From July 20-25, 2014, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette was home to the Louisiana A+ Schools Summer Institute presented by Chevron, a transformative professional development opportunity for all teachers in the LAA+ network. This year GRFA worked with nine schools in the LAA+ program:
1. South Highlands Elementary Magnet in Shreveport
2. Grace Episcopal School in Monroe
3. Epiphany Day School in New Iberia
4. The Dufrocq School in Baton Rouge
5. Riverside Academy in Reserve
6. Martin Behrman Academy in New Orleans
7. Homer A. Plessy Community School in New Orleans*
8. St. Helena Arts & Technology Academy in Greensburg*
9. Homer Elementary School in Homer*
*Also a member school of the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities’ Turnaround Arts: Louisiana.
Although these institutions are scattered across the state, they share a common mission to use arts integration to inspire students and transform their schools. Each day at the Summer Institute featured engaging workshops to provide teachers with the tools and resources necessary to implement the Eight A+ Essentials into their curriculum.
The three new schools added this year will also be part of the Turnaround Arts: Louisiana initiative, a program of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. GRFA is honored to have been selected as the Louisiana program director and looks forward to using the A+ method to turnaround these schools using the arts.
We were fortunate to have Kathy Fletcher, National Director of Turnaround Arts, speak to attendees on our opening night. As our three new Turnaround A+ Schools prepare for the coming school year, her message of the importance of arts in the classroom was especially relevant. We were also excited to have a special presentation from Dr. James Catterall of UCLA, who along with his research team will be conducting a multi-year study of the LAA+ program.
