CURRICULUM, MUSIC, AND COMMUNITY | PROJECT OVERVIEW

History of the project

teachers talking outside at a summer conference

Orange County and Durham County teachers plan curriculum at the 2001 Summer Conference in Ashe County.

Summer 1999

The CMC Project began in the summer of 1999 when UNC-CH faculty, staff from the North Carolina Arts Council and the North Carolina Museum of History, the director of the Caldwell Arts Council, and a group of local musicians met with fourth grade teachers at Gamewell Elementary in Caldwell County, North Carolina.

1999-2000 School Year

The project directors traveled to Gamewell Elementary several times over the school year to meet with teachers and the local arts council director. During these meetings, the directors and teachers worked collaboratively to plan artist visits, design curriculum, and share ideas. The North Carolina Arts Council provided funding for artist visits to the school and contributed expertise.

Summer 2000

The Gamewell teachers joined the UNC and Arts Council faculty in hosting an institute for fourth-grade teachers from two additional schools (in Ashe and Haywood counties) and the elementary music teachers from Surry County.

2000-2001 School Year

The project directors continued site visits to Caldwell County in addition to traveling to meet with teachers and arts councils in Haywood, Ashe, and Surry Counties. The North Carolina Arts Council continued to commit funding for artsts and served as a resource for teachers, project directors, and local arts councils.
Teachers at New Hope Elementary in Orange County expressed interest in joining the project and invited a teacher from Gamewell Elementary to come to their school and share information and curriculum ideas.
Teachers involved in the project, including fourth grade teachers from New Hope Elementary, traveled to UNC to attend a winter conference. Conference attendees spent time with local artists and shared curriculum activities and student work.

Summer 2001

All of the teachers previously mentioned—plus fourth-grade cohorts from North Carolina schools in Durham county, from two schools in Surry county, and from an additional school in Ashe county—joined with the CMC’s academic and Arts Council faculty as well as gospel singers, bluegrass musicians, an old-time string band, and traditional dancers to review the project’s progress and design a new year’s worth of activities.
The UNC-CH School of Education and the Curriculum in Folklore received major funding from the National Endowment for the Arts to expand the CMC project by hiring a full-time coordinator, partially underwriting the 2001 Summer Institute, establishing an online discussion forum for participating teachers, and employing a graduate assistant to gather teaching resources. The North Carolina Arts Council, in turn, committed continued funding to local Arts Councils to support artist visits to participating schools.

2001-2002 School Year

The project coordinator visited project sites in all counties monthly and facilitated communication between teachers, artists, arts administrators, and UNC faculty. The project coordinator, along with a graduate research assistants, assisted teachers in developing integrated curriculum using traditional music, compiled a discography of traditional North Carolina music, and created an artist directory for teachers involved in the project.
In February 2002, project participants gathered at UNC-CH to share developed curriculum and student work. Evaluators attended both summer and winter conferences and collected information from surveys and focus group interviews to evaluate the project’s impact. Additional interviews were conducted with students and teachers before the school year ended. In partnership with LEARN NC, an online resource for teachers across the state, an online discussion forum was created to facilitate communication among project participants.

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