Interview with Ashley

About the first few weeks of school...

I am a sixth grader! That sounded so cool at the end of 5th grade. Now I am the youngest grade in my school. I go to Robert Abbott Accelerated Middle School and our mascot is a ram (do you see the acronym?).

I got my hair cut short the first week of August - my dad was on the phone when we did it and just shook his head. we reassured him that it will go into a ponytail again by spring.

What did you learn the first days of this year? I learned a lot. - We spent the first week of school learning "positive behavior". Last week then entire school was tested for reading fluency. I'm not sure what but my mom works with the "reading specialist", the principal and a committee of people about kids reading scores. Mom scores the "dibbles" tests so she knew before anyone that I had scored the highest out of all the 6th graders. Lockers are mean - I did well at first but sometimes I mess up and it takes longer to open my locker. My locker has cool things to make it "cool". I've got a ton of magnets, storage things and a cool snack jar that I don't use but other kids want to buy snacks from me now. I told them no - for now.

How're the teachers? The teachers are good. Sometimes it gets annoying that all of the adults in the building know who I am. They don't usually call me by name, you are "so and so's daughter", or "I've seen you before" or "oh you look so much like your mom - it's not a bad thing, just annoying". I wouldn't want to change middle schools because knowing all of the teachers has its advantages because they know my mom will see them and they know I am a good kid so they don't mess with me. I am not the only child of a teacher in the building, my orchestra director's son is in 7th grade and one of the 6th grade teachers has a son in 8th grade. I have gone to school with my mom on "Take Your Child to Work With You" day for a few years now and softball practice is at Abbott in the winter so I've been there a few times before.

What's homework been? There is way more homework now. Tonight I had to read 15 pages in my social studies book then read 3 pages for reading and answer 17 questions - 10 of them were very long.

Any new friends? My best friend Spencer (from Worcester, MA) is at Abbott as well as a few friends from rainbow and softball. I have met some new girls who are nice. Jackie, Dymond, "K" (Kaitlyn) and Elizabeth are my newest friends. We have a cool lunch group. Spencer and I aren't in the same class so this is our time to catch up. My section (the group I go from class to class with) is called the "orchestra group" because most of us play in orchestra so we have all of our classes together.

Lunch is a trip. The entire school had pictures taken for our id's the first week of school. None of the 6th graders had theirs taken because of a mess up with the cards with all of our bar codes. So when we are in the lunch line we have to give the ladies our id number. Some kids don't know their id numbers so the line takes forever. They have good sandwiches and salads - nothing that I would have had in school lunch before.

Has it been exciting? It has. I have orchestra everyday. That means I don't have to take my cello back and forth - it lives at school now. Yeah! Switching classes is ok. It takes more time because there are so many people in the school but its cool. My mom says I have a great schedule - good teachers, a not so bad class schedule...

Our entire school will get to vote for president the monday before election day. We don't have school that day because of parent teacher conferences that week - the teachers will have to stay after Wednesday and Thursday nights so it will be like another full day for them. I guess tuesday will make up for that. whatever - another day to sleep in - yeah!

Today I "tried out" for the volleyball team. There is a 6th&7th grade team and an 8th grade team. Our first practice is tomorrow & our first game is next Monday. We will play the other 4 middle schools plus a middle school in zion. My "coach" is a teacher who is on my mom's "team" of teachers. - Weird a white ball instead of a yellow ball.

This year I don't have to take the bus unless it is a day my mom has meetings or a half day or something. I go with my mom in the morning and come home with her in the afternoon.

This year I am considering only taking tap (if that) - class starts next week so we have to figure out what I am going to do. I'm thinking with more of the homework, I'm thinking I am glad I danced but will be sad. I am proud of myself for dancing but there are more things to do now. I'll sleep on it a little more.

I'm playing softball -duh. my dad is the super coach still.

I'm pretty involved in rainbow too.

I've really got to go to bed - I'm tired, no really tired.

Ni night.