Success from the Start – Your First Years Teaching Secondary Mathematics

The Essential Guide to Navigating Your First Years of Teaching Secondary Mathematics. You just signed your first contract to teach secondary math. You re excited, but you probably have many questions and concerns: What do I do when students don t get the lesson? How can I help students who struggle with math that they supposedly learned in elementary school? How do I arrange for students who are absent to make up the work? Do I assign seating or let students choose their seats? Should I have students work in groups? How much homework should I assign and how much should I grade? Though you may envision your classroom as a place where students engage with mathematics and learn important content, you may also worry about how your teaching will actually play out how you and your students will interact and what they will learn. Based on classroom observations and interviews with seasoned and beginning teachers, this highly useful book offers valuable suggestions to improve your teaching and your students opportunities to learn. The authors explore both the visible and invisible aspects of teaching and offer proven strategies to make the work meaningful not merely manageable. Success from the start means being prepared from the start. This book not only teaches you how to be an effective math teacher but also gives you the tools to do it well.

Rob Wieman is an assistant professor of teacher education at Rowan University. Rob worked as a teacher and math coach in the New York City public schools for twelve years before getting his Ph.D. in 2012 at the University of Delaware. Rob has also worked as a private consultant and curriculum adviser with teachers, schools, and networks for schools looking to improve mathematics teaching and learning.

Fran Arbaugh is an associate professor of mathematics education at Penn State University. A former high school math teacher, Fran received an M.Ed in secondary mathematics education from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1996 and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction (mathematics education) from Indiana University Bloomington in 2000. Fran is president of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators.