At Timberview and Trinity Springs Middle School the lunch rooms were smaller, the classrooms were smaller, the gym was smaller, the students were smaller, everything was smaller…but at Timber Creek all that changed for a freshman the moment they stepped foot on campus.
From going to school with just over a thousand students to a school with nearly three times the size can be stressful. The fear of getting lost in a school with over 3,000 students, heading towards a hundred different classrooms is scary. Not knowing the difference between A, B, C, and D lunch is frustrating.
This year is junior Emily Klein’s first year in public school in four years.
“Coming here was a culture shock”, said Klein. She had been doing school online up until this year. She did not attend fish camp along with the rest of the freshman students, but did go to a new student orientation which came helpful to her on her first day. “Luckily I didn’t get lost. I was surprised,” said Klein.
The thought of getting trampled by hundreds of upperclassmen can be frightening for a new student to TCHS.
“I was very surprised by how many kids are at Timber Creek”, said Klein. Walking through the halls to your next class can be frustrating sometimes, with the people that walk at .2 miles per hour, to the people that run through the halls and bump into you even though there are still four minutes left to get to class.
“The most confusing thing was finding my classes”, said freshman, Connor Fleming, a former Timberview student.
North hall, Fine Arts hall, Main hall, Central hall, South hall, portables, the field house, KCAL…could it be anymore confusing? And not to mention there are two floors. Freshman practically feel destined to get lost on their first day.
In middle school there were different classes such as “advisory” or “flex period”. Advisory or flex was a class put on everyone’s schedule specifically to get unfinished classwork done.
“The class I miss most is advisory because I can’t work on my homework in school”, said Fleming.
Not only were classes different in middle school, but the teachers made a tremendous difference to students curriculum.
“I miss my middle school teachers because in high school we do more work,” said freshman Alyssa Ballard, a former Timberview student. “But we don’t have like a fun time doing it. Last year we did games to understand something, but this year it’s more just power points and lectures than games to understand.”
Everything is hard before it gets easy. The first day of school was the hardest but now 14 weeks into the school year and students don’t have the fear of getting lost any longer. “It was difficult at first but I have met loads of new people and it makes my day more enjoyable”, said Klein.
