Engaging Creative Minds

I learned about Engaging Creative Minds after relocating to Charleston from the Midwest. I believe ECM is one of the best educational arts organizations in the Lowcountry. Their curriculum coaches set instructors and students up for success with their methodical planning and collaborative approach. The staff at ECM is incredibly supportive and I have had some wonderful opportunities utilizing musical theatre to teach core subjects in a classroom setting. Arts integration is one of the most effective teaching styles I have ever experienced. I will never forget the joy on my students' faces when they grasped the concept of figurative language through song and dance!

~Emily Miller (SSL Entertainment)

ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS HELPS BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN THE NORMAL CLASSROOM SETTING AND ART INTERGRATION BY ALLOWNG THE STUDENTS TO BE CREATIVE WHILE THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX.

Engaging Creative Minds is the nonprofit organization that all organizations strive to be. Transparent, efficient, effective, and constantly evolving nimbly while maintaining a high growth rate for the sake of the population they serve. Their programs benefit students across South Carolina, allowing for success in their mission. ECM's ripple effect does not stop there, though. The organization is quintessential to teachers, school administrators, and teaching artists in the state by providing work opportunities, abundant lesson plans, resources for our hardworking teachers, and programs that mitigate student absenteeism and encourage a love for learning. The future of South Carolina's education system depends on the optimism and strategy that ECM brings.

I was asked to be an Entrepreneurship counselor at a STEAM camp that was coordinated by ECM this summer. It was a great experience for me. The camp was very well organized, well supported, and there were many resources available to the campers and the counselors. ECM did a great job coordinating and organizing all of the camps state-wide. I very much enjoyed my experience. Most importantly, the kids had a great time and were very engaged throughout. It was my pleasure to be associated with ECM. They can make a difference in the lives of young people.

Engaging Creative Minds does such amazing work connecting students and teachers with the arts. The team is talented, passionate, and organized, making their mission that much more impactful. I am particularly a fan of their use of long term experienced educators as curriculum coaches. These coaches create a seamless connection between artists and the school team, navigating the development of a creative project inspired by specific and core curriculum standards. Art matters, and ECM knows it!

I had the pleasure of working with Engaging Creative Minds (ECM) during the summer. I was blown away by the learning opportunities ECM afforded the children in the community. Their lessons were well thought out and engaging. My students loved the arts integration activities because they learned new ways to express themselves and their knowledge of subject matter. At the beginning of this school year, many children asked if we were going to have the camp again because they liked to “do fun stuff and learn at the same time.”

ECM helps us connect with schools across the area. They are always prompt and professional. They do a wonderful job of helping us foster relationships with the teachers we work with to keep coming back as well.

Cody Mathews - Education Specialist, Children's Museum of the Lowcountry

This summer was our district's first experience with ECM. It was the best experience ever! ECM provided support, guidance as well resources that we needed to operate a successful Summer STEAM program. Teachers, parents and students all enjoyed the program ECM afforded. I look at the video from our Summer STEAM Showcase often and it still gives me goosebumps. Our students and teachers were able to create life-long memories with the help of ECM.

ECM worked really well organizing and preparing the first grade teachers at Jennie Moore Elementary for their shadow lesson using art and literature. As museum educators at the Gibbes Museum of Art, we worked closely with our ECM coordinator to make sure we covered science, math, and literacy standards through both in-class activities (shadow puppets) and visits to the museum. ECM also supported our work by providing materials. We found the students to be well prepared and engaged. It was a great learning experience for all of us!

Having volunteered a year with Engaging Creative Minds, I witnessed first-hand how integral and impactful ECM is in the community. Committed staff and teaching artists personally dive into educational shortfalls and fill them with experiences that not only teach children STEAM lessons, but make the educator more confident in their skills as community leaders.

I was a participant in workshop session on summer programs. Very prepared, enthusiastic, and shared information that is immediately applicable! I went home and the incorporated their ideas the next week. Excellent presenters and information!

Engaging Creative Minds has an amazing mission. The board put together a stellar program: smart in their funding, value of teaching artists and curriculum. For the past two summers I've looked forward to the camp planning session where theatre, music, technology & dance teaching artists are presented vocabulary and concepts. We share ideas, map out the week, and best of all get to be around the counselors who are fresh out of college ready to begin their teaching careers. When the week arrives camp is nonstop. We work hard, stay focused, and use our art form to make learning fun! We get to know the kids in a fun, exciting atmosphere. I am happy to teach dance, interpersonal skills and inspiration at STEAM Institute, and I am thrilled the Engaging Creative Minds community cares enough about the youth and arts to provide this program.

Addy Gantt, MA, DTR

Engaging Creative Minds is changing the lives of faculty, staff, and students at Burns Elementary in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Each Wednesday morning ECM greets our students and families...and by greet our families I mean GREET our families! All parents and bus drivers are served piping hot coffee and gourmet doughnuts as they drop off students at school.

Students are treated to stilt walkers, face painting, African drummers and dancers, bubble machines, cheerleaders, uplifting music and so much more! The main point is that the students are treated!

Burns Elementary is an impoverished and under performing school with attendance and tardiness concerns. This partnership with ECM has increased on time arrival for school on Wednesday...as well as increased car riders on Wednesday mornings! Our students look forward to each Wednesday as they bound out of the cars and off of the buses.
Many of our staff has stated that on Wednesday, behaviors are improved and office behavior referrals are decreased.

Oh, Engaging Creative Minds also feeds the staff each and every Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday afternoons, Engaging Creative Minds arrives just before dismissal and makes certain that every student has a hug or high five and pack of smarties to finish off the day.

Needless to say, Burns Elementary LOVES Engaging Creative Minds. We feel as if they should be called Engaging Creative Hearts and Minds!!!

The work that Engaging Creative Minds does for our students in Charleston County has been a keystone in helping students gain motivation intrinsically because of the awesome experiences that ECM offers to the students in our district. My students have benefited from ECM by having the Charleston Stage Company come in the classroom and help students learn through acting tools. They have also provided students the opportunity to go to the opera and see Porgy and Bess as well as allowing more arts integration into the curriculum by having students create mosaics with artist, Meryl Weber. I have also had the pleasure of being a part of ECM's Summer STEAM Institute which enriches the lives of students from various backgrounds by keeping their minds stimulated and getting them excited about learning going into their next academic year. The resources and experiences that ECM provides helps teachers (like myself) become better teachers.
-Archie S. Temoney, Jr.
8th Grade S.C. History Teacher
C.E. Williams Middle School for Creative and Scientific Arts
Charleston County School District

I just want to say a big thank you on behalf of the Steel Drum and Percussion students at Stall High School for supporting us through your grant money. Also, what a great surprise by showing up with a news crew! The students and faculty at Stall have all talked about your generosity non-stop since then. You all definitely caught us off guard!

Thanks again for the support. The students and I greatly appreciate what you all do!

Engaging Creative Minds totally looks at combining the whole experience of the arts and academics, and uses it to create a well rounded lifelong learner. The program does an excellent job of providing opportunities to both learners and educators. This is the way all educational experiences should be.

I enrolled my grandson in one week of STEAM camp this summer. He was very hesitant to go - we actually had to make him go the first day. By Wednesday he was asking if he could do another week. He is on week 3 now and says he wishes "he could go to school at STEAM all year long!" He loves it so much, he talked his step-sister into going, also. This is an awesome program. Every child should have this opportunity.

ECM - should also stand for encouraging creative minds! As an artist for Engaging Creative Minds, I find that working with their coaches and the teachers, that I am able to help share and encourage learning using creativity in all forms of digital and print. The outcomes vary from short movies, to dvd's with color prints, to printed newspapers and then portraits with a student modeling their dreams for the future and what it takes to get there! Throughout the entire learning process, the students are encouraged to use their imagination and to create images in their minds and then to write! In other projects, we help the students to become good observers and reporters, they then write and see their works published. Yes, the outcome shows academic success, but often I see other important elements such as the students finding their self within their work, they gain self esteem and confidence. And, just think using the creative process. So when one thinks of the positive outcomes of a creative experience with ECM, I also suggest that we should look at the benefit to the whole student!

Exposure to the breadth of creative inspiration which ECM has povided to me as a teacher, has been immensely helpful with The HERO Project. As a visual artist they helped me fine tune my goal and engage students in thought and consideration of the character and life choices of "heroes". I needed to better understand how to present this material to young minds as well as how it related to core curriculum. The professionals at ECM have taught and encouraged me as they opened school doors to experience sculpture. These experiences have ignited creative sparks in Tri- county students everywhere, be it 3D design and construction, history or focused language arts. The programs from ECM are piquing curiosity and delighting students.
I am forever thankful for the honor of working with ECM.

I have worked as a Teaching Artist on the SC Arts Commission Roster for decades. Over the last year, I've had an opportunity to get to know the work done at ECM. They do Arts Integration right! Every person in this organization goes above and beyond with a clear interest in enriching the lives and education of our children. Great people! Excellent program!

I have to say a HUGE thank you to Engaging Creative Minds for partnering with Chas Stage Company to do an incredible residency at my children's school, Ashley River Creative Arts Elem. I have triplets in 3rd grade and each one of them is STILL talking about the amazing and FUN experience they had three weeks ago! They learned SO much about the Civil War and all three girls got 100's on their tests after their time with ECM. But more important than the grade, the girls understood the material bc it was presented in such a unique way. They went into the test with confidence using all they learned. I have heard other parents say the same! We are so grateful!
I wish ECM and Chas Stage were there for EVERY social studies unit! (;
Thank you to some very special people for making this program a grand success!
The Farr Family

I have attend 3 workshops/professional development opportunities sponsored by ECM over the last year and half. All three of the workshops I found to be of great benefit to my teaching and have given me lots of ideas that I now use in my classroom with my students. I am looking forward to working with ECM in March when they will provided an artist in residence to help my students learn volume and surface area with sculptures.

I've been working with Engaging Creative Minds (ECM) for the past couple of years - as an artist and as a summer program and special events partner. I can say with confidence that without ECM the students they work with in the Lowcountry would not have the enrichment and exposure to the arts that they now have. It would be very difficult to get my program into the schools during the school day without our partnership with ECM. Great group of folks doing great work for the students in the Lowcountry.

I work for the school district where Engaging Creative Minds began, and I can wholeheartedly say that it is one of the best arts-infusion programs I have ever seen in education. The model provides gainful and meaningful employment for local artists while bringing curricula to life for our students. The program administrators run an organized ship and every dollar is used wisely.

Engaging Creative Minds has become an integrated part of the experiences for the learners of
C.E. Williams Middle School for Creative Arts. Our learners engage the curriculum through the arts with artists which is exciting and solidifies learning. In addition, our teachers are able to see and learn new and creative ways to present content.
We are glad to be an ECM school!

Engaging Creative Minds provides outstanding learning experiences for both students and teachers. As a teacher, I have learned how to make glass mosaics, dance the Charleston, dye fabric, and write songs that can be integrated into the curriculum I teach. The students and I learn side-by-side, What a unique and memorable experience.

During the summer of 2015, the students in Rural Clarendon School District One were blessed with the opportunity to partner with ECM. The experiences were awesome. Learning came alive and meaningful through the powerful integration of the arts in core content. The students and adults are looking forward to the partnership for summer of 2016.

Engaging Creative Minds is a true asset to the community of the Charleston region. ECM has decreased summer learning loss and has provided students with the love of learning. Moreover, it has also given non-arts teachers the skills to integrate the arts as a vital part of the school curriculum. In addition to the local school system they have partnered successfully with a number of organizations creating a bond between education and community. ECM is an excellent organization that has just began to make their mark, while spreading the message that the arts are important.

Engaging Creative Minds is an outstanding organization that brings the arts into schools. As a partner I am fortunate to share my art form (music) and my love of technology to provide students with STEAM education supported by ECM.
The staff is supportive and engaging, and the students and teachers love the residencies ECM offers.
Perhaps the most rewarding part of what I do with ECM is the amazing energy , excitement and gratitude I get from the students.
Keep doing what you are doing and thanks!