“You go home exhausted, wondering why you ever chose teaching as a career. The next day you’re back in the classroom and you’re soaring. You feel that you could teach forever. Teaching middle schoolers is not an easy trip, but the ride is exhilarating.”-Brown & Knowles (2007). You want to be What?

I think the authors when they wrote this quote had me in mind because it perfectly describes how I have been feeling since I started student teaching Spanish to 6th graders and working in a middle school for the first time ever. Teaching middle schoolers is not and I mean is not an easy job. I always thought I was never cut out to be a middle school teacher because as this chapter already mentioned teenagers between the ages 12-14 are impossible to deal with in the classroom. I totally remember being at that growing pain stage of adolescence and it was rough as a student so I couldn’t possibly imagine going through that as a teacher.

However, since September I have grown to love my status as a middle school Spanish teacher because I can see these students are most vulnerable and need that unconditional support from adults to help guide them through the daily ups and downs of adolescence. I am that person who is willing to listen and not make quick judgements before everything is laid out on the table, so to speak. I think I could be that advocate for these teenagers and it is unfortunate how so many teachers aren’t willing to take on this type of  position nor trained to deal with these types of situations.

At the end of Brown & Knowles’ chapter, they posed 3 questions: What questions or concerns do you have about young adolescents or the structure of the middle school?; What questions or concerns do you have about being a middle school teacher?; What do you think is the most important thing a middle school student can do or learn in school?

I guess to answer the last question which is supposedly the basis of your teaching philosophy is to have middle schoolers learn and understand that they aren’t alone and that they shouldn’t be afraid to come to me with any questions they may have whether it is related to Spanish or not. I worry more for the emotional intelligence in my middle schoolers and instilling empathy more so than them understanding and getting the content because it goes back to that simple statement where if a teacher isn’t emotionally invested in the well-being of the student, then they can forget about trying to get the student to learn because what matters most to students is seeing and witnessing that unconditional support from their teachers.