Impact

“The students were engaged 100%,” exclaimed an excited Jefferson Parish Schools teacher when asked about her experience with a YALA teaching artist in the classroom. Over the last six years, hundreds of Jefferson Parish school educators grades Pre-K through 5th have worked alongside teaching artists to plan, implement, and refine English Language Arts and math lessons integrated with the arts through two U. S. Department of Education grants.

Passion for music and dancing runs deep and blossoms early in Southeast Louisiana, and the team members of Young Audiences of Louisiana’s afterschool dance program at Lincoln Elementary School for the Arts are no exceptions. Participating girls in grades first through eighth refer to themselves as the “LDT” when they high-step in Mardi Gras parades, but their Carnival swagger is founded in an intensive, multi-year program of cultural, artistic, academic, and personal exploration.

Walking through the halls of Kingsley House Head Start center, songs and giggles bubble from happy students. Drums and chimes ring out to call students back to their classrooms from playground time. “Play” continues during class but, with the help of a Louisiana Wolf Trap teaching artist, it is arts-integrated play with a purpose. With each passing year, arts integration is becoming increasingly recognized as an effective and joyful pedagogical practice, particularly for very young learners.