Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Up next on our last segment, we'll be exploring how important friendship is from the perspective of our new community members. This piece is dedicated to all the.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: New Park Day students and families who joined us this year.
[00:00:12] Speaker C: Let's get started.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to New Year New Us, Today's feature segment about new students.
We will be interviewing new students around the campus to see their perspectives about the new year.
I am one of your hosts, Zadie, and if you really knew me, you'd know that I am gender fluid. I came out about it earlier this.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Year and I'm Evie. If you really knew me, you'd know that I love baking with my family or by myself. One of my favorite things to bake is cakes, even when they turn out not that good.
Today we're talking about what it's like to change schools and start over in a new community.
Changing schools isn't exactly easy. I was new in kindergarten and I've been here since. But I've befriended many new kids, such as Zadie. I've learned a lot from their experience, experiences and perspectives.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Changing schools can be awesome. When you change school communities, you have a chance to build new friendships, learn new things. Like the Mosaic project that you heard about in the last segment.
That said, changing schools can be challenging, even a little scary. It can feel like you're catching up and there are so many names to learn. It's so overwhelming for me. As a new student at Park Day last year, I experienced a combination of these things.
At first I was pretty shy, but soon I made very good friends, like Evie, who was recording the segment with me. This brought me out of my shell and made it easier to communicate with everyone else, even though sometimes I felt like an outsider. Eventually, I formed deeper connections, and it was really fun to get to know my classmates.
But what really made it easier to adjust was having a really good support system.
Everyone was just so welcoming that it felt like I was in this community since kind.
Even today, people are surprised to learn that this is my second year at Park Day.
Have you ever had to change schools or communities? What was it like for you and what helped you to get adjusted? One thing that really helped me to adjust is meeting new people and making new friends.
As we've been hearing in this episode, friends can help you feel seen and connected.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: Did you know that this year, Park Day has more families than any other year in our school's history? There are 16, nine new students this year alone.
Up next, we'll be catching up with some of our new community members to Help us learn more about them and to see how they feel about the new year. So far.
Every year, there are new families and students in many grades, but especially in kindergarten.
In kindergarten, all the students are new to Park Day and school for that matter.
[00:03:09] Speaker D: Right.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: They have a lot to learn in kindergarten.
Their teachers must definitely know something about how to help students connect with others in a new school.
[00:03:20] Speaker C: Hi, I'm Victoria, and I'm a kindergarten teacher here at Park Day School. I think what's unique about being a kindergarten teacher is that all of our students are new, so we have a really big job in making them feel comfortable feeling loved and feeling safe. I think that's my job every day that they go home feeling those three things.
And it really starts with being able to have a friend at school, someone that they feel comfortable with, and then widening that to maybe having a bigger group of friends. So starting small and then bigger and being able to see our classes really like a family, because really, we spend so many hours together.
So creating that culture of we're a family here at school and we are your people. I think some strategies we use are pairing kids together so that they can think, pair, share together, share their stories together, having share about where their families are from, where they're from, and connecting with people and then switching up the partnership so that they're getting to talk with not only people at their table, but maybe in pairs or trios and bigger group of six, depending on the activity. That way they're talking to multiple people in the classroom. But I think starting small and then getting bigger and then also including the other kindergarten classroom so that they can build friendships within that class too. Some challenges that I think we see.
Well, this year's been particularly different. It's been really nice. I think when I've been asking for student interviews, they feel like they're. They've listed more than four friends. And it's been really cute because last year it was a little tricky right out of COVID You know, a couple friends said they only had, like, one friend or two friends. So I've noticed a shift in. In just maybe coming out of COVID and feeling like more safe and you can talk to more people.
But some challenges sometimes are feeling, like, lonely or not feeling seen. So we have to do a lot of work around same, same, but different. Like, what do we have in common with each other? And what is different is might make us. You know, that's what makes us beautiful.
[00:05:12] Speaker D: My name is Arthur.
I'm five. And I like doing new things.
I like to.
I like that there's a lot of people at the school that like to play with me and do things with me. My name is Zuri.
I am five and I like that. I like to read because I have a lot of books and I read important books.
I like the teachers and my classmates because I get to play lots with them. My name is Magnus Jinjanosov. I'm five and a half.
And one thing I like is to climb up trees and play.
I like my teachers. And also I feel happy when I move into a new school because I can't wait to meet my new classmates. My name is Quinn and I'm six.
And when I came to Park Day School, I was a little scared because I was without my mom.
Sometimes I still miss my parents, but when I see my friends, I don't feel that way.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: That does it for our interview with the kindergarten owl.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: Wow. Those kindergarteners really have a lot to share. And their teachers are awesome too.
Now let's check in with some other new students across our other grades.
I wonder how their experience changing schools differs by their grade level.
[00:07:05] Speaker E: Hi, my name is Kishan. I'm in seventh grade and you can't tell by looking at me, but I'm half white, so I've been to a lot of different schools.
My elementary school, I stayed there till fourth grade and then we moved from LA to the Bay Area.
The challenge is that you don't know if you're gonna be welcomed or nobody is gonna want to be friends with you. Like on the first day of school, you just think you're gonna just like sit all by yourself. But then when you make a friend, that all changes. And then you can make more friends from that.
One thing that I want someone to know that's never moved schools before is that always go in with a positive attitude. Even if you don't think that you're gonna do very good, you will. Cause once you make one friend, that will expand into a bunch of different friends.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Hi, I'm Luca and if you really knew me, you know that I'm adopted and I have four moms. I want you to also know that it is very hard to switch schools.
One word of advice is to not be hard on yourself.
[00:08:12] Speaker D: Hi, my name is Junyoung. I'm a fourth grader and I just came this year.
It's been hard, but there many ups.
I like hot lunch.
I like the community.
I like the activities.
Some advice is just go with the flow.
[00:08:36] Speaker F: What's up everyone? My name is Kofi. I'm in sixth grade. Something challenging was like not being with my old friends that I've known for six years, just since we were in kindergarten, then switching schools.
One thing that's helped me in a new school is just all the people I'm able to talk to and relate to and just kind of get to know better. And all the new kids that I can talk to kind of made a group for us.
[00:09:01] Speaker G: My name is Finn Absher, and I'm in seventh grade. You can't tell by looking at me, but I've recently moved across the country from Huntsville, Alabama, to the Bay Area.
For me, changing schools was originally difficult, leaving many of my friends behind. But once you actually change, and once you've found one friend, it's a lot easier to change mindsets with how you think about the new school. Even though you might be afraid of changing schools, there will always be somebody else that you can find that's like, you.
[00:09:36] Speaker H: Hi, my name is Voss. I'm in sixth grade. And if you really knew me, you'd know that I've lived in Switzerland for three years.
I think the first challenge is just really making friends and getting to know everybody.
One thing that I'd like people to know who haven't switched schools before is that it's really not that hard.
And at schools like Park Day, it's really welcoming. And after you meet a few people, it's a lot easier for you, and, yeah, you really feel comfortable in the environment.
[00:10:10] Speaker I: Hi, my name is Gus Amerson. I'm in sixth grade, and I'm new to Park Day this year. It was challenging at, like, in the first couple days because I knew only a couple people, and they weren't in my advisory, so I had to, like, meet everyone.
But after the first week or so, it got way better, and now I've gotten used to it.
For anyone who hasn't changed schools before, they should probably know that, like, it might seem challenging to do it, and it is at first, but it gets way better. And if you ever do it, don't get stressed out.
[00:10:47] Speaker J: Hello, my name is Alder Pomeranz. I'm in seventh grade at Park Day school. And coming to the school, it was a big change.
At my old school, it wasn't great. So I wanted to change schools, and when I got in, I was very surprised. It was also hard because I really didn't want to leave my friends, so my parents made the decision because it was too hard for me. Eventually when I came, I found out I'm gonna make a lot of new friends and that I made the right decision applying to the school. Just because you leave schools with friends doesn't mean you're not gonna have the friends. In fact, you're gonna make new friends at your other school that you go to.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: I'm so glad we connected with more of our new student community.
Sometimes when you're new to an environment, it can feel lonely, and you may not even realize that there are others in a similar position.
Hearing from our new peers totally puts this into perspective.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And of course, this doesn't only apply to being new in a school. All of us at different times have to adjust to new circumstances in life.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Right. New athletic teams, new jobs. I could go on and on.
[00:12:00] Speaker B: We hope this segment can help our listeners build more empathy with our new community members and apply this to life in general.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: If you cross paths with a new person in your community at school or somewhere else, please keep today's conversation in mind and reach out to that person and make a connection. Who knows? Maybe you're the one who helps break the ice and makes all the difference to that person.
Just like how Evie helped me to feel seen and connected in my first year at Park Day.
