Hannah Roque

The novel Troublemakers , by Carla Shalaby challenges the ways in which educators look at the stereotypically troublesome students in the classroom. By following four different students throughout their academic and personal lives, Shalaby examines what exactly prompts students to be "troublemakers" in the classroom, and how we, as educators, can best help those students. In the lives of the students that are marked as "troublemakers," their family is often alienated from the school for many reasons. For example, Marcus' mother, who is the mother of the last student highlighted in the novel, intentionally distances herself and her family from the school. Unfortunately, schools often ostracize families because they have marked their students as troublemakers. Schools and teachers push families away, often times by creating events that are targeted toward more affluent families or forming negative relationships with parents. If teachers are unwelcoming to a fami...

STEAM education is a movement that was launched into populated by the Rhode Island School of Design, that consists of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math. STEAM education centers around creating a curriculum that integrates each field into a comprehensive and creative course for students; this type of program goes hand in hand with the teaming structure within middle schools. At the middle level, forming teams dedicated to educating their students based on a STEAM-centered curriculum would greatly benefit the learning of every student. At the middle level, students learn best in creative and engaging methods. By creating an integrative STEAM curriculum for middle grade teams, students will learn via alternative learning styles, and therefore the content will become more relatable and relevant to students. According to the University of Florida, students are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, and students that take some form of a...