New Teacher Mistakes: Part 1

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Always do the Problems Before Assigning Them

The title says it all. I cannot remember how many times I have fallen victim of this act. Long nights planning or exhausting days create this nightmare. Most of these scenarios occurred during my first-year teaching, but a few sneak in here and there. A quick Google search for a worksheet with practice problems relating to yesterday’s material. Somehow, a few minutes in, 95% of my students are stuck. Crap, I did it again.

A Lesson Stopper

Nothing ruins a teacher’s flow like giving students work they cannot do. Nothing reminds  you of being a first-year teacher like acting as though you cannot teach. I have taught math and science and have made this mistake in each class. In need of practice problems, I search the internet for the topics we have done to do a quick review. A nice worksheet is found by checking the first couple of problems. Maybe I work them out in my head. “Yes, these seem perfect. A nice quick review; 10 minutes.” The worksheets are passed out to the students, and as expected, the first few were done nicely. Then, everyone is getting frustrated and hands are being raised. “We have never seen this before”. “How do you do this.” I look at number four and see that for some reason there are trigonometry steps with the algebra 1 problems.

Now What?

Do I teach a topic that is not in this year’s curriculum? Do I tell them to skip the problems? (I have had students skip problems only to have them run into more exercises they have never seen.) There is no good option here, especially as a new teacher. Everyone’s confidence grows with experience. I am not saying new teachers are not good, there are many great ones. My point is, the current situation is an awkward one, especially for new teachers.

If the new material is taught, the original plans are ruined. If the students are told to skip questions, the class will end early.

Students are Lost

When confusion hits the class, students are highly susceptible to sudden loss of memory. The “How do I do this?” question extends to the entire worksheet.

Strong Recommendation

Try to do every problem given to students before assigning them. I say this knowing that there will be times it does not happen, myself included. Moreover, there are many benefits to doing all the problems.

1. You have a key; students can check their own answers with.
2. You know where your students will get stuck.
3. When you do all the problems you remember most of the steps. This allows you to help students more quickly.

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Submitted June 19, 2020 at 11:08AM by mattsnotes https://ift.tt/3daMu6k