Laurie Fellenz says that in middle school, the arts are an area of tremendous growth, with the number of community arts groups who want to provide middle school theater and drama opportunities for students on the rise.
In addition, middle schools are accessing other programs. A group of Toki students will participate in the Visioneers Design Challenge in Milwaukee later this month. The challenge is a middle and high school competition which allows students to examine design careers. Students spend the day working with designers, who judge their designs and give them challenges. Toki art teacher Sara Naatz has 17 students attending the competition.
At nearly all of our middle schools, students have access to vocal music, general music, band and orchestra. We visited orchestra teacher Carol Jenkins’ 7th grade class last month as they prepared for the district-wide strings festival. The strings festival involves all 5th-12th grade students and was held at each of our four main high schools on Saturday, March 17.
Ms. Jenkins’ guided her students through practicing “Dynamite” and “Gauntlet”. Jenkins said at the middle school level, students are learning to collaborate, analyze music and problem solve, which is a strong springboard for high school. “They have the fantastic energy, which I love, and they will still have that energy as 9th graders,” said Jenkins. “They have to be focused and know what to do in class, use that energy toward your intellectual activities and the groups, all the clubs that you can be in. It prepares them in so many ways for high school,” she said.
Ms. Jenkins described the district-wide strings festival as a “fantastic celebration.” She said the hundreds of students gathered together have great energy. “The younger kids getting to hear what they can do and for the older kids, the advanced players, they hear what they used to be like,” she said.
Ms. Jenkins was right. At the festival held at Memorial High School, you could feel the energy and excitement from students from the moment they took their places for the performance.
