I’ve done two tours at inner-city middle schools; one was 96% Hispanic and 2/3rds ELL, and the other was 75% Black. In both cases it was the curriculum that got to me.
I also taught at a school that went from grade 6 to grade 12.
I know lots of teachers whom absolutely despise working with middle schoolers! My mom taught 1st grade for 34 years, but she refused to work with kids older than 4th grade.
I do that; I had a transgender student last semester and I usually used “Mr. X” to refer to him.
Calling your students by their last name is more of a high school thing, though. I’ve never had it go over well with middle schoolers.
If it’s anything like where I work, it shows on the roster if a student is transgender; it has the new name in parentheses.
Roncali fired a teacher in a manner inconsistent with Indiana law.