Folly Quarter Middle

I go to folly quarter, amazing school.

Overall, Folly Quarter middle school was an amazing experience and I feel it prepared me well for high school. All the teachers were excellent and balanced out the amounts of classwork they gave us and how much homework we received every night. I was in all GT classes and I never felt I had too much homework and project work on school nights or on the weekends. I also had travel basketball practices three nights a week, participated in the school play, and was in various other clubs, and I still never felt too overwhelmed. I will admit I had to do some difficult work, but it was never too much. I especially think the 6th grade teachers were very good in the way they transitioned our learning habits and homework amounts from 5th to 6th grade. Going into 6th grade, I imagined being flooded with work and drowning in essays(that I didn't know how to properly write at the time). When I entered 6th grade, I felt reassured that I would do just fine and the transition was easy. In 6th grade I learned all the necessary skills to succeed further in my middle school and high school careers. I learned how to properly write an essay, complete a research project, and organize my school work. All the basic skills I learned in middle school have really helped me succeed in high school. 8th grade I felt prepared me so well for high school. The amount and difficulty of work I received in 8th grade was almost to the level of work I receive now in high school, which has really helped me a lot. Most kids from other middle schools struggled the first quarter of freshmen year because they were not prepared the way Folly Quarter Students were. I also felt the amount of essay's we wrote in 7th and 8th grade was perfect and has helped me so much in English class in high school. Especially in 8th grade, when we had to pick a broad topic, narrow it down, and write a lengthy essay on it. This essay was like none I had done before in middle school, and prepared me for essays and research projects I am doing this year. Besides the great academics, the school environment and student population was so friendly and welcoming. There were never any fights or situations where I felt threatened, and I always felt comfortable at school. I loved how we had extended homeroom at the end of each quarter to learn about respect. Even though the respect lesson plans became very repetitive by the end of the three years, the intentions were good and I feel everyone benefited from them. I know I am extremely lucky to have gone to Folly Quarter Middle School for 6th,7th, and 8th grade.

I am a student here at Folly Quarter. Most of the students and teachers here are great, but a lot of them will treat you like you are in 3rd grade. There is a staff member to ever 6-7 students, but only an actual teacher to every 27 ish. This leaves room for a lot of guidence councelers and chaperones that are paid to do nothing but follow kids around. I can not go 20 feet at recess without running into a random staff member. As I said, the teachers are great for the most part and I learn a lot, but a lot of the homework is buysywork designed to piss off anybody with half of a life. The thing that really kills it here is how focused the everyone seems to be on the acronem RESPECT and cyber-bullying. Bullying is not at all an issue at this school. You can not go to the bathroom at recess without having to ask 3-4 adults about where the pass and the extensive "sign-out log" ran off to. The principle, Mr. Wilson, is probably the worst part about it here. His personal prejudice twords macs apparently gave someone (I believe it is him but im not sure it cold be the board of ed) the authority to spend five years of the schools technology budget on 50-60 $3,000 dollar computers that are barely powerful enough to open power point. Why didnt he buy the PC's that are worlds ahead of the same macs for 30% of the cost and use the rest of the money to add to the teacher's bs paychecks?
Now onto the academics- most of the time the teachers do their own thing ciriculum-wise which is usually better than what the distric itself, howard county, wanted us to do. 6th grade involves a lot of buysywork and application of reading stratagies. 7th grade focuses on a lot of logic and algebra-like thinking. 8th grade focuses on abstract thinking and proving things with effective arguments. These themes persist throughout the ciricula of all of the different subjects. If you can tolerate the homework, this school will be just fine. They train you to have two modes: Doing nothing and doing a week's worth of work in a day.
Socialy, fqms is pretty good. The kids here dont do drugs or make graffiti thanks to sufficient brainwashing almost every day in homeroom. Even though I am not that popular, I often do things that barely earn me detention and suddenly everyone is talking to me. Thats kinda good, but i wish that things were a bit more (for lack of a better word) spicy. We do different things every day, but if you look at the pattern monthly, I have been doing the same basic things every month for 3 years now. Usually once a month we watch a movie in each class, have a major group project, a major solo project, a review packet, and the rest is note taking and other random stuff. It is the best feeling in the world if by some miracle you manage to finish every single thing on your plate. That has not happened to me in 2 years (i had a very buys summer :P). Some days I wish that I could just go outside and lie in the grass and not think about anything... that is the ultimate goal that you work twords here at folly quarter but the tunnel keeps getting longer and longer... lol this is starting to sound depressing it is a school and you won't hate it but you won't like it either. (you being the student)
The school is just to centered around work without allowing us kids to have lives. The teachers sometimes dont understand that we have 7 classes AND homework for each class AND sports AND EC's AND social lives. It is hard to balance them all, but it feels good knowing that you can. This school teaches you how to work hard, but for all of the work that we get I can't go to the bathroom without filling out a sign-out log and getting it approved and signed by a teacher. As a 14-year-old doing four hours of homework a night and working longer days (6.5 hours plus 4 hours) than most Americans, I deserve the right to use Google and Youtube in school and not have to get passes to go everywhere. I used to go to 5th grade in a different school and I did much better work being able to go wherever I wanted to go to in school and talk to whoever I wanted as long as I got my work done. And I was 10... unbelievable. High School better not be like this.