Trailblazers may choose to attend academic classes on Monday afternoons and Friday mornings, Friday Enrichment Day (Friday afternoons), or both programs. Scroll further down the page for Monday afternoon and Friday morning academic class options.

Friday Enrichment

Our Friday Enrichment program begins at 11:30 with the first class, is followed by lunch and two more classes, and ends at 3:30. There is a $50 membership fee that is paid each semester by everyone enrolling in THA. This is due within one week of enrollment. There is a $150 Enrichment Fee that, along with any supply fees for enrichment classes, will be divided into four monthly payments. Our Clark Youth Theatre enrichment class fee will be paid directly to Clark.

Friday Enrichment Elective Period 1 Class Options – Scholars:

Please note that high school students who are taking Chemistry in our Academy program will have their Friday chemistry class during this class period.

  1. Theatre – 6th-12th Grades – Clark Youth Theatre – $130 per student paid to Clark – Does your child love playing pretend, making up characters, and putting on accents or voices? If so, Clark Youth Theatre’s acting classes are the place for them! Clark provides children from all different backgrounds an opportunity for a passion in the arts. During this one hour class, students will explore acting through improv games, monologues, and self-written work. Students will work as an ensemble with other students and will be given the tools needed to memorize lines, create their own plays, and perform. Our welcoming and accepting teachers are excited to share their knowledge and to create with your children!
  2. Creativity/Game Club – 6th-12th Grades – Supervised by THA Leadership Team – $15 supply fee paid to THA (wrapped into monthly THA payment) – Creativity Club is exactly that – a club where students with a shared interest in creative pursuits gather to create alongside and encourage each other. Students can work on individual projects or they can collaborate. They can practice their favorite form of creativity or explore new ones with the materials we will have on hand. Creativity Club’s intent is to foster a self-paced, self-determined, and nurturing space for creativity and friendships to thrive. This semester we are offering creativity club each class period and adding the option to play games during this time. We will have games available, or students may bring their own.
  3. Cooking – FULL FOR SPRING 2023 – 6th-12th grades – Janey Jacewitz – $100 supply fee paid to THA (wrapped into monthly THA payments) – The class size for this class will be very limited. Janey is offering this class during two class periods to give more students the opportunity to take it.
  4. Beginning Programming with Python – 6th-12th Grades – Instructor: Ronald Timoshenko, Cofounder and CTO of Remble Inc.–a Tulsa-based relationship health and wellness startup (www.remble.com) and 20 years experience reading and writing code – no extra fee (The coding book used for this class can be purchased in print or accessed online for free.) This class is a continuation of last semester’s class. New students may join if they have experience with Python or if they are willing to complete some assignments (12 to 15 hours) in January. This course introduces students to the basics of programming with Python and teaches them programming fundamentals and how to read, write and execute simple programs in the Python programming language. We will follow along with Zed Shaw’s excellent, “Learn Python the Hard Way”–which is available for purchase as a book (https://learnpythonthehardway.org/) and for free online: https://learnpythonthehardway.org/python3/. No purchase is necessary for the class.

Requirements

  • Students will need to bring a laptop (recommended), tablet, or mobile device that can open, edit, and create Python files to class every day (see resources below)
    Students will need to download and install the necessary apps for their preferred device before the first class

Resources

Friday Enrichment Elective Period 2 Options – Scholars:

  1. Yearbook/Social Committee – must have been in Yearbook during the fall semester to take this class during the spring semester – 9th-12th Grades – led by Jessica Paul – no fee – Students will collaborate with their peers to create a THA yearbook commemorating the 2022-2023 school year. We will use teamwork, photography, design, copy writing, and editing skills during this process. Students should be prepared to work in class as well as meet on Zoom a few times outside of class. In addition to yearbook design, this group will plan several social events, including a fall and spring dance, as well as organize volunteer opportunities for all of THA. Come prepared to work hard and have fun!
  2. Creativity/Game Club – 6th-12th Grades – Supervised by THA Leadership Team – $15 supply fee paid to THA (wrapped into monthly THA payment) – Creativity Club is exactly that – a club where students with a shared interest in creative pursuits gather to create alongside and encourage each other. Students can work on individual projects or they can collaborate. They can practice their favorite form of creativity or explore new ones with the materials we will have on hand. Creativity Club’s intent is to foster a self-paced, self-determined, and nurturing space for creativity and friendships to thrive. This semester we are offering creativity club each class period and adding the option to play games during this time. We will have games available, or students may bring their own.
  3. Magic: The Gathering – 6th-12th grades – club led by THA high school students – no fee – beginning and experienced players in 6th-12th Grades – Cast spells and summon fantasy monsters with Magic: The Gathering, the original collectible card game. Students may bring their own cards or borrow cards from the club leaders.
  4. Cooking – FULL FOR SPRING 2023 – 6th-12th grades – Janey Jacewitz – $100 supply fee paid to THA (wrapped into monthly THA payments) – The class size for this class will be very limited. Janey is offering this class during two class periods to give more students the opportunity to take it.
  5. Elementary Assistant

Friday Enrichment Elective Period 3 Class Options – Scholars:

  1. Life Skills- Career and College Prep – 9th-12th Grades – Instructors: Aracelis Quinones and Rustan Schwichtenberg – $20 materials fee paid to THA (wrapped into monthly payment). This is a collaborative class that is part mentoring, part Junior Achievement and part guest speakers. We are fortunate to have Rustan Schwichtenberg offer his expertise to our high schoolers in such topics as integrity, character, time management, training and studies post high school, career choices, and self-care to name a few. Aracelis Quinones will lead a 6-week Junior Achievement Course, JA It’s My Job (Soft Skills), this course helps students understand the value of professional communication and soft skills, making them more employable to future employers across multiple career clusters. Lessons focus on social and soft skill competencies that relate real-life experiences to job skills and prepare students for their future careers. Finally, we will be bringing in guest speakers to discuss their experience with trade school, community college, and university.
  2. Elementary Assistant
  3. Science of Flight – 6th-9th grades – $130 per student (wrapped into THA monthly payment) – Instructor: Discovery Museum Educator – In this class provided by Discovery Museum, students will discover the advanced mechanism of flight with kites, balloons, helicopters, airplanes, and drones. Spend this class period with your head in the clouds, learning what keeps things up and how we get them back down. Students will launch, pilot, design and collaborate on wonderful ways to defy gravity! (Discovery Museum will provide 8 weeks of this class, and THA leadership and volunteers will provide 4 weeks.)
  4. Creativity/Game Club – 6th-12th Grades – Supervised by THA Leadership Team – $15 supply fee paid to THA (wrapped into monthly THA payment) – Creativity Club is exactly that – a club where students with a shared interest in creative pursuits gather to create alongside and encourage each other. Students can work on individual projects or they can collaborate. They can practice their favorite form of creativity or explore new ones with the materials we will have on hand. Creativity Club’s intent is to foster a self-paced, self-determined, and nurturing space for creativity and friendships to thrive. This semester we are offering creativity club each class period and adding the option to play games during this time. We will have games available, or students may bring their own.
  5. Watercolor – 6th-12th Grades – Instructor: Rachel Mize – $10 supply fee paid to THA (wrapped into monthly THA payment) – Let’s make art! Unleash your inner artist and develop your watercolor skills as we follow step-by-step tutorials to make incredible paintings each week. Suitable for any ability level as long as you have an interest in watercolor and can maintain concentration on your artwork over the course of the class hour. You won’t believe what you can do! All supplies included in the class fee, but feel free to bring your own if you prefer.

THA has a YMCA Youth and Government club available to students in 9th – 12th grades. The academic purpose of Youth and Government is to introduce students to how the branches of government work through a model government experience at the state capitol where they can participate as legislators, lobbyists, media members, or in mock trial, but YAG is so much more than this. YAG students get to meet and become friends with kids from all across the state all while practicing leadership skills! This club meets at THA every couple of weeks during or right after Friday Enrichment and on a state-wide Zoom meeting one evening a month. Most THA YAG meetings won’t take long, and if a student can’t attend all of those meetings, it’s not a big deal. It’s not too late to join YAG and attend State Conference with us February 23rd-25th. The cost for state is $260, which includes hotel and food. Scholarships are available! Let Anna-Maria know if you have any questions about YAG!

Academy (Monday Afternoons and Friday Mornings)

In addition to the $50 membership fee paid by everyone upon THA enrollment, Academy students will pay academic class fees. (Students who only take one academic class at THA and are not enrolled in Friday Enrichment will pay a reduced membership fee of $25.) Unless stated otherwise, all academic class fees will be paid directly to the instructor using the method preferred by the instructor. (Each instructor will send an email about payment method.)

On Monday, students in Academy may come at 12:00 for lunch and/or social time. The first academic class begins at 12:30. Classes are a la carte, so students may choose just the classes they want/need. We will offer a study hall for students who have a gap in their class schedule.

Scholar Classes (9th – 12th grades)

9th graders may choose some middle school academic classes instead if those would be a better fit. See Trailblazers page for information about those classes.

First Period: High School Literature and Writing – Mondays 12:30 – 1:30 and Fridays 9:30 – 10:30 – Instructors: Sarah Koepp and Anna-Maria Lane – $200 per student per semester ($100 to be paid directly to Sarah and $100 to be paid directly to Anna-Maria, payment plan available if needed) – Students will need to purchase or check out novels from the library (list will be provided) and will need to purchase How to Read Literature Like a Professor (less than $10 new or less than $5 used) and The Norton Sampler: Short Essays for Composition (Seventh Edition) (less than $5 used) – homework expectation of about two hours of written homework a week plus reading time – For literature, students will use Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor as a source book to discuss novels, both classical and modern, as well as film, television, and songs. Students will also closely examine textual excerpts from published novels, plays, and poems, looking for themes, archetypes, symbols, or patterns from Foster’s book. The writing portion of the class will focus on reading, analyzing (from a writer’s viewpoint), and writing various types of essays, using the The Norton Sampler: Short Essays for Composition (Seventh Edition) by Thomas Cooley. High School Language Arts Disclaimer: This is a college prep course, and some of the materials used are intended for college students/adults and may contain mature themes or content. New students are welcome to join for the spring semester.

Most of the writing lessons will be taught remotely by Anna-Maria (students will be together in the classroom with Anna-Maria on screen and another adult supervising in the classroom). Anna-Maria will teach three to four of the writing lessons in person at THA. All literature lessons will be taught in person by Sarah.

Second Period, Choice 1: American History – The Reconstruction Era and The Fragility of Democracy – Mondays 1:30 – 2:30 and Fridays 10:30 – 11:30 – Instructor: Stacey Leigh, Oklahoma certified teacher – $200 per student plus a $20 supply fee (both paid directly to the instructor) – For the spring semester, the American History class will focus on an in-depth study of the Reconstruction era of American history. Students will investigate the challenges of creating a just democracy in a time of deep division. The curriculum is designed to deepen students’ ethical and moral reasoning, challenge their critical thinking and literacy skills, and engage them in a rigorous study of history. Students begin with an examination of the relationship between the individual and society, reflect on the way that humans divide themselves into “in” groups and “out” groups throughout history, dive deep into a case study on the history of Reconstruction, and then explore the way that history is remembered and the impact of its various legacies in contemporary society. The class will be designed to explore the material through discussion and activities based on readings and videos studied outside class. Students can expect about two hours of homework per week. New students are welcome to join for the spring semester.

Second Period, Choice 2: Spanish I – Mondays 1:30 – 2:30 and Fridays 10:30 – 11:30 – Instructor: Alfredo Marcelo, native speaker, interpreter, and ESL tutor. – $200 per student per semester (paid directly to the instructor) – The goal of the instructor is to “create the beginning of a new journey where the learning of
a new language is not something tedious or forced, rather more exciting and fun.”
New students who have had some basic Spanish may join the class for the spring semester.

Third Period: Chemistry – This class is only for students who are continuing from the fall semester. Mondays 2:30 – 3:30 and Fridays 12:30 – 1:30 – Students who have not already will need to purchase the second half of the Chem Explained curriculum for use at home. There will also be a $125 fee paid to Amber and Forrest who will be teaching the class on Mondays plus a supply fee of $50, which will be wrapped into monthly THA payments