Middle Years Schooling

The middle years of schooling are difficult on students; they have so much to deal with, physical and emotional changes as well as the expectations of adults all around them. Students enter the middle school, often with little or no preparation for the enormous changes middle schooling brings.
They have had a classroom teacher for 7-8 years and suddenly they may have up to 8 different teachers, all with different styles to get used to and all with different expectations. They are coping with moving from room to room, remembering to bring particular books and items, perhaps having to remember different seating plans. These changes are enormous and the transition period is especially important when preparing students for their middle schooling.
Some schools introduce a part classroom teacher/ part specialist teacher program in year 7 (this is more easily done in a p-12 school) with the intention of preparing students for year 8.
The school I am in now takes the opposite approach, years 7-9 have a classroom teacher for all subjects except art, LOTE and electives. This appears to work well, but some feel the problems are not avoided,they are just pushed back to grade 10.
The idea is that a more settled environment can help students through this difficult period, but only time will tell. Interestingly, Spollard ( as cited in Knipe 2007) found that when surveyed, the majority of Year 7 students preferred to have different teachers at secondary school. Although middle school advocates support smaller numbers of teachers in the middle school years with the intention of promoting a positive experience for students, the students themselves don’t see the need for the changes. They consider good facilities and a quality physical environment to be a more important aspects of a school ( Knipe 2007)

There are certainly huge benefits to having a classroom teacher for the middle years; it allows the student/teacher relationship to develop fully over the year as well as allowing the teacher to gain a very in depth understanding of each student. One teacher is better able to be informed of any social/emotional problems his/ her student is having and deal with those problems, whereas when a teacher has different classes and different year levels all in one week, keeping up with each student is very challenging.
I see my own Mentor Teacher being able to take an active interest in every student in her class; she knows each family situation, what might be happening, events which may affect learning and what can be done. There is constant communication between the teacher and the student counsellor (for the students with problems) and issues can be quickly and efficiently dealt with.

The Middle phase can be make or break time for some students, they need to be challenged, engaged and able to see the link between their learning and the real world. Middle school teachers need to provide support for students while they muddle their way through the maze of adolescence, support in learning, support in making decisions and being responsible, support in becoming independent and support as they begin to explore becoming an adult.

References
Knipe, S (2007). Middle Years Schooling, Frenchs Forest, Pearson Education Australia