This is to all my girls who were singing songs from musicals earlier this week:
Ahhh, the middle school years can be so difficult! Who doesn't want to be popular? It's amazing the variety of extremes that adolescents will go to in order to gain this esteem. As teachers, we need to be conscientious of the ways that our middle schoolers are trying to gain this "respect" from their peers. From what I've seen, one of the most horrendous things a middle school teacher can do is embarrass a student in front of the rest of the class. And the only way we're going to succeed in not embarrassing them is to know what each of our students values in their peer relations.
"You'll hang with the right Cohort..." was she singing to us? I've gotta say, I think I'm hangin' with the right cohort--Cohort 15 to be exact. Does that make us popular? Ah...yes, POPULARITY. I had almost forgotten, but then I was put into a Jr. High classroom and it all came back. Just today I had a boy in near hysterics because he was late for lunch and wouldn't have time to eat. My dyad partner and I gave him the option of eating in class if he didn't finish, but he felt he had to choose between, "starvation and being embarrassed." Was it wrong for me to say, "Only you can decide"? I fully agree with the horrendous-ness of embarrassing someone, especially a middle-schooler. It is important to key-in to students' value system to help learn what could be embarrassing. Not only that,but we need to recognize that embarrassment not only belittles them, but shuts them down. Learning can no longer take place when a student is preoccupied with hating the teacher for making them feel stupid. Trust me, I know.
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