Students dive into the art William Shakespeare
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - For the last three months, Alturas Preparatory Academy students have been studying the art, science literature and history of the Renaissance.
Classrooms were transformed into battlegrounds, romantic balconies and elegant dining halls this week as the school set out to prove all the world is a stage.
"This is something that the teachers really wanted to do," Principal Brian Bingham said. "They felt that having you know, an international baccalaureate education would be important to bring in these different aspects of other Renaissance."
Students have spent the last several weeks learning firsthand about the Renaissance.It was a case of life imitating art as the students transformed into their characters. They also transformed their own reality, gaining confidence they didn't have before.
"We have a lot of quiet shy kids, and so they have really stepped up and they are having big booming voices, which is something that we're not used to," teacher Jordan Tolman said.
"It makes it so that I am more like open and I have to speak louder and makes me want to do like makes me do things that I probably wouldn't do if I was just like on my own," student Peyton Colvin said.
The teachers taking a line from Shakespeare himself, hoping to inspire their kids to be something extraordinary.
"Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them."
For most of these students, it was probably the last one but by the end of the project, they found an appreciation for something new.
"I think my favorite line is, 'we have dessert coming any minute,' or I call Tibble an impertinent fool," student Jackson Balsmeier said.
"This is why you go into teaching," Tolman said.
"Believe that students need the best education we can possibly provide them. It's their future. It's their life. Then that's a huge responsibility that a teacher carries, and we can make, we can enhance a child's life and we can also change the direction of a child's life" Michelle Ball said.
Shakespeare could have been talking about these students when he said, "we know what we are. But we know not what we may be."
