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    My School
    My School
    My School
    Ebook209 pages4 hours

    My School

    By Kurt Johnston and Mark Oestreicher

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    About this ebook

    Middle school is like a roller coaster, filled with ups and downs, twists and turns; it’s exhilarating and scary all at the same time! From piles of homework, to understanding the variety of “interesting” people working at your school, and dealing with the new challenges of changing for gym class in front of everyone, it’s normal to feel a little overwhelmed. That’s why in My School, from the Middle School Survival Series, we will tackle the things that weigh heavily on middle school students just like you. This book will address important middle school issues like:dealing with bullies, jocks, nerds, and every other category of student you encounter revealing the truth behind the urban legends of middle school pop quizzes, tardiness, and other survival tips This book is filled with short and easy-to-read tips, along with funny stories from the authors (who, believe it or not, used to be middle school morons!), and quotes and questions from students just like you. After reading My School, you’ll be able to walk the halls like the confident student you want to be.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZondervan
    Release dateAug 30, 2009
    ISBN9780310863175
    Author

    Kurt Johnston

    Kurt Johnston is junior high pastor in Southern California. He's served in middle school ministry since 1988 - longer than most of you have been alive! Kurt was once a middle school student, and when he was in 8th grade he was beaten up by a 7th grader. Kurt and his family live in Orange County where he spends his free time surfing and still avoiding 7th-grade bullies.

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      Book preview

      My School - Kurt Johnston

      0310278821_content_0001_001

      INVERT

      MY SCHOOL

      Copyright © 2007 by Kurt Johnston and Mark Oestreicher

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

      ePub Edition June 2009 ISBN:0-310-86317-1

      Youth Specialties products, 300 South Pierce Street, El Cajon, CA 92020, are published by Zondervan, 5300 Patterson Avenue Southeast, Grand Rapids, MI 49530.

      Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other (except for brief quotations in printed reviews)—without the prior permission of the publisher.

      Web site addresses listed in this book were current at the time of publication. Please contact Youth Specialties via e-mail (YS@YouthSpecialties. com) to report URLs that are no longer operational and provide replacement URLs if available.

      Creative Team: Dave Urbanski, Laura Gross, Mark Novelli, Janie Wilkerson,

      and Rich Cairnes

      Cover design by Gearbox

      07 08 09 10 11 12 • 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      DEDICATION

      Somehow, we survived middle school, but we know we wouldn’t have survived as well if it weren’t for our church youth leaders who cared for, listened to, believed in, and tolerated us. This book is dedicated to all of them. But particularly...

      Marko will never forget that time in seventh grade when Terry Prisk told him he’d make a good youth pastor. It was in the hallway just outside the Fellowship Hall at Ward Church, and the exact quote was, Oes-treicher, you’d make a great youth pastor someday. And Marko has never been the same since Jerry Smith said he saw leadership abilities in him.

      Kurt will always be thankful for John Miller, who patiently and faithfully taught his Sunday school class. John also showed up at Kurt’s football games, took him dirt bike riding, and modeled a love for Jesus that changed his life.

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      Marko wants to thank his amazing family—Jeannie, Liesl, and Max—for being so loving and for being patient while I was writing. Thanks to the fine teachers and administrators of Bryant Junior High School in Livonia, Michigan (which is now a field!), for helping me survive my own middle school experience.

      Kurt wants to thank Rachel, Kayla, and Cole for constantly allowing me to do the stuff I believe God is asking me to do, like writing this book. Thanks to the wonderful teachers and administrators of Granada Middle School, in La Mirada, California, for making middle school something I actually enjoyed!

      CONTENTS

      COVER PAGE

      TITLE PAGE

      COPYRIGHT

      INTRODUCTION

      SECTION ONE: MIDDLE SCHOOL BASICS

      1. Whose Idea Was School, Anyway?

      2. Why Learning Is a Good Thing

      3. Did Jesus Go to School?

      4. Why Do We Need It?

      5. So Many Classes, So Little Time

      6. Why Is It So Boring?

      7. Will I Ever Use the Stuff I’m Learning?

      8. Learning about Life, Not Just Algebra

      SECTION TWO: WHERE SCHOOL HAPPENS

      9. Why Your School Setting Should Influence How You Read This Book

      10. A Special Chapter for Public School Students

      11. A Special Chapter for Christian School Students

      12. A Special Chapter for Home School Students

      SECTION THREE: THE PEOPLE YOU MEET @ SCHOOL

      13. The Cafeteria Lady

      14. The School Bully

      15. The Jock

      16. The Gossip

      17. The Loner

      18. The Geek

      19. The Popular Kid

      20. The Rude Kid

      21. The Principal

      22. The Substitute Teacher

      23. The Strict Teacher

      24. The Teacher’s Pet

      SECTION FOUR: HOMEWORK AND GRADES

      25. Why Do My Parents Make Such a Big Deal about Grades?

      26. What Difference Do Grades Make, Anyway?

      27. This Class Is Tough!

      28. Study Tips

      29. How to Make Homework Not So Horrible

      30. Getting Ready for a Test

      31. How to Do a Long-Term Project

      32. How to Raise Your Grade in Three Easy Steps

      33. When to Ask for Help

      34. My Mom Wants to Get Me a Tutor!

      35. I Have Trouble Paying Attention in Class

      SECTION FIVE: MAKING THE MOST OF AN AVERAGE DAY

      36. How Not to Be Tardy

      37. How to Make the Bus Ride Fun

      38. Carpooling with Brats

      39. Food Stuff

      40. The Terror That Is...the Bathroom

      41. The Pop Quiz—The Surprise That’s Never Fun

      42. I Sit Next to Somebody I Don’t Like

      SECTION SIX: THE P.E. PUZZLE

      43. I Hate the P.E. Uniforms (and School Uniforms)

      44. I Hate Changing in Front of People

      45. I Always Get Picked Last

      46. Why Do They Make Me Run the Mile?

      47. Dodgeball Strategies

      SECTION SEVEN: THE UGLY SIDE OF MIDDLE SCHOOL

      48. Cheating

      49. Fights

      50. Peer Pressure

      51. Mean Kids

      52. Drugs

      53. Drinking

      54. Gangs

      55. Feeling Left Out

      56. Being the New Kid

      57. Science Class

      SECTION EIGHT: MIDDLE SCHOOL URBAN LEGENDS

      58. Trash-Canning

      59. Cafeteria Mystery Meat

      60. My Dog Ate My Homework

      61. The Mystery That Is...the Teachers’ Lounge

      62. The Pool on the Roof

      SECTION NINE: CAMPUS KINDNESS

      63. Making Friends with the New Kid

      64. Using Your Gifts to Help Others

      65. The Power of Your Words

      66. Sticking Up for the Underdog

      67. Did You Bring Enough for Everybody? Why Yes, I Did!

      68. Birthday Cards for Homeroom

      SECTION TEN: MISCELLANEOUS SURVIVAL TIPS

      69. Life with a Locker

      70. Choosing What to Wear

      71. Bad Hair Days

      72. The Comparison Game

      73. The Popularity Problem

      74. Three Final Thoughts from Marko

      75. Three Final Thoughts from Kurt

      ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

      SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

      INTRODUCTION

      See this really dorky picture right here? That’s me, Marko, when I was in middle school. Nice shirt collar, huh? Can you tell I wasn’t the most popular kid in school? Uh, yeah.

      0310278821_content_0008_003

      How about this groovy picture? That’s me, Kurt, back during my middle school years. That haircut rocked, huh? Sure, whatever.

      We wanted you to see those pictures—as embarrassing as they are—because we want you to know that we remember what it’s like to be a middle school student. Partly, we remember because we’ve been working with middle schoolers in churches for a long time. We don’t work with high school kids or with any other age group. That’s because we’re both convinced of a few things:

      0310278821_content_0008_006

      • First, middle schoolers are the coolest people in the world. Really! We’d rather hang out with a group of middle school students than any other age group.

      • Next, God really cares (we mean, REALLY CARES) about middle school students—about you. And we believe God is stoked about the possibility of having a close relationship with you.

      • Finally, the middle school years (from about 11 to 14 years old) are HUGELY important in building a FAITH that will last for your whole life.

      This book is the fourth in a new series: The Middle School Survival Series. The first book is all about your faith (that’s why it’s called My Faith—duh!). The second book is about your Family (it’s called, not-so-surprisingly, My Family). The third book is also available now—it’s called My Friends. And we have two more books planned for the series: My Changes and My Future. We hope you’ll read them all!

      Oh, one more thing: you don’t have to read these 75 chapters in any particular order. It’s not that kind of book. You can read them in order if you want (if you’re one of those people who likes order!); or you can just flip through and read whatever catches your attention.

      We believe in you, and we’ll be praying for you (really, we will), that while you read this, you’ll grow in your understanding of God (just like the Bible says Jesus did when he was your age!), of how much God loves you, and of how God would do anything to let you know him!

      Kurt and Marko

      SECTION 1

      MIDDLE SCHOOL

      BASICS

      0310278821_content_0011_002

      WHOSE IDEA WAS SCHOOL,

      ANYWAY?

      STUFF YOU MAY NOT HAVE LEARNED IN MIDDLE SCHOOL: EVERY U.S. BILL, REGARDLESS OF DENOMINATION, COSTS JUST FOUR CENTS TO MAKE.

      Well, there’s no one answer to that one. In some ways, you could say it was God’s idea because God instructed parents to teach and guide their kids. And that process of teaching and guiding shifted over the years.

      One of the earliest groups of people to have an educational system (a school system) for all kids (not just the rich ones) was the Jewish people. All Jewish kids (well, all boys—only some of the girls), no matter if they were rich or poor, went to study with a rabbi (say RAB-bye). Rabbis are Jewish leaders, so it’d be like if you went to study with the pastor of your church.

      And get this—Jewish kids memorized the entire Torah (say TOR-ruh)—the first five books of our Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Seriously! Can you imagine trying to memorize that much? Grab a Bible, flip through those pages, and check ’em out.

      The kids in the Jewish schools didn’t just memorize stuff, though. They also had long conversations about what the stories and teachings meant. By the time they were 12 years old, they could quote the entire Torah and answer all kinds of complicated questions about Jewish beliefs. How does that make you feel about your homework?

      Anyhow, except for the Jewish people and a few other exceptions, for thousands of years schools were for rich kids only. But about 100 to 150 years ago, people in many countries of the world decided everyone has the right to an education. Even then, until much more recently, school was offered through only the eighth grade for most kids.

      Sometimes the idea that school is good for you might feel like a parent trying to get you to eat Brussels sprouts. But really, whether or not you like all your classes, you know it’s true. No matter if you want to be a

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