Middle school memories

Crossing fingers, hopping for a good end to a long road.
I visited the school that invited me when we met at the job fair. It is a middle school. Although I've taught middle schoolers, I haven't actually stepped foot in a stand-alone middle school since I was actually in middle school.

Middle school have gotten HUGE since then. Or at least it seems big to me, comparing it to the elementary schools I've been to exclusively for the past three years. The students are bigger, the hallways are bigger, the books are bigger.

Kids are still kids though. And the physical size of the classrooms seem the same.

I don't have a lot of memories of middle school. I remember the awkwardness of switching from my old elementary school in one district to a brand new school AND district. I didn't know anyone and had lunch by myself until I found a group to hang out with in the middle of 7th grade. I remember the really fun P.E. teacher I had for both years. I remember making hot air balloons out of tissue paper and setting them in flight. I remember dissecting a cow's eye (which I had already done in 6th grade - can anyone say A+ to being desensitized to the squeamishness?).

And that's about it.

I enjoyed myself today. I saw one mediocre lesson, two that were not so great (but I would have struggled the same as them if I were in their situation - although there were one or two improvements I would have made), and one spectacularly done lesson. I like to think I'm somewhere in between mediocre and spectacular. Probably closer to mediocre, at this stage of my career. I'm aiming for the spectacular though, and I'm pretty sure I'll get there. I'm getting there already.

So I'm submitting all the paperwork for the job tomorrow. Priority mail, so it'll arrive on Monday morning. I'm setting up an automated email (so I don't forget) to the principal, letting them know I've officially applied and to keep an eye out for my papers.

And now, I'm beginning to really want the job. I like the school, I like the staff, I like the atmosphere. I liked how clean and tidy the campus was, albeit a bit shabby, like many public schools. At least the windows weren't falling out of their frames, like at one of my student teaching schools.

The front office people were really nice. The security people too (that's something I'll have to get used to - there are no actual "security people" at elementary schools, just janitors and plant managers pulling double duty). The students were sweet - rowdy, but sweet. I helped one of them figure out how to change a decimal to a fraction. I helped another find the measures of angles in overlapping triangles.

Shoot, now I'm going to be disappointed if I don't get this job. Eh.