Are you ready for middle school? At Providence, we are ready for you! Your Middle School teachers have been praying over you and readying their classrooms to welcome you into seventh and eighth grade.

Ms. Svoboda, Middle School humanities teacher, has some tips and guidance for how to make the most of your Middle School experience at Providence:

Middle school is as engaging, fun, and interesting as you! You get to decide how you want to engage in your classes, and that choice will make all the difference in your middle school experience. If you are interested and interesting you will enjoy your classes a great deal.

Middle school involves so much learning – and only a small part of that learning actually takes place in the classroom! You’ll learn to navigate the systems for seven different teachers, getting to know their different personalities and expectations while absorbing the material of the subjects they teach.

You will also learn how to navigate your social world in a whole new way. Emotions run high in middle school, and sometimes you have to learn how to not only manage your feelings but also your reactions to your peers.

As well, you will learn new systems with your parents. Middle school is the perfect time for students to begin to learn independence, but you are also going to need your parents’ help this year! Navigating seven classes, seven teachers, and social interactions can be exhausting and overwhelming. So, this year, you will begin to learn how and when independence is good and necessary, and when you simply need your mom or dad to help you out.

The year begins next week with Middle and Upper School retreat. You will hang out with students in different grades, play games, enjoy silly skits, and more! Throughout the year we have more little trips here and there, but the highlights are the Seventh Grade Safari and the Eighth Grade Historic Tour! These trips are legend – involving not only a ton of learning but also plenty of laughter and great times with friends.

The hope for each of your classes is that we will be able to help you thrive in the spaces that are your strengths as well as the places where you struggle! We want to affirm your prior knowledge and the skills you have already gained and we want to push you to grow even more. Middle school is an exciting time because it is a safe place to fail and try again; we aren’t interested in perfection – we are way more interested in process and progress – and that is exciting!

We will see you next week!