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Try not to frown on wrong answers.
It discourages
students from participating. Critical thinking and honest effort are more important than
correct answers. |
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There is no teaching without control of your
class. It is better to fall behind by a day or two early in the year
to address discipline, than to have an
uphill battle all year long over behavior. |
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Avoid talking over your students. If there is too
much noise in the classroom, sometimes the best thing to do is to stop talking. (I am famous for the
"Glosser Glare".) |
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Routine and structure are good, but too much of
it can cause you and your class to fall into a rut. Try to vary activities from time to
time. |
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Encourage active participation from your
students. From time to time, call students to the board, or allow them to work in groups.
Avoid giving teacher-directed lessons all of the time. (See our article on Cooperative Learning Techniques.) |
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Try to be flexible. Math can be a rigid
topic, but you don't have to be. For example, I have a strict rule against chewing gum. But I
close my eyes to it during a test. |
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Try to spell out what topics will be on the test.
Telling your students to "Study Chapter 6" is not enough, especially if they
have poor study skills. |
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In some schools, math is the only subject where
students are grouped by ability (i.e. homogeneously). This makes it stand out more than
other subjects. Parents may frequently ask: "Why didn't Johnny get an A in math? He
got one in all his other subjects." Some parents may insist that their child be
placed in the top math group, even when the child does not belong there. |
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It is important to get support from an
administrator when it comes to difficult issues such as math groupings.
Ask
that they be present at conferences with difficult parents. |
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If a student was present for all the material
taught, but is absent on the day of the test, then on the day
the student returns, inform him/her
of the make-up day and time. Don't let it go more than a day or two. However, if the
student missed part or all of the material taught, you should give him a deadline by which
to make up all missed work, and a new test date. It may be helpful to contact the parent
in this case. A student should not be penalized for being absent. However, they can be
penalized for failing to make up missed work. |
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I recommend a technique called "Front
Loading". Students are most motivated to learn at the beginning of the school year.
Rather than reviewing material from the previous school year, why not introduce a topic
they haven't seen before? |
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Try to teach students good problem-solving
skills. When your students enter the work place, their superiors will not give them a
worksheet with 25 least common
multiple (LCM) exercises. They will more likely have a scheduling problem that needs
to be solved using LCM concepts. |
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To motivate students, give out awards for both
good academics and for good effort. |
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Do your best to be fair to students. You will
earn their respect this way. |
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The best motivator of all is
connecting math to the
real world. For example, when teaching the metric system, have students bring in empty
cartons and bottles from their kitchen. |
