By Kathleen Acuff

Three eighth-graders talk about their two years of study at Egan Junior High School with Covington teacher Laura Bence, left front, and Jade Tran, mother of an Egan seventh-grader. From left, back, Rachael Mott, Stephanie Ashton and Scotty Bohrer found some surprises as they looked back at their earlier work.

Students at the high point of their journey through junior high paused last Thursday to look down at the path behind them. They were amazed at how far they have come.

It’s called perspective.

As Egan Junior High School eighth-graders discussed their studies of the past two years with adults from the community, the purpose of the annual Portfolio Day was clear.

“You can look back and see how you’ve changed. You can do that with every single assignment in these portfolios,” Scotty Bohrer exclaimed as he leafed through the binder he had decorated to reflect his interests.

Two of his classmates, Stephanie Ashton and Rachael Mott, found that truth for themselves. For three adult volunteers, the three soon-to-be Egan alumni unpacked their work and the insights they gained into themselves and the world through writing prose and poetry, composing songs, performing skits, studying history, conducting experiments and working out math problems.

English teacher Rosemary Garcia, preparing volunteers to reflect with students on their work and personal growth over the past two years, said she instructed students to choose the piece of work they were proudest of and “work down from there” in stocking their portfolios. She said some students said they had changed so much that they weren’t the same person they were when they did the work - and they asked whether they could change it.

“I told them, ‘Absolutely! Go for it!’” Garcia said.

Other students preferred to keep the marks on their metaphorical height charts. Scotty’s portfolio included a “not so great paper” because he learned so much from it.

“I hadn’t really prepared for that essay,” he said. “It’s good to remember how it’s important not to slack off (but) to work hard. … I like to wing things.”

Stephanie, who said she has been dancing for 12 years, shared a line she was especially proud of from a writing exercise that called for solid similes: “Jill rapped her toes lightly on the ground like a tap dancer.” She said she liked the way the line conveyed happiness.

The work she was proudest of was her autobiography, “Successfully Studious.”

“The autobiography is about who you are and who you want to become,” she explained. “I consider myself a hard worker. I am successfully studious now, and I want to become even more so.”

Rachael is a poetic observer.

“I want to watch things, all the little things, and not just run by them,” she began.

One of this close observer’s favorite pursuits this year was the pinhole camera project. Students learned about focus, exposure time and developing film and made an album of their efforts.

Scotty, whose interests include sports and composing music, said the biggest inward change he sees in himself is that he takes on more work than he did earlier in the year and procrastinates less.

“I’ll be able to go farther in life,” he said. “And I have more fun in life now because I know I’m doing the hard work too.”

Scotty was shocked and changed by what he learned about the Holocaust. Rachael’s “favorite thing in the past two years” was learning about the Holocaust and the Civil War.

“Learning about how people hurt other people then made me see the world differently. It made me look at life like I’m so blessed here,” she said.

Rachael has just made the district soccer team and plans to study algebra over the summer so she can take geometry in the fall. Stephanie will participate in the Joffrey Ballet’s preprofessional training program. Scotty will work as a counselor at Los Altos High’s Golden Eagle Sports Camp this summer.

Back to the future

Tim Sato, who took part in the second Portfolio Day as a student in 1996, came back to Egan as a student teacher this year, working with eighth-grade U.S. history teachers Ben Rosen and John Hayman and occasionally substituting for other teachers.

“Portfolio Day is something I clearly remember. It’s amazing to see the change in your work in just two years,” Sato said.

Back when he presented his portfolio - which he still has - Sato was glad for the chance to see his classmates’ work.

“It’s nice to see your colleagues’ work too. It becomes so much more important later on when you’re out in college and in the working world. You’re surrounded by such talented students, especially in this district. I can’t think of anyone I went to school with who doesn’t have some unique ability,” he said.

When he looked back at his work on Portfolio Day nine years ago, the greatest change Sato saw was in his writing. Several students this year made the same comment about their work.

“I had finally developed that voice, the one I would use and grow later on,” Sato said. “It’s a never-ending process.”

After Egan, Sato graduated from Los Altos High School, then from UC Davis, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science with an emphasis in public service and music. He will return to UC Davis in the fall to work on his master’s degree in education and his teaching credential.

Like the students he worked with this year, Sato is in transition, not sure yet which grade he wants to teach, although he’s drawn to working with eighth-graders.

“I really enjoyed working with them. It is such a crucial period - you go through so many changes in so little time,” he said.

Sato said he “honestly didn’t know” on Portfolio Day in 1996 what to expect after eighth grade.

“I had goals, of course. Still, one day you say to yourself, ‘Wow! I never really dreamed I would end up here.’

“It’s good to have goals, but you have to remain flexible because you never know what path life will take you down,” he said.