Welcome Mrs. Prange
Hello, Innovate families! I’m Abbie James and I teach English to our 5-8th graders. I’m also the head of our small-but-growing Fine Arts Department. This is the second time I’ve had the blessing of helping a classical school develop their fine arts program, and I already have many exciting plans for our future at Innovate.
The fine arts are a critical component of classical education. While the scholars dutifully study and learn the great ideas and great books, no child really knows something unless they’ve encountered it in real life. You can study fractions all day, but cutting into a pie really brings it home. Or you can read all the great books you want, but until you’ve stood on a stage and acted out a piece of it, taken a character’s famous words into your own heart, you don’t understand it as well.
The arts are where the great truths start to come to life. And, they’re where knowledge and experience come together. No scholar’s education is complete–or even as full as it could be–without the arts. Over the coming months, we have a host of exciting plans in the works for fine arts department! We have showcases, dramatic productions and new classes to announce for next year. But this month, I’d like to focus on Alexa Prange, our new K-8th grade art teacher.
Alexa, mom of two Innovate scholars, came to us mid-year, and jumped right in. I sat in on her first class, and she was already in charge of her studio. They were thrilled with the calligraphy she had written on the whiteboard: “Welcome to Art with Mrs. Prange!” One student raised her hand and asked with big eyes, “Did you write that yourself? ...or trace it?” Alexa laughed and said she’d just thrown it up there, and she could help the girls learn to do it.
Art is hard to teach. I’ve never done it, but I’ve managed enough fine art departments to know that the balance between a calm, open space to work and complete chaos, plus the line between artistic expression and requiring students to learn basic art skills... is not an easy place to find. But Alexa seems to do it effortlessly, calling distracted students firmly back to their work, and inspiring those who are convinced they “can’t” with a smile, and with a great deal of... well, cool. She’s actually really cool.
Last week scholars were attempting portraiture using pictures cut out of magazines. She started with the classic rules, and got them right in, pencils to pages. I was surprised how many scholars needed very little more than a few basic principles and the encouragement to make amazing attempts. We plan to share your scholars’ artwork with you in an end of the year art show where you can come and admire everything Alexa has taught them. Seeing the progression from the beginning of a class to the end is lots of fun, and scholars range and abilities grow and mature dramatically in that time. Here is a link to the classical art objectives and curriculum we use.
There’s more to say and much more to come, but for now, thank you for entrusting your children to us, and for your faith in us. I work hard every day to honor that, and I know the rest of Innovate does as well.
And welcome to Alexa Prange! We are so delighted to have her on our faculty!