Windsor Hill Elementary infuses the arts with academics | WCBD-TV 2

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Infusing the arts within daily lessons is something Windsor Hill Elementary does well. More than eight-hundred students walk the halls of the school helps?students to not only discover their talents, but also discover how those talents can help them excel in the classroom. We head to Dorchester county for our Cool School of the week.

The students in music teacher Nathan Nelson's class are learning about South Carolina history, the gullah culture, and music is infused throughout the lesson. Mr. Nelson says, "The arts within itself expands the mind. History tells us by taking that and bringing it to a school, you really start to see how kids are motivated about learning, and how learning actually becomes a part of their life and their culture"

Windsor Hill Arts Infused Elementary, a pre-k through fifth grade school, implemented arts infusion five years ago, which involves the creative problem solving process. Principal Vernisa Bodison

says, "We really want our students to be critical thinkers. We want them to think analytically, so what we do is we embed art infused opportunities that they have to problem solve. It really requires them to exercise and use their higher order thinking skills and that's what we want, we want our children to be thinkers."

Teachers create lessons in their art discipline to infuse, or integrate... classroom lessons which includes drama, dance, vocal and instrumental music. Drama teacher, Kathy Summer says, "I'm teaching cause and effect. I'm teaching African American History, while I'm also doing drama, and teachers are wonderful at that in their classrooms. We make the learning, everything that we're suppose to learn here at Windsor Hill of our responsibility, and that's the beauty of it. When you walk in the door, you don't even know who the drama teacher is, and who the social studies teacher is."

So what makes Windsor Hill Arts Infused Elementary School so cool? Fifth grade student Hope Chambers says, "I think that it's actually quite fun." Fifth grade student Isaiah White says, "It's better to me than sitting in a classroom and just learning it ordinarily and not understanding it, if you go to a special area that involves the arts in learning that makes it more fun." Principal Vernisa Bodison says, "It's beautiful. It's a beautiful place, warm and loving environment. We have a culture of high expectations, and we're expecting great things from our students." Fourth grade student Cesar Palomar says, "It is very fascinating and it has a lot of stuff for the arts." Teacher Nathan Nelson says, "Arts infusion makes a whole new world for these students. Some students will never have the opportunity to afford piano lessons or to afford music lessons, or dance, and Windsor Hill gives them that opportunity throughout their work day and that's a blessing to many. It's a special school. Number one, the students that we serve here, the parents that we serve and our faculty and staff have a heart to teach, and have a heart and passion for these children in learning.

Windsor Hill Arts Infused Elementary School has four computer labs. The school also has a boys empowerment group, African drummers, girl's step team, as well as a Lego robotics team and recycling troopers.

Coming up Friday on News 2 Today, we will present Windsor Hill with our Cool School award.

We want to hear about the good things that are going on at your school. Send an email to Octavia at omitchell@wcbd.com and tell us all about it. You can also find a link to nominate your school on our Cool School page as well. Maybe your school will be the next Cool School of the week.

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Source: http://www2.counton2.com/news/2012/feb/22/windsor-hill-elementary-infuses-arts-academics-ar-3276648/

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