In Transition

To view any issue of In Transition, the Association's journal, just double click and you'll be able to view the journal via Adobe Acrobat Reader. For one year after publication just the table of contents and one article are available for viewing. Other volumes are available in their entirety. Volumes prior to those listed have been archived; click here to access them.

Instructions for article submission are available here (just click). To submit your article for consideration in In Transition, please send the article as a MS WORD attachment to editor@nysmsa.org.

WINTER 2003  (complete issue)
Feature Articles: A Partnership for Academic Achievement; The Library Media Specialist-Principal; Regents Policy Statement on Middle-Level Education and Schools with Middle-Level; Interdisciplinary Magic in the Middle; What to Expect and How to Prepare for the Assistant Principalship in Middle Level Schools: A Brief Overview; Climbing Walls to Leadership; Guiding Students from Literal to Conceptual Levels of Cognition; and What is Lego Robotics All About?

FALL 2003  (complete issue)
Feature Articles: Relationships in the Middle School: Rethinking Advisory; The Emergence of a Standards-Focused, Middle Level Learning Community; Consultant Teaching: Ensuring Success for Students and Staff; Raising Standards, Reducing Anxiety: Addressing the Social and Emotional Needs of Middle School Students; The First Annual Middle-Level Institute at the Corning Museum of Glass; and The Historical Precedent of Local Control in New York State.

WINTER 2004  (complete issue)
Feature Articles: The Stages of Bicycle Riding and Education: A Parallel; Home and Career Skills Classes: Where "The Assessed Four" Are Put to the Test; The Statewide Network of Middle-Level Education Support Schools; and Nuts and Bolts of an Integrative Curriculum.

SPRING 2004  (complete issue)
Feature Articles: The Educational Benefits of Non-Core Classes on the Middle School Level; Longwood JHS Students Crosswalk the NYS Learning Standards with Family and Consumer Sciences; A Letter from James M. Kadamus, SED Deputy Commissioner; You Can't Make Anybody Learn!; Why Art Education in Middle School?; The Arts in Public Education: Why?; Keypals: Click, Connect and Collaborate Reciprocating Skills in the Foreign Language Classroom with Other Core Courses; Middle School Health, What's It All About?; Without Health, Many Children Will Surely Be Left Behind; The Breakfast Cafe Project; Quilting to Preserve History; Sewing Up History; Career & Life Skills: How Does This Class Support NYS Standards?; Service Learning Makes a Difference; Food for Learning; Middle School Matters; Bringing Skills to in Home and Career Skills Class; Home and Career Skills, Connecting the Standards to Life; The Importance of Home & Career Skills in Middle-Level Education; Viewing the World of Work: Groundhog Job Shadowing Day; Music Education: A Necessity for All; Music Education: It's More Than a Catchy Tune; Technology Education: The Nucleus of Middle-Level Philosophy

FALL 2004 (complete issue)
Feature Articles: Road Trips: Taking Advisory on the Road; Making the Home-School Connection More Apparent to a Parent; Essential Element 2 Alive and Well in Suffolk County; Seeing Each Individual in the Classroom; Illustrating the Essential Elements of Middle-Level Reform; A Chronology of Commissioner's Regulations Related to the Middle Grades, 1984-2004; Charting a Course of Excellence through Social and Emotional Literacy; Building Capacity: An Organizational Perspective; Statewide Network of Middle-Level Education Support Schools

WINTER 2005  (complete issue)
Feature Articles: New York State's Essential Elements: Schools-to-Watch Recognition Program; Time on Task: A 17 Percent Increase in Eighth Grade Math Scores; Middle-Level Educators Speak Out: The Most Important Piece of Life's Puzzle, Family and Consumer Sciences: We Teach Life Skills; Six Crucial Factors in Teaching Middle School. Statewide Network of Middle-Level Education Support Schools: The Essential Elements - A Blueprint for Transformation; Curriculum Review and Educational Leadership; The Use of SMART-Board Technology as an Essential Element of a Middle-Level Support School. Lea's Lessons: Don't Laugh at Me

SPRING 2005 (complete issue)
Feature Articles: Three Models Three Paths to Middle-Level Excellence; Implementation of a District-Based Teacher Mentor Program; How to Deal with a School Emergency at the Middle Level; Student Council: Creating a Sense of Leadership in the Middle School; Project Success: A Success Story; and The Restructuring of Staley Middle School: A Commitment to Excellence.

FALL 2005 (complete issue)
Feature Articles: Becoming Data Savvy: The Partnership between the Middle-Level Teacher and Data; Cooperative Learning and the Gifted Middle School Student: A Miss or a Match? The Year of Languages; Medieval Movies and More: An Interdisciplinary Journey through the Middle Ages; The Day that Francesca Didn't Like School Anymore: A Children's Story for Adults.

WINTER 2006 (complete issue)
Feature Articles: A Different Perspective on Retention; Welcome to Our Table: An Interdisciplinary Unit That Brings the Community Together; A Student Speaks; Teacher Advisory Programs in Middle School; Have Students Plug into Connection Reading Frameworks When They Are All Reading Different Books; Journey to Oz: Reinventing Public Education Practices at the Middle Level in Response to SINI Identification; A Teacher's Attitude Always Matters!

SPRING 2006 (complete issue)
Feature Articles: Breaking Ranks, The Regents Policy Statement and The Essential Elements; Student Strategies for Success: What's It Al'l About?; The New York State Parent Education and Awareness Program, The Learning Style Classroom; Positive Youth Development: If Only Schools Were Like Baseball Teams!; A Student Speaks... Bullying in the Middle School; A Poem: Sitting in This Chair...; Environmental Learning in Middle Schools; A Rationale for Actively Capturing Institutional Memory.

FALL 2006  (complete issue)
Feature Articles: Five Favorite Strategies to Help Your Students Get Organized and Succeed in School; The First Day; Breaking Ranks in the Middle: Strategies for Leading Middle Level Reform; How to Beat the Bully; Getting the Attention of the Pre-Adolescent; High-Stakes Assessments Need Not Emphasize High-Stakes Preparation; A Big Buddy Program; A Student Speaks... Integrated Curriculum in a Standards-Based World.

WINTER 2007 (complete issue)
Feature Articles: Do We Really Need Another Wake-Up Call?; The Role of Good Evidence in the Essential Elements: Schools to Watch Process; Victor Junior High School: A Snapshot of a School to Watch; Strengthening Positive School Culture through STW Application and Site Visitation; The Schools to Watch Program: Site Visitors Benefit, Too; Have Cooperative Pairs Diagnosis Pre-test Weaknesses and Develop a Prescription for Improvement; Getting Kids Involved: The Value of Extra-Curricular Activities.

SPRING 2007 (complete issue)
Feature Articles: Poems: A Chronicle of Kids; A Death in 7th Grade; Write Your Own Dialogues to Increase Active Student Participation; The Ever-Decreasing Attention Span of the Middle School Student; Using the Essential Elements as a Tool for Improving Mathematics Results; The Schools to Watch Site Visit: A Catalyst for Improvement; Our Emerging Middle School.

FALL 2007 (complete issue)
Feature Articles: Character Counts; Notice, Think, and Wonder: New Pathways to Engage Critical Thinking; An Application of "The Quality Secondary Math Classroom" to Middle School Mathematics Instruction; Team Spirit Helps Ensure Success in the Middle; An Efficient Approach to Cooperative Learning; Student Perceptions of a Middle School Video Advisory Program: A Critical Analysis.

WINTER 2008 (complete issue)
Feature Articles: Character Connecting Head and Heart: Social-Emotional Learning in a Data Driven World; Act Your Age: Using Performance in the middle-Level Classroom; Roles of Effective Family Involvement Principals; Comprehensive Group Counseling in the Middle School Setting; Snapshots of Differentiated Instruction K-12; A New Approach to Academic Intervention Services; Using Data to Individualize and Improve the Middle School Experience.

SPRING 2008 (complete issue)
Feature Articles: The Tween Brain: Midway between Infant Dependency and Adult Autonomy; Test Time: Bringing Balance and Sanity to Our Schools; Messy Binders, Missing Assignments…; College Professor Makes Connections with Middle School Classroom; Reading and Writing at the Middle Level; The Hudson River: One Team’s Approach to Flowing across the Content Areas; Higher-Performing Middle Schools in New York State Build Teachers’ Instructional, Curricular, and Leadership Capacities through Collaboration.

FALL 2008 (complete issue)
Feature Articles: Students Need Alternatives and Audience to Increase Achievement; Using Literacy "Embeds" to Teach Appropriate Behavior; A Mentoring Model; The Age of Connectedness; Peer Coaching - Transition in the Middle; How Will You Remember This?; "Do You Know Me?"; The Use (and Sometimes Misuse) of Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory; A Reflection on the Process for "Schools-to-Watch" Recognition.

WINTER 2009
Feature Articles: Providing Interventions for Middle School Students; Doing the I, T, O: An Interdisciplinary Organization to Team and Theme; Thank a Teacher; Education Gets Down and Groovy at Hommocks Middle School; Teachers Work to Meet Diverse Needs of Students; Fitness Training with Action Research; You Are a Genius in This Room; Using Your Classroom as an Instructional Vehicle; Make a “Performance Contract” This Spring to Go Green; Free and Reduced Lunch as an Indicator of Academic Need in 8th Grade Student Populations; Distance Education & the Intervention Student: A Recipe for Success!

SPRING 2009
Feature Articles: Does Machiavelli Have Anything to Say to Teachers Today?; Using the Essential Elements to Raise Scores; Professional Learning: Do Experienced Teachers “Learn” from Their Work with Teacher Candidates?; Back to the Future; Adolescence and Awareness in the Age of Obama: Seventh Graders Speak Out; Body Geometry; Are We So Connected That We’re Disconnected?; No Child Left Behind: No Child Pushed Ahead; Forward to the Basics; and Just Ask: Involving Family and the Community in the Classroom.

FALL 2009 
Writing to a Business/Organization; Teaching Struggling Learners: From the Perspective of a Struggling Learner; Success... What's That?; Middle School the Mercy Way; Learning to Teach Young Adolescents; An Educator Visits a High School in Berlin, Germany: Some Pleasant Surprises!; A Chronicle of Kids; The Limitations of Grading Rubrics: Getting Caught between Assessment and a Number Game; Improving Pre-Service teacher preparation through brain-Based Teaching Models; Teach Your Children Well: Creating a Student-Centered Approach for teaching the 1960s; and, The "Dual Objective" Model for Cooperative Learning: Toward Affective AND Cognitive Gains in Middle School.