Sunday, August 28, 2016

A New Year Begins and I'm Teaching Math...

My summer is officially over and the 2016-2017 school year has begun.  One of the biggest changes this school year is that my school has a new principal.  This is the third principal that we have had in five years.  I continue to remain optimistic.

My role has also changed a bit.  While I will be handling the logistics of my school's ESOL program, the majority of my day will be spent teaching assigned classes.  When the scheduling chips fell, it left a seventh grade math class without a co-teacher.  Since I needed to fill my schedule, I assigned myself this class.

Math is the one subject that I have never actually taught before.  Reflecting back on my time as a math student, one might say that this is a good thing.  While I do plan on brushing up on my math skills in order to be an effective math co-teacher (through Khan Academy, Math Playground and StudyJams), my main role will be reinforcing vocabulary.

With this in mind, I have scoured the Internet for math vocabulary resources from Maths Dictionary, Granite School District and MathWords.  I have also found a website that offers a variety of math vocabulary foldables.

So far, my students seem enthusiastic about math and my co-teacher is receptive to my presence in the classroom.  As this year continues, I will be sure to provide updates from the math trenches.