By Annie Nesbitt, ’13, Contributor
The move of the fifth grade from the Elementary School to the Middle School seems to be having a positive impact on students and teachers alike. Mrs. Beth Langenbahn, fifth and sixth grade social studies teacher, said, “All is going well; the fifth graders seem very happy.” Eighth grader Evelyn Nkooyooyo said, “I like it because it makes me feel more responsible and older than I really am because I have to be a leader for them. I think the teachers like having younger students because sometimes we teenagers get annoying.”
The idea behind the move, connecting the fifth and sixth grades to make them more similar, appears to have created a more dynamic environment for the whole Middle School.
Middle School students like eighth grader Ishan Ghildyal said, “The sixth graders look a lot like fifth graders so I don’t really see a difference.” Fifth grader Jacob Nitzberg said that he thought the change was a good idea and that it “helps us get a head start on Middle School life.”
The move also has not fazed the fifth grade teachers. Mrs. Bobbie Menter, fifth grade math teacher, said, “We are thrilled to be a part of the Middle School. We feel our students are with other students more their age and we love seeing our former students more often.”
The fifth grade move from Elementary School to the Middle School has resulted in many changes in both divisions. John Polasko, head of the Middle School, said, “The fifth grade has long been an outlier in our Elementary School.” The fifth graders have always been the only students in the Elementary School to change classes every day, which made them a little bit different than the other Elementary School grades. The sixth graders have also always been a little bit outside the Middle School lines. They did not get to participate in the Middle School sports teams and ran on a similar, but different, schedule than the seventh and eighth grades. “As we looked at the sixth graders, we determined that sixth graders are much more like fifth graders than they are like seventh graders. Adding the fifth grade to the Middle School allowed us to bring together these two very similar grades and design a program specifically for them,” Mr. Polasko said.
As a result of the move, the Elementary School no longer exists. The third and fourth grades have been added into the existing Lower School. Additionally, many Middle School teachers now teach more than one grade and more than one subject. Mrs. Langenbahn is teaching fifth and sixth grade social studies; Mr. Dan Wood is teaching seventh grade science, as well as one section of sixth grade social studies; Mrs. Anna Hartle and Ms. Adrienne Fluitt are both teaching sixth grade English; and Mr. Brady Brandt, Mrs. Susie Lewis, and Mr. Polasko are each teaching one section of seventh grade algebra. Many of the Middle School classrooms have now moved. Mr. Ully Marin’s art room is now located in the Lower School, and the fifth graders take French and Spanish in the Middle School language rooms, but they still take science in the Lower School building.
Initially, the fifth and sixth grades’ different bell schedule was also a source of confusion. Eighth grader Sofia DiFrancesco said, “They have a completely different bell schedule so at the beginning of the year it was confusing.”