Day in the Life at Legacy Middle School

February 2024
Avery Miles 

Hi ya’ll! it’s Keion here and I am very excited to take you through a day in my life at Legacy Middle School (LMS), in Newark, NJ. I am a first year Fellow teaching 7th and 8th grade math. I chose to be a Fellow at LMS because the culture and extracurricular activities really stuck out to me.

Morning: 

Almost every day starts with arrival duty. I stand in the halls and welcome scholars into school. I enjoy arrival duty because it really sets the tone for the day. I like to bring a high energy to inspire my scholars to have that same energy throughout their day. Making sure the scholars are prepared to learn and succeed is my number one priority at this point in the day. 

My first tutorial starts at 9:15 a.m. I work with both 7th and 8th graders in math. Tutorial focuses on high-impact tutoring, directly targeting students through small tutorial groups with a lot of one-on-one support within. Each tutorial period looks very different depending on what kids I am with, what lesson we are on, and more. I cater each of my teaching strategies for my different groups and even different students within that group. No tutorial will ever look the same for me. 

Lunch: 

After two back-to-back tutorial blocks, I have a short break and then head to lunch duty. Lunch is my favorite time of the day because it’s helpful to connect with the scholars outside of a classroom setting. When the weather is nice out, the scholars are able to go outside and play games. I try to hop into as many games and groups as I can. 

Afternoon: 

At 1:45 p.m. I have my last tutorial of the day. After tutorial, I head to my secondary, Ms. T. Each Fellow is assigned a secondary, usually a teacher or staff member, who we support at the end of the day. Ms. T and I have built a strong relationship. She has helped me gain a lot of confidence in my teaching abilities. Our relationship is very collaborative and I feel comfortable to share ideas for the classroom. She also allows me to work and observe directly in her class, which has been really beneficial to my own growth in the classroom. Mrs. T. has been working in this field for quite a while and has a lot of experience, so she’s been an amazing resource to learn from. I can confidently say Ms. T has become a role model of mine. 

After School: 

Typically the last hour of my day will be filled with secondary work and lesson planning. Today, however, was the Unity Day Assembly here at LMS. Unity Day is where the whole school comes together, wearing our school color, orange. Each Unity Day, we hold an assembly with a performance from the dance team, as well as speeches to elect this year’s student council board. This assembly was especially exciting for me because I run the student council at LMS. I spent weeks working with scholars to prepare their speeches and create a mini introduction video, all for this assembly. It was such a rewarding experience working with so many different scholars interested in making LMS a better place. The assembly was a great success. The entire school came together with high energy for all scholars participating in our assembly. 

I also am one of the cheer coaches. I choreograph dances and prepare the scholars to cheer and perform at assemblies and basketball games. I am so excited to see them perform at the basketball games this season. 

Once my extracurricular activities for the day have concluded, my day is officially done. Thank you for coming along with me today! 

Signing off,

Keion Mack