8th Grade

A Bit About 8th Grade

The eighth grade student is filled with ideals and opinions. Varying degrees of enthusiasm accompany students as they fully step into adolescence and say goodbye to childhood. It is the nature of the 14 year old’s emotional life to look at paired opposites - good and evil, joy and sorrow, love and hate - one could say that the theme of this year is polarities. Eighth grade marks the culmination of the eight year primary school journey and is honored with a special class trip, which gives students the opportunity to further build their relationships, through travel and exploration of the real world together. If seventh grade was the year of exploration, one could say eighth grade is the year of revolution. Revolutionary periods are studied in history, the world in Geography, the short story in Language Arts and platonic solids in Geometry. Anatomy and Physiology give students the opportunity to gain further insight into themselves, and Meteorology offers insight into the greater world. The eighth grade class studies Elizabethan England, learning about Shakespeare, often traveling to Ashland, Oregon for the Annual Shakespeare Festival. Towards the middle to end of the year, they present a full length play, followed by their 8th grade project presentations. The 8th grade project is one of personal growth and interest, where students put the skills and knowledge of the past seven years to work. They choose a topic of interest and find an outside mentor to guide them in creating something of interest - the project spans most of the 8th grade year and is worked on independently. Past examples include glass blowing, horse training, song composing, book writing, choreography, producing a short film, building a go cart - the list of past projects is awe- inspiring. As part of their project, students also write a paper and present what they have made to the full school community, with a power point, taking questions and answers at the end. At this point, it is incredibly clear how far they have grown and traveled from the initial lessons of first grade. When eighth grade comes to a close, students are ready to launch into high school and beyond, with confidence, skills and poise - and a love of learning.