In our article titled "Transforming Middle School Practice Through Instructional Technology," we shared how our district has approached systematic growth by intertwining twin focuses on middle level education and...

In This We Believe, the Association for Middle Level Education stresses the importance of understanding the unique developmental needs of our middle level students in designing appropriate learning environments and...

The eighth-grade girl approached Tom Adams in the cafeteria. "Dylan just asked out Samantha as a joke," she said. "Now he's laughing about it with his friends, and Samantha is sitting at our table crying." Adams, the...

It didn't take long to realize Marissa was not going to be focused on the day's lesson. Shortly after arriving in class, she took her seat, placed her head in her hands, and started crying. She shared that her best...

I hated middle school. It seemed like a cruel joke almost 20 years ago that the only job I could find was teaching remedial English to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. When I tell my students that I hated middle...

Hanna's adoption was never a secret. It was a fact of life, like her black hair and her fear of spiders. She didn't give it a lot of thought until she turned 13. At the beginning of seventh grade, she desperately...

The Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) emphasizes that attending to the social, intellectual, emotional, and physical needs and assets of middle school children is central to their intellectual development....

I bet you didn't know that you signed up to be a triage nurse now did you? Meeting the social, emotional, and academic needs of middle school students is a lot like working the triage desk in a busy hospital. The...

In recent years, there has been a renewed focus on intentionally fostering kindness and practicing peer respect. We don't want youth to simply not do the wrong thing, but do what is right instead—treat their...

Sean sat in the big gray chair in my office, his head between his knees. "I have no friends anymore," he said. I handed him a box of tissues and he wiped his eyes. "No one will talk to me. If I try to sit at someone's...