Sandy Hayes Merten, Teacher

Sandy Hayes Merten
Social Science Teacher

Sandy grew up in Orange County, CA and has a BA degree from UCLA with a major in Political Science and a Minor in History. She has a MA in Education from Pepperdine and has done Post Graduate work at UCSD in Education.

Sandy’s title is Social Science Teacher. She teaches US History, World History, Government, Economics, and Geography to grades 8-12 at MASIS, a private school in Puerto Rico. She is also the Social Science Department Chair, a position in which she coordinates the social science program, serves as a mentor to other social science teachers, and acts as a liaison between the department and administration.

“I began college thinking I wanted to become a lawyer but had to take an education class to fulfill a requirement for graduation. I fell in love with teaching and never thought about the Law for a career again.”

After college Sandy taught high school Social Science, AP Government and US History in San Diego public schools, where she had 40 + kids in her classes.

Marriage brought Sandy to Puerto Rico where her present job requires teaching 7 classes. This involves a lot of class preparation (aligning the content with the standards of the nation), lesson planning, research, plus communicating with parents and kids. Sandy also advises “Teach and Debate”, and will begin advising the Model United Nations class and club in the next school year,

Sandy says “my biggest work related challenge is doing what I would like to do creatively and keeping management pleased. My students and their feedback is the most rewarding part of my job.”

“The keys to success in my field are a passion for teaching, a lot of patience, being willing to do a lot of hard work and not get paid for it, and being incredibly organized (being a type A is helpful).”

There are a lot of new developments in education. There is also a lot of research that says homework is completely useless. Some teachers are getting away from homework or requiring minimum homework time. Technology is also having an impact, some good and some bad (cheating), but mostly good. Today some teacher’s require classes to have a Facebook page for their class.

In her free time Sandy loves to go to the beach, traveling, and reading. Her favorite author is Jodi Picoult. She has read 9+ of her books, her favorite is The Pact .