Chapman Cultural Center offers creative training for early educators
May 24, 2018
Chapman Cultural Center is offering the first in a series of workshops for early childhood educators on June 16th, 2018. Creativity: The Missing Piece will focus on using drama/theater and visual art to enhance learning for children in pre-school classrooms. The workshop is approved for professional development by the CENTER FOR CHILDCARE CAREER DEVELOPMENT of South Carolina DSS and is free with registration to First Steps Instructors. This training is made possible by a generous grant from Mary Black Foundation.
Presenters for Creativity: The Missing Piece are renowned mime and teaching artist Jef Lambdin and USC Upstate professor of Art Education, Dr. Mary Lou Hightower. Jef Lambdin is a professional mime and performer, and is a teaching artist Fellow with A+ Schools in North Carolina. Dr. Mary Lou Hightower helped develop Chapman’s Muse Machine STEAM Institute for teachers (now in its 25th year.)
Jennifer Evins, President and CEO at Chapman Cultural Center, says: “Being prepared for kindergarten is key to education success for all children and research shows that arts education in preschool increases kindergarten readiness and reduces chronic absenteeism. Over the last forty years we have provided the K5-12 students and teachers of Spartanburg County with an arts advantage that other counties do not have. We’re extending this training to include early childcare providers so that even our youngest children will have access to quality arts education.”
Recent research conducted by Spartanburg Academic Movement has shown that “only 47% of children entering kindergarten in Spartanburg County are ready.” Chapman Cultural Center and First Steps believe integrating creativity and the arts into preschool classrooms will have a myriad of positive effects, especially for those who live in poverty which is nearly 28% of all children in Spartanburg County according to the United Way of the Piedmont. In a study conducted at Mississippi State University, schools with arts integrated curricula saw an increase in test scores and learning for students with low socioeconomic backgrounds specifically reducing or eliminating academic achievement gaps.
The arts and creativity teach children to take healthy risks, see from others’ perspectives, increase student self-motivation, and teach life skills like empathy and teamwork. All these skills are needed to be kindergarten ready, and are also world-class skills needed by 21st century graduates to be successful.
Independent studies of the Wolf Trap Institute (which focuses on teacher professional development) and their more than 30 years of experience, affirm that the infusion of arts-integration strategies into curriculum content enhances early childhood development, supporting STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), language and literacy development, health and wellness, bridging the economic achievement gap and providing children living in disadvantaged communities better access to quality education.
Evins concluded, “We are thrilled to be working with First Steps, Spartanburg Academic Movement and Mary Black Foundation to pilot our first year with the hopes to train all preschool teachers in Spartanburg County in the next three years.”
