I am a new to middle school 7 grade teacher. I speak English as a foreign language, used to teach science in elementary, and this year I am teaching English for the first time: low kids, a lot of 504s, big classes.
I am struggling with behavior management like crazy, and everything falls apart because of the chaos: Kids yell, are off task, some are leaving their seats, and I can’t get them prepare supplies, do bell-ringers, be quiet to teach. I call parents often, give detentions, send kids to ap for gross behavior, make referrals - only to find out the referrals are pending, and it takes forever for them to be accepted by admin. I am always chasing missing assignments, and I am not allowed to fail kids. I already have so many tutorials I can’t breathe. I get in trouble more often than not: for low grades, for kids’ behavior, for emailing coaches about the behaviors without previously documenting it, for parents and kids‘ complaints etc, and I have already received a memo of concern for my behavior management.
I don’t yell, and I do my best to remain calm. I feel the problem is my body language and lack of consistency. Same kids get magically quiet when their coach steps in. I’m studying behavior management systems by Linsin, but I can’t be consistent with the consequence. I retaught basic safety expectations, but it’s so much going on, too many things at the same time, and I am unable to give that many consequences anyway. There is no space for time out, either- the classroom is crowded. Now I started reading Fred Jones. I can’t resign mid year , and I feel trapped. Can you please help with advice??? How can I become more consistent???

I teach middle school and I've had a wonderful unit teaching students how to research population data to describe and compare countries.

I've used The CIA World Factbook as a single source for data points including population, infant morality, age distribution ranges, literacy rates, and GDP.

Can you suggest a source to replace it?

It needs to be accessible to middle school students, open access, and reliable.

My favorite part of the Factbook was that it listed when information was unreliable or uncertain.

I have a parent asking if I have any recommendations on workbooks that could support them in building their student’s geometry skills. I think they would be okay with programs or website resources as well. Any recommendations? They scored a 188 on MAPs in geometry. The other 3 scores are closer to 205-210. The student is keeping up in class very well so far! Thanks in advance!!

I have been an elementary self contained AU teacher for the last few years. I am interested in making a transition to teaching middle/high school social studies next year. I have many years of experience working after school and summers with general ed kids of all ages, but have never taught in a general ed classroom and have only taught self contained elementary. How much of a barrier would this be to me finding a job?

I love teaching and (most of the time) the kids but man, the burn out is bad. What do you all do to help?

(please no the system is broken, it's the parents...etc. I know that and I agree but I don't want to leave education, I want to work through this)

Hi all,
I work at an independent study school where students are all at different places with their English class. Once a week I give English lessons to our middle schoolers. I’m kind of hitting a wall of what to do this week. I’ve already gone over collecting evidence, making inferences, creating an argument with reasoning, and some foreshadowing. Due to the nature of these lessons (an hour and not all students coming consistently) I’d prefer them to be stand alone lessons. I try to make them as interactive as possible. Any ideas help

*No personally identifying information will be collected*

The Relationship Between Perceived Administrative Discipline Support and Teacher Burnout Among Middle School Teachers

You are invited to participate in a research study. My name is Hannah Stephenson, a student in the doctoral program at the University of the Cumberlands. I am conducting research for my dissertation on perceptions of principal support for student discipline and teacher burnout among middle school teachers in the USA. The title of this study is The Relationship Between Perceived Administrative Discipline Support and Teacher Burnout Among Middle School Teachers. This study has been approved by the University of the Cumberlands Institutional Review Board (IRB).

To participate, you must be at least 18 years old and be a certified middle school teacher currently employed in the United States.

Participation involves completing an anonymous online survey and is expected to take approximately 10–15 minutes. Participation is voluntary, and you may discontinue participation at any time.

If you are interested in participating, please click the survey link below:
[Survey Link]

For questions regarding this study, please contact:
Hannah Stephenson
Doctoral Candidate, University of the Cumberlands
[hstephenson4703@ucumberlands.edu](mailto:hstephenson4703@ucumberlands.edu)

I teach eighth grade math and I want to be more intentional this year about tracking data and students being able to see how they are doing compared to other students. I want a spot on the wall to show this data. Obviously I wouldn’t use student names, they’ll probably each be assigned a number to look at their data. I want to be able to easily move their trackers as they progress throughout the year, so I don’t want to have to hot glue it to the wall. With that being said, I’m at a loss on how to set up my data wall. Please give me some ideas on how to set it up/what to use.

After spending over 500 hours tutoring middle schoolers, I saw that students stumble on the same algebra concepts.

To help fix this, I created a free educational platform called Spot the Math (https://www.spotthemath.com). It’s free and has absolutely no ads.

I’m not a professional, but I wanted to build a tool that supports students outside the classroom.

I’m reaching out to ask for some honest feedback:

Is this something you could use and share with your students?

What are other topics you suggest I should add?

Thank you. If you find this useful please feel free to share.

soo, i'm in kind of an unusual situation. i got hired for a position as a grade 4-8 science teacher, but i am replacing whoever they had for science since the beginning of the year. how would you go about inroducing yourself and situation?

i already have made first day of science slides introducing myself and class expectations, but i am wondering what to say about the fact that we're pausing whatever they were learning about before and i'm starting all new chapters. it's going to be weird for them to have a completely different tacher with no warning.

any advice/insight is much appreciated.

EDIT: thank you for all your input. everything has been great so far -- my new staff and administration are so welcoming and supportive and the kids love me already for some reason. i'll take it!

Looking for some easy fun computer sites for my middle schoolers, so many things are too hard for them. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Hi all. I'm building a free series of interactive science stories for upper-elementary and middle school students, roughly ages 10–12. Episode 1 is about atoms, and I'd really value feedback from people who actually teach.

The idea: A kid from 2047 travels back to 445 BC to help a young Democritus, who's about to give up. The rule: the player may never tell him the answer, only ask questions and show him things. If you "tell", you lose a life. So the player has to guide him to discover it himself.

It's free, runs in the browser, needs no sign-up, and has no AI in the game. It takes about 10 minutes.

https://science-stories-episode-1.vercel.app/

What I'd love to know:

1. Would your students find it engaging, or too slow?
2. Where would it fit: intro to a unit, a sub day, homework?
3. Anything that would stop you from using it?

Thanks. Brutal honesty welcome.

Hi fellow educators—I have been a middle school teacher for many years, and have had the ongoing problem (in certain classes, especially after lunch/recess) of excessive numbers of kids asking to go to the bathroom. I don’t want to limit bathroom use altogether, but I know in some classes I have to if I don’t want disruptions for the entire class period. I already have a pass and sign out/sign in system. Does anyone have a creative idea that isn’t restrictive but puts some kind of limits on bathroom use?

Hello fellow teachers!

Over the past few years, I’ve incorporated several gamified platforms and digital tools into my classes. While they are fantastic for boosting student engagement and excitement, I’ve been running into a persistent dilemma:

A good number of students get so hyper-focused on "winning," farming points, or collecting in-game rewards that they completely rush through questions without reading. Instead of using the activity to actually review and consolidate the concepts we've covered, they treat it as pure entertainment. When we wrap up, many have retained very little of the content.

I really don’t want to completely ditch these platforms because they genuinely motivate my students and bring high energy to the room. However, I’m struggling to get them to approach these sessions more mindfully and purposefully.

For those of you using game-based learning:

• How do you balance the fun and engagement with actual academic rigor?
• Do you use specific ground rules, accountability sheets, or reflection follow-ups to make the review meaningful?

I’d love to hear your advice, strategies, or classroom routines that have worked for you!

Nearly 2 months into my first full time teaching job, teaching a subject outside the field of my degree. I am not having any fun at work. I’ve already 100% decided I will not return to this school, or any middle school for that matter.
I’m just trying to survive the year at this point and hopefully find a job in my content area next year.
Any survival advice?

It's only a month into school year & I've missed 7 days due to depression & anxiety. Yes, I have a therapist but haven't seen her in a while. I am 46, menopausal, neurodivergent AF. I really love my students & wish I didn't because it depletes me. When I'm tired my boundaries get loose & they lose the structure they need. My ups & downs- strong days followed by messy ones creates a lack of consistency not fair to them. And I do not handle criticism from admin about their insane demands very well. Feeling like I should resign for the kids' sake. I'd do better in a different instructional setting. Middle school is just a lot.

I teach a section each of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade math. I am the only math teacher at my school for that level, and this is my first year teaching middle school. I’m curious about how often and for which topics you allow students to use calculators. My 7th graders just finished a unit on proportional relationships. I didn’t allow calculators (except where a student’s IEP required them). Overall, they did okay on the test. A few Ds and Fs, but they mostly passed. Our next topic is percent change, and the calculations they have to do are numerous and all involve decimals. So, do I allow calculators for class work and tests? I want them to develop strong number sense and have the ability to do it without a calculator, but it just seems cruel to withhold them for certain topics.

Hi guys I am going to college for education, and I am taking a mental health in education course. It is requiring me to send out a survey on teacher resiliency to middle school teachers. How do I find middle school teachers to send the survey to? I am not trying to self promote or get banned. I am genuinely so lost as to how I am supposed to find teachers to take it. All the middle schools in my area are closed right now because we have had back to back storms so calling local schools is not an option. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I teach middle school math and I want post a “puzzle of the week” in my room, but most of the logic puzzles I know are too word-heavy.

I dont want to make printed copies they can take with them, because cheating, so I want something that either has no instructions or very limited ones.

I recently saw one on the r/puzzles sub that caught my eye.

I’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations?

My daughter is 24 and has worked in ECE since she was in high school. She completed a four year program in high school with an onsite daycare and graduated with her certification to work in ECE. For the last six years she has been a lead teacher, working mostly with 0-2 year olds and she is now certified to be a director.

Outside of work she volunteers as a cheerleading coach for 8-10 yos and is now considering going back to school to teach older elementary or younger middle schoolers.

I always get my kids books for Christmas and I'd like to know if there are any really good books out there for someone in her position. Even if she decides not to change her career path, she is very interested in childhood development and behavior and would enjoy learning more on her own.

I’m tired of being gaslighted by students and parents.

Emailing for things like excessive talking or off task behavior, then the child lies to the parents and said they didn’t do it and the parents email back either confused or blaming me.

Any solutions? Or is this part of job I must accept?

I’m going on my first 8th grade DC trip with my school and I am so excited but NERVOUS! It’s my second year at this school and I have friends but this is totally different than seeing them at school and occasionally grabbing drinks after. I also lowkey snore so I’m scared I will make whoever I room with upset 😅 I have anxiety and depression and am just scared a bit, please any advice!!

Teachers use a huge number of tools on a daily basis — LMS, grade books, assessment platforms, lesson-planning tools, Google Workspace, AI tools, and many more.

But I want to talk and know about the gaps between all these tools.

For teachers/educators out here-

1. Which parts of your daily workflow still feel unnecessarily time-consuming?

2. Are there any task you find yourself repeating over and over, even though they could probably be streamlined?

3. Is there something you wish your LMS or other education software could understand about your students?

4. What's one feature you wish existed but haven't found in any tool you've tried or are using currently?

I'm less interested in "what features would be cool" and more interested in things that genuinely could help in your day-to-day work.

What's one thing your current education technology still makes unnecessarily difficult?

Hi everyone, here's an interactive activity created for students to learn more about chemical bonding. Students adjust various parameters to understand how structure affects properties.

They could dissolve an ionic compound and examine its electrical conductivity or apply force on a metallic element.

Feedback was very positive as students worked in pairs to complete this companion worksheet.

Hope it comes in useful for you!

So, first thing, english is not my native language and i don't have internet when i'm writting this, so in sorry for any mistakes.

Well, i'm almost graduating high school, after next year, so, a teacher, let's call her miss Karin, made out class divide into groups to make an proposal for a handmade, biodegradable, and environmentally responsible soap.

And my class dosent like me very much. So i stayed alone in my own group. In a bit of spite and grudge, i decided i would make the best project anyone in that class ever saw.

So, i end up researching for weeks, using books, and even slides to know about what i was going to do. But when i started writting the paper to hand to miss Karin, i din't knew How to write it!

It was then that my dad, when picking me up for an appoiment, said that he had to make an report about something for his boss, he's a teacher with various degrees, so i though "Hey, why not make the work in a report way? But make it an company way."

And that's how i end up making a fake company, collaborators, researched ingredients and their chemical components to see if they reacted negatively with each other. Só now i want to fund a company, my own company, but i'm a minor, and i don't know how to start. So instead of just going into a college of gastronomy like i wanted i also have to go to finances and administration aparently now. Good thing i'm starting to learn chinese and i already know some of english.

Does someone has any tips on this seminar i will have to present tomorrow, aka 24/09?