Pruning and Blooming: How to Think Like a Middle School Teacher

By Emily Magnus, Editor. Reprinted from the Spring/Summer 2024 Chronicle.

In the human brain, billions of synapses form connections between neurons, creating a communication network that allows our bodies to carry out countless tasks and functions. By around the age of 2, the number of synapses reaches its peak, after which both genetic and environmental factors play a role in eliminating up to 50% of them. Yep, our brains shrink.

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Fortunately, it’s not quite that simple. While unused synapses do indeed die off, frequently used synapses become stronger and more stable, reinforced by a protective myelin sheath that promotes the efficient travel of electrical impulses. 

“It’s sometimes referred to as pruning and blooming,” says Dean of Faculty and Assistant Head of School Joe Doherty. “It’s why it’s so important for middle school students to be practicing positive, healthy life skills. Everything they are doing is setting them up for the rest of their lives.” Middle school teachers, then, truly have an opportunity to set students up for a lifetime of success. 

“Perfection is not a reality. My job is not to produce finished products but to leave students better than when they entered my classroom. And for each student that means a different thing.”

Marty Wennik, English Teacher

But the teenage brain doesn’t make it easy. A second pruning during adolescence occurs in the brain’s prefrontal cortex––the part of the brain that controls decision-making and is responsible for a person’s ability to weigh consequences, solve problems, and control impulses. During this rewiring, teenagers often become reactive, moody, forgetful, and intensely conscious of their social standing. Furthermore, each individual prunes and blooms at a different rate, so in any group of teenagers, each could be in a different stage of development.

So how do middle school teachers do it? Using what is currently known about the teenage brain, how do they get and retain the attention of students, motivating them to engage in academics and helping them to grow intellectually, socially, and emotionally? What allows them to thrive and find joy in a profession in which others feel overwhelmed? When things don’t go according to plan, what helps them persevere?

Meeting Kids Where They Are

“I may have eight kids during the first period of the day after breakfast who are dialed in and ready to learn, and then I might have the same lesson again right before lunch but with a different set of eight kids and they’re hungry and tired and silly,” explains sixth-grade teacher Courtney Bliss. “I can’t teach the lesson the same way; I have to be ready to adapt and be flexible. Teaching in middle school means always meeting kids where they are, regardless of what my planning book might say.” 

In middle school, and particularly at a boarding school like Cardigan, the curriculum extends far beyond any academic subject. Teachers not only instruct students in solving algebraic equations and writing five paragraph essays, they also teach students to get to breakfast on time (and in dress code), to navigate personal differences with roommates, and to gracefully accept a disappointing outcome in an athletic contest. Cardigan teachers are masters of adapting and prioritizing lessons that may have little to do with academics, but which are equally important to the growth of a middle schooler. 

“Perfection is not a reality,” says English teacher Marty Wennik P’15,’16. “My job is not to produce a finished product but to leave them better than when they entered my classroom. And for each student that means a different thing.” For an international student who has yet to master the English language, Mr. Wennik may need to help him with grammar and syntax even though the student’s intellectual maturity may be advanced and complex; another student may need to be pushed to connect with partners during a group assignment or simply to come to class prepared. 

The benchmarks, then, have to be different. Grades only tell a part of the story; the narratives, the conversations, the positive words of encouragement have to be frequent and genuine, filling in the details of the students’ progress. “The boys are always looking for benchmarks that tell them they are doing okay,” says PEAKS coach Jessica Hunt P’26. “They want black-and-white answers, but their progress is never that simple. There’s a golden moment after a test, when they don’t yet know their grade and can reflect and articulate what went well and why. I try to get them to focus on that, rather than on the grade that they learn about later.”

Relationships are Everything 

Cardigan’s teachers understand that above all a positive emotional climate is important for optimal learning. It’s no secret that adolescents need to feel safe and respected in order to learn. Helping them feel seen and cared for takes time and has nothing to do with any academic subject. 

“When we can pause and acknowledge students’ emotions, there’s a much better chance that learning will be effective and academic lessons will be durable over time,” says Mr. Doherty.

Middle school teachers, then, need to build relationships with individual students by taking time to find out what they care about. They listen to what is on students’ minds at any given time––whether it is baseball, photography, or the fresh donuts at morning snack. 

“When we can pause and acknowledge students’ emotions, there’s a much better chance that learning will be effective and academic lessons will be durable over time.”

Joe Doherty, Dean of Faculty and Assistant Head of School

“To have leverage in the classroom––especially in PEAKS in which there are no grades––I need to have frequent positive deposits throughout the day,” says Ms. Hunt. “Talking with them in the dorms, watching their games, having positive interactions outside of the classroom allows me to ask them to do hard things when we get to work because I have already invested in my personal connection with them.”

Assistant Dean of Academics and PEAKS Department Chair Jarrod Caprow agrees. “I actually like working weekends,” he says, “because I get to see kids doing things that they choose to do. Knowing how they want to spend their time and being able to show a genuine interest in their passions becomes an important investment in my relationships with them.”

It is why the “triple threat” model of boarding school works so well. When faculty members coach students, live with them in the dorms, AND teach them in class, they get to see students through a multidimensional lens. It’s not efficient nor easy, but this exposure to students’ victories and struggles, likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, allows teachers to invest in the learning process even before a lesson begins.

Taking on the Role of the Prefrontal Cortex

“Middle school teachers end up performing a dual, even triple, purpose,” continues Mr. Doherty. “First, they must act as the prefrontal cortex for their students––helping them to do the slow thinking that results in good decision-making. At the same time, they need to provide activities and situations in which students can take safe and healthy risks. Downhill skiing, acting in the school play, rising early to participate in the spring Polar Bear tradition––they’re all important opportunities for students to test limits in safe and positive ways.”

Woodworking teacher John Burritt knows this balance better than perhaps anyone at Cardigan. “The woodshop is probably the most dangerous space on campus,” he says. “And when students walk into class, they often act as if they are walking into math class or any other safe place on campus. I have to find ways to flip that switch and increase their awareness.” Posters on the walls of the shop remind students of the rules Mr. Burritt has reviewed with them, and on the table where they begin class, he has placed photocopies of x-rays from construction accidents with missing fingers and nails embedded into hands. “Sometimes I just slam a block of wood against the table––anything to jolt them out of complacency. The risk factor is huge, but the value of the woodshop is even more important.”

What’s the third purpose? Being a safety net when the boys inevitably fail. When a boy performs poorly on a test, forgets to turn in an assignment, makes a hurtful comment to a roommate, or misses his lines in the school play, the teachers are there to help them move forward. “Kids often come to us in boxes: ‘I’m not good at math,’ ‘I can’t play sports,’’’ says Ms. Bliss. “It’s not always intentional but kids hear what adults say and then they step back and coast. At Cardigan we teach them to put in the hard work. They get frustrated but they learn to keep trying.”

Mr. Burritt agrees: “The boys say to me, ‘Just tell me what to do.’ It’s a mind block they put up so they don’t have to fail. They don’t get away with that here. We help them do things one step at a time and work through any failures they might experience along the way.”

Committing to a Growth Mindset

Cardigan emphasizes growth mindset as one of the seven habits of learning integral to its curriculum. And when it comes to learning, middle school teachers understand that it’s an important quality not only to teach but to model. 

“When I first started teaching,” recalls Mr. Wennik, “I had a teacher-centered approach. Now I try to be in it with them and live by the same rules.” Mr. Wennik often uses the Harkness method, requiring students to lead book discussions with little input from him. He completes the same writing assignments that he gives his students and begins the day at breakfast reading through BBC headlines and talking with students about what is going on in the world. “I’m always conscious of how I can make students become more aware of their world,” he says. “I’m not telling them what to think but just to think.”

Mr. Burritt has had a similar philosophical change in his approach to teaching; while he used to have all his students make step stools, he now allows them to choose their own projects: “I tell them, ‘You’re making the Mona Lisa; you’re building something that doesn’t yet exist!’” He also models his own learning process. When he begins preparing for a chapel performance, he picks songs that he thinks students might have heard before and that have repetitive choruses. Then he practices at the beginning of woodshop classes and during Friday evening coffeehouse jam sessions, inviting the boys to join in so that when they get to Chapel, at least some of the boys will have had an introduction to the music and won’t be as hesitant to sing. 

When teenagers submit to peer pressure and fitting in, they often shut down or curb their curiosity, creating a challenge for middle school teachers. To keep their youthful curiosity alive, teachers at Cardigan rely on experiential learning opportunities, peer-to-peer conversations, and adventures beyond the classroom. And they model what it looks like––to not always know the answers, to dig deep into the messy process of learning, and to sometimes even arrive at the wrong conclusion.

Making Time for Laughter

And when all else fails, middle school teachers know that laughter and silliness are indispensable. Head of School Chris Day P’12,’13 is the first to take a seat in the dunk tank during the spring Head’s Holiday; Dean of Students Nick Nowak has been known to challenge students to a snowball fight on Marrion Field after the first snowfall of winter; history teacher Rich MacDonald P’18 doesn’t hesitate to dress up as Manifest Destiny and put himself on trial; and countless teachers can be found hanging out on Clancy Hill on a winter Sunday afternoon, riding the rope tow and taking their turns on the jumps. 

“Kids often come to us in boxes: “I’m not good at math,” “I can’t play sports.” It’s not always intentional but kids hear what adults say and then they step back and coast. At Cardigan we teach them to put in the hard work. They get frustrated but they learn to keep trying.”

Courtney Bliss, Sixth-Grade Teacher

“I know I am going to come to school and laugh,” says Ms. Hunt. And she is not alone. Middle schoolers’ neuro-wiring can make them difficult, cranky, and unpredictable, but their teachers know they can also be kind, inquisitive, funny, and enthusiastic. It takes time and energy and patience––and a good sense of humor––to bring out their best; but that’s where middle school teachers excel, seeking the best from their students and fertilizing the synapses that make them bloom.

“We know middle school boys,” has become a familiar mantra on the Cardigan campus, one that is stated with pride, and humility. Our understanding of the teenage brain continues to deepen and evolve, and with that comes new teaching methods and new ways of relating to and working with students. Technology impacts the educational landscape in both positive and negative ways; popular culture and shifts in societal norms play their own roles as well. To be a middle school teacher is often hard and intense work, but with the right research and an open mind, it can also be fulfilling. Cardigan teachers know well both sides of the same card and embrace the opportunity they have to impact the lives of their students, setting them up for success and a lifetime of learning and growth.