Middle School Education

Mr. / Girgis

A middle school teacher must be good at classroom management, since he or she will be in charge of multiple classes of varying ability levels. Middle school teachers should also be optimistic, organized, patient and empathetic. Developmentally, students at the middle school level go through many physical and emotional changes. These changes can impact a student's ability to perform well in class. An innovative and creative teacher can help these students stay on track during these years.

Job Growth

Middle school teachers have an average job growth rate as teachers are needed in all areas. However, certain subject areas such as math and science are growing at a higher than average rate.

Middle school teachers have students who are old enough to be responsible for their own assignments, but still young enough to need guidance in life lessons. This makes middle school an interesting job no matter the day.

Curriculum

The curriculum is all the planned activities that we organize in order to promote learning and personal growth and development.

It includes not only the formal requirements of the curriculum, but also the range of extra-curricular activities that the school organizes in order to enrich the experience of the children.

It also includes the hidden curriculum, or what children learn from the way they are treated and expected to behave.

We aim to teach children how to grow into positive, responsible people, who can work and co-operate with others while developing knowledge and skills, so that hey achieve their true potential.

Our school curriculum is underpinned by the values that we hold dear at our school.

Values

The curriculum is the means by which the school achieves its objective of educating children in the knowledge, skills and understanding that they need in order to lead fulfilling lives.

Our school is in full agreement with the values statement included in the introduction to The National Curriculum Handbook for Primary Teachers in England.

These are the main values of our school, upon which we have based our curriculum:

Organisation and planning

We plan our curriculum in three phases. We agree a long-term plan for each key stage. This indicates what topics are to be taught in each term, and to which group of children. We review our long-term plan on an annual basis.

With our medium-term plans, we give clear guidance on the objectives and teaching strategies that we use when teaching each topic. As we have adopted the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies for our school, we take our medium-term planning directly from the guidance documents. We use the national schemes of work for much of our medium-term planning in the foundation subjects.

Our short-term plans are those that our teachers write on a weekly or daily basis. We use these to set out the learning objectives for each session, and to identify what resources and activities we are going to use in the lesson.

At Key Stage 2 the curriculum at our school places a greater emphasis on the core and foundation subjects than it does at Key Stage 1, and we teach these subjects separately.

This means that, for example, a child may concentrate in one term on a history topic, then switch to a greater emphasis on geography in the next term. Over the three terms of the academic year, each child has the opportunity to experience the full range of National Curriculum subjects.

Interactive Learning Strategies

Essential Question

What is the intended goal of the lesson? Remember, there is one essential question per lesson, and students must be able to answer this question by the end of the lesson.

With essential questions, teachers really have to be intentional about what they want the students to be able to do, and it has to be at the highest-level of learning. The students have to be able to analyze and apply; they cannot just answer the question with a yes or no. It has to be an extended response. An essential question must be "multi-skill" in order for it to be a good one.

Activating Strategy

An activating strategy is something that gets students actively thinking or making a connection with the material being presented that day. Make a connection to the content or to the outside world to see how much the students already know or remember.

One of the main things used at Cochrane is to show video clips. Students love it when they see their favorite show or cartoon. Initially, they don't know what they're about to learn so they focus on that video clip. Then the teacher uses that engagement to link to the lesson, and the students realize that their likes or interests can channel a learning experience.

Relevant Vocabulary

Relevant vocabulary must be present in your lesson. Keep your vocabulary limited to what your students are able to handle and make sure that it is actively used in context throughout the lesson. Also have your students interactively use the words during the lesson.

Use vocabulary that's relevant. Teachers must pick and choose what is going to be most important and most effective. They must teach vocabulary through a graphic organizer, through an experience, or whatever they need to help the students get it.

Limited Lecture

There should be limited lecture time. After 12-15 minutes of lecturing, you should engage your students in some type of activity, even if it's for only a few minutes. The teacher can then go back to lecturing for another chunk of time.

Examples: Have students talk to their neighbor, draw a picture, write a few sentences that summarize or describe the lecture, finish an example problem, or get in a discussion with their group.

Graphic Organizer

Use of a graphic organizer allows students to visually categorize new information or review old information.

Students need to be able to conceptualize whatever information we're giving them.

The graphic organizer is student friendly. When they look at information that's organized, it's easier for them to retain and remember that information.

And when they go home, it is less intimidating to look at that information as opposed to pulling out a notebook that has pages and pages of notes.

Examples: Have students record information in colorful charts in their notebooks, use computers to create graphic organizers, or create a "foldable."

Student Movement

Student movement is a must. Students need to be mobile at some point during instruction to ensure they're actively engaged.

This one is probably the most challenging for Cochrane teachers because it can be intimidating to have students moving. But student movement can look a number of different ways, and it doesn't always mean students have to get up. They just must be physically engaged in whatever the teacher is doing.

It's important because students don't like to sit still, especially male students. They found that when the male students are up and moving around the room, they are totally engaged in what the teacher is doing.

Examples: Students do a gallery walk in which they move in groups from corner to corner, answering questions or analyzing things posted on the walls; they work in teams or at rotation stations; they raise their hands or give the thumbs-up or thumbs-down; they answer questions with their body, putting their left foot out if they think the answer is A and their right foot out if they think it's B.

Higher Order Thinking Questions

Present your students with at least three higher-order-thinking (“HOT”) questions during the lesson. This is proof that you are presenting all your students with challenging work.

The HOT questions are Cochrane's signature element. The rationale behind them is we want to give the kids an opportunity to be challenged in the classroom. The way the teacher presents these questions varies, and students' responses can be indicative of their learning pace.

The same question should be used for all students, but advanced learners may be required to respond in a different way. Students can respond on paper, as part of a classroom discussion, in paired discussion, or through homework.

Rigorous

Lessons must be rigorous. The activities should be challenging and move at a brisk pace. There should not be opportunities for students to get bored or periods when they have nothing to do. The entire lesson should be an active lesson.

Teachers should strive to take students to the highest level of knowledge. There are only 180 days in the school year, and a lot of the students do not come in at grade level, so we've got to move them with the 90 minutes that we have each day in the classroom.

Student Centered

Your entire lesson should be student centered. The ways that we instruct our students must demonstrate that they are our focus and that what we do is centered on their success.

The use of technology as a tool is a critical component of this. It provides students with 21st-century skills that are both engaging and relevant to real-world applications. It is a partnership:

If you effectively and successfully plan, your students will effectively and successfully work and learn. Take a step away from the learning process to become facilitators rather than "givers of all knowledge" in the classroom

Why do you like to be a middle school teacher?

“I love teaching middle school because every day is a different adventure! Middle school teachers exude a frenetic and contagious energy that is unique to their grade level — they’re fun, funny, full of over-the-top drama, and yet serious and thoughtful about their world, too.”