Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Assessments in the classroom should promote learning rather than using assessments as a way of measuring learning. I agree with this statement. I think that it is important to check for student understanding but to do it in a variety of ways. Effective assessments should be motivating and have clear goals. By giving students the test to a unit or lesson before you even start is one way to help students know exactly what they need and are expected to know. The chapter also mentions that it is important to not only assess students via testing. I completely agree with this. I think that you can and should assess students through group activities, individual activities, projects, etc. I hope to incorporate these ideas into my classroom.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 7

Chapter 7: This chapter focuses on differentiated instruction and how it is useful in the classroom. Differentiated instruction can be viewed differently depending on the educator. I think that it is important to use differentiated instruction as best as you can to fit your lesson or unit. There is also a list of characteristices of successful teachers who use differentiated instruction. I am glad that I can use this list of characteristices on myself in my own classroom. I also think that this would be a good place to start if I need to review my teaching strategy and I can use this as a checklist to hold myself accountable.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 6

Chapter 6: This chapter focuses on three major parts; holding students accounatble, holding ourselves responsible and responding to the standards. There are many suggestions in the book of ways to have students be accountable for their work. One way to help students take pride and interest in their work is to display it in the school. Holding our selves accountable is probably the harder of the two. Usually when things go wrong teachers blame everything else when in reality we need to take a step back and examine our lessons, units, skills, activities, etc. It is also important that, even if you personally do not agree with the standards, we as teachers try our best to work positively with them. This will help us reach common goals nation wide and eventually world wide.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 13

Chapter 13: This chapter mainly focuses on the importance of outdoor adventures with a class. In the book, a camping trip is the main activity. There are tree major things that people learn baout themsleves when on a camping trip; physical, emotional and intellectual selves, gender equity and personal anatomy. All of these are important. Another thing that the book mentioned was that boys tend to become more nuturing when on camping trips. There are many ways to incorporate outdoor activities into a lesson in all subject areas. I plan to take my kids outside as much as possible as I believe that this is a good way to bring what we are learning to the real world.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 4

Chapter 4: I really liked this chapter on active learning. It is important for the brain and learning to be moving while learning. By getting students up and moving during a lesson, you are keeping them active, engaged and focused. I think that not only is it important to keep students engaged and interested, but by having students up and moving you are reaching out to students with different intelligences, those who may not be as successful in a traditional classroom. I want to have a lot of activities in my classroom and the list at the end of the chapter will be really helpful for ideas.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 3

Chapter 3: This chapter focuses on memory and how we can use this to get maximum memorization and retention. It focuses mostly on the brain aspect. A couple of techniques were mentioned in the chapter that are ways to help students remember various things in class. The use of a triad response in a class discussion would be a good way to keep students engaged and participating as well as helping them remember. Others that were mentioned was chunking, activities and bring emotion into a lesson. Students will remember things more easily if they can relate to them on a personal level.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 9

Chapter 9: In this chapter, the importance and beneficial use of block scheduling is discussed. Block scheduling allows for longer periods of class time versus the shorter 45 or 55 minute classes. Students alternate classes daily when following a block schedule. Block scheduling is also easier on teachers as it allows for more teaching time and less time trying to settle kids in and getting them focused. From personal experience, I prefer block scheduling, both as a students and as a future educator. While do practicum, I experienced the shorter classes (40 or 45 minutes) and it was difficult to get the students focused. By the time they were settled in and willing to learn there was only about 20 or so minutes of teaching time. This doesn’t seem very effective to me. Following the block schedule allows teachers to teach to their students and have them learn at their full potential.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 12

Chapter 12: In this chapter, teacher advisory programs, or hands on activities, are discussed. This way of teaching is different than the typical in classroom lecture. By incorporating these teacher-lead activities into your classroom and curriculum you will help build relationships with your students. This style of activity is becoming more and more popular. This is one of the many ways to get out of the traditional classroom and to help young middle school students learn more about themselves in healthy activities. I really would like to incorporate these kinds of activities into my classroom as to help my students learn more about themselves and build healthy relationships with my students.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Similar to the chapter in Turning points 2000, this chapter emphasizes the importance of team teaching in the middle school. This chapter provides teachers with the help that they need and talks about subject integration. Through the use of team teaching, students are equipped with the ability to link important themes and topics from the different content areas as well as draw their own conclusions and make their own connections. This helps prepare students for the real world as content and interests are not always separate. In order to do this, teachers must communicate with each other and share core beliefs. This way, students will share these core beliefs not only with each other and their teachers but also in their education and learning.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 17

Chapter 17: This chapter talks mostly about how middle school students are changing from young adolescents to young adults. They are becoming more humorous, more sarcastic, and mature. It is important as a teacher to provide students with certain outlets that will help them grow and change. One example is a quote or expression board. This seems to work really well for some. The quote board is a place that students can express themselves through quotes, sayings, etc. as long as they are appropriate. Students seemed to do really well with this and kept it mature. I think that it is important to give all students some sort of outlet like the quote board in the classrooms. This idea may work for some but there are tons of other ideas that would serve the same purpose and have the same effect.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The best way, and perhaps the easiest way to teach students is to captivate their attention and interest in a subject. The hard part is keeping them motivated to maintain this interest. This chapter talked a lot about the different ways to motivate your students. Some different activities are suggested that would incorporate varying learning styles and intelligences. They seem similar to some of the activities that are used in high school and some elementary schools, many of them are familiar from practicum. It is suggested to introduce students to the multiple intelligences here so that they become more familiar with themselves and their own way of learning. One of the suggestions that stood out to me was to exaggerate important concepts to help students remember them better.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 1

Chapter 1: In this first chapter of the book, the two main topics are looking at ourselves as middle school teachers and listening to the students. Both of these are important to do while teaching at any level. Stepping back and looking at yourself is stressed as a middle school teacher so that you don’t lose passion or the enthusiasm. Keeping a positive attitude is key, even when times get rough. This attitude will help you to reach out to your students and help them succeed. Listening to students will also help you reach them when they are struggling. Just take a step back and listen to what they have to say. Being able to do this and to do it effectively you must know yourself. Both of these are connected together and will help you be a better teacher and mentor to young adolescents.