No More Pencils; No More Books...

The school year is over.  And I am so OVER 5th grade.  I feel like a weight has been lifted off my whole family.

I've never felt this way about a school year before.  But then again my son was never in middle school before.  This year has been a difficult one and I have not been very impressed with how middle school went.  However, this was my first experience, so maybe some of you out there can give me feedback on what I consider the good, the bad and the ugly.  (Maybe I'm just missing something; let me know!)

• This year the school was divided into 2 "houses" and you would stay with your house for all four years.  It wasn't a competitive thing (except for the end of the year field day).  It was supposed to give students a core group of teachers who could better get to know and work with your child.  These teachers would have dedicated time to meet with each other and know what was going on in the house in general.  Maybe that's how it was SUPPOSED to work, but I didn't see it.  There were weeks with multiple quizzes/tests/assessments/projects.  So many things going on in one week, who knew what to study when!

• Which brings me to his science class.  Teacher would let us know a test was coming up but there was rarely a definitive date...quiz probably at the end of the week.  But then it would get pushed back.  Or the website wouldn't get updated so I wouldn't know if this was a new quiz or old?  Students could also earn homework passes.  My son managed to get quite a few of them.  Which is great, except that homework has rarely assigned!  At the end of the year she asked that they turn in all unused passes; my son had at least 3!

• Then there was Math.  If you've read anything I've written you know how I feel about math.  My son was up and down and all over the place.  We had a wonderful tutor.  We needed a wonderful tutor because staying after class before a test along with more than half the class who also needed help, wasn't helping!  Rarely a week went by when there wasn't a math quiz, test or assessment.  Sometimes more than one in a week!  (There was even one on the last week of school!)  

• Literacy is the new English class (at least that's how it seems to me).  The logging at least 30 minutes is a pain in the you know what.  I know plenty of parents agree, as this seems to be a common practice.  Even worse was the "stop and jot" which was assigned once or twice a week, where my son, would have to stop and jot a post it note on a page to mark something that was interesting, unusual, extremely funny, etc.  He hated it.  I don't blame him.  It stops the whole flow of reading.  I understand the rationale behind it, but...

• Social Studies was probably my son's favorite subject; he loves history.  I loved his teacher.  She would post outlines/study guides of the topics before a test or quiz.  This was I knew what was going on in the class and what to make sure he focused on what was important.

• Gym and language classes were every other day.  My son seemed to be able to keep track of which was which for the most part (I know I couldn't follow it; wish there was some way that both could be part of the daily schedule.  Kids need to run around and foreign language skills are not every other day thing!)  There were a couple of mix ups, but thankfully his French teacher had common sense.  When there was a school wide confusion over what day was what and the majority of the class didn't bring in their projects as a result, instead of penalizing 75% of the class, she moved the due date.  Plus her projects, while focusing on using new words in French, always had other learning applications as well.  (Such as learning about countries which spoke French and their flags.)

• Music is a big part of our family and the school curriculum.  I'm glad my son participated both in band and chorus, but fitting them into the school day means an extra early morning.  "Period 0" starts at 7:45 which meant getting him to school by 7:40 3 days a week (4 days if there was a chorus sectional which was every other week).  The teachers are obviously dedicated (early hours can't be easy for them either), but getting a tween to school at that hour?  No easy task!

If you are exhausted and confused after reading all the above, imagine what it was like living it!

But fifth grade is behind us now.  It is onto sixth, which I am sure will be full of its own challenges and adventures.  I'm just hoping that we ALL have learned something from the first year at middle school and that next year will be an easier transition!  (And not just for my son!)