Let us Assist you in providing Professional Development training for your district or school

Art For all MS professional development

The purpose of the Art For All MS professional development program is to train educators how to design meaningful arts experiences with a curriculum lesson embedded in the activity to create life-long learners of their students.

“The Whole Schools arts integrated model of educational reform was found to have a significant positive impact on the educational outcomes of Mississippi students. The recommendations in this report are designed to build a sustainable system to support arts integration in Mississippi schools and to provide all students in Mississippi with the opportunity to thrive in a world-class educational system

From -
’Arts Integration & the Mississippi Arts Commission’s Whole School Initiative,
A Stennis Institute Study for Decision Makers.’

One of our core objectives is to provide arts education integrated with curriculum standards to teachers and students with and without disabilities. Our focus on providing k12 school residencies using AFA teaching artists creates implied missions to train teaching artists and participating classroom teachers as well as providing them a framework in standards aligned arts integration and Universal Design for Learning strategies.

Universal Design for Learning Workshops

Art For All Mississippi also supports and trains Universal Design For Learning (UDL) arts integration lessons with its professional development workshops for university level student teachers and teachers already in service.

Art For All Mississippi has been developing and conducting teacher professional development training for the past 10 years. We have staff well trained in administering programs, coordinating training sites, arranging for qualified instructors, and developing close working relationships with program partners.

As you can see by our objectives we are focused on educators of all students, however teachers of students with disabilities are especially encouraged to attend. We provide qualified teaching artists and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) trained instructors, all class materials, and student workbooks.

The workshops prepare educators to improve arts education, arts integration, student engagement, and academic achievement through the arts.

An effective tool for conveying material to students is through UDL. This strategy provides educators with a lens to identify and reduce barriers that limit learning. The intersection of UDL and arts education informs the design of better art experiences and provide engaging learning options in an integrated general curriculum.

Arts Integrated lessons use traditional fine arts disciplines to increase knowledge while fostering a greater understanding and appreciation of the fine and performing arts. Examples include creating a torn paper and craft material scraps to create a participant’s cherished childhood memory of a tree as an artistic expression experience. The parts of the tree can then be labeled to fulfill an earth science curriculum. 

The workshops build skills and knowledge to apply sound pedagogical principles, quality curricula, and arts standards-aligned instruction Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards that support teaching and learning and that develop artistic skills and cultural literacy of students with disabilities in literary, media, visual and performing arts (theater, dance, music). The workshop prepares educators to improve arts education, arts integration, student engagement, and academic achievement through the arts.

Workshop Objectives-

Building educators’ skills and knowledge of methods, strategies, and frameworks in the following areas to strengthen educator ability to improve student performance and critical skills development:

a.     Current effective teaching practices for educators of all students.
b.     Arts learning for students with and without disabilities
c.     Academic learning for students with disabilities

Modeling instruction using current effective teaching practices that allow educators to design and deliver standards-aligned arts programs to all students, not just those with disabilities.

Teaching the understanding of arts-based subject matter; of strategies and techniques that facilitate learning for all students; and of strategies and techniques that support the full inclusion of students with disabilities in arts programming.

All we ask of the district/school is to provide appropriate classroom space and interested and committed teachers and administrators to receive at least 5 hours of this training.

Clients Listing:
Greenville Arts Council-
• Two all day workshops

Hattiesburg Arts Council-
• Full day professional development workshop

Jackson State University-
• Two, 6-day Professional Development Workshops for 53 “in-training” students
• A multi-day UDL workshop

Mississippi Arts Commission-
• A 2-day professional development workshop for SPED teachers
• MAC’s Whole School Summer Institutep rofessional development virtual workshop session

Starkville Arts Council / Columbus Arts Council-
• Virtual workshop series

Workshop Structure
The workshops begin with instruction of implementing the core concepts of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in arts integrated lesson designs that support flexible, inclusive learning. Educators will be guided to embed in the lessons Mississippi art competencies as detailed in the Mississippi College and Career-Readiness Standards in classroom lessons, and goals established in Individualized Education Program (IEP) plans. 

School requirements: schools and arts organizations are only required to provide a venue and schedule the teachers for the workshop.

CEUs Offered: .5 CEU credits are offered through Mississippi College. CEU application forms will be handed out at the end of the workshop. It is the responsibility of each individual teacher to send in the form along with the $10 fee. MC accepts checks.

MaterialS and topics covered-

Introduction to UDL-Participants will learn about using Universal Design for Learning principles, Mississippi College and Career Ready Standards, and Mississippi Visual and Performing Arts Framework to develop lesson plans and computer assisted resources for Grade 2.·    

Civil Rights Collage arts integrated lesson- Students will complete sections of a King mural in their own way of drawing. When the pieces of the mural are put together, a beautifully unique mural is revealed. The teacher will discuss what the King’s legacy, a unique history lesson window into the Civil Rights Movement as well as the artistic qualities of each individual piece of the mural.

What’s Bugging You?- The students will learn the parts of an insect, the various colors and camouflage that is unique to different insects. This lesson plan encourages students to explore shape and color by creating original and whimsical insects. Beginning with a discussion of the various types of insects and their unique qualities, students will proceed to design their own creature and imagine where it lives, what it eats and what its personality traits are. A portrait of their bug will be created in bright, colorful torn paper shapes.

Working with Shapes: A STEAM lesson: Participants will be introduced to the Universal Design (UDL) for Learning strategy of teaching art integration in the class room. This strategy promotes art projects that underscore the fundamental lesson in all curriculums. The Teaching Artist will provide strategies and concepts to allow the teachers participating to utilize the story ‘Grandfather Tang’ as a resource to teach geometry and design processes through the creation of animals out of tangrams.

UDL Lesson Plan Instruction- Students will learn about using Universal Design for Learning principles, Mississippi College and Career Ready Standards, and Mississippi Visual and Performing Arts Framework to develop lesson plans and computer assisted resources for Grade 2.

Art for all Mississippi Professional Development Instructors

Tom Harmon, VSA Fellow
After a 35 year career in the U.S. Army and upon retirement, Mr. Harmon has made a career of working with and teaching art to students with disabilities. In 2007 He participated in a Kennedy Center/VSA sponsored year-long “Communities of Practice” study with other professionals around the country to develop and validate a model for using UDL to provide learning for all students and as a result was awarded one of five Kennedy Center/VSA Artist Fellowships. Tom is now the Executive Director of Art For All Mississippi. His expertise as an instructor of Universal Design for Learning and Arts Integration is well known in the Mississippi arts education community.

Chuck Galey, TA
With a degree in Commercial Art (that’s what it was called before “Graphic Design” became popular) from Mississippi State University, an art director in advertising beckoned. Since then, Chuck has been freelancing illustrations for advertising, design and children’s publishing for over thirty-seven years. He has illustrated sixteen children’s picture books. He has been on the Mississippi Arts Commission’s Artist Roster and Teaching Artist Roster since 2003. He has worked with Art For All Mississippi for six years as a Teaching Artist trainer in Universal Design For Learning and Arts Integration in the classroom.

The workshops listed below applies to only schools and school districts.
Fees are based on a maximum of 20 participants per worshop.

5 hour In-Person Workshop will include:       
One Teaching Artist              
Art materials and handouts
.5 CEU offered upon completion
         
Includes an introduction to Universal Design for Learning, three, 50 minute arts integrated lessons:
• Introduction to Universal Design for Learning (UDL)*
• Civil Rights Collage- Social Studies, Math, US.11
• Tangrams/Grandfather Tang’s Story- Language Arts, Math, Social Studies
• What’s Bugging You?- Language Arts, Earth Sciences, Visual Arts
• African Masks- Social Studies, Visual Arts

Custom designed arts integrated lesson plans
We will be happy to design an arts integrated lesson plan to meet a school’s current curriculum for a small fee.

* Introduction to Universal Design for Learning, included in most workshop packages, is a prerequisite for all workshops.