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Adolescents, especially middle schoolers, are going through very rapid and extreme change (puberty). Changing bodies and raging hormones can make them act in seemingly irrational or (to our adult sensibilities) over-emotional. I anticipate this could be challenge in several ways - outbursts, bullying, withdrawal, etc. How can we as teachers best support our students that are going through these changes?

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Looking back, many of my best teachers had the ability to be scary when they needed to real the class in. I don't think I can do that. I look like I'm just a hair older than the students I'll be teaching. I worry about how I will win their respect.

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Adolescents are eager to learn about topics they find interesting and useful, also prefer interactions with peer during educational activities. Some traditional academic subjects won't be appealing to the early adolescence. Then, as educators, how would we arrange activities in the class, which not only could draw student's attention, but also they would engage in the activities?

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One of the things that I often find concerning is measuring the limits of a teacher's abilities to sense emotional instability (especially if there are indicators that it is due to family or housing) and how to best approach it. I am sure that school-to-school, there are different resources in place to establish an order of operations for responding to this dynamic, but I guess I wonder about the teacher-student connection and what boundaries have to be in place to ensure that teacher liability is not at risk during a good-faith effort to be available for their student. I am sure this is one of those situational topics, but I am personally the type of person who needs a lot of training to prepare for scenarios like this because my empathic side is my dominant side.

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One specific challenge that I anticipate will arise when I begin working with adolescents is how to appropriately draw the line between being a "friend" to students, and being a disciplinary figure. The idea that some of my students will loath me when trying to manage specific behavioral issues in the classroom is disheartening. There has to be an effective balance between the two, and that balance seems challenging to find in my experience.

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I often worry if I'll be able to get enough respect in the classroom from my students. I can be very friendly at times and have a hard time being too direct or critical with students. I wonder how this will turn out once I have my own class and if this will be something that I'll be able to figure out sooner rather than later. I also feel that I look quite young and wonder if students will try to take advantage of this. Many teachers talk about the importance of setting high expectations from day 1 and not straying away from these expectations. I hope that that will be enough in practice.

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In any given classroom there can be anywhere from 20-30 students, each with a unique background - some with a more difficult home life than others. As a new teacher I will focus on offering the best of my teaching ability while remaining sensitive to their varying issues in class and out of class. Though it is not my job to help solve their out of class issues, I realize that some of these outside troubles can creep into the classroom and even cause conflict or behavioral disruption. I anticipate this to be a challenging area I will slowly but surely learn to master.

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There will likely be students who aren't interested in (or capable of) engaging in class. This can happen for any number of valid reasons (like depression, anxiety, stress, family concerns, sleep deprivation, recent or past trauma, etc), but can often be seen and/or interpreted as defiance or apathy. In the past this has been one of the more difficult issues for me because I want to have high expectations and help students get excited about the subject matter, but I don't want to push too much if there's a legitimate reason they're disengaged. There's a fine line between trying to motivate students and nagging/getting on their case.

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Adolescent students inevitably experience a wave of emotion during their school years. It is possible that emotional outbreaks may happen in the classroom to which I fear I wont be able to defuse effectively without getting frustrated. This could be in the form of tears, a verbal or physical fight, or being silent and not talking due to something that took place between friends outside the classroom. Rationally I understand this is a natural process, and a fight with peers may seem to be life altering- but I need to work on my response to these events to not sound angry, or like I dont care about them.

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One thing that I routinely encountered while teaching this last year is the conflict between supporting your students to ensure they have the resources to be successful, and stepping back and allowing students to make mistakes. Learning often comes through these moments of failure, so it is crucial that students be allowed opportunities to realize what they can do better, and yet if a mistake is severe enough - especially in the current college application environment - it may hurt their prospects down the line. How can I help my students retain opportunities in their future while ensuring that they have the chance to learn for themselves the value of hard work and the consequences of not putting it in?

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Based on experience, and on what we currently learned last week about adolescents' development, I know I will find it challenging to be patient when my students lash out on emotion or handle difficult situations in an unhealthy way. Adolescents have a hard time regulating themselves when their feelings are hurt or they feel attacked and chose to react rather than think things through and come up with a solution. I understand that why they chose to attack when they feel attacked, but I want them to understand that is not a good way to get a point across.

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Adolescents sometimes have this drive to do opposite of what adults ask them to do. Their rebellious behaviors are something I am very struggling with. I need to set boundaries but also want to love them. It pains me when they can't listen and cooperate. But I don't want to lose my cool, either. I envy those teachers that can tame the students very well even when they are smiling all the time..

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What expect to be confronted with is the experience that all of the young learners bring to the classroom. They've 'been through it all' or at least that is the mindset and since they tend to be very smart and throw curve balls at the teacher, I expect this to be one of the hardest challenges to overcome. To help them see that even though their point of view comes from an intelligent perspective, it does not give them the ability to overrule and control the classroom and how it functions. "We're all in this together."

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I am mostly concerned with how I will deal with students who do not engage with the material or do not seem to care.