Ideas form the 2013-2014 Champion Creatively Alive Children grant winners.
Principal Supplement: Champion Creatively Alive Children, September/October 2014

A+ School Focuses on Arts-Integration
Community Charter School Charlotte, North Carolina
Anissa Miller, Principal
Partnering with North Carolina A+ trainers, this school used visual art and dance as the foundation for professional development and everyday teaching.

Art as a Window into Global Cultures
Cuba Elementary School, Cuba, Illinois
Angela Simmons, Principal
The Creative Leadership Team created art-based crosscurricular units and authentic assessment guides to help their students see a broader world.

Art Builds Literacy Skills
Gardens Elementary School Pasadena, Texas
Celia Fleischman, Principal
Professional development focused on illustration as a storytelling tool and fine art as a catalyst for original poetry and stories.

Artists’ Story of Injustice, Journey and Perseverance
Dana Elementary School Hendersonville, North Carolina
Kelly Schofield, Principal
When Schofield learned the history of Gee’s Bend quilters, a community of slaves forced to walk from North Carolina to Alabama after being sold, she knew students and teachers needed to be immersed in this story of these artists’ resilience and amazing aesthetic.

Calder Mobiles as Metaphors
Country Oaks Elementary School, LaBelle, Florida
James Sealey, Principal
The new Creative Leadership Team focused on Alexander Calder’s mobiles as a metaphor for art-integration strategies.

Creativity and Cultural Awareness
Sheep Harney School Elizabeth City, North Carolina
Andrea Adams, Principal
This entire learning community focused on becoming creative leaders and creative producers. Their mission, “Soaring Achievement through the Creative Arts Lens,” came to life while exploring other cultures.

Culture of Inquiry and Critique
Bridges Public Charter School Washington, DC
Olivia Smith, Principal The Creative Leadership Team provided “Artists’ Inquiry and Critique” workshops to help teachers embrace art integration.

DA Vinci Inspired Innovative Teaching
New Egypt School New Egypt, New Jersey
Richard DeMarco, Principal Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s Taxonomy, the Creative Leadership Team helped colleagues see how artists explore infinite possibilities, solve problems and create with an inventor’s spirit.

Innovative Teaching with ART bots
RJ Richey Elementary Burnet, Texas
Jill Wittekiend, Principal
Using artistic thinking skills and MIT Makey Makey boards, art-inspired robots were the springboard for professional development and student inventions.

Inspired by Reggio Emilia
Redwood Early Childhood North Little Rock, Arkansas
Jody Veit-Edrington, Principal Professional development was focused on visual awareness and child-centered exploration so teachers can guide children’s self-discovery of the 100 languages of art.

Leaders Champion Reflective Thinking
John F. Kennedy Elementary Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Waleska Landing, Principal
An ambitious group of teacher leaders proposed a vision of being an art-integration school with a creative culture.

Memorable Math Infused with Art
Harwich Elementary Harwich, Massachusetts
Sam Hein, Principal
The Creative Leadership Team coached their colleagues on how to link students’ curiosity and art standards with math.

Partnerships Propel Art-Infused School
Alexandria Elementary Alexandria, Alabama
Tesha Crump, Principal & Rebecca Grogan, Assistant Principal
The Creative Leadership Team partnered with a local university to implement art-based professional development.

Schoolwide Art-Infused Education
Churchill Road Elementary McLean, Virginia,
Don Hutzel, Principal
Year-long professional development on art-integration resulted in full faculty buy-in to art-based teaching. Their pre- and post- assessment results on teachers’ creative capacity showed amazing changes.

Storytelling Art Celebrates Originality
Mountain Island Charter School, Mount Holly, North Carolina
Beth Keller, Principal
To build teachers’ creative confidence, the year-long professional development focused on artful thinking and storytelling.

Sustainable Leadership Strategy
Rosa L. Parks Elementary Hyattsville, Maryland
Tara Minter, Principal
This grant served as the catalyst for moving what had been an emerging initiative into a school-wide sustainable practice of “Artful Thinking”— now woven into every classroom and lesson plan.

The “HEART of Our Community”
Seven Hills Charter Public School, Worcester, Massachusetts
Chuck Brown, Principal
The Creative Leadership Team and Worcester Historical Museum designed arts integration projects based on the art-rich cultural heritage of their city.

Using Art Strategies in Action Research
Seven Oaks Elementary Odenton, Maryland
John Ceschini, Principal
What if teachers were trained as artists? What if their action research projects collected data that illustrated the impact of art-infusion and artistic reflection? They changed the way teachers teach!

Visual Thinking Deepens Learning
Horace Mann Elementary Sedalia, Missouri
Todd Fraley, Principal
Classroom teachers used artwork and enduring questions as the basis for reflection and class discussions. Students’ creative writing and decoding skills soared.

Visual Thinking Builds Deeper Skills
Redwood Heights Elementary School, Oakland, California
Sara Stone, Principal
Investigating images advanced class discussions and enriched inquiry in all subjects with emphasis on: observing, investigating, probing, elaborating, speculating, arguing based on evidence, and using insights to revise thinking.

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