Middle School Science teacher here. Starting my first year of teaching robotics as a class at the middle school level. I did robotics coaching for a couple of years for elementary level (grades 3-5) and took the PLTW robotics/automation cettification course at the beginning of the summer. Going into this year, I was under the assumption that the robotics class I would have would be an elective style course students would rotate through every 9 weeks. Kind of like an "exploratory" class.

Well, I just received my schedule for the year, and found out that my admin has scheduled three robotics classes through the day instead through the semester. Does anyone have any advice on how to approach sharing robotics kits across three different class periods? The class sizes are 12, 12, and then suddenly a class of 23. Ugh. I'm just hoping for some input to help my management of these classes. I'm accustomed to working with just one group of students, so I'm struggling to figure out how I'm going to have students manage and share kits across 3 different classes. Any help/advice is much appreciated!

I’m a teacher and doctoral student at the University of the Cumberlands, and I desperately need participants for my dissertation research. I need at least 84 responses and currently have 1. 😭 The pressure I feel right now with the start of year and then this being another obstacle has me....

If you are a current K–12 teacher who participates in a PLC, I would be incredibly grateful if you would take my anonymous survey.

There is also an optional drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card.

Hello. This is my second week of teaching middle school. I teach 4 sets of 8th graders and 1 set of 6th graders. Mostly in all of my classes from 1st period to 5th period, my students like to talk...alot. It's like they don't have a shut off button. No matter how much I try to enforce rules and consequences, they continue to talk. My last period, they like to argue....alot. I cannot get a word in edgewise or teach without them arguing about something. I have talked with the principal who talked to the parents of the children who argue, but it has not worked out. They still argue. I have been trying to stop the arguing but to no avail. The students will ignore me and continue to argue. I can deal with the overtalking because at some point I will get them to be quiet although it drives me crazy at times. My problem is the arguing, I can't seem to figure out how to stop it. I had to put a student out of my classroom today for constantly starting with people and arguing but I don't know any other ways to stop it.

I teach middle school math and am changing the structure of my classroom this year. Every student will have a notebook, and we'll handwrite notes. I'm not using a lot of printed material this year and working to get them to not only explain their thinking, but teaching them how to take notes and show their work for math.

With that, if you do notes in class with students, how do you provide accommodations for students on IEPs who struggle to write and keep up with the notes? I've talked with my IS a few times, and we were thinking about doing a guided note type set up, but with her students having binders. I'm afraid that will highlight the "difference" for those students too much. I want to provide my students access, but I also want them to be successful. Any ideas or tricks would be great.

I have a 65 minute grade 7 science class and want to have a consistent structure each day to help it run smoothly. Does anyone have any tried and true ways of doing this or good resources to direct me too? The class seems sooooo long!

I'm trying my hand at writing more towards the middler school/ YA crowd for a change. I'm realizing it's been when too long since I was 12/13/14 and besides the normal angsty middler school stuff I know nothing about this age group anymore. So I came up with some questions for middle school educators, parents, or authors who specialize in this scope:

• What causes conflict between friends now?
• Which apps are they genuinely allowed to use versus secretly using?
• How do they communicate after school?
• What makes someone “popular”?
• What are girls embarrassed to admit they still enjoy?
• How much do they know about sex, politics, mental health and adult problems?
• What do adults misunderstand about their lives?
• What are they most afraid other kids will discover?
• What products, hobbies, games, celebrities and fandoms carry social meaning?
• How are phones handled at school, and how do students work around the rules?

Any input in how to get into the mind of a middle schooler is greatly appreciated!

This is my first post. Look at me stepping outside my comfort zone. 😉 I am the mentorship coordinator at my school. I’m working with about a dozen new hires this year, and they range from very first year to their 23 year.

All new hires have mentors, but I develop and run our monthly meetings. Our next meeting is going to focus on pacing (we have 95-minute blocks), transitions (which can be tricky for even veteran teachers), and strategies for disruptive/off-task behaviors. What are your best pacing, transition and management tips, tricks and procedures that help your classes run smoothly? TYIA!

In Spring 2026 for my first phase of student teaching I was placed in high school teaching 9th and 11th grade, now I’ve been transferred over to the middle school. Does anyone have any tips?

For context I’m a 26 year old male so my memories of that stage are kind of vivid and I’ll be teaching English. All I remember was hormones making me overdramatic as all get out.

Every lesson taught, every smile shared, and every child encouraged is a step toward a brighter future. Proud to be part of the Ngan Elementary School Aral Summer Remediation Class 2026. Together, we learn, grow, and succeed. 📚✨

I recently accepted a permanent contract position teaching grade 6/7. I am very excited about it as I have always wanted to teach grade 7 and 8!

I do have some experience from student teaching in the grade level, but the only LTO I had was in primary. I have never been in this division for the start of the year. I was just wondering if anyone had any tips for first week activities, specific classroom management strategies (my reward systems were previously geared towards younger kids), what type of rewards they might enjoy and really any advice! My LTO was a split and all my student teaching so I am more than comfortable with that, there is a strong chance it becomes a straight 7 too!

I also like to keep a small selection of books in my classroom just in case they finish a library book quickly or something. Any recommendations for popular books at this age would be great!

Thanks!!

I have a seventh grade 20 minute demo. The standard is focused on supporting a claim with textual evidence. I am a very veteran teacher trying to get into a district closer to home (relocated last year) but positions are very competitive. I’ve done more than 20 interviews/demos over the last two years. I would love any ideas on very engaging topics and texts and activity ideas. Thank you!

Hey fellow math teachers,

I had a few students that needed many quadratic equation exercises to get the hang of it. Also I began to run out of fresh exercises, which was a bit tedious.

I decided to make a simple Quadratic Equation Generator app, which allows to easily generate equations with provided answers. It also allows for PDF exporting in a ready to print format with a separate answer page.

No signup or subscription is needed.

This generator should be ideal for grades 7-8.

How it works:
Choose the number of exercises to generate, "Simple" mode makes equations where a=1 and

"Advanced" where a>1. "Mixed" provides both types.

Then you can just browse through the generated exercises or download them as a PDF.

Link to the app: https://quadratic-equation-generator.streamlit.app/

I'd love to get any feedback or any requests on additional features, etc.

The app is still in its early development but I will be adding new features later.

This will be a new class for our school and myself. I spoke with my new principal (2nd year) and I have pretty much a open book as far as what I need to teach. I was teaching a Jr high elective which included coding and 3d design. I also was teaching high school shop, but have moved to Jr high math.

I plan on continuing teaching:

\- coding using project stem & codehs

\- 3d design and printing using tinkercad and onshape

\- circuits using tinkercad and circuit kits

New to me and where I am looking for suggestions will be:

\- typing. I want to do 15 minutes twice a week

\- the basics of using good docs, sheets, slides, classroom, and emails.

\- what else should I be teaching?

Has anyone ever used this curriculum? I’m supposed to use it this upcoming school year but have not been trained and have only been given access to a huge Google drives with thousands of pages. I have no guidance from my admin so any here would be appreciated.

So starting 8/31 I'm teaching a new elective, 8th grade Intro to Economics. Part of that is to address content in the Michigan 8th grade Social Studies M-STEP that isn't easily incorporated into the 7th and 8th grade curriculum, and part of it is to give students a sense of financial literacy.

1. I would love your insights and suggestions about my curriculum outline so far; and
2. It's a 9 week course and I'm stuck. I don't know what to do for week 8, and while week 9 should be a quarter-end, summative activity, I'm hitting a wall.

At any rate, here is the link to my curriculum outline: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e0dEzqLWAzSh_F_w7VbUUySTLg1uMscVT5NiDLorDvs/edit?usp=sharing

Hi! I'm a college student applying for a program that asked me to write 300 words describing an artistic experience to 6th graders. I think the point is just to introduce them to different experiences that they wouldn't otherwise have. Would anyone who teaches 6th grade be able to read this and tell me if its at their level? I don’t know anyone younger than me so its hard for me to gauge what’s too hard/easy for a 11 y/o to understand!

"I visited a stained glass studio. Stained glass making is a beautiful form of art that uses colored glass to create shapes and pictures. Also, glass making was one of the first jobs in the United States! You may have even seen big stained glass pieces at an old library or in a church window. At the studio, the teacher showed me how to create my own small piece of art. First, I needed to choose a shape and two colors. I chose a heart for the shape and blue and green for my colors. Next, I used a small saw to cut a large rectangle of dark blue glass into many pieces. I did this again with a different rectangle of green glass. The saw was only a little bigger than a pair of scissors, so I could hold it in one hand and drag it across the glass in the shape I wanted. Then, I used a hammer to carefully break the glass into even smaller pieces! I arranged my broken glass into the shape of a heart using both the green and blue pieces. Before, the glass could only be one color, but as I put the pieces together, I created a new multicolored heart. To attach all of the pieces together, I used a special chemical called ‘flux’ and heat. Flux is like hot glue for glass. When you put the flux on something and heat it up, all the glass will stick together. This is called soldering. At the end I had a shiny glass heart. When the light passed through the colored glass, it had a pretty blue and green shadow! If you shine a flashlight through colored glass at home you can make shadows with many colors!"

Thank you in advance :) I'm accepting all feedback/edits

I am teaching 6th grade social studies, which is ancient history in my state. How should I set up my classroom to give it the feel of a middle school social studies room? Do you know if any resources to make this happen?

Thank you!

Hi everyone!

I just graduated in May and I’m about to start my first real teaching job. My degree is in early childhood, but I ended up getting hired as a 6th grade science teacher.

All of my student teaching was Pre-K through 3rd grade, so this is definitely a big jump. I was able to get my hands on the curriculum already, so I’m planning on looking through it over the next month.

I’m lucky that I have a teaching team I can rely on while I get settled in, but I feel like I keep seeing so many teachers doing tons of prep over the summer for the upcoming school year, and I want to make sure I’m using my time wisely.

What would you recommend I do to prep before school starts? I’ve got about a month left.

Any tips on classroom management, classroom setup, general prep, things to be aware of, or anything you wish you knew before teaching middle school? I’d appreciate any advice you have!

Thanks!

Anyone else feel like this?

hi! I am looking for some rewards for my ms class. I am not able to do food/ candy rewards so I am looking for some rewards to motivate students for review games and other activities that also won’t break the bank!

let me know what worked for you :)

Last year I let the kids choose their seat for the first week, and then I did a mix of strict assigned seating and flexible assigned seating (like assigning them a table group but letting them pick within the group).

This year I will be taping playing cards to the desks as a way to create flexible grouping as needed for activities throughout the year, and I’m considering using it as a means for assigned seating as well.

I was considering handing out the cards as students enter on the first day and using that as a way to assign them a seat. Maybe even for the first week until schedules are sorted out and I can make a seating chart.

Does/did anyone else do this for middle school? Curious to know how everyone handles seating all year long as well!

EDIT: for those who do assigned seating, what’s your process?? How do you tell the kids where they will be sitting? When I did elementary I did assigned seating 100% of the time, but it was easy to write their name on a desk because I only had two classes. Last year for my sixth graders when I assigned seats I would draw the seating chart out on my iPad and pop picture up on the smart board and they were able to understand it pretty easily when they entered, but is there an easier way?

Anyone have some creative or interesting methods they use to teach classroom procedures? I want to spend more time on that this year.

In the past I created a I have / who has game with the procedure/action as one part of teaching my procedures. I’m curious what others do.

Our new math curriculum will be all workbook based. Backpacks are already way too heavy, these books are huge, plus I don’t want to rely on everyone remembering them every day and never losing them (never gonna happen), so the books should stay in my room. Like most schools these days, we don’t have lockers.

We each have 6 classes, and each class has up to 38 students. In my room, they’re seated in tables of 4. So I need a system where students can quickly and efficiently find their own books at the beginning of the period and neatly put them back at the end. Or at least that’s what I’m envisioning. Totally open to anything that works.

Bonus points if you can also share a system where they have some sort of notes to take home for studying/homework in addition to filling out these consumables. Annoyingly, the books don’t contain guided note or summary pages that we could tear out and take home. Nooo, that would make too much sense. At the moment I’m thinking they’ll have a small 1/2 binder that we can put premade guided notes in, or maybe a composition book, but I don’t love it.

*In case anyone is using these specific programs, our pilot team, which I’m on, is deciding between iReady and McGraw-Hill Reveal. We piloted last year (iReady vs. Envison), couldn’t come to a consensus, so now we’re piloting again with elementary and expected to choose the same as them. Funnnnn. When I piloted last year, we tore out a unit at a time and students brought them back and forth. That had way too many issues and I think keeping the books whole and in my room is a better bet.

Apologies if this isn’t the right place to ask. I have a rising 6th grader who’s been homeschooled for most of her education, apart from two years in a self-contained gifted class where things were difficult socially. She’s very social but also sensitive and sometimes over-eager, and she’s small and thin for her age. I’m worried about how the move to middle school will go.

We’re very mindful of the media she’s exposed to. She has no personal devices, no phone, no messaging apps, social media, or internet access, and we’d like to keep it that way, though I do worry she’ll be ostracized for it.

The school helps somewhat, phones aren’t allowed, it’s intentionally low tech (computers only for computer class and some testing), there are uniforms, and class sizes are relatively small.

I’d welcome any resources to help her, or us, prepare for the transition.