This We Believe

Pages 1-7
The opening pages of this book presented multiple ideas and goals that have proven to create successful middle schools. Students at this age level are all at different stages of development in their lives, and each child is going to be experiencing this time in their life differently. That being said, educators must realize the importance of teaching to the students by addressing their needs first. This chapter discussed the importance of not only teaching how to create a healthy lifestyle, but the importance of leading by example and demonstrating a healthy lifestyle. Middle school educators must also remember the role that society plays on their school community as well. Students at this age are clearly more influenced by their peers than they are from their adult figures, and society begins to influence how adolescents act in a variety of ways. The author concluded the first seven pages by presenting the National Middle School Association's mission statement.

Pages 9-19
Middle school educators must realize the role they play and young adolescences lives. All teachers and staff who work in the school community must present themselves as positive role models who demonstrate enthusiasm through their actions. This chapter describes the role a principle must be play in the school community in order to create effective collaborate teaching style, which in the end promotes effective learning. Training to become a certified middle school educator is always changing and requires a significant amount of work. Any person who has a desire to teach children at this age level must have a passion for teaching. Teachers must be motivated and prepared to gain the interest of the students. Throughout this chapter, the author clearly stresses the importance of creating a successful learning environment in order to have an effective middle school. A school community should support and promote learning by first providing a safe learning atmosphere for all students.

Pages 19-34
One of the most difficult tasks that a teacher is faced with is how to design curriculum that is going to truly help students understand content. Students in middle school are distracted by so many other things going on in their lives; most kids are only in school because they have to be. Children at this age are developing at different rates and this can make it difficult for middle school teachers to create lessons that will engage the interest of all of their students. This chapter presents a couple ideas that should help generate curriculum that will engage students, the author says that lessons should be relevant, challenging, exploratory, and most importantly prepare students for the 21st century. Another aspect this chapter focused on was how effective collaboration can be. All middle school educators should design integrated content curriculum and teach as one big community. Once teachers are able to build relationships with their students, they will get to know their specific needs better and as a result will be better able to teach to their needs.

Pages 35-51
The main focus of these pages was a clear outline of how to actually implement the ideas and suggestions of the National Middle School Association education system. The author described how each different position in the school community has their own role, and in order to create an effective learning environment for middle school students all people involved in the school system must do their part. It is the responsibility of the entire school community all the way up to the director of education at the state level. All educators in the learning community must evaluate their performances often if they want to create successful changes when needed. This chapter also discussed that educator must look to colleagues for advice, and should strive to create collaborative team teaching within their schools.