Guest post by Lizzi, 13, who just completed her first week in 7th grade public school, after being homeschooled since the beginning of 1st grade.
Lizzi: Okay, my mom wants me to do this, and I didn’t have any homework, so I don’t have an excuse not to do it! So here it goes.
My first impressions of school:
~LOUD!!! It takes forever for the kids to be quiet!!! So it takes forever to start doing the lesson. Throughout the whole lesson the teacher has to keep reminding people to be quiet.
~Sad. I can get 10x as much work done at home in half as much time! (Okay, maybe that’s exaggerating a little bit, but only a LITTLE!!) In one class today—an 80 minute period—we corrected two previous papers, did a short problem solving activity and talked about what we are doing next week. At home it probably would have taken us half an hour.
~Frustrating! I cannot, for the life of me, get my STUPID LOCKER open! One of my friends has memorized my locker combo because she has done it for me so many times!
~Busy. Everything is on a very tight schedule. So when one of your teachers (not saying any names) doesn’t let you out on time, you have about two minutes to get changed out of your P.E. clothes before the bell rings!
~Free Time. I normally have 30 minutes of free time in the evening since I started school. I used to have about seven hours a day.
So, that’s about it. I can’t decide what I’m doing next year, because school’s not boring yet. It’s still a new thing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
So your mom said you'd might like feedback. Since I'm quite opinionated, I thought I'd give it a shot.
Yes, yes, and yes. All true. Unfortunately, this is how most of our country works, inefficient, loud, slow, chatty and not so direct.
With your time, learn how to do your best given the circumstances. People don't like being told what they are doing is right or wrong so now is your chance to be be ultra creative. Try learning without telling the teacher you need more- figure out how you can make it more interesting given the circumstances. As you move on to high school, university, perhaps journeying across the world, you will have endless skill on how to get what you need to lead a satisfied life without actually complaining. It is a great skill.
I hope to read more of your posts! Perhaps your weekly Friday chore for mom :) I'd love to read it and hear how it is going.
Andie
Hi Lizzie!
Really enjoyed reading your first impressions. I don't get any impression at all that you are complaining about your experience. On the contrary, I think you have been very concise in just "telling it like it is". Since I have spent many years in the classroom, I would have to agree that there are a lot of "wasted moments". Not sure that it is the best preparation either for the real world unless you plan to spend all your time waiting in lines somewhere. I think a better preparation would be centering time and energy on worthwhile projects that would stretch your mind and promote creative thinking.
Andie's idea of learning without asking for more may sound helpful but in the "real classroom" if you hve been asked to open your textbook to page 109 and the teacher must spend the next 10 minutes dealing with noise, just how creative can you be with that 10 minutes? Well, maybe you could count the freckles on the cute boy across the aisle and multiply that times 52...but the teacher expects you to be on pge 109 at any given moment. Not much time for a creative project!
Speaking of the cute boys with the freckles, do you mind being asked about the kids you encountered and how that went? I know it is just the first week,....but how about telling your first experiences along the lines of meeting other 7th graders. Since you are not yet bored in spite of the obvious slow pace, maybe there is more to tell??
Post a Comment