Tips for a First-Year Middle School Math Teacher

I have been teaching middle school math for twenty years, and it is definitely one of my passions. Working with students is amazing and they make me laugh each day. I tell a first-year middle school math teacher to have fun in the classroom and help students find their love of math through challenging and engaging activities.  

Is being a middle school math teacher hard?

Math is my jam! As a first-year math teacher, it is important to remember that math is more than solving equations and memorizing facts. Teaching students to feel confident working with numbers makes a big difference in how they show up for class daily. 

Teaching math is not hard if you understand the content and have strong management skills. 

How to prepare to teach middle school

It can feel very overwhelming. You will be pulled in so many directions as a first-year teacher. Planning, preparing your classroom, making copies, and getting to know your school policies all within a few days or weeks. Here are three things I would suggest you do to prepare to teach middle school math as a first-year teacher. 

1. Get to know your curriculum and learning objectives. 

Knowing what you will be teaching and the objectives students will need to master for your success as a math teacher is essential. Additionally, it would help if you spent time understanding assessment and unit objectives during the weeks before school starts.  

2. Plan your first unit and first two weeks of lessons. 

The saying “those that fail to plan, plan to fail” is true for middle school teachers. It is important to have a clear plan to follow for your first days (and weeks) of school. It doesn’t need to be content-focused. But, it would help if you began the year by setting the expectation that your classroom is a place where students will have a routine and expectations for learning. 

3. Create a plan for standard procedures and classroom management

For first-year middle school teachers, classroom management can be easy or challenging. To have good classroom management, you must implement routines and plan to manage the challenging situations that may arise. When planning your procedures, think about everything that needs to happen, starting with students entering the classroom to student dismissal. Basically, these things will save you time and energy in your first year. 

Common Classroom Procedures:

Here are some common classroom procedures that I teach to my students over the course of the first few weeks:

• Absent/Tardy Student procedures
• Entering the Classroom and Exiting the Classroom
• Homework – taking out previous hw and writing in their agenda
• Class routine
• Handing in Papers
• Locker usage – times and organization

Setting up your classroom to be a perfectly curated and inviting learning environment is important. I do like to include some math related spaces on my walls to help students throughout the year – like my Magic in Math Bulletin Board and my vertical number line. However, in my experience, you should leave space for students to help create the learning environment so that they feel comfortable and invested in taking responsibility for the room. So, I recommend that teachers spend time organizing and adding space to turn in papers and manage resources. But hold off on spending lots of time beautifying the room until you have plans and procedures ready. 

Tips for your first day as a middle school math teacher

There are many things to remember when starting the school year. Most importantly, you will want to start building relationships with your students. 

Creating relationships with my students is one of my most important tasks. I start out by having them make name tents that they can put at their seats. Then I am able to quickly put a name with a face. Inside the name tents for the first week, we write notes to each other so we can get to know each other better. I ask them questions like

• What did you do this summer?
• What do you do outside of school?
• Thinking of your favorite teacher….tell me something that they did that you really loved.
• What is your favorite subject and why?

Intentionally teaching procedures to students during the first week sets expectations and a structure that you can always follow throughout the year. I weave the procedures into activities as we do them so that they have more meaning. An easy procedure to establish right away is entering and leaving the classroom.

The other thing I recommend for the first day of teaching is a group work activity. Planning a quick activity will allow students to release nervous energy and give you a glimpse into individual student personalities. For example, my go-to activity is the 100 numbers group activity. It is a free activity created by Sara Van Der Werf. One of the best ways to manage a classroom is through relationship building. When you know students’ motivations, preferences, and working styles – you will be able to handle challenging situations that may come up during the year.

Resources for middle school math teachers

The most common concern I hear from new and experienced middle school math teachers is that there aren’t as many resources available to engage students in practice. 

One of my favorite things about teaching math is the opportunity to have students practice and apply skills in a fun and exciting ways. For instance, setting up my classroom as a diner to practice decimals and percents or playing review games to practice math concepts are two of my favorite activities. 

Flip 4 Math was created to help teachers save time and easily implement fun practice opportunities in math class. 

A few of my most popular resources are:

6th Grade Math Interactive Notebook Foldables

These easy-to-print interactive notebook foldables have you covered for all sixth-grade math topics. This resource is a set of 100+ interactive notebook foldables and an easier way for students to collect and organize notes as they learn different topics throughout the year. 

All these foldables are designed to fit in a composition notebook but can fit any other notebook size you may use. In addition, they are designed to be an easy print-and-go resource with many practice opportunities. 

Foldables are a great way to help students organize their notes and take pride in their notebooks!

6th Grade Math Google Forms™ Exit Tickets Bundle

This Google Forms exit ticket bundle is a lifesaver! They cover a variety of topics and a variety of skill levels. Use them for practice, exit tickets, and review. In addition, this is an editable resource that makes it easy for teachers to add, edit, or remove questions as you need to. The best part is that Google Forms automatically provides insights so you can get an instant snapshot of student understanding.

Math Scavenger Hunts

In this self-checking, self-paced activity, students get out of their seats, talk math, and practice various math skills. Students will start at any problem and work through twelve problems to make a complete loop. 

A student collection sheet is included in this for students to use during the scavenger hunt to keep their work organized. These math scavenger hunts have just the right amount of challenge for all student levels to reduce quick finishers and frustration from students that need to take their time. 

Learn more about how I implement the scavenger hunts in my blog post here.