I’m an 8th grader and I don’t know where to go next period.

School started on Wednesday.

We have a brand new beautiful building which has to be more than twice the size of our old building. The building is free of mold, asbestos, and bad air quality rooms. The best part is my office can actually hold more than three people. It’s funny to talk to the kids about what they think about the new building. Most kids think it is cool, but the common reply from an 8th grader is “it’s huge” said with a big sigh. I can’t decide if they like the hugeness or not. I think we have toppled the typical “rulers of the school” mentality with this new building. The 8th graders look more panic stricken than our 5th or 6th graders. 

Today, as I was thinking about my poor confused 8th graders, I thought back to my time as a junior high camp counselor and how one year we didn’t do something the kids had come to think of as tradition (even though it wasn’t really a tradition). The camp kids almost rebelled because we weren’t doing that activity - even though the new activity was way better. My current students are acting the same - wishing for the old rooms so they can be on top and confidently run through the building. 

It also seems our teachers are almost wishing for the old. The teachers have started to complain that they don’t feel homey in the new place and they don’t know where to congregate in the mornings. We do need art on the walls and we do need some major kinks worked out, but hopefully we will be able to appreciate the new $32 million dollar building soon.

Filed under Uncategorized |