Suggests stimulating the visual imaginations of student readers of Shakespeare by examining plays from new but related perspectives--for example, discussing "As You Like It" transposed to the Appalachian area. Also suggests a writing exercise in which students describe and justify choices for props, sets, and costumes for similar…

Explores the experimental nature of Montessori, its implicit creativity, the power of commitment over time, the importance of depth, and the need to get beyond the overload of experience. Uses the title of the presentation as a structure, discussing the meanings behind each word. (EV)

Describes some creative teaching "gimmicks," such as a professional microphone, a speed spelling machine, a tachistoscope, and an electronically programable advertising sign. (MM)

Responds to two arguments made by Walter Dick in the debate over instructional design and creativity: (1) "creativeness" should not dominate effectiveness and efficiency; and (2) systematic instructional design methods do result in "creative instruction" when they are used appropriately. Also lists respondent's assumptions and claims. (JMV)

To win new readers, many newspapers are now wooing students and teachers. They offer youth-oriented pages and sections that simplify adult news or examine topics of special interest to teens. Teachers tend to consider newspapers worthwhile educational tools. The article describes how various newspapers deal with students. (SM)

Presents ideas to help elementary educators teach their students thinking skills through word splashes (collages of words and pictures that help students think and make connections). A student page offers a word splash activity. (SM)

Nine elementary teachers explain how they design their classrooms to match and support their instructional styles. The teachers focus on whole language programs, student portfolios, science activity set-ups, technology transformation, learning center strategies, and space utilization. (SM)

Responds to Sweet's (Steven) essay on radical pedagogy in the teaching of sociology. Discusses what it means to be a radical teacher. Presents ideas for beginning radical pedagogs to gain support for their initiatives from other instructors, their own institutions, and their students. (DSK)

Presents suggestions for bringing reading and writing to life in the classroom and helping students develop a lifelong love of both. Includes creating a refrigerator door for displaying student work, using digital notebooks, establishing a publishing center, holding lunch-bunch meetings, binding students' writing into class collections, reading…

Provides a conceptual framework for understanding both positive and negative anxiety, drawing on perspectives from existential philosophy and an artistic metaphor in musical performance to examine the implications for creative teaching. Discusses the positive side of anxiety and its corollary, self-knowledge. (Author/SLD)

In this era of high-stakes testing, many teachers feel forced to aim instruction toward what will be assessed and ignore what students really want to learn. Publishers create materials guaranteed to boost students' test scores, but they neither broaden students' understanding nor increase their interest in learning. When the textbook becomes the…

This article provides some strategies that might help a teacher in dealing with a new course or new content, or just get the year off to a good start. The following strategies are described: (1) Review the new content; (2) Seek help from every resource; (3) Capitalize on what you know; (4) Be organized; (5) Remember the basic science processes;…

The mathematician Charles Dodgson delighted in creating mathematical puzzles for his friends and students. This article describes some items that he included in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and explores ways of helping students become aware of the mathematics in the book. (Contains 6 figures.)

This article describes the Spare Tyre Theatre Company, which has been creating theatre about gay issues including homophobia since the mid-nineties. They have worked with a variety of groups and over the years have aimed their projects at a younger and younger age group. Shows are accompanied by workshops run by the actors, and audiences are…

Despite government rhetoric, higher education lecturers and schoolteachers in the UK remain under pressure to focus on standards and measurement in the core curriculum at the relative expense of a wider and more creative education. This article argues that the balance needs redressing and explores the nature of creative teaching in the context of…