Starting a new job or moving to a new city can spark a mix of excitement and dread—an emotional cocktail familiar to many adults. For young adolescents, the leap from elementary to middle school can stir similar unease, amplified by lockers, shifting schedules, and the social shuffle of new peers. Over the past decade, I’ve
Read More… from Middle School Transition Camps: Easing the Leap for Rising Sixth Graders
Merlaina Davis recalled a day early in her first semester of internship when students entered the seventh-grade language arts classroom noticeably stressed. She learned that students were having their first “math check-ins,” a benchmark assessment administered during the school day. One student approached Merlaina, sat down, and talked about how anxious she was about the
Read More… from Research to Practice: Self-regulation and “Wayside Teaching” in the Middle Grades
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A Child Development Perspective The debates on kids and the digital world are heating up. The main focus now—as in the past—is on protection. Protecting children from harm is fundamental. But if we only pay attention to limits, our efforts will fall short. We can’t ignore an axiom of child development—children need both limits to
Read More… from Limits Plus Autonomy—Helping Kids Learn and Thrive In the Digital World
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Eight guiding principles when choosing to use or not use AI in the classroom The rise of ChatGPT-4 and the use of Artificial Intelligence in the modern classroom is astounding. We’re a little gobsmacked wondering at the evolution of its capacity and use in the years ahead. Today, we’re only scratching the surface of its
Read More… from With A.I., Let’s Keep Students’ Learning Paramount
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Creating Belonging in the Middle Grades, No Matter the School Setting When Laurie Barron became Superintendent of Evergreen School District in Montana, she knew it’d be different than the previous two decades she’d spent as a teacher and school leader in the suburbs of Atlanta. “We do not ride horses and buggies to school,” Barron
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As an educator, do you ever feel like you might be at a point in your career where you’re like the old person sitting on the front porch complaining about people walking across their lawn? Have you started saying things like: “These kids today!” or, “When I was a teenager … ?” Some argue that
Read More… from 8 NEW Characteristics of Middle School Kids: What Can We Do?
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