How to prepare for your first MYP Maths Teaching Role

You’ve been offered a job, great! Now what? This post will share what you should do in order to feel prepared. If you want to know what to expect (e.g. what your day to day would look like) check out this post afterwards!

1. Check out the resources from MYP Maths! - MYP mathematics at a glance is a must have document to be printed in A3 and stuck on your desk. Or if you want a more detailed insight, get your hands on the essential elements guide. In addition, bookmark helpful blog posts to refer back to throughout the year.

2. Get signed up to an IB workshop - these workshops are great for learning the basics, looking at physical and digital resources and connecting with other MYP teachers (really make an effort to network because they could be invaluable in the years to come). Ideally, your school is already planning to send you to one if you are new to the IB; if not, do some research yourself and ask.

3. Jump on to MyIB - your school will need to provide you with login details, but once you’re signed up be sure to check out these key things under the programme resource centre:

• Mathematics Guide (for the basics)

• Mathematics Teacher Support Material (particularly useful for the sample assessments and unit plans)

• MYP: From Principles into Practice (great for developing units)

4. Get to know the lingo - what’s the difference between a context and a concept? How does ‘state’ progress to ‘describe’ then ‘explain’? The 'Mathematics Guide' and 'From Principles into Practice' are the most useful tools for this. Or view some key definitions here.

5. Understand the assessment criteria - this is often the most queried area so there are several blog posts on this available on the site. Are you used to working with grade boundaries, percentages, marks or points? Time to move on! The language may be confusing at first, but, after some time reading the criteria and seeing them in the context of assessments and student exemplars, it starts to make a bit more sense.

6. Look through the first few units you will be teaching - or better yet, the whole subject overview! This goes beyond just knowing the subject content in terms of what maths you'll be teaching. Understanding the global context and key concepts structuring the unit will enable you to read up around your unit and find authentic, meaningful connections to the real world.

7. Get your hands on a textbook - preferably the one your school uses but honestly it’s beneficial to check out any from Haese, Hodder or Oxford University Press. They often provide examples of units, authentic links to real life and assessment ideas.

8. Don’t forget the basics - just because the framework is new to you doesn’t mean everything is different to other schools. Classroom management, connecting with students, establishing routines, catering for special learning needs, enrichment opportunities, formative assessment etc. are all still crucial for ensuring student progress.

9. Ask questions - things will keep popping up over the next few months and no one expects you to guess the answers. So if you’re unsure ask:

- Your future colleagues or MYP coordinator

- Send a message through "contact us"

- Join a relevant facebook group

- Programme Communities within MyIB

Hopefully that was helpful! If you have any further tips please leave them in the comments below and I'll add them to the blog post when it is updated.