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New Year, New Electives! by Ella Jennings

Mark Spaulding, sophomore, drumming at a Watauga pep rally. Photo Cred: Watauga Yearbook


Next year, Watauga is offering new classes: Creative Writing II, Pop Music Through the Ages, and multiple drumming classes. These new electives will open the door for classes spent both learning and having a good time. All of these new courses are available to all grade levels. 


We have about thirteen music classes at the high school, but Pop Music Through the Ages is different than all the rest. Mr. Lancaster has created a class like never before. 


“We created this class to have another class in the music world that isn’t talent-based and more interest-based,” said Lancaster. 


Pop Music Through the Ages will explore a wide variety of topics and many different aspects of the music world.


“We are going to be doing a lot of listening to music," said Lancaster. "We’re going to predate 1900 and do it by decade. We are going to talk about what was happening culturally during the time that this music was created.”


Everybody loves listening to music, so this class appeals to a variety of students. 


“I’m super pumped to teach it,” Lancaster said. “It’s going to offer a wide spectrum of knowledge on why we listen to music the way we listen to music.” 


Having a teacher who is excited to be teaching a class ensures a positive learning environment. There is no prerequisite for Pop Music Through the Ages, and as is the case for all of these classes, they are open to all four grade levels. 


“I like it when lightbulbs go off," said Lancaster. "I’m looking forward to students understanding the reason behind music."


The demand for a second creative writing class for a while, and, by popular demand, Creative Writing II will be available next year. 


“Creative Writing II will build off of Creative Writing I,” said Chris Tarnowski, one of this year’s creative writing teachers. “A lot more independent projects and more room for students to pick and choose what they want to work on, but still with the guidance of the teacher.”


Mr. Tarnowski will also teach the second course in the creative writing sequence.


“We’ve got a lot of different tools that we can use like the podcasting microphones and software, we can rent some video cameras," said Tarnowski. "I think it will be really cool to explore some unique and different mediums for telling stories."


While the first creative writing class mostly focused on writing, the English world is expanding in this next course. 


“I’ve been pitching it for a couple of years because I’ve really enjoyed teaching Creative Writing," said Tarnowski. "It was a good opportunity to provide something new and exciting that students might want to take." 


Mr. Tarnowski says that he is beyond excited to teach it next year and beyond. This is now just the fourth elective a student can take to keep studying English aside from the required classes. 


“Just try it and enjoy it!" said Tarnowski. "It’s a good class to explore storytelling and the importance of stories in our society." 


Drumming is also a class that’s going to be available next year. It will be taught by Ms. Wooten, the Director of Bands at the High School. 


“Mr. Strickler suggested that we do a class that could be offered for students who took band or orchestra and then stopped or maybe didn’t take it at all but wanted to get into a musical outlet,” said Wooten.


Studying music is like learning another language. It uses different parts of the brain and it can be very beneficial to play an instrument.  


“We came up with this class as sort of a bridge between people who have stayed with music and people who never did it and wanted to," said Wooten. "Percussion is a cool way to do that." 


Ms. Wooten specialized in percussion instruments while she was in college. 


“We’re going to learn how to do a lot of different percussion instruments we own," said Wooten. "All of the concert percussion as well as some of the marching percussion and hand drumming."


And who knows– if this class gets beginners interested, maybe they can join a musical extracurricular like marching band. 


“I hope that it gets some interest in students who like music. I’m looking forward to teaching a class of beginners,” said Wooten. “It’s always fun to work with students and see when they start to grasp those concepts.” 


There is no prerequisite for Drumming, or Pop Music Through the Ages. And if Creative Writing II sounds like fun, you can take the first one. Get excited! If you signed up for any of these, it’s going to be a blast.

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