Here is an essay Niki wrote for her sixth Grade teacher:
Niki Krishna 9/8/08
English Period 1 Mrs. Reynolds
First Week Reflections
The first week of 6th grade was something of what you’d call a surprise. I woke up at 5:00 A.M. shivering with fright. I was expecting a long and miserable day staggering under the weight of my books. I was already miserable as summer was over. I slowly got ready and approached the breakfast table. Before I knew it, I was waiting at the bus stop getting colder by the second. I didn’t know what to expect, I was totally freaked out. Then my neighbors arrived. I waited, waited, and waited. I thought our bus was late because it felt like hours out there. Then it came. The big yellow school bus, number twenty-eight chugged around the curb. I was nervous. What if I did something silly, like tripping over my own two feet? I climbed up the stairs with dread. Whoa! The bus driver came as a surprise! He had a friendly, round, face. He was wearing a Pirate’s baseball cap and a big grin. I remembered that sixth graders were the smallest people in the middle school now, so I should aim for the first seats. I chose number five. We drove around picking up various students. And then we arrived.
Ingomar Middle School was a blue ribbon school. We all climbed out of the bus shaking with fear. At least the sixth graders were. The 7th and 8th graders were whooping and yelling greetings to old friends. I wanted to too, as I recognized many faces, but I was frozen in my body. Then we arrived in the foyer. It said the names of our 5th grade teachers. I curiously read on. “All students who had Mr. Casciotti should report to room 102.” I followed instruction. Then someone, or something jumped on my back. Was it a bully? No! It was my friend, Meghana! I hadn’t seen her in a long time. We discussed our summers and hastily realized we were getting late. I saw that we were supposed to go to different rooms and quickly left. I entered classroom 102 and saw a desk with a piece of paper with my name on it. I sat there. “Good morning,” a voice said. I spun around in time to see a tall man enter the doorway. “I am Mr. Macmillan, a.k.a. Mr. Mac. Pleased to meet you.” He started explaining middle school wasn’t very bad, and we would have a great year. I relaxed a bit. I looked down at the piece of paper and realized it was a schedule. For period one it said Reynolds, C. I wondered who that could be. Was it a man or a woman? What could C stand for? Carl? Christy? Cecilia? Charlie? I was amused when thinking about the name Corndog. Then I zoomed back to earth to listen to Mr. Macmillan. After the brief meeting I found myself trying to navigate my way to room 210.
It was great! I was walking to the lunchroom accompanied by Meghana, who turned up do be in my homeroom. My homeroom teacher was Mrs. Houser. She was a nice, knowledgeable person. She, like Mr. Macmillan explained that middle school wasn’t bad. We spent most of the day in her room. The day zoomed by. The next day, for once I was excited for school. We met all our teachers that day. First period, we had Mrs. Reynolds for English. She was a kind, smart woman, and in fact, the lady I’m turning this essay into. Next, we had Tech Ed. Mr. Zurbach was intelligent, and rather quiet. I knew I was going to love tech Ed. Next math, with Mrs. Pagnotto. That lady was just amazing! She was so nice. After math, there was lunch. After lunch I had social studies with Mrs. Houser. After that, I had science with Mr. Basilone. He looked very clever. Turned out he was. After science, back with Mrs. Houser for reading. Then, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we have Chorus. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have gym. That’s a day in sixth grade. I liked the busyness of middle school even though I missed the lonely halls of elementary school. I liked my friends now, but I missed my old ones too. Mrs. Houser told us that now our grades are all straight A’s. My goal is to keep it that way. I can tell this is going to be a great year!
