Learning opportunities in other states
- N.C. school infuses all subjects with the arts
The School for Creative Studies, a Durham, N.C., magnet school for students in sixth to ninth grades, infuses the arts and design program into its core subjects. Students may spend their elective classes creating dance steps and writing songs for music videos, and may write a novel in social-studies class or compose an essay explaining a solution in math class. Principal Renee Price praised the creativity of the school’s teachers, each of whom are certified in their subject areas. The Durham News (N.C.) (12/11) - Students create illustrated children’s books about geometry
Some students at a high school in New Jersey are creating illustrated children’s books about geometry concepts. The school has been using the project to teach geometry for the past decade, and in recent years began sharing the stories with younger students. This year, one group of students created a book titled “Goldi-blocks and the Three Little Pigs.” Tri-Town News (Freehold, N.J.) (1/23) - Middle-schoolers make music videos about algebra
Eighth-graders studying algebra at a middle school in Texas learned about algebra concepts, such as the coordinate plane, by producing music videos. Students worked collaboratively for a semester to create the lyrics and make the videos. “We basically wrote down the real lyrics to the song and then looked in our math books and substituted what we found there for the words,” student Isabel Arevalo said. Austin American-Statesman (Texas) (free content) (12/25) - How some Mich. schools approach arts education
Students in Michigan are required to learn about dance, visual art, music and theater, but how schools meet this requirement varies widely. While budget trouble has put pressure on arts education in some districts, Ann Arbor Public Schools offers students a variety of arts courses and has the equivalent of more than 100 full-time arts teachers. MLive.com (Michigan) (free registration) (12/22) - How the arts can engage students to meet common core goals
The arts can help teachers engage students and spark the passion necessary for them to succeed under the Common Core State Standards, according to Courtney J. Boddie, director of education/school engagement at The New Victory Theater. In this blog post, Boddie uses the example of “Sleeping Beauty” to show how theater techniques and skills can be used in an elementary-school literature lesson that aligns with the common core. Edutopia.org/Courtney J. Boddie’s blog - New Jersey Adds Arts to School-Performance ReportsNew Jersey now includes metrics about arts education in its annual school reports—and education officials there say that makes it the first state to do so.
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