Teaching Method

Before I taught Mathematics to students, I observed how an Indonesian teacher teaches it in class. My teacher’s name is Ms. Maya and she knows well how to teach Mathematics. Observing her teaching way, I understand how to teach Mathematics in class. On this page, I will introduce how she teaches Mathematics in class.

Contents

1. Teaching methods used by teachers
2. Teaching and learning materials and innovation used in classrooms
3. Learning resources and technology used by teachers
4. Authentic assessment used by teachers

Teaching methods used by teachers

In class, at first she checks students’ attendance. She called each student’s name and student who is called raises his hand or bring his homework to Ms.Maya when he has it. She checks their attendance in the beginning of each class.
Next, she reviews what students studied in last class and then, introduces the topic students study in class. When she explains the topic, she uses illustration and animation. Additionally, in her explanation, she makes students review what they studied in past classes.
After she finishes the introduction of topic, she gives students some exercises. Students discuss in group consisted of 4 – 5 persons about the exercises. They spend some minutes to solve it and she looks around the class to help students who struggle with solving exercises. After that, some groups need to explain their answer in front of other students. Ms Maya gives additional 10 points to students who answer and it motivates students to participate to class. Moreover, Ms Maya gives students a game when she calls on students. After some students explain their answer, Ms Maya explains how to solve exercises again by herself and ask them if they have questions about the exercises.
Finally, she gives students additional problems which are more difficult than the former exercises they solved. Students need to combine the topic they study in the class and what they studied in past class. They discuss about the problems in group and if they don’t finish it in class, it becomes their homework.

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Teaching and learning materials and innovation used in classrooms

In her explanation, she doesn’t concentrate on only teaching new topics. She also makes students review what they studied in past classes. For example, when she teaches internal tangent line, she reviews the relationship between 2 circles. Reviewing past classes helps students to understand each Mathematics topic connects to each other.
She also tries to make Math class more fun. She provides a game to students when she calls on some students to answer on board. For example, if many students want to answer in front, she counts 3 seconds and a student who raises his hand the fastest after 3 seconds can answer and gets point. Playing game, students can enjoy not only class but also studying Mathematics.

Learning resources and technology used by teachers

Her teaching content is based on Indonesian Math textbook, however, she doesn’t use the textbook completely. She makes slides to explain and some original exercises by herself. Actually, only with the textbook, an explanation of each topic is not enough. She tries to explain each topic more easily with her own materials.
She uses GeoGebra, a software for geometry to make exercises and slides. She usually uses slides for explanation so she uses a PC and a projector in classroom.

Authentic assessment used by teachers

Ms Maya uses a lot of illustrations and animations in her explanation. This is a good idea because students can understand each topic visually. Sometimes, Mathematics topic is abstract and some students struggle with understanding it. However, explaining with illustration and animation make Mathematics topic more concrete and helps students to understand each topic more easily. Furthermore, Ms. Maya uses some illustrations which explain how students can use each topic in their real life. This also helps students a lot because students can understand that each Mathematics topic is useful in their real life and it make them more interested in Mathematics.