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Art is woven into lesson plan at Apalachee Tapestry

Students at Apalachee Tapestry Magnet School of the Arts have a good thing going. Not only do they enjoy a campus-wide model of arts integration throughout the curricula, they also receive instruction from faculty members…

Students at Apalachee Tapestry Magnet School of the Arts have a good thing going. Not only do they enjoy a campus-wide model of arts integration throughout the curricula, they also receive instruction from faculty members who are exceptional arts specialists.

Fifth-grader Caleb Bogart has played the violin since first grade in the school’s strings program. He knows how lucky he is to receive this kind of training and he pointed out that “this is pretty much one of the only elementary schools in the entire county that does that.”

Caleb finds joy in playing music and he has some solid theories about the benefits. “If you learn music early on, it helps the mind organize things so as you grow up you get smarter from the instrument. By the time you’re in college you’re really smart so everything should be a breeze.”

In addition to the school’s specialized arts programs, both students and teachers get an extra boost from their partnership with Opening Nights Performing Arts at Florida State University.

Assistant Principal David Rudenborg explained, “the partnership provides opportunities for our students that extend beyond what we can do as a school alone. They’re really able to provide all kinds of artistic experiences that we would not otherwise have.”

Rudenborg can cite countless reasons for the school’s commitment to arts integration and he can give many more for the emphasis on community collaboration but one goal stands above the rest. “It’s important that our students understand other people’s art. It’s not just creating art, it’s connecting it to what other people are trying to say and then listening to that and asking themselves, do I agree with that. If not, why, and how can I respond in an artistic manner? That’s synthesizing which is such a high-level cognitive capacity for them.”

This concept was at the heart of a performance presentation made possible by Centennial Bank and given by The New 76ers. A local folk trio comprised of Brian Durham and Kelly and Danny Goddard, the group shared the rich history of folk music and its different sub-genres with Apalachee fourth and fifthgraders. Students learned about the generational aspect of Appalachian, blues, bluegrass, and rock ‘n’ roll music along with the history of songwriting and the birth of protest songs.

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