What is a middle school? What kind of atmosphere does it have? How does it function? How is it different from an elementary or high school? My mind swirled with questions as I stepped foot into a middle school for the first time. I couldn’t help but wonder if media portrayals of middle schools–which I always dismissed as overdramatized and unreal–would somehow be manifested in the place I was about to visit.
Growing up in system that did not have middle schools, the term remains a foreign concept to me, and I struggle to get a sense of what life in middle school could be like. To my relief, the school that I visited did not scream of all the middle school conventions that I’d seen on TV and in books–however that’s not to say there were not less dramatic suggestions of those conventions that I did not notice in the few hours I was at the school. Nevertheless, my first day of practicum went rather well and I enjoyed my visit.