Below are the basic categories of assignments and requirements for this course and their relative weight in determining course grades.

A significant portion of this course (50-55 hours) includes field work in local schools. You are expected to conform with school rules and regulations at all times, with particular respect to attendance, punctuality, dress, adherence to classroom and building regulations, and assigned classroom duties. Initially, you are expected to learn the rules of the school and the rules of the classroom. Review the Field experience guidelines in the Teacher Education Handbook.

During your first week, you should make sure that you

1. Obtain the telephone number of the school office
2. Obtain your cooperating teacher’s telephone number
3. Learn the names of the students in the classes you are observing by creating and memorizing a seating chart
4. Obtain a copy of the class text or reading materials if at all possible.

In this course, a lot happens very quickly. We cover a lot of ground each day--new topics for discussion, assignments, readings in the book, activities in class, "lab-time" to work on technology skills, projects, etc. It is impossible to learn about "teaching" mathematics (or any other subject) simply from reading a text and completing written assignments. It is a major premise of this course that participation in learning mathematics, and reflection on mathematical activity helps us understand the teaching and learning process. We learn from each other's perspectives and perceptions about mathematics, about teaching, about learning. To accomplish these goals requires that we become a community--which means that attendance and participation are not an option for this type of course.

There is quite a bit of reading assigned in this course. We will try to discuss certain aspects of the reading each day. Be prepared by completing assigned readings by the day of class it is due.

Please notify the instructor to have any absences excused in advance whenever possible. It is the responsibility of the student to pickup and complete missed assignments

In this course, we ask that you complete a reflective journal of meta-lessons with an entry for each day. Usually, one healthy paragraph or approximately 1/2 page is sufficient. It is difficult to prescribe someone's reflection!

Maybe your day's entry might be directly on the discussion or activities from that day's class. Perhaps, it was something more "behind the scenes." An example? Suppose we were doing a math activity in class one day in groups, and something about the way we formed groups or the dynamic of your group interaction struck you as important information about teaching/learning. That would be an appropriate "meta-lesson"--we probably didn't discuss those issues in class explicitly, but the reflections we have about the "background" issues are often what we remember and employ in our own teaching.

Write a 1-2 page essay articulating

1. What you believe is worth learning and what is worth teaching to students
2. The teaching methods you expect to emphasize and why
3. Your expectations for your own performance and that of your students

You will be asked to create a "mini-lesson"--a very short teaching/learning activity that takes no more than 10-12 minutes. In small groups, you will have a few minutes to teach the mini-lesson to that small group and to evaluate/give feedback to each other. More details about each week's lesson will be given in class each week.

A major project of the class is to develop a large-group lesson that you will teach the last week of the course. That lesson should be a fully developed lesson as you would envision teaching a school period. The lesson should be an interactive lesson that engages the students in doing, exploring, and/or discovering mathematics. Moreover, the lesson should involve both a hands-on (manipulative) aspect as well as a technology component. This final project should be archived entirely online with both a student component and a teacher component.

You will read and review 3 related articles from science/mathematics teacher journals.

You will comparatively review textbooks in light of the relevant national standards and the principles of effective pedagogy that we study in class and readings.

You will find and review technological resources for science and mathematics education.

This is a rather large assignment, deserving its own page.
Click here for a description of the portfolio project.