Arkansas A+, within the College of Education and Health Professions, is dedicated to transforming education through the arts. 

Through partnerships with pre-K-12 schools and educational organizations across Arkansas, Arkansas A+ provides engaging, hands-on professional development that introduces the A+ essentials and arts integration strategies teachers can use to engage students and support academic growth. 

Arkansas A+ recently offered professional development workshops for teachers from Landmark Elementary and Hope School District, offering creative strategies for enhancing classroom instruction.  

LANDMARK ELEMENTARY

Arkansas A+ and Landmark Elementary, a school in the Pulaski County Special School District (PCSSD), partnered together last summer with the school's first summer institute. This marked the start of the school's three-year implementation journey. To provide schools with continued support, Arkansas A+ offers its member schools ongoing professional development opportunities throughout the school year. During the school's January session, A+ fellows introduced arts-integrated math and science strategies to teachers that focused on experiential learning and play. 

Landmark Elementary has already demonstrated academic growth. The Office for Education Policy recognized it as one of four "high-growth schools" in PCSSD and ranked it among Arkansas' top three elementary schools in value-added growth scores. The school's commitment to ongoing growth aligns with the Arkansas A+ model, which encourages engaging, student-centered learning experiences.

The session began by focusing on how artists and scientists both need to be keen observers to capture the details needed to create artwork or conduct experiments successfully. Teachers engaged in hands-on experiments, like marbling paper with shaving cream and food coloring, exploring the solubility of M&Ms and experimenting with water-based paint on various surfaces. 

The math portion of the session took an active approach, as teachers moved around the room to explore how movement and dance can reinforce understanding of math multiples.

The day was full of discovery, creativity and play, an approach that resonated with the Landmark Elementary teachers.

"These strategies are a wonderful way to keep students engaged in learning," said Kyosha Hunter, a kindergarten teacher at the school. "They will retain more of the information when learning is active and fun."

HOPE SCHOOL DISTRICT

Arkansas A+ joined forces with middle school social studies teachers and specialists (art, physical education, drama, music, technology and more) from the Hope School District to explore arts-integrated strategies designed to bring history lessons to life. These strategies focused on crucial parts of a teacher's curriculum, like the Great Depression and the New Deal era.

Teachers began their day by engaging with the book Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, the story of a 14-year-old girl living through the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Inspired by the book, teachers developed a series of tableaus, or frozen dramatic movements, to represent key events and emotions in each part of the story.

After exploring and discussing some of the photos from the era as a group, teachers chose a photo to "jump into" and write from the point of view of a human, animal, plant or object, eventually creating a poem from their close observations. The group wrapped up the day by creating a large-scale artwork depicting how events across the era's timeline connect using portions of their poems, photographs and other materials.

This session was just the beginning for Hope School District teachers. Arkansas A+ will work with the district's middle school social studies teachers and specialists this summer to kick off their A+ transformation. 

When asked about the lasting impact of the partnership between Arkansas A+ and Hope School District, Allison Rowe, the district's magnet coordinator, said she was encouraged by the new opportunities the A+ curriculum provides.

"I am most excited to see how our teachers are integrating arts into their curriculum with creative, hands-on strategies from Arkansas A+ in their classrooms," she said. "This partnership is opening doors for collaborative, cross-curricular learning, where subjects like social studies, art and STEAM can blend in innovative ways. When students start talking about these activities in other classes—sharing their excitement about what they're learning—it will inspire more teachers to incorporate these strategies into their own lessons."

In both professional development sessions, teachers were encouraged to tailor the strategies that A+ fellows introduced to fit the needs of their unique classrooms. Educators left the sessions with practical tools they could implement to foster a more dynamic and engaging learning environment for their students.

As Arkansas A+ prepares for this summer's training sessions, the focus remains on deepening teachers' understanding of the A+ model and ensuring that creativity, collaboration and innovation remain central to education.