So your kid is leaving the safe confines of elementary and headed into middle school years, fraught with changes in hormones, physical growth, friendship woes, a sudden interest in relationships beyond friendships, and DRAMA. Often that drama surrounds issues that happen in the classrooms and school hallways. And who is on the front lines of these ever-evolving battles? Your child’s teachers. Your child’s teachers should be your best allies—after all, a child spends 7-8 hours at school five days a week, which is more hours than most parents actually spend with their children each day. But unfortunately, the angst of middle schoolers often creates a wall between teachers and parents, especially when children come home with emotionally-charged stories of things that happened during the school day. My goal with this post is to tear down these walls! Teachers love your children, I promise. Like I shared in my recent post, “An Open Letter to My Students,” teachers didn’t go into this profession because we enjoy tormenting students or being tormented. We truly have our students’ best interests in mind and want to help them succeed in school and in life! And one of the best ways we can do that is to establish a strong partnership and connection with YOU, their parents! So hear me out… I’m getting ready to start my 25th year as a middle school educator, and I’ve experienced and learned quite a few things along the way.