Mary Reynolds: Preparing Kids for Middle School

As part of our “Back to School” coverage, all this week Petaluma Patch is profiling local teachers who have made an impact on students. Teachers featured in this section were nominated by our readers and are just a sampling of some of the wonderful and committed teachers working at Petaluma schools.

Starting middle school can be a stressful time for kids.

Gone is the stability of the homeroom and one teacher, replaced with multiple teachers and classes that require kids to get themselves from one part of campus to another in a timely manner.

There’s locker combinations to memorize and the social element to navigate, with kids forming cliques and lashing out at rivals that’s unparalleled to other grades.

So before they leave for the turbulent waters of middle school, Mary Reynolds, who teaches sixth grade at Grant Elementary, wants give her students a year they won’t forget.

“My philosophy centers around getting kids ready for middle school academically and socially,” says the 32-year-old Reynolds who is entering her fifth year of teaching at the school. “I want sixth grade to be their best year and give kids a sense of community.” 

Reynolds accomplishes this by doing as much learning outside the classroom as inside, including a team building day at a ropes course in Occidental and taking her students on a weeklong outdoor education trip to Walker Creek Ranch.

“We use that experience to do different types of writing, like a persuasive essay and do work with ecology vocabulary,” she says.

Reynolds almost didn’t stick with teaching. After receiving her certificate, she spent a year in a mixed first-second grade classroom at Cherry Valley. It was a flop.

The kids didn’t get her dry sense of humor and needed a lot of handholding. She was frustrated. Then a colleague suggested she try sixth grade and suddenly Reynolds found joy in teaching.

“What I like about sixth grade is that they are excited about learning, they can work independently and can explain their thinking,” she says.

But more than anything, it’s giving her students a feeling of community that is most rewarding.

“When Giants won World Series, we got together with our buddy class and watch the parade together,” she says. “Or when President Obama was elected, I watche the inauguration with my students and it was really moving.”