Hello, my name is August Hogen-Esch and I am an 8th-grade student at Adventure, which is a stem program. This program uses part of another middle school’s campus, Leonard Herman Intermediate. Adventure ranges from 5th grade to 8th grade, with about 210 people, and next year, 240. Recently, they have started to introduce two classes per grade, and my class is the last of the single classes, so next year all the grades will have two classes. I mostly survived 8th grade by paying attention. That’s all you really need to do, just pay attention to what is due and when, and then you can appropriately plan out your time.

 

 If I could change one thing this year, I would probably go back to Term 4 and get full credit on just one assignment more, to bump my B to an A-. Because if I did, then I could have had straight A’s, and not be so worried about getting Valedictorian. But luckily, if I get all A’s this final term, I will still be considered to get the award.

 

  The easiest part of being in 8th grade is that you pretty much know everyone. About half the class has been in Adventure since 5th grade, myself included, and even the people who joined last year are well known. This school was such a tight-knit school when I was in 5th grade, because there were only 120 people, and even now, with 210 people, I still know most of the 7th graders, and about half of the 5th and 6th graders. I think that is the best thing about Adventure. But, specifically about this year in 8th grade, the easiest thing is science. In Mrs. Reddiffer’s class, you just have to fill out worksheets, which makes it pretty easy to pass. There are some times when we do ‘labs’ which are fun little interactive activities. The only suggestion that I have is to read the textbook as you go through the units, because that teaches you more and can help you pass the worksheets.

 

  The most difficult part of 8th grade was probably at the beginning of the school, when we had to adjust to the new teachers who did stuff differently. First of all, the new math teacher was my mom, Mrs.Hogen-Esch, which was weird at first, but after a while, I got used to it. Most people think that it would really suck to have their mom as a teacher, but I am kind of used to it because she worked at my elementary school as well. And the other new teacher, Ms.Edwards, is all right, but sometimes doesn’t communicate very well. Most of the year class was really just about reading books, so if you are going to come to Adventure in 8th grade, then my suggestion would be to pre-read the books from her class, so you can have an advantage. And also, you should be aware that emails don’t always get through, and if you want an immediate response, it is really better for you to physically talk to her, as with most other teachers.

 

  In conclusion, some of the things that helped me survive 8th grade were paying attention in class, talking in person with teachers, and planning ahead. With those three things, I can almost guarantee your success as an 8th grader. Some things that I wish the teachers would do differently is to communicate better. Especially with the End of Year Project, there was an obvious lack of communication. For one, our History told us something completely different from what our Engineering teacher told us, and that alone caused catastrophe. Then our Language arts teacher called the building segment the ‘design team’, even though there is another segment where we are designing something. But, overall, 8th grade wasn’t so bad, and I really like the Adventure program.