Brittany’s Thoughts 

 
I found the High School Development project very enlightening as I 
was a former eighth grade teacher for four years prior to the NELA 
program. The middle school I taught at, Springfield Middle, is actually a 
feeder school for Hunt High School, where we visited. It was a pleasure to 
see my former students and to see most them thriving in an environment 
that is so different from the one they left as middle schoolers. 
I was one of the teachers that stressed the importance of earning 
independence and demonstrating responsibility, tolerance, and respect 
while still in middle school. Again, most of the students that I came in 
contact with during our visit demonstrated the characteristics listed 
above. There were a few of my former students that were still practicing 
their middle school ways (tardiness, attitude, disrespect, etc.) and I 
attribute this to them not growing up yet and realizing that they are not 
going to be catered to. 
During our visit we definitely encountered the physical development 
of teenagers: the boys had definitely hit their growth spurts and were 
some were almost unrecognizable while the girls were growing more 
sophisticated and conscious of their appearance. They were more 
cognitively developed; when discussing how things were they either talked 
about how classes were going or their future which is a change from the 
trivial conversations we had together in middle school. Peer relations were 
definitely evident as students clung to “their circle” and as you noticed 
boys and girls often having private conversations which was not 
encouraged in middle school. 
Overall, I enjoyed the visit to Hunt High School. As an administrator 
my focuses would be structure and supervision at this level. Many 
students have asked me over the years to come to the high school level, 
but I still feel that I have more to offer to students at the elementary and 
middle school level as they develop.