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I went to a small Catholic school for junior high, which I think is now called middle school, then went to a small Catholic High School for senior high (9-12) and that is the first time we changed classes.
8th grade. Up until my senior year in high school, we were in old school buildings and the 8th grade was in with high school. When we got a new high school building for 9-12, the old school became the school system's first middle school. That was in the fall of '73.
We slowly grew into it. In fourth grade some of us had some combined classes with fifth graders (math and music stands out in m memory). In 5th grade we moved to special classrooms for some special classes (music, gym, shop, I forget what else).
In 6th grade we moved from class to class but we were all together same people in all the classes except one or two electives (art, music, etc). In seventh through ninth grade we moved and mixed more. We were on tracks for some classes, so e might be in an advanced math or English class, but take our other classes with our class group. However we continued going to a different class for each subject.
In tenth through twelfth grade was when we truly mixed it up. Different classes, and schedules. Different people in every class. Most classes had people in it from all three grades. I took Algebra II as a sophomore with mostly juniors and seniors, but then as a senior I took Biology 1 with mostly freshmen (which was silly. I sat in the back and flirted with the pretty girl who was also a senior through the entire class and we both got As, they made us do an independent study the second semester because we were too distracting to the class. As seniors pretty much everyone had at least one independent study, so your class location was varied and you did not have any classmates. I had three or four (five?) independent study classes as a senior.
7th Grade, which was the first year of Junior High School in the late 1960's.
Like Coldjensens posted, we travelled from class to class as a group of students during both years of Junior High. Same 25-30 students, with different Teachers and Classrooms each hour. Full autonomy began in 9th Grade, but those of us on the College Prep Track still pretty much stayed together as well. Maybe 50% difference in classroom make-up caused by interferring individual electives.
We should have started switching classes in 6th grade. But a pyromaniac came to town and burned down the middle school and so the 6th grades got squeezed into the grade schools (our classroom was just a corner of the lobby, demarcated with portable panels) while they built a new one.
7th and 8th grade got moved over to the high school. It sorta felt like getting thrown into the deep end, what with most of us only being 12 years old, bumping shoulders with seniors. And I suppose I had an atypical 'freshman' experience since I'd already been in the building for two years by then.
7th grade, my first year at middle school. They were starting the change from junior high to middle school; those of us whose grade schools still ran through 6th grade joined middle school in 7th.
6th grade. My class was the first class to do 6th grade at the middle school. Years prior the high school was 10-12, junior high was 7-9 and elementary was k-6. In the early 90s the BOE made the decision to move the district to the 9-12, 6-8, k-5 model we see more of today and since then. HOWEVER we did not move far. They had us all tracked accordingly and in the same wing of the building. So my LA, SS, Sci and Math classes were all next door to each other. So we had lockers (which was cool) but we would literally walk a few feet into the next class haha. It was very much a blend of "hey here's a locker for the first time but you're still going to move together like you did in k-5".
In terms of moving "independently" it would've been high school.
We should have started switching classes in 6th grade. But a pyromaniac came to town and burned down the middle school and so the 6th grades got squeezed into the grade schools (our classroom was just a corner of the lobby, demarcated with portable panels) while they built a new one.
7th and 8th grade got moved over to the high school. It sorta felt like getting thrown into the deep end, what with most of us only being 12 years old, bumping shoulders with seniors. And I suppose I had an atypical 'freshman' experience since I'd already been in the building for two years by then.
First of all....LOVE the username. Second, "pyromaniac came to town and burned down the middle school". You had me at pyromaniac haha.
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