EDUCATION

AUGUST 31, 2007

New teachers will go on tour; performing arts academy begins

BY ROBERT SCHMELTER Staff Writer
With the end of summer vacation just around the corner, the Fort Lee High School is gearing up for another school year. For the first time, newly hired teachers will be given a tour of the borough so they are better acquainted with the town in which they will be teaching, according to Peter Emr, director of curriculum for the district. The new teachers will go on a jitney bus tour narrated by members of the Fort Lee Historic Society, and they will visit the locations of historical significance to the borough. Also debuting this year is the high schools new Performing Arts Academy. Much like the high schools Academy of Finance, the Performing Arts Academy will function as a school within a school, explained Principal Jay Berman. What we hope to accomplishment is to bring the kids to the next level in their performance skills, Berman said. Berman said that the idea for a performing arts academy at the high school started two years ago when the schools marching band began participating in competitions against other schools bands. When they performed at the Meadowlands, Berman explained, it became apparent that many of these national bands had more intensive help and training than we could offer our students at the time. The curriculum, which will be phased in over the course of the next two school years, will offer students more intense training in the performing arts. The academy will consist of schools of music, dance, and theater, with new courses to be added and existing courses integrated into the academys curriculum. New courses for the music department will include Introduction to Music Theory (grade 9), Advanced Placement Music (grade 11) and Survey of Music History and Literature (grade 12). The dance department has one projected new course, Choreography, which will complement the current courses such as Beginning Dance, Intermediate Dance, Advanced Dancem and Dance Ensemble, and a new dance studio is planned on being built. The theater department is expected to see two new courses added. Students will learn about set design and construction, stagecraft, and lighting in Technical Theater and how to create costumes in Costume Design, which will be supervised by the Home Economics department. This coming school year will be mostly a planning year for us, Berman explained. The teachers will mainly be doing a lot curriculum planning. So, while the academy will partly be up and running this September, the following year will see it in full swing. In a similar vein to the Finance Academy, the students will have the opportunity for internships that will have them working with professionals in their fields. Were very excited about this, Emr said. It will provide performance art students the opportunity to experience the world of the professional, while still being studentswhich in turn will help them decide if the arts are for them.

FORT LEE SUBURBANITE

Pre-Film Ditty
JEWISH WAR VETERANS

STAFF PHOTO BY ASHLEE WOODRUFF

One of the women from the band Red Molly performs at the weekly Music and Movies Under the Stars program at the Fort Lee Community Center Aug. 22.

JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER

Gallin/Mazur post 741 to meet Sept. 9

The Jewish War Veterans Gallin/Mazur Post will hold its monthly meeting Sept. 9 at the Fort Lee Recreation Center on Stillwell Avenue. Breakfast will be 10 a.m. The business meeting will begin at 10:30 a.m. Members are asked to wear caps. Potential members are welcome. For more information call Jack at 201-969-0974.

Sup per is Oct. 2

Sisterhood Jewish Community Center of Fort Lee is having a Sukkot Supper Tuesday, Oct. 2 at 6:30 p.m. The dinner costs $8 for sisterhood members and $12 for men and guests. Reservations are due Sept. 24.

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