Sam Cheroutes, Co-Student Body President

Academics at Graland are a huge focus. We have been learning and retaining so much information during our time here. History has been a huge part of the Graland curriculum. In second grade, we studied a historical person of our choice and studied their life. In fifth grade, we learned about the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Chinese, just to name a few. In sixth grade, we would write down a new term in our notebooks every day, and it was a great learning experience. By the end of the year, we were familiar with many facts about historical places. We also learned the layout of the states and their capitals. In seventh grade, Ms. Simmons had already taught us so much about the western migration, the amendments, and the constitution in preparation for our DC trip. This year our teacher, Ms. Maslanka, made our experience great. She taught us about the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, and for every unit, we did a full one pager! But a few weeks into the second semester, Ms. Maslanka had to leave and we finished the year with Mr. Simmons. He taught us about Civil Rights and accompanied us on our trip. The trip was a fantastic learning experience, and also a great time to spend with our friends. History is a big part of Graland, and we are so grateful for all of the efforts our teachers put into educating us. 

Genetics, Physics, Biology, everything we learned in our science classes made a huge impact on us. In our first year of Middle School, We learned about astronomy, architecture, and building our crush towers. Our Mythbusters Project was really fun, and I loved working with my partner and dropping water bottles off her roof. Sixth grade science was more challenging. We always had a chance to learn about animals and food. Seventh grade science was way more challenging, and we loved learning about rocks. We also had a great time looking into the microscopes to view cells. Science was more challenging  while online. We weren’t able to do the hands-on labs, but our science teacher still tried to make it the best it could be. Moving into eighth grade science was not much of a change. We still studied cells and looked into microscopes, but eventually moved onto Genetics. Our science teacher, Ms. Chen has made our eighth grade experience one of the best ever. English has been one of my favorite classes for years. I started to learn basic English, and it has progressed as I have learned more. In fifth grade we started to look at English more thoroughly, and we started to write papers and read more challenging books. We had a lot of summer reading, and it was enjoyable to gain more knowledge by looking into books more thoroughly. In sixth grade English, we started to write more books and write more papers. Our whole class loved to take books from Ms. Siskind’s library. Moving into seventh grade, we were given a new vocab book. This was new to us, since we had not studied much vocab before that, and it was challenging to memorize so many words. Reading the historical novel Chains opened our eyes to enslavement and we learned more about Civil Rights. Reading Chains inspired us to learn more about the story of the main character, Isabelle. Some of us even bought the sequels, Ashes and Forge. We loved to read To Kill A Mockingbird, and it was so much fun to dive into Scout’s story even deeper. We were then told to write a paper on a prompt that Ms. Gaudet gave us. I really enjoyed our seventh grade English curriculum, and was ready for eighth grade. First walking into English, we were confronted with grammar immediately. It was a whole new world to us, because we never focused on grammar before. We read a new book, Night, and we learned about WWII and read about the story of Ellie Weisel. We learned a lot of history about the Holocaust and its effect on the world. After that, we read Animal Farm, and we learned about the Russian Revolution and Stalin through satire. Later, we started to study Shakespere, leading to the play Romeo and Juliet. We started to study the Renaissance and translated the Shakespere language. After the inspiration of our teacher, Ms. Cooper, I was inspired to buy two other Shakespeare plays on our South Trip. English was a great experience and we had a thrilling time. 

Math has been a great adventure since the beginning of Graland. We were introduced to math early in our lives, and it has stuck with us ever since. In fifth grade, we started to learn more methods of math, and our teacher, Ms. Lassiter, made our experience a great one. We were taught bar models, ratios, and fractions. Moving into sixth grade, we started to learn about algebra and more fractions. When we were introduced to math projects, it became more challenging, but we still managed. Seventh grade math instantly became more challenging. Being introduced to shapes was harder for us to comprehend. Our teacher, Dr. Hill was a great teacher and gave us a great experience. Moving into eighth grade, we were lucky enough to have Ms. Lassiter again. It was an easier year because we were familiar with Ms. Lassiter’s teaching style. We first learned more about algebra, and eventually moved into substitution of equations. We then continued our unit on shapes and finding the volume. We then continued algebra, and we learned about triangles. We learned the Pythagorean Theorem, a theorem that originated in Greece, (a^2+b^2=c^2). The theorem is used to find the hypotenuse of a right triangle. We then started to study squaring variables and it was pretty difficult. We then started to focus on parabolas, a curved line on a graph, and we had to find the vertex, y-intercept, and the x-intercepts. We really enjoyed being able to spend this year of math with Ms. Lassiter again, and we wish her well after she leaves! And, congratulations on the yearbook dedication! 

At Graland, we were given two options for world language: French and Spanish. I decided to take French. I don’t know if it was the food or curiosity, but it was a great experience to learn a new language. My teacher, Madame Carlson, has been my teacher all of my four years of French. World language has had an impact on all of us, and it has been great for Graland students to learn a new language. French has been a great experience, and Madame Carlson has made it a great time, and we wish her well in France. Extracurriculars are a huge part of the Graland experience. In fifth and sixth grade, we were lucky enough to be able to participate in extracurriculars and activities. It was fun to take part in band and art classes. Moving into seventh grade, we had the option to choose our extracurriculars, and I chose to take Gates. Gates is a program that tasks a kid with making an invention of their own. There is eventually an Expo where people come and see your invention. In eighth grade, I made the choice of taking Gates again! It was fun to hang out with my friends every morning, and create a new invention. I then chose to move into art, where we started with a self portrait, and moved onto cardboard sculptures. We were also given the option of participating in the musical. I would have loved to participate, but I wasn’t able to because it was a little too late.

Ever since I came to Graland, I was embraced with amazing friends and peers. I have never known such an encouraging community. Immediately, the people in the class made me feel welcome and that I belonged. Moving into middle school, we started to become more of a community and got to know each other better. I started to make many new friends and it was great knowing so many people. Our teachers have always been very supportive and kind towards us. We have learned so much from everyone in school and are grateful for everyone. Whether it was waking up early to do unfinished homework, annoying my friends in Gates with a certain song, or staying up late on the South Trip with my roommates, I have always had a great time at Graland. Meeting all of my friends and peers has given me the strength to confront high school. I am so sad to see everyone elevate and hope you all have a wonderful time at high school! 

Graland has been in my heart ever since the first day. I loved all of the people and am so grateful to have been able to attend this school. I loved all of our trips and I am going to miss everyone here at Graland, but I know all of my peers are going off to experience amazing things in high school.