Week I Post

This first week's reading has been quite interesting. A lot of things definitely are clicking with the readings, and they definitely go hand in hand with the things I have been learning in my junior high science methods class. For instance, in the This We Believe text, it speaks of the rapid changes that preteens undergo in the ages of 10-15 years. These changes are not only physical but emotional and mental as well. In AEDU 368 we learned, though young, the students do not want to be treated as children like in grades K-5.

Most of what I read in the AMLE text was just a refresher of what I have covered earlier in the semester. What was most interesting to me was the other assigned reading, "Middle School- The Emergence of Middle Schools, Growth and Maturation of Middle School Environments". For starters, I had no idea that middle school and junior high were different things at one point, I just thought they were synonyms for grades 6-8. It was very interesting to read that at one point, middle schools were grades 5-7, while junior highs were grades 7-9. Even more interesting was the fact that the 7-9 format was the dominant one until around the 1980s. Nowadays, you don't see many schools with the 7-9 junior high format.

Comments

  1. Steven Schaaf's Education BlogMarch 5, 2018 at 12:36 PM

    Jay, I also found it interesting that middle school and junior high are considered to be different. I believed them to be the same thing as well. It is strange that junior highs included 9th grade. I don't think I have ever witnessed that. However, I feel that incorporating 9th grade in junior high is not a bad idea. Being a freshman in high school is daunting for many and this could help that.

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  2. KZMarch 9, 2018 at 8:06 AM

    Hi Jay,

    Nice post!

    I agree that there are a lot of profound changes between ages 10 to 15. I see it first-hand with my own daughter who is 11 and with the fifth graders that I work with on a daily basis. As a middle school teacher, one needs to be aware of the various hormonal shifts, concerns about body image and the outside negative influences that a student can be encountering. Teachers need to be ready to meet the challenges that our middle school students face. We need to treat these students with respect and take into consideration their feelings and emotions. I believe it is a teacher's role to help guide students through some of these challenging times and set them on the right path to success academically and personally.

    Thanks,
    Kirsten

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