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Welcome to 7th Grade! I believe that the years in junior high school are some of the most important years in all of education.
The 7th grade is a time of transition. Throughout the world transitions are the times when people make the most progress. Old ideas are refined into new methods for growth and development. Much like the first hundred days can define a presidency so can the important habits and practices developed in junior high define a student.
Education is an arduous climb on a tall mountain. 7th and 8th grade is where the learner is about halfway up the mountain and needs to decide whether to continue to the peak or to go back down and search for an easier route. The person who starts uphill will have a challenging climb throughout their education but they are on track for the peak. If we allow our students to go back down and start on the easy path, future goals like high school and college start to look like scaling a vertical cliff!
Finally, teaching and learning can be likened to the Parable of the Sower:
Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the birds of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, some a hundred. He said unto them, He that has ears to hear, let him hear.
This means that as students we should never stop listening. When a student does not listen the seeds of knowledge fall on the road and are eaten up. If a student is half listening, the seeds of knowledge will fall on rock, or unsuitable soil and not grow properly. If a student listens but is busy thinking of other matters, the seeds of knowledge become choked out by thorns of distraction. Only the student who is truly mentally present will have a beautiful garden of knowledge.
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