Math class, here I come
Workday - none
I haven't taught a full math class yet. This semester will be the first time. I'm just glad it's a grade nine course. The last time I taught math was about two years ago, and it was the "easier" stream of the grade nine math curriculum. Technically, the curriculum is fairly similar, but this stream appeals to students who don't plan on pursuing higher levels of math. In other words, kids who really aren't very good at it. This semester I have "academic" classes.
Right now I'm going through my old handouts, overhead sheets, quizzes, tests, etc. from two years ago. I'm realizing that almost all of it is going to be too juvenile for the overachieving brainiacs I'll have in my class next week. I don't mind giving them some juvenile activities (gotta love those "math games"!), but aside from that, I don't think these fill-in-the-blank, cartoon-laden worksheets are going to fly.
I have no idea what resources I'll have available to me in the department. Tomorrow I'm going to stock my desk with everything I have here, then check out what they have. Most math departments have binders full of exercise sheets for any given unit. I wonder if they'll have a set of algebra tiles. I've discovered that no one uses those things. Only the newest crop of teachers knows how they work, and it doesn't help that the students think they're stupid. If they have any, I'll try them out one day and see the reaction. I'm flexible. That's why (even though my math skills are probably weaker than any other math teacher out there) I think I'm better suited to teaching the subject than some -- especially when it comes to teaching the weaker students. I know about 5 different ways to approach teaching most math concepts, so a student's bound to understand one of them. Some other teachers really know their subject, and they're so good at it that the solutions just come to them automatically. They can't understand why someone else wouldn't see things their way.
And so, we'll see how I end up approaching these math classes. Math games, manipulatives, progress journals, investigations, performance tasks, co-operative learning? Or will I abandon my young teacher ideals and fall back on the old "chalk 'n' talk" methodology?
I haven't taught a full math class yet. This semester will be the first time. I'm just glad it's a grade nine course. The last time I taught math was about two years ago, and it was the "easier" stream of the grade nine math curriculum. Technically, the curriculum is fairly similar, but this stream appeals to students who don't plan on pursuing higher levels of math. In other words, kids who really aren't very good at it. This semester I have "academic" classes.
Right now I'm going through my old handouts, overhead sheets, quizzes, tests, etc. from two years ago. I'm realizing that almost all of it is going to be too juvenile for the overachieving brainiacs I'll have in my class next week. I don't mind giving them some juvenile activities (gotta love those "math games"!), but aside from that, I don't think these fill-in-the-blank, cartoon-laden worksheets are going to fly.
I have no idea what resources I'll have available to me in the department. Tomorrow I'm going to stock my desk with everything I have here, then check out what they have. Most math departments have binders full of exercise sheets for any given unit. I wonder if they'll have a set of algebra tiles. I've discovered that no one uses those things. Only the newest crop of teachers knows how they work, and it doesn't help that the students think they're stupid. If they have any, I'll try them out one day and see the reaction. I'm flexible. That's why (even though my math skills are probably weaker than any other math teacher out there) I think I'm better suited to teaching the subject than some -- especially when it comes to teaching the weaker students. I know about 5 different ways to approach teaching most math concepts, so a student's bound to understand one of them. Some other teachers really know their subject, and they're so good at it that the solutions just come to them automatically. They can't understand why someone else wouldn't see things their way.
And so, we'll see how I end up approaching these math classes. Math games, manipulatives, progress journals, investigations, performance tasks, co-operative learning? Or will I abandon my young teacher ideals and fall back on the old "chalk 'n' talk" methodology?
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