As American students struggle with basic mathematical skills, the importance of math fact fluency has gained the attention of educators and researchers. Generalization of math fact fluency is also important for the transfer of skills to other settings and formats, assisting students in the completion of more varied and complicated math tasks. This…

Although vocabulary acquisition research has shed much light on practical methods for increasing lexical knowledge (Nation, 1994), many foreign language teachers hesitate to implement focused vocabulary-training programs in their classrooms. The reasons most often cited for this hesitation are associated with the difficult tasks of creating,…

Every culture has developed some version of performance art. Children especially appreciate performance; their innate openness, forgiveness, and self-love make them delightful performers and audience members. Every time they engage with performance art, children are learning about storytelling, history, sociability, artistry, and physicality.…

Over the past few years an increasing number of schools and community organizations have developed transformative learning spaces referred to as "MakerSpaces" for research and training purposes. MakerSpaces are organizations in which members sharing similar interests in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) gather to work on…

Educators are demanding learning specific to their needs, and there are more options than ever for school systems to personalize learning. Sometimes these personalized learning options go hand-in-hand with teacher effectiveness systems that districts use to identify areas for educator growth. At the same time, schools and teams set collective…

Educators have begun to use protocols to facilitate professional development in online spaces--partly because people need to connect from different places, but also to take advantage of new environments for learning. For example, asynchronous tools, such as discussion forums, blogs, or Google+, where participants post messages to one another at…

Everyone has either come in contact with a leader or played the role of a leader. Everyone has also worked with effective leaders and ineffective leaders. And all of us want to work with leaders who can share a vision with us and empower and enable us to meet our goals. One can say that leaders play a crucial role in the success or failure of a…

Living in a country based on the "salad bowl" of cultures philosophy, it is necessary for mental health professionals to be competent in providing effective counseling to heterogeneous clientele. Multicultural counseling ensures that professional counselors will deliver services matching the clients' needs, resulting in valuable…

This article provides teachers in rural settings with suggestions on how to engage classroom resource personnel (i.e., volunteers, instructional assistants) in monitoring students' achievement. The target, act, and graph (TAG) strategy offers rural special educators ways to empower classroom resource persons through training and use of the TAG…

E-Basics is an online training in program evaluation concepts and skills designed for youth development professionals, especially those working in nonformal science education. Ten hours of online training in seven modules is designed to prepare participants for mentoring and applied practice, mastery, and/or team leadership in program evaluation.…

Coaching is a way to support teachers in assessing and improving their practice. By engaging in rich, rigorous, and reflective professional conversations with colleagues, teachers can continue to develop and grow as they construct meaning, reinvest their cognitive resources, and apply new learning. Calibrating conversations are a way to foster…

Despite the popularity of service learning, it is sometimes criticized for its lack of academic rigor. This piece provides a counterpoint to that argument by describing a LIS service-learning course from the student's perspective. I focus particularly on the role of reflection, a key component in service-learning courses that helps to…

The health and well-being of adolescents continue to be in jeopardy due to a lack of proper nutrition combined with a sedentary lifestyle. A collaborative effort between two Maryland entities, Prince Georges County Family and Consumer Sciences Department and the University of Maryland Expanded Food and Nutrition Program, involved a…

This manuscript describes a statewide initiative to implement a training model for educators and parents of children with disabilities in more than 90 public school districts and 20 higher education institutions. The proposed model was designed to facilitate positive changes among families, teachers and administrators by increasing their…

The purpose of this article is to introduce a potentially new and exciting group of activities that can be taught in physical education. Activities based on Scottish Highland Games can be an interesting way to incorporate history and literature into the curriculum, as well as introduce students to a variety of unique physical activities. This…