An Ode to the Things I Wish I Knew in Middle School
A Guide from my Teacher Relatives: The Do’s and Don’ts of Virtual and Hybrid Learning This Year
All of my aunts and uncles are teachers, as well as multiple grandparents. As if that isn’t enough, my great aunt and great uncle on my dad’s side are also teachers.
Some of whom teach middle school. From what I have heard, here are some of their biggest pet peeves.
Rookie Mistake #1:
- For the love of God, please stop writing your papers in neon orange ink.
Over the summer, I notated a couple of chapters on persuasive writing in light green ink, and I can hardly read what I wrote. Even worse, I condensed multiple chapters into 20 pages of notes. That’s 20 pages of information I have to squint at whenever I want to reference it.
If I struggle to read my notes at a young and healthy age where my eyesight hasn’t started aging, chances are your teachers will fare much worse than I will.
Write in a dark-colored pen. Pencil is sometimes acceptable, but pen is darker and shows up better.
Rookie mistake #2:
- Take. Freaking. Notes.
I prefer my notes to be organized and I end up writing information in class, then rewriting it neatly and formatted, as well as going back and checking the textbook for content that wasn’t covered in the lecture.
This advice comes from my family members that teach middle school. Obviously, middle school is a little less strenuous than high school, and your note-taking skills don’t need to be super advanced.
However, middle school is a great time to build healthy habits for the future, such as organized note-taking.
Rookie Mistake #3:
- Participating is a great way to learn. Blowing up the zoom chat is not.
My aunt teaches 6th grade and she has had to turn the chat off multiple times because it has become a major distraction during a certain class.
Listen, you can play Minecraft with your pals after the school day is over, it isn’t going anywhere.
During school, at least try to engage. Online has been hard for all of us, but your teacher will be relieved when someone else decides to speak up to answer a question or give input. Most teachers feel like they are talking to a brick wall during zoom calls.
Make class time worthwhile by being engaged.
Online isn’t forever. We can do this! Keep pushing through!
Middle school is a weird time. I was a noisy git yet somehow still made friends. Some people thrive in middle school, while others dread waking up on weekday mornings.
Either way, it’s only three years of your life. And believe it or not, you’ll be in high school before you know it.
Then your four years of high school go faster than your three years of middle school, but that’s a story for another day…
