On June 14th, 8th grade students presented their Profile Project Defenses of Learning for teachers, Board Members, and Administrators from across the district.
Why it matters: The Defenses of Learning demonstrate the progress and growth of our middle school students as they transition to their high school years. Furthermore, the projects highlighted key Profile of a Ramsey Graduate Competencies such as Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Creativity.
This Year, students were grouped together based on the topics they ranked as areas of interest in an effort to create heterogeneous groups with common passions.
Projects ranged in a wide variety of topics including Mental Health, Pollution, Impacts of Social Media, and more.
Students identified an area of need, created an action plan, and then took action to impact a change or a cause.
Defending Their Learning: As a culmination to this process and their Smith careers, students were then invited to participate in a reflection on both the project as well as their time at Smith School.
This defense is both a presentation of the work they accomplished and a way for students to explain how they have developed over their time in middle school.