Classes

For the seventh graders next year, the main difference in the schedule is there is humanities and math/science every single day. This means that time management is extremely important because once you have humanities every day; it additionally means that homework will be due every single day. Also, homework will be due everyday in science too. During humanities last year, the main homework is probably a writing assignment by hand that you have to hand in every week or every two weeks. In seventh grade though, homework is mostly done in computer, and mainly blog posts are due every day. The blog posts may not have to be long in length, but this makes you become more responsible. During book groups which, continues for the whole year, you will have to read for nearly every day too.

The second semester is a lot harder than the first. The teachers try and push you to your full potential; I noticed the quality of writing in humanities went a lot higher. And if you’re in Pre-Algebra, it gets more challenging. Make sure you don’t ever underestimate a test!! Study for every single test for at least 30 minutes. You don’t want your grades to fall in the third quarter!

If I’ve known that in 7th grade you’d have to really understand what the concept of the math lesson was or what the meaning of the vocabulary word was, I’d be better off. In math class, if you don’t understand one unit and you let it pass, the next unit would be a lot harder than it would be if you clearly understood the last unit. What’s hard is that when you forget the formulas you learnt right before the test then you’re doomed. And also, if you mess up the formula then you’re doomed too.

I never really understood what an adjective and a verb was so when they handed me my first vocabulary quiz, I almost failed. It was more than just writing the correct spelling down and matching up the definitions and vocabulary words correctly. Even though I know what an adjective and a verb is now, the vocabulary quizzes are still a major challenge for me because they just keep getting harder. But it’s my fault too because I’m not doing such a good job on my behalf as well because I usually do other homework like math worksheets, modern language homework, humanities homework, and projects from the classes before studying my definitions for the vocabulary quiz. And after a few days I forget that the vocabulary quiz is coming up so then I get horrible grades on it.

When you become a 7th grader, I believe that you should care more for your grades. You have some new activities you should have as 7th grader, such as ICC and Health. They are very different when you are in 6th grade. From time to time, you should make a good presentation or an essay. So, good luck! In Algebra class, if you are able to get into the class, you will get homework every day, and probably more than 30 questions a night plus more chapter tests every time the chapters have ended. In the Math class, time management is very important, because, once you hand in one homework late, it not only decreases your homework grade, but there is also a redo grade, which means that if you don’t do the redo, ten percent is already gone, which also means that the final grade will be less than ninety percent for sure.

In the Science classes in sixth grade, most of the homework is just finishing the conclusion for the different labs and experiments. Moving on to seventh grade, labs and conclusions will be done in class, but then there would be a huge lab report due almost every week. In science class in class, there will be occasional projects added to the lab report. Also, in Science, the experiments are so much better than in sixth grade. The differing labs include the reactions of chemicals to put air in a balloon, how different substances react once mixed with each one and another, what happens when you put a ball in cold water, and so much more unpredictable experiments.

There are many good classes as well for your electives such as ART and DRAMA. You even go on a field trip in ICC. And in ICC, you’ll learn about other people and their cultures. So you will next time know what to do in a country if you go there! Don’t want to be the tourist who has no clue. Do you? Also you’ll learn so much about everything! You’ll discover things you never knew about.

Now the class where participation is half your entire grade; PE. If you don’t try in PE then you won’t get a good grade. You will hate the fitness but when you get a substitute that doesn’t do fitness for maybe a week then you will like your PE teacher. I got worse push-ups than last time because I had a PE teacher for maybe two weeks. Mark my words young Padawan or you will fail… epically…..

I missed getting into the Pre-algebra class by 2%. All my friends were in the advanced class so I felt like I was behind, when I was actually in the normal grade class. Don't feel bad if you aren't in the Pre-Algebra class.

Check that you’ve brought everything that you need to class. Ms Ulster is nice to you, and writes the “Bring to Class” items on the board. That way, you have no excuse to forget anything. If you’re in Mr. McGovern’s Math class, forgetting stuff won’t cut it. I’m talking from personal experience here. You don’t want to forget **anything** that you could potentially require.

Now for some fundamentals in any class you’re in. Fundamental number one: Keep a cool head. Whenever I’m in Humanities, I’m usually hyperactive. It’s a habit that I’m starting to grasp control over. If you don’t keep a cool head, there are only two words that you’re going to hear from either your teacher or a friend: “Shut Up!” (Note, that a teacher might just say “Be Quiet!”).

Fundamental number two: Always bring a pencil to class. As funny and obnoxiously stupid as it sounds, it’s the most common problem in my classes. Almost no one has a pencil. At first sight you might think I’m an idiot for writing this down, but when you’re in seventh grade next year, you’re going to regret not believing me.

At school, you will not be surprise if everything that you learn is quite similar as the last year. The only change is that the schedule of all the period is going to be changed. I think you know that because you have chosen many new classes to study next year and that will be great as you can study something new.

If you do not speak English well, it will be even harder for you in 7th grade. I can speak out of own experiences that EAP classes suck. All your friends will have good electives while you are stuck in a EAP room working on your reading responses or something. Even though it is boring, still do your best. You will get out of EAP faster if you just try hard enough. If you want to survive in seventh grade you should spend your time wisely on studying for tests or quizzes. And also for humanities you have to pay attention in class because the teachers usually won’t repeat themselves because they don’t want to be a “parrot”. So have fun in seventh grade and hand in your homework on time. Also in Humanities class there is this thing called “Book Club”. Even though you might hate books, Like me, in this book club you will at lest get an interest in the book club.  School –you will not going to felt difference between 6th grade and 7th grade because you will be in almost same place you been (if you were in ISB) and same friends. Only differences are something that you will learn. But a lot of teachers will change. If you meet good-and-kind teacher, then your 7th grade life will be very happy and easy. Actually, I met good teacher and I had easy-and-fun 7th grade life. You may have special activities like we did (water games, or selling stuff- something like that). But that will be fun and you should enjoy them. If you are in ESL then you can feel hard but there is your ESL teacher that wants to help you. If you don’t understand or have trouble with something then you can ask your teacher or councilors or your friend.  Last year I was a student in seventh grade too. It wasn’t a huge change moving form sixth to seventh grade, but there are a few changes. I know most of you didn’t like humanities last year, neither did I, but in seventh grade it’s so much more fun; you get to have book clubs and do a really cool social studies project called “connected world”. Homework in seventh grade is less than homework in sixth grade. It is so much easier to manage your time and get enough time to do your homework and hang out with your friends.   Teachers are going to be meaner though; in sixth grade teachers are very, very nice, but in seventh grade they are meaner. Math teachers are very strict, if you don’t do your homework they will get very mad at you and your grade automatically goes down. Humanities teachers are very nice, they won’t give you tons of homework but they will still give you projects which aren’t hard at all. P.E. is kind of the same, I really don’t think it ever changes. In Humanities we will have alot of different projects. We will be reading books together in class. This year the seventh graders read alot of books, 'Rice Without Rain' and 'The Ousiders'. After each book we'll have a simulation or like a project. And in this semester, we are divided in to different groups throughout seventh grade. We are divided in to region and economic groups. We are trying to create a online textbook about each region ( Asia, North America, South America, Carribeans, Europe, etc...) for other students next year.    Reading definitely gets more important this year because there are many different assignments and projects you are told to do during you are reading a book or after you read it. There are assignments such as reading reflections, writing a diary entry from view of a character that's in your book you're reading. Currently we have book clubs and we meet with them to disscuss what's happening in the book. If you don't read the book then you will not be able to understand what your group is talking about and at the end of the book you would have to write a reflection about the book.

Firstly I will tell you that in math the problems are going to be harder then the ones you did in the sixth grade and also when you do the problems you are going to show all of your and how you got the answer and also for science you have to get what are the formulas so that on a test it would be simple to get the formula in a question. Then for math test you will have to show how you get the answer and you would have to explain why did that problem and it will have harder problems then what you had in sixth grade. Out of both of the subjects you are probaly going to have to do math more than science in seventh grade. You should know how to manage their time properly. If you don't manage your time properly you will lack behind. Once you get behind with your work, you won't be able to turn in the homework assignments on time. But if you manage your time prplery you shold be fine. You should read alot to help your writing. There will be many projects on reading. If you dont read alot that will become a really big problem in hummanities. In the beginning of the year everybody is worried about getting in algebra, or pre algebra because if you stay in math 7 you don't think your as good as the others and that your world is over. But you don't have to worry because there is always next year to skip the level. So there is always next year. But the most important thing is to ALWAYS stay organized.

The most important thing you have to be able to do when you come to seventh grade is that you need to learn to use your time wisely and know how to organise your time. When you come to seventh there will be some more projects, homeworks, quizes and tests for you to take, so you have to know this skill. There maybe time when you don't have time to finish you homework because you have to do other things, so I suggest you to make a schudeule saying what you have to do at what time. In seventh grade time is more precious than in sixth grade. You might be thinking that everything will be harder in seventh grade but actually it is a memorable year. You will get to do and experience many things you didn't get to do in sixth grade. You don't have to worry so much about seventh grade. If you try your best then everything will be fine. You just have to study, do your homework everyday, and listen to your teachers, then everything will be fine for you. These days time goes by very fast. You believe that nothing is impossible and seventh grade will not be a hard year, but it will be a memorable year!



