A middle school teacher had better have good lesson plans or you will be eaten alive. Adolescents are a tough audience. After 25 years in the classrooom I still love almost every minute of it......but I'm also tired of searching for freebies on the Internet and finding weak or incomprehensible lesson plans. If you have to search a hundred sites to find the right lesson then it costs you more time than it's worth. I think the plans I have created myself are better than 99% of the free stuff out there. Each has been used multiple times in the classroom (teacher-tested) and is written in simple language with easy-to-use instructions. Basically, I won't put any lesson or idea on TeachersPayTeachers unless I am certain YOU can understand it, teach it, and that it has value for children. And I can't be certain of that unless I have used it regularly in my classroom. In the end, however, the best plans in the world won't make any impact unless delivered by a caring, committed, and enthusiastic teacher. Enthusiasm is the most under-rated aspect of a teacher's job. If the fire is out, they won't learn. If you are on fire, they will. That's my two cents.....
Practice by Doing Reading Demonstration Teach Others/Immediate Use of Learning Discussion Group Audio Visual Lecture These are the seven often-used models of teaching and instruction in middle school, and they are generally the only methods of instruction practiced in the majority of classrooms. I favor #1, #4, and #5 because that is what children enjoy and how they retain the most. That is how I plan my lessons.
United States Upper Elementary Teacher for 8 years. International Middle School Teacher for 18 years Inventor of the "Middle School Thumbwave" Creator of the "Roman School Simulation"