The first couple of years that I taught at the private school where I've
been for 6 years, I had one class of middle school students all year,
every day (in addition to high school students). We've since gone to a
rotating arts schedule for middle school (art, music, woodworking and
photography) and I'll admit that I like it much, much better and I also
feel that it's better for the kids. My current group of middle
schoolers (mainly 8th grade boys) will be moving to their next rotation
after this Friday and I'm quite ready for the next group, only as a way
of saying farewell to this group. ;-) (They're all good kids, but
they're 8th grade boys--'nuff said!)
Still, having middle school kids all year is quite do-able in terms of
having enough stuff for them to do, and the opportunity to do less
running between schools and having more pay (and benefits?) by working
full time sounds good. The fact that it's non-block will probably work
to your advantage, too.
