Media & Performing Arts Lab

The Media and Performing Arts Lab offers young creative minds the opportunity to explore the world of Art, Media, and Entertainment. While careers in this industry include videographer, graphic designer, YouTuber, journalist, photographer, editor, and performer, the skills learned in this lab will be applicable to nearly every career path. The most exciting portion of the Media and Performing Arts Lab is that all students will be exposed to how professional film sets are conducted and organized in the industry. The lab covers everything from writing, directing, shooting, editing, and performance to help students produce an entertaining and successful movie!

Students will be exposed to graphic design, page layout, and photo manipulation using Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. Student filmmakers will use still and movie cameras combined with editing software to create, produce, and edit public service announcements, commercials, documentaries, and short films using Adobe Premiere.

History and English in the Media and Performing Arts Lab will use multimedia sources to learn about historical topics that are still impacting our nation and valley today. The literature will be chosen to represent the varying viewpoints and interests of Madera students. Additionally, students will build their collaboration and communication skills through the various projects they complete. Students will also become critical thinkers who adapt their skills through creativity.

If you have ever wanted to be in front of the camera or behind it, this is the lab for you.

Our Teaching Team

CODY ASHFORD, Media/Performing Arts Teacher

Cody has an extended background in both Film and Education. While this is his sixth year teaching in the Central Valley, he has worked as a screenwriter and producer for a variety of film and television projects during the past decade. Cody loves storytelling of all forms and believes in empowering the next generation to share their own story with the tools available. With a degree in Cinema and Media Arts from Biola University in Los Angeles, CA, and a teaching credential from Fresno Pacific University, Cody brings a blend of creativity and technology to the classroom. When he’s not working, Cody is reading an absurd amount of X-Men comics, hanging with his dog, collecting Star Wars action figures, or watching movies with his wife.

DONNA KOHLRUSS, English Teacher

Donna always wanted to be a teacher, and Mad TEC’s new model is exactly the way she has always wanted to do it. For 30 years, she has been teaching middle school English and history in Yuba City, Fresno, and Clovis. Through her sons’ experiences in high school drama, she has become a lover of theater. She loves stories in all forms — plays, movies, and novels. A fan of warm weather, she enjoys spending time in her backyard gardening. She is passionate about learning and taking risks and thinks words to live by are.

“I never fail. I either win or I learn.”

SARAH NICKELS, History Teacher

Sarah Nickels grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and has always been fascinated by PEOPLE- their cultures, their philosophies, their beliefs, and their actions. She graduated in 2010 from The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia with a B.A. in International Studies with a focus on East Asia and a minor in Japanese language. She immediately moved to Japan to work for the Japanese government as an English teacher and school-based translator in Kiryu, Gunma Prefecture. After working in a local school, Sarah discovered her love for education, and especially for middle schoolers! She soon decided to return to the U.S. and received her M.Ed. in Curriculum Development and teaching licensure at Vermont’s Saint Michael’s College. She has since taught History in Vermont, Maryland, and now Madera. Ever since Sarah became an educator, she has dreamed of working in an integrated curriculum classroom with a focus on experiencing, doing, and creating. She loves bringing outside experiences to her students and helping them to discover new and unique paths towards personal expression, creativity, and learning as an art. She cannot wait to learn from her colleagues (and students!) at MTEC! When Sarah is not teaching, she is enjoying time with her husband and daughter, playing principal viola in the Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra, reading, traveling, knitting, and gaming!

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