Meet Me in the Middle Chapters 1 and 2

In the first two chapters of Meet Me in the Middle, Rick Wormeli writes about how to build student-teacher relationships and how to create a healthy classroom environment as a middle school teacher. Although I have learned about these topics in previous education classes, this book explains them specifically in regards to middle school and early adolescence. In chapter 1, Wormeli writes about how important attitude is in teaching middle school students because it is hard for this age group to separate the attitude from the teacher themselves—to them “the teacher is the attitude.” Wormeli goes on to explain the different between teachers with a low ego, those who put their students before themselves, than teachers with a high ego, those who put themselves before their students. I found this concept to be very interesting and to be something that I personally would like to improve upon now that I have had classroom experience in Practicum. While I do not consider myself to have a high ego, I do think I could improve upon considering my student’s needs before my own, as during my in field experience in my Practicum I often let my own insecurities and fears of embarrassing myself stop me from helping students as much as I could have. Wormeli writes about something else I would like to improve upon in chapter 2: creating a warm, welcoming environment with the way I interact with students. Wormeli writes about the importance of a balance between being an authority figure and being friendly and casual with students. I believe that having this balance is crucial in creating healthy relationships with students and is something I would really like to master.