Some people say, "you either hate teaching middle school or you love it.". For me I clearly love it, I love middle school students! Working in a K-8 alternative middle school I get to work with a wide and eclectic set of students that bring a huge amount of personal experiences and questions to the table.
Middle school can be very daunting for kids.
Yet, my students when given a supportive environment and access to safe places to challenge their comfort level, seem to always muster the courage and rise to the occasion. Being part of this process never gets old for me. I am lucky that I get to see students amazing growth from 6th grade through 8th grade. See them start to ask the big questions, challenge themselves physically, emotionally, and intellectually, and solidifying as a person right in front of me.
My Project
As teachers we are always looking for interesting, exciting and relevant ways to engage all students. Students come to us with different skills and levels of motivation when it comes to academics. Every day I'm asked, "why do I need to know this?". It can be hard to talk about skills that someone will really depend on in the future. Especially when your talking to a middle school student that is more worried about lunch, or the person they have a crush on. Video production is one of those few classes I feel engage students in the NOW. Not only are they learning actual skills like photography, lighting, sound, but also more importantly how to tell a coherent story (communicate with an audience and each other). How do you work as a collaborative team to make a creative idea a reality. How do you bend to the will of the group but still feel like you are heard? As a crucible for life video production can be that one class that our non traditional students find meaning in writing, history or even math all things you will need to tell a great story. I have seen over and over that same student that asked the question,"why do I need to know this?" Say to me," this was my favorite class."
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