Middle School of Pacolet is helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by ensuring that they are exposed to the four Cs - critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. Whether in academics, athletics, fine arts or community service, our students, teachers, administrators, Board of Trustees and our community worked together to continue to create a unified culture of excellence. With our students at the center of all that we do, we have embraced our guiding principle of “ALL IN. Every Child, Every Day- Whatever It Takes”.
We strive to have students do more than recall basic facts. Critical thinking is used in all classes to obtain, understand and analyze information. Teachers use many strategies including brainstorming, classifying, categorizing, comparing, contrasting and making connections to prior knowledge to give students exposure to critical thinking. Students are asked to justify their thoughts and work in classes. Through journaling and dialogue teachers have observed students using more critical thinking strategies than in the past. Summative assessments provide evidence that students are improving in this area. However, we still work toward ALL students improving.
Collaboration is achieved by utilizing groups in core content and electives to problem solve using as many real life scenarios as possible, work on projects, build presentations, discussions and debates. Collaboration can be seen in the classroom, in the arts or on athletics teams. Collaboration was achieved as students worked together for community service to plan, organize and collect items for flood victims, can goods for needy, pet supplies for local animal shelters, and items for nursing facilities.
Middle School of Pacolet implemented an hour long Indian Academy this past year. Students were able to select activities or clubs they wished to participate regardless of grade level. Students had many opportunities to collaborate and critically think as they participated in some of the following: Breakout Club, Board games, Coding, Crafts, Battle of Brains, Cross Stitching, Gaming, Technology, Cards, Book Clubs and Intramurals. Participation and satisfactions from student surveys were positive for Indian Academy.
