RB - That's great about the teaching gig! Can I offer you a few words of advice, as a parent who has had three kids go through middle school, one with ADD?
Here's what I wish more of my kids teachers had known: - Don't write assignments in cursive. This generation really doesn't read cursive well, it's not stressed in grade school, and they never encounter it in real life - so when you write in cursive, you might as well be writing in Sanskrit.
- Post the homework assignments on a web site and/or send home sheets with the week's/month's assignments. Relying on middle schoolers to write down the assignments and keep track just sets up the ADD kids for failure. Unless you supervise and make sure every kid has written it in his planner, make sure there is some way for the parents to find out the assignments. My son's homework is way better in those classes where I can go online and check the assignments.
- Wiggly kids need to wiggle. Middle school is torture for active boys. Build some movement into the hour.
- Kids respond better to positive reinforcement than to negative reinforcement. I think we lose a lot of kids due to negative, critical middle school teachers who convince the kids that school is a horrible place.
I'm sure all your DBing skills will come in very handy! I also recommend a book called Raising Your Spirited Child by Kurcinkas - it will make you look at your "problem" students in a whole new light.
