I saw in another thread that a few people wanted an “ask the teacher” thread, and figured it would have been done by now–but perhaps everyone is a little nervous…
I’m sure others would be more qualified, but here I am to answer open and honestly.
I’ve taught math in the middle school setting for 7 years now. My district is small, only 100 kids per grade, and rural. However, it is quickly shifting to a more suburban feel.
Bring the pain!
My husband is a middle school teacher, and often he’s so tired after school that he’s taking a nap when I get home from work. What’s so tiring about teaching middle school? When I ask him, he just says, “Everything.” Probably because he’s too tired to elaborate. 
What gets me tired is the fact that I teach on the second floor of an un-airconditioned building. During the winter I’m usually good to go.
I have had those days when I felt like just collapsing after getting home. It is definitely mental fatigue I would say. Teaching is like being a performer I think–you always have to be on. When you are “on” for 7 hours a day mentally–keeping track of every child’s behavior, work, social interaction, and your other teaching duties–I think it is natural to be exhausted when you get the chance to turn the old ticker “off”.
Right now I’m looking for a teaching job - I got my certificate for grades 4-8 in April, and I haven’t been able to find a position (I’m looking for upper elementary language arts). I don’t think I give a toxic interview, and I know my references are solid; the only thing I can think of that could be holding me back is my lack of teaching experience (I worked for ten years as a writer/editor, which I consider at least related experience, but that may be wishful thinking).
My question is this: looking back on your first year, what do you think made you worth hiring over other teachers who had more experience? Is there something I should be emphasizing that I’m not?
Everyone talks about the downfall of America’s kids and their behavior, “the good ole days” BS, etc.
How much of the controversy, to your knowledge, is truth and how much is sensationalism? Are drinking and drugs really a problem, even in middle school, or is this just all scare tactics?
Hi, I’m Kiz, the ex middle school English teacher, mostly for grades 6-7. Like Cheffie, I had a horrible time landing my first job. The closest I came was a permanent sub position in an inner-city school. I left after 3 years with dangling promises of a non-sub position.
The only advice I ever got re landing a permanent FT position? “You have to know someone.”
Anyway, as much as the work and kids exhausted me, they both also exhilirated me. I loved it. And I miss it. I’m no longer teaching, so I’m going to vicariously through you 
Or wait for someone to leave her spouse, and the country, at a moment’s notice.
Who are YOU to tell me my child is at grade-level?
I want him to be ready for calculus by 8th grade!
And what is this “number sense” crap? And what is the deal with making math real and relevant? Stop explaining how math works and just make him rotely memorize facts and algorithms!
Rigor! I demand rigor!
What are you going to do about it?
Given that I’m in the final of my total of six years of middle-schooler-parenthood, I don’t have a lot of questions. I just popped in to comment about this point:
Bless you. Have you ever considered having yourself cloned?
Oh good, a middle-school teacher, just who I wanted to talk to.
What does this mean:
“Educational therapist Jerome Bruner championed the idea of the spiral curriculum, in which students learn progressively more difficult concepts through a process of step-by-step discovery. With this approach all students can learn once a teacher has shown them how to think and discover knowledge for themselves.”
I’m thinking it means building on prior knowledge, in educationese.
And can you guess what this is from?
Sixth grade world geography syllabus
I was really hoping for something more from the syllabus. Like, what is a kid supposed to learn in geography anyway? Geographical features, crops, people, population?
Should I get this kid into a private school or are they just as bad?
(pokes head in)
(looks around)
(moves on to next thread…)
And we’re back…
What made me worth hiring was that I knew several people in the district that hired me. Also, the principal that hired me heard many good things from another principal in a district that I subbed in quite a bit.
It’s all about contacts–just like Hollywood.
Where I’m at drinking and drugs are not really prevalent at all, but this is a small community (read: tough to get away with stuff). I have been to other middle schools that are larger–some as big as 600 per class–and they didn’t seem to have that much of a problem either.
There are kids who are drinking in the middle school, and having sex, and experimenting with drugs, but I would guess that it is less than 5% of the student population.
A tough guy eh?
“Number sense” is a real thing. It’s nice when a child understands that a fraction is just a part of something, or that there are numbers between 1 and 2. That’s part of number sense.
I am a big believer in rote memorization of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. Not much else needs to be memorized–formulas and so on. If you don’t know your facts rapidly, however, how can you work with exponents? How can you work with fractions? How can you solve probabilities? Most math skills at this level require memorization and rapid recall of the basic facts.
As for what I’m going to do about it–I just plan on continuing to teach the way that has worked for me in the past.
Only if it would turn out as great as it did in Multiplicity.
I can tell you exactly what that quote means. It means that someone wanted to make some money by selling a book that tells teachers how to do something they instinctively do anyway. Come up with a great buzz word or phrase, and you can find millions of educational type folks to jump on the bandwagon. This works because teachers are constantly frustrated by the fact that not everyone in their class is learning everything they are teaching. This leads to teachers constantly questioning their methods and looking for the newest fad to help solve all of their problems.
I have no idea as to the spoiler. I am in a public education setting, but I do believe that many private schools have higher standards. If you are seriously considering it, talk to parents who have children in those private schools near you and find out what they think about the curriculum–don’t worry about the other stuff. Compare it to what your child has experienced. That should get you started.
I hope you know you are my hero.
Not a middle-schooler, but…
My #1 Son started kindergarten on Monday. It’s bittersweet; there will now be things that he knows that I haven’t taught him. He might get smarter than I. More power to him!
Anyway, we were five minutes late on the second day due to poor planning on my part with regard to traffic. The teacher seemed miffed and didn’t talk to me at all upon pickup of my son. Think she was mad? Think that maybe she’s already formed an opinion? I want my son to be on the teacher’s good side, bordering on pet. I’m a major kiss-ass when it comes to teachers, so I called her voicemail and said how sorry I was and that I’m usually “oh so punctual” and “it won’t happen again”. I really don’t want MY mistake to be carried by my son, but damn it, she seemed different at pickup. Not as friendly. I’m worried. Hopefully she’ll be a little more friendly today, I’m a great room-mom to have because I love to buy supplies and snacks and realize that teachers often have to pay for things out of their own pockets and I disagree with that mode of thinking.
Did I ruin my son’s school experience or was she having a rough day? Speculation? A little help here please!
PS…I think teachers are amazing people - I couldn’t do it!
I don’t have a question- I just want to apologize for what a little snot I was in middle school :o
I suspect that most books about business and management were written for a similar reason.
This is exactly why I should never speak to the teacher first.
Next, I’m going straight to each school board member. I’m going to call them at home and DEMAND that the entire math program in this district be revamped. Our kids are in extreme danger of not testing out of all their math classes in high school!!!
Next, I’m going to the superindentent. I’m going to remind him of how much money I have given to the school foundation, and that I won’t give one penny more until this math “issue” is settled to my satisfaction.
I might speak to the principal, but, frankly, he’ll probably just support best accepted practices and research which shows that kids need a hands-on approach to math instruction with an emphasis on actually understanding the concepts.
I will be satisfied!