November 2016 - Eagle Rock Blog

Eagle Rock Students Present Philanthropic Video to Estes Park Community

A short, five-minute video produced by Eagle Rock students that illustrates the importance of service work (see below) was presented to a banquet hall of more than 400 Estes Park community members earlier this month.

The occasion was National Philanthropy Day (Nov. 15), and six Eagle Rock students and four staff members debut the video at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. The focus of this year’s philanthropic event was “Youth in Philanthropy,” and several Eagle Rock students shot, edited and produced this year’s offering (see above), which focuses on Continue reading…

What Thanksgiving 2016 Is Like at Eagle Rock School

Once again, it’s that time of the year when the leaves fall off the trees, the temperature drops to single digits, and the sun has a shorter workday. To some, this portends the beginning credits of a horror movie where there is no beauty to be found.

But to me, this particular season marks the beginning of a wonderful time of the year. It’s a time when we can wear “cozy” clothes, like wool gloves and knit scarfs wrapped around our necks. It’s a time where hot cocoa with a marshmallow on top can be found held tightly in the hands of people on the sidewalks.

And we shouldn’t neglect the best part: the arrival of celebrations and holidays that create smiles and visits with friends and relatives in nearly every home.

Here at the Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, students and staff have actively prepared for the first of these late fall festivities: Thanksgiving. And at the center of all this holiday attention is Continue reading…

Eagle Rock Included in ‘Learning Through Experience’ Website

When it comes to adventure-based experiential education, Eagle Rock can be counted among the leading progressive high schools in the nation. Appropriately located adjacent to the 415-square-mile Rocky Mountain National Park, our sprawling campus provides not only a location, but a starting off point for a number of adventures that, when combined with education and service, provide our youth with a student-based, rather than faculty-based experience.

Recognizing our unique role and approach, Eagle Rock is among 200 or so providers listed in a new online resource recently published by the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) — http://learnthroughexperience.org. If you’re unfamiliar with AEE, it is a not-for-profit membership-based organization that advocates for the outdoor and adventure-based experiential education industry. Among its offerings are regional and international conferences, a robust publishing program that includes the Journal of Experiential Education, and an accreditation program that identifies, publishes and upholding standards to improve professional practice in the field of experiential education.

As an AEE accredited program, Eagle Rock is proud to be listed in the Learning Through Experience directory, which helps consumers find Continue reading…

Understanding Eagle Rock’s ‘Service Saturday’

Service to the community and to those less fortunate has always been in Eagle Rock’s DNA. We’re fortunate — we have numerous opportunities to provide community service, which we define as “a selfless contribution that helps and assists others, and which creates a positive impact.”

These “give back” opportunities are outside of our students’ regular responsibilities and discipline-related obligations, and offer on- and off-campus services that contribute to the well being or preservation of the broader local community (which Eagle Rock is part of).

Prior to the spring of 2016, Saturday mornings here at Eagle Rock operated as a half current events gathering that was followed by a Saturday seminar. These session, known as Saturday Seminar, were operated as Continue reading…

Growing Equity Together Update: City Neighbors High School

Editor’s Note: Back in May of this year, we told you about a handful of Eagle Rock staffers who had recently attended Deeper Learning 2016 — a three-day conference in San Diego, Calif., that attracted a powerful group of educators, all of whom were focused on creating more opportunities for students to learn deeply.

It was at that event that Eagle Rock’s professional development associate, Sarah Bertucci — who is participating in a 24-month Deeper Learning Equity Fellowship — presented a project proposal that involved facilitating a cohort of five schools through a yearlong process aimed at improving equity in the schools through independent projects. That project, titled Growing Equity Together, was launched this summer when staff from the five schools gathered in Estes Park for the first-ever Growing Equity Together Summer Institute.

With that as a backdrop for today’s post, below is update from one of the five schools participating in project (City Neighbors High School in Baltimore, MD):

From Cheyanne Zahrt, Principal — City Neighbors High School:

After attending the Deeper Learning and Equity program last summer at Eagle Rock, City Neighbors High School decided to embark on increasing student’s independent skills through independent projects. As a school, our teachers have worked with students on content-driven projects, but we have never embarked on independent projects.

In short, each advisor agreed to take on this endeavor and to create a plan that best supports the students and each grade level. As a staff, we started off the academic year by sharing our interests and creating posters that represent us individually. The staff collaborated around this activity and we used it to Continue reading…

Eagle Rock’s Robert Burkhardt Garners Prestigious Education Award

Robert Burkhardt, Eagle Rock’s founding head of school, recently received the coveted Aldo Leopold Award from The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey.

The Lawrenceville Medal/Aldo Leopold Award is the highest honor granted by this coed independent college prep boarding school for students in grades 9 through 12. Located on 700 acres in the historic Lawrenceville section of Lawrence Township, NJ, the school has more than 800 students from 34 states and 40 countries, and a teacher population of 115 for a 7.2:1 student-teacher ratio.

The Lawrenceville Medal has been awarded each year since 1991 and its prestigious recipients have included Nobel Laureates, philanthropists, jurists, physicians, Pulitzer Prize winners, community leaders, a rock and roll star, the CEO of the Walt Disney Company, the president of Honduras, and a Saudi prince.

The award is dedicated to the memory of Aldo Leopold, a distinguished environmentalist and author, and it is bestowed on a former Lawrenceville alumnus who has demonstrated “brilliant, lifelong work in a significant field of endeavor.”

That description fits perfectly with the accomplishments of our own Robert Burkhardt — an educator who has provided thousands of Continue reading…

Our Latest Class Offerings Span From Robots to Sex-Ed

We’re comfortably squeezing in an abundance of learning between this week — which heralds the beginning of the second half of the fall trimester — and Dec. 9, which is the last day of classes before Winter Break.

From robotics to woodwork, from astronomy to sex-ed, this 70th trimester in the history of Eagle Rock School includes classes that are both challenging and potentially life changing to participating students.

Late last month we listed the first batch of new classes (see Eagle Rock 70 Classes Underway — And Here’s What’s Being Offered). Below is a list of other classroom offerings for the trimester, along with a description of each class:

Robotics
In the past decade, we have seen the rise of smartphones and drones, along with the first computer to beat a world-ranked Go player. With this growing sector around computer technology come job opportunities galore, not to mention the enjoyment of toying with robots, solving tricky problems, software coding and the intricacies of electronic circuitry. In this class, students demonstrate what they’ve learned in teams, each designing, creating, testing and redesigning a robot to meet specific challenges.

Human Sexuality
In this class students are exploring sex and sexual health from a number of perspectives. However, this isn’t your father’s sex-ed class. Instead, participants are looking at sexuality through different newspapers, magazines, websites, documentaries, films, fiction and non-fiction. The focus is on stories and experiences from around the world that can be used to better understand sexuality and healthy relationships. Digital recording and podcasts are also being used to share stories and information.

Theater Tech
Theatre Tech is designed to provide Eagle Rock School students with a basic understanding and practice of Continue reading…

Eagle Rock’s Latest Explore Week Draws to a Close

Classroom education here at the Eagle Rock School resumes on Monday, Nov. 6, following Explore Week, a brief, five-day period of time during which our students are taking advantage of an opportunity to explore new and diverse subject areas they otherwise might have dismissed or never knew they could study.

This is the latest in what has traditionally been a three-times-a-year educational experience that enables students to ‘poke a stick’ at a particular subject matter with which they might not be familiar, but which might appear interesting. If nothing else, these engaging courses — which are taught by subject matter experts who often travel great distances to be with our students for the week — serve as an introduction to future career pursuits or hobbies that can be followed up on by the students themselves going forward.

Not necessarily unique to Eagle Rock (other progressive schools across the country — including Continue reading…

Meet The Team: Jack Hilbrich, Adjunct Outdoor Education Instructional Specialist

Jack Hilbrich is a huge part of our outdoor education department, responsible for stewarding our wilderness curriculum, as well as instructing and supervising on our new student wilderness course each trimester. A semester with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) launched his career as a course director, taking Jack to the deserts of the American Southwest, the Northwoods of Canada and other wildernesses areas. We caught up with Jack — who previously served as our 2014-15 Public Allies Fellow in Outdoor Education — in between paddling, biking and ice hockey to ask him about another favorite interest: Eagle Rock School.

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

Jack Hilbrich: Prior to coming to Eagle Rock I worked as a Continue reading…