“It's Such a Good Age”: The Importance of Wanting to Teach in Middle School

The purpose of this 2022 study was to better understand what makes Canadian middle school classroom teachers successfully make positive connections with their middle school students.Participants (n=4) were interviewed individually via Zoom and asked to share examples of how they positively connected with their students.provided many thoughtful suggestions and recommendations for in which they attempted to achieve these approaches.Participants highlighted that the most effective middle school teachers tended to be those who especially want to teach in middle school.They also shared that the best middle school teachers tended to be those who embraced the "middle school" model.