Wednesdays at the Phoenix

Wednesdays at the Phoenix provides two classes (plus lunch time and free time) weekly during the 2024-2025 school year!

The People of North America
Celebrate and honor the diverse group of voices and communities that call North America (including the Caribbean, Antilles and Central America) home! In this hands-on course, students will learn all about the social, cultural, environmental, intellectual, and economic forces that have affected various groups of people in North America.

We will learn about the Gullah Geechee, the Taino, the Ojibwe, Afro-Mexicanos, Chinese Jamaicans, the European diaspora and many, many more through primary sources, in-person and online workshops, art, film, song and dance, games and critical thinking exercises. Exploring these communities will help students have a greater understanding of significant figures and events that shaped North American communities…and help them understand just how expansive and diverse these communities are! Students will have the opportunity to put on their own production on the main stage at the theatre, as well as present an art show to their families and friends.

Biographies
Dive into a year-long course to learn about contemporary and historical wave makers and trailblazers! In this social studies/history/civics course extraordinaire, students will get to learn about, in depth, some figures they might be familiar with, as well many other notable historical thinkers, leaders, artists, moments and movements that have had an indelible effect on human history. Students will break barriers and open minds with opportunities to work on collaborative and independent projects, strengthen their media literacy skills, learn from primary sources, go on field trips (to museums, as well as visiting experts in their field), work on STEM-focused class activities, create art, and unleash their creativity with a history fair!

Both classes meet weekly on Wednesdays from 10:00-1:45. An optional and supplementary class, Blue Room Book Club, follows Biographies.