RIDGEFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOLS
PROGRAM NEWSLETTER
Newsletter
Pursuing Passions with Related Arts
Website: http://www.ridgefieldschools.com/domain/112
Location: 555 Chestnut Street, Ridgefield, NJ
Phone: 201-945-7747
Where We've Been - What Are Related Arts?
The Ridgefield Public Schools have offered students the opportunity to explore related arts at grades Pre K - 5 with offerings of traditional art, vocal and instrumental music, physical education, health, and technology classes. As students progress into middle school in grades 6 - 8, students have expanded choices in related arts with electives such as digital art, photography, and multi-media. At the secondary level in grades 9 - 12, the electives become even more diverse. Students chose from classes which include ceramics, computer aided design or CAD, digital photography, or advanced art.
Throughout their K - 12 education, students have exposure to the related arts and gain more choice to pursue areas that are of interest to them. Related arts classes can help students to be more motivated in their academic classes. Related arts also foster areas of the brain which can help students to learn.
Spotlight on our Special Services: Students Win 2nd Place in Design Contest
Ridgefield High School’s STRIVE program, which helps people ages 18 to 21 with disabilities become more independent, won second place in a design contest hosted by The Arc of New Jersey to commemorate Developmental Disability Awareness Month.
Students and teachers traveled to the State House in Trenton on Monday, March 2, 2017 to accept their award and showcase their project, a 2½-minute video showing students working and doing charity work throughout Bergen County. the video was an impressive encapsulation of the great work that the STRIVE Program is doing.
Students being honored included Jared Saldana, Rushi Champaneri, Bora Demirbulakli, Evan Barbosa, Crystal Rivera, Alex Flores-Manzano and Anthoni Fuentes. Teachers Jevon Drakeford, Donna Wietecha, Luis Canelo, Daniella Buttafarro and Todd Mahoney also attended along with activist Ryan Roy.
Please congratulate all of our students in the STRIVE Program!
Where we are now: New offerings
In grades K - 2, students are provided with traditional art, music, physical education, health, technology and Spanish. Students now have access to all of these classes for the full school year, where as in the past they would only receive some of the courses for only a part of the year. The students also receive library/media services through the research and critical literacy protocol for one marking period during the year.
In grades K - 5, students receive traditional art, music, physical education, health, technology and Spanish or Italian. Beginning in grade 4, students can choose to enroll in instrumental music through the Slocum Skewes beginner band. Students who receive band are pulled out of their academic classes for lessons during the week in the instrument of their choice. Band is the first class in which a student has the opportunity to choose a related arts class for him or herself.
In grades 6 - 8, the choice for related arts classes expands. Students can now experience some choice among traditional art, choral music, band, digital art, technology, digital photography, multi-media, physical education and health. Students begin to have the autonomy to pursue subjects that are of interest to them. In grade 6, students receive the world language of Italian. In grades 7 and 8, students receive the choice among Italian, Spanish, or Korean.
At grades 9 - 12, the choices for related arts expand even further. Students are required to fulfill four years of health and physical education, but they can choose their remaining related arts classes. The elective choices have a broader range at the high school level. Students can choose among varied visual art classes, such as ceramics, drawing, pottery, or digital art. Students can choose the traditional technology classes or participate in electives, such as computer aided design (CAD), digital photography, engineering by design, accounting, or marketing. At the secondary level, students can truly explore their passions and enjoy subject areas beyond academics.
where we are going: more 21st century choices
- Provide the funding for curriculum resources to continue to invest and implement in the programs that have begun their implementation over the past two years. Continue to invest in programs such as; digital art, CAD, video game design, and adding classes such as coding and cyber security to ensure that children receive a related arts education that will make them college and career ready in the 21st century. Providing the building space and materials to create innovation spaces within the school to allow students to explore materials and problem solving.
- Expand library media, technology, and information literacy by adding specialists. Currently, the Ridgefield School District has no operating library media centers. It has only one Library Media Specialist for all students in Grades K-12 who delivers part of a newly developed information literacy program. Additional staffing is needed to expand the information literacy program and provide students with a more comprehensive experience and the much needed and valuable instruction, giving students the tools to compete in the 21st century.
- Expand upon the Integrated Studies Program. Provide students a a greater variety of offerings where they can experience the cross-content connections by connecting the arts with academics, project based learning, and instruction from two teachers, each an expert in his or her discipline.
- Create a Business Program. Provide students with a program that provide them with career experience. In this program, students can take business electives over their four years of high school and participate in a business related internship in their senior year. This program will provide real life instruction for those who would like to major in business in college or enter workforce after high school.
Program Highlights: How Do Related Arts Help Students Learn?
When children enter school, art activities need to be a part of the school curriculum. Brain areas are developed as the child learns songs and rhymes and creates drawings and finger paintings. The dancing and movements during play develop gross motor skills, and these activities enhance emotional well-being.
The arts are not just expressive and affective, they are deeply cognitive. They develop essential thinking tools — pattern recognition and development; mental representations of what is observed or imagined; symbolic, allegorical and metaphorical representations; careful observation of the world; and abstraction from complexity. Creating art is a way for students to make choices and solve problems. Every step involves making a decision: what color to use, how to make a line, what size to make something. With every choice the object becomes more and more their own.
The arts also contribute to the education of young children by helping them realize the range of human experience, see the different ways humans express and convey meaning, and develop subtle and complex forms of thinking. Although the arts are often thought of as separate subjects, like chemistry or algebra, they really are a collection of skills and thought processes that transcend all areas of human interaction. Everyone has an imagination. Art takes it a step further. Through art, students can create something that, until that point, was only imagined. Thus, they create visual representations of abstract ideas.
Students who may be having difficulties in other parts of the school curriculum may find an expressive outlet through art. It’s a way to uncover talent that may not be seen otherwise. Art is a means of communicating ideas, feelings, and solutions in a way other than verbally or written, which can be quite difficult for some students.
For more information on the Arts and brain development, please click on the following link: