Although you are not required to do a significant amount of work preparing to take the capstone, there are several things that you can do to help get ready for it. 

One of our first discussions involves how math teaching has progressed over the past several decades.  As a basis for this discussion, we refer to Kay Merseth’s How Old Is the Shepherd? article (PDF).  It might be helpful for you to read through this before the capstone begins.  While reading the article, think about the nature of today’s math classes, and what might be taken for granted in terms of how people view math teaching and math teachers.

Given that discussing teaching approaches and philosophies is one of the core aspects of the course, start considering your own teaching statement.  To help you do this, read through Jim Tanton’s statement about math education and teaching math (PDF).  When reading Tanton's piece, think about what resonates with you, what issues raised in the statement are ones that you try to emphasize in your own teaching, along with identifying elements that you think are missing.

Finally, whether you use a considerable amount of technology in your classroom currently, or whether you tend to be more of a whiteboard/worksheet type of teacher, think about technologies that you have used in your own teaching, or at workshops, or seen in the various classes you’ve taken in this program.  Start considering which ones you might like to explore more.  If you are able, it would be useful to begin experimenting with the technology ahead of time, thinking about what you might be able to do with it in a classroom setting.