• 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 Studies Introduction

The Education minor encourages the investigation of a wide variety of topics within education. For example, in a couple of my classes we discussed issues in the American Public School system, created an effective fictitious school, and went into actual classrooms to do observations and assist the teacher in completing projects. The Education Department while it is quite small it is also very effective. I learned many things that I will be able to utilize in my own classroom but also a lot of knowledge about the education system. Also, the amount of hours we must spend in the classroom has been quite beneficial. Throughout this section I will go into more depth about three specific classes and zoom in on a couple projects that have really stood out in my mind as being effective assessments and projects.

In the Issues in Education section I have a pamphlet that my group and I created about bilingual education. This topic stood out to me because low resource schools usually have a wide variety of multilingual students. I found it interesting to research all the facets of bilingual education and the history of how it came about.

The second section, Curriculum and Decision Making, includes three artifacts. The first was my teaching philosophy at the time was based around multicultural education. My main focus was this: "By having multicultural education as the school's basis, students from under resourced areas of New York will be able to work closely with passionate teachers to create an atmosphere where all ideas, perspectives and cultures are welcomed" (Winters). The second artifact is my policy brief, which focuses on the 2010 Texas State Board of Education's decision about changing history books, "such as the philosophical foundation for the separation of church and state and the debate on which significant historical figures should be included in textbooks" (Winters). In this paper I explain how these decisions are against multicultural education because by not presenting all sides of history the goal of equity is gone. I also talk about how their changes will not let students critically think, which takes eliminates excellence in the classroom. Finally, I attached a link to the final project for that class, which was creating a hypothetical school and an 8th grade math curriculum for the school. Again, I tied in what I had learned about multicultural education and my past experience working with Say, See, Do teaching. Throughout this section the emphasis on multicultural education is clear and something I still focus on. I believe an open classroom helps promote a multicultural education where students are comfortable to be themselves and share their cultures. 

In the Ethnography and the Learning Environment section, I include my ethnography from the 30+ hours of observations that I did in an 8th grade math classroom at the local middle school. I learned a lot from these observations about different styles of teaching and what works and what does not work, which I go into more depth about in my paper. I focused my research on something that I have always been curious about: Does active participation and group collaboration help to engage students in the classroom, which then leads to an increase in students achievement?

Lastly, Education Practicum required 60 hours in the classroom and to complete a final project for our teacher. For my final project my teacher asked me to complete a in depth notes for the transformations unit. These notes were for the honors students who did not have time to learn this topic in the classroom before the state standardized test. The notes had to be clear enough that the students could walk through each step on their own, without trouble. In the end I put together a binder for my teacher including a cover letter, table of contents, and each section of notes with homeworks for the specific type of transformation.

Throughout all these projects I have learned more and more about the education field and all the different facets of education. These projects and classes have made me more knowledgeable about the history of our education system as well as more prepared to go into my own classroom.