My principal asked me to read and summarize 5 TES Resources about math and classroom management over the summer as part of my professional growth plan (Yes, I have an awesome principal). I figured I might as well put it in a blog post.
Behavior Management Strategies
Summary:
Just what it says on the tin: this resource gives practical tips/reminders for managing the
classroom. Key ideas: Establish procedures and stick to them. Don’t talk until
students are listening. Know when students are most likely to be chatty, etc.
and plan for that. Keep the lessons engaging and catch them being good.
Application:
Last year I had a lot of trouble with students talking while
I was teaching. It’s not that they were trying to be difficult---a lot of times
one student would still be explaining to another how to do an assigned problem.
I’m glad they do this, but not when it means they both miss the next bit of
instruction. This year, I will not teach or give directions until the students
are quiet. Also, I need to plan better for the beginning of class and
transitions, particularly on days when I plan to do a PowerPoint---it takes
time to set up the projector, and sometimes it goes off in the middle of class
if we have a power outage. (This is Africa, after all). I need to have a
long-ish warm-up on those days, and I will tell the students to bring their
text books every day---because even if I’m not planning to teach out of it, I
may need them to do problems out of it while I wait for the projector to come
back on!
Classroom Behavior Management Toolkit
Summary:
This is another set of behavior management tips, and it
overlaps a lot with the resource above. The article emphasizes positive
expectations, consistency, and respect for the students. Positive behavior should
be encouraged, while negative behavior should be dealt with in as
non-confrontational manner as possible (and if there is a confrontation, it
should be in private). It also reminds teachers to think ahead of time about
lesson beginnings, endings, transitions, etc.
Application:
One of my biggest struggles last year was letting students
talk me into things. I need to always remember that I am the teacher and what I
say goes. I plan to have seating charts from the very beginning of the year,
and I will discuss expectations with students on the first day. Also, I will
try to deal with behavior problems right away, rather than letting them build
up.
Understanding Vectors
Summary:
This powerpoint thoroughly explains what vectors are, how to
represent them graphically and in column form, and how to add, subtract, and
multiply by a scalar quantity. It is quite long and gives lots of examples and
definitions.
Application
Vectors was one of my least favorite topics to teach last
year, partly because I had never been thoroughly taught about them myself. We
did a little with them in physics when I was in college, but even then it
wasn’t like the vector geometry problems. This year should be better, since I
have a better idea of what I’m doing, but I think this PowerPoint will help,
too. I may have to modify it a bit---there are a lot of words per slide, and my
students try to write down every single word and freak out if you change the
slide before they’re done. This lesson
will take 3-4 days, with practice problems after each chunk of the
presentation.
Vector Geometry
Summary:
This is a straight-forward vector geometry worksheet. All of the problems are 2-d, which saves some
confusion. The vectors are already drawn, so the students just need to
interpret them, which should save time. Answers are included.
Application:
This might be a good worksheet to use after (or perhaps ¾ of
the way through) the PowerPoint above. Answers are included, so it would be
easy to grade, and it would give the students plenty of practice. Also, they
mark on it as much as they want without annoying the librarians (or me) by
drawing in their textbooks.
Substitution Game: Algebra
Summary:
This is a set of illustrated top trumps cards for
substituting into algebraic expressions. Students split into small groups,
divide up the cards, and play top trumps: They pick an ability, each of them
draws a card, they draw a number card (to tell what to substitute in for a, b,
and c) and the person with the highest value gets to keep the cards.
Application:
I think this would be a fun way to reinforce this topic when
I do the “Introduction to Algebra” topic with the seventh grade class. It would
be easy to differentiate, as the resource author said, by having the
higher-level students substitute in fractions, values, negatives, etc.
