By staff writer Waverley Achacoso

Eighth graders have had a fantastic year at BFMS. They went to Washington, D.C. and New York, helped out at the Crab Feed, showed their groovy styles during spirit week (especially on Throwback Thursday, where they could dress up in 80’s style), pioneered U.S. History in NHD, and wrote novels, or partial novels, in NaNoWriMo.

But 8th grade does have an end. On June 10, Bay Farm 8th Graders will attend a graduation ceremony at Kofman Auditorium to bid farewell to Bay Farm School.

“I’m sad. I really like Bay Farm. High school is a bit scary since it’s so new. I’m going to miss the teachers the most, as I really feel connected to them,” said 8th grader Krystal Souza.

The ceremony will consist of awards, certificates, and a few speeches by 8th grade teacher Katie Linderme and Principal Babs Freitas. Following the ceremony will be a reception at the Cinema Grille, where appetizers and a special non-alcoholic “Bay Farm Celebratory Drink” will be served, along with a slideshow of the graduates and more speeches! 8th graders will also be going to Great America as an end-of-the-year party on the last day of school.

But first, 8th graders must complete a mandatory assignment that is required by AUSD to pass into high school: their middle school portfolio projects. 8th graders have been saving their course work ever since 6th grade. They’ve had to construct all that work, along with representations of achievements and activities, into a portfolio. All portfolios projects include an essay component and an interview with a panel of judges.

But Bay Farm isn’t constructing these portfolios like the other middle schools in the AUSD do. Bay Farm 8th graders are doing their portfolios digitally. These portfolios can include video, pictures, music, digital scans. 8th graders are using Prezi, an online presentation tool that Ms. Linderme used for her own personal portfolio for teaching.

“I knew instantly that I wanted our portfolio process to reflect the student body we’ve created using our own BYOD technology,” Ms. Linderme said. “It seemed silly to make posters out of cardboard and other art tools as a presentation with binders full of papers, when we could easily work on computer programs to make digital presentations that house all of the paper. All you would need is a computer and your awesome self.”

8th graders, once they are older, will probably look back to their fun middle school years at Bay Farm and realize how much they grew during that time. Some are already reflective.

“Caravans (in 6th grade) was my favorite experience. You are on teams for half the year, and you have to compete with other teams to win,” said 8th grader Ryan Ong. “You can win lots of cool prizes. My team won, and it was just a really fun and great experience for me. I’ll never forget it.”

Now 7th graders have an exciting year to look forward to!