Thetford Academy hosted its first debate tournament on Saturday, with 10 high school teams attending the mid-season competition. From their home "court" vantage, TA's debaters deftly landed their arguments to earn the meet's Sweepstakes Award. The sweepstakes award gives each team 1 point per debate and 1 extra point for...
Sonya Sotomayor, Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, Weird Al Yankovic, and Zac Efron. What do these notable people all have in common? They joined their high school speech and debate teams! And just like those notable personalities, eighteen intrepid TA students have joined TA's speech and debate team for our second...
As we transition to a new student information system and grading platform, some of our TA educators are using the opportunity to shift how they track and report student progress in their classes – in other words, how they grade. One important new capability for us in Alma is the option...
In the spirit of continuous growth, learning, and for the simple joy of reading on a summer afternoon, Thetford Academy's faculty members almost always have a book in progress over the summer break. What are they reading this year? The list below reflects the breadth of our teachers' interests and...
As the year draws to a close, Thetford Academy's teachers continue to design rich learning experiences for students. Culminating projects are designed to bring together the ideas, information, and skills students have learned over the course of the semester and put that learning into practice. For example, in Scott Ellis’s...
The annual middle school trip is a longstanding TA tradition, designed to build class community and provide students hands-on learning experiences in new places. It's been a few years, though, since our students have had the opportunity to travel together. This year's eighth grade team was determined to bring the...
Students have so many experiences over the course of their years at TA – internships, sports, clubs, challenging courses, theater, music, outdoor activities – it’s easy to believe that these experiences alone are enough to foster learning and growth. In Outward Bound’s early days, instructor Rusty Baille famously agreed: “Let the...
Many people visualize debate as contests between loud, dominating players, pushing their own point of view. I used to visualize this myself. But as Bo Seo, former coach of the Harvard College Debating Union, writes in his book, Good Arguments: “...
It was a cold January morning when the Class of 2028 arrived at TA with stuffed backpacks, snow pants, and gear - some nervous, some excited, all curious. They would soon board the waiting school bus and depart to the Hulbert Outdoor Center in Fairlee, VT, just 20 minutes away,...
"We do not learn from experience...