So much goes into each moment, each day, and each week. This final week of CELC was typical in that it too, like all the rest, was filled to the brim with new adventures and focused academics.
We began on Monday preparing thank you notes and gifts for the many people who have graced our lives to share with us. Visiting the Abbey of Regina Laudis, having Carlos Eire meet with students, and working with native Spanish speakers from Mexico were just a few. read more
CELC students just returned from a 7-day sailing adventure on the Chesepeake Bay aboard Boundless, a 46-foot ketch captained by Jeff Armor of Different Drum Sailing Adventures. We knew we’d sail, but we could not have predicted all of the aspects in which this kind of experience would offer for learning and growth. Sailing requires knowledge of such a variety of areas, including meteorology, navigation and geography, not to mention the art of conversation, cooperation, and consideration of others. Living aboard a boat also changes one’s perspective about what is possible.
En route to Fredericksburg, Virginia students had a math class in the café car of the Amtrak train. 
CELCers are quite adept at making a classroom happen, whether it is on the deck of Boundless for Literature Circle or on the train platform for writing workshop. 
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What an amazing journey! Please view our travel log and also read on for more about CELC’s sailing adventure:
Greetings from Boundless! This is the life, and we are already deciding to give up on being landlubbers and take to the seas, travel the world.
As the adventure begins aboard Boundless with Captain Jeff and First Mate Janine, CELCers are having quite an extraordinary time!
Each day students perform jobs that enable them to learn to “run the boat”. Today, Jenna served as Captain for the Day and provided us with data, including wind direction, weather conditions, barometric pressure, and our latitude and longitude in degrees, minutes and seconds. 
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Professor Carlos Eire Meets With CELC Students
Another rich and varied week of learning for CELC. In addition to all of our academic studies, this past week included activities such as seeing the play Italian American Reconciliation at the Long Wharf Theater, meeting with author and Cuban émigré Professor Carlos Eire, and working at Trap Rock Ridge Camp with Rob.
Below is a letter from Rob who shared some thoughts about the group:
Dear CELC Friends and Relatives,
Your dear youngsters just left our place after spending a few hours working on our little farm. They are quite an amazing crew, both youngsters and adults. You all should be very proud of them. Sally and I certainly are.
Of course we are delighted, beyond words, with all the help they offer to keep things moving in a positive direction in our gardens, chicken yard, and woodpile. And we hope they are learning a little about sustainable living along the way. I think they are. But that is not the best of it. The best of it is what we see in the maturity, work ethic, camaraderie, humor, and positive outlook read more
Immigration Study Extravaganza
Connecticut Experiential Learning Center students’ year-long study of immigration will be celebrated Friday, 3 June from 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. at the Blackstone Memorial Library in Branford. Students will present a “living history museum” and become immigrants from a particular country of origin. This event is free and open to the public. Please join us for an interactive and creative experience that is both educational and lots of fun for all. RSVP mandm@CTExperiential.org or call 203-215-2317. Click on this link for more information : Immigration Study .
A Middle School Success Story
Find Out About CELC / Middle School Matters. Come to CT Experiential Learning Center’s June informational meeting to find out more about this exciting and innovative middle school program for students grades 5 – 8. Join us Monday, 6 June at 6:30 p.m. at the Blackstone Memorial Library in Branford. RSVP 203-215-2317 or email mandm@CTExperiential.org. Registering now for 2011-2012.
Working with local ornithologist, Celia Lewis has brought CELC students into nature once again. The Jared Eliott Preserve, part of the Guilford Conservation Land Trust property, offers a diverse range of habitats and a welcome place for birds, from migrants to cosmopolitans throughout the year. Our students have been steadily collecting data to keep track of birds in this area.
Following are some impressions of this experience from one of our students:
When humans walk in the woods, nature hides. Birds chirp, sticks crack, squirrels dash away. Stay quiet, and it gets braver – not only birds, read more
CELC at Tsongas Industrial History Center in Lowell, Massachusetts
Learning opportunities come in a variety of ways. 
Tuesday, 19 April CELC students interviewed residents at La Casa Otoñal in New Haven, a senior housing community serving mostly the Latino population. Students wanted to learn about the immigrant experience first-hand from these elders. 
Each student had a set of questions to use as a guide, and in addition to speaking English, read more
Read about these events in our newsletter.
Please join us ….
Internet Safety for Teens
How do we stay safe while surfing the Internet? How do we stay safe from Internet bullies and Internet predators? There are many steps we can take to safeguard our Internet activities.
CT Experiential Learning Center presents an Internet Safety Workshop for Teens with Dass Sinnappenn, Account Technology Strategist with Microsoft. This FREE event will take place Monday, 2 May at 5:30 p.m. at the James Blackstone Memorial Library in Branford, CT.
Please come and listen to ways you can protect yourself.
RSVP mandm@CTExperiential.org
Carlos Eire Meets With Students at the Blackstone Library
Thursday, 12 May at 11 a.m. CT Experiential Learning Center hosts author Carlos Eire at the James Blackstone Memorial Library.
Born in Havana in 1950, Carlos Eire left his homeland in 1962, one of 14,000 unaccompanied children airlifted out of Cuba by Operation Pedro Pan. He is currently T. Lawrason Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale University, an historian of late medieval and early modern Europe. Dr. Eire will meet with students and share about his life and his published works, Waiting for Snow in Havana, which won The National Book Award for nonfiction, 2003 and Learning to Die in Miami.
This program is free and open to the public (recommended for students ages 10 and up). RSVP mandm@CTEXperiential.org.
Tradition! Each year at Wightwood School classes from kindergarten through 8th grade had a year-end adventure. The kindergarten stayed overnight in the school building, each student accompanied by a parent, who would arrive to school on that Friday with pajamas, sleeping bag, favorite stuffed animal friend, and the anticipation of possibly a first-ever sleepover thrill. The 2/3-grade class pitched tents and camped for two nights at Trap Rock Ridge Camp, better known as Rob’s house. These were the start of memories that last a lifetime, from traveling to the Abbey of Regina Laudis, roasting hot dogs and s’mores at the campfire to hearing Rob tell the Leatherman story, complete with details that entertained, taught, and even one year offered a “live” visit by this historic figure.
These trips away were a chance for students to bond in a way other than what could happen inside a classroom. Traveling allows a person to get to know himself as well as learn to work with others, together discovering possibilities that arise from novelty and the spirit of adventure.
When Maria and I began the CT Experiential Learning Center, after Wightwood closed its doors, we knew from our years as middle school teachers that student travel adds a dimension to learning that was perfectly developmentally appropriate for the young adolescent who is in a process of self-discovery, craves independence, and still tends to play and be curious when given the occasion.
While we also do a lot of moving about in the world with students as a regular part of our read more
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