GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — Teaching a subject well is challenging. Teaching science is even tougher and teaching it to kids going through the maelstrom of early teen years makes it harder, still. “The content can be challenging and, I don’t want to be biased, but I feel that because of the energy that I bring into the classroom, I find that my kids do find my space a little more inviting,” says Leondra Richardson. Richardson is in her ninth year as a science teacher at Northern Guilford Middle School where she teaches 8th graders and tries to do more than just get information into her kids’ minds. “I feel like it makes it harder for the kids to learn if they find that the teacher is not likable, if they find that the teacher – if they feel that the teacher does not like them,” Richardson says. But any parent of a middle schooler knows that is a challenging time as those kids try to figure out who they are and what their place is in the world. “Middle school kids, this is the time they disappear and I remember having conversations with parents, I’m like, whoever you thought your baby was when they were in elementary school, they are a complete different creature when they come to middle school,” Richardson says. “They disappear – you know, some parents are like, ‘I don’t know who my child is, right now.’ I say this is normal, you’re not crazy. They resurface – a version of themselves will resurface when they get to high school, maybe even after that. But for a lot of our kids, it’s hormones, it’s all different things, they’re discovering themselves, they’re growing fast, they’re trying to catch up, emotionally, so each day in the classroom, it’s literally like, a little bit of a hurricane, sometimes.” See what life is like as a middle school science teacher – and what Leondra Richardson thought was her career path – in this Saved By the Bell edition of The Buckley Report.