Educator. Athlete. Coach
A Typical Day in Ms. Merritts' Math Classroom
A typical day in Ms. Merritt's classroom is always well planned in advance. Below you are going to see the schedule of what my classroom looks like on a day to day basis. Before we go into that, I should share a bit of information about my school and what I am teaching. I am currently teaching Geometry Part A and Part B. Our school runs on a semester schedule with each block being 90 minute periods. The students have four blocks per day plus an hour for lunch. I pride myself on the positive learning environment that I build in my classroom.
To the left you can see a gallery of pictures of my classroom set up. I like to keep my classroom filled with things that are fun; that showcase who I am as a person. Teachers who do not share themselves with their students struggle to create relationships with them. I also have a calm corner where students like to sit in the "comfy" chairs or on the rug and work with partners. I have projects from students displayed to show off their work, sports schedules and classroom rules and expectations. I want my students to be in an environment that is full with lots of color and fun so they do not feel like they are in a classroom. The classroom is a place for the students. It should be built around them and their needs. My high school, Great Bridge High School, is an urban area, but also receives students from low income areas so there is a balance that the teachers need to find to connect with each student.
The Planning Stage
If you work in a school you can understand the hours of work that go behind a teachers actual day in the classroom. It has been planned weeks in advance making sure that all the content is covered in an engaging way. I make sure that before the semester starts I have come up with a semester plan that includes days off, vacation days, school activities and anything else that can interfere with my teaching. I also lay out how many days I want to spend on each unit so I know how much time I can spend on the material. Once that semester plan is made, then I make sure to have my unit plans, which cover all of my lessons with their day to day schedule. Click the buttons below to see examples!
A Typical Day
My first block class goes from 8:40-10:10am.
8:40-9:05am Math Thrill!
Students will entire the room while I am greeting them at the door. The will pick up a math thrill from the front table, which is their warm up. The warm ups that I create are always on review material. I have seen higher end of year test grades when my students have completed warm ups all year that have been constantly reviewing material. They are 4 questions and that students present them on the board.
9:05-9:45am Guided Notes
Depending on the unit I typically have created the entire unit in advance to hand out a unit packet to my students. I love completing guided notes because it lets my students focus on the work and not trying to stay caught up making sure they have written everything down. During this time, I typically will complete a few problems with them and then ask them to do 2 or 3 on their own to see if they are understanding the material. I will walk around and monitor the students to see if I need to complete more examples with them or if they are ready to move on. It is important that teachers are flexible in case students really struggle with material and need more time or it comes very easily to them and they need to be challenged.
9:45-10:10am Homework/Classwork
After the notes have been completed and I have assessed how the students are doing with the material, I will assign homework. I like to give my students time in class to at least start their homework for a few reasons. I know that they have many things outside of school going on and some are on sports teams. I also have always taught classes that have struggling learners in them and I have found that this benefits them more. I also like to use the Remind App with students as a way of communicating with them outside of school if they have questions on the homework or anything school related.
On other days, instead of using this time for homework or classwork I may plan to do an activity with my students. They really like to do scavenger hunts because I sometimes take them outside or the get to go into the hallway and they are more self paced. I will also do Kahoots or alter a game of Jenga to use math questions. The enjoy our game days. I am also a huge fan of projects in the classroom. You can go check out my student work page to see some examples of those!
Click the buttons below to look at examples of my math thrill, notes, test day memes, tests, and student work that I use in my classroom.
Fun test day meme! I always have one up on the board to put a smile on my students face before they take their test.
There are a few things that I believe are important to being a teacher. Click the button below to see the 5 characteristics I believe are important to be a great math teacher.
