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Sat 17 Sep, 2005 04:36 am
I am teaching my students more than just Math concepts. One of the things that I am trying to teach them is how to take a multiple-choice test. Every problem of the day is a problem with multiple choices. I am trying to get them to think logically and eliminate answers that make no sense thereby increasing their probability of getting (or guessing) the correct answer.
I am stressing (especially to the Freshmen) that they are learning more than Math, Science or History this year. They are learning real-life skills. How to sit alongside someone that you might not get along with too well. How to prioritize your school (work) schedule and social calendar. Things like that. The boys MUST treat the girls in my class with respect. All too often I overhear things that irritate me from the boys (and sometimes from the girls.) Am I a good Math teacher? I would like to think that I am but more importantly to me, I am shaping the future of our society. I feel blessed each and every day for the opportunity to do so.
This Statement is NOT from symmetry.
I'm confused. Just who IS this statement from?
My 9th grade algebra teacher was one of the best teachers I ever had. Among several principles I've used is "define x" If you cannot define and state the problem, you are not going to solve it.
I suppose that with the emphasis on testing in today's world, test taking is a valuable skill. I hope it extends to logical thinking in general.
I'm a math teacher as well.
I never give multiple choice tests. In a 100 true false question test, a student need only know 40% of the answers to guess the rest of the way to a 70%. In a 100 5-choice test, a student need only know about 63% to guess the rest of the way to a 70%. You could complicate things by penalizing wrong answers but still, in that case, the advice is to guess if you can narrow it down to two choices. Guessing is just too relied upon when the student should know.
That's my thing though and I teach in an environment where I don't have to answer to some standardized test. MC tests seem to be a necessary evil to high school teachers who teach six classes and whose students must pass a m.c. test.
I would continue teaching them those life skills. Unfortunately, there may not be a separate class devoted to those things.
There probably isn't such a class taught separately, and I shudder at what a committee would decide to stick in it.
Re: Am I A Good Math teacher?
symmetry wrote:The boys MUST treat the girls in my class with respect.
But the girls don't have to treat the boys with respect? Why not just stress that everyone to treat everyone else with respect?
roger wrote:There probably isn't such a class taught separately, and I shudder at what a committee would decide to stick in it.
I don't shudder but I would be concerned. There are books on just study skills and that would help with every other class they have if there was a separate class on study skills. Whatever is put in should be well researched for educational value, of course. Not talking about teaching ID here, just some life skills and study skills.
The most important lesson my Math teachers taught me is that, almost always, there is more than one way to solve a problem. A given solution may be more elegant or efficiently-derived than another, but learning to think along multiple possible threads gave me confidence in approaching problems that were new and/or difficult.
Multiple-choice tests, my classmates and I found generally boring, sometimes insulting. The only ones we faced were a few as practice for the SATs (speaking of boring and insulting--not to mention culturally biased!).
We particularly enjoyed being set loose on unsolved (and often unsolvable!) problems. As 7th-graders, we would happily spend an occasional class period trying to do something like trisecting an angle with compass and straight-edge. We might just be the lucky ones, or so we thought! I learned a lot of geometry in the process.
Definitely, incorporating the practice of mutual respect is an important part of any class-planning.
It's Maths, not Math. If you don't know that, then you have no business teaching Math.
When I was in school--a long while ago--the courses were called "Math." We associated the usage "Maths," possibly incorrectly, with the U.K. I do not teach the subject, but if I did, I wouldn't like to be written off simply because my school billed my class as "Math."
Come to think of it, at college, where my mathematical career ended after I foolishly signed on for a Theory of Calculus class, the subject was listed as "Math."
DrewDad wrote:It's Maths, not Math. If you don't know that, then you have no business teaching Math.
What country are you from?
It is "math" in the US or the formal "mathematics." Both are correct though one is more appropriate given the situation.
Oh, and I assume you're being tongue-and-cheek in that your last word is spelled without an s.
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