Oh my! This will be my 40th year of teaching. And I still love it. Only 8 more sleeps.
I can’t wait for my new classes, students, colleagues and teaching/learning experiences.
My plans so far:
- Get to know students quickly (names, likes, dislikes).
- Use Sara Vanderwerf’s Week 1 ideas – after all she has posted about week 1 fifteen times!
- In particular I like “Name Tents with Feedback”, “100 Number Task” and “Mathfails”. Here is a Math fail I photographed last month:
- Get more feedback from students and act on it. eg. survey questions, pre-tests, exit tickets, etc.
- Use more open ended questions eg. Is x squared or x cubed bigger? Explain.
- Allow opportunities for movement around the classroom. eg. Leaning stations, Slope Man says, Movement Maths videos, Puzzle Table, etc.
- Use “Maths in the News” from the Independent egs. Largest known prime discovered, The perfect age to get married is 26.
- Have fun with students egs. Nicknames, Instead of “Where’s Waldo” play “Where’s Molly”, celebrate birthdays.
- Show students the beauty and wonder of Mathematics eg. Numberphile videos.
- Finally, I wonder if they will like my new Teddy and think up a good name for him?
Webmaths 