Tyler's This We Believe

This We Believe 1-7
The first section of the text provides an outline for necessary characteristics and qualities of successful middle schools in the 21st century (also coined the "Conceptual Age"). The most important aspect of such schools is that there needs to be a holistic approach to the education; this holisitic approach is two fold. Schools must be holistic in the sense that there is an integration of topics into all subject areas, and school policies and reforms must be adopted across the board in order for the school to be successful. The pages, though short in numbers, offer a multitude of information that can be applied to any middle school. The text provides 8 key elements of successful schools, and again all 8 must be adopted in order for the school to become a "true middle school." Main aspects focused on were engagement and motivation, integration of content and technology, and the need to develop high expectations and standards for every student.
This We Believe 9-19
The second section seems to focus more on the qualifications and types of teachers that should be employed in today's middle school. Similar to the make-up of our EDU 262 class, middle schools should be taught by teachers who want to teach that age group. It also attested to my previous belief that middle schools should be learning communities that equip students with skills and strategies (ways of thinking, if you will) that will help them succeed in both higher education and life after school. Content needs to be inegrated, motivational, and relative to student's life, previous knowledge, and experience. They need to understand that the cognitive skills they are developing are relevant to their lives outside the classroom. Schools need to be collaborative between teachers, students, and parents in order to build and develop a safe and diverse learning environment. The text stresses that every student needs an advocate, a teacher that intimately knows and cares about the student. This aligns with the Turning Points 2000 belief that advisory programs should be implemented because it allows students to build a positive rapport and relationship with faculty members. This further increases their comfortability and sense of place in the school, thus increasing motivation and ultimately student learning and achievement.
This We Believe 19-34
The third section of the position paper focused on specific services that successful middle schools provide to students and their families. These services were divided into five different types of curriculum: Relevant, Challenging, Integrative, Exploratory, and 21st Century. Each of these strategies are suggested because the nature of, say, exploratory learning is compatabile with the social, psychological, and cognitive development that they are going through. Adolescents enjoy, and learn better, through hands-on, proactive experiences and enjoy interacting with their peers. They are also generally curious about the world. Thus, exploratory learning is a suitable and effective pedagogical method. The rest of the section focused on diversity, organizational structures, and middle level specialists (or stakeholders) that play pivotal roles in children's development. There was also two very informative sections on importance of integrating both technology and interdisciplinary teaching into lesson plans. I think that many of the concepts and strategies presented were useful because they were targeted towards the strengths and developmental level of young adolescents. I was particularly fond of the section about teaming and looping, as we are experimenting with these concepts by designing our unit in class. I am excited to see the final product, our unit, in comparison to the one I designed in practicum so that I can see the usefulness and evidence of team collaboration.
This We Believe 35-51
The last part of the book was a combined call for action (what readers should do after analyzing the text) and specific characteristics of adolescents. The latter section offered a variety of valid information regarding social, emotional, physical, psychological, and moral attributes of middle school students. The text constantly reinforces the uniqueness of the middle level age group, and the need for teachers to have not only a desire, but an expertise, in interacting and educating students between the ages of 10-15. The section about characteristics was helpful because it outlined the types of students that I will potentially be teaching as a pre-service educator interested in middle schools. It seems the position paper's call for action focuses on first ensuring that all stakeholders in the middle school, including teachers, principals, superintendents, school boards, state representatives, and parents are involved and informed that a change needs to be made. They also need to understand that each and every one of them has an influential and proactive impact on the success of their middle school. I found it to be very helpful that end the book provided a list of attributes that adolescents exhibit while they are in middle schools. This allowed the reader to absorb the paper's suggestions, and then comparatively analyze them to the characteristics. This even further reinforced the message that with the appropriate attitude, resources, leadership, and beliefs all middle schools in America can become true middle schools.

Sara's Blog- This We Believe

Written by the National Middle School Association, This We Believe begins by introducing ideas and beliefs that if followed will produce a successful middle school with successful students. Middle school is an important developmental time for young adolescents, described as between the ages of 10 and 15, where they are developing attitudes, morals and habits that will most likely carry on to adulthood. During adolescence, each student needs positive adult guidance and support to help guide them through this time of much intellectual, physical, social, emotional and moral development. It is our goal as teachers to produce curriculum that will be engaging for these young minds, while also assisting them in forming their moral principals that will carry them through life.

Young adolescents are all differ in their characteristics while moving through this developmental time of puberty and growth. As different as every student may seem, they are all going through the same developmental characteristics. As teachers, parents and other community members, we must take each of these characteristics into consideration when helping each student grow healthy attitudes that will last a lifetime. Physical, cognitive-intellectual, moral, psychological, and social-emotional developments are all intertwined with each other and are all of equal importance and when are taken into consideration by educators and role models, every student will have a higher chance of being successful in middle school.

Successful middle schools for young adolescents are characterized by a culture that includes an inviting, supportive and safe environment, so every student can learn within a community that promotes learning while enhancing the physical and emotional development of every student. A healthy middle school community consists of many things starting with educators who are prepared to work with middle aged students and enjoy doing so. Middle grade educators must understand the unique development that every student is going through at this age and keep that in mind when developing their curriculum, assessments and teaching strategies. Every adult, not just the teachers, in a middle school environment are advocates and mentors. Lastly, it is important to keep a strong link between middle school education and family and community involvement; this strong bond between the school and the home can only increase the rate of successful learning of each student.

A curriculum is the number one tool in achieving school goals and objectives. By choosing curricula that is relevant to the student allows each student to find answers to questions that they might have about the content, their life, and the world. With a challenging curriculum, young adolescents are actively engaged because they are in control of their own learning. Young adolescents need curriculum for the 21^st century. In order to achieve this curriculum multiple teaching and learning strategies must be used along with technology to respond to the diversity among students. Assessment and evaluation programs need to promote quality learning by being continuous, authentic and appropriate to show every student’s progress. Curriculum should also help develop critical thinking, independence, responsibility, and other attributes that will have lifelong influences for every student.

This We Believe: Successful Schools for Young Adolescents believes their message is crucial in developing a successful middle school that accommodates for young adolescents. They believe that whether you are a teacher, principal parent, superintendent, local and state board of education, or teacher educator that you can receive knowledge by reading this book. There are specific actions that each individual can take, no matter what status you hold, to help make each middle school student be successful.