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 – Trailblazers:

  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 Class Options – Trailblazers:

  1. Creativity 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.
  2. Magic: The Gathering Club – beginning and experienced players in 6th-12th Grades – led by THA high school students – no extra fee – 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.
  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.

Friday Enrichment Elective Period 3 Class Options – Trailblazers:

  1. Science of Art and Sound – 6th-9th grades – $130 per student (wrapped into THA monthly payments) – Instructor: Discovery Museum Educator – In this class provided by Discovery Museum, students will discover the science of art and sound with fun hands-on activities. (Discovery Museum will provide 8 weeks of this class, and THA leadership and volunteers will provide 4 weeks.)
  2. 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.

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. None of the middle school academic class times conflict with each other, so middle school students may choose one to three academic classes. We will offer a study hall for students who have a gap in their class schedule.

Middle School Classes (6th – 8th grades):

Chinese Language and Culture – Mondays 12:30 – 1:30 and Fridays 9:30 – 10:30 – Instructor: Rex Burnett, Director of OU East Asia Institute and experienced Chinese instructor – $200 instructor fee plus $25 supply fee per student per semester paid to instructor (payment plan available if needed)- up to one hour of homework a week – New students are welcome to join for the spring semester.

Top Five Reasons to Learn Chinese

  1. Chinese is the most widely spoken and fastest growing language in the world.
  2. Broaden your mind to become a better global citizen.
  3. Learn about an amazing ancient culture and history.
  4. Chinese is quickly becoming the language of business.
  5. Good exercise for your brain (left brain and right brain).

Language Arts – Mondays 1:30 – 2:30 and Fridays 10:30 – 11:30 – Instructors: Jessica Paul and Anna-Maria Lane, both certified teachers and experienced language arts instructors – $200 per student per semester ($100 to be paid directly to Jessica and $100 to be paid directly to Anna-Maria, payment plan available if needed) – New students are welcome to join for the spring semester.

Middle School Language Arts will include literature circles (with a fun group project at the end of each literature circle cycle), novel study, and academic and creative writing. Students will do a lot of writing of varying types so that they begin to see themselves as writers. They will be expected to share their writing as we work on building a supportive writing community within the classroom. 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 Jessica.

Students must be able to commit to reading or listening to one novel every two weeks (novel choices of varying lengths will be provided) and completing an hour or two of written work at home each week. This class does not include grammar instruction, but students enrolled in this class who also need grammar instruction may enroll in Self-Paced Grammar and Writing Workshop (see online class section of this website). Students enrolled in our in-person Middle School Language Arts will receive a 30% discount on Self-Paced Grammar and Writing Workshop. Self-Paced Grammar and Writing Workshop focuses primarily on grammar instruction. There are two essay units per level. Most students will have no problem completing the writing required in Middle School Language Arts and Self-Paced Grammar and Writing Workshop, especially since students may move through the latter at their own pace. See the online class page of this website, or contact Anna-Maria at grammarandwritingworkshop@gmail.com for enrollment for Self-Paced Grammar and Writing Workshop.

Biology – Mondays only 2:30 – 3:30 – Instructor: Forrest Valkai – $125 per student per semester paid directly to Forrest – no homework for this course – This informal lecture and discussion style course will be a deep dive into the world of biology. Forrest will cover both fundamentals and advanced concepts of biology and lead students all the way through the history of life on Earth, from the beginning of life to the present day. This class is guaranteed to blow minds and to inspire lifelong learning in every student who attends! New students are welcome to join for the spring semester.