Advice From a Senior to Current Freshmen

After going virtual for over half a year, it can be scary to shift from middle school to high school, so here are some useful tips on where to find things, what you might need to know, and how to get comfortable with Arrowhead High School.

Finding Your Way Around

If you’re having a hard time finding your class, don’t worry.  Many students, when entering South Campus, are confused for at least their first couple of weeks.  If you want to get a head start, though, there are some things you can turn to.  

At the end of each hallway there will be a sign on the wall, showing which classrooms you’ll find if you turn left or right.  Each hallway of classrooms will change in the hundreds place.  For example: The first hallway will be 100s, the second, 200s, and so on.  You can get familiar by remembering which ways lead to which group of hundreds, but eventually it’ll just be muscle memory.

If you’re still confused or that explanation wasn’t helpful, don’t hesitate to ask a teacher standing outside their door during passing time.  Odds are if your class is somewhat close and/or in the same hundreds section, they will be able to tell you where to go.  If a teacher cannot help, there is a counseling office toward the front entrance of the building where you may be able to ask for directions.  They might give you a paper showing the layout of the school, or lead you straight to the classroom. 

You should also know that Arrowhead has a second floor.  Brendan Damon, a freshman at Arrowhead, said “the main floor seems to be pretty easy to figure out but I don’t know where the stairs are or how to get around the second floor.” This can definitely be a problem in the first days of school.  The second floor is a single hall and there are classrooms on each side, so if your class number is in the 900s, it will be up there.

Meeting New People

Freshman year might seem like a tough year for meeting people at Arrowhead.  

Maybe not.  It depends.

At first glance, it’ll look like people are already separated into their own groups by the first couple of days, but this usually isn’t the case.  A lot of students sign up for classes with a couple of their friends.  If you want to make friends, take an opportunity to talk to others as soon as you can, because people will develop groups eventually.

If you want to make friends, you have to put yourself out there.  Don’t change yourself, but take care of yourself, talk to new people, make jokes, don’t worry about what people will think about you.  It sounds very cliché but it’s true.

The key to making friends is to just not care about being seen negatively.  You can be the dictionary definition of a likeable person and there will still be people who don’t like you.  So don’t aim to please everyone, aim to make some friends.

Organization

If you’re not organized, it’s hard to keep track of your assignments.

Organization in high school is a top priority. If you are disorganized, it becomes very easy very quickly to lose track of assignments and get behind.

Write important information down.  This includes but isn’t limited to assignments that have been assigned and their due dates, test dates, schedule changes, important notes.  Writing these down can help for you to remember as odds are you won’t retain everything you are told.

Listen to what a teacher says.  Different teachers operate differently but some teachers may say something that will not be posted online or written on a piece of paper, so it’s important to listen.