Ryan Brennecke / The BulletinStudents at Redmond Proficiency Academy play their cajon box drums they built during the school’s January Term showcase Wednesday in Redmond.

REDMOND — Freddie Mercury would have been proud.

Redmond Proficiency Academy students showcased the end results of their three-week January Term on Wednesday, an almost two-hour display of talents that included emerging filmmakers, future TED Talks speakers and a drum circle — on instruments the students built themselves — that brought down the house with a percussion rendition of the Queen and Mercury classic, “We Will Rock You.”

“Yeah, it’s a very cool class,” said Jacob Smart, an RPA junior who participated in instructors Adam Mendel and John Geffert’s “Art of Rhythm Series: Part 1 — Build your own cajon.”

“It’s super fun to see how quickly everyone learns percussion and takes to the instrument,” said Smart, a musician who came to the class with quite a bit of drumming experience. He and his classmates built their own cajons — box-shaped instruments musicians usually sit on — out of ½ -inch birch plywood.

They then learned how to play the instrument that, according to Mendel, was originally created by African slaves in Peru late in the 18th century. By the end of the three-week course, students had received lessons in carpentry, music history, percussion and instrument building, among others. And they finished the class with a personalized instrument built with their own hands.

“We pride ourselves on teaching the whole child,” RPA Principal Jon Bullock said. “(January Term) gives students a chance to focus on what they’re passionate about. … And when you’re passionate about school, you do better.”

The cajon players were hardly the only RPA students who took to the stage at the school’s downtown campus building in front of family and friends.

Filmmakers from Ethan Stelzer’s Digital Filmmaking class presented several short films, including a well-made mockumentary about “chair dancing” that paid homage to the television shows “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation” and movies such as “This Is Spinal Tap” and “Best in Show.” Science teacher Amy Herauf instructed a course titled “Ignite Science!” that helped students put together five-minute PowerPoint presentations in the same style as a TED Talk or Ignite Bend competition. And several students from Tamara Bremont’s Introduction to Children’s Literature course gave an interactive reading performance of a kids’ book that involved a quill-coated rodent porcupine-ing for love in all the wrong places.

“You teach the kids the basics and then kind of get out of their way,” said Stelzer, an art teacher who in the past has led classes that collaborated with the city on roundabout art and murals in Redmond’s pedestrian tunnels. “I think one of the biggest things the kids learned (in Digital Filmmaking) was how to work with a crew. Everyone has to be able to do their part, their job.”

Sixteen different January Term classes were offered this year, only a handful of which gave performances Wednesday. Snowboarders and skiers were able to earn physical education credits through a winter sports and recreation course. Classes on civil disobedience, world mythologies, urban geography and the Holocaust, were also offered.

Students at RPA also have the option of creating their own January Term. Several students ice skated every day to knock off a PE credit. Others, such as senior Emma Price and sophomore Miah Andersen, organized the upcoming Central Oregon Community Resource Fair, an event designed to match low-income families with local resource organizations.

“At first I was really terrified that I’d have to call all these people,” said Price, whose resource fair is scheduled for March 5 at RPA’s Hartman Campus. “But it turned out to be a really good experience.”

“It’s exciting to see students so passionate about learning,” added Bullock. “Whether that’s film, or acting, or drums or mythology. And it’s obvious (after watching Wednesday’s showcase) that they’re excited for their peers’ passions as well.”

—Reporter: 541-617-7829,

beastes@bendbulletin.com.