We are excited to celebrate this year's recipients.

HEF Innovative Educator Grant Program awards grants annually to Harrisonburg City educators who design educationally innovative programs which increase student motivation while meeting our diverse students’ needs. 

This year, with inspiration from our superintendent, HEF will prioritize grants that Integrate the Arts in the Core Areas.  We know many students are motivated by their participation in the Arts and during a time of pandemic education, we want to make sure those experiences are not lost but even enhanced. The Arts also lends itself to social emotional learning during a challenging time for students and families.  We also hope that the call of this grant theme will encourage educators to form meaningful partnerships with each other to support student learning.
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HEF may give priority for proposals with an Arts Integration focus but will also consider other innovate proposals as in previous years.  Grants requests should be between $500 and $5,000.
​Questions?  Contact HEF@harrisonburg.k12.va.us

Named Grant Opportunities
More about Integrating Arts
Arts integration is an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form.  Students engage in a creative process which connects an art form and another subject area and meets evolving objectives in both. 

Components of Effective Arts Integration (Adapted from Kennedy Center Teaching Artist Rubric)
  • Engagement: The teacher engages students in multiple ways artisitcally and academically
  • Questions/Inquiry: The teacher constructs and integrates questions and questioning strategies that generate curiosity, participation, understanding, and reflection in the learner and is reflective in the student work we will see in the project. 
  • Reflection: The teacher and project incorporates different ways for learner to look back, look within, look ahead and make personally relevant connections
  • Partnerships and Collaborations The  teachers and the project lends to a partnership and collaboration with teachers, students, institutions, and community members to benefit learning

Checkout this helpful site for more ideas:
​Kennedy Center's Arts Edge 

​​We can't wait to see more amazing learning projects in action with our students 
and share how they are having a positive impact in our schools!