Middle-School Prospects

May 27, 2008 in How to Get a Job
Tags: accomodations, adolescent, bad, be, be mean until halloween, different, fear of God, good, halloween, high, insight, interview, job, junior, mean, middle, perspectives, pubescent, school, teenager, til, tween, until

After all my trials and tribulations in the job market, I managed to finagle a second interview. It’s scheduled for next Monday morning. If I get the job, I’ll be teaching 7th and 8th grade history to middle schoolers.

I’ve never taught middle schoolers. My student teaching has been a year’s worth of seniors’ government and sophomores’ world history.

My question to you is this: What’s the difference between those two classes of students?

I know that middle schoolers need far more breakdown of the period in terms of the number of activities. A normal one-period class should have three or four activities, I’ve heard, to account for a weaker attention span. I’ve also heard tell that it’s easier to put the fear of God into them. Nice.

That’s about it.

What, in general, are the accommodations I’d have to make for pubescent teenagers, rather than young not-quite-adults? Should I use the well-known Be Mean ’til Halloween advice, or balance that sort of strictness with a more lenient policy on late work?

If you’re thinking it, write in the comments instead.