Academic Program

 

The academic program at East Burke School consists of a standard high school curriculum that combines traditional and experiential elements. This approach leads to

 

• Biology students spending a fair amount of time in the field;
• German students participating in trips to German speaking Europe or living with exchange families for extended periods of time;
• The entire school community learning about civics, history, government and politics during a week in Washington, D.C.;
• Interested students getting involved in building projects in our school house or in web design tasks for our cyber presence;
• The music and fashion design classes performing a self directed, prepared-from- scratch puppet show performance of “Where the Wild Things Are” for a local elementary school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Academic Program Goals

 

English / Humanities / History: Goals include the mastery of the literary conventions that are tools for text analysis, development of critical skills in reading and in writing, the ability to participate meaningfully in discussions and to make formal presentations to the class. Students will build an active vocabulary and achieve an understanding of the English grammar . We will teach the contents and methods of history within the scope of the Humanities.

 

Math / Science: The aim of the math curriculum is to facilitate the discovery, exploration, and practice of the language of mathematics. The themes of estimation, infinity, logic, modeling and mathematical reasoning will weave themselves through the curriculum. The basic science framework consists of two years of general science, while the last two years will concentrate on more traditional disciplines.

                    

German: The foreign language program at EBS is decidedly communicative. We will actively use the target language from the first class on. Students will develop an understanding of the culture of German speaking Europe. We will coordinate grammar lessons as much as possible with the English department. Exchanges are available for qualifying students.

 

The Arts: Our Art program will be led on campus by a variety of local Artists and, in the past, have included Visual Arts, Photography (pin-hole cameras), fashion design, and introductions to drumming and guitar playing. Individual students are encouraged to set up additional private lessons off-campus as desired.

 

Self—Initiated Learning Experience: We will invite our students to bring their own interests and passions to our school and develop them in a planned and directed fashion. After they develop a learning plan for their desired skills and knowledge, we will find experts in the larger community around us who are willing to take on our students as apprentices, interns, or understudies. It is our firm belief that when given the opportunity to develop their own passions and dreams, adolescents will respond and excel.

 

 

 

In terms of the individual subject progressions, students roughly follow this outline:

 

• English: Freshman through Senior English;
• History: Vermont History, Current Events, European History, US History;
• Science: 8/9 Biology, Chemistry, Advanced Biology, Physics;
• Math: Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Functions/Statistics/ Trigonometry; Pre Calculus, Calculus;
• German I – V
• Arts
• Outdoor Adventure and Fi