Media, Visual Arts and Performing Arts

The School of Dreams Academy will complement its strong academic program with a solid arts education initiative.   Research shows that the arts (visual arts, music, drama, dance) can be a valuable tool to teach what is considered to be a “traditional” curriculum (Math, Science, English, Social Studies).  Teachers at School of Dreams Academy will plan their lessons collaboratively to include the arts influence to instill in each of its students creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving ability. 

Arts integration into the curriculum, will take on a number of forms.  Sometimes teachers will use the arts to teach a lesson and other times students will use the arts to demonstrate their knowledge.  Some examples of teachers using the arts to teach a lesson include:  students participate in workshops with a visiting artist, exploring the science of sound (as part of a physics class) and mathematics of rhythm; use theater and dance to teach the concept of meiosis and mitosis; complete a sculpture and mobile project to reinforce the methods for calculating the surface area of geometric solids.  Examples of students using the arts to demonstrate their knowledge include:  students build Mesopotamian city-states out of paper-mache to demonstrate their knowledge of the architecture, culture and politics of this ancient time period; students write their own graphic novels to demonstrate their understanding of various historical time periods; students use graphic art to demonstrate their knowledge of a content area.   School of Dreams Academy will follow the New Mexico Content Standards, Benchmarks, and Performance Standards for Visual and Performing Arts K-12 in the area of Dance, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts.