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I was heading for the fantastic lights,
destiny was looking right at me and nobody else. ~
Bob Dylan
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Program Information This school choice
program provides artistically talented students with an academically
challenging arts integrated curriculum. ACTS offers students an opportunity
to develop their academic skills in an environment which enhances their
artistic talents and interests. During this first year of implementation the
magnet is only available for sixth grade students, but over the next two
years, grades seven and eight will be phased into the program. Students who applied for the limited slots
in the ACTS program were required to complete an application, collect letters
of recommendation, provide writing samples, be individually interviewed by
the selection committee, and provide an arts portfolio for review. A cohort group of fifty sixth-grade
students qualified for the 2007-2008 school year. A coordinator
and specially selected GT endorsed teachers were hired to instruct the
students selected for the magnet program. Academic classes in the ACTS magnet
program combine a variety of resources, curricula, and approaches. English/
Language Arts classes use the curriculum from the Not only are the teachers at ACTS certified in their
particular academic or arts area, but they are also committed to ongoing
professional development in Arts Integration.
Through collaboration with the Peace Center, the teachers attend
numerous sessions where they are instructed by the teaching artists who come
from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Using the techniques learned in
these sessions, ACTS teachers engage students in creative learning experiences. Teachers strive to make natural and
significant connections between educational standards and art forms. Academic
and fine arts teachers collaborate to infuse dance, drama, music, and visual
arts into their lessons, supporting both the arts and academic
disciplines. Science and math lessons
are reinforced through music and movement while ELA and social studies
provide a complementary connection with drama and visual arts. Sixth grade magnet students
select an arts focus area for daily, year-long intensive study and also
select four additional fine arts rotation classes, one per nine week period
through the year. Course offerings include visual arts, chorus/voice, band,
orchestra, strings, drama, dance, technology/news production, and journalism/creative
writing. As seventh graders next year,
students will continue with a year-long arts focus and will have a
combination of additional quarter and semester arts options. |
“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great,
some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.”
~W. Shakespeare
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