school info for middle school

Middle School Transition: It's Harder Than You Think
Making the Transition to Middle School Successful

There are a number of transitions in adolescence, each representing a "rite of passage." Many of these transitions are spiritual or faith-based in nature, such as the bar or bat mitzvah and confirmation. One that does not get the attention it deserves is the transition from elementary to middle school. Depending on the community, this usually occurs between the fourth and seventh grade. Regardless of when it occurs, the transition to middle school tends to destabilize many students, requiring them to re-establish a sense of their identity in a more mature and demanding environment.

It is a transition that often signals increased referrals to mental health services; the failure of previously successful methods for academic success to match up with more rigorous workloads; the start of smoking, alcohol, drug, violence, and attendance problems; and damage to self-esteem—especially for girls.

It is against this backdrop that virtually every adolescent looks for answers on how to develop a new and positive identity. Because much of adolescent behavior revolves around that search, middle school educators must take time to understand and help students find those answers while guiding them toward opportunities, relationships, and skills that allow them to develop a strong sense of self. By taking a student's-eye view of the transition to middle school, educators can get a better idea of the kinds of support that can strengthen the new middle schoolers during this difficult time, and avoid or minimize a number of problems.

Trials and Tribulations
The first problem faced by most new middle school students is simply finding their way around a strange building. One of their greatest fears is getting lost, followed by difficulties in finding and opening lockers, and bringing the right materials to the right class at the right time. They must also cope with traveling longer distances to school, eating in a larger cafeteria, and changing clothes in a crowded locker room. While most of them survive these ordeals, as many as 25 percent don't. When any of these difficulties persist for more than a month or two, some form of intervention may be needed.

Just walking around in a new school can also produce challenges. These include being bullied or harassed by older students, having things stolen, having conflicts with teachers, and being disciplined. All of these can be highly traumatic events, especially for students who are having a difficult time establishing a new sense of identity.

Another problem for the new student is finding and connecting with a peer group, a task complicated by having to make new friends and emerging feelings about members of the opposite sex. Coping skills are important in meeting these social needs. For a relatively small number of students, difficulties in establishing positive peer connections may result in their having a hard time resisting pressure to smoke, drink alcohol, or take drugs.

In the middle school classroom, students must adapt to new ways of preparation and learning. Unfortunately, the social aspects of their identity are often more important to them than academic success. This may explain why it is not uncommon to see students "play dumb," trading off success in the classroom for peer approval. However, many students are simply not well prepared for the academic demands of middle school. They need explicit instruction, coaching, and support with regard to organizing time and resources for homework; responding to work that is more challenging and requires more effort; understanding and addressing the varying expectations of teachers in different subject areas; and accomplishing such basic tasks as studying, taking notes, and taking tests.

What Schools Can Do
What adolescents making the transition to middle school need is a combination of skill training and social-emotional learning. They not only need explicit proactive, preventive instruction and support in addressing the stresses of transition, they also need opportunities to grow as people. Middle schools must provide them with experiences that meet essential needs in these four areas:

Contributions. While adolescents may appear to be self-centered, what they are experiencing in their teens is more self-discovery than selfishness. Young people actually thrive on contributing to causes like saving the environment, helping senior citizens, teaching younger kids, working in soup kitchens, and helping in political campaigns.

Belonging. Adolescents seek to join peer groups where they can have a role and a purpose; find positive relationships with others who have similar interests or abilities; and feel safe, comfortable, and accepted. To keep them from forming or joining gangs, middle schools need to provide a variety of structured outlets—especially for those who don't seem able to "fit in."

Talents. Educators may not be aware of adolescents' talents that are not readily visible in the classroom. Those talents might include anything from writing and computers to dancing or simply getting along with people. By helping young adolescents discover and develop their talents, and getting to know them beyond their academic abilities, educators can build positive relationships that can lead to positive growth.

Life Skills. Middle school students need to develop life skills to deal with a wide range of possibilities in and out of school. Educators need to look for opportunities that allow students to learn more about their feelings and those of others; how to set goals and plan for the long and short term; how to work in groups as team players and as leaders; how to be thoughtful problem solvers and decision makers; and how to bounce back from reverses.


In smoothing the transition from elementary to middle school, educators need to provide adolescents with inspiration, imagination, joy, optimism, humor, love, support, firmness, safety, clear values, and—perhaps most important—respect. With our support, the transition can serve as a catalyst for positive growth, starting students on a journey that will see their teen aspirations soar into adult accomplishment.

The Need for Green Schools: Schools districts in Southern California are embarking on a major wave of facility construction, planning to build approximately 200 new schools in the next several years. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) alone has plans to construct 150 new schools. How these schools are built will have a tremendous impact on student performance, teacher and staff working environment, district operating and maintenance costs, and the region’s environmental quality for decades to come.

Green schools lessen the impact of building construction on the environment and set an example for future generations that environmental quality is essential to our long-term well being. They also have benefits in several key performance areas:

• Protect Student and Teacher Health – Schools designed with attention to proper ventilation, material selection, acoustical quality and other indoor environmental factors, can expect improved student and teacher health and higher attendance;
• Better Student Performance – Attention to site planning and adequate daylighting has been shown to heighten student performance by as much as 25%;
• Lower Operating Costs – Operating costs for energy and water can be reduced by 20% to 40%, allowing more money to be used for teacher salaries, textbooks and computers;
• Provide a Unique Educational Opportunity – When advanced technology and design in new schools are made visible, buildings can become teaching tools and important features of science, math, and environmental curriculum.

A green school for middle schoolers that they have already built:

In the middle school, students are taught essential computer skills to help further their learning process in all school subjects. Sidwell Friends supports ethical use of computers and safe and responsible online behavior. Technology is presented in a manner that fosters learning and encourages students and faculty to stretch their intellectual limits.

The Middle School lab is equipped with 18 Dell desktop machines and a SmartBoard™ accessible by all students and teachers as well as laptop carts equipped with 18 Tablet PCs on each hall. We use SmartBoards™ throughout the entire middle school for teaching and as an interactive learning tool for the students.

Sixth and seventh graders have scheduled weekly computer classes one trimester each year. In fifth and eighth grade, students do not attend computer classes; rather technology is integrated into all curricular subject areas at this level. Eventually all grades will merge to this teaching platform where technology is an integrated component of the curriculum. Classes in all subjects use the lab for Internet research and subject specific software.

New Sidwell Middle School a Living Component to D.C. Campus Sustainable design a perfect fit for education institution’s green philosophy Summary: Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., recently opened its new sustainable middle school and is seeking to earn LEED® Platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. The three-level, U-shaped, 70,000-square-foot school renovates an existing middle school and merges it with a new wing, forming one green-designed structure. Sustainable materials are implemented throughout the exterior and interior. An open courtyard defines the building structure by integrating the campus with the local landscape. Philadelphia-based KieranTimberlake Associates worked with Sidwell to incorporate the school’s Quaker philosophy—to be stewards of the Earth—into the green design. The new school and its campus will also serve as a sustainable education tool for students. Sidwell Friends School is a distinguished K–12 Quaker private school. Its Washington, D.C., campus, a 15-acre, 50-year-old facility, is home to its middle and upper schools. The campus sits on a ridge near the city’s highest point, between two watersheds that flow through parks to the Potomac River. Sidwell alumni include Nancy Reagan, Gore Vidal, and Chelsea Clinton. Reconceiving the school around nature Construction of the new middle school began in summer 2005. The building recently became occupied as final landscaping and exterior work nears completion. The original 35,000-square-foot L-shaped school was integrated with a new L-shaped building, approximately the same size, to create a U-shaped edifice. Stephen Kieran, FAIA, partner, KieranTimberlake Associates, says the project was not about adding features. Rather, it is about re-interpreting architecture to be part of the land. “We felt the first sustainable act was to rejuvenate the old building,” says Kieran. “Then build up against the old one and have the merged structure form around the landscape to establish connections with nature. The new school now performs an environmental function but is also part of the life of the campus—all the way up to the green roofs.” Sidwell is expected to use 60 percent less energy and 70 percent less water than a traditional school. Water reprocessing, a courtyard with a biology pond, energy efficiency, a green roof, and reclaimed materials are all at the heart of the sustainable design. Managing water resources. A courtyard wetland with a closed-loop cycle allows for water reuse. The wetland takes the form of terraced rice paddies along the site’s natural topography. Rainwater is held and filtered through a vegetated roof on the new wing and channeled down the courtyard side into a collection stream that runs under the building’s entry bridge and drains into a biology pond. The pond supports native habitat and micro-organisms that will decompose wastewater as it moves through the functional wetland. “The water collection system is completely visible to the students,” says Kieran. “They can actually watch the passage of water from the roof down into the pond.” Energy efficiency. Actively, photovoltaic roof panels provide much of the building’s electricity. Passively, two solar chimneys on the new wing offer natural ventilation. “The solar chimneys and the shafts interconnect to the lower levels, which is made apparent by little port holes in the shafts,” describes Kieran. “Students can see air movement as it goes up, and there are bells that jingle when the air is actually moving.” The design optimizes daylight and minimizes solar glare on each building exposure. Explains Kieran: “On the south façade, horizontal solar light shelves both screen out the sun and welcome daylight. On the east and west façades, vertical solar shading screens are angled appropriately against the east and west glare. It all becomes a compass to help students understand solar orientation at an early age.” The green roof. A vegetable-garden rooftop on the new wing serves as an insulator and is part of the water recycling system. “The green roof is also a food garden, managed by the students and teachers,” adds Kieran. Sustainable materials. Virtually every material in the building is either reclaimed or recycled. “The cladding of the building is 100-year-old western red cedar reclaimed from wine barrels,” Kieran notes. “Material for the walkways, inside lobby, and decks is green lumber pilings reclaimed from the Baltimore Harbor. There is extensive use of linoleum, cork, and reclaimed stone. We have displays throughout the building about the source of the materials and why they are renewable.” Sidwell’s other sustainable features include: Douglas fir from old high school bleachers used for window framing Vine-covered walls and screens on the building’s west end Bamboo doors and cabinets Lights that adjust to sunlight Hall reflectors that bounce sunlight into classrooms at the perfect angle to provide light but not heat A ventilation system that can freshen air based the amount of CO2 released by people breathing in the room. Sidwell has commissioned documentation for LEED Platinum status. “It was not a leap to go from Sidwell’s belief structure as a religion to their obligation to take care of the natural world,” says Kieran. “It now has been formalized in a LEED program, but, in a way, they really didn’t need that. The project was not a hard sell—it is who they are.”