GRANDVIEW, Mo. — Students are learning what it’s like to make the jump to high school during a special transition day before classes begin tomorrow. Many of us can remember feeling a little nervous on our first day at a big high school. At Grandview High School, the school is helping to ease those jitters.
Incoming freshmen are spending the morning getting familiar with a much bigger building than many of them are used to, in what’s being called a transition day.
Kids like Adoria Sipho are meeting their teachers, learning where their classrooms are and getting into their lockers before school officially starts tomorrow, when there will be about 1,000 teenagers in this building.
“Just finding classes, meeting new people, I’m pretty sure people are scared,” Sipho said. “They think they’re going to be mean. But everyone here is very nice.”
During transition day administrators and teachers try to put those fears at ease as upperclass student ambassadors help the new kids learn their way around.
“The piece that’s the most significant for us is to really demystify what high school is,” said Steven Scraggs, Grandview High School principal. “You have some kids that have come and gone out of the building, for various events when they were middle schoolers or elementary students but they still have that kind of scary thought of the bogeyman in the classroom.”
Scraggs answered a lot of questions from Adoria and other incoming freshmen. This is the day for kids to make mistakes. The school is proud to show off some renovations, including upgraded science labs and athletic fields.
Grandview students also are getting laptop computers for the first time. The technology will help make home life and school life more seamless as these kids learn the life of a high schooler. Technology also encourages constant communication that builds lasting student teacher relationships.
