Teaching in the Middle Grades

 This week, I wanted to reflect on some things I have learned through this course. I was especially interested to take this class because it is specifically geared toward the age group one is teaching. No other class has this - there is no course that is focused on teaching high school students, or children aged 5-10 for elementary school teachers. Thus, this made me think that it is especially important to be mindful of the developmental stage of middle school students, and the content of this course proved me right.  I have learned a lot about the specific emotional needs of middle-grade students, and how I can best support them as they go through the challenges and triumphs of adolescence. The readings in the course also inspired me to look back at my own time in middle school, and to keep aware of how I felt. This allows teachers to have empathy and understanding for their students because we can recall how it might have felt at this age and what types of things we were go...

The reading in AMLE this week focused on the type of school community that a "developmentally responsive" middle school should have. This includes involving families and the wider community, being advocates for students, and fostering an egalitarian social climate that is safe and supportive. The phrase "developmentally responsive" really resonated with me as I was reading. I think this best sums up the main goal for any middle school administrator to have: they want to be able to best meet their unique students' needs, and this can only truly be done if the school environment is developmentally responsive. That means that the teachers are well-versed in the emotional needs and developmental milestones and characteristics of a middle school student, as well as the administrators. I believe a lot of the aspects of an outstanding middle school come down to this idea.  The book also emphasized the importance of teachers being advisors to students, and that each stu...

 This week focused on anxiety and panic disorders in middle school students. I have to say that it hit home for me, as someone who has been diagnosed with anxiety myself. I remember both the "normal" stresses of being in middle and high school -- the packed schedule, harder homework and tests, wanting to fit in, and feeling awkward socially -- as well as the feelings of anxiety that come with a chemical imbalance. Treatment made a huge difference. I feel it is so important for middle school educators to be aware of the symptoms of anxiety disorders, panic attacks, and depression. In my opinion, being educated on these things goes along with being educated about the age group that you are teaching. If we don't know what our students are going through - developmentally, socially, or even in cases of anxiety or depression -- how can we best help them and guide them? How will we get them to experience meaningful learning? This is why this quote from the AMLE article resonated...

 This week, we read about how to support the diverse groups of students that we will be teaching at the middle school level, as well as how to differentiate our lessons. The Edutopia article in particular was very helpful to me, because it broke down how teachers can differentiate at each level of instruction.  Throughout my time in this program, I have written my fair share of lesson plans, and so I have gotten used to incorporating different strategies into each plan for different modalities so that students will have "deeper" and more meaningful learning. However, this text was very straightforward and it made a process that once seemed intimidating sound pretty simple. This is encouraging because I tend to be a perfectionist and want to include the "right" things in my lessons. But now, I see that I have all of the tools in front of me to differentiate my instruction and ensure that students are involved in their learning.  The most interesting suggestion I took...

This week was centered around the responsibilities of administrators in the school. These go along with the guidelines we learned about in Week One. The principal just has to be in charge of implementing them (i.e., high standards) and make sure they are collaborating with teachers and staff to support a shared vision, which was touched on last week.  I was encouraged, personally, that both readings emphasized that administrators must present not only a positive attitude and atmosphere in their school's environment but also work with teachers and staff and be open and willing to listen, rather than immediately blame. The Wallace Foundation article in particular mentioned that doing this could improve teacher morale and help remedy pessimism and feelings of isolation. As a future teacher, this makes me feel that principals are being instructed to look out for my best interests, which is great to know. I have heard stories from friends and former co-workers of administrators not supp...