Middle School: The Academic Wasteland....or The Academic Oasis

Can't you just tell by this picture how awkward middle school was? 

I read "not much, just chillin' - the secret lives of middle schoolers" (yes, all lower case letters) by Linda Perlstein for my group book report.  I found this book to be very interesting.  My first choice is to teach elementary school music, but my second choics is middle school.  This book gave me the perfect insight into the lives of typical middle schoolers.

One thing that I took away from the book is that teachers don't understand middle school students, and that middle school students don't even understand themselves.  The middle school years are the "greatest period of physical and emotional growth, after infancy" (pg. 5).  With this in mind, it makes perfect sense that middle schoolers don't understand themselves; they are changing so quickly that they can't comprehend it all.  As teachers, it is our job to help the students navigate through this very confusing time in their lives.  But we can't do that if we don't understand the students.

The best way to learn about middle school students is to simply take a course about middle school students.  I regret that I do not have room in my schedule to fit in the middle school methods course.  I will be able to learn about middle schoolers in the middle/high school methods course and elementary/middle school methods course, so that will at least give me a basic understanding. 

Perlstein also suggests to make the material/curriculum interesting and connect it to the students lives.  This could easily be done in every classroom.  For example, in a music classroom, if the lesson is about the Greek belief of the ethos of music, I could have the students watch part of a tv show or movie, and record how the music affected the scene.  This way, they could relate the "ancient" information to their current lives and interests.