The Middle School offers students many routes to success. Small classes, assignments designed for diverse learning strengths, and an academically challenging multidisciplinary curriculum that stresses the process of learning, enable young adolescents to become self-directed learners.
Middle School Curriculum Guide for 2011-2012
Our class size allows us to give personalized attention to each student, nurturing and challenging them simultaneously. Middle School students study math, science, Spanish, history, literature, cultures, and geography in classes that are linked across disciplines. An emphasis on the arts teaches students to express themselves in a variety of ways that build confidence and a sense of community. All Spanish language classes are taught in Spanish from the first day. Technology is integrated into the entire curriculum, and students are taught to use the most appropriate tools to achieve their educational goals responsibly and ethically.
Morning meeting begins each day by building students’ awareness of belonging to the entire Middle School community. A sense of membership in the larger, all-school community comes from attending weekly Community Meetings and working in 6th through 12th grade Environment teams. Middle schoolers eat lunch with all grades and faculty, participate in all-school celebrations, and join students from every grade on overnight skiing, biking, hiking, and kayaking trips.
Advisors for each student ensure that families and the school work together closely throughout the Middle School years. To enhance our effectiveness in working with students with specific learning needs, the school contracts with an independent learning specialist who consults regularly with teachers. Our students graduate from 8th grade with confidence in their own voices, a sense of obligation to and concern for the world outside their own country, and with the academic skills they will need to excel in high school.
"Teachers aren't hiding behind text books. What you learn is straight from their minds. Everything they teach has their own personality to it. Each one is different."— Lauren L., '12