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Change of art
By LOGAN NEILL © St. Petersburg Times, published May 24, 2001 SPRING HILL -- After practicing her dance routine for several weeks, Kristen Bloxsom gives the performance one more try in front of her classmates, searching for the perfection she hopes will come during the spring dance recital the next night. The sixth-grader has spent most of the school year trying to reach the level of ability and confidence she hopes to demonstrate on stage. However, had she not chosen to attend Powell Middle School, chances are she might not have ever taken up jazz dance at all. This year, Powell embarked on an ambitious expansion of its fine arts program to include for the first time classes in dance, drama and orchestral strings. Those enhancements, along with the adoption of a microsociety-based theme, have given Powell a unique distinction among the county's four middle schools, said Cy Wingrove, Powell's longtime principal. "I believe this is the kind of atmosphere that students appreciate having as part of their learning experience," Wingrove said. "We look at it as a long-term building process, and we will continue to try and make it better every year." Wingrove says the themed curriculum at Powell was aimed at furthering a concept that was introduced last school year at Elementary School. Chocachatti, noted for its high-profile fine arts curriculum and advanced student-run activities, opened its doors with great fanfare in the fall of 1999. However, the reinvention of Powell Middle has tended to be a bit more measured as students, teachers and administrators coped with a new way of doing things. Shortly after the Hernando School Board earmarked an additional $115,000 for expansion of new programs, Wingrove and his staff began planning for the changes. Many attended summer workshops and training session dealing with microsociety concepts, which operates with a student-run government, businesses and court system. The school also hired a microsociety coordinator, plus full- and part-time teachers for drama, dance and strings. Big changes will always mean a few stumbles, Wingrove said. He admitted that implementing the twice-weekly microsociety sessions, which didn't start until January, was perhaps the toughest endeavor. While a great number of incoming students from Chocachatti (a major feeder school for Powell) were familiar with the workings of the miniature society, most students had never experienced the program. "We expected it was going to be a hard sell to the eighth-graders because they would be leaving this year," Wingrove said. "I think the focus was more on younger students, the ones who were going to help build it in the future." Eighth-grader Christine Pereira admitted that she and many of her friends were skeptical of the microsociety at first. Many even found it a bit boring. "There were times when you were in microsociety that there was nothing to really do," she said. "You could shop at the market, but you weren't allowed to just stand around in the courtyard. A lot of people got mad because they were arrested." Still, others enjoyed the experience of being able to make their own money and to spend it the way they saw fit. "It was kind of cool because you were participating in something that was interesting," said Maggie Finnan, 14. "The kids who hated it probably just didn't understand what they were supposed to be learning from it." Wingrove believes that many of the students' concerns can be corrected with a little tweaking. For instance, he plans to see that more job choices will be available to students in the microsociety and that more activities will be included during leisure times. Likewise, Wingrove said he will focus on further expansion of fine arts programs, which perhaps will include another strings class. He also wants to upgrade facilities such as the drama department and dance studio. "We've been pleased with the progress so far, but there is plenty left to do still," Wingrove said. "Everyone is committed to these changes, so the best thing we can do is keep adding from what we learn from our experiences."
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From today's Hernando Times |
