color, texture, and language. The arts, well taught, engage students in creative, interpretive, and evaluative thinking and lead to such habits of mind as persisting, engaging, reflecting, and imagining. They teach students not only to solve problems but to find them.
Children have different ways of learning and different intelligence strengths. Multiple teaching strategies are needed by teachers to reach and teach the diverse students in classrooms. Arts strategies open paths of learning for students with a wide range of interests, aptitudes, styles and experiences. The art based teaching and learning strategies honor the multiple ways students acquire, process, and demonstrate information. They honor the multiple intelligence of students.
In partnership with Brunswick County Schools, the Brunswick Arts Council's Student Arts Education Division:
Will work in partnership with the Brunswick County Schools to increase awareness of the vital roles the arts can play in teaching and learning.
Will research quality arts integration and infusion programs in other school districts and help tailor a quality program for Brunswick County. To date Brunswick arts council members and Connie Enis of the Brunswick County Schools have visited the OMA program in Tucson Arizona, a program bringing arts resources into schools to systematically effect learning based on brain research, Clovis and Fresno California Schools to compare a well established suburban program with a nearby city program just beginning, and the A+ program in Bladen County based in Harvard's Multiple Intelligence Research. We also met with and held lengthy fact finding discussions with the Director of A+ programs who is based in Greensboro, NC.
Will be a principle advocate for bringing quality arts integration in-service training to Brunswick County teachers and administrators.
Will work toward funding both a quality integrated arts program for a chosen school and the infusion of quality arts experiences for students through visiting artists and arts groups. Investigating grant funding from private and government sources working in partnership with the Brunswick county Schools Curriculum Director.
Will seek funding for arts resources for schools including a set of art visuals available through the National Endowment for the Humanities called Picturing America and provide teacher in-service for use of these to integrate North Carolina social studies and English language arts curriculum standards.
Will begin a central collection of art and artifacts from cultures and countries around the world that can be borrowed and used by teachers to enhance teaching and learning.
Will act as a resource for arts teachers working to develop strategies for reaching and teaching students with disabilities.
Research Results:
Over two years SmART schools showed an 8.9% average improvement in students achieving high-bar standard of state testing in math as compared to a 2.1% increase in control schools
Over two years SmART schools showed a 22.5% gain in writing effectiveness and writing conventions as compared to an 8% gain in comparison schools.
1-910-371-2641
"Start with the Arts--See Where It Takes You....."
Student Art Education
Arts in Schools Initiative
Initiative summary: While Brunswick County is experiencing record growth, poverty conditions in schools, high drop out rates, teen pregnancy and juvenile delinquency threatens to unravel the very fabric of the community. Studies show that much of these conditions are due to a significant lack of arts and arts related content in our schools. In response to the urgent need to address this problem and in partnership with the Brunswick county Board of Education, the Brunswick Arts Council (BAC) is developing the Arts in Schools Initiative. The BAC's Arts in Schools Initiative (ASI) seeks to provide Brunswick County schools with arts integration programs that have proven to impact learning and child development as well as help to reduce drop out rates and increase tests scores.
Immediate Objectives: Some immediate objectives include:
Reduce overall drop out rate by 25%
Reduce teen pregnancy by 10%
Increase student participation in the arts by 200%
Increase exit exam scores by 5%
Strategy & Implementation: The proposed nine year initiative has three stages with the first stage involving four related schools: An elementary school, a middle school, a high school and an alternative special school. This proposed program is subject to adjustment during its development and fine tuning as it matures in order to enhance optimal efficacy.
Kristi Swain : Division President
Connie Enis, Brunswick County Schools, Curriculum Coordinator
NCDPI ARTS EDUCATION UPDATE
January 28, 2011
“The guiding mission of the North Carolina State Board of Education is that every public school student will graduate from high school globally competitive for work and postsecondary education and prepared
for life in the 21st century.”
We want to celebrate the many successes occurring in arts education in North Carolina!
BRUNSWICK COUNTY ACADEMY STUDENTS PLACE IN THE SHALLOTTE JR. WOMAN’S CLUB
2011 ARTS FESTIVAL COMPETITION
The following students entered various forms of art work and placed in the Shallotte Jr. Woman’s Club Arts Festival Competition held onJanuary 18, 2011:
Kyasia Johnson (1st place decorative painting craft);
Ariel Florkievicz (1st place poetry and 3rd place color photo);
Tiffany Carmichael (2nd place color photography); Krystal Schmidt (2nd placepoetry);
Daniel Haye (3rd place color photography); and Devante Bethea,(1st place color photo).
Other students who entered, but did not place include Paige Curry, Jaleta Baker, and Tyler Wisenant
The art consisted of work done throughout the 2010 year, including photos taken on school field trips and vacations as well as art created through the integration of the arts with other curricula as part of regular classroom instruction.
Poetry entered in the contest was created during an Artist Residency at the school that assisted students in brainstorming, creating, and polishing various forms of poetry. Certificates and cash prizes were presented at the awards ceremony.
All the first place entries for the County will compete in the District Competition on February 12, with first place entries at the district level moving on to the State Competition on
March 12, 2011.
Congratulations to these students and their instructor, Kristi Swain, Arts Integration Specialist for the Arts in Schools Initiative, Dropout Prevention
Program at Brunswick County Academy.
