Ninth-Grade Curriculum

List of 6 items.

• Freshman Advisory Program

  All freshmen are placed with faculty advisors who remain with them throughout their high school journey. Advisory meetings take place daily; during the freshman year, those meetings are focused on social and emotional wellness, study skills and citizenship activities informed by the High Resolves program.

• Dean of the Freshman Class

  Faculty member Karen Thompson is available to help freshmen with questions about their course load, classes, grades, course selection or other matters.

• Freshman Curriculum

  The freshman curriculum includes a year-long physical education course in bay studies, which exposes ninth graders to sailing, paddling, water safety and navigating with a compass. Freshmen also take World Civilizations, Forms of Literature and biology, and they participate in an active advisory program. For one week each year, freshmen enjoy a spoken-word poetry immersion that helps them appreciate the art of poetry while learning more about themselves.

• Outward Bound Program

  For more than 30 years, freshmen at Ransom Everglades have journeyed into the Ten Thousand Islands in the Everglades for a five-day, four-night adventure that helps them bond as a class while learning useful life skills. Students leave their smartphones behind, traveling by canoe, cooking their own meals and spending nights in tents. They forever remember this special time as a class.

• Health Information Project (HIP)

  Trained juniors and seniors meet with freshmen monthly to discuss issues related to health and wellness. The sessions, coordinated by the Health Information Project (HIP), are designed to promote open, frank discussion about important health issues. HIP, a Miami-based health education non-profit organization, was created in 2009 as both a substitute for and complement to the traditional health education curriculum in public and private high schools. The HIP model is preventive, not reactive. HIP, which has partnered with more than 85 schools across the state of Florida, has taught over 260,000 students since its founding. 
  

• Spoken-Word Poetry Seminars

  Traveling poets Kane Smego and Giddy Perez use language and spoken word poetry to inspire freshmen during a week of poetry training and discussion every year. They inspire freshmen to find insight in poetic works, put hard-to-express emotions into words, and deliver their works confidently to their peers.