ScholarShift®
What is ScholarShift®?
Beginning with the SSM Class of 2018, our educational approach for the 11th and 12th grades grew to include, in addition to the excellent college preparatory academic program we have long offered, a series of educational experiences comprised of blended classes, a parallel curriculum of learning modules, and a year-long self-designed educational experience. We call this series of experiences ScholarShift.
11th and 12th grade academic classes will be offered in a blended class model. This model opens up the weekly schedule so that students can engage in the opportunities ScholarShift provides alongside their traditional, classroom-based academic program. It also requires students to hone their time management skills and prepares them for the college model in which seeking extra help from professors requires planning and initiative and each day is not predetermined hour by hour.
Juniors will choose from a broad catalog of modules, many of which have been proposed by the students themselves. The modules focus on everything from financial literacy to writing poetry, from film making to gender roles in popular media. Students will have the opportunity to study botany in our own backyard, record and edit podcasts in our weCreate Center, and grapple with the complex issues facing our local and national communities today. After completing this foundational year, seniors will spend their final year at SSM engaged in internships, developing significant research projects, or designing other year-long experiences that explore their passions and expand their skills and talents.
To meet our academic graduation requirements, our students will complete their academic coursework plus the three-year ScholarShift series of experiences. Completion of these new requirements will be reflected on student transcripts along with the full array of rigorous college preparatory courses currently offered in our curriculum.