Advice for new teacher teaching Math

Help! I need some advice. I graduated in May 2004 with a Secondary Business Education degree (B.S.E.d.), but could not find a position in that area. So, I'm going to be teaching Pre - Algebra (9th Vocational level) and Algebra 1 (10th - College Prep). I'm a bit overwhelmed at this point. Any suggestions, hints, advice, etc. is MUCH appreciate

If you want a Business teaching job, you're going to wait awhile.

I would spend sometime looking at my curriculum and start to plan a calendar for the year with the time you have left.

Don't teach math. Teach students.
And don’t teach from your butt, move around and interact with your students. I don’t mean to bash my math-teaching friends, but most of the math teachers I have met are arrogant, self righteous, and do more damage than anything else. Your job is to make students understand the material, not to meet some arbitrary deadline dictated to you by your department. Make it interesting, if you're bored, trust me, they are too. Remember, just because it's the way we’ve always done it DONT make it right. Pre test, find out where your students are at now and go from there. Set realistic goals and specific boundaries that your students understand, and remember why you’re there, and if it ain’t workin…………you change, they’re not gonna! Good Luck.

Jeff@jeffslough.com

Don't take it personally that the students are not ready for algebra.

For the college bound you can try to motivate them by showing samples from SATs.(They will have to demonstrate math proficiency on that test.)

For the vocational try math games...in other words...make it fun.

The most successful students are usually supported by their parents. These will be a minority group. You might ask them to help.

Start planning your exit strategy unless your tolerance for frustration is high. Most people don't understand algebra no matter how it is presented.

In the search to find interesting ideas I came across your question. One of the books I would recommend is Dave Johnsons' Making minutes Count and Making Minutes Count even more. There are some good organizational ideas in both. Ron Clark's web page on the essential 55 has several links that you can use with multi-levels. Also your book's publisher should have a web site with ideas. The biggest thing in your vocational classes will be making it real to the student. Go to the Math Forum and search for some ideas to help. Ask the other math teachers how they might broach topics and what ideas they have. Kids of all ages like scavenger hunts. There are some posted on the web and you can create your own. The AIMS materials that most science teachers have are also great resources for the age group you are talking about. Ask those other teachers for help-most are willing to share their ideas. You can always take an idea and make it work for you. You will find that your knowledge of banking and finance will give you great ideas for Pre-ALg. Have you thought about letting your kids play the stock market game competition on the internet? Best of Luck coonman12@wmconnect.com

1. Be prepared for the possibility of a W I D E variety of insufficient pre-requisite skill levels walking in your door. I was a little dismayed at just how weak some of them were.

2. Don't try to re-invent the wheel your first time out. Take advantage of existing lesson plans, borrowed resources, and internet sources (...kinda' like this one...) You can always fine tune the ones that work for you later.

3. Depending on the location and demographics of the school you're assigned to, you should also be prepared for a wide range of student motivations. Remember that things are different from when you went to school. My school site is fairly low end of the socio-economic scale, and hard core, college bound eager beavers are scarce. Even at high end schools, you'll still be asked several times, "why do we have to learn this s[tuff]?!", or "when am I ever going to need this?" Ask some of your colleagues for their responses. (Mine is,"I don't know...What are you going to be doing twenty years from now?") ( I've actually started some interesting discussions with that one..)

4. Live for those moments when you "see the little light go on over their heads". My greatest satisfaction comes when a struggling students blurts out, "Oh! I get it!!" And don't let it get you down if they don't.

teach every single numeric & symbol as the part of the real life.Attach Nummerical Values to the the Real life objects.Mathmatical things are lot more related to the real life concepts than any abstract things.
if i can help in any way related to mathmatical learning; mail at faheem_si@hotmail.com
(Mathmatical model Designer)

1. If the students still need to learn to multiply - then teach them how to multiply. Make sure you teach them at their level, regardless of curriculum.

2. Give assignments on worksheet rather than out of textbooks. Then use some these exact questions on a quiz. Then after 3 quizzes, use the exact same 3 quiz questions on the test. Results: Better marks since students know exactly what is on the test. Better attendance since students know that assignments become quizzes which become tests. Less prep time since we simply change the title from assignment to quiz to test. I call it the PC Hanna system.

1. If the students still need to learn to multiply - then teach them how to multiply. Make sure you teach them at their level, regardless of curriculum.

If students at a particular grade level are expected to know how to divide by polynomials, then that is what you need to teach them. Teaching "to their level" is an easy way for them to get behind. That isn't fair, since colleges don't dumb down their curriculum accordingly.

The state standards prescribe what is grade-level appropriate, and that determines what is expected of them. Otherwise, they will always be behind the rest of society.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If students at a particular grade level are expected to know how to divide by polynomials, then that is what you need to teach them. Teaching "to their level" is an easy way for them to get behind.

While this is true, you still have to teach at the students' levels. If you walk in to class, put an example [12x + 15y/3x + 3y] on the board and start explaining how to solve it, but some kids have no clue what 12x is in the first place,(for whatever reason it is that they are in a class that should have known this stuff, yet they still don't -- Believe me. It happens often.) you DO have to give an introductary lesson on breaking down polynomials before teaching them to divide. You will still be teaching them the material they are required to know - at its fullest extent, you are just insuring that it's in their "language" too!

That isn't fair, since colleges don't dumb down their curriculum accordingly.

No, but if you teach kids - at their level - how to learn about, and solve polynomials etc. (even if it requires three introductory lessons of simpler math) then they'll be able to pick up the threads of college level math too.
The problem with most education (at least the one I received) is that teachers teach a bunch of material put on the standards, curriculum, or whatever else you want to dubb it, as opposed to teaching the kids HOW to learn it on their own.
Teaching how to learn is truly an art which all teachers should master, if they want to consider themselves effective.

The state standards prescribe what is grade-level appropriate, and that determines what is expected of them. Otherwise, they will always be behind the rest of society.

While it is true that we have to have expectations of our students, we cannot just teach them based on an assumption of our expectations. It is our job and responsibility as teachers/educators to give our students the tools to be able to keep up with the expectations of the standards, or whatever, and develop the necessary skills and knowledge that they will need to get through (college, and then) life.