I am a first year teacher in elementary - so I do not have the
expertise of many in this list. When I student taught middle school
my sister (a middle school teacher) always tried to coach me on
working with middle schoolers. She talked a lot about them needing
to know that you cared - even when it was more of the tough love.
I found that the kids behaved better when they liked the project they
were working on. With eighth grade I had them do a contour line
drawing of one of their shoes which they then transformed into a
vehicle & colored in with colored pencils. A few complained at first
about smelly shoes / feet at first - but we opened the windows (it
was warmer) and they got over it and seemed to enjoy it.
It seemed to me that middle schoolers were happier when the projects
related to them directly or related to their interests. Also with
eighth grade I introduced them to Surrealism & the exquisite corpse
and they did the pass the paper exquisite corpse game as a warm up.
Then they looked at magazine pictures of different animals and had to
make a combination animal to design for a video game. With seventh
grade I had students decorate donated cigar boxes to tell me about
themselves and their interests. Also, if a new process or art
material is exciting they work better. My seventh graders made a
cardboard relief of a face which they wrapped with aluminum foil
(foil repousse) and colored with sharpies. They complained while
making the cardboard relief but got really excited about the aluminum
foil.
I really struggled with middle school (I came home in tears more than
once). One thing that did not work for me was reprimanding one
student while the whole class was watching - it seemed to foster an
atmosphere of them vs. me. I student taught elementary school first
and the elementary kids want a bond with the teacher but the middle
school kids seemed much more concerned with their relationships with
each other and how they look in front of others. Pulling students
aside for punishment seemed to work better for me. Another thing
that I think was helpful was circulating while the students were
working and talking to each kid individually - and not just about
their artwork. I think that the more I was able to make personal
connections with individual students, the better the classes went as
a whole.
Anyway, I am not an expert with middle school by any means, but
hopefully part of this was helpful! Best of luck to you & I hope you
are feeling better!
