The final week of instruction brought CELC students to Trap Rock Ridge camp for a two-night overnight. Cooking outdoors, sleeping under the stars, clamming in Long Island Sound, touring the Yale Art Gallery’s ancient art exhibit, and traveling to circus class filled the days.
Connecticut’s Experiential Learning Center (CELC) offers the most desirable aspects of a middle school education:
For parents, the assurance that their children will succeed in a full range of academic subjects, because they receive individual attention designed to maximize their abilities.
For students, CELC is where learning is an adventure, because math, literature, history, science, music and art are hands-on, speak-out experiences connected to them. read more
The auditorium at the Blackstone Memorial Library became transformed into a “living museum” of ancient civilizations, representing months of research and study by students of the Connecticut Experiential Learning Center.
Each interactive project contained a variety of informational items, including a timeline specifying dates of the civilization, listing important events that occurred within that time period; hand-drawn maps of ancient compared to modern geographical locations and place names of the region studied; a research report; and a plethora of visuals, dioramas, models, and more. read more
Connecticut Experiential Learning Center students and George Penniman Architects team up to conquer hunger at CANstruction 2010. Raising $1,115 in donations, CELC purchased over 1900 cans to construct the little blue train engine in storybook The Little Engine That Could. After the exhibition and awards ceremony to be held on Wednesday, 19 May at the CT Science Center in Hartford, all cans will be donated to the CT Food Bank. Thank you to all our many sponsors, especially to the Guilford Big Y for giving us 33% off the purchase of over 1000 of our cans.
CELC students will create a “living museum” presentation and display, sharing their ancient civilizations research and study work. Students will bring forth their learning in an interactive way, as they each invent and become a persona within a mini-environment created to represent their civilization. As if you are traveling back in time, visit Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Celts, the Huns, and the Greeks. This Friday, 28 May from 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
We hope to see you there!
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“Who’s on poppy seed and who’s on toffee triangles?” begins our Why Cook? class, which takes place on Friday mornings at Connecticut Experiential Learning Center. Students gather around a dining room table that is filled with an assortment of bowls, measuring cups, and wet and dry ingredients.
After reading the recipes, students discuss what they now know about what is needed. As students share their understanding of the recipes they are about to produce, a lot of discussion related read more
A week in the life of CELC is quite an extraordinary thing. Our days and weeks are so rich and varied. This past week began with a typical start for a Monday. Current events had students discussing topics ranging from Arizona border disputes to the pod of right whales found near the Cape Cod Coast.
Tuesday afternoon we had a professional photography shoot at the Watering Pond Yoga Studio. There’s more to this story, you may be thinking – yes, indeed there is! Dorothy, our yoga instructor, had an inspiration back in September when we began our once/month yoga classes to ultimately photograph CELCers in their favorite poses and to perhaps send the photos to the Yoga Journal or to create a calendar, all based on the theme of exploring body language and movement.
The most pronounced memory from the photo shoot was just how strong,
CELC students with Senator Ed Meyer
What a way to learn!
Connecticut Experiential Learning Center (CELC) middle-school students saw and heard first-hand how government works when they spent a day in Hartford, meeting state senators and representatives, attending legislative sessions, observing what it’s like to run the state. Receiving standing ovations from both chambers for their enthusiasm and participation, the day topped off with an ice cream social with the CT Farm Bureau.
CELC gives its students these kinds of experiences regularly, as the most effective way to learn.
Students are encouraged to work hard and stretch themselves in all subject areas, including Spanish, grammar, literature circle, science and more. 
We saw a matinee performance of No Child at the Long Wharf Theatre. In this one-woman show, Nilaja Sun – in a humorous and poignant way - captured the essence of how important the arts are in making a real difference in the lives of students. read more
A renga is a very old form of poetry that originated in Japan as a party game. They are image-filled and written in alternating stanzas of three and two lines. They have been written by anywhere from two to two hundred authors with up to 1,000 stanzas. How ambitious!
Often rengas begin with a stanza about the natural world, the seasons, or a sense of place. They do not have a single theme, but each stanza, in some subtle or obvious way, relates to the preceding stanza but not the one before that. The links can be made with a connecting image or a word that has several meanings. Rengas are stingy on words but massive in “painting a picture in your mind.” Much to Maria’s chagrin, proper grammar is out the window. read more
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