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Principal 'graduates' to junior high
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Anonymous user Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:08:50 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments Stonecreek Junior High School, the newest school in the Panama Buena Vista School District, opened its doors to over 600 students.
For over half of these students, and for this principal, this was a brand new experience.
After more than 20 years at the elementary school level, I had finally graduated to junior high, and joined the seventh-grade class in this brand new adventure.
Having prior junior high experience, the eighth-graders were markedly less anxious. One can hardly get a sense of the power of peers without observing junior high students. Nothing at this age is more important than peer approval, and showing fondness toward your parents when being dropped off at school, or to other adult authority figures in general, just isn’t cool. Students who, when I was their elementary school principal, would run to me to share an artistic creation or a favorite book, to tell a family secret, or to inquire about my height, age, or marital status, demonstrated only faint glimmers of recognition during these first days of school, despite my excitement at our reunion.
With schedules and school maps in hand, students masked their anxiety about the new school and independently went about finding their classes, meeting their teachers, and finding out who they might already know sharing classes with them. First day jitters were barely detectable. These once familiar children had turned their backs on childhood and were developing a fierce independence.
Changes in size and shape were most notable during these first days of school. Many parents report their children now devote hours to selecting each day’s outfit, some of which put the school dress code to the test. Flip flops are the shoe of choice among the girls, and glittery belts the preferred accessory. Boys sport new gym shoes, loosely laced up. It appears that fierce competition exists among both the boys and girls to be the student with the largest sunglasses.
As a brand new school, Stonecreek temporarily lacks some of the features of an established school. Lockers, for example.   As we await the installation of our brand new lockers, some students have complained bitterly about their new textbooks, measured not by the quality of content, but in simple pounds and ounces. Gratefully, students adjust and concern themselves more with the business of school, such as running for student council; trying out for color guard; playing after-school sports; creating the yearbook; performing in the band, orchestra or chorus; or simply requesting a schedule change and exercising the opportunity to choose an elective.
I’ve also observed compassion some believe is uncommon among children this age. Sensing that a new classmate needed help finding his way around school, one child appointed himself guide to the new student and continues to assist him, eat lunch with him when he is alone at the lunch table, etc.
Another student donated a backpack when he heard me talking with the counselor about a child needing one. He just showed up in the office the next day and said, “I heard you say someone needed a backpack. Here is my old one. It’s still in good shape.”
Many bilingual students interpret for new classmates at this school and in this country for the first time.
I think I’m learning just as much as the students and I can’t wait to discover more as the school year progresses. 

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