I’m a middle school guy. I’ve worked with middle school students for twenty years. Call me crazy, I love it. I’m also a green guy, or try to be. When I set out to write my doctoral dissertation my original topic was sustainability education in schools. I really struggled with it when my wife knocked me in the head (figuratively) and convinced me that I should be writing about the middle school philosophy. I took her advice and hope to finish up in the next couple of months.

When I came to Anchorage I had never worked with high school students before. It was the unique philosophy and concept of mastery learning that brought me to Highland Tech and after a year I can truly say that I love working with high school students as much as middle school students. Part of the reason I think I love it so much is that our 6th through 12th grade school adheres very much to middle school philosophy.

Quick primer even though most of you who read this (I mean, both of you who read this, understand the middle school philosophy): middle school emphasizes teaching students over teaching subjects, encourages cross-curricular integration, focuses on the whole child, and has a dynamic advisory program in which teachers truly advocate for students. Check. Check. Check, and check. At Highland Tech we do all of these things 6th-12th. Our teachers work in teams and engage in an exceptionally high level of collaboration. They take their role as academic coaches/advisors as seriously as their roles as teachers. We have created a safe, nurturing, yet challenging learning environment. See, that’s always the knock on middle school vs. junior high, that it lacks rigor.

If done incorrectly that may be true. If, in an effort to integrate learning and have small teams (both noble pursuits) teachers are shoved out of their instructional comfort zones and pushed to teach content they’re not familiar with, that can happen. It’s ok to nudge teachers out of their comfort zones. That’s how we all grow. But they shouldn’t be shoved, and certainly not at the expense of rigorous instruction.

So I revel in my 6th – 12th grade middle school where we work in teams, integrate content, focus on the needs of kids, and foster a safe place to learn. I’m proud of our commitment to our students as well as our principles.

Cultural Observation: Summer is slowly coming to a close in Alaska. Why none of you have visited yet I have no idea. There are likely very few places more beautiful in the world than Alaska in the summer. However, Alaskans have a strange concept of temperature. I think just as living in a warm climate thins the skin, living in a cold climate must over-toughen the skin. My administrative assistant and I have talked about playing tennis together since I moved up here last summer. A couple of weeks ago I texted her in the evening to see if she wanted to play tennis after the work the next day. Her response: Are you crazy? It’s going to be boiling tomorrow. The forecast: 75 degrees. Now I’m not apt to play back in Chicago when it’s around 90, but 75? Besides, it’s a dry heat…