Whenever I tell people that I teach middle school it’s usually followed by groans, moans, and the person saying, “God bless you.” I always thought that this was interesting because with the appropriate preparation, I didn’t mind teaching middle school at all. Middle school students can be very enjoyable to teach as they are developing into young adults.

Some people say middle school students are the hardest group of students to teach. They say all of the emotional, physical, and social changes can be a lot all at once for the students to take on and I agree with that. However, that doesn’t mean that teaching middle school is impossible or the worst job ever. Many teachers are intimidated by teaching middle school and avoid teaching this age group at all costs. Whether you’re an experienced middle school teacher or someone who has just got their first middle school job, hopefully you can take something helpful away from this article.

Here are my 15 tips for teaching middle school.

1. Plan for the Year

One tip I would highly recommend any middle school teacher to do would be to plan. There’s so much to plan when teaching middle school and planning can eliminate so many problems in middle school classrooms.

One way to be proactive with your planning is to read your standards before you teach it. Whatever grade or subjects you are teaching, print out the state standards. Read them through a couple times. Maybe even read the grade above and below to really understand what you are teaching. Knowing your standards will help you throughout the school year to stay on track and not teach unneeded information. This will help you feel better prepared and you will know what you are teaching. 

Curriculum mapping or long-term planning would be an excellent thing to do once you have read your standards. Now, you probably won’t be able to make super detailed plans but just map out some ideas. For example, what standards will you teach each semester or 9 weeks? This will help you out a ton during the year. Maybe jot down some ideas (projects or lesson ideas) for each standard while you are reading them, so you are better prepared when you actually go to the teach the standard during the year. Also, think about those big projects you may want to do during the end of the year. Look through the teacher’s manual so you know what to expect. Also, evaluate whether you will think you will need extra resources so you allow time to do so during weekly lesson planning.

Also, take a look at your schedule. You may have a set schedule you have to follow for your school or grade level. For example, lunch times, morning times, or when to teach each subject may not be an option for you to change. My advice is to talk to your grade level team or your principal to understand the schedule and start planning. If it is a set schedule, request a copy of it. If not, start to plan what you want your day to look like. Even if you do have a set schedule, you will probably need to make decisions on how your periods will run. How will you start and end class? Looking at your schedule and planning will help you to be better prepared for the school year.

There is a lot of planning to do but it will pay off.

2. Consider your Procedures

Procedures are crucial to any classroom. The way you run your middle school classroom and the procedures you put in place are so important and should be considered before the school year even starts. That being said, you can always try to change or edit procedures during the school year but it is more difficult. It is far easier if you do it to begin the school year before your students get used to one way of doing things.

One of my favorite procedures on the middle school level is hand signs. I have hand signs for restroom, questions, help, and drink. When I first started doing hands signs in middle school some of my fellow teachers thought it was a little bit silly and the students wouldn’t accept the procedure. My students actually loved it, because they found it to be less intrusive. The students used the restroom sign and they didn’t have to raise their hand to announce they had to go to the restroom to the whole class. All they had to do is show me the hand sign and I would just nod my head yes and they would be on their way.

There are tons of procedures that you can implement to make your classroom run and operate in a better way. You should take some time to consider how your classroom is going to operate. Every teacher is different but I highly recommend this article that we wrote on some of the best classroom procedures (check it out here). Not all are appropriate for middle school, but it is a great starting point.

This is a tip for all teachers but any middle school teacher should strongly consider the procedures for your age group before the year begins. How are your students entering the classroom? How are they exiting the classroom? What is the first thing they do when they enter the classroom? Think about what procedures are going to be part of your classroom.

3. Make a Management Plan

Another tip is that you should have a management plan for your middle school students. It amazes me that many teachers don’t consider a management plan before the year starts. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best teacher in the world, you’re still going to have students challenge your procedures, rules, and expectations from time to time.

If you know that students are going to challenge or break your rules and procedures, why wouldn’t you have a management plan set up before the year starts to deal with these situations? You should consider your rules and consequences and how you’re going to administer these consistently throughout the year. Having a good and consistent management plan can eliminate so many problems on the middle school level. When your students know what you expect and that you’re consistent with them, they will typically get in line with your expectations. The question is, do you have a management plan? Have you considered your rules? And have you considered your consequences for violations of those rules?

I want to suggest an excellent article on rules and consequences (click here to check it out) that my wife wrote and our philosophies are both in unison on this issue. Below is a picture of some of her management plan and how she manages consequences in her classroom.

I had a very similar system just with a few variations with the number of infractions. When students know how you administer consequences in relation to your rules, it typically makes things go a whole lot better. Be consistent and develop a management plan that aligns with your school’s administration expectations. Everywhere is a little different, but for middle school, I would recommend some sort of management plan.

4. Prepare a First Days of School PowerPoint

If this is your first year as a middle school teacher or even if you’ve taught for many years, you need to think about the first days of schools. The first days of school are so important and set the tone and expectations for the rest of the year. Don’t let your nerves get the best of you, have a script for the first days of school.

I know this sounds intense but I put my script in the form of a PowerPoint. There are things I have to go over at the beginning of every school year. I don’t want to forget to tell my students about the procedures or the way that my middle school classroom runs. So, I make sure I put procedures in my PowerPoint. I don’t want to forget to talk to the students about rules and consequences, so I put it in my PowerPoint. The PowerPoint is my script and without it, I would be lost and a lot of things that I should’ve talked about would be forgotten. Make your PowerPoint or your script and be ready when your students walk in the door the first time. You will know exactly what you want to go over and deliver it perfectly. The Powerpoint is my note cards as I set the expectations and the tone for the school year.

For an example of many of the things I go over and my first day of school PowerPoint, click here to find it on our TPT store.

I HIGHLY recommend reading “The First Days of School” by Harry Wong. This book literally saved my first year of teaching. The summer before I started my first year of teaching, I read this book. It suggests this strategy of a PowerPoint script and it saved my first year of teaching.

My wife also has an article on her First Days of School, click here to read it.

5. Maintain a Clean and Functional Space

Seems like having a clean and functional space would go without saying. However, throughout the school year it’s so easy for your classroom to get cluttered and messy before you know it. All that clutter and messiness does is slow you down and give your middle school students time to get you off track. When you’re organized, your students notice. When you’re not organized, your students notice.

All of your resources should be organized in a way that you can find them easily. Also, when your materials are organized this helps you from year to year to save prep time. Worksheets and handouts are all grouped together in the same section in the order that you are teaching them. To see how we organize our resources with three ring binders based off the standards, click here.

You need every minute in a middle school classroom to teach, you can’t afford to have downtime for your middle school students because they’ll make use of it in devious ways. If you’re organized, you will have the assignments ready for the day and tasks to do even when the students finish early. Your middle school classes will get along a lot better if you are organized and ready. Organization is key, even with your cabinets, your paperwork, and in all areas of your teaching.

6. Consider Minimal Classroom Decorations

This tip is a little bit more a matter of opinion. Although there is some interesting research on decorations and student achievement. Some studies suggest too many decorations can be distracting. Others suggest that decorations that have a practical function can boost student achievement in certain areas. Personally, in my middle school classroom, I go with a little less decoration approach. A lot of stuff in my classroom has a practical purpose like the periodic table. Although I do have some posters around my room that are just for decoration.

Decorating your classroom can take a lot of time to maintain and set up which takes away time from planning and other things important to your coming year of teaching. “Less is more” is my approach when it comes to classroom decorations. I like functional decorations that make an impact on student achievement and learning. Students at the end of the year remember you and your teaching far more than your classroom decorations. The great thing about education is all teachers are different with different personalities and different rooms. This is something you might consider to keep your life a little bit simpler.

7. Build Relationships

Honestly, relationships are perhaps one of the most important management aspects when it comes to middle school. Your relationships with your students can help eliminate, reduce, and even completely avoid many management problems. There are all kinds of situations that come up throughout a middle school year. All kinds of drama, dating, gossip, and other situations can impact your classroom. Social media has totally changed the dynamic of how students communicate. One student can say something else to another student on social media and sometimes the school has no idea what’s happening when they leave the school in this social arena. A lot of times this is where many situations develop that boil over into your middle school classroom.

Maintaining and building relationships is an extremely helpful tool in managing all the things that come with middle school students. Try to stay above the fray and don’t get pulled into the drama too much but be there as a supporter, helper, and defuser in their time of need.

The reality is relationships all start with a name and slowly but surely, build from there. I recommend reading our article on six ways to build relationships here, which can put you on a path to building stronger relationships that will last and help you manage your classroom.

Relationships are so crucial to the middle school setting. Relationships should not be undervalued, but developed and fostered.

8. Utilize Team Building Activities

Another tip is that I like to build a sense of community and teamwork in my middle school classes. Eventually our students go out to the workplace and have to work with a variety of individuals from different backgrounds. This is why I think an excellent thing to incorporate into your middle school teaching is team building activities. There are all kinds of team building activities that you can find all over Pinterest. Try to find some that you like and incorporate them into your classes to build classroom community and teambuilding skills. These skills are essential to our students’ futures. The ability to work with and communicate with others seems to be becoming a lost art. My favorite team building activities in my classroom are with paper STEM activities. Click here for some great paper STEM activities that will challenge your students minds and communication skills as they try to accomplish the task.

9. Be Consistent with Everything

A huge tip for middle school is be consistent with everything that you do. In particular with your management but just being a consistent teacher gives your students some stability and comfort. At the middle school level, students start to notice if you treat them differently and if certain students get special treatment. It is important as educators that we are fair and consistent with our rules and consequences. It’s amazing how quickly your students can pick up on your inconsistency. For example, “Well, Johnny did this the other day and he didn’t get detention.” Sometimes our students’ comments have some truth in them even if we don’t like it.

Your students are watching you and how you treat every single person in your classroom. Do you give some students special treatment? If you do, your students know it. Whenever you make a mistake in relation to your consistency try to correct it as quickly as possible. Being consistent is in your best interest but also the best interest of your students. Students have all kinds of inconsistency in their lives and all kinds of struggles. You may be the most consistent part your students’ lives.

10. Start the Year Harder than you Think you Should

You may have heard the saying, “Don’t smile until Christmas.” I don’t think that this is really completely true but I guess there are elements of truth to it. Every year, I have thought I wish I would’ve started a little harder and called out bad behavior sooner. Maybe this is just a weakness for me, but I have found the quicker I address bad behavior the better. You may think students talking out a little at the beginning of the year isn’t a big deal at first, but when you can’t even teach a lesson a month in, it’s a huge deal! 

The harder you start out the better. You will naturally get softer as the year goes on, so start as hard as you can. This does not mean you shouldn’t smile until Christmas. That’s ridiculous. I’m just saying that you need to be aware that whatever you let slide is going to get worse. Make sure students know that you are serious and they are at school to learn. This is a tip that I try to remind myself of every year.

11. Say NO More Often to your Students

I know that we want to be nice teachers and be liked, but be careful what you let go on in your classroom. I had an extremely hard time saying no to student requests that weren’t necessary “bad.” For example, “Can we sit where we want?” Initially saying yes might not cause any problems, but as more students ask to move and the volume raises in your classroom, you might wish you would have just said no. When a good student asks if they can finish up homework instead of doing the computer program everyone else is doing, just say no. I found my first year that one yes to a good student was essentially a yes for all students. This would have caused me less management problems if I had cut the request off with a simple no.

I thought saying no would make my students mad and not like me. But I quickly learned that they bounce back pretty quickly. Once you start saying yes, you have to be careful because everyone will want to do it. Think about what the student is asking and remember it is okay to say no. Some students even respect you more because you are willing to draw a line in the sand and stick to it.

12. Be Prepared for the End of the Year

When any school year winds down it gets crazy. It doesn’t matter the grade, or school, everyone seems to get excited as the year comes to a end. Students start doing things they wouldn’t dare do in the beginning of the school year. The way to combat this is to have strong procedures and consistent rules and consequences. After end of year testing, students check out and sometimes they don’t want to do anymore work in middle school. You need a plan for the end of the year when students start to adopt this thinking.

On the middle school level for whatever reason, they start to think that once the testing is over the school year is over even if you have a whole month of school left. I wish I would’ve considered this issue more my first year teaching. As my first year came to a close, I slowly started having more problems in my classroom because my consistency dropped and I wasn’t prepared. How I dealt with it in the following years was by having projects that are fun and engaging for the students as the year comes to a close. I would do various projects that engaged students in groups. I focused the projects on their interests and what we had learned that school year.

My wife does this on the elementary level but I’ve also adopted the same recipe for the middle school level. Here is my wife’s article on how she handles the end of the year. How are you going to handle the end of the year testing with your students and the days that follow?

13. Look for Ways to Make Life Easier

Teaching is a very challenging and time-consuming profession. Anyway to make it easier and less time-consuming should be considered. You should ask teachers and colleagues how they make their teaching life easier. I remeber I was having a conversation with a fellow teacher and they mentioned electronic testing to me for the first time. From that point on, I start developing electronic tests and this has saved me hours of time. I still grade essays and questions like that, but if the computer can grade some of my students’ work that is great. If you would like to learn more about elective testing click here.

There are all kinds of tricks of the trade that I don’t know about that other teachers do. Pintrest is such a blessing to see all kinds of tips and ideas to implement into your own classroom. Your colleagues and friends in the school are a great resource to learn about the best and most efficient ways to make your life easier. Every moment you save can be added to your personal life or investing it to better yourself to help your students.

14. Take Breaks from Teaching

All teachers need a break from time to time. A tip for teaching middle school is taking time to relax and de-stress from your job. Teaching can be extremely draining as the year goes on. Don’t be afraid to take a day off from teaching. You may need that day off, so do not feel bad about it! 

I would try to schedule my doctor’s appointments and my children’s doctor’s appointment on Mondays or Fridays and just take off the whole day. I preferred Mondays and Fridays because it felt like an extension to the weekend. This was nice to take care of stuff I needed to do and have a little time off to recharge.

Teacher burn out is a real thing. You want to enjoy your career and you don’t want to burn out. A way to make these days easier to call off is by having a sub binder ready for the days you call off. Here is the link to that article.

15. Be Confident in your Abilities

Teachers have many different personalities and run their classrooms differently. Sometimes these teachers will have a lot of experience. You can learn a lot from these teachers! They know a lot about teaching and you can always ask for advice. Sometimes, though, there are teachers that aren’t so nice to you and think your “new” way of doing things isn’t right or isn’t worth the time. 

Have confidence when it comes to the new ideas and your teaching. If you think it will work in your classroom, then try it. It doesn’t always matter what anyone else thinks. Sometimes older teachers get stuck in their ways and don’t like change. Don’t let it discourage you. Stick with what you are doing if it works for you. Put in the time to prepare and be the best you can be and your confidence will grow. Be confident in yourself and your abilities.

I hope these 15 tips will help you become a better middle school teacher!

Thank you for Continually Learning with us!

Kyle and Sarah

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