Starting this school year, administrators of Oak Park Elementary School District 97 decided that they would do something to ease new sixth graders’ transition to middle school, implementing a program called Middle School Connections.
It’s a three-day program, and last month 506 incoming sixth graders were able to spend three mornings at their new middle schools getting acclimated, meeting their new classmates. They were also able to participate in a host of activities designed to promote team building and leadership.
Officials said the program was designed to make the first day of school – which was Aug. 22 this year – a little less intimidating.
“We hear from the community and students that anxiety of transitioning from elementary to middle school,” said Luis De Leon, assistant superintendent of middle schools.
He said it could be daunting for the 11- and 12-year-olds to go from a school day where they usually have one teacher to now having to navigate a “a big, complex system where there’s like close to a thousand kids and multiple staff members.”
District 97 enrolls a total of about 5,500 students across 10 schools, including sixth through eighth graders at Percy Julian and Gwendolyn Brooks middle schools.
In elementary school, pre-K to fifth graders usually stay in the same classroom with the same teacher all day, a big difference versus middle school where students move from class-to-class each period with a different teacher for every subject.
As part of the Middle School Connections activities, students set up a tent, went on a scavenger hunt designed to get them familiar with the layout of the school, tie dyed shirts, along with other activities designed to allow the students to get to know their new classmates and school, officials explained.
They found their lockers and practiced opening the combination locks. The new middle schoolers also met some of their teachers – who led the activities with the help of seventh grade student ambassadors.
“I think this is a really good program for kids to get to know adults they can really rely on and it’s a really good way for kids to get to know other classmates,” said seventh grade ambassador Emmerson DeVore. “I think it’s really cool for the kids to get to know each other and to have, like, an easier path into middle school. And to have familiar faces they know.”
The incoming sixth graders were divided into cohorts of about 20 students, with each group made up of kids from different elementary schools.
Incoming Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School sixth grader Olivia Minish-Murray told Pioneer Press she thought the program was very helpful.
“This was a really fun and new experience for me because I’ve never done anything like it,” Minish-Murray said. “I’ve made lots of new friends and it was nice getting to know the teachers, and overall I’ve had a really good experience.”
Minish-Murray said that the program helped ease her concerns about beginning middle school.
“I was pretty nervous because I’ve heard from movies and TV shows that people can be pretty mean and that people get bullied a lot and stuff like that. But once I came here I knew that wouldn’t be a problem because I’ve made lots of new friends and I can already tell that none of that is going to happen,” she said.
Minish-Murray especially enjoyed an activity with rockets and balloons.
“It was really great,” Minish-Murray said. “I’m really glad my parents signed me up for this. It was a really eye-opening experience for me.”
Bob Skolnik is a freelancer.
