Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Middle School Madness!
I feel like the middle school as a whole deserves a week like basketball teams do in March. MIDDLE SCHOOL MADNESS! It has a great ring to it. Not to mention all the students have such a different energy than students in high school.
The kids in middle school are "creating" who they want to be for high school...I think. I could be completely wrong about that but I remember that's what I did in middle school. Then again, it's been 11 years since my middle school days so I take that back.
I guess what I'm hoping to do with my middle school students is teach them that creating who you are never stops. I want them to understand that who you are in middle school isn't necessarily who you'll be in high school or in the future.
This is where my idea of MIDDLE SCHOOL MADNESS comes in. We spend so much time with standardized tests, exams, and papers that we forget WHO our students are. We forget that they don't know who they are. It we could dedicate a week to showing the students we care about who they are then maybe high school won't be a battle of egos and attitude.
My undercover job which in the middle schools is to really understand who the students are and what makes them tick. Of course, teaching the curriculum will also be high on my to do list but I want the students to know that I understand how crazy middle school can be. After 11 years away from the middle school experience I want them to know they aren't alone.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Ashlee you are so thoughtful, I love how you try to connect student's experience to your own, even after you have been away from middle school for so long. I applaud you for knowing what you want to get out of your middle school experience since I on the other hand up until this point did not think of being in a middle school. I guess I will be like the students there, searching for different aspects of what it means to be a middle schooler; not that I was never one but now I am looking at it from a teacher's perspective. The idea of middle school madness is also cool, maybe it should also carry on to high school. It is important that students have a place and a voice...that they are cared for and heard as much as we teachers stand in front of classrooms and fill them with out knowledge. I love learning from my students and I know this idea would provide an opportunity for me to learn so much more about them.
ReplyDeleteAshlee, I really like the way you explained middle school development as "creating." Sometimes this creating means following a leader, sometimes it means testing boundaries. And I think you are also right when you say that this creating doesn't stop. I feel like a middle schooler in the sense that I'm still in the process of getting comfortable with this idea of me, the teacher. I have imagined being a teacher for so long just like kids imagine being teenagers for so long, but now that it is here, I have so many questions...What is my place in the school? Who will my allies be? How do I balance responsibilites to my students, fellow teachers, administrators, family, friends, etc.? I guess I just have to "create" and see what happens!
ReplyDelete