Connecticut Experiential Learning Center, CELC Branford, Connecticut - Experiential Education

"An Outstanding Middle School Education"
28 School Street, Branford, CT 06405 • (203) 433-4658
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Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand. ~Chinese Proverb

Fall In Love With Middle School!

 
Contact CELC today!
   
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Empowering Youth

Curriculum Integrated Experiential Learning!

CT Experiential Learning Center (CELC) Middle School of Branford engages students through academic rigor in combination with hands-on and real-world experiences within a supportive learning community.

Students come from a variety of towns throughout Connecticut, from families looking for a program that engages and deepens learning, where their children thrive during these important and impactful 5th- 8th grade years.

The intention of the Connecticut Experiential Learning Center (CELC) is to challenge students and nurture their highest potential. By providing a learning community based in the guiding principles of respect, integrity, responsibility and individual learning, the innate desire of all children to learn, grow, communicate, and create is honored.  CELC provides an energizing, personalized, and significant middle school experience.

“CT Experiential Learning Center is middle school at its best!”


CT Experiential Learning Center is a proud member of the Coalition of Essential Schools.

CT Experiential Learning Center

Connecticut’s Only Experientially-based Middle School – Openings Available Now for 2017-18

Imagine the middle school years as joyful, exciting, boundless …

CT Experiential Learning Center (CELC) is MORE than a Middle School!

A real success story, CELC builds resilient and competent students who are ready and eager to take on challenges of high school and beyond, as inquisitive learners and compassionate citizens of the world.

CT Experiential Learning Center (CELC) Middle School is designed to empower youth during a time of life that is often regarded as a time to just get through, and fast! With physical changes, hormones becoming fully engaged, it is an intense transitional period, leaving childhood and moving toward the adult self. These early stages of this life change, during the middle school years, can be confounding for young people who contend with trying to “fit in” during a time that is, by nature, vulnerable and unsettled. This time is powerful. It can be joyful and exhilarating, filled with passion and new ideas about oneself and the world.

CELC’s education supports students and offers energizing opportunities both in and out of the classroom. Education and learning is not meant to happen in a vacuum. Presenting young people the chance to interact and engage in authentic experience brings meaning, serving as an introduction to the many facets of the self, on the path to becoming. [Read More…]

The Latest CELC Events

Most Likely To Succeed – FREE film screening at CELC

On 19 October 2017 CELC Middle School and Guilford Free Library will take part in Most Likely to Succeed’s worldwide campaign to re-imagine education.

 Most Likely to Succeed (MLTS) offers an inspiring look at what students and teachers are capable of — if we have the vision and courage to transform our schools.

Directed by acclaimed documentarian Greg Whiteley, the film has been an official selection of two dozen of the world’s top
film festivals, including Sundance, Tribeca, AFI, Cleveland, Dallas, Milwaukee, Sarasota, Seattle, Virginia, and Bergen. It’s been featured at leading conferences on education, including ASU/GSV, SXSWedu, Harvard/Goldman Sachs, and New Schools Venture Fund. Audience members call it the most compelling film ever done on the topic of school.

This event will take place at Guilford Library, 67 park Street, Guilford, CT.  It is free and open to the public. Please visit mltsfilm.org for more information about the film and movement.

CELC Middle School / Guilford Library film screening will be followed by discussion.

Please contact mandm@CTExperiential.org or call 203.433.4658 or online www.CTExperiential.org for reservations and additional information.

News of the Week

History Comes Alive at CELC – Successful Student Exhibition!

Each year CELC has a theme that takes on a life of its own throughout the year, culminating with the writing of formal research papers and creating elaborate displays that showcase the work and learning of each student.  This year’s theme “Ancient to Modern Civilizations” includes research about ancient Japan, San Bushmen of the Kalahari, the Maya, the Vikings, ancient Greece, and ancient-to-modern Hebrew people.  Students create a persona, dress in costume, and become someone who might have lived within the time period of these civilizations.

The following blogs, written by 4th-year CELC student “on-the-spot” reporters,  describe some of  this theme experience:

 

Another Round of Theme

written by S.B., 4th-year CELCer

Welcome to a world of many! Vikings, Mayans, Jews, and more gather here today, together all decked out as replicas of their life! This day, June 8th, marks four straight weeks of hard work and focus.

The first-years, bubbling with mixed feelings of excitement and nervousness come close to the end of their building time, while the graduates bundle everything  up for their last theme. With graduation right on their tail, the students have put forth an extreme amount of work in these last few [Read More…]