Coming to the upper school is an exciting and new experience for many of the new eighth graders. Changes in the school environment, learning habits, and the people that you are around. From going to the oldest in the middle school, to being a new student in the upper school! It truly is a new change to be seen. The first quarter of this year has come to an end, marking one of the largest milestones of this year. Though it is a shift for all the eighth graders, we are adjusting well.
”I love the upper school, there’s so much freedom! With amazing teachers who teach their respective topics thoroughly!” Says Deven Patel, a new eighth grader in Mr. Kowalski’s homeroom. I personally couldn’t agree more. One of the most commonly heard changes between this year’s eighth graders and the last years, is the amount of freedom. Here in the upper school, we are given more room and space to make decisions and to grow. While in middle school, we had to stay in our homerooms for lunch. But in the upper school, we are able to walk around during lunch times and go wherever is needed.
Another change that some students have seen is the teaching. “I feel like the first quarter went better than I thought. For such a jump of difficulty, I thought I would get Cs or worse.” Said Sarah Zwart, another eighth grader, “I did pretty good though. The teachers seem like they really want you to succeed in their class. They really help you a lot.” In the upper school, there have been changes between the middle school’s teachings and the upper school’s. In middle school, we mainly learned Spanish with Señora Doughtie. This year we are being exposed to more of the options for the future. Such as being exposed to learning a new language. Latin is a new and exciting change! Allowing us to get a taste of a new language and a whole new culture. This switch in the middle of the year also starts and presents us with the freedom in 9th grade to be able to choose which language we would like to choose and learn.
But the changes do not only go into the freedom or the learning, but also the clubs and student life as well. In the upper school, we are given a large number of clubs and opportunities we would like to enter into. One such as the Newspaper. The Oracle has a new club that was not in middle school. This club is a fun and amazing way to connect with everyone in the upper school. Other clubs are also included like crochet club, one of my personal favorites!
To me, being in the upper school was a change that seemed scary at first. We were being put into a new building and with new teachers. This got my curiosity and had me wondering. How much more homework would we be getting? What opportunities will be coming? And more questions came that I heard from my classmates as well. We were all curious about going to the next level. But being in the upper school is an amazing and new experience that I am happy to be a part of! The teachers are amazing to us, helping us learn and listening when we do not understand a topic. They also make learning fun by making it interactive in more ways than one! I am truly happy to be one of the upper schoolers of the Oakwood School!
