January 2018 - Eagle Rock Blog

Eagle Rock School Seeks New Director of Curriculum — and a Teacher

Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center is currently looking to hire an experienced leader to become our next Director of Curriculum, as well an English Language & Literacy instructional specialist to join our teaching staff.

Photo © Ian Schneider on Unsplash | Used with permission.

The application deadline for the Director of Curriculum position is Feb. 26, 2018, while the deadline for the instructional specialist is March 2, 2018. Further details about the application and interview process for both openings can be found below.

Director of Curriculum

Our next Director of Curriculum will continue to support the development of Eagle Rock School’s academic curriculum, working with our Director of Students to insure continuity across the entire student experience. The successful candidate will also be asked to collaborate with our Director of Professional Development to continue Eagle Rock’s support of schools across the country that have an active and meaningful interest in engaging students in their own education.

From a 30,000-ft. perspective, the director of curriculum works with our leadership team and oversees the Continue reading…

Eagle Rock’s Student Body Begins 74th Trimester of Progressive Classes

The first trimester of 2018 is well underway here at Eagle Rock School, marking a total of 74 trimesters since we began our own progressive brand of education back in the early 1990s.

And by progressive education, we’re talking about competency-based learning rather than a traditional education platform, the latter which might offer students “book learning,” but often falls well short of life experience, personal development and an open-eye view of the people who populate this planet.

Photo © by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash | Used with permission.

For example, this trimester we’re offering a class for camera buffs who appreciate that photography doesn’t have to revolve around a rectangular cellphone with a camera attachment. We’re talking old school black-and-white photography here, complete with darkroom experience and creative writings to accompany students’ camera art.

Or a human sexuality class that goes way beyond the typical high school “sex ed” programs of yesteryear that featured archaic body part posters and stern warnings about promiscuity. In this class, students find themselves in a safe, comfortable environment where they can discuss important issues such as gender and sexual identity, consent, contraceptives and healthcare access.

Below is a listing and short description of each of this trimester’s class offerings, with the first three classes scheduled for 10 weeks and remainder for five weeks. Continue reading…

Meet the Team: Eagle Rock Chef Instructor, Carlos Perez

After more than 15 years as a cook in several Miami Beach restaurants, Carlos Perez joined the Eagle Rock School family last fall, working in our kitchen as a chef instructor.

While professionally trained to prepare gourmet meals in a number of styles — including Latin, Italian and American — Carlos admits his favorite task at Eagle Rock is coming out from behind the stoves and ovens and supervising student kitchen patrol teams in meal preparation and cleanup, as well as instructing students in food preparation technique for a few hours each week.

We asked Carlos to let us in on a few details of his life for this blog post. Here’s what he had to reveal:

Eagle Rock: What exactly is it that you do at Eagle Rock?

Carlos Perez: As a cook instructor, I get to spend time each Wednesday and Saturday instructing Eagle Rock School students in a variety of cooking functions and techniques. And while I love to cook, what I really look forward to the most is instructing the students and being a part of their development.

Eagle Rock: What did you do for work before arriving at Eagle Rock?

Carlos: I was a cook in Miami at several restaurants, including a steakhouse, and restaurants serving Continue reading…

Eagle Rock’s ‘School Improvement Project’ Focuses on Common Assessment

Editor’s Note: “Vision 2020” is the name of the strategic planning process adopted five years ago by Eagle Rock’s board of directors. It helps ensure that our long-term goals coincide with what we do on campus on a day-to-day basis. The vision focuses on seven distinct areas — known as domains — that guide our board, administrators, instructors, staff members and students. One of these domains centers on our academic curriculum, focusing on creating a framework for normed common assessments.

In today’s post, Eagle Rock staffers Jen Frickey, director of curriculum, and Jon Anderson, outdoor education instructional specialist and this year’s instructional coach, address and update the work our staff is doing in the domain of academic curriculum.

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Eagle Rock’s ‘School Improvement Project’ Focuses on Common Assessment
By Jen Frickey (Director of Curriculum) & John Anderson (Human Performance & Outdoor Education Instructional Specialist / 2018 Instructional Coach)

This year, the theme for professional development within Eagle Rock School’s instructional realm, is a close scrutiny of our academic curriculum — specifically pinpointing our power standards. At Eagle Rock School, all students must successfully pass power standard classes on each of our 5 Expectations. These include:

Leadership for Justice
Expanding Knowledge Base
Effective Communication
Healthy Life Choices
Engaged Global Citizen

Top of mind for our educators this year are the school’s Enduring Understanding and long-term learning targets for their own professional development. Enduring Understanding — also known as our 10-Year Takeaway — asks teachers to consider what it is that students will remember about their particular class and what they retained a decade from now.

By creating and implementing schoolwide common assessments, instructors can improve teacher capacity, thus enhancing Continue reading…

Students Represent Eagle Rock at Learner-Centered SparkHouse Event

Editor’s Note: In early November of 2017, three of our Eagle Rock School students attended a Washington, D.C.-based event called “SparkHouse” that saw teens from 13 states share learner-centered experiences from their own schools. The event was produced by Education Reimagined — an initiative of Convergence Center for Policy Resolution that promotes a transformational vision for education in the U.S. Marcus attended SparkHouse with fellow Eagle Rock School students Levi Brooks and Spencer Lanier, along with Bea Salazar, our Life After Eagle Rock instructional specialist.

Marcus’ write-up about the experience appears below (for more information on SparkHouse, please visit the SparkHouse webpage):

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By Marcus Wade-Prince

This past November, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to visit Washington, D.C., along with two other classmates and represent Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center as student ambassadors at SparkHouse.

For anyone who isn’t familiar, Eagle Rock School is an alternate form of high school that is dedicated to providing a student-centered education. The SparkHouse conference was about the movement of Continue reading…