13 Middle School Differences
My oldest child starts middle school in less than a week. I’m not a big fan of new situations or unfamiliar ones, but luckily DD is much more like her father in this respect. She spent yesterday morning at orientation camp, where they “played dumb, boring games” and took a tour of the campus which was “useless because the tour guide was being lazy.” She’s growing up so fast and luckily for her has no problem meeting new people. Most of the kids she went to elementary school with will be going to a different middle school because of the boundary lines and the fact that we’d been bumped from our home school when we moved here almost five years ago.
I never went to middle school. My elementary school was K-6, and for 5th and 6th grades, we had those classes from the other feeder elementary sharing out school because of renovations to theirs. Then we were all dumped straight into one of the smallest public high schools in the state even with grades 7-12 in it. They built the middle school the year I graduated from high school. We also had real hallways and the cafeteria was inside too. What a difference 30 years and the other coast makes.
1. Registration: hour and a half longer. We had to turn in the same paperwork as for DS and then also buy gym clothes, get her ID and school picture taken, check out her textbooks in the library.
2. Campus: The middle school is way bigger, but close enough to walk to in half an hour instead of 5 miles away.
3. Parking lot: It was also designed by a man who hates children and never had any of his own — BUT, shares the space with the high school, making it twice the fun! At least they stagger start and end times.
4. Office Staff: Lots more of them and if possible, the waiting area is even smaller.
5. Attendance: They have a completely separate window for signing in/out of when you’re late. And I don’t just call the health tech to report absences.
6. Health Tech: She’s very nice too, much more easy going about everything. “You can keep your meter with you and test your blood sugar wherever you want. Just not in the bathroom. They’re DIRTY…”
7. PE: They have a real PE class now. Including lockers and showers and everything that made HS PE a nightmare.
8. Cafeteria: There’s even fewer walls it looks like and I didn’t see a roof at all. Lots of scattered tables with umbrellas and an ampitheatre-like set of steps and a grassy quad. Think Veronica Mars or really any SoCal lunch area on tv or in the movies. This will suck come February when it actually does rain.
9. Lunch: menu changes each month, but every meals rotate on a day of the week basis. Cost: $2.50 for most of the stuff she’ll want to eat compared to $2. Choices to be made are potentially even worse. Pizza 5 days a week: M/W/F cheese, T/TH Pepperoni. I really dread this next year with the boy.
10. Books: You get to pick them up early. They’re heavy, but at least you don’t have to carry all of them every day because of the block schedule for classes.
11. Block Class schedule: Classes you have rotate based on odd or even days. Or maybe it’s a minimum day where you have all every class. Then there’s also a late start on even Fridays called Collaborative Days just to make things even more confusing. DS gets out early on Fridays.
12. Dress Code: The dress code is much stricter and more strictly enforced. The biggest change for us will be that pants need to be hemmed so they don’t drag on the ground and get walked into tatters.
13. Independence: DD wants to walk to school. She is reveling in the fact that this means she gets a cell phone. DS is pestering to get one. This is one of those times I really feel the difference the 14 months between them makes.
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My youngest is starting Grade 7 and it is quite a change from elementary. Great list idea and Happy TT 🙂
Gosh, that’s a enormous change in both of your lives. how does it feel?
((hug))
Good luck!
Welcome to MS…my daughter is in 8th Grade so this is my last year but yes it’s very different from elementary school.
Happy TT From Another Participant
Yep…it can be a pain. My son starts his senior year next Monday:) He takes care of most of the stuff himself. I just sign the checks…lol. Happy TT. It will get better.
I can’t relate at all, as I attended 8-grade, 1-room (sometimes 2-room) schools. For me it was gradeschool, high school, college. None of this middle school, junior high stuff!
my kid is 3 so, i’m safe for now – ugh cell phone?! yikes! 😛
I’m not looking forward to this.
I don’t think this is an issue we’re going to have to face. We’ve started to homeschool and are so looking forward to it. With past experience from the schools here, I’m very glad we’ll probably miss it!! LOL Great list though!! Happy TT!!
Great TT!
*hugs*
Paige
My TT is at http:// paigetylertheauthor. blogspot. com
Great TT!
*hugs*
Paige
My TT is on my blog!
Lots of changes, and quite a different set up even from our middle schools. I hope your daughter has a great year!
It’s a whole nother world all right. I’ve got two there now.
Wow, sounds like your middle school is a much bigger change than ours. My son is starting 6th grade on Monday, too, and it seems like no big deal. When I went to junior high school (30+ years ago), it was a huge scary deal, and yeah, the gym uniforms and showering part sucked. Good luck to both of you!
I hated our gym uniforms when I was in school.
We didn’t have enough time to be able to shower after gym class, but I wish we did, I despised feeling sticky the rest of the school day.
Just wondering… Why did some of you hate showering after gym class? I envied some of my girlfriends who went to other schools because they did get to shower after their gym classes.
Personally, it was a self-consciousness thing.
That’s sad to hear. You probably had a great figure too, most teens do. But sadly some girls probably imagine that they have body flaws that aren’t really there. I hope it wasn’t too embarrassing for you!
I’m the youngest of 3 girls, and my father ran out on us when I was a year old. It was my mother and my 2 sisters and myself living in a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment. My sisters and I had to share one bedroom, and all 4 of us had to share the one bathroom. Since there weren’t any males in the apartment my mother made it a rule that we were only allowed to lock the bathroom door if we were using the toilet. If we were taking a shower or bath the door had to be unlocked in case someone else needed to get in the bathroom. We all just got used to seeing each other nude, so I guess I never grew up having issues about being nude in front of other females?
From what my girlfriends said at the time, I don’t think the nudity particularly bothered them in the girls locker rooms of their schools. But I have known a few women over the years who have been really self conscious about being undressed in front of even just other females.