Professionalizing Mathematics Teacher

Soft Skills for Teachers

A soft skill is a personal attribute that supports situational awareness and enhances an individual's ability to get a job done. Soft skills are personality traits and behaviours.  It is not about the knowledge your possess.  Soft skills are something you may have learnt directly from your family.

           Major soft skills

Leadership skill 

Regardless of the age level of your students it is important for you to possess leadership skills that help you work effectively. Teacher with strong leadership skills play a larger role in todays schools.

Communication skill 

Good communication skills are important for two reasons, to successfully deliver your education message to students and  to relay feedback to help students make  progress.

Teamwork

Teamwork is very important in teaching learning process. The teamwork among teachers as well as teamwork in students.

Problem solving

Internal and external issues that arise in the classroom can negatively effect learning outcome. Whether it is de escalating a conflict or working through a life problem that is getting in the way of a student learning, you should be prepared to take on challenges and know how to best approach the situation.

Social and emotional intelligence 

You should be prepared to teach social and emotional skills, give your students opportunities to practice these skills and help them to apply these skills in other scenario.

Cultural competency 

It is ability to understand, related to effectively educate across cultures. It is importance to educators to welcome divorce voices into your classroom. It is the diversity in a room that creates a  space where students can learn about empathy, acceptance and tolerance by experience it. 

Other important soft skills

Presentation skills

Positive attitude

Self motivation

Body language

Time management

Stress management

Creative thinking

Importance of soft skills

To take appropriate decisions

To communicate effectively

To improve teamwork

To gain professional development.

Professional growth of mathematics teacher- Teaching and Extension 

 Professional growth means the growth and development of teachers abilities, capacities and competencies for carrying out his responsibilities effectively. To sustain the quality, there is a need for continuous professional improvement. It is a comprehensive, sustained and intensive approach for improving teaching, research and extension. Many programs like seminars, conferences, workshops interactions across online platforms, peer group discussions etc. can be used for professional development.

Goals of professional development

1. Deepen one's knowledge and skills 

2. Reflect upon one's own practices 

3. Equip oneself to the to the changing curriculum 

4. Share experience and disseminate ideas with others in the field 

5. Enrich one's own job profile

Professional development:  Teaching

 Professional development in teaching involves content upgradation, familarising new teaching techniques and knowing new evaluation procedure. Inservice programs like seminars ,workshops refresher courses, conferences and short term training programs organised by various body like DIET, SCERT, NCERT and some Central institutes and non governmental organisations help the teachers to improve their competencies as a teacher. Beyond this teacher can associate with the state level resource centers and act as resources persons in training programs.

Professional development: Research and Extension 

Research is a systematic quest for answers to unsolved problems. Teaching and research are complimentary to each other. Most members of the teaching community involve themselves in classroom based research, aimed at improving their classroom practices and outcomes. Adopting reflective teaching practices in classrooms helps teachers evolve as better practitioners of the profession. Research enables teachers, administrators and policy makers to make a sound decisions and effective policies regarding educational aspects. Research contributes to intellectual development and attitude formation and keeps the teacher professionally live. Dissemination of the findings of research can be done by publishing articles in journals or scientific magazines.

Extension means reaching knowledge, findings of research, and new skills to millions of people . It ensures extending the expertise of the school to the community by joining hands with various community awareness programmes or organising programmes in collaboration with other agencies. Participation of teachers in curriculum revision and textbook preparation workshops are part of extension activities.

Activities related with the professional growth of mathematics teachers 

Training programmes

Use of mathematics kit 

Organisation of mathematics museum Preparation of teaching aids and  learning materials for special education

Education technology

School programmes

1. Observing demonstration lessons, classroom teaching and laboratory works conducted by senior Collegues and guest teachers.

2. Participating in the organisation of math fairs, exhibitions, mathematical excursions, mathematics club and other programmes related with the co-curricular activities in mathematics education.

3. Listening or delivery extension lectures on the subjects of mathematical interest. Preparing as well as helping the students to make improvised apparatus and other teaching learning aids.

4.Participating in discussions,seminars and workshops held in the institution for the improvement of mathematics education.

Refresher courses and summer institutes

Purpose of these courses and institutes is to keep abreast of the latest developments in theory and practice of education.

Seminars

Seminar can be arranged on various aspects of education that help the teachers to update their knowledge based on latest developments in mathematics and pedagogical skills. They also provide a platform for teachers to interact with experts to discuss and evolve new, effective strategies to deal with difficult classroom situations.

Workshops

All the participants actively involve and make a significant contribution in a workshop. A workshop is usually organised to consider practical problems of classroom teaching. The theams like  lesson planning, curriculum construction, test construction etc. are relevant for workshops.

Conferences

Conference is a formal meeting in which a number of people gather to talk about their ideas or problems related to a particular topic especially on subjects of practical interest such as curriculum, selection of textbooks, report of successful educational experiments etc.

Higher studies

Higher studies done in one's own  subject or field adds to his/her professional growth.

Professional writings

Writings about classroom experiments, professional experiments, results of action research etc. in the school publication and other periodicals will improve the writing skills of teachers.

Mathematics teachers study group

Mathematics teachers working in the same school form study group where they can discuss and exchange the ideas and experiences of their common interest related with various aspects of mathematics education. It is a platform for exchange of ideas, sharing of experience and trying out innovations and experiments.

Mathematical journals and instructional materials

A Mathematics teacher must get acquainted with the journals and periodicals as well as the book and instructional materials related with Mathematics education.