Other Classes
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Study All (two hours per week)
This class is held twice a week and includes a variety of topics throughout the school year as well as being a time in the week for a guided study hall. Study skills, sex education, drug and alcohol education, executive functioning skills, and other miscellaneous topics are covered in this time frame.
All TSA middle school students create a Personalized Learning Plan (PLP) in Study All. The PLP is an ongoing portfolio of activities that will help students reflect on personal and academic interests, goals, strengths and challenges. The PLP is also a portfolio of students’ academic work. These plans help students share their progress with their families at conferences and is a record of their best middle school work at the time of graduation. For more information on this statewide initiative please visit http://education.vermont.gov/plpworkinggroup/main
Spanish (two hours per week)
Spanish is held for an hour twice a week. Students will cover basic grammar, vocabulary, and a survey of Spanish-speaking cultures and history. Their progress towards proficiency will be assessed in 4 realms; speaking, listening, writing, and reading. After two years of middle school Spanish students are eligible to enter Spanish 2 in the high school. Click the view the Spanish Syllabus 2018-2019.
Current Events (one hour per week)
Current Events is viewed as an extension of the Social Studies curriculum. Students follow and discuss the news and are introduced to the stock market in Social Studies class once a week.
Art (two hours per week)
Art is closely tied to the core curriculum. Projects are coordinated with the core themes. Students are exposed to a wide variety of media and learn basic skills and techniques in art. Each student is encouraged to develop his
or her own creativity through experimentation and risk taking. The “Middle School Book”, a two year compilation of middle school work, is created and organized in art class. Student artwork is displayed as much as possible in the school’s main hallway.
Community Meeting (thirty minutes per week)
Students meet each week to plan community events, resolve community conflicts and issues, and build relationships in the community through games and other cooperative activities.
ESP Class- Emotional, Social, Physical (two hours per week)
We offer a wide variety of activities throughout the school year to help students be physically active and emotionally/socially aware, such as: fitness activities, archery, yoga, goal-setting, and team-building.
Intentional Curricular Events
Science Fair
Every year, students spend six weeks designing and conducting experiments as a part of our Science Fair. Students work with our science teacher to develop their own scientific question and carry out the experiments. This culminates in a public poster session of their results in June, where students give in-depth descriptions of their research to the public.
Circus
Each year, Troy Wunderle, a trained circus performer and ringmaster, comes to TSA and transforms the school into a circus. Under Wunderle’s careful tutelage, the middle school devotes the better part of two weeks to learning and practicing circus skills including clowning, juggling, unicycle riding, gymnastics, stilt walking. All the while, the students are learning about teamwork, collaboration, and responsibility. Importantly, they are also learning how to use failure as a stepping stone to success.
Students also help to write the script for the clowning acts, arrange and perform live music, coordinate the advertising for the show, set up the staging and seating, build the props and scenery and invent pre-circus games for younger children. The circus is an ideal medium for developing physical, emotional and social competence in our students. The circus performance is a popular annual event in the community, usually drawing a crowd of over 600 spectators. Visit our Circus web page for details.
For details on this year’s curriculum, click on a link below: