Curriculum
Our learning experiences (classes) are created and revised by our instructional team on the basis of the desired profile of an Eagle Rock graduate and the principles that guide Eagle Rock (8 + 5 = 10). It is constantly recreated by staff on the basis of what staff learn from students about their learning. It is a work in progress as Eagle Rock educators learn more about how learners learn.
- Advisories Hide
Another team building and student support component within the community at Eagle Rock are advisories. Advisory is a small group consisting of staff and students who support students in their academic goals and help guide them towards graduation. Advisories often work with students on their personal growth and community life. There are usually two to three staff members, including the year-long Public Allies Teaching Fellow, and four or five students to every advisory. Each advisory group meets at least once a week, usually on Wednesday afternoons from 3:30pm – 4:30pm. Many advisories often meet beyond 4:30pm.
Advisories were created with the main objective to assist students academically. However, because of the intimacy that develops between advisors and students, advisories often spend a great amount of time on the individual student and his or her holistic well being within the community. Below are some specific objectives. Advisories vary in how these objectives are fulfilled.- Create meaningful relationships between staff and students to support students in their academic and community life.
- Assist students in managing their academic course work and course choices.
- Clarify students’ understanding of how credit is earned on the Individual Learning Plan.
- Communicate among students, parents, house parents, and instructors on academic and personal growth development.
- Help students prepare for Presentations of Learning, including guidance in their written packet, self-created rubric, and presentation style.
- Encourage students in their post-graduation plans, including college, work or internships.
- Communicate with parents and other individuals on the student’s progress.
- Foreign Language Hide
The world languages team currently offers six different language courses: Arabic, French, Latin, Italian, Spanish and Spanish for Native Speakers. Each course lasts two consecutive trimesters. The courses integrate culture with the other forms of language: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Class sizes range from six to twelve students. The instructional team consists of two full-time and two part-time employees and a minimum of one fellow. Each instructor uses a variety of pedagogical techniques, from traditional to experiential. The number of instructors and the number of different languages offered are the greatest strengths, especially in a small school. The variety of choices allows students to select the language and the instructor they may be most successful and comfortable with. The requirement that students enroll for two consecutive trimesters is also a strength, allowing for continuity in learning. Eagle Rock also provides real life language learning experiences, including travel to native speaking communities, purchase of realia to use in classrooms, and access to many forms of multimedia from around the world. In addition, the world languages team now offers an international service learning and cultural immersion trip to Guatemala, which helps students improve their basic Spanish skills.
- Food Service Hide
The kitchen at Eagle Rock serves 20 meals a week, three on Monday through Saturday and two on Sunday, to as many as 100 people each meal (more when visitors are present). Four kitchen staff supervise meal preparation, serving, and cleaning up, but the student KP (Kitchen Patrol) teams are actively involved in these processes, led by a student KP leader. One of the functions of the Eagle Rock food service program is to instruct students in employment skills, such as leadership, communication, responsibility, and time management. Another is to teach food service skills in conjunction with other subjects, such as mathematics and social studies. The food service program is strong because the kitchen provides a “real work” as well as a classroom environment. Students use time cards, pass safety and sanitation tests, are placed in leadership positions as part of graduation requirements, and are part of a team that needs to produce quality meals on time for the community. Skills are taught beforehand and at the moment of need and are utilized directly to prepare meals. Students learn about sustainability, seasonality, local and ethical food purchasing as well as healthy eating habits. Food is a medium for teaching about other cultures, often through celebrating various holidays and exploring regional cuisines.
- Language Arts Hide
The reading and writing program at Eagle Rock helps students unleash their imaginations, build their knowledge base, and actualize their own humanity. Students read to connect their lives with others’ experiences and to appreciate the writing styles of various writers. Staff members push students to become more widely read and also provide help to strengthen reading skills. Writing serves as Eagle Rock's primary mode of academic expression and demonstration of understanding. Students are challenged to write fiction, poetry, essays, letters, and proposals across the curriculum. Writing is also important in assessment; in many disciplines, students document their knowledge by constructing portfolios and writing essays and reports. Prior to Presentations of Learning (POLs), students prepare a POL packet to send to their panel members. This packet includes a cover letter, an autobiography, a moral and ethical code and other types of writing. The language arts staff operates a writing center that helps students with academic writing in many forms. One strength is that the language arts program respects the need for differentiated instruction and individualized learning plans. Much of the instruction that students receive in writing is on a one-to-one, coaching basis. Writing occurs across the curriculum. In most classes, writing is thought of as process, not just product. Also, instructors focus on writing for actual rather than imagined audiences: writing is for real purposes. For example, in research projects students are challenged to propose political solutions, address environmental issues, and raise awareness within and beyond Eagle Rock School. The process of research and writing a research paper is rooted in making a contribution. A strength in the reading and literature program is the diversity of works studied. What students read comes from all over the globe and from writers of many different cultures, life styles, and experiences.
- Library and Computer Services Hide
The Learning Resource Center (LRC) is the hub of learning at Eagle Rock. The LRC consists of a library, three classrooms, a large office space for instructional specialists (ISs) and fellows, twenty computers in the library, ten computers in the Lichen Multimedia Computer Lab, an office for the Life After Eagle Rock specialist, and an amphitheater where students and staff present projects and do Presentations of Learning (POLs). LRC staff also oversee the campus-wide computer and technology network. The main goals of the LRC program are information access and literacy. This report is divided into two components that help staff achieve these goals:
- The library and its print materials
- The campus-wide computer and technology network
- Mathematics Hide
The goal of the mathematics program is development of students’ problem-solving skills, effective communication of mathematical concepts, reasoning skills, and passion for learning. Students work with open-ended problems and projects that allow them to develop essential understandings in algebra, spatial reasoning (geometry), number sense, probability, and data analysis. Considerable class time is spent in group work, conducting investigations and discussing processes. A major focus of instruction is the development of multiple representations and solution strategies of the same problem. To address students’ differing levels and needs, classes are organized around open-ended problems or large real-world projects that allow a variety of levels of exploration to take place (i.e. analyzing the efficiency of the honeycomb as a storage container or applying geometry skills to make a full-size quilt). The mathematics instructional specialist and a year-long fellow design classes “from scratch” as well as use curricular units from the Interactive Mathematics Program (IMP). Students demonstrate learning in order to obtain credit. Typically, they construct portfolios in which they collect, organize and display work that demonstrates their learning. Portfolios allow students to select assignments that represent their most significant learning. In any given course, for example, one student might select an assignment that represents depth and extension of learning, while another student might select one that demonstrates mastery of an introductory skill. Small classes, the residential environment, and the school’s emphasis on community provide students with a number of support mechanisms for achievement in mathematics. For example, a student struggling in a recent geometry class was able to rearrange her morning schedule to receive some extra help, attend math club (a weekly homework support activity offered in the evening), and schedule other out-of-class hours to get the extra support and encouragement she needed to succeed in the class. Flexibility and creativity in curriculum development provide students with a wide variety of meaningful and useful mathematics. Projects and open-ended problems allow students numerous opportunities to develop their problem-solving and communication skills. Finally, flexibility in designing assessment activities allows portfolios to be adapted to fit individual student needs and/or individual course objectives.
- Music Hide
The main purpose of the music department is to “find and develop the artist within,” one of the 10 commitments included in the 8 + 5 = 10 philosophy of Eagle Rock. Students are encouraged to find their inner artist through singing and playing musical instruments, reading notated music and learning to create their own music. They are exposed to various historical and cultural types of music while listening to, analyzing, evaluating and participating in its performance. Music is in itself “learner driven” and “experiential,” key words in today’s education vocabulary. Because music is an avenue for self-expression and self-knowledge, students often reach new heights of self-awareness through the many discussions that occur within the classroom. Through music, students can experience and appreciate cultures around the world and find a positive, productive outlet for their joy, sorrow, love and laughter. Support ERS is committed to supporting and maintaining a complete music program. An ample budget allows the purchase and maintenance of instruments; the building of a music library for choral, band, orchestra, voice, and piano; the acquisition of up-to-date computer programs; and the purchase of sound and recording equipment. With the professional development budget, staff and, occasionally, students can attend conferences and workshops to hone their skills. Even though ERS is a small school, the music program features choir, a cappella, beginning band, advanced band, beginning orchestra, advanced orchestra, jazz band, pep band, the summer musical and music education. As their self-confidence increases, students gain perspective about how music affects their moods and their well-being, and how it touches their souls as they journey towards and explore their own spiritual development. Students make connections through the integration of music and other subjects: art, science, math, history, literature, physical fitness, service learning, technology, psychology and sociology. Eagle Rock has been able to change the schedule so that students and staff can choose any instrument (vocal included) and play in a beginning or advanced group. “Early bird” classes are offered at 6:00 a.m. three days a week; choir is slotted in a period called “specials,” a time when classes such as choir and service, both in need of a large number of people, can meet without any disruptions. As students witness an older person struggling to learn an instrument for the first time, they understand what “life-long learning” means and disassemble their own self-doubts. Having an aesthetically beautiful student-built building has made the music department an inviting and safe home for many musicians. Also, having a Public Allies fellow to share responsibility for instruction allows the classroom to be split, allowing both small (sometimes individual) and large group activities. ERS has a solid, learner-based, hands-on curriculum. Music theory, music history, music appreciation and interdisciplinary courses are supported with a wide variety of media: computer programs; web sites and the Internet; DVDs and videos; CDs and records.
- Outdoor Education/Wilderness Hide
The Outdoor Education department and the Human Performance department have merged (with a new name: Human Performance and Outdoor Education or HPOE). The merger has allowed resources and staff to be utilized more efficiently. The outdoor program successfully integrates outdoor activities such as rock-climbing, tele-skiing and canoeing with science, environmental science and English. On top of offering more outdoor-based classes to veteran students, the outdoor program staff have been focused on developing effective systems, policies for activities, resources for the field, and solid risk management practices. Staff also coordinate and run the orientation trimester for new students, including a 25-day wilderness trip. The merger of the departments into the HPOE department has created many opportunities for the staff to offer integrated outdoor education classes, such as Colorado Rocks, which combines rock climbing, English and science. HPOE offers a diverse, interdisciplinary, creative, hands-on experientially based curriculum to students. Another strength is the process staff went through in order to be accredited by the Association for Experiential Education. The internal study and the external review process have led to an improved risk management practice, policies and procedures, and curriculum for the outdoor program. Eagle Rock was accredited in May 2005. Another strength of the outdoor program is a well-organized new student wilderness trip and orientation trimester. It is a rite-of-passage for every student who enters Eagle Rock School to participate in an experiential-based, 25-day wilderness course during the first trimester at ERS. The primary focus of this trip is on a student’s personal growth, but the wilderness course also prepares students to enter into the Eagle Rock community. Students practice living in respectful harmony with people from diverse backgrounds, work on effective communication, especially during times of conflict, and begin to internalize the 8 + 5 = 10 values of the school. Another strength is staff experience and expertise in wilderness skills, counseling skills, and a wide variety of outdoors activities, such as tele-skiing, canoeing, mountain biking and rock-climbing. These allow for a broad offering of classes and experiences for students.
- Performance Hide
Staff who oversee performance on the campus believe there is an actor or actress in every one of us. Performance has two components: classroom instruction and live performance. Performance skills are learned in several interdisciplinary classes, often focused on the presentation of literature. The best example of live performance is the summer musical, which has built a reputation for being extremely creative and enjoyable. It is a showcase for talented students and students who are breaking through stage fright, and it is open to participation from all students, staff members, and staff families. Students learn the technical aspects of theater: acting, singing, dancing, set construction, and backstage happenings including costumes, lighting, and sound. However, student personal growth is the prime focus of a live performance. Immense personal growth occurs during the seven-to-ten weeks of rehearsals. During this period, students are asked to rise to their highest abilities and to take on leadership skills; expand their knowledge base; develop effective communication with staff and peers; develop compassion for their peers when struggles of a personal nature and frustrations occur on the set; and take on responsibilities not only for becoming their character, but for all the added jobs -- "finding a need and filling it." Perhaps the most difficult task of personal growth is having sufficient fortitude and perseverance to endure discomfort. Rehearsals can be long and frustrating, and they can stretch anyone's comfort zone. The staff are tough and push students to their limits, helping them overcome their personal fears and façades, and demanding excellence from them. Sometimes there are tears, "strong" circles, learning to "save face," and learning to give and receive apologies. The reward is a professional performance that honors Eagle Rock and larger Estes Park community.
- Personal Growth Hide
Because Eagle Rock acknowledges the importance of personal growth, it is an important part of curriculum. In fact, one of the graduation requirements at Eagle Rock focuses on personal growth. What does that mean? It means dealing with issues and emerging as a leader at Eagle Rock. It means learning how to live with people who are different, how to accept responsibility, and how to develop a positive attitude. It means having a personal contract or code and abiding by, even supporting, the social contract that makes community possible. It means living with integrity. As students move towards graduation, they begin to prepare two portfolios to attest to their personal growth. One contains some personal writing, including an essay, a collection of poems or songs (some written by the student), and a short biographical statement. The other includes documentation of personal growth from the time the student entered Eagle Rock, including the student's latest POL autobiography, his or her moral and ethical code, and a description of a resolution of a moral or ethical dilemma.
- Physical Education and Health Hide
The Human Performance Center (HPC) provides students and staff with a variety of classes and activities that cater to groups with diverse interests and abilities. These include an exercise program at 6:30 AM each day for all students, as well as an active intramural program that the entire school participates in every Wednesday. Both academic and activity classes are taught through the HPC as well as integrated with other departments. The department also runs an extensive recreation program outside class time including aquatics, using the climbing wall, yoga, Aikido, sports teams, dance and many others. One of the strengths of the HPC department is the First Aid and CPR program that enables ERS to certify students and staff through the American Red Cross. HPC classes have increasingly been designed to be integrated with other departments to help students broaden their views and make more connections between what they are learning in terms of health and physical education and other subjects. Examples include The Science of Nutrition and The Physics of Mountain Biking. Facilities and resources are excellent and maximize the diverse activity options available to students to encourage them to become life-long movers. The intramural program involves the entire community in a variety of sports and promotes leadership, sportsmanship, effective communication and teamwork.
- School and College Placement Hide
The school and college placement office is known as Life After Eagle Rock (LAER). LAER assists students in their preparation for life after high school. Student choices after graduation include college enrollment, vocational training, community service programs, internships, work, apprenticeships, and world travel. Many students pursue their interests outside the traditional path of immediate college enrollment. The LAER position became permanent in November 1999. Before then, it was an internship newly staffed each year. The current LAER staff member has had the opportunity to develop an understanding of the needs and duties for this position over time. Eagle Rock has gained more clarity in assisting college admissions offices’ understanding of the college application process for a non-graded, alternative high school student. A School Profile created in summer 2003 provides an at-a-glance summary of Eagle Rock’s performance-based curriculum for college admissions personnel. A new transcript is being developed. In addition to individual counseling, courses and workshops also provide support for student exploration in higher education; these include College Prep Specials, College Prep Saturday Seminar, and the Explore Week College Tour. The courses focus on the application process, scholarships and financial aid, essay writing and SAT/ACT test preparation. The College Explore Week Tour provides the opportunity for students to visit a number of different campuses in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. Tours have also been conducted over break with students in their hometowns, such as Houston, TX, and New York City. Field trips have been made to College Fairs in Denver and Fort Collins. A College Fair was also organized at Eagle Rock in November 2003 with 25 of the Bonner Scholarship colleges/universities. Through a Lifeskills program students learn about adult independence, particularly financial and legal responsibilities. The Lifeskills program is provided to students in several ways: as independent study, in a Saturday Seminar, in the summer internship course called Learners’ Guild, and as a Special. Some Lifeskills program components, such as budgeting and investing, have also been included in mathematics classes. LAER has invited speakers to Specials and Saturday Current Events to inform the student body of particular opportunities in careers and college, including a member of the PeaceCorps, a neuromuscular therapist, a member of the Associated Press, a TV producer, and a number of college, vocational, and community college representatives. A career development component is often included in ERS 201 for new students. Students have also participated in off-campus summer internships or college programs at Thorne Ecological Center and the University of Colorado Leeds Business Program. Communication with other staff members about students has also improved. Advisors are sent updates about their students from the LAER staff member. The LAER staff member also rotates with the registrar weekly to a different advisory in order to help students move towards graduation and their lives after graduation. The LAER intranet site, developed in October 2005, connects students and staff to resources for post-graduation preparation. The site allows students and staff members easy access to assistance and tools in career development, college admissions, SAT/ACT information, financial aid, scholarships, lifeskills and alumni contact information. Finally, to assist students in paying for college once they are admitted, the ERS Graduate Higher Education Fund (GHEF) is available to all graduates, at any time in their lifetime. Currently, each graduate receives $8500 for tuition, books, or board. The fund is solely supported by donations from alumni, family, and friends, and by Graduate Fund Workdays, which occur twice a year when Eagle Rock staff and students are hired out to the community to do odd jobs, which raises money for the GHEF.
- Science Hide
ERS strives to provide students with experiences in science that are creative, problem/project-based, flexible, hands-on, contextual, and inquiry-based. The science curriculum allows students to develop problem-solving skills in order to view the natural world and its phenomena through a variety of conceptual lenses. Science at ERS is experiential, whether students are conducting research that generates real data for real audiences or determining how best to separate a mixture of unknown solids. A unique aspect of the ERS science curriculum is its course offerings in both the general sciences and environmental sciences. General science classes have spanned such disciplines as physics, chemistry, geology, biology, astronomy, and subsets of the above, such as limnology, ornithology, quantum physics, and polymer chemistry. The environmental studies classes focus largely on ecology and earth systems and human impact on those systems. ERS science assessment is both informal and formal. Informally, student understanding is gauged through such mechanisms as class activities and one-on-one interactions. Portfolios comprised of standards-referenced assessments provide the formal mechanism of assessment in the general sciences. Compositions and presentations serve to measure understanding in the environmental studies. Students become critical thinkers, experimenters, researchers, and problem solvers. The experiential nature of science at ERS is one of its strengths. Problem/project-based learning empowers students to engage in a discipline rather than merely learn about the discoveries of others. The National Science Education Standards stress that the ability to design and perform scientific inquires is as important as the content learned in traditional classroom settings. ERS science offers students the opportunity to design and engage in real inquiry while also learning scientific content salient to the inquiry at hand. ERS science is contextual and conceptual. By placing science in context, students are able to understand larger concepts, both scientific and related to other disciplines, and the relationships that exist among them. Students also begin to view themselves as part of the natural world rather than apart from it. Another way in which ERS science provides meaningful learning experiences is through interdisciplinary, concept-based courses. These learning experiences also link to the contextualization of science discussed above. If science does not exist in a vacuum, it is entangled with other disciplines. To separate them is to deny our lived experience in the world. Connections among larger concepts that exist in both disciplines are more apparent in integrated classes. Integrated science courses also help students understand the nature of science by juxtaposing it with other disciplines and their unique attributes. Environmental studies courses at ERS offer students the opportunity to critically examine their impact on the world in which we live. Environmental studies courses offer a venue for students to examine relevant issues such as unequal distribution of resources, global warming, energy consumption and sustainability, and their individual roles in these issues. Becoming a steward of the planet is a clearly stated ERS value; environmental studies classes help students to develop their moral and ethical code as it relates to the environment. Environmental studies classes have also been the most common venue for community based, citizen science projects. Through engagement in projects such as Riverwatch or Birds in Forested Landscapes through the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, students become active members of their community while engaging in authentic, messy, and meaningful scientific research. Environmental studies classes provide a means for students to practice research skills and produce real data that relate to real environmental issues. Another strength of science instruction at ERS is that it is experiential, centered on a problem or project, contextual, and conceptual. Instruction is also student-centered and constructivist in nature. Science instructors at ERS work to facilitate meaningful experiences in which students are active constructors of knowledge, rather than empty vessels to be filled. To accommodate varied learning styles, instruction includes hands-on activities, inquiries, research, mini-lectures, peer collaboration, and students as instructors. ERS science assessments allow flexibility in how students demonstrate their learning while still referencing standards. Unlike portfolios which are merely collections of work, science portfolios at ERS are a formal mechanism of assessment. They contain four standards-referenced “prompts” in which students demonstrate understanding through answering open-ended questions, solving problems, designing and performing experiments, and/or giving presentations. In addition, portfolios typically contain a synthesizing project and a metacognitive reflection which encourage students to delve deeper into both their understanding of concepts and of themselves as learners. Since developing understanding is an iterative process, students are encouraged to revise their work until it meets the performance standards outlined in the rubric accompanying each assessment. Backwards design helps science instructors construct science assessments, taking into account what is important for students to know and be able to do prior to designing everyday lessons. This design process ensures intentionality in ERS science assessments while also avoiding regurgitation of disconnected facts.
- Service Learning Hide
Service-learning is recognized by Eagle Rock as an effective, experiential means of preparing young people to make a difference in the world. From the school’s inception, service has figured strongly in its values, expectations and commitments. “Service to others,” “Environmental stewardship,” and “Participating as an engaged global citizen,” are expressed in 8 + 5 = 10 and highly valued at Eagle Rock. Students are expected to “Serve Eagle Rock and other communities” as an ongoing part of their learning experience and knowledge acquisition at the school. The service-learning instructor and fellow coordinate service-learning experiences and partnerships, providing many direct and indirect community service opportunities for students through a variety of short and long-term activities. These include the following:
- Service Specials, a hands on service-learning course that meets four times a week each trimester and engages students in on- and off-campus community service as well as regular opportunities to think, discuss and write reflectively about their service experiences and viewpoints;
- Chores, a community-wide work program whereby students and staff participate in campus maintenance including recycling, landscaping, forestry, resupply and general housekeeping;
- EagleServe, which consists of two to three days of community service each trimester provided at Eagle Rock and to the wider community;
- Service-Learning Advisory Council, where students have a voice in planning, action and decision-making around service-learning at ERS;
- Independent Service Projects, whereby students develop a proposal to integrate a service-learning opportunity into their coursework or personal time;
- Classroom Service-Learning Projects, which are coordinated through different instructors and courses.
- Societies and Cultures Hide
At Eagle Rock, social studies is called Societies and Cultures. The Societies and Cultures (S & C) department is responsible for the curriculum goals and designs in world and United States history, physical and cultural geography, U.S. government, and civics. The curriculum design for these subjects is rooted in a strong focus on perspectives from underrepresented groups, interdisciplinary education, project-based assessment, cross-cultural understanding, democratic governance, leadership for justice, and reference to Colorado model content standards. The graduation requirements in S & C have been redesigned for accessibility by other instructors in different departments. One of the overarching goals of this department is to have a majority of S & C credit achieved in non-S & C classes. Currently 16% of classes offered for Winter 2006 are from the S & C department, and 40% of all classes available this trimester offer S & C credit. Graduation requirements are thoroughly concept-based. This allows other instructors to integrate the S & C curriculum into theirs without necessarily co-teaching with S & C instructors. The S & C department has created a guide to help others understand the requirements of the department. The efforts of the S & C department are greatly enhanced by having a comfortable budget and expansive resources. Budget and resources allow the department to expand students’ exposure to societies and cultures through traveling. They also allow staff the ability to cater somewhat more substantially to student imaginations. As an example, for almost ten years the department has been able to take a large group of students on an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C. in order to get a hands-on look at government. This trip is something students look forward to every year, and it allows instructors to design this one course in a more powerful way as a result of the experience-enhancing opportunity. The S & C instructors highly value the possibility that learning can be fun. Considering that most of the topics taught through this department are quite serious in nature, it is not always an easy task to make gaining understanding exciting and fun, but staff have had success with meeting this goal. For example, instructors use simulations, role-playing, board games, debates, and service learning activities to bring the curriculum alive. Courses offered from the S & C department maintain a high level of diversity in ideas, concepts, and topics. Over the past two years only one course has been repeated, although others were certainly worth repeating. However, because the concepts and ideas that can be taught are so rich and exciting, the social studies staff has chosen to invent new courses rather than repeat content.
- Visual Arts Hide
The art department at Eagle Rock School (ERS) has an entire building dedicated to art. Upstairs there is a ceramics and glass studio, a woodshop, and a large storage room; downstairs is the crafts and painting studio space along with a black and white darkroom. The art rooms are open late on weeknights and on weekends. This allows students to come in whenever they wish and use the supplies provided in the two community closets. Opportunities in the arts include woodworking, photography, ceramics, stained and fused glass, batik, and quilting, along with traditional arts such as drawing, painting and printmaking. Integrating the art curriculum and art opportunities with other disciplines occurs frequently. Often, the interdisciplinary approach is based on concepts or ideas (such as “revolution”) with connections to math, service, social studies, and science. Often, literature and writing credits are available in art classes. There is a vibrant community of artists in Estes Park and the surrounding area; ERS has a strong connection with the local community and hosts many visiting artists. With the goal of placing art in public places, ERS art is displayed on campus and in Estes Park. The philosophy of ERS (8 + 5 = 10) and the art department mesh. With the more-than-adequate space, financial backing, and resources, the staff is able to develop new classes (most recently in the areas of quilting and fused glass), use new art media, and experiment in teaching techniques. Students are also challenged to come up with new and innovative ideas for classes or specific projects. One of the fundamental strengths of the ERS art program is the value that the arts have in the ERS philosophy of 8 + 5 = 10. Aesthetic expression is one of the eight themes; effective communication is one of the five expectations; find and develop the artist within and develop the mind, body and spirit are part of the ten commitments. These values provide structure that helps in developing curriculum, planning classes, and working with students. Students strive to communicate effectively through the arts as they develop a level of proficiency in any media. The arts and artwork are visible throughout the campus, testifying to past and present explorations into developing the artist within and aesthetic expression. Students use their work in Presentations of Learning (POLs), and in other required classes to demonstrate learning.