Life threw a curveball today: it looks like I’m going to be teaching at the middle school for half the day next year. I’ve never taught middle school during the school year. The most I’ve done is: a) coach 8th grade girls soccer; and b) teach 8th grade summer school where I got to make up the curriculum as long as they were reading, writing, and communicating. So yeah. Middle school.

It’s still kind of sinking in, but I’m not really upset or even really disappointed. Just kind of weirded out. I have only been teaching 11-12th grade for years and I am kind of used to that adultish level of student. I do have some 9th graders this year now, but before that, I hadn’t had 9th graders even in the school since I worked in St. Cloud (15 years ago).

I feel like I’m going to learn a lot and grow as a professional. On the flip side, I’m going to make mistakes, and I’m going to have a bunch of 13 year olds who will make fun of me when I do it.

Here’s the thing: I didn’t think I’d like teaching mythology, but here I am, having a great time with it. I didn’t think I’d like teaching a sci-fi future dystopian book that is super-long, but here I am with my 9th grade goofballs, adoring the ups and downs and surprises we are having together. So now I’m faced with another big change, and my first response is “I don’t know if I’m gonna like that…” but actually I’m not sure. Maybe I will like it. There have been very few things, actually, in my career that I haven’t liked teaching. However, there have been a lot of things I thought I would hate. I thought I would hate teaching Romeo and Juliet, but I love teaching that. There are so many examples.

So I’m actually not sure what to think. I will have the same students all year, and that kind of worries me – it feels like a big responsibility. In high school, I will have them a trimester, maybe two. However, I am definitely not their only English teacher, which means they get a variety of approaches and responses. I think that’s positive. For these kids, I’ll be the only one for a whole year. But again… it seems like every time I think I won’t like something, it turns out to be just fine.

I have some amazing middle school teacher friends out there that I’m excited to talk with and learn from, too. This is going to be a new adventure.