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 21st 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.
5 comments:
I really liked both of the articles. I thought both of them were a great resource for parents and middle level educators to have. It had lots of information regarding the development of middle level adolescents. I really loved how both articles covered sexual education. I'm a health major, and actually learned something new by reading the sex ed. part on both of them. Great job on both the articles, anything that has health issues, and can help you learn more about the students to improve your teaching is extremely beneficial.
I really liked the first link. I think it is good to see academics and other aspects of students from the parents perspective. There were a lot of links and they were sorted by grade level. I also really enjoyed that this link focused on more than just academics. The second link was good too because it gave a lot of ice breaker activities that can be used all the time and can make situations more comfortable for all of the students.
I thought that the first link was a good tool to inform parents of what to expect once their child hits middle school. It could be very helpful in connecting you as the teacher, to parents. While the second link was a bit more confusing to follow, I still think that it could be helpful if you need information on adolescent development.
Your links are really interesting, I didn't have much time to go into a great ammount of detail, but they caught my eye right away and made me want to look more indepthly. The blog you wrote is well done and I agree with you specifically about the about the time period of adolecence these students are in
the first link goes to a parents guide and the side has a reference desk with many more helpful links. The second link goes to a site that gives parents information about their changing adolescents and ways to talk to them.
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