First Weeks at Connecticut’s Only Experientially-based Middle School!

From the start students are making new discoveries, learning about themselves and the world through community building and working with others in all sorts of ways.

We spend a good amount of time in these beginning weeks creating and arriving at our particular set of community values that we can uphold and live by in order to have a safe learning environment that enables students to work and grow together. This is real and requires honest communication, the ability to feel safe enough to make mistakes in order to learn, hard work, and openness to trying new things. Put-ups (not put-downs), attentive listening, a willingness to participate, and kind words are a few of the things students include in the “hand circle” that becomes the symbolic representation of the values we uphold - placed within the circle are those values to be included, and those we do not include, such as mean words or actions, remain on the outside of the circle.

This first week students met with the director of GCTV to discuss their involvement with peacechannel.com as part of our nonviolence reconciliation and leadership training and in preparation for the annual United Nations International Day of Peace (21 September); had a first Why Cook? Class, preparing a roux and béchamel for one of the pasta sauces they would contribute to the CELC family potluck gathering; visited and worked at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, CT; had the first of many outdoor education classes at Trap Rock Ridge Farm to experience seasonally a working organic farm, tasks included harvesting potatoes, splitting and stacking wood, caring for the chickens; began a study of ratios, proportions, percentages, fractions, and decimals using packages of M&Ms; composed artistic self-portraits incorporating individual goals for the year; … and we are off!

The group continues to discover, day-by-day and moment-by-moment. This second full week begins our formal classes, to include Math, Literature Circle, Science, Current Events, Music, History, Spanish, Grammar, Writers’ Workshop, and so much more.

This is middle school – the excitement builds, as we prepare for our third week: CELC travels to Keewaydin Environmental Education Center (KEEC) in Salisbury, Vermont for our beginning-of-the-year trip.

CELCers truly do have a rich and abundant educational experience. Sound too good to be true for middle school? Yes, it often feels that way to us, too!

Visit and see for yourself – we welcome you to our Activity Day / Open House Sunday, 22 October 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. at 28 School Street. Meet teachers, students, stay for the music, art, and science activities, and enjoy the refreshments! Openings are still available for this 2017-18 academic year.

RSVP mandm@CTExperiential.org or call 203.433.4658. Visit CTExperiential.org.