We have just started our new school year in Peru, and the kids have been back for a week, after an INSET and Preparation week. It has been tough to get back into the routine, but it doesn't take long to get back in the habit.
- Checking for Understanding
- Independent Practice
In the first lesson of the year I introduced my S4 class (taking IGCSE this year) to the concept of two variables being connected by a constant factor, and linked this to previous work on proportion. I ended by showing them the notation for a is directly proportional to b.
I downloaded the 5 Minute Journal App towards the end of the holidays to start developing my own reflective processes. Each day I have to come up with 3 things I am grateful for, 3 things I will do to make the day amazing, and then in the evening reflect on 3 things that were amazing, and 1 thing I could have done to make it even better.
My colleague and I who are both teaching IB Mathematical Studies, have decided to combine our classes and team teach this year. It is the second year of the course, and we always have a few students leave school at this point (it is only compulsory until 17 in Peru), so we both have small classes (less than 10). We figured this will allow us to provide more support, especially during independent practice. We are going to see how it goes, and I will reflect more on it as we progress, but I am excited to give this a go.
We started the new year with a unit on Sets and Probability with the final year IB Mathematical Studies classes. Sets is something they have encountered several times before, and it is on the IGCSE that we do. However, the notation is always something that causes confusion. To start the unit we decided to do a matching activity with the symbols, the names and a brief description.