Episode 1.16 Ask a Teacher Part 1 - The Middle School Mind

On this episode of The Middle School Mind podcast for tweens, we ask teachers questions. Son gets into the minds of middle school teachers to get their perspective on teaching middle school students.

This is a family affair as our today’s guests: Mom, Aunt and Cousin, join us on the show! Our guests bring plenty of teaching experience and bring unique perspectives on this show.

Mom has been a middle school teacher for 26 years while Aunt has been teaching middle school for 27 years. Cousin is new to education and has been teaching for one year.

We ask the teachers about:

What made the teachers pursue a career in education?
What’s it like to teach middle schoolers?

What is teaching middle schoolers like? One of our guests described it like herding cats. Check out this awesome YouTube video on Cat Herders! Courtesy of YouTube.

What are memorable moments when teaching preteens, tweens and teens?
How do teachers maintain a great classroom environment?
What teaching style works for you?
Is there a connection between how much homework you give and how much the students like the teachers?
We talk about how expectations have changed from elementary school to middle school

We play a Word Association game with our teachers!

See how our middle school teachers react to:

Summer school

Image showing summer school which gives kids additional learning opportunities and structure over summer break. — Summer school did not get a positive reaction from our guests! We all need time off! Image courtesy of edmentum.com’s blog.

Bullies

Image of a school bully physically harrassing another student while other students try to stop the action. — Boo to school bullies. Please just be kind to one another. Image courtesy of nobulliesallowed.org.

Dress codes

Grading papers

Educator shown grading assigned school work in her classroom. — Teachers enjoy grading papers almost as much as the students who are assigned the homework. Image courtesy of thoughtco.com.

Common Core

Educators have mixed feelings on the Common Core curriculum. Image courtesy of Council for Economic Education.

We loved making this Ask a Teacher episode because we got honest feedback from our family members who are also long-time teachers! Educators are dedicated to the students they teach and love to have fun and see them grow.

Thank you to our guests and to all the teachers who spend their time teaching kids! We will have our educators back on another episode because we had more questions

Thank you to all of our listeners!

Please leave us a positive review and like and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.

We also want to hear from you, our listeners! What kind of topics do you want to hear more about?

You can reach The Middle School Mind on our About Us page, Facebook page or Twitter (@TMSM_Podcast). Thanks for listening!

For more episodes of The Middle School Mind podcast, check out our latest podcasts below

2.12 The Goodbye Episode – The Middle School Mind

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. After months of deliberation and soul-searching Father and Son publish their last and final episode of The Middle School Mind podcast. After nearly 18 months and over 35+ episodes, on this episode: We say goodbye to our listeners We talk about what's next for Son We hear from some of our past guests Of course we get a little silly And we play one last game So sit back, relax, grab the Kleenex and stick around for our very special goodbye episode. We think kid's voices are under represented in the podcast space. Even though we are leaving, we encourage you to visit Kids Listen. This organization is a grassroots organization of advocates for high-quality audio content for children. The Middle School Mind is a proud member of Kids Listen and, with our show ending, we encourage kids and families to find other interesting and engaging podcasts for kids. Through this adventure, we connected with the creator of Sound Carrot. This website was founded by a father/daughter team with the goal to help younger listeners find amazing children's podcasts. We hope this resource helps parents and kids find other kid's voices that you want to listen to and hear more from. We also believe that kids can create their own podcasts! Last summer we launched a three-part series encouraging kids to make their own kids' podcasts. You can find the episodes here: 1.20 Make Your Own Kid Podcast 1 1.21 Make Your Own Kid Podcast 2 1.22 Make Your Own Kid Podcast 3 Thank you to The Middle School Mind listeners and even our future listeners. We enjoyed making these episodes together and sharing them with you. This time was special for us and we will look back at this show as an amazing point in time where we talked about what was on Son's mind or relevant pop culture during this time. If you loved listening to the show and want to connect with us, e-mail us at: middleschoolmind.podcast@gmail.com. We are happy to connect if you want to talk about creating your own podcast for your child or, potentially, if you are interested in having your middle schooler take over The Middle School Mind, let's chat. We always knew that The Middle School Mind was going to last at most, 3 years, with Son and I. But amazing shows like Star Trek had Star Trek: The Next Generation and Saved By The Bell had Saved By The Bell: The New Class introduced a new cast of characters while providing new stories and fresh perspectives. It would be amazing to have a Mother/Daughter voice leading the show or a parent/child from a different part of the country or even a completely different country! It's the unique perspectives that help us all learn and appreciate each other. Enjoy The Goodbye Episode and thank you for being part of our show. Sincerely, Father & Son — Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/themiddleschoolmind/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/themiddleschoolmind/support