GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Coit Arts Academy in Grand Rapids is a magnet school for the arts, so school leaders thought it was only natural to use the students’ passion to improve their knowledge.
Four years after being named a priority school by the state, Coit Arts Academy is now off the list. The principal credits the school’s unique approach to education.
“Using math, social studies, science, music, dance, theater to promote all of that, so it’s really a whole child perspective that we’re doing here,” Dr. Jason McGhee said.
In 2013, David Dublis was brought on as the creative arts specialist. He explained he oversees collaboration between the art, dance and music teachers with the core academic teachers every week.
“They discuss what units they’re talking about and discuss how they can integrate their specific area of expertise into that unit,” he said.
For example, in the dance class, the teacher created a science unit specifically dealing with sound waves. He used a drum to create the “call” and the students then created movement as the “response.”
It works in art class, as well, where Dublis says a recent project was linked to social studies. The students created stenciled manuscripts to look like stained glass windows, using their initials or something else to tell the story of who they are.
“She (the art teacher) had met with Ms. Jones, our fourth-grade teacher, and they were talking about moments in history where there was not a lot of literacy among the prevailing people. In the 1400s, they had to develop these stained glass windows to tell the story of what was going on in the church,” Dublis said.