Are you ready? It's coming. That inevitable confrontation. It's coming and you know it. You versus them. Head to head. Will you have time to lace up or will it be too late? You play it out in your mind: POW! They...

For the life of me, I cannot remember having a significant interaction in middle school with my peers who had disabilities. I'm not a particularly forgetful person; I have many memories from my small town middle...

Welcome to another epic year. I figured it out, and I want you to figure it out, too. Happy people outperform unhappy people. How do I get to that happy place? Climate and culture have a profound impact on student and...

The Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) emphasizes the importance of creating a successful school for young adolescents that is inviting, supportive, safe, and joyful in order to support students' emotional...

Musicals can serve as rich sources for student learning, especially when staged at your own school. While musicals are considered entertainment, they can serve as strong curriculum resources. Stage, film, and TV...

Middle schools and summer camps play different roles in society. Middle schools are a legally required step in a child's development meant to prepare them for college and career, while summer camps are often elective...

iGen, a term used by generational researcher Jean M. Twenge (2017), is used to describe children born between 1995 and 2012. In her book, Twenge analyzed large data sets to understand the struggles and hopes of this...

Exclusion, discrimination, bullying—all are in the headlines on a daily basis, but change is ahead. It is time for an inclusion revolution, and our middle level students can help lead the way by becoming part of...

Background For many years educators have used punishment, or fear of punishment, as the primary deterrent to student misconduct. We have tried zero tolerance, excessive use of in-school suspension (ISS) and out of...

As a building principal whose days are filled with countless observations, emails, and student interactions, it's easy to forget that there really is a world outside of my wonderful middle school. Over the last...