Junior high rookies

Opinion

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This article was published 25/11/2011 (4778 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GRAB your sticks, slap on your skates, and don’t forget to do your homework, kids, because the Class of 2017 has finally made it to the big leagues.

For the last six years, the Free Press has been on an ambitious academic journey — following a single class of Windsor School students from kindergarten all the way up to Grade 12.

We met the kids in 2005 in Ms. Gietz’s kindergarten classroom and, over the last six action-packed years, we’ve seen them go from pigtails and toothless grins to timetables, tests and gender dynamics.

This year, the Class of 2017 is finished with the minor leagues of elementary school. Today, they are trading elbows and flexing their brains in their rookie season in junior high.

There’s no more recess, no more sitting in the same class all day. And just like the Jets, everyone gets their very own locker. It’s not just about reading and writing. It’s about responsibility and leadership.

Welcome to life in the big leagues, everyone.

The Winnipeg Jets and their legions of rabid fans aren’t the only ones in this city on an adrenaline high about playing in the big leagues.

A group of Windsor School students are also hyped about getting their shot.

After seven years toiling in the educational minor leagues, the students have spent the past two months taking their first tentative steps in the big time at the 238-student, K-to-8 school in St. Vital.

Welcome back to the Class of 2017.

When we last dropped in, the kids were celebrating the end of Grade 6 and fretting about what the future would hold as they prepared to start Grade 7, a major step in the long and eventful journey through the education system.

Just like the Jets, they suffered from a case of opening-day jitters.

But, also like their highly paid NHL counterparts, these tweens are shrugging off the nerves that come with leaving their comfort zone in elementary school and starting to find their stride.

Junior high is “awesome,” says Sydney, 11. “You get to switch classes and move around instead of sitting in the same room all day.”

“I like it a lot,” Hailey, also 11, says nonchalantly. “It’s a lot of fun. You switch classes a lot and get different teachers and meet other people in the older grades. You just connect with different people.”

Avery is a little less enthusiastic. “It’s school and you can never really be excited about school. I mean, I’ll probably never go ‘Whoo-hoo, school!'”

Sarah, 12, admits she was initially a little nervous about moving down the hallway and officially out of the elementary zone.

“When you’re younger than them (the Grade 8 and Grade 9 students), it’s scary. But now that you’ve lived it, it’s not so scary after all.”

Whether you’re an NHL rookie or just two months into the start of your “junior” career, life is all about adjusting to changes.

In the NHL, at least you get to chill out between periods during a game. In junior high, however, recess is a thing of the past.

“It’s non-stop working until lunch,” says Thomas, who recently turned 12. “I definitely miss recess and going outside.”

“The day goes by faster without recess,” Jesse, who turns 12 in December, explains patiently. “You’re not waiting for that bell to ring.”

Losing recess is not without its benefits, according to Naomi, 11.

“There’s less drama,” she says. “Most of the drama happened at recess.”

Like boy-girl type drama?

“No! None of the girls in our class are date-able as of now,” Noah says with a laugh.

Sniffs Hailey: “I don’t think I’d start dating in Grade 7.”

Sarah shakes her head: “Ewww!”

Naomi shudders: “I don’t like thinking about that,” she says. “It scares me.”

Along with leaving recess in the rear-view mirror, junior high means finally getting your own locker, bigger classes, more course options and, perhaps most significant of all, being separated from some of your closest friends.

Until this point, the Class of 2017 has literally grown up together in the same classroom. But at Windsor School, there are two combined Grade 7-8 classes.

“It’s hard,” Hailey concedes. “It’s different. I see them at lunch. It’s a little strange. A couple of my friends I’ve been with since kindergarten. I take some options with them, like art and band.”

For Chris Arnold, 40, one of the two homeroom teachers for the Class of 2017 — Danelle Bradshaw is the other — it’s his first time teaching this particular group of young scholars.

“Because we have multi-age classes, they know they’ll have an older grade with them, and I think that’s a bit intimidating,” Arnold says. “I only have 11 Grade 7s and 18 Grade 8s. They also have lockers for the first time and don’t keep their stuff in their desks.”

A teacher at the school for 11 years, Arnold says the jump from Grade 6 to junior high is huge in many ways. Until the end of elementary school, the students essentially have a single homeroom teacher who teaches everything, except gym and music.

“They don’t have that anymore,” notes Arnold, whose room is plastered with posters of everyone from the Green Bay Packers to Nelson Mandela and Einstein. “I don’t teach math. I don’t teach French. I don’t teach art. They have different teachers for different subjects instead of just one face they get to know.”

Along with art, guitar and band, the seventh-graders take practical arts — shops, home ec and graphic arts — classes that are taught at Darwin School one day a week. The kids have to get there and back on their own.

It’s fun taking the bus to shops class, says Sarah, “but it’s really squishy.”

Oh, the trauma of public transit. “It was really, really crowded, and we almost died,” Avery recalls of his first time.

After their classes at Darwin, the students usually have lunch together at a nearby fast-food restaurant, another big step toward independence, before returning to Windsor for the afternoon. “If you’re late, it’s your fault,” Sarah points out.

But the biggest change is one of expectations. Along with power and glory, playing in the big leagues means accepting responsibility, and showing a bit of leadership.

“We think of grades 5 to 8 as the middle years,” says Windsor principal Ann Walker. “In grades 7 and 8, we try to introduce more choice and freedom and the responsibility that goes along with that. They have a more sheltered environment up until Grade 7.

There are a lot of leadership and cross-grade activities in the curriculum at this stage, Walker says.

“They’re the leaders of the school, and it’s their time to shine.”

Among other things, the Grade 7s were responsible for planning and executing the Terry Fox event for the whole school this year, Arnold says. They also organized Remembrance Day activities.

“There’s the expectation they’ll start to take on the role of older students. At assemblies, they have to set the tone for the school; they can’t act like clowns.”

“We have to be leaders and show we’re responsible,” says Griffin, who, in his National Aboriginal Diabetes Association T-shirt, seems mature far beyond his years.

“There’s going to be volunteers going to St. Amant Centre. We’re learning how to get places on buses and stuff.

“I like it. This year I’m going for either captain or assistant captain on my hockey team because they have the most responsibility.”

In junior high or the NHL, there’s a lot of pressure to perform, whether it’s scoring goals or doing homework.

But Noah, 12, says it’s easier than he thought it would be. “I thought it would be a lot harder,” he jokes. Asked one thing he’s learned, Noah smiles and blurts: “I learned that the largest single cell in the world is an ostrich egg yolk.”

Shelby, 12, says she’s become passionate about learning stop-motion animation in graphic arts, but doesn’t enjoy being pushed in the hallways between classes.

“People push a lot,” Shelby complains, “Grade 8 guys push each other and push other people.”

Back in his homeroom, Arnold tells a visitor these junior high rookies are at a key point in their journey from snack time to graduation gowns.

“I really like this age,” he says, “You can really make a difference in a kid. They’re still really into school, even though they pretend not to be. They’re not set on a path yet.”

As for the Jets being back in the bigs, that’s the best thing of all, says Griffin, whose love of hockey rates “75 on a scale of one to 10.”

“I’m ecstatic,” he says with his trademark calm. “I’m just not showing it right now.”