My first year at my school I taught grades 6-12th(to this day I am not so sure how I survived it). But, last year and this year I have only high school students. However, I am still the middle school volleyball and softball coach. Sometimes I forget the unique way that middle school students think. These are just a few behaviors I have observed.
#1. Middle school students are not permitted to speak in their own voice. If you are a boy...everything must be a "YELL." If you are a girl, everything must be high pitched and punctuated by a twittery laugh.
#2. Middle school students can only sustain "focus" for 7.6 seconds and then they must be refocused again.
#3. Middle school students MUST wave to you EVERY time you meet, even if you JUST saw them two seconds ago.
#4. Middle school students MUST accept any dare that is offered them, even if taking the dare puts them in danger of greater humiliation than not taking the dare would.
#5. Middle school students "relationship" status on facebook changes faster than the weather.
BUT, in spite of endless idiosyncrasies on their part, every year when our athletic director darkens my door and asks the "dreaded" question, "Would you like to coach such and such..." I get super excited and I feel my inner "middle schooler" begin to spring forth. So, go ahead and wave each time you see me, giggle often, and stay out of focus....I am in this for the long haul.
I officiate volleyball and some of my favorite times are reffing 7-8th grade. They're so similar to middle schoolers they have literally no attention span at all. However I love to ref them because for the most part they're super excited to play and haven't played long enough to be sly in breaking the rules.
ReplyDeleteHahahha!!!!! So true! I am laughing out loud in my office as I read this!!!!!
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