The Middle School Mind

By The Middle School MindKids & Family

The Middle School Mind episodes

June 27, 20221.20 Make Your Own Kid Podcast 1
This summer, we want to show tweens how easy it is to make your own podcast for kids! The Middle School Mind is launching a three episode series to guide you step by step to create your own tween podcast.
If you enjoy listening to The Middle School Mind podcast for kids and you’ve wondered how easy it is to make your own kid’s podcast by kids for kids, we are here to help.
Making your own podcast is easy, fun and does not cost a lot to start. We are here to show you step by step how we make The Middle School Mind podcast in hopes that you will start your very own podcast. And, summer is the perfect time to start!
To get started, you will need the help of a parent or responsible adult to help you create your podcast on the podcast app, Anchor and download graphics and create your own podcast title card, you will need to access free sites like Canva and Pexels.
To make this process even easier, we recommend you download the attached PDF guide that shows you handy screen shots to walk through the process every step of the way!
Here's what we cover in episode one:
Podcasting is awesome!

What kind of podcast do you want to make?

Equipment checklist

Name your podcast

Plan your first episode

Enter to win your own Blue Snowball microphone!
Thank you for listening to the show. We really appreciate our listeners and we hope this summer school series will inspire you to Make Your Own Kid Podcast this summer break.
We want to help our listeners with making your own podcast and we will be giving away a total of (2) Logitech Blue Snowball microphones this summer to two of our lucky listeners. The Blue Snowball microphone is the same one we use to record The Middle School Mind and hope you will use it to make your own podcast!
If you want to be part of the drawing, here’s how to enter:
Please leave us a 4 or 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or the podcast platform that you listen to.

Please go to our website at themiddleschoolmind.com/about us and at the bottom of the page you can Contact Us.

Send us your name, contact information and let us know where we can find your review. Once you send us this information, you will be entered into our drawing.

We will be pulling out two names at random and will be following up with those winners directly by August 1, 2022.
It’s that easy!
24 min
June 20, 20221.19 Summer Vacation!
On this episode of The Middle School Mind, Son talks about his perfect summer day and summer vacation ideas. Son is extremely fortunate to spend a lot of time over the summer at his grandparent’s lake house. We talk about his perfect summer day and his favorite part of summer vacation is watching the 4th of July Fireworks show on the lake.
We also talk about an article from IDtech.com on Summer Vacation Ideas for Tweens. We talk about a few of these suggestions from the list and our ideas to check these off over summer vacation.
Son will be taking a break from the podcast as he enjoys his summer vacation for a few months. We will be releasing a summer school series called Make Your Own Kids Podcast in hopes kids can make their own tween podcasts over the summer. Don't worry, Son will be back for Season 2 starting in August!
Calling all future kid podcasters!
We want to help our listeners with making your own podcast and we will be giving away a total of (2) Logitech Blue Snowball microphones this summer to two of our lucky listeners. The Blue Snowball microphone is the same one we use to record The Middle School Mind and hope you will use it to make your own podcast!

If you want to be part of the drawing, here’s how to enter:

Please leave us a 4 or 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or the podcast platform that you listen to. Please go to our website at themiddleschoolmind.com/about us and at the bottom of the page you can Contact Us.

Send us your name, contact information and let us know where we can find your review. You will be entered into our drawing and we will be pulling out two names at random and will be following up with those winners by August 1, 2022.
It’s that easy!
The Middle School Mind is now a proud member of Kids Listen. Kids Listen is a grassroots organization of advocates for high-quality audio content for children. Kids Listen is creating platforms for producers to share ideas, and publish data and information relevant to creators, consumers, and supporters of podcasts for kids.
You can reach The Middle School Mind on our About Us page, Facebook page or Twitter (@TMSM_Podcast). Thanks for listening!
Thank you for listening to the show. We really appreciate our listeners and we hope you have a wonderful summer.
27 min
June 06, 20221.18 Ask a Teacher Part 2
On this episode of The Middle School Mind podcast for tweens, we finish up our Ask a Teacher session with Mom, Aunt and Cousin! We have a great time laughing at some of the silly answers on this episode.
Mom has been a middle school teacher for 26 years while Aunt has been teaching middle school for 27 years. Cousin is new to education and has been teaching for one year.
On this episode, we ask the teachers about:
If you changed your job, what would it be?

What did you want to be when you were middle school age?

How do your coworkers view you at school?

I know learning during COVID was rough for me as a student, what was it like as a teacher?

What gives you the motivation to keep teaching?
Mom and Aunt play a version of The Newlywed Game to see how many matches they can get during our game.
22 min
May 31, 20221.17 Son is on The Ten News!
On this episode of The Middle School Mind podcast for tweens, we share some exciting news and Son’s guest segment on The Ten News podcast for kids! Son and Ryan Willard, head writer, of The Ten News talk about summer blockbuster movies! Ryan was a guest on episode 1.15 Ryan Willard on our show earlier this season.
You can find Son’s episode on The Ten News here!
We also want to wish everyone a very safe and happy Memorial Day holiday in the United States and want to recognize all the men and women who have served our country.
We also want to thank the following people who helped make Son’s appearance on The Ten News happen:
Ryan Willard of The Ten News what a super nice guy and what a pro.

Lauren Passell of Tink Media who manages the Swap Database and helps other podcasts find and collaborate with other pods.

Finally to Aakshi Sinha of Tink Media who helped us coordinate our schedules and set up a time with Ryan to chat and record this episode.
As we are getting closer to summer vacation, we talk about our upcoming episodes and some exciting Summer School project for our listeners!
If you like listening to The Middle School Mind podcast and you’re a tween, middle schooler or kid who has a lot of ideas to get off your chest, we are going to teach you how we make our podcast in hopes that you can create and launch your own podcast this summer!
For 1-2 lucky listeners who leave us a positive review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or the podcast platform of your choice, you can contact us using the form at the bottom of our About Us page. Please let us know which comment you submitted, your user name that you used to submit the comment/review and where we can find your comment/review to be entered into the drawing.
We will randomly pick 1-2 winners who participate and will send you your very own Logitech Blue Snowball microphone to help you get started in your podcasting journey!
So please, like, follow, subscribe and leave a positive review of The Middle School Mind and we will produce those Make Your Own Podcast episodes in June and July.
As always, thank you for listening.
8 min
May 23, 20221.16 Ask a Teacher Part 1
On this episode of The Middle School Mind podcast for tweens, Son gets into the minds of middle school teachers to get their perspective on teaching middle school students. This is a family affair as middle school educators, Mom, Aunt and Cousin, join us on the show!
Mom has been a middle school teacher for 26 years while Aunt has been teaching middle school for 27 years. Cousin is new to education and has been teaching for one year. We ask the teachers about:
What made the teachers pursue a career in education?

What’s it like to teach middle schoolers?

What are memorable moments when teaching preteens, tweens and teens?

How do teachers maintain a great classroom environment?

What teaching style works for you?

Is there a connection between how much homework you give and how much the students like the teachers?

We talk about how expectations have changed from elementary school to middle school
We play a Word Association game!
See how our middle school teachers react to:
Summer school

Bullies

Dress codes

Grading papers

Common Core
We loved making this episode because we got honest feedback from our family members who are also long-time teachers! Educators are dedicated to the students they teach and love to have fun and see them grow. Thank you to our guests and to all the teachers who spend their time teaching kids! We will have our educators back on another episode because we had more questions
Please leave us a positive review and like and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
We also want to hear from you, our listeners! What kind of topics do you want to hear more about?
You can reach The Middle School Mind on our About Us page, Facebook page or Twitter (@TMSM_Podcast). Thanks for listening!
24 min
May 16, 20221.15 Ryan Willard of The Ten News!
On this very special episode of The Middle School Mind kids podcast Son interviews Ryan Willard, head writer, of The Ten News podcast. Ryan and Son talk about delivering news for kids age 8-12 on The Ten News podcast.
Ryan and Son talk about their love of podcasting

Our guest reflects on his life as a middle schooler

Ryan and Son talk about life in the media

Ryan talks about the importance providing news to kids

Son asks Ryan what his dream interview and dream event to report on

Ryan fields Would You Rather questions from Son

Ryan turns from interviewee to interviewer

Son and Dad geek out about today’s episode and give thanks to all those who made this happen

Ryan wraps up the episode and tells us how listeners can find The Ten News podcast
Thanks to all of you for making this a super special episode of The Middle School Mind!
Ryan Willard - what a great guest. What a professional and thank you for your time and being that positive role model in the media. We need more people like Ryan making positive contributions to children’s media.

Lauren Passell of Tink Media manages the Swap Database where we submitted our podcast and they connected us with The Ten News and Ryan Willard on this episode. This is an amazing way for other podcasts to collaborate with other pods.

Aakshi Sinha of Tink Media helped us coordinate schedules and set up a time with Ryan to chat and record this episode.
Please leave us a positive review and like and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. You can reach The Middle School Mind on our About Us page, Facebook page or Twitter (@TMSM_Podcast). Thanks for listening!
26 min
May 02, 20221.14 Awkward Situations
On this episode of The Middle School Mind podcast, we get awkward. Son brings up three awkward situations for us to discuss and we bring up two bonus awkward situations to review.
What does it mean to be Awkward?
To start our episode, Son brings up a really far-off example of an awkward situation that has never happened and will likely never happen.
Son highlights three examples of awkward situations
Potty talk - do you pee in the middle urinal? This article from metro.co.uk highlights the unspoken rules using public urinals

Huggers - how do you handle huggers or people who encroach on your physical space when you’re not a hugger? This article from repeller.com highlights confessions from a non-hugger.

Wedding invitations from long-lost friends - would you feel obligated to go? This Q&A from myneworleans.com answers the question if you have to go to your high school friend’s wedding.
Two bonus awkward situations presented by Father
Seeing teachers outside of work, especially if it’s at their side hustle. Is it weird to see your teachers outside of school? EdSource.org published this article highlighting many teachers who work a second job outside the classroom.

Friend-zoned in middle school! This article from wikihow.com lists 4 Ways to Escape the Friend Zone.
Of course we have to talk about Jeff Bezos on our Awkward Situations episode
Is it getting awkward for our listeners that his name comes up as often as it does in our episodes? This businessinsider.com article talks about the years-long beef between Jeff and Elon.
For more Awkward Situations, check out this article from Lifehacker highlighting 10 Awkward Situations and How to Deal With It.
Please leave us a positive review and like and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. You can reach The Middle School Mind on our About Us page, Facebook page or Twitter (@TMSM_Podcast). Thanks for listening!
30 min
April 18, 20221.13 Dungeons & Dragons Newbie
On this episode of The Middle School Mind podcast for kids and tweens, Son talks about his interest in Dungeons & Dragons and his first-time experience playing D&D.
We talk about what Dungeons & Dragons is and how you can work with your party to build a new world and see how your character and your character’s choices play out throughout the game.
We talk about in-person versus web-based game play and we can’t just can’t stop talking about Jeff Bezos.
Thank you for all your support. Please like and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or your favorite podcast provider.
What is Dungeons & Dragons?
Define your character - your race, class, abilities

Son was a Ranger Elf
D&D, like life, is about choices

Basics of play

Ways to play
Rolling Dice Explained…Sort Of
What does the dice do for us?

I think we need a refresher on probabilities
Son describes his first time playing D&D
Played online via text through Discord
Game play in person vs online

WWJBD - What Would Jeff Bezos Do?
This episode’s sponsorship plea

What Would Jeff Bezos Do in D&D
22 min
April 04, 20221.12 What the Heck is ASMR?
On this episode of The Middle School Mind podcast, Son introduces us to ASMR. Neither of us know what ASMR is and we go to our friends at youtube to help us find out!
1. What is ASMR?
Wikipedia defines ASMR as Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), sometimes auto sensory meridian response. It is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, it has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia and may overlap with frisson.
2. We find a youtube video from Gibi ASMR posted yesterday titled “ASMR that gets darker and darker so you can sleep :)” to help us understand what ASMR is all about.
Gibi ASMR has 4.12m subscribers and this video has 363k views and it was released yesterday! She has an impressive following.

We jump to Gibi ASMR’s introduction of the video.

Gibi ASMR has a lot of great product placement as she uses products in her videos.
3. After our initial view of Gibi ASMR’s video, we give our initial thoughts.
4. We have more questions than answers still.
5. We can’t quit Gibi ASMR and go back to the video.
Here’s Gibi showing her salt shaker she got from the Dollar Store with pink glitter hearts.

We jump to Gibi crinkling her expired, store brand bag of lentils later in the video.

Gibi then taps on a tube of foam beads.

We jump to 23 minutes in to watch Gibi’s segment on the Toaster Coaster.
6. Final thoughts on Gibi’s ASMR video.
Our thoughts, really boring, lots of tapping and lots of name dropping and product placement.
7. We didn't feel the tingles with ASMR, did you?
A special thank you to Gibi ASMR! Her video was definitely eye-opening and helped us understand what ASMR is all about. While ASMR does not resonate with us, it is clear from all the videos, all the views and all the followers for Gibi and other youtubers that ASMR has a big following! Please check out Gibi ASMR’s channel on youtube and see for yourself if ASMR is your thing!
24 min
March 28, 20221.11 Top 10 Listener Cities
On this episode of The Middle School Mind podcast, we've had lots of fun making this show over the last few months. This episode is all about you and we are counting down the Top 10 Listener Cities based on the data we get from our podcast provider.
We wanted to understand who is listening to our show and find out a little more about where our listeners are from and here's the top 10 cities where our listeners come to us from:
10. Bulverde, Texas
9. Three Way Tie
Bellevue, Washington

Houston, Texas

Steamboat Springs, Colorado
8. London, Kentucky
7. Sainte Genevieve, Missouri
6. Brentwood, Tennessee
5. Brandon, Mississippi
4. Colorado Springs, Colorado
3. Los Altos, California
2. Wenatchee, Washington
1. North Ridgeville, Ohio
Finally, we play a trivia game to see what we know about our Top 10 Listener Cities.
Thank you for listening, please drop us a positive comment or review or visit us on our website at themiddleschoolmind.com, click on the About Us page and complete the Contact Us form to let us know what you like and what you want to hear us talk about in the future.
We would really appreciate if you can share our podcast episodes to your family and friends. And if Jeff Bezos is listening, we would love to have you come on the show and talk to us about how you founded amazon.com!
23 min

About The Middle School Mind

From the publisher's feed

Welcome to The Middle School Mind Podcast! This podcast gives a voice and an online outlet for my son to talk about (almost) anything and (almost) everything that is on his mind. My son has a variety…