Back in November, I decided to look at available jobs and start back interviewing for the 2026-2027 school year, because for some reason, that’s when they start hiring now. They like the availability of knowing before January that they have the position filled. I applied to several positions that started in January. Two of those were high school, which if I’m to be honest, I really want to teach high school. I did interview for a high school position with good feedback, but the position went to someone else.
A middle school called me for an interview in January, and I went to interview with them. It was a great interview, but I had a lot of issues getting my principal’s response because I put the email in wrong. That was all on me! So I just knew that job was gone.
Lo and behold, they did contact me, but this time for a 7th grade position and not the 8th grade that I interviewed for. I thought, “I can do this. I’m great at 7th grade.” I took the position to start in February. The day I went for a full tour of the school, I was informed that the position I was taking on would be a difficult one. The students had a teacher at the beginning of the school year, and then they had subs because she left on maternity leave. Teacher came back and had decided to leave… again. This meant that they had not had a real teacher in the classroom for months.
On top of that, these children were called “feral” by the other teachers on the hallway. Not to mention the AP stating that 7th grade children should be diagnosed with a mental illness and therefore not required to take state testing exams.
Plus, the school also had a large number of SPED students with learning disabilities who were inclusion, but that number was not as large as the ML students. In fact, the ML students were 90% of the student population. Of those, half had not tested out, and half of that number were below a 2. If you are not aware of the WIDA score, a 2 means that there are limited things that they can perform, do, and understand. Below that, you may as well be talking to the wall, because they have no clue what you are saying. They have been immersed into the English speaking world with a limited vocabulary.
These are the challenges I faced the first week of February. The biggest was behavior. Learning took a backseat. I had to teach my expectations and procedures. I had never had to teach the most basic one because for 10 years I worked in a school that was K5-8th and all students had been taught that when an adult raises their hand, they are to pay attention, mouths closed, and raise their hand to show they were ready. I was spoiled.
On top of all of this, these students thought that I was another sub. They refused to mind me. They refused to do what I asked.
Then came the challenges. Boys constantly roughhousing in the classroom. Boys constantly throwing anything and everything that wasn’t tied down. Girls chatting constantly as though it was a social hour and not a learning time. In fact, it wasn’t until the next to last week of school when I finally had a lesson that provided me with almost 100% engagement in all classes.
What was that miracle lesson? I pulled out one of my former students’ favorite activity from John Spencer: Create a superheror with a manual on how to become one. If you are not familiar with John Spencer, you should be. Many of his writing prompts offer you a way to adapt them to Gardner’s multiple intelligences. When you reach those multiple intelligences, you open the door for engagement. There’s something for everyone. My ML students who struggled with reading/writing, could easily draw. My SPED students with disabilities didn’t need to read to be able to think about solving the problem. My gifted students could be as creative as they wanted to be. It was a win.
If I could go back and give myself advice, I would tell myself to redo the lessons so that I did reach those multiple intelligences. Instead, I fought a battle for months. I tried to do what the other 7th grade teacher was doing without good results because she had the opportunity that I did not: She was there to teach her procedures and routines. Her students performed because they had already been prepared. She knew what her students could do. I didn’t have that. So I struggled.
Coming into a school in the middle of the year is not for the faint of heart. It is a test of strength and will. Many days will leave you frustrated and questioning your teaching and classroom management. And every class requires a different approach to management. There is no one size fits all at times.
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