Instilling the notion of being a lifelong learner is important at every stage of education, but even more so during the middle school years. As students are developing an understanding of oneself, it is hard to understand others. Many students do not understand where they fit in society.
Even at something as simple as a family party, children this age find themselves in the middle. They do not know whether to play with the children or hang around the adults.
During middle school, most students experience a disconnect between themselves and their parents. They look to other adults as role models, and their friends and peers are a top tier of importance in their lives. Students surrounding themselves with others that make good choices is important during this developmental stage, as the choices of others can greatly affect the choices each individual makes.
Social media plays an integral role influencing our youth of today. So many middle school aged students have idolized various Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat influencers. When you ask children what they want to be when they grow up, many reply with some sort of social media influencer. This is the first era of children growing up with these types of influences, and it is imperative that we understand the various types of pressure students feel to live up to a certain standard set forth by social media.
Throughout the Covid Pandemic, it has become more apparent than ever that we need to focus on students and their social-emotional development. Although structures and practices that are in keeping with the best of the middle-grades reform documents are an essential foundation for middle-grade reform, dramatic and sustained improvements in student performance occur only if teachers also provide all students with markedly better learning opportunities every day.
One particularly vexing problem that plagued junior high schools and continues to plague middle schools is what Samuel H. Popper termed being "a school without teachers" p. Because of the lack of teacher education programs and licensure that focus on the middle school level, the majority of young adolescents are taught by teachers who prepared for a career as an elementary or high school teacher.
Fewer than one in four middle-grades teachers have received specialized training to teach at the middle level before they begin their careers. As a result, teachers who wind up teaching in middle schools, even those who discover that they enjoy teaching middle school students, find themselves woefully unprepared to work with this age group. Thomas Dickinson commented in that these instructors enter middle schools "unschooled in appropriate curriculum and instruction for young adolescents, and ignorant of the place and purpose of middle school organizational practices and the complex role of the middle school teacher" p.
This is clearly one reason why curriculum and instruction in the middle grades continues to show little improvement over time.
There is a growing consensus to support specialized teacher preparation at the middle-grades level. Numerous studies show that middle-grades teachers and principals favor specialized teacher preparation of middle-grades teachers. Perhaps the only solution to this enduring problem is for states to establish mandatory requirements for middle-level licensure that do not overlap significantly with licensure for elementary school or high school teachers.
This will serve as an incentive for colleges and universities to establish specialized programs that prepare practicing and future teachers to work effectively with middle school students, curricula, and instructional practices, and also as an incentive to teachers to pursue this specialized training. Unfortunately, there is also a lack of middle-school principal preparation. The same can be said for the licensure of middle school principals" Dickinson, p.
The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform declared in that high-performing middle schools are "academically excellent, developmentally responsive, and socially equitable" p. If such middle schools are going to become the norm rather than the exception, both middle school teachers and principals need more specialized preparation and continuing professional development to support and sustain their trajectory toward excellence.
Schools in the Middle: Status and Progress. Thomas S. New York: Routledge Falmer. Russell E. Ames and Carole Ames. Orlando, FL: Academic Press. The Middle School. Joyce L. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Anthony W. Jackson and Gayle A. Twitter Facebook YouTube. Reference: Balfanz, R. Early warning systems: Foundational research and lessons from the field.
They yearn for physical activity and intellectual inspiration. They want to use their hands to learn and create and they crave interaction with their peers. The current, typical middle school classroom falls somewhere between an elementary and high school one. Colorful, inspirational posters still dot the walls while microscopes and test tubes sit on back tables.
The Language Arts classroom still contains a reading corner while the Social Studies one now displays detailed topographical maps. It fails to see middle schoolers as unique with valid and important needs.
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