In the winter of 2004, SmartARTS began implemention of The Professional Developmnet Project funded by a U.S. Department of Education grant. The Professional Development Project provides training to Greenville County Title I teachers and area professional artists in the use of arts integration methods. Each summer, SmartARTS holds the Greenville County Arts Integration Training Institute where teachers and area professional artists discover deep, curricular connections between the arts and other content areas and learn how to build successful collaborative units of study. Through the training, teacher/artist teams learn how to co-create standards-based units of study that are team-taught in the teacher’s classroom. These rich units result in greater student engagement and continuing development of the self for students, teachers and artists as they partner in the learning process. This grant also provides additional training workshops during the school year for Title I schools and area artists.
Professional development grant facts:
- Over 175 teachers trained as of December 2007
- Over 140 artists trained as of December 2007
- Over 3,250 students impacted as of December 2007