WELCOME to our seventh and eighth grade class, the conclusion of the middle school program at Cascade Canyon
School! We have designed an exciting, engaging and integrated curriculum to
prepare our seventh and eighth grade students for the rigors of high school,
equipping them with a toolbox of critical thinking strategies and a wide array
of transferable skills in the areas of communication, problem solving, organization
and interpersonal development. On the social emotional front, students will
continue to grow and become more confident, learning to advocate for
themselves.
REWARDS OF PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION: Motivated to learn for
learning's sake, without the competitive pressure or external reward of
grades, our seventh and eighth grade students excel into confident
students, mature young adults, and leaders on our K-8 campus. Feedback
from the local and San Francisco high schools attended by our graduates
is excellent: Cascade Canyon students are recognized in high school as being comfortable with adults and themselves, confident
communicators, and capable and versatile learners - not afraid to ask
for help or for enrichment. Cascade Canyon graduates have an excellent
acceptance rate to Marin and San Francisco private schools, including
Marin Academy, The Bay School, Branson and Drew in recent years, and at
the Novato School of the Performing Arts, where admission is audition
and portfolio based. Many of our graduates choose to attend our
excellent local public schools, such as Drake, Redwood, Tamalpais and
Terra Linda High.
OUR EXPERT TEAM: We have made many exciting changes to our seventh and eighth grade
middle school program at Cascade Canyon School in the past few years, expanding the
core staff to two teachers, each of us playing to our areas of passion and
expertise: Aaron Feldstein specializes in the Humanities, teaching
English Language Arts and History, and Karen Sonnenblick is the lead
Math/Science teacher - as well as the science teacher for fifth and
sixth grades. We both bring a rich array of experience in
middle and high school teaching in our core subjects and in program
administration, including gifted education, outdoor education and
wilderness survival and ecology. The middle school team is rounded out
by our amazing specialist staff, most of whom also teach core subjects
in the mornings at Cascade Canyon: our Spanish teacher, Devin Eckert,
our theater teacher, Peggy Tunder, our music teacher, Jayme Pohl, our PE
teachers, Megan Marietti and Aaron Feldstein, and our art teacher,
Julie Pledger.
PREPARING TO TRANSITION: As middle school educators, we know that students face new
challenges as school becomes more rigorous, bodies develop, more sophisticated relationships emerge, and extra
curricular activities become more time consuming. To facilitate a successful
transition from middle to high school, students will participate in a Transitions Program, including a variety
of thoughtfully constructed activities designed to help them prepare for high
school socially and emotionally, as well as academically. We help students
develop school/life balance, with exercises that address time management, goal setting and prioritization. Students participate in a variety of "stretching"
activities, from our weekly morning meeting where we addresses social-emotional
issues, to completing a high ropes challenge course, to our 8th grade
backpacking trip, to an extended, semester-long service learning project, to running the Student Council and mentoring younger students, and more. Another important aspect of our Transitions Program involves high school placement. We actively support students through the high school application process, and help students find the high school school - or high school program within a school - that suits them best.
A detailed description of our curriculum follows.
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Our Program 
