Need Help?

Select a topic to look up links and resources.

Help for "Out-of-Area" Teachers

OH YES!

We've all been there! Teaching out-of-area makes us feel pretty unsure!

I have had the experience of teaching Social Studies 11 in French - OH MY!

Here are some things you can do if teaching math is not second nature!

Ask your Department Head or an Administrator to help set you up with a "Math Mentor" - an experienced colleague in your school or district. There is often some funding set aside for this.

bulletMeet regularly for a day or a half-day with your colleague; here's what you can do:
bulletPlan a unit together
bulletDiscuss skills and learning outcomes that must be covered
bulletDiscuss common mistakes that students make in this area
bulletMake vocabulary lists together for each unit - introduce the vocab to the students at the beginning of each unit.
bulletLook at multiple ways of explaining the same concept - for example, methods to visually or graphically explain each topic in the chapter - {this is very important!}
bulletDiscuss how to connect the topics in the unit to each other to "make sense" of the unit and bring it together
bulletDiscuss how the topics/skills are used in next year's course - preparing students for the next grade
bulletDiscuss how each topic might be connected to careers or applied to authentic real life examples
bulletPlan Assessment - prepare tests or projects together - make sure that students are well-informed about what they will be tested on.  Involve them in the process so that there are no surprises!  Provide a table of specs for a test and a list of vocabulary.  Try to provide rich and frequent feedback to students about their learning before a summative assessment.
bulletDiscuss your time line with your colleague to fit in all learning outcomes during the course of the year

 

bulletPUBLISH the results of your meeting to other teachers who teach the same course. Even the most "basic" results of your meeting will likely help a colleague. No "discovery" is too insignificant. Include worksheets, tests, outlines, thoughts...anything that might be helpful to other teachers - we all have something to learn.

 

 

Hope this helps!

Lorraine :) :) :)

Back to my homepage!