I'm a recent teaching graduate who's going to teach Extension 1 next year. What I'm looking for is some really good ideas for lessons. I really want my students to both do well and have some fun.
I've just worked through the last 10 years of HSC papers so I'm trying to develop understanding rather than just telling students to do all the textbook problems (Which would help to). I figured that the people doing the subject and those that have just completed it would be the best people to ask.
Would science style experiments for topics such as applications of calculus help?
There this really good math teacher at our school who is both popular and is an extremely good teacher.
Some points you may want to note about this teacher,
- He covers the math syllabus extensively and gives hard examples. ie. He has his own massive book of notes covering every aspect of the course, which he writes up, covering every topic with examples.
- He never takes shortcuts when doing problems. Some teachers skip the "easy part", which in a test could cost you marks. He doesn't do this. (eg. In general solutions he always writes "where n is any integer", and takes a mark off in a test if you don't write it, whereas other lazy teachers do not write it.) He sets his working out in a very logical and 'neat' manner, whereas some teachers are all over the place.
- He sets relatively hard problems in tests, unlike some teachers who set easy textbook questions.
- He does solutions (which are very well structured and neatly written up) for practically every test. Some teachers are lazy and do not do this, or their solutions use long methods. This teacher has all sorts of tricks up his sleeve.
- If students ask him questions, he answers it thoroughly and takes priority in answering any problems students had with the set homework. Some teachers don't think that answering questions is important, when it actually is and discourage students by asking them to "see them later" or "ask them if they have time after they've covered the theory for this lesson", which is not ideal. This teacher would spend the first bit of the lesson answering questions, if neccessary, as opposed to the examples illustrated before, where teachers are just keen to move on with the theory for their prepared lesson.
- Obviously he has a passion for the subject. He teaches Ext 1 and Ext 2 every year.
- As for the being popular part, he literally doesn't care if the guys talk, unless if it gets too excessive (ie. he usually speaks over people talking, who usually copy down the work while talking etc). If it does get excessive, he puts their name on the board and then asks trivia (eg. What is the capital city of Rome, or who won the English Premier League in 2001, or what is the collection known for a group of owls). He knows all this stuff at the top of his head, which makes it more fun.
