About a month into her student teaching semester, Melissa voiced frustration about one student who just would not engage in social studies class. Gregory seemed disinterested and apathetic, and he seldom completed his assignments. Melissa was determined to make a breakthrough, but how? How could she get Gregory engaged in social studies? How could she
Read More… from Research to Practice: Addressing Student Motivation in the Middle Grades
Sexual education is a rite of passage for middle schoolers, but how it’s delivered varies widely from state to state and school to school. In the February, 2023 edition of Middle School Journal, Yvonne Allsop and colleagues describe how a collaborative, cross-discipline team worked together to create a virtual sexual health education curriculum for the
Read More… from Let’s Talk about Sex…Education in the Middle Grades
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I say often, “Kids are kids, no matter where they learn.” I still believe that’s true, but today’s middle schoolers have endured so much and I have seen wide variance in their ability to thrive through the challenges of the past few years. It’s no wonder parents and educators continue to struggle to support them
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Introduction While the world seems to have largely moved beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact remains. The pandemic was a harrowing time for all of us, but it had perhaps the most profound effect on education. While this experience revealed the bravery and perseverance of both students and teachers, it nevertheless came with challenges—and we’re
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New Research Highlights Perspectives from Self-Described Social Justice Educators In a recent issue of Middle School Journal, researchers Ebony Terrell Shockley and Valeisha Ellis investigated, through a series of interviews, the perspectives and pedagogical practices of teachers who self-identify as social justice educators. But what does that really mean, to be a social justice educator?
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It’s hard to argue that school-based relationships haven’t been tested the past couple of years, including between educators and students. Maybe then it is time to rethink how we build these relationships in the first place, argued Nathan Maynard, co-author of Hacking School Discipline, and Dr. Belinda George, who gained international notoriety for her “Tucked
Read More… from Reimagining School Discipline: It Takes All of Us
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