Reports on the results of a summer institute for middle school teachers on informal geometry which sought to meet the needs of teachers with regard to aspects of change. Concludes that it is important for teachers to be able to acknowledge their emotions about change to facilitate their own learning. Contains 13 references. (ASK)

An Ohio University summer field school spent 10 weeks unearthing a 2,000-year-old Adena Indian village site. The project gave important insights into Adena daily life and gave students an opportunity to learn archeological thinking skills and techniques through actual experience. (TD)

This article describes the design and operation of the 1998 Chinese University Summer Gifted program organized for junior secondary students in Hong Kong. This one week residential program provided enrichment courses, workshops, and special activities intended to enhance students' creativity and leadership abilities. Participants, instructors,…

In study 1, 34 Upward Bound students slightly enhanced career decision-making self-efficacy after 10 hours of career exploration. In study 2, 22 Upward Bound summer institute participants who received 5 weeks of career exploration had higher self-efficacy than 26 participants who did not. No differences in the number of occupations considered were…

The North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service implemented summer youth nutrition to provide youth with information on the fundamentals of proper nutrition and contribute to their personal development and overall well-being. Collaboration among extension professionals and with external partners enabled the program to serve a total of 1469 youth.…

Describes a summer institute designed to connect those self-identified "word wizards" and "number crunchers"--those teachers who might name themselves as either more comfortable with written literacy or with numeracy. Concludes that teachers need professional development that provides the opportunity to team with others (different disciplines,…

Discusses one fourth-grade student's attempt to write a bilingual script, based upon a story told to her by her father, within the context of a bilingual playwriting project. Concludes that bilingualism needs to be seen as part of quality education for all students, not as compensatory education only for language minority students. (SG)

Describes a "Young Author's Camp" that portrayed writing positively and as connected to art. States that the youngsters wrote constantly, some days with assigned topics and some days writing about things that "obsessed" them. Finds that students who disliked writing discovered how enjoyable it can be. (PA)

Describes a science teacher's personal experiences at an Earthwatch summer workshop in Costa Rica on caterpillars and their predators in the dry tropical forest. (YDS)

Many comparisons are being made among students in reading achievement. The United States ranked ninth among 35 nations in an international study among students in reading, as reported by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Reading Today, 2003). Standards keep going up for students to achieve in reading, as indicated by test…

Your students can be learning over summer vacation with these fun activities from the web. School will soon be out and your students will start summer vacation. How can you minimize "summer learning loss" over those days that kids are not in school? This year, send your students home with a Learning Log to record fun summer learning. It?s…

At a writers' camp, teachers and children collaboratively write and learn together during the summer. Through student writing samples, this article shows how teachers and students apply journalistic techniques of observing, note-taking, and interviewing to collect information about their local community. Teachers and children taking part in the…

Summer sport programs provide regular physical activity opportunities for athletically gifted children. Unfortunately, these programs tend to appeal only to children who enjoy competition and are already skilled in these particular team and individual sports. For the remainder--the majority of children--who either lack the skill, opportunity, or…

"The Achiever" is a monthly publication for parents and community leaders from the Office of Communications and Outreach, U.S. Department of Education. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Spellings, Education Community Discuss President's Agenda; (2) Arts Integration at Oklahoma School Provides Multiple Paths for Learning;…

During the 2005-06 school year, Save the Children supported 47 local programs in its model literacy initiative. Twenty of the sites operated for the first time during the 2005-06 school year, while 15 began operation in the spring of the 2004-05 school year, and the remaining 12 began operation during the 2003-04 school year. Services at local…