Hi, we are Leah Beresheim and Maya Peitler. We are both new to the high school, as we are 8th graders. We are both very excited to be attending high school, and we can’t wait to have a great year! Both of us agree that 8th grade is a huge transition from 7th grade at Mineola Middle Schoo,l and we both think that we have way more freedom than we did in middle school. There are also many notable differences from middle school and of course, there are way more opportunities here such as clubs and sports. Overall, we are excited to be here and we can’t wait to have a great high school experience.

My name is Leah Beresheim. I will be sharing what my experience has been like so far in 8th grade and I will talk about what I am excited for this year. First things first, I was quite nervous to be starting at the Mineola High School in the beginning of September, but now I am used to the school and I really love it. I feel like we have so much more freedom than we had in middle school. For example, we can eat outside in the courtyard for lunch or on the benches and tables near the track, but in middle school, we could only eat in the cafeteria as there were no tables outside. Another example of our new found freedom is that we can use our phones in high school but in middle school we couldn’t. We obviously can’t use them in class but when we don’t have classes, we can. I also like all of my classes and all of my teachers are nice. There are also many more clubs that we can participate in. There is something for everyone. In my opinion, I do like the high school better than the middle school and I am looking forward to many of the events we have here.

My name is Maya Peitler. My 8th grade experience so far has been going well. Middle school and high school are very different. I prefer high school over middle school for a variety of reasons. One of them being that we get to eat lunch outside with our friends. We thought it would be a good idea to interview an 8th grade teacher and some 8th grade students to hear about their new experience so far and what it is like teaching 8th graders. Our 8th grade math teacher, Mrs. Owens said, “We know that the transition from middle school to high school is a challenge for some 8th graders and all of your teachers are here to support you and we’re just happy to have you in the building.” We also interviewed two 8th graders, Amanda Baker and Julianna Plunkett. We asked Amanda what her favorite thing about high school is, what she’s excited for this year, and how she thinks it’s different from middle school. She replied, “My favorite thing about high school is how much more freedom we get. It’s different from middle school because you’re with different people in most of your classes.” We asked Julianna the same questions and she replied, “My favorite thing about high school this year is how independent it is, and what I’m most excited about is playing sports on the school team with my friends. It’s different from middle school because it’s much more mature and you have a lot of freedom.” Thank you both for speaking with us on this topic! In conclusion, we understand that high school is going to be different for every new 8th grader but we are all going to make the best out of these 5 years and we hope you do too!