Recent efforts to improve writing instruction include emphasizing writing as a process rather than a product, new evaluation methods, allowing students a more active role, providing a real audience, and using desktop publishing and the World Wide Web. Sidebars present parents' role, the connection between reading and writing, and a professional…

Describes a professional development program, Teacher in the Woods, which is a 6-week summer research experience in the national forests of the Pacific Northwest. Uses standardized performance assessment to measure student progress and changes teachers' approach to teaching by creating greater motivation, confidence, knowledge, and skills in…

Discusses the development, implementation, and evaluation of a unit designed to assist preservice teachers of quantitative literacy called numeracy. Investigates the relevance of quantitative literacy to daily life, aspects of quantitative literacy, and lessons in schooling using an internet site as a teaching resource. (Author/KHR)

Outlines outcomes of a survey which invited Australian Head Teachers of English to identify the major strengths and challenges of new Stage 6 Higher School Certificate courses. Reveals that teachers see the great potential for their students to be challenged and enthused by the courses. Notes significant anxiety and lack of assurance among…

The article outlines the use of reflective journal writing to help develop preservice teachers as reflective practitioners. Journals allow students to determine their own focus and what they want to understand, and to have their ideas seriously valued as knowledge being personally constructed. The importance of collaboration is examined. (SM)

Recommends using teacher vacations to help students learn about other countries and cultures. Asserts that visiting schools and classrooms can have useful professional development results. Includes a list of classroom activities that can be based on teacher vacations. (CFR)

Describes the teacher education workshops and instructional materials available from the National Archives of the United States. Contends that using primary sources will help students see history as historians did. Concludes that the National Archives seeks more collaborative activities with history teachers. (CFR)

Presents and describes a pedagogical framework that supports children's development of conceptual understanding of mathematics. Advancing Children's Thinking (ACT) is synthesized from an in-depth analysis of observed and reported data from one skillful first-grade teacher's use of the "Everyday Mathematics" curriculum. Indicates that…

Interest by a few principals in brain-based learning led to several workshops on best educational practices and the application of neuroscience to teaching methods. Consequently, their entire Ontario school district became energized to learn about new teaching strategies. Presents nine tips, based on the principals' experiences, for facilitating…

Computer conferencing can aid in conflict resolution by developing discourse skills. This article examines conflict resolution and computer conferencing as a channel for discourse and describes three computer conferences involving secondary school students, teacher education students, and teachers in Northern Ireland, Europe, and the United…

Discusses teaching Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. history at an urban, minority high school. Addresses student recruitment; using a summer assignment; notetaking and the Document-Based Quiz, various teaching strategies; preparing and reviewing for the AP examination; using special events; and the importance of professional development and…

Emphasizes the intrinsic unity of all the intelligences as well as the inseparable nature of the interpersonal and intrapersonal. Emphasizes the theories of both Gardner and Montessori as a whole, and looks at common features in intelligence profiles and educational environments described by both. (MOK)

Examines the professional development opportunities that accompanied the New York State social studies draft framework to explore: (1) the range of opportunities teachers had to learn about the framework; (2) the content and instruction of these opportunities; and (3) teachers' responses to the framework and professional development opportunities.…

Describes a project in which a small group of teachers of gifted students in primary and secondary schools in England used action research as an holistic way of undertaking professional development, which encouraged them to question their values, beliefs, and assumptions about teaching and learning. (CR)

Underscores the need for mentoring in the challenging, early years of teaching. Addresses one aspect of mentoring: how informal (or "secondary") mentoring can enhance the formal processes that may be in place in many parts of the country. Describes various informal mentoring processes, including classroom observations and informal conversations,…