Freshman Spencer Yoho comes home from a long day of school and a two-hour basketball practice exhausted and tired. He showers, eats dinner and sits down at his desk to tackle a mountain of homework. Going into the school year, Yoho did not think that the difference between middle school and high school would be this significant.
Many students feel an abrupt change between middle and high school. This big change could be the added workload and the feeling of always doing something productive.
English teacher Hannah Schuttler teaches both middle and high school. According to her, the difference between the two levels is the frequency of homework.
“Your teachers in high school expect that you have something every single night, whereas in middle school we try not to give you something every single night,” Schuttler said. “In high school, the expectation is that you are working with the material every single day, regardless of whether you have class or not.”
Responsibility also plays a big role in differentiating middle and high school. With more responsibility comes higher expectations, especially towards turning in work or organizing time wisely.
“In high school, there’s definitely more on you as the student to read and annotate without being checked to be able to answer questions in discussions,” Schuttler said. “In middle school there is a lot more of us [teachers] doing it.”
Yoho is committed to many extracurriculars, including junior varsity basketball and swimming. JV basketball practices occur six days a week for two hours as middle school basketball practices only occur three times a week for an hour and a half. Students like Spencer Yoho, feel this jump less by not being distracted by phones and other types of technology.
“I feel like it’s very important to not go on your phone as much and be focused on your school work,” Yoho said.
Phones and other electronics can be a distraction from finishing one’s work. An increased workload has eight grader Tyler Tongson thinking of high school. Along with playing on the school’s varsity volleyball team, Tongson also participates in club volleyball.
“I feel that I am prepared for high school, the only thing I am worried about is the increased workload,” Tongson said.
Many student athletes, like Tongson, face an extra responsibility playing sports. One responsibility could be sports. Tongson, being a player for varsity volleyball has some knowledge about balancing volleyball and school work even as an eighth grader.
“To balance my time I try to get most of my work done on the weekend so my work isn’t piled into the week days,” Tongson said.
This advice is beneficial to athletes. By doing most of the homework on the weekend, student athletes can get home at 6:30 and not have much homework to do.
The biggest aspect is to just be prepared for the jump. Extracurricular activities will be more often and more work will appear, but being prepared for it all is the best thing someone can do, going into high school.
“Everything is a big jump,” Yoho said. “You need to be prepared, because if you’re not, you’re just going to be left in the dust.”
