DALTON, Ga. — Mark Mardis, a music teacher at Roan School, felt like he was on a field trip for teachers as he attended the recent Arts Educators’ Conference at the Creative Arts Guild.

“As art teachers we never get professional development in Dalton so it’s amazing we can come today and do these things,” Mardis said.

The conference, called “Creative Connections,” brought together more than 80 educators from Dalton, Whitfield and Murray school systems. Creative Connections was created from a re-visioning process of the Creative Arts Guild that began in summer of 2015, said Guild executive director Amanda Brown.

“The purpose of (the) process was to ensure we are doing our best to serve current community needs in the areas of arts in culture as the community stands today,” Brown said. “One thing that came out of the process was our renewed focus on supporting working artists and that includes arts educators.”

The confernce included keynote speaker Jessica Booth, the fine arts education program specialist for the Georgia Department of Education, and workshops taught by arts educators and artists from around the region.

Booth, a former teacher, talked about the future of art programs in schools, specifically in Georgia. She developed the Georgia STEAM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) certification for schools and Georgia’s Fine Arts Diploma Seal for graduating seniors that focuses on promoting community service through the arts.

“I think the arts make good people and that’s kind of our end goal,” she said. “It’s really about making the next generation of artists, arts critics and art appreciators and that’s been my personal mission.”

Booth said during her 21 years as an educator she didn’t have much support for the arts.

“I see that most of you are the same way,” she told the teachers. “You’re doing more with less while differentiating and creating a personalized learning environment.”

Mardis said he enjoyed hearing Booth.

“I was questioning the new standards and she put me at ease,” he said. “They will be much more realistic and easy to use because the current ones are long. The new standards sound flexible where you can adjust to students’ needs.”

There were 14 workshop subjects including “Bring STOMP Into Your Classroom,” “The Choral Rehearsal Process — Teaching and Assessing Singers,” “Exploring Chemical and Physical Changes Through Indigo Dye” and “Paper to Picture.”

“Bring STOMP Into Your Classroom” was taught by professional drummer Ameenah Kaplan.

She has performed on The Grammy Awards, “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “The Conan O’Brien Show” and was part of the original cast of “STOMP,” a theatrical percussion show. The workshop taught teachers to discover the fundamentals of rhythm and how to use them for team building. Teachers learned intermediate drum skills to pass to students to study and interpret music. Kaplan had teachers form a circle as she taught them clapping, stomping and dancing techniques.

Alana Sane, the theater teacher at Southeast Whitfield High School, participated in the session.

“I think it’s amazingly nice to be able to learn new things for interaction in the class,” she said.

Brown said she was pleased with the conference and hopes it’s the first of many.

“It’s a huge success to see this many people from the three school systems engage together and have a conversation about the arts,” she said. “I think there is a lot we can do from breaking down the boundaries between school systems and having a community networking opportunity.”