Junior high staff, students finishing out semesters

Students and teachers alike are having finals at the high school, and many classes at the junior high schools have end of semester tests and projects. 

Everyone is putting in a lot of last minute effort, and teachers will have tomorrow to submit grades and prepare for the coming semester. The high school classes have spread out hours for these last two days, and many students bussing from the junior high’s are missing different times at their schools. 

At Peet, eighth grade U.S. history teacher Bethany Meier gives unit tests like many teachers, but she is avoiding adding extra on this last week. Meier said, “When I was a student I never liked the end of the semester tests because of the pressure it put on me. As a teacher I prefer to give unit tests because it is a clear reflection on the current material learned and not having to have kids memorize a brunch of information in order to pass a test that covers the entire semester.” 

Many freshman are stressed or unhappy with the extra projects, many they did not know about until last week or this week. Freshman Kaitlyn Cox said that “It’s not a fun experience. There is a lot of stress this week,” and freshman Rowan Phillips said that “It’s stressful. It sucks that teachers put tests all on the same day because we don’t have time to prepare.” 

Along with many students and staff being gone because of sicknesses, everyone is spending their extra time planning or studying so they can finish with the best grades possible. Despite all the pressure, freshman Morgan Fort said that ¨I think we have learned a lot this semester to carry forward into the future.”