June 2018: Changes, Transitions and Endings
It's June. In the Western Hemisphere, we tend to associate June with the beginning of summer, more sun, warmer days and more light. For those of us in a school setting, we tend to associate June with final exams, end of term grades, graduations and summer vacation. In other words, changes, transitions and endings. At the middle school level, this looks a bit different than you might expect. The majority of students can articulate their feelings, saying things like, "I'm worried about 8th grade!" or "I'm going to miss my friends!" or "I'm scared to go to 6th/9th grade!" A subset of students, however, can't say these things and instead will emphatically deny any feelings of loss or worry or trepidation. Those are the students who will remind us how much they can't wait to be out of the stupid building, away from our ugly, stupid faces. When we hear students say that? Well, those are the ones we want to talk to for a bit longe