The student news publication of Libertyville High School

Drops of Ink

The student news publication of Libertyville High School

Drops of Ink

The student news publication of Libertyville High School

Drops of Ink

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Middle School Comparisions

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Friends scatter familiar hallways. Classes reside close together. Laughter creeps into the lunch room. The Constitution test remains a stressor for the eighth graders.

Then summer comes and the frets for high school begin to infect future ninth-grade minds.

And once high school finally arrives, some feel like it’s just another year at school while others feel like they were tossed onto a completely different island of education.

Between the three main feeder schools, Highland, Oak Grove, and St. Joseph’s, a search occurred to see which middle school seemed to have the most prepared students and how each middle school decided on curriculum.

Highland is the biggest feeder school at 320 students from the school in the current freshman class along with 340 students registered to come into next school year’s freshman class. Students concluded that, even though it could be an awkward experience, it had its perks.

“[Highland] excelled at keeping us busy and really trying a variety of topics, teachers, and teaching styles trying to find us the best fit and getting us to success,” revealed Freshman Caroline Short.

Senior Jessica Bringle commented, agreeing with how Highland helped students with going to LHS, “I know that all of the teachers and faculty at Highland make sure that their eighth graders graduate, are ready to move up to high school, and are confident they’ll succeed,” senior Jessica Bringle commented, agreeing with how Highland helped students with going to LHS.

According to Mr. John Hallmark, principal of Highland, the school tries its very best in order to prepare students for the future by combining state laws and guidelines along with the guidance of District 70 Board of Education’s own standards to ultimately approve the changes and standards for the curriculum.

What District 70 focuses most on are “Working on teams, Self-direction, Solving Problems, Using Technology, Making connections, [and] communicating,” Mr. Hallmark stated in an email. Teachers tend to focus on these while crafting their teaching styles so students can get as much as possible out of classes.

“I felt mostly prepared for high school. The classes we took in middle school, especially in eighth grade, were similar to ones we would take in high school and that really helped with transitioning,” Bringle admitted.

Short commented, “I felt semi-prepared. During my 6th and 7th grade year I had very challenging homework loads and curriculum, but in my 8th grade year, things seemed to get easier.”

Also, Highland admits that they focus more on the transition between 5th and 6th grade, leaving the gap between middle and high school up to both Highland and LHS, since they both “work hard to make sure students have all the support they need,” according to Mr. Hallmark.

Students also revealed some flaws Highland had in their education. According to Short, they didn’t exactly treat students as mature as they were expected to be: “I wish they could have treated us more like adults. The school expected us to act like adults but never actually treated us like we were. Maybe that was just the age we were at, but still, it was frustrating at some points.”

Yet, despite complaints about certain subjects not being completely on task all the time, Highland still has a plethora of activities that allow students to find themselves and learn new skills and hobbies: “ I think my best experiences from middle school were from 8th grade and participating in the show choir, band, jazz band, and orchestra because I got to meet so many new people and make new friends whom I’m still friends with to this day. Being able to do something I love while also meeting new people is something that my middle school had to offer and I definitely took ahold of that and it’s helped shaped me into who I am today.”

Along those lines, Oak Grove has a similar way of preparing students for what lies  beyond middle school. Oak Grove is the second-biggest feeder school into LHS, with 100 students in the freshman class and 120 planning on attending next school year. Mr. Lonny Lemon and Ms. Sarah Cacciatore, members of the Oak Grove Education Board, revealed that there are many factors that go into picking the curriculum for the students, with questions like “Does the resource address the standards required?  It is research-based?  Does it have community and faculty support?  Does it assist our students in developing life-long learning skills?” However, along with those questions they “also look at the alignment to ensure successful transitions to the high school.”

Senior Jeanette Burke agreed, stating that “Oak Grove excelled at motivating us to have good grades with the courses we had and the grading scale we had.”

Oak Grove’s administration is also proud of its academic achievements, as illustrated by Mr. Lemon and Ms. Cacciatore: “We have a tradition for providing a well rounded curriculum at Oak Grove.  Our students have consistently performed in the top 10% of elementary schools on state testing.  Our teachers constantly receive professional development to guide and improve instructional strategies.  In addition, we provide every student with a personal technology device for ease of student productions.  Our teachers and administrators communicate regularly with the high school staff to ensure a smooth transition.  By incorporating all of the above mentioned ways to guide our students, we are able to focus on consistent and rigorous instruction for all.”

Students at Oak Grove felt a community vibe as well, since they had a smaller amount of kids and because they got to grow up with the same kids from kindergarten to eighth grade, according to freshman Jenna Silverman.

However, there were also some things that, similar to other suggestions, were about how overwhelming a middle school could make high school seem scarier than it is. Silverman disclosed that “teachers would sometimes exaggerate things saying, oh teachers won’t let you do this next year [in high school] and stuff like that, which made high school seem more intimidating than it really is. I wish they wouldn’t have over exaggerated things as much just because it stressed me out so much.”

Also, Burke admitted that Oak Grove overwhelmed them with the stressors of high school, stating, “They literally freaked you out into not missing school because then you thought you would fail.”

Even through all this stress and preparations for school, both students said that they were happy that they were prepared so thoroughly.

“I think the best part was that the teachers were always ready to help you with anything you needed. Like if you asked for something, they’d always be happy to answer any questions or stay after with you.” Silverman said.

 

Similarly, Saint Joe’s, the third-biggest feeder school, with 21 students attending LHS in this year’s freshman class and 27 students planning to attend next year, revealed a mix of benefits and also frustrations with having such a small grade.

“I feel like everyone in St. Joe’s was like a family because there were only 50 kids per a grade so I see them in the halls and I’m always like ‘hey’ because it’s always nice to see familiar faces… Everyone was friends with everyone and we keep talking about like reunions and stuff like that,” freshman Bridget Horvath mused.

Senior Jesse Stanfel agreed as she reminisced about her days back at elementary and middle school at St. Joe’s: “Going from a school that I knew like the back of my hand, because I had attended it for 11 years, to a school that was so much bigger and unfamiliar was strange but exciting at the same time. I was excited to meet new people too. Having been with the same people since preschool can be amazing but I still wanted to go out of the St. Joe’s crowd and meet new people.”

Also, a major sense of community helped the students gain a philanthropic outlook on life, since volunteer work was a major component of their curriculum.

“Ever since I was in kindergarten, I can remember doing some sort of charity work that was sponsored by our school. Basically, all through our upbringing at St. Joe’s we were always taught to give back to our community, which I thought was amazing things to ever teach us,” Stanfel disclosed.

However, students were unhappy with how the language program was at their school, stating that “It’d have been better to have more opportunities for different classes because here there’s so many different classes but at Saint Joe’s it’s just like you take this and you take that. So it feels kind of restricted. There was only Spanish for a language, so it’s little things like that, but when you were in the class, they prepared you. But it’s just kind of having different classes,” Horvath stated.

Other than that, students were pleased with how their sense of community, for both their school and Libertyville in general, helped prepare them into being a better, more mature person now.

“[LHS]  was a newer, bigger school with all new people that I’d never met before and some from schools if never even heard of. If was a big change to get used to, but it was a change that ended up being good and not at all as threatening as I had first thought,” Stanfel admits.

A few major trends coursed through every middle school. Firstly, every school is dedicated to going beyond just the state standards for education. Also, students agreed that middle school was an awkward yet memorable experience. But, most prevalent, was how students felt that they were only getting prepared for high school and beyond during only their eighth grade year. Some felt it made worse to learn everything in one year, while others felt like it was a relief.

Since middle school is a major hodgepodge of students at different levels of confidence and of learning, it can be overwhelming to cram everything in to prepare for high school in one school year since “it was like we were trying to adjust to it and other people were still trying to find themselves and find out what they like and stuff. But, they prepared us very well,” freshman Bridget Horvath said.

Also, since the different level of classes didn’t translate from middle school to high school seamlessly, it tooks some students a semester or two in order to figure out what class level (regular, honor, AP) was the right path for them, since things change between middle and high school.

Short commented, describing how middle school affected her, admitting“Middle School was difficult for me at some points. It’s overall an awkward age and time for everyone. Everyone is trying to figure out who they are, and who their friends are, which leads to a lot of drama. Drama. That was middle school for me. And studying. But completely worth it because LHS is so much better than the difficult times at middle school.”


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The student news publication of Libertyville High School
Middle School Comparisions