Miami High offers a variety of creative classes that students can take as an elective. Though there are many other electives that aren’t creative ones, many students take advantage and choose an elective that takes creativity for the chance of growth, opportunity, and learning for their potential creative careers. 

Art Classes 

   The art classes in Miami High vary: drawing, painting, and portfolio development. Miami High also offers AP art class: “AP Studio Art:2D Design.”  

   Freshman Mason Mendoza takes drawing to improve his skill because he wants to become a tattoo artist in the future. “This class is very beneficial for me because my art teacher Mr. Perez teaches us a lot of drawing strategies that I’ve never known about before.” Mason also plans on taking more art classes in the future, because he believes he can learn a lot from the teachers at Miami High, and it has improved his drawing skills.  

   You don’t need to be planning a career in art to enjoy an art elective. Sophomore Bryan Martins takes painting because it’s fun and a great class to advance his art skills. “I want to be a computer technician and have a small side job and hobby for art,” says Bryan.  

   Personally, taking painting has taught me a lot of things. My painting teacher Ms. Lee has taught me and my class a lot about different mediums like acrylic paint and watercolor. In the future I plan to work as a graphic designer, a job that takes creativity. In painting class, I had many materials at my disposal to be as creative as I want, and I would say my drawing and painting skills have improved a lot from all the art assignments I’ve done in class.  

Music  

   There are many music related classes offered at Miami High including choir, band, guitar and many more. There are also high-level music classes like advanced symphony and advanced jazz band. Miami High offers instruments and attempts to support music students as much as possible.

   Mr. Hernandez, a music teacher at Miami High, recommends students who are interested in having a music career in the future, take music classes in high school as it is very hard to get started once out of high school without prior experience. “People who wish to study music in college will find themselves blocked by the audition necessary to be accepted into any music school,” says Mr. Hernandez. 

   Sophomore Alberto “Albert” Acosta plans on going to college and is thinking about having music as a possible side career. He believes taking music classes in high school has helped him in the past. “It helped bring me up from a dark place,” says Albert as he recalls how music helped him both in his personal life and keeps helping him by offering him opportunities to learn and practice instruments and meet new people.  

   Sophomore Justin Brooks plans on becoming a freelance musician as a trumpet player or as a jazz musician. He takes two music classes because he is always striving to improve.  

   “Our teacher is patient,” says Justin, “and he pushes us to do our best.” One of the biggest positives for him is that he is always learning in his music classes and meeting other musicians.  

Drama 

   Miami High’s drama teacher Ms. Fernandez says there are many good things about taking a drama class. She said, “We work on different things related to the performing arts.” She says that you learn how to write plays, how to create things for a set, how to express emotion and words with action, and how to tell an effective story. 

   There are also many roles you can take on like being an actor, director, play writer, sound engineer, costume designer, set designer, and light designer. 

   Junior Britney Echeverria takes Drama 1 because she wants to be a drama teacher in the future. Britney says that she wanted to be back in touch with her love of performing. “Since I was little, I’ve always enjoyed being on stage like singing and dancing.” What she mainly loves about the class is that everyone accepts you and it is judgeless. 

Other Creative Classes 

   Digital design is a class that is more on the technical side yet one that takes creativity. Sophomore Marcos Villalobos takes digital technology because being able to design things such as posters and ads is a useful skill to have nowadays. 

   “Especially since I am interested in forming a business once I have the funds,” he says. “It will most definitely benefit me taking digital design.”  

   Photography could also be considered a creative class. Senior Edwin Chamorro says he does many things in that class like taking photographs of anything that catches his eye and he also learns how to edit pictures. 

   Edwin said, “We learn how to use apps that are used in the industry like Illustrator and Photoshop.” He plans on becoming a freelance photographer, which is one of the many careers that can stem from learning photography. 

Creative Courses Offered by Miami High: 

-Drawing (1,2)

-Portfolio Development: Drawing

-Painting 1

-Two-Dimensional Studio Art 2

-Band (1,2,3,4)

-Instrumental Ensemble (1,2,3,4)

-Jazz Ensemble (1,2,3,4)

-Keyboard (1,2,3,4)

-Guitar (1,2,3,4) 

-Theatre (1,2,3,4)

-Theatre, Cinema, & Film Production

-Digital Design (1,2,3)

-Photography

-Choir