What is it like to teach middle school?
Imagine you are on a roller coaster and you are just about to pull into the station to disembark the car, but the brakes suddenly fail, and you are now off on the same ride again. That pretty much sums up what it’s like to teach middle school.
Some days you can manage to go through the day with relatively little drama and students fully engaged. Other days it is a roller coaster filled with ups and downs.
The biggest issue to learn about teaching middle school is that within a certain age group hormones become a key factor in behavior. Students who absolutely loved one another and were best friends can immediately turn on one another, and the next day, they are best buds again.
For instance, just this week I had a similar issue. I have two young ladies in my 7th grade ELA class who are best friends. They will often dress alike, and just recently, they have the same hairstyle. I’m so used to them talking or passing notes, that I have them seated near my desk, so if I am at my desk, it is easy to turn around and remind them to stop talking.
On Wednesday of this week, they came in and immediately one of the young ladies said, “Ms. Thurston, tell she’s sitting in my seat.”
I looked over and saw that they had switched their seats back. The girl accused replied, “I was here first.” I shrugged and went on about my class not thinking anything of it.
At lunch, instead of the two sitting in the floor beside one another giggling, I noticed that one had decided to sit across the room with another group of girls and left the one to spend lunch alone. This was my first clue that something wasn’t right. As I monitored the class, I notice that the group on the other side of the room kept casting glances at the other girl. My spidey senses tingled, but I didn’t heed the warning. Instead, I decided to take this group out to recess to let the boys run around and burn off energy while the girls had an opportunity to chat.
As soon as we exited the building, the class immediately (with the exception of two girls who went off to do their own thing) grouped up, and I began to hear raised voices. The mass of students went from one bickering girl to the next. Suddenly, the girl who had lunch alone stood up on top of an outdoor planter to get above the crowd, pulled out her phone, and yelled, “I have the proof right here!”
As soon as I saw the other girl start for her friend with clenched fists, I began yelling for the class to get inside. I needed this in a smaller place to contain the situation. As soon as we were inside, they both told me that they wanted to be separated away from one another.
The next day? They were best friends again. It was all a misunderstanding. They worked it all out.
That’s the thing about middle school students. Things change daily. Sometimes things change in the same class period.
So how do you teach middle school?
In order to be an effective teacher in middle school, you have to be aware of everything. My students claim that I know more tea on the students than they do, but it is only because I keep my eyes open and my ears open. I watch and observe. I listen to what they are saying and not saying through body language.
I pick my battles. What is the most important thing? Is it going to solve my problem to throw a student out of my class who cusses? Or do you keep going? Do I address it? Not all the time. If it was loud enough, I may ask them to refrain from using that type of language. If I saw it muttered or caught it in a whisper, probably not. Most of the time if a student says a word they shouldn’t and I heard it, but it wasn’t loud, I know. All eyes turn to me when it is said to see what my reaction is going to be. You can either argue with a student over whether or not they said it, or you can save your breath and move quickly along.
Sometimes you catch the funny moments.
Sometimes you swear at the end of the day that you do not want to be around anymore children.
Sometimes you reach your planning period, close the door, and pray for quiet solitude.
You’ll find that some days that roller coaster ride didn’t seem as thrilling, and some days you are screaming inside that you want off after the first drop.
