Electronic Portfolio:
EDUC 6046 - Effective Teaching Strategies

The following material was prepared as a portfolio assignment for my EDUC 6046 - Effective Teaching Strategies course, taken during Summer 2005.  After viewing any of the PDF files, click on your browser's Back button to return to this table of contents.

1. Instructional Unit
   Lesson plans for five consecutive lessons, one of which was taught to my classmates. All are PDF files.
   Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5
    
2. Unusual Strategies
   This article (PDF) lists and describes ten Unusual Strategies for teaching topics in secondary math. The term Unusual is perhaps misleading, as current trends and instruction in teacher education actively promote the types of strategies listed here, so they are quickly becoming quite common. So, when reading these strategies, think more along the lines of innovative, dynamic, fresh, student-centered, etc. Math has tended to be a rather dry subject, dominated by teacher-centered lecture and demonstration, student practice consisting mostly of worksheets and homework problems, and assessments taking the form of paper-and-pencil tests, with a growing number of those being in multiple-choice format to ease grading or familiarize students with high-stakes testing procedures. The strategies gathered here are an attempt to provide math teachers with a “beginner’s toolbox” with which to break out of that old pattern.
    
3. Organizational Ideas (pdf)
   - A collection of ideas for organizing a classroom (PDF).
   - A classroom management plan (PDF).
    
4. Personal Goals (pdf)
   - Three personal goals for effective teaching (PDF).
    
5. Favorites
   - materials for the classroom (PDF)
   - tips and ideas (PDF)