Mt. Pleasant Middle School of the Visual and Performing Arts
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Mt. Pleasant Middle School of the Visual and Performing Arts is located in Mt. Pleasant, TN. Its mission to create a change in the children in Maury county through the integration of the arts into the curriculum. The Kids On Stage Foundation of Maury County has been a collaborative and supportive partner since the school opened in 2001. |
The Southeast Center for Education in the Arts has created a Professional Development Program in Arts Integration in response to research that has shown that effective professional development must be ongoing, experiential, and engaging; contain focused and relevant content; and become job embedded to effectively impact teacher change (Guskey 2000). The basic three-year program includes summer workshops and four onsite mentoring visits throughout the academic year. SCEA staff act as mentors and facilitators for learning communities of teachers who explore learning in, about, and through the arts. Teachers examine arts integration pedagogy, investigate instructional and assessment practices across grade levels and subject areas, and devise site-based curriculum aligned with state and national educational standards. The program recognizes that teachers bring varying levels of expertise to the table and invites them to work with their SCEA mentor in an individualized way. However, the collaboration between teacher and SCEA mentor branches out into the entire school. As teachers work through the program, SCEA mentors facilitate many opportunities for teachers to partner and co-teach with their colleagues. As a result, teachers become more effective collaborators with their surrounding community. A vital piece of this program is establishing an onsite Arts Leadership Team that consists of teachers, school administrators, and other community stakeholders. The Arts Leadership Team provides a forum in which all educators have a voice in the management and execution of the arts integration initiative. Maintaining ownership among stakeholders is critical for the program’s long-term success. |
In the summer of 2010, SCEA began a long-term Professional Development Program in Arts Integration at Mt. Pleasant Middle School of the Visual & Performing Arts. The school has written a grant proposal to the U.S. Department of Education for a professional development for arts education program, which will have a research component. |
