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=My Reflection of Middle Grades Education.= By Jason Allshouse

What new learning's did I discover?
I thought that this class really helped me to learn a great deal about middle school teaching and students. I feel like our education program, here at UMF, does not do such a great job with helping pre-service teachers who are interested in teaching middle school; I find that elementary education focuses a lot of its instruction on grades five and lower – where as, secondary education focuses a lot of its instruction on the high school years. Unfortunately, that leaves the middles school undefined and lacking depth. I recognize that things we learn in both programs can definitely be used for middle school, but there is little emphasis on how to teach middle school. I learned a great deal this semester about how truly different middle school students are.

They do not want to have their parents around, their bodies and brains are constantly changing, they are more grown up than elementary students but haven’t reached the level of maturity that the high school is on, but they do very much want to learn and to be taught by effective teachers. We also talked about different strategies and methods to use in order to meet those goals, such as field trips, camping excursions, and making sure that there is a water fountain in the room so that students get enough water – because according to Rick Wormeli, it is very important for brain growth. Middle school students are a different breed of student and they must be taught accordingly. I think that too often teachers at the middle school level are comprised of those who did not want to teach elementary education and those who could not get into the high school setting. If I learned anything this semester, it was to make sure that middle school teachers are versed in knowledge that will help them teach middle school students.

I also learned the difficulties and joys of both creating your own middle school from the ground up, but also learning to work, in a collaborative setting, to create lessons and units. I thought that working on the collaborative unit was one of, if not the best, experience and activity this semester. It was a lot of hard work, but it was well worth it in the end when you got to see the final product. It was a very different way of thinking because you had to take into account different content areas along with trying to find topics that lend themselves well to doing a collaborative unit. In my case, doing a unit about a country, turned out to be a good idea and one that lent itself well to all the different contents such as history, math, and English. It will be fun to get to show off our hard work to current middle school teachers because they have been there and already done that type of work – I think that if you get a good response from them, then it shows that you really did do a great job.

Another thing I thought was really a great learning experience was dealing with all the new types of technology. There were such a wide range of technology types used in our lessons such as blogs, and Wikis, Glogster, Capzles, iMovie, Comic Life, and the list continues. We live in a world that is so full of technology that kids at all levels know how to use them and like to use those different technologies. It is definitely time to incorporate those technologies into our classrooms and lessons so that we can educate the students of the future on their level. If they use things such as Glogster or even iPods in their daily lives then we should try and find ways to work them into our classrooms.

Last, but certainly not least, I really enjoyed reading the book "A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future" by Daniel H. Pink. I think that this book should be read by any person even remotely interested in entering education as a profession. We live in a society now that has been slowly moving away from right brained thinking and into left brain thinking, which is dictated by standardized tests. Teachers now must teach for the test and therefore they only focus on logical, analytically centered curriculum which kills any creativity in our students. At the same time, schools are finding it “important” to cut funding for things such as music and art, because they deem that they are not completely necessary. We should instead focus on building up the right brained section so that we can be creative and can have the skills to think of new and creative ways to fix our problems. We should really follow Pink and begin to focus on design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning in our classrooms so that we can create and foster brilliant children who will help lead our country and world into a new, more prosperous direction.

**What actions will I take as a result of the things I learned?**
The biggest action that I will take, thanks to the things that I learned, is to actually entertain the idea of teaching at a middle school. Before taking this class, I really wanted to teach at the high school because of the age of the students, because of the ability to really hone into just one content area, and because of the desire to coach at the high school level. I would still like to teach high school, but I am definitely not against teaching at a middle school anymore. I think that, in some cases, middle school students are more interested in learning the materials than a high school student might be – I attribute that fact to things such as relationships and getting closer to entering college that leads some high school students to be less interested in school work. Middle school students are at the weird age where they want to be independent, but they also wanted to win the respect of their peers and teachers; that makes teaching middle school a very interesting prospect. Middle school students still like to have fun, and I think it would be really fun to work with them along with my peers to collaborate on really interesting units.

I would also like to enter into the teaching field so that I can have that ability to design some truly great units with the help of my teaching peers. It is really quite fun to have to work together to get things done because you get to see how truly different and unique the thinking of your peers are. You could easily give a room full of teachers, even those of the same content area, one topic for a lesson and those lessons would come out so completely different. I think that it is a good learning experience because, as a teacher, this type of collaboration prevents you from getting into a rut and using the same materials or ideas – when you see other people use new ideas or technologies, it makes you want to try them even more.

**What questions have now come to the surface for me?**
As with everything else you learn, this class has led to some new questions that I would like to find answers to.

· //Am I going to be a good teacher? Should I teach middle school?//
These two questions come up all the time for me because I wonder if I will be a good teacher. I know that I have been given great knowledge about teaching at UMF and I think that I have a great grasp on my content area, but I also wonder if I have what it takes to teach. I have also been wondering if I have the personality to teach middle school. As one person told me, “when you reach the point where you can poke fun at yourself, then you can teach middle school” and I think that a good sense of humor is vital in order to be a good middle school teacher; I still have some issues poking fun at myself. As I have said before, in most jobs when you mess up you either cost yourself money or you cost yourself the job – teaching is a little different. If you mess up as a teacher or if you are not a good teacher, then you ruin your students’ changes of being successful. Teaching has such far reaching implications, that it is important to be a good one or you risk hurting other peoples’ lives.

· //How long will it be before colleges change to incorporate the new styles of thinking?//
Since my freshman year here, I have begun to see changes in the ways that professors “teach”. I have noticed a lot more use of groups and group work, technology, and MI integration but they still lag behind the high schools and especially the middle schools. I think that it is important to be able to write essays and take tests, which are both huge parts of college, but I also think it is important for students to be able to show their learning through other things such as blogs, movies, comics, and working as a group to achieve an end. I just wonder how long it will take before there is the switch to new ways of assessment and learning at the college level.

· //When will politicians learn to not cut education funding?//
This is the one thing that really makes me upset. I cannot understand why they find it necessary to constantly cut education spending both at the state and federal levels. In order to be able to include and integrate these changes and new ways of learning, the system needs to have the money. They need to money to pay for the materials, but they also need the money to pay the great teachers so that they do not decide to leave the field because of the low pay. I hope that one day our country will truly realize how important teachers and education are to the country so that we can finally fully fund schools and pay teachers – this will keep the good ones teaching, but more importantly, our students will be learning more and becoming well educated members of society.