Katie's Irish Experience

Teaching Maths

My student teaching experience in Ireland has been wonderful so far. As I said before there are many differences in how math, or should I say maths, is taught in Ireland compared to how it is taught in the U.S. This week I have been informed of the material that I will be teaching the students during my time here in Ireland.

First Year:
In my 1st year class (which are students ages 12 and 13) I will be introducing algebra. As I go through the chapter with the students it will be their first time seeing variables and working with symbols rather than numbers. I will be teaching the students how to add, subtract, multiply and divide equations and terms with variables in them. I will also be teaching the students about powers and indices as well as the distributive property.

I did my first activity with the students on Monday to introduce variables and I think it went very well. The students really seemed to understand why we need variables and how they are used in equations. During the rest of the week I am planning on doing activities that will continue to expand their knowledge of variables as well as the properties of variables and how to work with them in equations.

The students in this class are pretty rowdy and like to talk. I think that this class will be my most challenging class as far as classroom management goes. I have 21 girls in the class and the rooms are rather small so it is hard to separate the students if they are being exceptionally chatty during class. I do not foresee a huge problem with the girls, but I think they will be my biggest challenge.

Second Year:
My second year students are like our 8th graders at home, they are 13 and 14 years old. In this class the students are learning how to combine fractions such as (2x-1) - (x+1) = 4. The
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students need to combine the fractions using common denominators and then they have to solve for x. In the chapter that I will be teaching the students they will also be learning how to solve simultaneous equations and how to solve quadratic equations.

The regular classroom teacher for this group of girls did not want to give up the entire class so he decided that we would split the class. I would get half of the girls for the first three weeks and teach them one chapter. Then we will be switching girls and I will be teaching the second half of the girls the same chapter I taught the first group. The first group of girls that I got all seem to be very bright and really have a grasp of the concepts. I do not foresee myself having any problems with this group of girls.

Fourth Year:
The 4th year of secondary school is optional for the students, it is called the transition year or TY. The girls in TY are about 15 and 16 years old. Those students who do not feel that they will be ready to take the leaving certification exam in two years have the option of taking an extra year of secondary school. These students will have 4th year, 5th year and 6th year to prepare for the leaving certification exam. Because of this the students in this class are all at different levels. Some of the girls were in the higher level courses in previous years and have learned a lot more compared to those students who were in the ordinary level courses. This makes it difficult because if I take my time to make sure that the ordinary level students understand the material, the higher level students have already seen the material and are bored because they do not need the extra help. My greatest difficulty with this class will be keeping all of the students busy without boring them.

The fourth year students will be learning coordinate geometry with me. We will be doing a lot of graphing activities and will hopefully be going out side to learn some real life geometry.

Fifth Year:
The 5th year girls are a good bunch of girls. They are good at asking for help when they need it. If they do not understand something they are not afraid to ask for it. These girls, like the 4th years are all varied in their level of maths. Some of the girls previously took higher level maths whereas others were in ordinary level. Some of the girls took the transition year, whereas some of the other girls came from 3rd year. This again makes it interesting to create lesson plans. Some of the girls know what is going on and some of the other girls need a lot extra help. I think that this class will be easier to keep them busy because they are older and work on their own very well. If I have problems up on the board the students are great at doing them and not talking to the person next to them. This allows me time to walk around the room and help those students who are not as strong in maths as some of the other girls are.

I will be doing complex numbers with the 5th year girls. This is the first time they have ever heard of imaginary numbers. I am really excited about this chapter because I love teaching mathematical concepts that are completely new to students. I love watching the students go from completely confused and lost to 'oh yeah I get it!'. For me that is the most rewarding part of teaching, watching students do something that they previously could not do.

The courses and levels of the maths varies with the grade level that I am teaching. I know that there will be a lot of challenges with the courses that I am teaching, but it will be fun and exciting to grow and learn with the students.

posted by Katie @ 9:11 AM