BTC members have the chance to sign up for special classes offered on Mondays and other days during the week. Many of the classes are available at no additional cost, but some programming offered by outside providers carries an additional charge. Check out the list below to see what classes are available. More programming opportunities are added throughout the year.
Money should not be a barrier in signing up for classes that have a fee. If you need a partial or full scholarship for a class, please email our middle school team at msm@brooklineteencenter.org.
Your middle school student must be a member at the BTC in order to sign up for classes online. Click here to register your child as a member.
EV3 Lego Robotics – Gear up for a class that combines engineering and programming using EV3, the newest generation of LEGO® MINDSTORMS. Empow Studios instructors teach the connection between code and physical action while kids work in pairs to create their robots. Sensors help the robot make autonomous decisions, and kids learn to code using movement, loops, switches, and more.
Video Game Design Club: Go from gamer to designer. Kids love playing video games but they have even more fun playing games designed by them and their friends! One of Empow Studios’ most popular classes, Video Game Design encompasses storytelling, pixel art, and object-oriented programming, all through a user-friendly, 2D game design platform. Our non-violence policy keeps the games cringe-free and shareable once the kids bring their games home for you to play!
All levels of experience are welcome.
Fall Archery Session 1: This winter, On the Mark Archery, is coming to the BTC to teach archery to middle school students. Join the program that has everyone raving about one of the world’s most exciting sports: recurve archery. Patience, focus and discipline are the only things needed to find success and achieve consistent shot groups. Our unique lesson plans engage students in unique challenges each class while balancing out individualized attention and feedback.
Fall Archery Session 2: This March, On the Mark Archery, is coming to the BTC to teach archery to middle school students. Join the program that has everyone raving about one of the world’s most exciting sports: recurve archery. Patience, focus and discipline are the only things needed to find success and achieve consistent shot groups. Our unique lesson plans engage students in unique challenges each class while balancing out individualized attention and feedback.
Rock Band: Burgeoning young musicians of all experience levels are invited to join us in starting a middle school rock band! The band will meet weekly to work on preparing a 3-5 song set, to be performed for the BTC community at the end of the fall semester. Kids will choose songs based on their own interest and gain valuable experience playing and collaborating with each other. Through this process, kids will learn music theory, listening skills, and improvisation while getting exposure to new kinds of music. Emphasis will be on having fun and learning to connect their new knowledge and skills to the music they are most passionate about.
Textile Design, Sewing & Fashion: Explore all things textile in this hands-on class. From fashion to interior design, learn about the variety of uses and methods of producing fabric and fiber items. Create one-of-a kind fabric through block printing. Produce your own patterns and learn about fiber construction. Explore weaving and embroidery techniques to create beautiful texture and detailed designs. Dream up your fabric creations and learn the skills to take your ideas from concept to reality.
Metal Working: Industrial pipes, steampunk gears, metal wire galore! This class will explore the design and production of artistic metal sculptures. Learn about techniques in metal joinery using, soldering, wire wrapping, and rivets. Experiment with found metal objects to imagine and design large scale sculptures. Produce and fabricate custom metal shapes using hammering and forming techniques. Learn to polish, oxidize, and/or add enamel finishes to your pieces to create unique artistic metal statements.
Extreme Vehicles:
Build It! Wood Shop: Calling all building and construction enthusiasts! Learn your way around the woodshop, hand tools, power tools, resource management, and safety procedures. Practice planning skills in drafting, design, and production. Design and build fun personal projects and useful household items while learning the finer construction techniques of joinery, assembly, and custom finishing. Build something special to bring home and leave behind something functional and beautiful in your makerspace.
Wearble Tech: The future of fashion is here! Learn the skills to construct wearable, tech-infused clothing and jewelry. Practice the art of digital fabrication using design software, 3D printing, and laser cutting. Add programmable microcontrollers to create interactive elements in your garments and accessories. Create smart wearables with sensors and electronics. Let your creativity soar and dream up fantastical fashion, cutting edge construction, and trendsetting human-centric design.
Board Game Design:Design and make your own board game from scratch in this creativity filled program of strategy, plot development, designing, building, and making. Gamers will learn hand drawing, design software, laser cutting, 3D modeling and printing. Final artistic finishing techniques will bring your game to life for the game playing finale. Then take your game home to play with friends and family…game on!
The Brookline Music Program: Does your child play an instrument that he/she is passionate about? Does your child want to connect with high school musician-mentors to benefit their music career at Brookline High School? Does your child want to pick up a brand new instrument and get free lessons? Does your child want to become an advanced musician in an instrument that they already play?
If any or all of the above is true, sign your child up for the Brookline Music Program! The BMP is a program organized by teens, for teens! The BMP pairs Brookline middle school musicians with high school musicians for FREE and engaging lessons. By signing up for BMP, not only will your child learn and grow musically, he/she will also foster a relationship with a high school mentor who can guide him/her through the BHS music opportunities and high school in general. In addition, he/she will also get an opportunity to meet other passionate musicians throughout Brookline.
Click here to visit the BMP web page. To register your child, please fill out this form. For any questions or concerns, please contact: brooklinemusicprogram@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
Girls LEAP Self-Defense Program: This program, run by Girls LEAP, empowers girls and young women through an integration of self-reflective and physical self-defense skills. Self-Reflective skills include topics such as conflict resolution, setting boundaries, courage, finding support, and healthy relationships and friendships. Physical Self-Defense skills focus on girl-specific physical safety techniques.
Brookline Robotics: Brookline Robotics seeks to engage middle school students of all kinds in STEM and robotics. Through our First Lego League teams, we aim to teach students the basics and beyond of robotics and programming through a hands-on, investigative approach. We’re open to any experience level, novice to expert! Brookline Robotics is made possible by the support of many enthusiastic high school volunteers, adult volunteers, and the support of the award-winning robotics team FRC 125, the NUTRONs, who have created or mentored robotics programs in Revere, Dorchester, and Jamaica Plain. This program runs on Saturdays and Sundays from 9/14/19 until 11/17/19. This class is full at this time. Click here for more information about Brookline Robotics.
Aerial Silks: Circus Up and Revolution Trapeze are teaming up bring to Brookline the finest in circus and aerial arts. In Circus Up’s Aerial mini-series, students will learn the basics of moving in the air! Students gain strength and flexibility, grace, and correct alignment while twisting, turning, climbing and controlled dropping on the aerial silks. Students will learn positions and moves close to the ground, and then move higher with more advanced skills, as ability advances. Classes begin with warm-up and stretching, then move to the air, building on past lessons. Students will likely learn to trust their new found strength and agility that will help them to gain confidence; maybe not only in the air!
Thursday Parkour: (Almost) Every Thursday from 4:30-6:00PM, Parkour Generations comes to the BTC to offer parkour classes. The classes are drop in, and are open to BTC members from 6th through 12th grade. Prior to attending your first class, a parent/guardian must complete a Parkour Generations release. Bring the completed/signed release to your first class. There is no cost for BTC members to attend Thursday parkour classes, but space is limited. To reserve a spot in a particular Thursday Parkour class, click here. Before registering for this class, please make sure your child is a member of the BTC and you have an existing MindBody account that was created during the membership process. To register your middle schooler as a member, click here. If you are unsure, you can email our middle school team at msm@brooklineteencenter.org to check. Thanks.
Monday Parkour: Parkour Generations comes to the BTC to offer an all levels parkour class to middle school students. From the Parkour Generations website: “Students train to develop strength, speed, endurance, precision, spatial awareness, dynamism, and creativity, in order to be as fluid, functional and liberated as possible in physical movement and to overcome physical obstacles. Students will also start to develop a way of thinking based on rigorous self-discipline, autonomous action and self-will that allows them to overcome mental obstacles related to their movements. Classes include extensive and dynamic warm-up exercises, instruction in the basic movements of parkour, and a number of strengthening and conditioning exercises to ensure the long-term practice of the sport.”
Animation (fall session): Our friends at the Brookline Arts Center are coming to the BTC. In this class, we will develop characters and comics with a three-dimensional twist! Students will bring their drawn characters to life using sculpey clay, found materials and sewing techniques. They will then have the opportunity to experiment with short stop-motion animation of their creations. The 10 week class will run in the BTC conference room on Wednesdays from 3:00-4:30PM October 16th through December 11th. No class on 11/27 There is a $295 fee for this class. To learn more, or to register please click here.
Money should not be a barrier in signing up for classes that have a fee. If you need a partial or full scholarship for a class, please email our middle school team at msm@brooklineteencenter.org.