Becoming a Grizzly
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Incoming Brixner Junior High School seventh graders listen to Phil Eubanks, seventh-grade science teacher, talk about the importance of maintaining good grades and other academic requirements of junior high during Grizzly Day Aug. 23.
Students draw what they see in the pan on the back table in Phil Eubanks’ science class.
Day-long camp prepares Brixner's incoming seventh graders for junior high
Aaron Von Tersch still recalls his first day at Brixner Junior High.
“I remember showing up and realizing we didn’t have recess, and the eighth graders looked like giants,” he said.
Von Tersch, now a social studies teacher at Brixner, last week greeted the junior high’s incoming seventh-grade class to Grizzly Day, a day-long event geared to acclimatize students to their new school before the first day.
At Grizzly Day, seventh graders get a Brixner T-shirt, backpack and supplies. They meet their teachers, and learn about school rules, policies, grading and expected behaviors. Maybe most importantly, they get assigned their lockers and can practice using their combinations to open them.
Four former Peterson Elementary students reunite and pose for a photo during a Grizzly Day break.
Von Tersch and other staff organize and teach the students while student council members assigned to small groups lead the soon-to-be seventh graders through the day. That evening, parents are invited to dinner and a question and answer session.
About 130 seventh graders showed up Thursday -- about 85 percent of the incoming class – more than twice the number who attended the first Grizzly Day five years ago.
Laura Mead and her two classmates from Peterson Elementary, Sarah Stewart and Daisy-Lou Gazard, were among those attendance.
“The school is huge,” Laura Mead said as the three ate a snack of apples in the cafeteria. “I’m mostly scared I’m going to be late to class a lot and get detention.”
Aracely Ibarra, an eighth-grade student council member, was quick to reassure her, telling her that teachers are flexible about tardies the first week.
P.E. teacher Craig Connor talks about expectations and answers questions about dressing down for class.
Daisy-Lou was worried about getting her locker open, and Sarah was concerned about meeting new friends.
In the seventh-grade science classroom, teacher Phil Eubanks told incoming students how the grading system works and emphasized the importance of keeping those grades up.
“The first thing you need to know about Brixner – and all secondary education – is the grades accumulate,” he said.
Eubanks is among the group of Brixner teachers, along with principal Leslie Garrett, who started Grizzly Day six years ago. He sees a difference in the new seventh graders who attend.
“Does it help? Oh, absolutely,” he said. “The big issue for all of these guys is the locker. Plus they learn the school so they don’t get lost, and they get to meet some new people.
“Hopefully, it assuages a lot of their fears.”
Press release provided from Marcia Schlottman, Public Relations, Klamath County School District.