• Welcome
  • Welcome
• Background
  • Why Teaching?
  • Teaching Philosophy: College Not a Goal but a Fact
  • Professional and Educational Background
• Experiences in Education
  • Introduction
  • Breakthrough Collaborative Sacramento
  • A Better Chance Program
  • Boston Collegiate Charter School
• Academic Work at Hamilton College
  • Introduction
  • Mathematics Major
  • Hispanic Studies Minor
• Educations Studies at Hamilton College
  • Introduction
  • Issues in Education
  • Curriculum and Decision Making
  • Ethnography and the Learning Enviornment
  • Education Practicum
• Resources
  • Inspriring Instruction and Pedagogical Techniques
  • Bibliography

Education Practicum

Spring 2013

"This seminar is meant to spark productive conversation and debate so that each individual, and the group together, comes away with well-framed ideas about educational contexts and the potential of educators within such contexts. Much of the content will depend on you. You will be required to bring in weekly reports and research from you experiences, past and present...Most important is your supportive presence for peers and your willingness to ask questions and try new things." - Course Overview

Similar to Ethnography and the Learning Environment, we were required to do field hours in the classroom. I was lucky enough to stay in the same classroom for both semesters. The difference between the last course and this course was that instead of observing we focused more on being involved in the classroom and completing a final project for our teacher. Below is an excerpt from my cover letter to my teacher explaining what she asked of me and what I completed:

"Other than answering students questions and teaching a couple of lessons, I asked you if there was a project you needed me to complete. You explained to me that the Algebra Honors students were not learning topics that were on the standardized test. So, they had a lot of ground to cover in only a few weeks. Since these students are very self-motivated they would learn these topics on their own, either in class or at home. Thus, I needed to take the notes that the Pre-Algebra students filled out in class and explain each topic in more depth. For most of the topics I broke them down into clear steps to walk through on their own. I then gave examples with answers and an in-depth explanation of how I got to the correct answer. These examples were followed by problems for them to try on their own. Other than my notes on each topic I looked through your handouts and compiled homework for each topic. These handouts were from two math homework websites: Kuta and Problematic. For both of these websites all you need to do is type in a topic and it will create a worksheet for students."

This project showed me one example of differentiating instruction and making students responsible for their own learning. When students are placed in higher level math classes sometimes it is necessary to have them critically think and use their own skills to learn material. This also helped me realize exactly how broken down steps should be for students. Moreover, wordiness is something to avoid. Clean and clear steps that are visually appealing makes it easier for students to understand the concepts. Also, if they get stuck on a step, they can come to the teacher and talk through that specific area.

Below are links to a few pages of the notes I created for the students. 

• • Notes on Translations
  • Notes on Reflections