Learning Through The Arts at GECDSB
Respected local community artists partner with classroom teachers to develop and implement lessons with an eye toward applied arts integration, differentiated instruction, and multiple intelligences.

In 1998 the Royal Conservatory of Music obtained a Millennium grant to invite six sites across Canada to pilot the LTTA program for three years in their schools.  Those sites were Vancouver BC; Calgary AB; Saskatoon SK; Fredericton NS; Cornerbrook NL; and Windsor ON.  All sites embraced this classroom-based professional development in arts integration and differentiated instruction, recognizing the long lasting impact it had on teachers and students because of the way it is customized to the needs of the individual teacher.

After the success of the pilot, GECDSB formed partnerships with the Arts Council Windsor and Region, and The Trillium Foundation to increase the number of classes over the following three years, allowing more schools to participate.  Having found value in the program, and finding it in high demand, the GECDSB has continued annual renewal of LTTA, moving to new schools in response to ongoing requests from principals. 

Year after year the program itself is refined, keeping pace with current findings in brain research and effective instruction.  Artists in the program receive ongoing training in pedagogy and instructional best practices, so it is no surprise that LTTA artists are increasingly in high demand for arts-in-education programs of all sorts.

Since 1999 participating LTTA teachers and students have been engaged, inspired, and informed by a wide range of visual and performing artists including musicians, painters, dancers, poets, actors, drummers, textile artists, singers, sculptors, storytellers, and puppeteers.  LTTA artists have worked in intensive one–on–one partnerships with 800 GECDSB elementary classroom teachers, to the benefit of almost 20,000 students.