Middle School Reflection

                As I began thinking about this assignment the first thing I thought about what: what did I think before I started middle school? To be honest the answer was something along the lines of let me just get through this. I had no interest in teaching middle school and I had no interest in middle school students. I thought surely they must be hormone charged rascals that I’d have to baby sit rather than teach. In short I was wrong.

                After teaching my two lessons I learned a few things about myself as a teacher and them as an age group. I won’t try and convince you that everything went perfecting, it didn't. I was always afraid of failing or ruining my lessons or any other uncertainty that comes with teaching, but I think I’m starting to get over that a bit. I’m finally starting to accept that I’m a new teacher and therefore teaching should be new to me, meaning I don’t have to be perfect I just have to try and learn.

                The sixth grade lesson went pretty well, though we ended up finishing our primary lesson a lot earlier than expected. This turned out not to be that big of a deal, instead we just went on to the content we planned for the next day and everything went smoothly.

                Seventh grade was a bit harder. They were a less focused and more apt to act out. I've noticed they are a lot more energetic and tend to need management more, and on top of that the lesson was split by a lunch. Normally this would get to me but I realized that sometimes you just have to step back, take a breath, and check out your variables. Sure they were unfocused, sure lunch would get in the way, sure there was a group of kids that just wouldn't stop talking no matter how many times I asked them to stop. These are problems, but problems don’t go away by ignoring them. After the 8^th time the group of kids ignored my request to stop talking I finally had to scold them. I told them if they talked one more time I’d separate them. It worked, for the most part. It was weird, I don’t really see myself as that kind of person, I’m very low key and easy going, but I’m honestly proud of myself for taking initiative and doing something like that. Last semester I would never have scolded a kid. This is real progress!

                The other problems worked themselves out as best as we could work them. The students had too much energy so we made them rest for five minutes with the lights off. We did that with our sixth graders and it seemed to work well. It worked okay with the seventh graders but they didn’t take it as seriously. Lunch proved to actually be helpful because we reworked a lot of our lesson during the twenty minute gap.

                Over all I had a pleasant experience teaching in middle school. Upon reflection I have to say I wouldn't mind working in this kind of setting and even working with younger students. My only concern is I believe there is a balance with teaching. The younger the student is the more engaged they seem to be which is great but you can’t go as far with the content and it is definitely more management. With older students you have the opposite. It seems that it’s much harder to engage them in the lesson but I find I don’t have to manage their behavior as much and I can go further with the content. It’s a tricky balance but I have to say these last four weeks have shown me that I can actually enjoy myself teaching in a middle school setting. I really enjoyed working with the sixth graders and I've actually been considering getting elementary Ed certified sometime down the line. I’m not sure yet but it is definitely a possibility.