Merryhill: Shadow Day

Today, April 21, 2010, I went to a shadow day at Merryhill Middle School. I followed around a sixth grader at Merryhill for a day! The first thing I did after arriving was meeting the principal, Mrs. Quinn. She told me that I was going to follow a sixth grader named Henry.

First, there was an assembly for the quarterly Honor Roll. There were Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels. After that, I followed Henry outside to the Music Room. I watched the students practice their yearly dance. Every grade has a different one. Halfway through, a person came and told us he had to set up something where they were practicing. It turns out that it was a giant bouncy slide. The students had to move somewhere else. Then, the Mega-iHome (at least I think of it like that) ran out of charge, so they had to listen to the music teacher’s iPhone. Next, we had math, also known as Home Room. The students were studying about regular polygons, a subject my class had finished studying a few weeks ago. I shared some of my knowledge and fully completed a worksheet, which was not actually due the same day.

Next, we had lunch. I thought the kids were just fooling around in class for a while before I learned they were actually eating lunch. It was very early, at only 11:00 am or so. Then, we had the official lunch. I had already finished and asked Henry some questions about the schedule. Today, we were going to have history, language arts, science, and P.E. So anyway, after lunch, we went to history. I basically didn’t do anything because they were working on projects and had a quiz on a book I’d never read. Then they read a handout I didn’t have. I thought the history teacher was very funny.

In language arts, I was given the book the sixth graders were reading, Animal Farm. It was an allegory about communism. I voiced some of the opinions I had about the small amount of the book that I read. Then, the teacher read us a story about a future where everyone was equal. It was HORRIBLE! All the people with ANY skill at all were badly handicapped by the Handicapper General. At the end, because two people wouldn’t be handicapped, they were killed. Afterwards, we had a short ten-minute break.

At science, we learned about ocean ecology. We also did a project about ocean food chain in which we made a food chain with note cards. Finally, we were supposed to have P.E., but since it was raining, we just stayed inside and had a break for and hour or so. After about half of the time, we had to move from the science lab to the cafeteria because there was a meeting in the science lab. Anyway, during the P.E. time, Henry and me became good friends. At 3:40, we were dismissed. I was picked up at 4:05.

All in all, I really liked the shadow day, and since I liked it so much, Mrs. Quinn offered to let me come again. I will be going for a half day tommorow.