MAP-ping out the successes of the Media Arts Program

Posters encouraging students to vote for all the different “isms” decorated the halls of the school last semester, a sure sign that the annual event for Media Arts Program sophomores, “Daveyland,”  was taking place. (The event is, of course, named in honor of teacher Mike Davey.)

MAP has always advocated for the integration of three core humanities subjects — English, history and media arts — and Daveyland is just one of the many simulations its teachers use to incorporate these subjects. It combines the “isms,” such as nationalism or liberalism, that the students learned about in world history, with speech writing taught in English and Photoshop and InDesign skills taught in the Media Arts class.

More than a decade ago, Davey and then-English teacher Kerry Mohnike felt that the school was not representing interests of certain students and also not preparing students with the skills needed in the modern technological world. Out of this inspiration, MAP was born in 2007.

Teachers in MAP include social studies teachers Matt Torrens and Mike Davey; English teachers Jason Friend, Suzanne Herzman, Cathy Head, Natasha Ritchie, Meg Battey; and media arts teachers Joel Tarbox and Alex Hemmerich.

MAP currently has 328 students from all four grades and gives students the opportunity to learn the same topics and concepts from each subject as non-MAP students do, but in a less traditional class environment, Davey said.

The idea of a “school within a school” was an underlying idea that the MAP designers wanted to capture. This principle would allow teachers to jointly talk about the curriculum and figure out how to zero in on students’ needs, since the teachers would become closer to students on a personal level.  

Since MAP allows students and teachers to spend so much time in class and outside of class together, they form a bond that a usual student and teacher might not have.

Class of 2010 alumnus Mikaela Burton, one of the first students in the program, was immediately attracted to the prospect of learning history and English in a media-centric environment.

“I was drawn to the dynamic approach to learning material,” Burton said. “As students, we were allowed incredible, thought-provoking, creative liberties when it came to projects.”

These creative liberties also allowed Burton and her peers to get a better understanding of historical events, as well as enjoy a more engaging school experience: for example, from animating WW2 scenarios to writing, shooting and editing original historical movies, Burton was able to explore a topic beyond the limits of writing a conventional paper.

Other students also understood the value of having a diverse skillset for the ever changing workplace environments that they might face. MAP offered students the ability to become more tech savvy, an area which was becoming increasingly more important in the workforce.

One of these students was Class of 2011 Alumnus Parisa Mirzadegan, who joined MAP as a sophomore.

“I knew that tech skills were becoming more and more valuable in both the workplace and in everyday life, so I joined MAP in order to learn as much as I could about things like multimedia journalism, digital animation, video editing, and photography,” Mirzadegan said.

Now, MAP is more well developed than it was when Burton and Mirzadegan first took the class, but its evolution took many years and iterations.

The first year the program was implemented, it was a sophomore only class, and there were not as many media components in the curriculum.

According to Mohnike, it was the input from students that helped develop the program, which embodies MAP’s core values of having students play an integral part in shaping the curriculum and program.

Another huge aspect of MAP that the designers wanted to emphasize was teamwork and teaching students to learn to value their peers as co-learners and learn how to take roles in groups. Burton said this was one of the skills that benefitted her the most in her endeavors beyond high school and credits MAP for significantly shaping her career path.

“MAP taught me how to creatively collaborate as well as practical skills such as editing, filming, animating, etc. that aided me in getting into film school and later pursuing a career in television,” said Burton.

Like other students, Mirzadegan and Burton both loved the aspect of incorporating interesting and new concepts into their everyday school life.

“One of the best parts of MAP was the opportunity to incorporate media arts into our regular schoolwork,” Mirzadegan said. “Project-based learning is a great way to reinforce concepts, and MAP helped students connect the curriculum to the real world in a unique way.”

Mirzadegan was also able to use her experiences in the MAP program to shape her career in journalism as a writer and editor. She currently uses the technology and collaboration skills that she learned in MAP at a company called Tynker, which is an educational programming platform that helps kids learn how to code games and programs.

“MAP absolutely helped me through both college and building a career. I took the multimedia journalism MAP class and was part of SHSTV, which laid the groundwork for my involvement in journalism at UC Santa Barbara and for my current career as a writer and editor,” Mirzadegan said.

After 10 years, MAP is still changing and advancing to improve the program. After the construction of the new music building, the old music building is being repurposed to be the new MAP annex.

Over the years, MAP has helped numerous students not only throughout their educational endeavors in high school and college but also in their careers after school.

Both Burton and Mirzadegan along with hundreds of other students enjoy their time in MAP and would recommend it without hesitation to any new students that come to SHS.

“I would absolutely recommend that students check out the MAP program – it's a great way to add depth to the skills you're already gaining at SHS,” Mirzadegan said.