Swain County middle schoolers craft survival guide for tackling sixth grade

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    BRYSON CITY, North Carolina (WLOS) — Knowing what to expect heading into a new school can be very helpful for young children. So, a special bunch of Swain County Middle School students have compiled a survival guide.

When you start sixth grade, you’re turning a page, no longer elementary students.

“You get a lot more freedom than elementary school,” sixth-grader Xander Bishop said. “You don’t have to be in a line. You can actually walk around, and you get to go to new classes.”

It can be a big transition. So, the students thought it might be a good idea to write a book about how to survive sixth grade.

Parents of Swain Middle School students were onboard.

“They said that was a good project,” Isac Pena-Knight said.

So, students in Emily McClung’s class sharpened their pencils and got to work on crafting a sixth grade survival book.

The ideas ideas kept coming.

“We brainstormed on the big white board … We need to cut it down to the top 19,” she said.

Not only did students choose the topics, but they illustrated them, too.

“My page in general was called Travel by Herds,” Bishop said. “It makes you harder to … hard to target, to bully, and if you do get bullied, you sort of have backup to help you out,” he said.

“All my life I’ve heard that you shouldn’t call the teachers by their first name. So, I wrote a page about it. You could get in trouble with the principal. It could all be just disrespectful,” Pena-Knight said.

Christian Hensley drew the book’s cover.

“You have, like, a bunch of famous teachers on there. My real page is, like, you shouldn’t turn in your work late,” he said.

There are many perspectives from the minds of 12-year-olds.

“He said that if you didn’t turn your library book in that you would get thrown into the rat pit. That’s a good way to get I guess an upcoming sixth-grader’s attention,” McClung said with a chuckle.

No talking, no cheating, no cells phones in there, too. And those Chrome books carry a big no-no.

“Not having it charged or forgetting it at home,” McClung said.

She said she could not be more impressed with her students.

“They have learning disabilities in reading and writing, and so for them to come out and write a book was just, I’m just so proud of them,” she said.

It’s the same sentiments from first-time principal Ryan McMahan.

“Each and every day they come from different backgrounds and they’re bringing so many great ideas to the table,” he said of the students.

The ideas are all compiled neatly into hard copies in the classroom and available online. The seven-digit PIN is 8271920.

It’s a handy instruction manual.

“It was all made by students, and it was all for fun,” Bishop said.

“Mrs. McClung said that she was going to show it to other sixth-grade classes and they’re going to read it to survive sixth grade,” Hensley said.

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