FOMO. I was invited but couldn't come. :(
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I couldn't remember who all was thinking of coming. I know AD was planning on a football weekend for the AL game but couldn't come. I got to meet Sue71 and the CTN tailgate crew. I think Weezie even stopped by.
I need to plan another football trip. The 10/30 Clemson FSU game doesn't count.
Y’all got some history!
Also, can request an alternate to “flesh space”? Yuck.
For today, the kids' reading assignment was Chapters 2 and 3 of The Hobbit. As Bilbo and the gang set out for the Misty Mountains and all that, my 7th graders observed that "Bilbo is, like, equal parts excited and amazed by the things he's seeing, but also nervous and afraid because he's not sure he can make it through all of this."
...whereupon I noted that "It's a lot like 7th grade," with impeccable timing before it was time for their next class.
So the kids are alright.
Fear not. As you might recall, this is pretty much all middle school is about. I mean, I teach history and literature, but what I really do is work to reveal kids' strength that lies within, push them to expand their conception of how capable they are, and remind them as frequently as possible that this world has a place for them.
There are periods in my life I wish I could revisit because I was having so much fun. Middle school is not one of those times.
But I have yet to meet anyone who liked middle school and Wilson and other teachers of the puberty-afflicted deserve medals.
Middle school was without question the worst time of my life, outside of specific terrible events. I have the utmost respect for teachers who choose that particular challenge.
Someone recently told me that everyone they met had at least one memorable middle school (we called in junior high in those dinosaur years) who made a difference. I certainly did. Mrs. Haviland, seventh grade science.
I told each one of my sons at the start of 7th grade that the point of 7th was not to enjoy it, the point was to get through it. Then, when they started high school, I told them that if their high school years turned out to be the best years of their lives, they were going to have rather sad lives. Enjoy what you can and if you have at least one friend that has your back, high school is a success.
It's often said jokingly, but in all seriousness, rather few of us chose middle school; it truly chose us.
I did not set out to make a career in 7th grade, but I landed here in part by accident and in part by providence or whatever you want to call it. Now, I know that I belong in these trenches and I fully intend to stay here for the remainder of my career. A lot of my brethren who teach the middle years will tell you similar stories.
This is sage advice. I had an incredibly rigorous high school life in a very different academic program. I had no time to be much of anything. I did have a pretty solid group of friends and was fortunate for that.
Middle school was an obstacle to sat the least. Did you ever see Dangerous Minds? Michelle Pfeiffer? The amazing Coolio song? That was my reality in middle school. We had fights, bomb threats, drug busts, and all manner of distractions.