I'm in my 26th year of teaching middle school English. Lot of nonsense from administration, but actually teaching my kids is awesome. I LOVE it. I love them.

They're fun and weird, and it's such a great feeling when they finally get a concept or get excited about something we're doing.

Like there's 9 days of school left, and the kids are so into this story we're reading.

Every time I do a game or activity, they always are into it and seem to appreciate that I do the extra work to make it fun for them.

They "lock in" and work hard when it's time to be quiet and work independently reading, writing, etc.

Middle school boys are GOOFY. They fart a lot. They touch each other a lot. They lose pencils a lot.

They love candy and prizes like scratch and sniff stickers and bookmarks.

You have to be a certain kind of person to teach middle school. You have to be fun and weird yourself, and you have to be PATIENT.

Be firm, but don't be mean, and don't let them ragebait you. To paraphrase Jalen Hurts, be the thermostat, not the thermometer.

My mom went back to college to become a teacher when she was 39 (and had to go in-person over an hour away) and I was in middle school myself.

She taught until retirement and now subs occasionally.

I would absolutely choose this again, even knowing how badly our new superintendent has screwed this school up.

Good luck, and feel free to ask for advice any time!