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I was initially certified in 7-12 (the secondary ed certificate in my state then). I since added other endorsements and have taught pre-K through 12th. All have their charms.
Teaching in middle school is the best gig in education - as long as you can tolerate the drama and are good at classroom management. Because you usually teach the exact same thing all day long, it requires less planning and prep than the other levels. Most of my time was at the middle school but I spent 3 years of my career in elementary, including one year in the purgatory otherwise known as kindergarten, and two at a high school. Elementary teachers have a special place in my heart because I know how hard they work, they put in more hours than any other level, but no one seems to want to acknowledge that.
I've thought about teaching middle school students. After many years in the elementary grades I think it might be worth trying. My state certification is NK-8, but I'm not sure I could actually teach middle school without a specific content area endorsement/certification.
For me, it would either be high school AP or college. I like working with students who can manage themselves, and I hate shenanigans, absolutely can't stand anything that interrupts my agenda and attempts to make me look foolish. I love reigniting a sense of wonder and working with someone to whose experience I can relate. I hate trying to make things easy for students but, in the process, making things complicated for me. I like showing off my skills and knowledge and love the focus to be on what we are learning, not necessarily how we are learning it.
I taught college for a few years and now teach high school. My upper level students (11/12 grades) are generally well behaved, however the Freshmen can be a little troublesome. HS students are often less motivated than college students, but I find that I can have more fun in class with high school students. Whenever I tried to play a game in a college class (I teach foreign language), the students would act so bored. HS students generally enjoy any games.
I've thought about trying middle school in the future.
I don't think I would ever teach anything other than college, HS, or MS. Elementary (to me) is too much babysitting and requires a lot more patience.
High school juniors. I can't deal with the immaturity of children. Juniors are almost adults, and I think care most about their grades, as opposed to seniors that are just thinking about graduating. Sophomores are ok, but still too immature. Forget freshman, practically still babies. And I don't know how people teach middle school, you folks should get extra pay for dealing with that age group. I guess elementary kids are cute and can be molded, but not my cup of tea.
It's true that elementary levels (and early childhood ed) requires a LOT of behavioral intervention (at times, near-constant), which is not necessarily every teacher's burning passion when deciding to go into education. Referring to the reality that the early years of education represent the time of life when individuals are doing more growing and changing and developing compressed into a relatively short period of time than they will at any other time in their lives as "babysitting" sells it short. Elementary ed teachers are tasked with getting a LOT of basic skills honed while dealing with an age group for which simply keeping them from injuring themselves and one another can really be a full-time job.
Special ed teachers get slammed this way a lot, too, and it's only people who don't really understand what the job entails who are the ones perpetrating this particular view.
The poster who referred to it as babysitting did bring up one very, very true point, and that is that patience is an essential attribute...typically more patience than the average person possesses.
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Oh boy. [Grabs popcorn]
