Creative Classroom Collaboratives is a four-year school reform model developed by Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services and awarded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) grant program. ESBOCES will partner with Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, Arts Consultant Laura Reeder, and Metis Associates evaluators to bring ongoing targeted professional development in arts integration and 21^st century skills to grade 2-4 classroom and specialty teachers, along with arts residencies for students, grades 2-4, in the Riverhead and William Floyd school districts.  All work, linked to the New York State and national learning standards, is intended to enable all students to meet challenging expectations and to improve student and school performance.

Aesthetic Education - to reach the grant's objectives, there will be an annual 5-day Summer Aesthetic Education Seminar to engage Teaching Artists, Classroom Teachers and arts specialists as peer teachers and learners of aesthetic education practices that will enhance instruction grades 2-4; sustained professional development, coaching and collegial support in the school sites; the development and implementation of School-Year Units of Study (five weeks) with students in targeted classrooms; and

documentation and dissemination of effective materials, practices and processes.

Development of professional learning or “Peer to Peer” communities - that engage arts and non-arts educators in collaborative design of instruction and in an ongoing mentoring process that reinforces creative learning.

Technology - As the project develops, a web-based “toolkit” comprised of model lessons, assessment tools and protocols, images, and video clips will be publicly accessible for download via the Eastern Suffolk BOCES website.

Goals:

• To build the capacity of teachers and teaching artists in the target schools to incorporate collaborative practice in their instruction and to encourage creative expression in their students.

• To increase student engagement in critical thinking processes and improve their achievement in critical 21^st Century Skills, art, and core academic areas.

• To reform school planning in order to better integrate essential 21^st Century Skills across the school community through relevant engagement in the arts.

• To share the tools and lessons learned through the AEMDD grant project with NYS and the larger education community.