This year is my first time ever in a new school. Before high school, I was in another school called Sunflowers Academy, which is a private school. I was there for 9 years. Now that I am in a public school, I’ve seen lots of differences between private and public.

My old school was little, so when I came here to Miami High, I was surprised by how big it was. Since it was a little school, there weren’t many kids. There was one eight grade class that only had 30 students. At my old school, I was never used to seeing so many students or even teachers.

A big difference at my old school was that instead of the students going to the teachers’ classrooms like we do at Miami High, the teachers would come to us. The reason they did this is because there wasn’t enough space for group of students to be walking around. We also had all 8 classes in one day. We didn’t have schedules because there was only one classroom for each grade. One thing I miss about my old school is not having to walk to every classroom like we do at Miami High. It might sound lazy, but whenever I get to class, I get there out of breath.

Something new for me at Miami High that I didn’t have last year is a student ID. I wasn’t ever given one at my old school. At first, I didn’t really know what I would use the student ID for, but I soon realized that I would have to use it for everything such as logging to see your grades and to go in to do your on-line assignments.

Public schools give you more freedom to do what you want. My old school for dismissal we had to wait until our parents came and picked us up instead of just letting us go. We also didn’t go to our classes after lunch by ourselves; we had to wait for our teacher to pick us up.

One big difference I noticed at Miami High is that the uniform here isn’t really a problem, but at my old school we had strict uniform polices. The girls had to wear a skirt under the knees and a button-up shirt, and the boys had to wear cargo pants with the same button-up shirt. We also had to wear black shoes with white socks. And if you weren’t wearing this, you would get in trouble. We would also not be able to get nose piercings, dye our hair, or wear makeup. Also, the boys wouldn’t be able to have long hair or any kind of piercing.  I disliked all these uniform and grooming rules so now at Miami High you can wear makeup and dye your hair and the uniform is not as strict.

Public schools have better learning systems and more opportunities. Miami High has a lot of clubs you can join. They also have Saturday school and tutoring that help your grades go up. I like Miami High’s tutoring systembecause if my grades are going down, I can go to a tutoring class and it helps my grade go up. At my old school we had tutoring, but it was called TITLE 1. But you couldn’t go just out of choice; you had to go because your grades were low.

At my old school, instead of FSA and EOC, we had an Iowa test. The IOWA assessment are achievement tests that assess students’ skills in Reading, Language, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science. The Iowa test isn’t that hard.

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Other Sunflower Stingarees Look Back

• Freshman Terry Canales, a former student from Sunflowers Academy, said, “I enjoy the education better in Miami High.” He said in Sunflower he liked the environment but disliked the ridiculous rules and how he was not challenged by the education there.

• Junior Amanda Nunez, a former student from Sunflowers Academy, said, “In Miami High we have less uniform policy. Over at Sunflowers it was very enforced; if our skirt didn’t reach to our knees we’d be reprimanded.” She said she liked how cozy Sunflowers was, since it was a small school. She likes how Miami High is more diverse and how girls and boys can dye their hair and have long hair.