March 2016 - Eagle Rock Blog

Eagle Rock School Educators Put the Spotlight on Literacy

Each year, the instructional staff here at Eagle Rock School chooses a narrow and specific curriculum focus for the year. Known as the annual focus, our educators are continuing to pinpoint improving student literacy, an undertaking that actually began last fall. Specifically, our instructional specialists are focusing on Literacy Across the Curriculum (LAC), a topic of focus as way back as 2011 and 2012.

LAC Image2

And while a lot of learning and progress was made, the consensus was that there wasn’t enough systematic implementation to make a lasting difference. As a result, this time around the instructional staff is seeking ways to improve student’s reading comprehension across the board.

Specifically, from now through August, instructors intend to hone our students’ abilities to find evidence within claims, and write persuasively with a warrant, claim and impact.

To prepare for this literacy focus, every staff member at Eagle Rock is reading Continue reading…

Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Eagle Rock’s Take on ‘The Wiz’

Eagle Rock School students and faculty members are busy rehearsing for a series of performances of the Tony Award-winning 1975 musical, “The Wiz,” which are scheduled in Estes Park at month’s end.

Our production of “The Wiz” (March 31-April 2, 2016) is an urban retelling of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 tale, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” using Motown, Funk and Soul music to rework the story into the context of modern African-American culture. A film adaption of the show was released in 1978, starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.

Eleven talented Eagle Rock students and four staff members will perform in our staged version, backed by a live four-piece professional pit band. Meghan Tokunaga-Scanlon, Eagle Rock School’s Music Instructional Specialist, directs the show, with co-direction by World Languages Instructional Specialist Brighid Scanlon and musical direction by 2015/2016 Public Allies Teaching Fellow Michael Grant.

Performances will be staged beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 31 as well as Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2 at the Hempel Auditorium within the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. Admission at the door is “pay what you like” and all proceeds benefit the Eagle Rock Graduate Higher Education Fund.

But we digress. The story of Dorothy and her road trip to Oz has become known worldwide for its themes of home, belonging, belief in oneself and freedom. “The Wiz,” with its original premiere in 1975 with an all-black cast and African-American styles, boldly showed that this classic story belongs to everyone, with audiences of all races flocking to watch productions of “The Wiz” over the past four decades. In addition to be culturally empowering, it is a “joy machine,” gorgeously designed, with quick humor and irresistible melodies.

Preparations for our production began last fall with a Continue reading…

Explore Eagle Rock’s All-New Interactive Campus Tour

Editor’s Note: In our effort to make the Eagle Rock campus more accessible, approachable and understood by those who cannot travel to Colorado for a first-hand visit, we recently teamed up with a web development firm to build and maintain an interactive online campus tour. What follows is an introduction to this latest website feature of ours, authored by Christian Riggs of Riggs Creative.

By Christian Riggs

Here at Riggs Creative — a San Diego, Calif.-based web development and graphic design studio — we were tasked with the opportunity to create a unique and engaging way to show Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center’s website visitors what the campus is like.

We needed to capture the visual essence of the campus — its buildings, structures and other features, including the Outdoor Amphitheater and Field of Dreams. Eagle Rock’s Estes Park campus is unmatched in scenic vistas, quiet ambience and serene beauty, and the campus is expertly outfitted with features to allow students to thrive in their education.

We decided to offer an Eagle’s eye view of the campus as the way to navigate and explore. Through collaboration with Estes Park photographer Aaron Cathcart of Cathcart Photography, we were able to capture the remarkable elevated viewpoint, which we are now sharing with you (note: clicking on the image below will take you to the live version of the Interactive Campus Tour):

Website visitors can Continue reading…

It’s Duck Race Time Again!

It’s that time of year again: Adopt a duck, send a graduate to college!

Read on for all the details:

The 2016 Duck Race & Festival benefiting the Eagle Rock School’s Graduate Higher Education Fund is scheduled for Saturday, May 7, in Estes Park, and is the perfect platform for parents, supporters and other members of the Eagle Rock community to raise funds for one of our most important projects on campus.

This — the 28th annual duck race — continues a tradition started in 1989 that has, so far, returned more than $2 million to local charities and groups.

How much money, you ask? A whopping $19 out of every $20 (or $21 if purchased online) spent to adopt a rubber ducky for the race goes directly to the Eagle Rock Graduate Higher Education Fund.

If you do the math, that’s 95 percent of the proceeds from each duck adoption. Of course it helps that Rotary Club volunteers — like Eagle Rock’s own head of school, Jeff Liddle — run the Duck Race, thus keeping fundraising overheard low. That means that if you specify Eagle Rock School as the recipient, we get the $19 donation, which goes directly into our Graduate Fund, which supports past and future Eagle Rock graduates in their pursuit of higher education.

This program is unique to Eagle Rock, with each and every graduate eligible for up to Continue reading…

Meet the Team: Eriq Acosta, Cultures & Societies Instructional Specialist

Eriq Acosta is our cultures & societies instructor, and his disparate heritage alone enhances his qualifications for the job. Eriq acquired his Navajo, Pueblo and Chicano origins from his mother’s side of the family, along with Comanche and Mexican blood from his father’s side.

He has lived and worked in both Los Angeles and New Mexico. In LA, he worked for the United American Indian Involvement as the lead evaluator for the program. He also taught traditional American Indian drum co-created the Los Angeles Native Youth Leadership Journey.

In New Mexico, Eriq led a variety of outdoor education field experiences for the National Indian Youth Leadership Project. Those adventures with young people included rock climbing, backpacking, canoeing and rafting. Most recently, he worked at Colorado State University as the assistant director of El Centro, a cultural center for CSU’s Latino, Hispanic, Mexican and Chicano students.

Here are some more interesting facts about Eriq, who joined the Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center community in the fall of 2015: Continue reading…

Personal Reflection Plays A Significant Role in Our Latest Class Offerings

As we reach the midpoint in in our winter/spring trimester, Eagle Rock School students find themselves wrapped up in unique classroom experiences that we believe will affect and influence the rest of their lives. What we offer here is the second installment of descriptions about the latest lineup of five- and 10-week classes, many of which offer Eagle Rock School students unmatched opportunities to reflect on who they are and what they stand for.

The People’s History: In The People’s History, students are examining U.S. history through African American, American Indian, Asian American and Latino American points of view. Students are looking at individuals and groups that had an impact on history and their styles of change and leadership. A strong focus is on the importance of change as outside groups stepped in and collaborated in change efforts. By using perspectives on the past, we students are being encouraged to explore and construct ideas and or ways they can have an impact today and in the future through our own leadership for change.

Human Sexuality: While this class includes students exploring sex and sexual health from many different perspectives, this is definitely not your normal sex-education class. Students are looking closely at sexuality through different media, including newspapers, magazines, websites, documentaries, film, fiction and non-fiction and are improving their reading, writing and thinking skills in the process. The focus is on understanding data about sex and sexuality as we use that data to think about our future sexual health. In addition to working toward the creating and making healthy life choices power standard and distribution credit, students also receive human sexuality required experience credit.

Five-week classes for the second half of this trimester include:

Storytelling & Animation: Here, Eagle Rock School students are being introduced to various techniques of storytelling and stop-motion animation. As a result, they are engaged in a process that has them looking toward other methods of storytelling, including radio drama, long-form journalism and folk stories. In addition, they are learning techniques of Continue reading…

Meet the Team: Bea Salazar-Nunez, Life After Eagle Rock Instructional Specialist

Bea Salazar-Nunez was born in Los Angeles, Calif., but grew up in Commerce City, Colo. Ever since college, she has felt drawn to assist students — as well as their families — gain an understanding of all the options available to them after they graduate from high school. Bea is also incredibly adept at helping families navigate through what is to many a confusing and complex financial aid process.

Here at Eagle Rock, Bea assists students in exploring their options as they prepare for their journey after Eagle Rock. Besides being excellent at what she does here on campus, this artist and animal lover has other interests and avocations that we asked her about:

Eagle Rock: What year did you graduate from college, what colleges did you attend, and what was your major and minor?

Bea: I graduated from the University of Colorado Denver in 2013 with a BA in psychology, a minor in ethnic studies, and an honors thesis in biochemistry/biophysics. I also attended Marquette University for my first year of college where I was a majoring in biomedical engineering.

ER: What did you do prior to coming to work for Eagle Rock?

Bea: Prior to coming to Eagle Rock I was Continue reading…