As the eighth graders' time at Franklin comes to an end, some of them wrote advice to pass on to any future Franklin students. For all of the eighth graders, those who have been in FMS Press 1, 2 or 3 years, THANK YOU!
8th Grade Advice
By: Isabel
05/17/23
Hello middle schoolers! To be honest, middle school is hard. There’s all these thoughts of, "Am I good enough?", "Are those people talking about me?", "What if they think I’m weird?", etc. It’s tough, and I’ve survived 3 years of thinking all those things. And if you haven’t, you are lucky. My advice is to stop thinking about other people, and start thinking about yourself. Be the best person you can be. Be kind and thoughtful. Be nice to other people and try to make friends. You might find your best friend as somebody you would never expect. In middle school everybody just wants to fit in, but just note that it’s okay to stand out. Also be nice to your teachers; the teachers at Franklin are super nice, so please respect them. Also don’t date in middle school, it will only last a week, and it ruins your friendship with that person. I hope you have an amazing and adventurous 3 years of middle school.
Random Advice to Franklin Students
By: Annika
05/17/23
Here are some specific tips on how to survive/have fun at franklin:
If you ever are feeling bored in Mrs. White’s class and want to skip a math lesson, ask her about her dogs and she will spend at least twenty minutes talking about them.
For those who have Mr. Nielsen’s biography project in 7th grade: don’t choose a person whose biography is longer than you will want to read, even if you think you want to. You will regret choosing the 850 page biography on Walt Disney. This also applies to the classic novel project.
If traffic in the stairwells is bothering you, you should check out The Back Way, a stairwell at the back of the science hallway
You can easily get more than 100% in chorus, all you have to do is finish your Friday by Five on time (and maybe do some extra credit) and sing your best during class
If you don’t want to get a bad grade in 8th grade FPLA make sure to study random details and characters for the end-of-book tests, especially And Then There Were None, The Call of the Wild, Hiroshima, and Warriors Don’t Cry
8th Grade Advice
By: Matthew
05/17/23
You should make a habit to study. Even if you know a lot about the subject, still study. It’s good to build a habit of studying.
Also if you are gone a day, make sure that you email your teacher to ask for your work, so they can get it before you arrive.
Also Mrs. Brice is the best LA teacher, just don’t lose your papers or you have to do the I’m Sorry Dance.
Final Thoughts On Franklin
Anonymous
05/10/23
As someone whose Franklin journey is fastly approaching its end, I wanted to take the time (because Mr. Nielsen told me to) to write down some final thoughts and advice for future and current Franklin students. When doing this I’ll try not to give some cliché advice that everyone has either already heard or isn’t helpful, but no promises.
The first piece of advice is to choose your friends wisely. This doesn’t just pertain to who you think is the nicest, or will be the best influence, but also try to find people who you click with, and have similar interests or senses of humor as you.
The second piece of advice I’d give is to get enough sleep. I can speak from experience that it’s sometimes easy or necessary to stay up late finishing homework, but getting enough sleep is really important.
My third piece of advice is to balance your after-school activities. This is another “speak from experience” moment. Getting involved in clubs and sports is often a great experience and I’d definitely recommend it, but be realistic in which clubs you see yourself enjoying.
Before I share my final piece of advice, I want to take a minute to point out some small helpful tips; bring your own pencil sharpener because most of the school ones are terrible, write down what homework you have, especially if you have multiple things for each class, don’t carry too much stuff in your backpack or it won’t fit in your locker, be careful when walking on the steep locker room stairs, and use your locker or someone else might take it.
Finally, enjoy your time in middle school. This one is definitely cliché, but 3 years of school fly by way faster than they seem too.