Eighth-graders on edge of opportunities

Like high school seniors looking anticipating the world outside, eighth-grade students at Trinity Lutheran School know they're on the edge of opportunities.

Many of the students in Melanie Martens' class are already thinking about where they'll attend their freshman year of high school -- and if they'll meet the requirements set for admission.

The class of 19 students will be eligible to attend Saxony Lutheran High School, though many are likely to head to public schools in Cape Girardeau or Jackson, Mo.

But until graduation comes at school year's end, the students will busy themselves with projects, papers and assignments in preparation.

Eighth grade isn't that much harder, students say, but the homework amounts to more in eighth grade than in earlier grades.

The students start the day with religion class. They head to chapel once each week, usually on Wednesday. After religion, they'll proceed through the core subjects like math, science, history, English and literature before lunch.

Most of the afternoon class periods are devoted to special classes like art, computer lab, band or P.E. About three times a week the students are given a 50-minute study hall period.

Review of yesterday's lessons

Most of their classes begin with a review of the previous day's lesson and then a lecture or discussion of the day's work. In math, the students are divided into three groups and taught by three different teachers.

Eight students study algebra with Delvin Meyr, who also teaches fifth grade.

Their lesson Wednesday was about factoring polynomial equations, algebraic equations with factors. The students have to know about negative and positive numbers before completing the problems, since some equations include negative numbers.

They work three problems together and then proceed to their homework. Meyr walks the room answering questions. He helps students as they struggle to find an answer. One student, who was stuck on a problem, went to the dry-erase board to see if others in the class might offer help.

"I was just making it too hard," Chase Tobin said as he leaned in over his paper when he returned to his desk.

The students ask questions of their teachers but often forget to raise their hand before asking. During science, the discussion turns from algae and plants without seeds to basketball.

Every boy in the class plays on the A team and recently defeated Nell Holcomb's eighth-grade team. The girls, already practicing, start their games in early December.

Checking ingredients for alginates

Teacher Faye Breuning brings the discussion back to algae as she passes out a worksheet for the class to complete. She's given then an assignment: to find out if any of their food products, particularly ice cream, candies and gelatins, contain any alginates, which are algae products that give foods a smooth texture.

At lunch, a few of the girls check the ingredients on their chocolate milk carton and report back to Bruening as she walks into the cafeteria with her class of seventh-graders.

But before their lunch break, the eighth-grade class has a lesson on American history and how the construction of the Trans-Continental Railroad affected Native Americans. Martens passed around native prairie grasses from the plains as she talked about battles at Little Big Horn and Wounded Knee.

The class discusses how they might have solved the conflict between the Native Americans and the settlers differently. A few suggest trying to live as equal citizens and to learn from one another.

American history lessons take the students up to about the 1960s but at the end of the school year students will visit Washington, D.C., and learn more about government.

Afternoon computer labs give the students another chance to work individually, and to test themselves in the Accelerated Reader program. In band class, some students play instruments and others learn hand bells. Usually once each week, the two orchestras combine for practice.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126