Tahoe Expedition Academy’s engaging academics and real world adventures empower students to reach their full potential by cultivating intellectual growth, character and confidence. We integrate adventure-based learning within an academic environment, instilling both confidence and achievement for our students. We call it Constructive Adversity, and it’s what sets our school apart.
Our core subject areas include English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. Students learn core academics and the arts through multidisciplinary projects to gain a deep understanding of the subject matter. In this respect, we teach both breadth and depth – breadth in the sense that students learn a wide range of content and skills and depth because they regularly have the opportunity to apply the learning in real-world contexts.
Character development, service learning and leadership training are important elements for academic achievement, social emotional learning and ethical development. At TEA, “We are crew, not passengers,” and each student is a member of a crew. In these small, supportive groups, each student is known well and engages in the proactive cultivation of character and leadership. We help students nurture character values and practice meeting adversity head on so our graduates have the courage and intestinal fortitude to “survive and thrive” when things get tough.
Adventure is an integral component of our program and we have intentionally created more regularity, accessibility and intensity of our students’ adventures inside and outside the classroom. We spend one third of our time in the field working with experts and engaging firsthand. Both in the classroom and on field studies, teachers serve as mentors and guides; challenging, supporting, and inspiring. Moreover, our talented faculty encourage students to take calculated risks, produce quality work and realize their potential as scholars.
Our goal is to create learning multidisciplinary learning experiences that are “exhilarating and so amazing.” That’s an actual quote about a student’s experience during this Real World Adventure example titled “Tahoe WILDFire.” Through this experience students were able to apply concepts they learned in their core subject areas to fire prevention practices in the Tahoe Basin.
Every day begins and ends with a crew meeting and closing circle. This is a way to make every child feel included, to greet one another and to center themselves in the learning environment, to resolve any social issues, to address any concerns and to come together as a community.
Our experiential teaching style also impels teachers and students to go into the field to learn from experts using a hands-on approach. Teachers work with students to build background knowledge around their topic during expedition time and then take the students into the field to see the real-life application. They return to the classroom to make sense of their experiences and learning.
These are mixed-age classes focusing on life skills such as sewing, blacksmithing, dancing, ceramics, and stewardship. Students choose their guilds in the beginning of each semester and enjoy mixing up the social dynamic through fun Friday Afternoon activities.