
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROGRAM
We believe that 12-14 year olds are at a pivotal stage in their academic and social development; they are neither “older elementary students” nor “younger high school students”. We value their growing ability to think more abstractly and conceptually about themselves and the world. Our Middle School program centers around an adolescent’s sense of wonderment and engages them in real life understanding that builds background knowledge and develops the skills needed for high school and life-long learning.
Our Middle School is a departmentalized program in which our 23 Seventh Grade and 23 Eighth Grade students rotate between different classrooms with different teachers for their academic classes and electives. Learn more about our curriculum philosophy, expeditionary learning, and course offerings below.
Middle School Tours
We are offering a limited number of School Tours, on Saturdays, for individual families interested in our Middle School. We will follow all of our safety protocols and the Governor’s Health Order. We look forward to welcoming you to our campus!
CURRICULUM PHILOSOPHY
The Middle School curriculum at Santa Fe School for the Arts & Sciences is designed to support a cooperative learning environment that is sensitive to the individual strengths, interests, needs, and learning styles of students. The classroom is a community in which everyone works together to create a caring, safe environment where all of the students learn from one another, develop respect for each other, and foster an acceptance of individual differences. Our goal is to help each child develop a sense of responsibility toward each other, the environment, and for their local and global community.
At Arts & Sciences, we believe that our students bring a unique blend of interests, talents, and needs to the educational experience. The Middle School curriculum is robust and intellectually inspiring. Using a departmental structure, the curriculum includes courses in Mathematics, Humanities (History & English), Science, Languages (Spanish and ASL), Life Skills, STEM, and the Arts, as well as a Physical Education program.

EXPEDITIONARY LEARNING
Expeditionary learning is an approach that combines rigorous academic content and real world projects, called "learning expeditions" with character development and community service. Teachers at EL Education schools receive intensive professional development in curriculum and teaching practices and are able to model ongoing learning to their students.
EL Education schools create a culture of respect and high expectations for staff and students alike. One of the hallmarks of the EL Education model is an emphasis on high quality student work that inspires craftsmanship and deeper learning. Building a culture of reflection, critique and revision leads students to create better work. This work is created in in-depth, interdisciplinary learning expeditions, which require students to engage in sophisticated research, use the community in authentic ways, and represent their knowledge with high quality products which are presented to authentic audiences. The energy and sustained creativity of the staff is what helps make an EL Education school successful.

MATHEMATICS
The Middle School Math Program strives to provide all students with a dynamic mathematics education that supports and instills an excitement for math. Through a two-year Algebra program that incorporates both the Common Core State Standards for Algebra, the Common Core Mathematical Practices, and the NCTM Content and Process Standards, all students develop a solid foundation in basic skills, a sense of abstractness and pattern recognition, and problem solving skills. The program emphasizes the exploration of ideas from numerical, algebraic, graphical, and computational perspectives. In all of our math courses, algebraic concepts are viewed from varied perspectives to help students develop their abilities with abstraction and generalization; application of knowledge is fundamental to each topic.
Our goal is to have students leave the Middle School as curious and flexible thinkers who are confident in their individual mathematical abilities and prepared to meet the challenges of higher mathematics.

SCIENCE
The Middle School Science curriculum has three principal components: students operate as citizen scientists and participate in a long-term, statewide study of watershed health by collecting data in the Santa Fe River Watershed; our science class integrates with the Middle School expedition; and students survey science topics to prepare for high school science classes. Students gain a broad base in many scientific fields, but emphasis during middle school is placed on crosscutting concepts rather than specific disciplinary knowledge (i.e., this is Science class, not a Physics or a Biology course). Students engage in the scientific process: they observe natural phenomena, formulate questions, develop research skills, and test their hypotheses through experiments and data collection. At the Santa Fe River, students become geochemists, hydrologists, benthic entomologists, lotic ecologists, and more, investigating water quality. In the classroom lab, students learn about chemistry, learn to use microscopes, and investigate the nature of science. Using a multiple strategy approach, textbooks, vocabulary lists, and other standard reference are utilized to support students’ learning in lab and lectures. They achieve information and technology literacy by researching and preparing presentations about their scientific findings in our computer lab.

HUMANITIES
History & English
Our Middle School Humanities program is comprised of the disciplines of English and History, allowing adolescents to connect literary and historical themes to self, other ideas, and world events. They form considered opinions when writing and analyzing persuasive and informative documents and texts. Careful reading is the standard, not the exception, and student discussion is lively, well informed, and enthusiastic. Through learning expeditions and project based learning, in which integrated units of study are deeply explored, students tackle topics that have real-world relevance while doing the work of researchers, historians, readers and writers.
In History, students acquire and organize information about places, people, and culture in New Mexico, the United States and in the world. A primary goal is to educate the student’s whole being for a life of active, responsible citizenship.
Our English program engages students in the careful reading, writing, analysis, and dialogue of a wide variety of textual and informational content.

WORLD LANGUAGES
Spanish and American Sign Language
7th & 8th Grade Spanish
The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) identifies five aspects of language learning: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. In Spanish class, these standards inform the curriculum as students develop these skills while learning grammar and conversational Spanish. The daily middle school Spanish curriculum focuses on providing a context for language learning through music, games, role-playing, presentations, listening, reading, and writing activities.
7th & 8th Grade American Sign Language
In 7th and 8th grade American Sign Language (ASL) curriculum, students learn to understand that ASL is not a written nor an auditory language, but rather a visual language. Students are expected to turn their voices off. The purpose of that expectation is to provide students the opportunity to improve their receptive and express language skills. Educational games and hand-on activities are often played in the classroom. This is an excellent tool for receptive and expressive skills.

LIFE SKILLS
Our Middle School Life Skills program provides students with the information and skills necessary to take on the physical, emotional, and social changes that occur during the middle school years. Students develop strong advocacy skills and learn how to identify adult resources so they can take responsibility for their own learning inside and outside the classroom. This age and developmentally appropriate curriculum seeks to develop in students an understanding of how their choices impact themselves and others. Students learn about adolescent development and the types of challenges adolescents face during this time in their lives. They explore situations and decisions they may face in high school. There is a concentration on the skills required to negotiate these challenges, to obtain, interpret, and understand basic health information, products, and services, and make healthy decisions. Our program allows students to explore their own values and see how their personal choices allow them to live those values.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Middle school Physical Education promotes a culture based on the values of teamwork, effort, mutual support, and fitness. Individual and team sports are explicitly connected to fitness, wellness, and character development. Our program supports the physical, intellectual, and social-emotional development of students. In addition to learning games and sport techniques, an emphasis is placed on playing cooperatively and incorporating the school’s character traits when playing more competitive games. A broad range of activities are part of the PE curriculum to broaden every student’s appreciation of physical wellness and to give them a range of kinesthetic experiences.

MOVING IMAGES
Film is a powerful tool to convey one’s message. Learning how to create effective storytelling through digital media, and acquiring the technical skills to do so are the foci of this course. Students take on all the roles connected with modern film making through critiquing excerpts from films, “pitching ideas”, developing storyboards, casting, and filming and editing short films. All students in Moving Images courses learn how to use the professional editing program Final Cut Pro as part of their technical development as filmmakers. Our students enter their films in various film festivals and student competitions as a means of creating pieces that will be seen by larger audiences. This course supports the 21st Century Learning Skills of using technology in meaningful ways and collaboration.

SERVICE LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP
Service Learning (7th Grade)
All 7th graders participate in our service learning program. Service-learning is a teaching and learning method that connects meaningful community service experiences with academic learning, personal growth, and civic responsibility. Service learning connects the personal and intellectual as it helps students understand their world (Elyer & Giles, 1999). Service learning at Arts & sciences allows adolescents to participate more fully in their community and demonstrate the school’s character traits within the broader world. Students actively engage in community projects that give them opportunities to both serve and lead. Service groups have included: River Warriors who clean up the Santa Fe River; Working with the elders at the Kingston Residence; buddying with our early childhood students, and understanding the politics of food by working with farmers and the Food Depot.
Leadership/Mentorship (8th Grade)
During our 8th grade Leadership class we prepare for life beyond Middle School. Students begin the process of preparing for high school by learning to advocate for themselves as learners, figure out what it means to be a citizen scholar, and start the process of choosing a high school and going through an application process. In the Spring, 8th grade students prepare for and take part in our mentorship program with community leaders and professionals. Working directly with these community members gives students a chance to experience what a professional in the field actually does at their job, the types of training required, as well as the necessary mindsets in that particular occupation.

PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTS
At Arts & Sciences, we seek to help students explore the arts through wide exposure, critical examination, and hands-on applications. Our courses are carefully designed to help students discover their talents and find their voice. Middle school students select either visual arts or performing arts as an all year study.

ARTS & SCIENCES ELECTIVES
Middle School students choose from a wide array of electives that span the liberal arts. Examples of past and current Arts Elective classes include Forensic Rhetoric, Philosophy, Creative Arts Studio, Dance, Music, and Creative Writing. STEM Elective classes include Coding, Robotics, Business, and Auto Mechanics.

MUSIC
Our Music Program takes place during our after school enrichment classes. We offer individual and group lessons in piano, guitar, cello, voice, ukulele, drumming, and other instruments. Music instructors come to our campus after school to work with students, and students often perform at our all-school Coffeehouses.

ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION
Assessment yields information that allows teachers to create curriculum that is challenging, age appropriate and responds to the particular students in each class. It is a vehicle for students to demonstrate understanding of skills, concepts and ideas. Learning is not static and assessment at Arts & Sciences is on-going and multiple means of developmentally appropriate assessments are used, such as formal and informal observations, dialogue with students, documentation of particular skills and concepts, projects, written work, tests and quizzes. As each grade moves students towards more autonomy and independence, students are encouraged and taught to lead their own learning and demonstrate knowledge to a variety of audiences.
Student-led portfolio presentations, Wintercomes presentations, Expedition Museums, Science Symposiums, and publishing work in journals and newspaper are hallmarks of the Arts & Sciences experience. Student-centered assessment also yields data that is used to evaluate student growth, grade level skills and concepts. This data is presented to families at parent/teacher conferences, and in written reports.
Portfolios are a central academic tradition at Arts & Sciences for all students, from age three all the way through to the 8th grade. Each portfolio includes student reflections on their learning, documentation of skills and concepts through products and projects, and culminates in a student-led portfolio presentation at the end of the academic year.

MIDDLE SCHOOL FACULTY
Adelyn Smith
Adelyn, Middle School Math & Science Teacher, was born and raised in Santa Fe and is really happy to be back home close to mountains and family. She has a Bachelors of Science degree from Boston College in biochemistry and environmental studies and a teaching license from Santa Fe Community College. She taught math and science to at-risk youth in Santa Fe working towards their GED before teaching science and math in India for two years at a non-profit girls’ school in rural Jharkhand. She learned how to read and write Hindi and speak enough Hindi to get around. Adelyn also coaches youth soccer in Santa Fe and also plays with various teams. She likes to hike with her dog, garden using permaculture techniques, learn woodworking, travel, snowboard, and ride her bike. adelyn@santafeschool.org
Arin Dineen
Arin is in her 7th year teaching at Arts & Sciences as Middle School Visual Arts teacher, and her 6th year as our Moving Images teacher. An alumna of the very first graduating class of Arts & Sciences (Class of 2005), she graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in Studio Art in 2013. She is a painter whose work is represented by the Ellsworth Gallery in Santa Fe. Arin will also be teaching afterschool (and sharing her passion for Dungeons and Dragons) at Arts & Sciences, and helping aspiring art students with their portfolios. arin@santafeschool.org
Austin Stockwell
This is Austin’s 5th year at Arts & Sciences. Up until this year, he was the after school program coordinator for grades 5-8. He joined the Unicorn team in winter of 2016 and continues to work with the class as an assistant teacher. Austin has been a substitute teacher for all grades and subjects, and has also taught a Rhythm Club for grades 2-6. After earning his bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Puget Sound, he gravitated towards the field of youth development and after school programs, gaining experience working as a supplemental education instructor with at risk elementary and middle school students in south Seattle. Austin spent the year of 2015 living in New Zealand (where his family resides), working as a program developer for an after school organization based in Auckland. After returning to Santa Fe, he was eager to continue working in the field of education and joined the Arts & Sciences community in the Fall of 2016. His interests and passions include music (drums/guitar), art (collage work), sports, exploring the outdoors, and traveling. austin@santafeschool.org
Avery Armstrong
Avery is our 3rd-8th Elementary/Middle School Drama Teacher and has an extensive background in theatre education and a passion for using the arts as a creative and emotional outlet. She graduated from Southwestern University with a dual track major in English and Film. Through her work with children in the foster care system she discovered a love for education and the potential it has to radically alter the course of a child’s life. Since graduating she has become a tutor for Reading Quest and a teacher for the Reading is Magic Literacy Program. Avery is a published poet and enjoys making short films, writing, and doing cosplay in her free time. avery@santafeschool.org
Cassandra Perez
Cassandra Perez is our American Sign Language (ASL) teacher. She is currently in her second year of teaching. ASL has been always her first language, English to the second. Her background is diverse; currently, she is a river guide, a teacher aide and substitute in past, a former ski technician, and a former community garden manager. She has taught several times during ASL Immersion programs at the New Mexico School for the Deaf. She has the pleasure of raising her two boys (10 and 6 years old) where she was born and raised in Santa Fe. cassandra@santafeschool.org
Eddy Segura
This is Eddy’s 13th year teaching at Arts & Sciences as our K-8 Physical Education teacher and Facilities Director. For the past eight years, Eddy has also been the Lead Coordinator for the 8th grade service trip to Costa Rica. Eddy received his BA in Physical Education at the Universidad Nacional in Costa Rica. He has 14 years of experience teaching P.E. and coaching soccer in schools in Costa Rica and coaches soccer at Academy for Technology and the Classics in Santa Fe, where he previously taught P.E. He is the father of an Arts & Sciences alumna Emily (Class of 2015) and Allison (Class of 2018). eddy@santafeschool.org
Joseph Smith
Joseph is in his 4th year at Arts & Sciences. He teaches Middle School English/Language Arts, as well as Creative Writing. Joseph also teaches our Wednesday after school Homework Club for 5th-8th graders. Born and raised in Santa Fe, he earned his BA in English from UNM in 2004. He previously taught as a Special Education Teacher, with a focus on Gifted Education, and most recently was the Education Coordinator at Santa Fe YouthWorks. Joseph has also tutored students in the Santa Fe area for many years. He is the proud father of 4th grade Centaur, Cruz, and 3rd grade Centaur, Lea. joseph@santafeschool.org
Lani Ersfeld
In her 7th year at Arts & Sciences, Lani is our Preschool-8th Grade Spanish Teacher and 1st-4th grade Afterschool Teacher. Lani is from Placitas, NM and attended the Albuquerque Academy for middle and high school. She then attended Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, majoring in Hispanic Studies and English. During her studies, Lani lived in the Dominican Republic and in Chile, where she solidified her love of the Spanish language and various cultures, and her desire to teach it to others. She earned her Master of Arts in Teaching at Lewis & Clark Graduate School with an emphasis in ESOL. She holds licenses in both New Mexico and Oregon for Elementary Education and Early Childhood Education. Lani is instrumental in organizing and planning our 8th grade International Trip to Costa Rica in the Spring. lani@santafeschool.org
Nate Moore
This is Nate’s 12th year at Arts & Sciences. Nate is a core teacher in the Middle School and teaches science, algebra, and STEM electives. In addition to his teaching duties, Nate is the Middle School Coordinator, spearheading organization of many Middle School activities, such as 100 Elk. A fluent Spanish speaker, Nate has also been a lead teacher during the 8th grade service trip to Costa Rica. Nate received a BA from Oberlin College in Environmental Studies, Hispanic Studies, and Latin American Studies and a Master’s degree in Science Teaching at New Mexico Tech. He also has his New Mexico Teaching License with a Secondary Science certification. In 2009 he was a fellow in the New Science Teacher Academy. He has taught Spanish in Oberlin’s SITES program, worked at the Big Sky Summer Camp, and volunteered at Escola Bosque in Brazil. nate@santafeschool.org
Tatjana Sabo
Tatjana is our Middle School History Teacher. Born and raised in Southeast Europe, she moved to the United States and graduated from Lindenwood University (St. Louis, Missouri), with a Master’s degree in Education. Teaching was not her original career intention. Her undergraduate degree was in corporate law. To pursue her true passion – teaching, she turned from law to education, obtaining a Social Studies/Humanities Teaching Certificate. She began her teaching career as a History teacher in St. Louis, moving on to become an IB History teacher in international schools in Germany, China and finally Singapore. Tatjana’s passions outside of the classroom include photography, reading, gardening, cooking, and interior decorating. She is a true believer in lifelong learning, and she is always looking to challenge herself. She feels very fortunate to have the opportunity to live and work in Santa Fe and share this great adventure with her husband and son. When not at school, you will find her exploring the many historical sites in New Mexico and studying creative ways to teach the rich history of our Land of Enchantment.
Todd Stiewing
In his 14th year at Arts & Sciences, Todd serves as our Principal and Leadership Teacher. For eleven years, Todd taught our 3rd and 4th grade Centaur class and has served in a variety of leadership positions, including Assistant Principal, Elementary Curriculum Coordinator, Staff Liaison to the Board; lead member of the Campus as Curriculum Committee; and Summer Director of Facilities. Todd received a B.S. in Elementary Education and a Master’s in Education from the University of Connecticut. He has 20 years of teaching experience both in the classroom and working with children and adults in outdoor experiential settings. Before moving to New Mexico in 2004, Todd taught 4th grade and Pre-K through 5th elementary science in Maryland. Todd has many years experience leading wilderness and experiential education courses at the Santa Fe Mountain Center and the Deer Lake Wilderness School, and has shared his outdoor experience in his leadership classes and by running several hiking and backpacking camps in the summer. Todd’s daughter is a 5th grade student and his son is in Kindergarten, both at Arts & Sciences. todd@santafeschool.org