Describes a school-wide creative writing activity for grades 1-9 in which students wrote about their teacher's (fictional) early life. (SR)

Describes an innovative project in the Tucson, Arizona area in which school librarians, teachers, and administrators developed a shared perspective of how to work together more effectively. Describes the district-wide Library Power program, as well as professional development and institutional change at the district level. Discusses change at one…

Teacher unions' efforts to ensure teacher quality via one-time licensing and certification requirements are outmoded. The National Education Association offers guiding principles for creating a quality-assurance system that encourages teachers to improve their craft. Unions must redefine teacher professional development and give teachers more…

Alumni organizations have special opportunities to influence the experience of prospective and current college students. This chapter explores programs that enhance connections between students and alumni. (Contains 12 references.) (Author)

A four-week experiential group for women at the British Columbia Cancer Agency offers the creative tools of art, meditation, and journal writing to help focus the inner work of healing in the presence of others. Using comments from the participants, a brief history, framework, and overview are outlined. (Contains 24 references.) (GCP)

Examines the Shoah Project, which uses multimedia to document the experiences of Holocaust survivors, and demonstrates the way it makes historical events vivid and compelling in the contemporary moment. Argues that effective use of multimedia in the teaching of history, religion, and multiculturalism requires historical contextualization,…

Describes a program at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia to draw on the skills and enthusiasm of early technology adopters by appointing them as Learning Technology Mentors to work with colleagues in their departments. (EV)

Describes how, operating from a model that values collaboration between educators and the community at large, the League of Women Voters worked to evaluate the Minneapolis school district's middle school reform efforts. Addresses: (1) elements of the school reform efforts; (2) the League's Middle School Achievement Project (MSAP); (3) the…

Describes a Canadian kindergarten class project on birds undertaken as part of the teacher's efforts to support their critical thinking skills through lengthy projects. Presents class discussion excerpts, children's art pieces, and their work in bird-themed booklets to illustrate the construction of horizontal relevance, the nurturance of problem…

Describes retention programs for at-risk freshmen that have been recognized as successful in a study by the consulting firm Noel-Levitz. Provides details about the retention efforts at 10 colleges and universities. (SLD)

Resilience is a set of attributes providing people with the strength and fortitude to confront overwhelming obstacles. The best way to prepare resilient youth for an uncertain future is to help them develop feelings of competence, belonging, usefulness, potency, and optimism via authentic, ongoing school experiences and critical examination of…

Underachievers generally lack internal locus of control, compete poorly, and undervalue effort. Many underachieving children who have adopted dependent or dominant defense mechanisms can be reached using the Family Achievement Clinic's Trifocal method. This multi-step process features assessment, parent-child communication, identification of the…

Describes the Young Hoosier Book Award program, which is designed to promote voluntary reading. Notes that schools across Indiana are deeply impoverished in terms of literacy resources for students and that school libraries are chronically underfunded and are in dire straits. (RS)

When a Connecticut school's assertive-discipline plan failed to generate a sense of ownership and community, faculty replaced rewards with schoolwide celebrations and consequences with problem solving. When students misbehave, teachers encourage them to reflect on their behavior, consider its effect on others, and devise appropriate restitution. A…

Describes Image-making Within the Writing Process, an innovative art-based literacy program designed to entice even the most discouraged of learners with a series of process-oriented art explorations and concrete tools for thinking through and designing stories. (SR)