5. Hope, commitment, and joy lead us

Middle School Mindset 5: Hope, Commitment, and Joy lead us forward. And finally, from the stories of middle school advocates, schools that work with young adolescents and the students themselves are our passion and our commitment.  This sample of advocates illustrates the importance, the power, and the potential impact middle school age students have on our changing world. I also found that participants willingly shared the joy of working with this age group. 

Middle school is more than curriculum; it is more than a group of students. It is a community where hope and joy thrive. The good humor, laughter, inspiration middle school students experience is contagious. When teachers are committed to this age group, they find many examples of hope.

It is time to share that joy, the hope, and our own commitment to middle level education, to middle school students, to those who choose to work with this age group.

Middle school is teaming

Middle School Mindset 4: We must find more ways to collaborate to help students find their purpose. Across this exercise, I found some very good advice for us as professors of middle level education. No one mentioned that teaching this age group is easy. In fact, most of us consider it one of the most difficult jobs anyone will find. Insights from our advocates suggest our passion and our commitments, our collaborative experiences must continue. We must find ways to collectively make a difference, uphold the beliefs that our students are worth every ounce of energy we expend, and help them become our next leaders.

Being part of a team, belonging, building a community can happen in individual classrooms. Collaborating with colleagues makes this experience exponentially better. While we teach teaming as a tool for common practices, assessments, events, and exercises, may we never forget that teaming is about family, caring for one another, and finding ways together to make a difference with students.

Learning is reciprocal

Middle School Mindset 3: We actually learn from them.  When I asked advocates to capture ‘the spirit of middle school educators,” what I found is that we learn much from them. It is this passion for working with this age group that allows us to expand our own world view, our own compassion for equity and inclusion, and our own craft as teachers. There is no doubt that working with young adolescents is challenging. When I asked advocates to share their thoughts about middle school children, their teachers and staff… the magic of it. … why it matters, I found many comments related to how much we, as teachers, learn from our students. It is this magical gift that by working with this age group, those of us who see them as growing and developing, are committed to helping them “become.” Perhaps we too are becoming?

I watched unconditional kindness from a student who helped another student when her books were inadvertently flying across the floor as a result of a different random act. The kind spirits of our students who deliver compassion to a new student provides us with a reminder that insecurities, loneliness, and caring for one another is one act away.

A passion for this age group

Middle School Mindset 2: This magical age inspires hope and passion. When I asked people to share what drives your spirit and commitment to middle level education the plethora of adjectives provide a vast array that examines the infinite characteristics of this amazing age group. With each of the expressions of who these young people are, I believe we stand in awe of them, and I wish we could bottle their energy. It is this spirit and commitment that provides a backdrop for how to work with them. It is possible that knowing the creative possibilities that make up this age group could be a selling point to promote middle level education. A middle school mindset embraces the unique, inspiring, and sometimes frustrating world of young adolescents. And those who work with them appear to be energized by their hope. 

They are awkward, funny, bright, dramatic, overly confident at times while completely unsure at others…yearning for connections, budding citizens, vulnerable, emotional, playful, serious, challenging, earnest in their beliefs, highly ethical, highly aware of inequity, simple and complex. They exude excitement, curiosity, sincerity, intensity, creativity; they are inventive, highly imaginative, and incredibly interested in the world around them. And so, what do we do with this? I believe we must be researchers of this age group, digging deeply into brain research, theories on young adolescents, and current research that defines who these young people are in the 21st century. And we must share the what they produce. We must tell their stories, their ideas, their passions and we have the awesome opportunity to help lead teachers and middle school students to “their why.”

Perhaps we can share more of their art, their music, their passion. Digital storytelling is accessible to many. Is it possible that our candidates can work with schools to help publish the stories of young adolescents' dreams and passions?

Many Roads Lead to Middle School

Mindset 1: Many roads lead us to become middle school teachers. While some of us made the decision early to work with young adolescents in middle schools, there are more than a few who accidentally stumbled into her nest. What if we hadn’t landed in a middle school because “that was the only job open”; or what if we hadn’t happened to be with a professor who said, “You know, you might love middle school!” Or what if that middle school teacher we had hadn’t said, “You would make a great middle school teacher!”

Perhaps we need to provide more intentional opportunities for K-6 and secondary licensed candidates to experience middle school students. Our Collegiate Middle Level Association (CMLA) is an excellent place to start. I would imagine as university professors we have seen the spark in pre-service candidates' eyes, the wild side, the mavericks who will help set middle school students’ learning and experiences on fire. We need more of that!

Perhaps we need middle school clubs in middle schools for those interested in becoming teachers. Perhaps we as middle school teachers and leaders need to become mentors and advocates for our own profession. Our first element associated with a middle school mindset encompasses the idea that if we had not seen middle school, or someone hadn’t pointed it out to us, we may not have realized its value. So is it possible to start a campaign to advertise the value, the importance, the magic of this age group?