Electives

Choice & Variety

Middle school students thrive on choice and variety. One way we support that need at Hyla is through our Elective classes. There are four Elective cycles each year and students choose from a diverse set of offerings created by faculty members. The range of activities offered speaks to the multi-dimensional skills, talents, and passions of our faculty. They bring knowledge from outside their core disciplines to their elective classes, and invite students to explore new interests, subjects, and possibilities. As students learn that teachers are multi-dimensional people with a variety of interests, they learn to recognize and appreciate this same complexity in themselves.

 

What’s the goal of Electives?

Electives coalesce many elements of our school culture:

  • Discovery – enrichment beyond academic classes and PE
  • Exploration – new ideas, topics, activities, and types of engagement
  • Connection - with subject matter, peers, and teachers through multi-age groupings
  • Wellness – health, fitness, and a willingness to try new types of movement
  • Inclusion – novices and seasoned pros alike are asked to include others
  • Play – Electives are also a great chance for plain old fun

 

When do Electives happen?

Electives happen four times a year, three days a week. Students get to make one choice for "Long Block Electives" (80 minutes once a week) and another choice "Short Block Electives" (40 minutes twice a week). Electives happen all around campus and many are outside. If you walk around campus during Elective periods, you might hear Zumba music, or see a game of chess on the porch, or smell something cooking in the kitchen. You might watch something print on the 3D Glowforge printer in the HyLab (our maker space), or see balls flying on the upper field. Students might be serving as citizen librarians in the library, making jewelry to sell to raise money for a nonprofit, or learning watercolor techniques. Students are also off campus for Electives - riding trails on bikes, walking forests, or doing community service. Every Elective cycle presents students with a range of opportunities to learn something new, connect with others, have fun, and get to know themselves and others a little better.

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Sample Middle School Elective Classes 

 

Yoga - No experience necessary to try out yoga at Hyla! We’ll work through beginner poses and advanced versions will be shared as you’re ready to try a new challenge. We’ll alternate between relaxing/mindful sessions and ones that will help you feel stronger and more stretched out at the end of the day. ~Shelby

Chess - Grounded in history, chess allows players to topple a monarchy, by checkmating the King! Charge with your pawns, maneuver the knights, slash those bishops, cut with rooks, or just dominate with your queen. It can be played slow as molasses or hyper fast with a timer. Best of all, everyone can play it, whether you are new or old to the game. ~David

Disc Golf - Whether you are a frisbee fanatic or have never thrown a disc in your life, you will have fun with friends on Hyla's 18 hole disc golf course. From the woods to the meadows this challenging course will help you focus on learning new throws, and help you focus not only on your disc golf game, but also invite you to ask questions to the group to get to know other players in a new way. We will be getting the course ready for our Halloween Tournament, and students will be invited to update our course signs with creative questions and design. So if you want to keep score to mark your improvement and play competitively, or if you want time to walk our beautiful campus with friends, this is the elective for you. ~Cooper

Let's Dance - Let's dance is about making new friends and having a blast while dancing to your favorite songs. You can follow a choreography or just improvise and be yourself. Let's dance gives you the opportunity to exercise and have fun in a friendly environment. ~Mercedes

Mindful Meditation Through Coloring - Coloring as a form of meditation is a great way to reflect upon your day. There will be guided quiet meditation for the 1st half of the elective, followed by meditative quiet coloring to wrap up the Elective. ~Roger

Wiffleball - Baseball season is wrapping up. Let's celebrate with some wiffleball on the upper field! It's easy enough for everyone to join in and have some fun. ~Chris

Hyla HIIT - High intensity interval training (HIIT) is a form of exercise that alternates between intense movements and periods of recovery. Many people enjoy HIIT because effective workouts are typically 30 minutes or less. In this elective, we’ll do various HIIT exercises with variations such as solo work, partner time, games, and more. Get moving to upbeat music and sweat it out in this elective. All fitness levels welcome! ~Malauri

Marine Science - If you like beaches and are interested in creating an aquarium for our campus, this elective is for you. We will spend some time exploring local beaches and taking note of how aquatic organisms interact with each other. Students will then design, plan and create an aquarium for HyLab, and decide which fish and plant life will be best supported in our classroom aquarium. ~Shelby

Mountain Biking - Fall on the island is a great time to get off the road, and onto the trails...on a bike. For this elective, we'll explore many of the best trails in our island parks. If you're interested in getting sweaty, feeling some adrenaline and having fun, this elective is for you. ~David

Pen, Pencil, Watercolor - Join me for this relaxed elective where you can explore new mediums, or dive deeper into your favorite ways to draw. Pencil, pens and watercolors are just a start. We will do some short warmups and drawing games, and you will have lots of time to work on anything from collage to comic books. ~Cooper

Jewelry Making for a Woof Cause - Jewelry making is a great way to practice mindfulness. Let your worries go and enjoy some quiet time creating beautiful wearable art. At the end of our time together we will auction off our creations to raise money for a local Woof charity. ~Mercedes

Collaborative Community Art - The MS campus is your gallery space. This is our community and let’s collaborate to make art that can be displayed throughout the campus for the coming school year. Create on canvas, work on watercolors, what is your idea to create a piece of community art? This is the space to do so! ~Roger

Creating Fun: Playing, Designing, & Creating Board Games - We will start off playing some team games and board games and discuss what goes into making a game fun. Then we will work in groups designing new games based on a theme or a group and use materials at Hyla to create those games and share them with one another and perhaps another school or elective. ~Chris