The foreign, bustling halls of high school were a new view for the eighth graders.
From Jan. 21-23, eighth grade students from Coppell Middle School North, Coppell Middle School East and Coppell Middle School West toured the district’s high school campuses.
These tours are hosted annually to help eighth grade students to get a glimpse of their future in high school.
Eighth graders were guided through CHS9, Coppell High School and New Tech High @ Coppell across three days to familiarize themselves with the campuses. The tours offered the students an idea of what classes they would be interested in and an understanding of the campus layout.
Students were divided into groups to be guided around the buildings. Each tour spanned 30 minutes and explored key areas of campuses, including the library, the gyms, fine arts rooms, Career and Technical Education areas, cafeteria, administrative offices, as well as the CHS Arena.
The eighth graders were guided around the high school buildings by members of Student Council and the Red Jackets.
To prepare for the touring students, CHS teachers prepared showcases, highlighting their class activities and awards to encourage students to have interest in their class.
“It has more of an impact when they see the visual of it,” Education and Training teacher Raneta Ansley said. “It gets them to see where they’re headed or what might interest them. There are some kids that are mesmerized when they see classes they would enjoy like the KCBY-TV studio or engineering labs, and this helps them into pathways for their future.”
The guides made a point to share practical advice, from how to navigate the hallways during passing periods to what classes the students would enjoy in their first years as freshmen.
“We gave our own experiences and talked about what we loved about CHS,” senior Red Jacket ambassador Varsha Vijay said. “We also did our best to accommodate the students on what they wanted to hear and talk about. I enjoyed explaining the amount of clubs and organizations at our school they could join.”
8th graders that toured the high school campuses found it helpful to understand what makes middle school different from high school.
“Touring the high schools definitely helped me learn about the school culture and benefits,” CMSW student Ananya Chillamcherla said. “I also got to learn about future courses and what my freshmen year could look like, such as the CTE class options.”
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