“How is Elementary School different than Junior high?”

So, I keep getting asked, “How is Elementary School different than Junior high?”  I have spent the last 17 years in Junior High.  The last 9 years as a Junior High Adminstrator.  Junior High students are amazing.  They are full of energy.  They have the struggles of hormones and peer issues.  They want to be adults and they are not ready to be adults yet.  They want to be serious and goofy at the same time.

So, the biggest difference in my mind is Kindergarten students.  No, this is not because they need you to open their go-gurt (which I am now an expert at opening) or because they need me to tie their shoes.  It is the wonder in their eyes every day they arrive at school.  It is how they run into the school every day with excitement, joy, and amazement.  It is the excitement in their eyes when they share with you the new word they can spell or showing you their writing journal.  It is how the Kindergarten students hold your hand and pull you to something they want to show you they have learned.

It really got me thinking, when do students lose this spark?  How do some of those in Junior High and High school students kept it?  What are we doing in education to help students keep this love of learning alive?  When talking to others about this, the idea of difficulty came up.  “As students get older, the curriculum is harder. They don’t want to work hard.” is what I have heard teachers say.  At the #CUEROCKSTAR Admin conference this weekend, I heard Ramsey Musallam said “Difficulty builds mental muscle and ease builds confidence.”  Difficulty also is more rewarding and sparks curiosity.  It drives us to learn, as long as we are guided through the difficulty towards success.  For the past 15 years we have been told what to teach and how to teach it.  With Common Core we have been given the permission to actually let students learn.

According to google, learning is defined as:

1. the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught.

We get to provide experiences for students to discover knowledge.  We get to watch students learn from each other and work together.  We also get to “teach” them.  If we balance “the experiences” with “the teaching”, will that keep the spark alive?  In Kindergarten, students do much of their learning by “discovering new things.”  They get to learn through “fun” experiences.  The teacher also gets to “teach” them sounds, numbers, counting, how to write letters correctly and so much more.  Why wouldn’t you want to come to school when it is fun and your curiosity is sparked?  

When I took the leap to Elementary, Kindergarten was my fear.  They are little, cry, sneeze, and touch everything. They can get lost.  I knew all 54 names within the first week so I could call for their attention.  I had nightmares about losing a student.  Who knew Kindergartners would be one of my favorite changes, besides the biggest change, about moving to Elementary?? Probably all Kindergarten teachers :)