Have you ever wondered what it was like for the 8th grade when they were 3rd grade? What about the very first students at North Star? The experiences of North Star scholars from throughout the years are extremely different. Read on to see the similarities and differences of our experience to the students of the past!
When the current 8th graders were in 3rd grade, they had to balance Covid 19 and school, and barely got any on campus school time. The third grade teachers were Ms. Roth, Ms. Hoff, and Ms. Williams, none of whom are here any more.
Because of the pandemic, the 3rd graders of 2020-2021 had to spend most of the year online. Even when they came back, school looked very different. 8th grader Blake O remembers, “There were four different sections in the school each dividing a separate play area,which includes the playground, blacktop, and two others.” Students also alternated going to school, some in the morning, and some in the afternoon.
We asked Chris L. what his favorite moment from 3rd grade was and he said, “It was definitely playing video games, specifically Minecraft, when we had online classes.” What he means by this is that most of the year they were at home so to meet online they used Google Meet or Zoom to see each other. Another funny moment that Chris said was, “Ms. Roth had motion censored lights that would be or go off if it detected movement and she would have to get up and turn it off.” This definitely sounded hilarious because you would just be in the middle of a topic and you see flashing lights in the background.”
But what about even before the 3rd graders were here? Ms Pinto is one of the teachers who has been here for a long time.When asked how the school was different in any way she said “It was much different, there was more homework, passion projects were more big, there were also different enrichments – chess, and dance were very popular. There was also art, in action, and a lot more parent volunteers, There was one all day enrichment per trimester, there was also no blue lunch shelter, we also had recess, and lunch detention there was also after school detention, it was up to 1 hour of after school detention, we had more after school activities, more sport teams.” As you can see a lot was different back then.
While not all of the murals were there for a long time, one of the murals that has been there for a long time is the two story building mural, more specifically the one in the hallway in the second story. This was painted by former NSA student Tanya Richardson. However, the mural with the large wave is new.
A lot has changed since 2020 when they were in 8th grade. There were different teachers, more field trips, and even fun things like extra enrichments and art classes. Now, school looks and feels different, but everyone still makes memories, and North Star Academy will be a place that we all hold in our hearts and minds.
