Middle Schoolers Build Community at Opening Retreats

Ask any seventh or eighth grade student what experiential learning is, and they are likely to cite examples from their grade level retreats held last week.
 
Seventh graders spent the first part of the week exploring identity and community at the Gries Center in University Circle, focusing on their essential question for this year: How do I work to understand the perspective of others? They then traveled to Kelleys Island, where they explored what it means to live on an island, engaged in discussions with residents, learned about the migratory patterns of monarch butterflies, and worked together through team-building exercises. Add pizza, s’mores, original skits, and a lake shore hike, and they had all the ingredients of a successful trip.
 
A change of pace and perspective came with the next leg of their adventure, which involved understanding the perspective of others through discovering downtown Cleveland. They traveled to Voinovich Park and worked on an advisory challenge to construct a sign composed of photographs of found structural and natural elements. After a picnic lunch at Edgewater Park, they returned to campus to discuss their individual Cleveland Journeys.

Meanwhile, the 8th graders undertook adventures of a different sort, starting with the high ropes challenge course at the Upper School - thanks to the guidance and expertise of Upper School teacher Cris Harris, who was ably supported by a dedicated group of high school students. They also learned to navigate West Woods Metropark using GPS coordinates before traveling to Allegheny National Forest, where advisory groups – led by facilitators from Project USE (Urban Suburban Environment) - hiked, slept under tarps, cooked, and found their way through the woods. 

Needless to say, students returned from their retreats with a clearer sense of themselves, each other, and their role in their community.
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An independent, coeducational, college preparatory day school, toddler through grade 12

Early Childhood, Lower, and Middle Schools, 5000 Clubside Rd, Lyndhurst, OH 44124
Birchwood School of Hawken, 4400 West 140th Street, Cleveland, OH 44135 

Upper School, PO Box 8002 (12465 County Line Rd), Gates Mills, OH 44040
Mastery School of Hawken, 11025 Magnolia Dr, Cleveland, OH 44106

Gries Center, 10823 Magnolia Dr, Cleveland, OH 44106

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