Reflection on the "Middle"

Middle School, the place to be right, or not so much! This is a statement that constantly runs through my mind as many students fear participation in this school setting. It provides students with a high level of anxiety, a lot of uncertainity, and a vast amount of confusion. However, all of this can be changed by you: the teacher; simply by setting up goals that would create an educational environment that is inclusive to all styles of learning, people, and cultures.

After long hours of reflecting and constant research, I believed that the most important goal of middle school coincides with students ability to develop cognitively. As a future educator, I believe that through students experiences in the mid-level classrooms, they should gain the knowledge needed for success in high school, college, and post college experiences. Additionally, another important goal of a mid-level education is to help students in their intial steps of figuring out who they are as an individual. As you may know, students at this age are at a stage of questioning EVERYTHING. They are also quite confused about a lot of things. They are influenced by peer pressure. As future educators, we must try to think of ways that we can help them along the way in developing their PERSONAL identity and not an identity to mirror that of their friends. The final learning goal of middle school that I am going to talk about is helping students with organization. Thsi goal much simplier than the first two goals, but very important. At this stage, we know that students minds are everywhere. Therefore, it is important to provide them with a consistent structure that will help them along the way. This is crucial because it can play major dividends for students not just in middle school, but throughout their life.

Now that we see what are some goals of middle school, I am going to try connect those goals with what I believe are some critical attributes of a middle school teacher. A good middle school teacher is one who is relateable, caring, patient, kind-hearted, professional, and energetic. This teacher is capable and able to be flexible (just like every teacher), but even more so to all the different experiences one may encounter in a middle school classroom. I can go on and on talking about what I feel makes a good middle school teacher, but for the blog's purpose, those are the attribute I feel are important. I personally have a soft spot for middle school aged students. I believe that this is a crucial point for these students and it is absolutely important that they are surrounded with teachers, who can make this experience less stressful. I feel that I possess all of these attributes, but I still need to gain some experience in the classroom. On the job training really will help with my development into a good middle school teachers. However, I do feel like I am track to be an influence of middle schoolers and making this experience less daunting for my future middle school students.

Read this article that I found about "Real Middle School Teachers" by Rhoda C. Sommers. Tell me what you think.

I hope you enjoy this post and I look forward to more visits from you.