The Teacher Student Connection--Building A Bridge

I have been teaching middle school for the last eight years. Thankfully, I have successfully crossed the perilious first three years when so many teachers fall victim to the politics of teaching, the uninterested studetnts, or for one reason or another decide teaching is not the career of their dreams. I must say that teaching didn't come naturally for me. In fact, I can't say that I ever dreamed of being a teacher at all. Instead, I dreamed of becoming a famous author. One that would create a masterpiece that would rival the greatest Southern novel of all time--Gone With the Wind. A dream that spun around in my head for years and then was tossed aside somewhere in the midst of trying to get a job and grow up to be a responsible adult. This blog is not going to be about my desire to be a writer, and it is not going to be a long log of monotonous advice about classroom management. Instead, it is going to be a reflection of my experiences as a middle school teacher and how those experiences have affected my overall understanding of my purpose and goals as a teacher.