| Aquarium
— CLC conducts
an annual trip for learners and their friends and family
members to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey.
Each
participating child receives a book with a marine theme to
read at
home.
Winterthur
Museum — Benefiting
from Winterthur's educational outreach program, CLC students
and
their
families have enjoyed outings to the historic
home and country estate
of Henry
Francis du Pont (1880-1969), renowned horticulturalist and
collector of
American decorative arts, in Delaware.
Opera
and Theatre — In
collaboration with the
Opera
Company of
Philadelphia's Sounds of Learning Program, each year we provide our
students with
the opportunity to attend the final dress rehearsal of an opera at the
Academy of Music. These dramatic musical performances
have included, for example, Il
Trovatore, Pearl Fishers,
Margaret
Garner, Falstaff, Cyrano, and Fidelio.
Before and
after the event, students learn about the opera
and its libretto and historical context.
CLC
students also
have opportunities to attend professional and community
theatre productions. In 2006, students and supporters
of Community Learning
Center attended
the performance of
Christopher Sergel’s
dramatization of To
Kill a Mockingbird at
the Old
Academy, a
nonprofit community theatre located
in the East Falls section of Philadelphia, where Grace Kelly began her
acting
career. The performance
coincided with learners’ study of To Kill a
Mockingbird. Consistent
with
CLC’s holistic, thematic approach to education, students
learned about the
story’s historical setting, including the Great Depression,
the Roosevelt
Administration, and the customs and mores of the South during the era
of segregation.
The 1930s theme even extended to CLC’s math curriculum, which
included solving
problems involving statistics from this time period. In 2007,
learners attended the Old Academy Players' production of
another
Depression Era story, Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, which
featured former Community Learning Center teacher Jennifer Williamson
in the role of Laura Wingfield.
Ballet
— In
recent years, CLC
students and
family members have enjoyed the Pennsylvania
Ballet’s final dress rehearsals of Dracula, Quartet
for IV (and sometimes one, two, or three…), Lambarena,
and Five
Tangos.
Orchestra
— Learners
and family members attended the Philadelphia Orchestra's Intercultural Journeys program
in 2007. Part of the Family Concert Series, the program featured Arab
and Israeli music. In 2008, CLC conducted a trip
to The
Composer Is
Dead, a musical fictional
mystery in which each member of
the orchestra is a suspect.
National Constitution
Center — Students
learn about our country's Constitution and history by visiting the
fabulous National Constitution Center.
Awards
and Graduation Celebration —
In
June, we celebrate the special achievements of CLC learners. Students
and their families gather for an awards and
graduation celebration. Teachers honor individual students for their
unique accomplishments — from mastering multiplication to
obtaining
employment to becoming proficient in Internet research —
during the past
school year. Those who
passed all five sections of the GED test dress in cap and gown
and inspire others by speaking about overcoming past obstacles
and planning new goals.
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