I have been given a large amount of maths to teach this year. Which is a good thing – I want to become dual qualified.
I find teaching mathematics very different from what I have been doing for the past few years. With the Physics curriculum, I am sure what is in it, what the exam is like and what are the important areas to focus on and what areas can receive less coverage. Not so in maths. I have no feel for who can do what and what questions to ask to ensure that I become aware of who is coping and who is falling behind.
Yesterday, I gave my S2 class the “twenty minute challenge” – 150 multiplication problems in 20 minutes. The range of abilities was quite marked – some finishing all the problems in half the alloted time, some not even coming close to covering half of them.
Today, we did a little work on our times tables – the 11s and 12s. They wrote them on either side of a show me board, then I quizzed them and then they made up the questions for each other. I need to find other fun ways of testing their knowledge of their tables – games on the smartboard?
