This We Believe

Pages 1-7:

In these few pages the discussion was about how important middle grade education is and how to create a successful school. The NMSA believes that middle school’s should not chose some of the characteristics that they have created; they believe that for a middle school to be successful it will take hard work and implementing all of the suggestions the NMSA have come up with. In the first seven pages is a look at all the different factors that young adolescents are facing during this time period. At this point in a young adolescents life they are changing rapidly, experiencing puberty, looking to peers for support and beginning to develop a sense of right and wrong. Overall, in these first opening pages, the NMSA presents their ideas of how to create a successful middle grades education system.

I felt like the NMSA’s suggestions were very similar to what was presented in the Turning Points 2000 book. I thought they raised many good reasons on why it is important to have a middle grades education system. At this point in their life, young adolescents are facing many different things that can help them be successful or cause them to lose focus on their goals. I believe that the suggestions the NMSA created would, when implemented, create a successful middle school.

Pages 9 – 19:

I had a hard time reading the ten pages out of this book since they were identical to the reading in chapter six of Turning Points 2000. Nonetheless, I liked what was discussed in this section of readings; I feel like the suggestions of including everyone in the learning cycle would create a good atmosphere. I think it is very important that people are aware of what they are getting themselves into when they think about teaching middle school because it is not for everyone. I believe that it takes a very special type of person to foster the development of young adolescents. I also believe that to have an encouraging middle school environment teachers have to form a collaborative team; they have to demonstrate the ideals that they are trying to teach their students. For example, if a teacher is respectful to another teacher, students will witness this and try to demonstrate the same behavior. At this age students are very “monkey see monkey do”, so it’s important to always try to maintain a professional image that will promote a good environment for students.

Pages 19 – 34:

In these pages the topic of discussion is how to create a middle school curriculum. The NMSA suggests that curriculum should be relevant, challenging, integrative and exploratory. They suggest to curriculum should be relevant in such that it allows students to ask questions about the world and search out the answers. When teachers do this, they are allowing students to become actively involved in their own learning; doing this helps keep students interested in what they’re learning because they are playing a role in the education system. To create a challenging curriculum the NMSA believes that curriculum should get students actively involved in their learning and keep them interested. I like this suggestion, because I can remember many times as student where I would ask what the point of an assignment was. I believe that having an integrative assignment is so important if you want your students to succeed; when they go from one class to another and the topic is the same, it really helps them better understand the topic. Lastly, to create an exploratory curriculum teachers have to allow students to have the chance to figure things out on their own. When students have the chance to seek things out on their own they are excited! Young adolescents love being given the opportunity to do “adult” things and will gleefully discuss their findings with you.

I really agreed with what the NMSA suggested to create a successful middle school. I believe that as teachers we are facing a more difficult time in creating middle school curriculum because of how diverse middle schools have become. Schools aren’t just facing the difficulty of creating curriculum, but they are also facing all the changes students go through. For example, middle school is the time when students begin to experiment with drugs, alcohol, dieting, and sex. It can be hard to get your students focused on you when they are focused on what’s going on outside the curriculum. Overall, I liked this section, but again felt like it was repeating what we had already read in other books.

Pages 35 – 51:

In pages 35 – 51 the main topic of discussion was an overview on the steps necessary for the education system to put the NMSA’s suggestions into practice. Another topic of discussion was the characteristics of young adolescents. In the implementation plan all of the people in the education system were told what they would to take to put the suggestions into place. All the people mentioned were: teachers, principals, parents, superintendents, local and state boards of education, departments of education, and teacher educators. What I found interesting was that they didn’t mention anything about students being involved which is odd considering what we have talked about in class.

I felt like the characteristics of young adolescents are being slammed into our brains repeatedly; quite of few of the readings we have done lately have been about young adolescents. For this I am grateful, because I feel like I have a much better grasp on the different changes young adolescents are experiencing. One thing I found funny was how they repeatedly mention that this book is meant to be used with the companion volume, but we’ve never looked at the companion volume. Overall, I liked this book and would have rather read from just this book instead of some of the other readings that were eerily similar in topics.