middle school

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Home : 2005 : May : 10

middle school
By ALI

Nippin' that attitude in the bud when you're dealing with 6th graders is nearly impossible, especially if you are a sub! I subbed for awhile before I got my job, and I grew to despise middle school students. I had a few bad
experiences with middle school, so after awhile I stopped accepting middle school jobs. I think it's just an awkward age for them. They're not kids anymore, but in many ways they still are!
Some things I did that worked fairly well:
1) If a student is having an attitude, and it's disrupting the class or others are following along, I've sent that kid to the office. This happened

when I was going to have the same kids for a few days. I felt that it was going to be a torturous few days if I didn't set the expectations immediately.
2) It's also worked really well for me to tell the kids that if they are being respectful to me and each other and getting their work done, they can have the last 5-10 minutes to chat amongst each other. That has worked well, because they want that free time to chat and know they won't get in trouble for it! For me it was about getting through the teacher's lesson plans and having the smoothest day possible.
3) If you have a really bad experience you can tell yourself that it's just ONE day, and you never have to go back to that class again if you don't want to. I had to do that too, and then I promised myself I'd never set foot in there again!