Art Integrated Education Archive
Meet the AAW Wildcats
How did the AAW Wildcats come to be? Last year, digital arts teacher Brett Guay had an idea to start a basketball club. That may not sound like a revolutionary idea. But Guay is a teacher at Arts Academy in the Woods in Fraser – a school that has traditionally not had much of a...
Thursday, February 13, 2020
AAW PTA: Suckers grams will be available for purchases at lunch Today and tomorrow!!!. One dollar includes a gourmet sucker and specially delivered message. STUDENT COUNCIL: The war of pennies continues!!!! During all lunches, there will be a jug for each grade. Fill it up with pennies! However, dollars, quarters, dimes, and nickels count against...
How AAW Is Different from Other Schools
Are you interested in attending an arts academy middle/high school? If so, you may have heard of Arts Academy in the Woods and are wondering how AAW is different from other schools. AAW Senior Rebecca Kahn was recently scheduled to attend a board meeting at the school. She was disappointed when her work schedule intervened...
The Often Highly Sensitive Nature of Artists
Author Pearl S. Buck once said, “The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.” Can you relate to this? The often highly sensitive nature of artists allows them to find beauty and joy in places that others may not. But the trade-off is that they’re...
What Arts Integration Education Looks Like
If you’ve ever wondered what arts integration education looks like, you’re not alone. Sure, it’s something that educators at arts academy middle and high schools are more than happy to demonstrate. It’s more difficult to put it in words though. Even so, we’re going to step up to the challenge. This Is What Arts Integration...
Learning Literature and Social Studies through Acting
The end of the year is winding down. But the advanced acting students at Arts Academy in the Woods in Fraser, Michigan, are gearing up for an unusual January performance. Well, it’s only unusual if you compare it to other high school acting performances around Southeast Michigan. Because this arts-integrated high school combines literature and...
Being an Artistic Teenager in a Sports-Obsessed Culture
As a blogger for Arts Academy in the Woods, this is a topic that’s close to my heart. So for this post, I’ll speak from that very place. Being a teenager is no cakewalk. But being an artistic and sensitive teenager is a sports-obsessed culture is even more challenging. Not having an affinity for sports...
The Challenges Faced by LGBTQ Teens
Being a teenager is tough. Being a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning/queer (LGBTQ) youth is much more than just tough. It can be dangerous. At a time in one’s development when conformity is the rule, LGBTQ youth are often ostracized and bullied. They can even be victims of violence because of their differences. In...
How Art Exposure Can Combat Racism
Nobody is born a racist. Children only begin to recognize difference in skin color and other physical traits around the age of 3. By the age of 5, however, they’re capable of developing negative biases based on these differences. And if they come from an environment with little to no exposure to other races and cultures,...
How Arts Integration Helps with Memory Retention
Is it possible that the skills mastered in arts education could be transferrable to other areas of the curriculum? It certainly seems that way. But this shouldn’t come as any big surprise. After all, if you’re over the age of 40, you probably still remember the function of a conjunction thanks to Schoolhouse Rock. And...