Diverse Presenters Bring National Scope to Statewide Conference on Arts Integration

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Participants at this year's ARTful Teaching Conference met at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute at Petit Jean State Park.

MORRILTON, Ark. – The University of Arkansas attracted more than 80 people from 13 Arkansas colleges and universities for its third annual ARTful Teaching Conference on March 31-April 1. Guest speakers came from four states to discuss “The Sounds of Learning.”

The event brought together pre-service teachers, college educators and teaching artists to promote the creative and effective use of art to teach a wide range of subjects and grade levels. Each school brought a mix of students and faculty members from their teacher-training programs. It was organized by the Center for Children and Youth in the College of Education and Health Professions and the Brown Chair in English Literacy in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and held at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute at Petit Jean State Park.

 “The ARTful Teaching Conference just keeps growing, both in size and quality,” said Christian Goering, director of the Center for Children and Youth and associate professor of English Education in the U of A department of curriculum and instruction. “Each year, we try to show attendees the great potential of arts integration, and I think we did that.”

The theme of this year’s event was “The Sounds of Learning,” with music serving as the primary art form of focus. Previous years have highlighted performing arts and visual arts. Attendees participated in a variety of activities, learning innovative thinking and teaching strategies for connecting music with classroom learning. This year, for the first time, the ARTful Teaching Conference featured guest speakers from not only Arkansas but across the nation, including Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas.

“We’ve always had top-notch presenters from here in Arkansas,” said David Jolliffe, holder of the Brown Chair in English Literacy. “We were delighted also to have a number of out-of-state presenters who added greater range and some new perspectives. I think the quality and diversity of our presenters was fantastic.”

Many participants shared Goering and Jolliffe’s enthusiasm.

“I’ve attended a wide variety of professional conferences over the years and this was definitely in the top five,” said Aileen Watts, professor of early childhood education at Arkansas Tech University.  “I’ve already implemented a few of the activities with my own students here at Tech.”

Presenter Kim Wilson is an art teacher at Monticello High School and the 2012 Arkansas Teacher of the Year. She praised the fertile exchange of ideas, with all participants learning from each other.

“Regardless of how many years of teaching, taking on the role of a student and learning from others is the most beneficial experience to my teacher craft,” said Wilson. “The ARTful Teaching Conference stimulated my perceptions of learning and creating an exciting and inviting environment for all students.”

With nearly every teacher-training institution in Arkansas represented at the 2014 the ARTful Teaching Conference, the event has the potential to make a far-reaching impact on teacher preparation in the state.

“The vision of this conference is to expose future Arkansas teachers to arts integration early on, while their ideas and practices are still emerging,” Goering said. “We also want to bring college faculty and administration to promote arts integration on an institutional level.”

Plans for the fourth annual ARTful Teaching Conference are underway. Announcements will be made as the event dates are confirmed. For more information about the ARTful Teaching Conference, contact conference coordinator Hung Pham at literacy@uark.edu.