Middle School "In the Middle" Arts Story

Middle School Arts

Photos by Arushi Beohar

Above: Alexis Waserstein in Art; Below: 8th graders Claire Kanners and Layla Goldberg practice a scene in drama class.

Exceptional Arts!

By Arushi Beohar The Middle School Performing Arts Program is a place that many students learn and grow as musicians, actors, and artists. The Middle School Performing Arts Program not only helps students to become more educated in drama, music , and art but it makes students more confident in their creativity, stage skills, and overall passion for these electives.

Middle School students have an opportunity each year to select three elective choices that they would like to participate in. The students can select countless options. Many of the options students pick include art, drama and music.

Mr. Winters is the Middle School director of music. There are five middle school music classes those of which are Early Bird Orchestra which meets before school in the morning to practice string instruments, wind class, intermediate band, concert band, pop band class, and chorus which is a vocal class. There are also Middle School students who are in intermediate EBO and advanced EBO. Eighth grader, Isabella Pedraza said, “I enjoyed Mr. Winters's class because I liked hanging around with friends but the class itself is sometimes challenging.”

Mr. Winters has played the upright bass since he was a small child. He enjoys teaching EBO where the students learn how to play string instruments. Mr. Winters has gone on tour for many years as well as working for Columbia and Epic Records. Mr. Winters also enjoys band music as well as rock, pop, and R&B. Mr. Winters has been teaching string instruments for 20 years. The goal for students who complete a beginning class is that it leads directly into an intermediate class. After taking an intermediate class the students should have gained all the knowledge to be in the intermediate class and after finishing these two classes they should have

a solid foundation and learn the basics of their instruments as well as good technique while playing whenever they play their instrument. This way they can build on their knowledge of their instrument and slowly move onto an advanced class.

In EBO you can learn violin, viola, cello, and the upright bass. Intermediate and beginning band: clarinet, trumpet, trombone, flute, and saxophone. These are all wind instruments. Concert band allows multiple different instruments and these students who take this class need to try out before they can be enrolled in this class.

When they are trying out for the class they need to know the instrument they are playing at an advanced level as well as play all their scales and read their music. Mr. Winters teaches them how to work as a band and they learn about their instruments and the equipment used. In chorus the students learn how to read music and how to practice basic music theory.

The goal at the end of the year is for them to read any piece of music whether it be classical or pop. In band Mr. Winters's favorite instruments are the saxophone and trombone. In the orchestra he enjoys the upright bass the most because he has been playing for over 20 years.

First Finger Phocketbell is one of the students favorite pieces to play and in the beginning of the year competition has done well. The middle school performing arts program has grown vastly.

In the years before there was a minimal amount of students who participated. Now the classes have grown and the classes have a lot more students participating.

The Orlando Fest in the spring is a favorite event amongst the students. Mr. Winters also enjoys taking the students there. One of the biggest challenges is creating a trip which is both fun and educational. Eighth grader Isabella Pedraza said, “I loved the Orlando Fest because I planned to do every single roller coaster with my friends”.

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Page 11 Around MCDS New Students Come to MCDS

Students Love the Arts!

Continued from previous page Playing with Phil Collins was one of the greatest accomplishments. A Youtube video which has been posted of the Middle school students playing with Phil Collins has reached almost half a million views. Another great accomplishment amongst the middle school students is the students individually who learn and then try out for All States which is a challenging music competition. Mr. Winters has seen a lot of students that he’s taught make it into All States throughout the years.

Playing in Mr. Winters's class and then performing on stage is a great way to build confidence for any of the performing arts classes.

This class is a great way to learn to become a leader and to build confidence on stage.

Mrs. Mahoney is the art teacher for the Middle School.

Art 1 for some people is a matter of building creative confidence. Art 2 students are passionate about art and more independent. Sculpture class is the most flexible class. Everyone works on 3D projects. Eighth grader Alicia Kelly said, “I really enjoyed sculpture class because of the giant shoe we made at the end of the year.”

In sculpture Mrs. Mahoney is intrigued by the fashion design project because they use recycled materials such as paper, wood, metal, and plastic. Mrs Mahoney said, “It’s fascinating to see what they come up with at the end of the project.”

In Art 1 the human figure sculpture project is her favorite. The students capture the essence of an action. In Art 2 the two point perspective drawing of a city is her favorite. Mrs. Mahoney said, “It’s very technical and it has to be created in an unusual place."

Mrs. Mahoney has been teaching for 35 years.

One of the things she really loves doing is building a huge bamboo sculpture. She had a Japanese Art teacher come to help build a bamboo sculpture. One time she did a tile wall of the footprints of every middle schooler’s foot.

The school has allowed Mrs. Mahoney to be

very creative in her classes.

Mrs. Mahoney is looking forward to the new facility and a new room with better lighting.

Mrs. Mahoney said, “I would love to be able to be assured enrollment in all three levels of art."

Mrs. Mahoney is always impressed with the high quality of work she gets from her students.

The Evening of the Arts is an event where they showcase the students' work.

Middle School drama is a great elective which is taught by Mrs. Jarvis- Guerra or “ Pops” as we call her.

Pops's said that it is because of Middle School Director Steve Mathes that she enjoys teaching middle school drama. Pops said, “The kids have a lot of energy and are motivated to perform.”

The students are the prime motivator for Pops's energy. Seventh grader Jackson Jimenez said, “I really love drama because of how fun and exciting the class is. Pops is a great teacher”.

Each year the Drama classes put on several productions, including Red Ribbon Week. Pops loves all the shows because they are each unique in their own way.

But her most memorable show was the “The Wiz." Pops and her crew work very hard to perfect each production. Although at times it is stressful, Pops enjoys it. She explained, “I feel excited, and anticipation sets in when the day for the production finally comes."

There are many factors that go into putting on a production, including rehearsal time. Pops said, “The biggest thing is the fear of disrupting the schedule of other teachers, coaches, and parents.”

She wouldn’t change anything about drama, although she would love to see more people attending the shows. Pops said, “Drama should be highlighted more. If more people came we could draw attention to larger crowds.”

She hopes that she has inspired students to have creative skills and opened their minds to unlimited ideas. Pops said, “I hope students can look back on fun memories and hope that they have built confidence and have learned to act in a believable manner and seek the arts in the future."

"I really love drama because of how fun and exciting the class is."

- Jackson Jimenez

Photo by Arushi Beohar

Samantha Green plays the flute in Mr. Winters's class.

By Philip Steinberg A lot of new students have joined the middle school at the Miami Country Day. The new students are enjoying the middle school so far.

sibilities for activities he likes. His favorite thing about this school is the amount of gym equipment because it opened more possibilities for activities. Also, Paul likes it here because of the schools large size and met new friends and saw old friends.

Jordan Sheppard is a new student in the sixth grade coming from Lehrman Community Day School.

She wanted to come here because she really likes it here.

Her favorite thing about this school is the academics and athletics. She says this because the athletics are really nice and she thinks she will learn a lot. As you can see, Jordan pin, Romeo Curcio likes it here very Paul Clifford is a new student in the sev- much. Jordan said, “The campus is very enth grade coming from Cushman. He nice and so are the people.” wanted to come here because he thought that this school would give him more posContinued on back page

Romeo Curcio is a new student here who is in the eighth grade. He came from Holy Cross.

Romeo’s favorite thing about this middle school is having more freedom.

What he means by freedom is that at his old school they did not have break. Romeo said, “I felt like at my old school it was not hard enough and I wanted an Philip Steinberg environment change and Below: Paul Clifford, Patrizia Pupto meet new people.”