Middle school/High school English/Language Arts teachers: What are the pros and cons of your job?

Question

Middle school/High school English/Language Arts teachers: What are the pros and cons of your job?

Answer 1

Kids are both the pros and the cons at this age -- and one of them can go from one extreme to the other almost instantly.

You've got to get them to accept that there are better ways of communicating than talking and texting -- and they may not want to believe that!

Sense of humor is critical.  So is experience in herding cats. (not really, but their attention span is short and they are easily distracted and there are time they will all want to go a different direction.)

Ask questions -- let them figure out the answer.  Use the Socratic method of questioning -- you will learn things too.

Answer 2

I'm a middle school LA teacher. I have to admit, I find it a challenging age group developmentally....the boys rough house (in fun) in the halls not realizing they are blocking the entire hall and/or intimidating everyone smaller than they are in the process....the girls often say very unkind things about each other.  These are things I try to work on with them and while they talk with me and understand--they are so act first/think later, that we have the same conversations over & over.

On the positive side, they may be just about adult size--but they are still kids and learn well with games & group work which is fun for them (and fun for me to facilitate).  Also, if the material is presented in a positive way--they kids really want to learn and will give me their full effort.

I think the pros well outweigh the cons, but you have to have a sense of humor with this age group!