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Love is in the air!

There’s no funnier holiday for middle schoolers to pay homage to than Valentine’s Day.

If you need a fun activity, try out our Valentine’s Day Cards.

I’m going to use these as a fun bell ringer + set for a figurative language lesson in my ELA classroom.

Blogging is hard, y’all.

But we’re back and ready to go!

We thought we would start the year off by sharing ten resources that we frequently use in our own middle school classrooms.

ELA:

Write On With Miss G – I’ve purchased several of her items on TPT and have loved each one – her Mock Trial is my favorite. She’s a high school teacher, so I’m unable to benefit from her content-based items, but she has several options that can easily be used for middle school.

Building Book Love – This is another high school teacher with resources on TPT that can be used in a middle school ELA classroom. She has several items that are great for end-of-unit activities and items that are in-theme with holidays.

2ndaryELA Facebook Group – I joined this group last year have gotten so many great ideas! It’s a group made up of English teachers at all levels from across the country. You can find anything from content-related discussions, classroom management, RTI ideas, etc. There’s no better place to ask a question and get a little feedback.

Quill – This is great for grammar review and remediation. Plus, it’s research-based, so it’s RTI approved. You select a grade level, create a class, and choose your assignments for your students.

Peergrade – Peergrade is a great resource for productive student-to-student feedback. You can create a rubric that you want your students using as they work, and the website shuffles their uploaded essays and disperses them randomly and anonymously. It also allows students to rank the helpfulness of the feedback that they receive, so that helps with accountability.

Social Studies:

iCivics – This website has great resources and lesson plans for history teachers. I love how each lesson has multiple activities for each lesson plan. All lesson plans are also clearly laid out. One perk of this website is the maps that are used in most lesson plans (it is difficult to find good map activities). Check out this lesson plan on the Louisiana Purchase! It is one of my favorites.

Reading Like a Historian – This is my favorite history website. Every lesson has wonderful sources that cover a wide variety of Social Studies topics. It even has world history lesson plans also. Full lesson plans are available on this site which include primary and secondary sources. Under each source difficult vocabulary words are mentioned, and their definition is give beside it. These lesson plans are a great way to not only focus on sourcing, but vocabulary also.

8th Grade TN History Weebly – If you teach 8th Grade US History you need to view this ever-changing resource document. While attending an in-service a few summers ago, this website was shared with me. I love it because it has every 8th Grade TN Social Studies standard listed and under them, websites are listed that Tennessee teachers found useful for that standard. Feel free to add to this document to make it even better.

TED-Ed – Many of the short videos I show in my class come from TEDed. The videos are educational and cover a wide variety of topics. I enjoy showing them for their short length and their visual appeal.

Khan Academy – If you have been in the educational world for very long, you have probably heard of Khan Academy. Most people associate the website with math, but it is an amazing resource for videos, informational articles, lessons and quizzes for Social Studies. Even though I teach 8th Grade Social Studies, I like to use the AP US History resources on this site to challenge some of my upper-level students.

 

Do you have any great resources for middle school classrooms? Please share!

5. Know the School’s Emergency Procedures

No matter where you teach, there are already emergency procedures in place. Ask an administrator or mentor to review all emergency procedures with you before the first day of school, so that you’re prepared.

Often educators forget to tell new teachers about emergency procedures because they are the “norm” and become a habit for veteran teachers. Don’t be afraid to ask for help!

4. Familiarize Yourself with the School’s Discipline Norms

I remember what it was like to be in high school and middle school when students were sent to the principal as often as they were sent to the bathroom. When I began teaching, I was blessed to be placed in a school that had little-to-no discipline problems, and because of this, students were rarely sent to the office. The school almost had the philosophy of it’s the teachers responsibility to handle most discipline issues.

The first time I had a discipline issue, I called the principal down to my room to speak to the student. He was very kind and spoke to the student and helped me resolve the issue. I later spoke to my grade-level team, and they were very surprised that I had called the principal for such a “small” issue. But no one had ever sat down with me and explained the school’s discipline norms.

Sit and ask your mentor or co-workers what the discipline norms or procedures are before you get started. It’s almost always best if you’re able to handle a classroom issue in the classroom, especially if that’s typical for your school.

3. Use the Knowledge of Other Teachers

There are three types of teachers that are very beneficial to new teachers: veteran teachers, teachers in your grade level, and teachers that teach the same content area as you. It is vital to establish a good relationship with each type of these teachers.

Being the “new kid” on the block can be very difficult and overwhelming. I was blessed to find that many veteran teachers possess a wealth of knowledge. Most know about the school norms, its culture, and discipline procedures. Even if they don’t teach in a middle school classroom, valuable information can be learned from them.

Teachers that teach within your grade level are, of course, another wonderful resource. You’ll spend the bulk of your  time with these teachers, so try hard to establish a good, professional relationship with them from day one. They’re the experts on scheduling, grade-level field trips, middle school culture, planning meetings, and your students. Remember that with your new grade level team, you are the student, so try learn from them.

You may be lucky enough to have another teacher at your school that teaches the same class as you, or you might be like me in that you just have teachers that teach the same content area as you. Regardless of your situation, find teachers that teach at least the same content area as you. Ask them to share grouping strategies, writing strategies, class structure, standard tips, and testing strategies. Don’t be scared to share any ideas and strategies that you may have with this group as well. 

2. Start Building a Relationship with Every Staff Member

It’s important to not just build a relationship with teachers but every staff member at the school. As a new teacher it can be very overwhelming, but focus on building a relationship with everyone you come in contact with. Yes, this includes staff members such as the janitor, office staff, bus drivers, pre-school teacher, ANYONE and EVERYONE! 

All of these individuals are working toward the same goal as you: to help create an environment where students can succeed and thrive. A great place to start is to simply speak to everyone you come in contact with. You will present yourself as friendly and confident which will help you grow professionally.

1. Create, Find, or Steal a Classroom Management Plan and STICK WITH IT

I left this tip as the last and number one tip for a reason: it is the most important. Spend time researching and talking to others about classroom management techniques and select one before the first day of school. It’s important to not only take the time to select a classroom management plan that will work for you, but it’s even more important to STICK TO IT.

As a new teacher, trial and error will help you grow as an educator. If you pick a classroom management plan and it doesn’t seem to work just right, change parts of it but don’t change the whole plan. Students respond well to consistency and if every other day you have different set expectations, they will become frustrated and additional behavior issues are bound to arise. My own classroom management plan is based off of a points system with rewards to help promote good behavior (more on that in a future post).

 

 

–Morgan Bruce

As friends and educators who have worked together for four years, we both appreciate the craft of teaching, especially at the middle school level.

. . . yes, it’s possible to enjoy teaching the dreadful pre-teens.

Starting a blog has been a lunchtime conversation of ours for a few years now. During those conversations, we both realized how our passion for curriculum and literacy unites our subject areas.

However, we quickly discovered that in the world of teaching resources, materials for middle school are slim to none . . . which is why we’ve decided to share our own.

We hope that this blog can be a place to turn to when your ideas run thin, you need a good resource, or you simply want to share in the often-chaotic journey of two teachers who are stuck in the middle.