A teacher offers six suggestions for giving students opportunities to exercise their commonsense thinking skills. This allows the teacher to ask rather than tell, listen rather than talk, and allows the children to provide for themselves. (MT)

One of the best tools for sharpening students' problem solving skills can be found in the mystery story, which calls for logical thinking, paying attention to detail, and distinguishing between facts and assumptions. Activities that can help to develop problem solving skills are described along with several references to mystery magazines and…

This column discusses five children's books selected to develop math concepts involving problem solving, reasoning, and communication. The books are "Only One" (Marc Harshman); "The Librarian Who Measured the Earth" (Kathryn Lasky); "Counting Jennie" (Helena C. Pittman); "The Search for Delicious" (Natalie Babbitt); and "The Toothpaste…

Use of a checkbook can hook even the most reluctant mathematics students into learning mathematical and problem-solving skills. (CB)

Providing students with realistic problems will facilitate a better understanding of and reason for computation. Specific suggestions for introducing and for increasing problem-solving skills are described. (CJ)

Mathematics instruction can be approached as a cognitive skill, as illustrated by these elementary-level classroom activities. (LH)

A variety of techniques for incorporating writing--the writing of letters, the keeping of logs, the devising of word problems--into the mathematics curriculum are discussed. The benefits from using an integrated approach are indicated. (DG)

Children use creative thinking processes when teachers assign ambiguous rather than specific problems. Suggestions for developing questions that encourage experiential and metaphorical thinking are offered. (DF)

Critical thinking skills that can be applied to reading can be developed through means other than reading. Teachers can launch class discussions of popular films, such as "E.T.," to nurture these skills, a technique especially helpful for children who have difficulty with the printed word. (PP)

A teaching unit on economics discusses basic background information, suggests classroom activities, and lists sources of instructional resources. Reproducible masters for two instructional levels are included and introduce economics law and basic financial management. (FG)

Problem-solving can be an exercise in mystification for some students. Six suggestions are given for presenting word problems in mathematics in ways that make them more accessible and comprehensible for young students. (PP)

Pullout pages provide suggestions for teaching elementary students at all levels about the wonders of human ingenuity. The suggestions help students see that great ideas come from the need to solve real-life problems and that one great idea leads to another, so current inventions help predict future inventions. (SM)

Presents suggestions to help teachers who must work with difficult principals, offering 10 ideas for how to make meetings with such principals more effective. The paper also notes what to do if the principal is unreachable and describes how four teachers handled their own problems with difficult principals. (SM)

This paper answers several frequently asked questions about constructivism, including how to define it, how to plan the curriculum, how to assess student understanding, what to do with the information, where to begin, how students work in a constructivist classroom, and why constructivism is important. (SM)

Teachers can prepare themselves for angry confrontations with parents by learning how to cope with parent anger and channeling it into positive action. A five-step process, the I.D.E.A.L. system, is outlined and recommended as an effective technique for converting angry parents into collaborators. (IAH)