The pounding of tribal drums resonated through the air at Tommie Kunst Junior High School on Jan. 11. Inside the school’s gymnasium, several hundred students craned their necks or stood on tiptoe to catch a glimpse of the frightening, golden-headed dragon prowling in front of the stage.
The performance by Los Angeles-based Japanese Taiko drummers was part of the GATE program’s fifth annual winter enrichment workshop, a daylong event that allows students to participate in various extra-curricular activities. Along with the Taiko performance, students enjoyed workshops on cupcake decorating, improvisational theater, weaving, Zumba dancing, ballet folklorico, yoga, and more.
Gina Danley, the district’s GATE resource teacher, said each child got to choose three workshops in which to participate.
“We tried to give them all three, but pretty much every student got at least two,” Danley said, adding that it was fun to see all of the students pour themselves into the different activities.
“[In Zumba] the energy would be very high. They’d all be jumping around and kicking in to the air. And then I’d go to the library where they were doing yoga and the energy would be very calm and focused,” she said.
The annual event is funded completely by the GATE program’s parent group, which recruits teachers for the workshops from within the school district and community.
“Pretty much GATE funding has been dissolved in the general fund across the state and across the nation,” Danley said. “But we’re lucky to have so much support from the parents, the school district, and the community.”
To qualify for the GATE program, students have to be recommended by a teacher or a parent. Then they have to pass an entrance exam. If they pass, they can start GATE the following school year. The program, however, is rather selective; of the 14,000 children in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District, approximately 800 are in GATE.
Danley said the next GATE testing is coming up in February.
For more information about the program, call Danley at 361-8222.
This article appears in Jan 19-26, 2012.
