TEA ADVENTURES

Fall Mountain Bike Team Season Update

The fall MTB TEAm has been a blast this season! The weather had been impressively supportive of our efforts up until mid October, but it seems like Mother Nature had other plans for the rest of the season! With colder temperatures seemingly here to stay, long sleeves will be the order of the day as we suck the marrow out of the rest of the season.

Cross Country Fall 2021 Mid Season Update

Led by coaches Alex Peugnet, Maude Meeker, and Matt Morrison, our Fall 2021 Cross Country team consists of 5th – 12th graders with 5th – 8th graders participating in local meets. With two meets completed, we wanted to share a mid-season update with you all!

How Can Journalism Strengthen a Community? A Hands-On Exploration in Sacramento and the Bay Area

Through expert meetings with a wide range of journalists and content producers in Sacramento and the Bay Area, our high school Journalism Intensive students recently gained a deeper understanding of the ways in which professional journalists and storytellers connect with communities. During the 5 day / 4 night fieldwork experience, students learned how a deeply collaborative reporting process can help strengthen those connections and ultimately the communities they are serving.

Middle School Student Crew Trip to Henry Coe State Park

The original plan for this trip was to hike into Desolation Wilderness, just to the west of Lake Tahoe. Then the wildfires changed those plans. We quickly pivoted to a new location, Henry Coe State Park near San Jose, California. After conducting background research and calling the park’s rangers to confirm what we learned, several backpacking routes and campsites were established. In addition, we were able to organize over 20 parent drivers to help us transport 75 students and 8 guides to the trailhead, which was about a 4 hour drive from our campus in Truckee, CA.

Learning in the Outdoors (But Not Necessarily About the Outdoors)

Sometimes TEA is described as an “outdoor education school.” Perhaps you’ve described it this way yourself. It’s easy enough to do as the stories we often share are those from outdoor adventures where our students rappelled down slot canyons or paddled down large stretches of water in an effort to learn more about uranium mining or immigration. The visuals tell a story of an outdoor education program, but the experiences in themselves include rigorous academic inquiry across all national standards (reading, writing, math, science, social studies) as students build background knowledge to prepare for these experiences.

2021 Commencement Ceremony Video and Photo Gallery

Thank you to everyone who helped make this year’s Commencement Ceremony so memorable! It’s with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to the class of 2021. Without a doubt one of the most unforgettable years ever.

2021 Senior Passage Presentations

As part of TEA’s graduation requirements, seniors complete a passage presentation where they are tasked with proving to the panelists and TEA Community that they have mastered TEA’s learner outcomes and are ready to embark on the next chapter of their journey. We are proud to share the Senior Class of 2021 Passage Presentations with you.

2021 8th-Grade Passage Presentations

Passages provide students with an opportunity to reflect on their growth as learners and people as they transition from one phase of school to the next. In accordance with COVID-19 policies at the time, our 2021 8th-Grade Passage Presentations were presented via student produced videos. We proudly share them here with you.

2021 Millennium Scholarship Recipients

Please join us in congratulating TEA seniors Johan Sotelo and Brennan Berg! Both recipients have been awarded $5000 grants in order to offset costs associated with their future endeavors. Johan is off to Stanford University in the fall and Brennan is heading to the University of California, Davis where he will study Aerospace Engineering. We are exceptionally proud of their accomplishments and contributions while at TEA and we are excited to support their next adventure.

Welcoming Our New Head of School, David Maher

David was chosen from a national pool of impressive candidates after a very thorough and inclusive search process. This unanimous appointment was the result of united and enthusiastic support from the Head of School Search Committee, Board of Directors, the School Leadership and the broader TEA community.

Celebrating 10 Years of TEA

This spring we celebrated our 10th Birthday, having started the planning and recruiting for the school in the spring of 2011. We were so lucky to have a video message from TEA’s Co-Founders, Margo Redfern, D Larrabee, Gina Barth and Taylor Simmers, another collaborative musical performance thanks to TEA Parent Dave Zimmerman, as well as an awesome 10 year recap of the experience from our very own Beck Marshall.