Imagine

This morning I walked through the Springdale School building.  The sun was shining through the windows, I played a few chords on the old piano that still sits in the building, looked at old school maps hanging in front of chalkboards and my mind’s eye was quickly filled with images of students entering the newly refurbished building to attend their first year in Corbett Arts Program with Spanish (CAPS) at Springdale School next year.  It is really exciting to be building something while other places are struggling with cuts.

Corbett families are excited too.  Parents and students are eager about the Spanish portion of the CAPS program.  Students in grades K-8 at the CAPS program will get Spanish instruction every day that supports the curriculum they are learning the rest of the day.  If K-2 students are studying community they will be learning vocabulary associated with community in Spanish, if 3-5 students are exploring simple machines Spanish language related to that topic will support their science instruction, and if 6-8 students are learning about the weather Spanish will focus on those terms.

Images of students spending their daily “Studio Time” practicing guitar, painting a piece of pottery, rehearsing the lines to a play they have created, constructing a set, or working on the perfect amount of shading on their drawing all serve to build excitement amongst parents and students. Parents and kids are also excited about how “the arts” are going to be infused across the curriculum to support instruction in the core topics.  Dance, drama, painting, drawing, pottery, voice, strings, poetry, to name a few areas will be integrated across the curriculum. It is fun to imagine the possibilities.

CAPS Design

Designed to foster connections, relationships and learning across all core subjects through a unique artistic lens, the Corbett Arts Program with Spanish (CAPS) exists thanks to the powerful partnership and vision of staff, community and students.

Our mission at CAPS is to create an insatiable hunger for learning while exploring and perfecting students’ gifts and talents through a wide array of visual, performing, technical and language arts. Through a unified effort of family, staff and community involvement, CAPS students will become confident, vibrant citizens prepared to experience life on both an artistic and global stage.

The foundation of the CAPS educational program is the complete integration of visual, performing, technical and language arts with Corbett School District’s standards-based curriculum. Leveraging the success of Corbett Grade School’s place-based education –which approaches learning through the lens of the Columbia River Gorge– the CAPS program uses visual, performing, technical and language arts as the context for the school’s curriculum. The arts are diverse and powerful, so students who apply to the CAPS program will not need to have a specific interest in any art form to thrive in the school.

Classroom teachers and visiting artists will provide rich experiences that enable students to explore all art forms and integrate learning experiences in other disciplines. Arts can be explored as both the subject matter and the lens through  which teachers will communicate core academics. For example, CAPS teachers will incorporate language arts into the teaching of dramatic works, and vice versa. Speaking, reading and writing skills will be embedded in the creative expression of stories, mathematical challenges or social studies themes. Students will be able to learn to dance, sculpt, paint, act, play an instrument and read music, while at the same time they learn about these art forms in both a historical and cultural context. In this manner CAPS students will be able to reflect on their own artistic work and that of others with respect for one another’s work.

Apply Now

More than 115 students have already filled out the application to attend CAPS next year in two K-2, two 3-5, and one 6-8 classrooms that will mark phase one of the CAPS program. The last day to apply on-line for the CAPS program is Thursday May 17^th. The application is at the top of the district home page in the upper right hand corner or at the bottom of this article. If there are more applicants than we have space we will do our best to balance gender, and grade level in each grade and each level.  All resident students and transfer students are free to apply for the CAPS program.

Feel free to drop me a line or phone if you have any questions!

Randy Trani

CAPS Application