The purpose of teaching is to create opportunities for students to learn, and to support and evaluate the learning process as it unfolds. Professional middle-level teachers assume multiple roles in this process. Effective teachers are apt instructors who plan and implement lessons and evaluate student learning. The best teachers set high expectations for their students that are calibrated appropriately to their unique characteristics, including their abilities, learning modalities, interests, and experiences. Effective middle-level teachers are also skilled at establishing and cultivating constructive human relationships. In a broader sense, effective middle-level teachers strive to construct and cultivate relationships between the professional and academic communities to which they belong and the communities from which their students come. Finally, effective middle-level teachers must be astute learners, savvy politicians, and primary cultural agents for their students. The learning process is fueled by the dissonance or assonance that arises when existing cognitive frames are challenged where expectation and experience intersect. In this article, the author shares his views about teaching and learning in the middle grades and relates it to his own experience as a former middle school teacher.