Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood, affecting nearly 5 million children under the age of 18. Children with asthma account for 3 million hospital visits and 200,000 hospitalizations yearly. This adds up to an estimated $2 billion annually in health care costs (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1999). A child with asthma has three…

A growing array of nonfiction picture books, appropriate for every age level, is available that addresses an expanding range of historical topics. Nonfiction picture books should be considered far more than a passing fancy for such books are powerful tools, often highly superior to textbook material for involving students in an interactive way.…

This brief article reports on selective presentations from the January, 2004, conference, "Poverty, Partnerships and Peace: The Role of Educators in the 21st Century," sponsored by the Committee on Teaching about the United Nations. Topics covered include the importance of teaching girls in Afghanistan and the connection between poverty reduction…

Peer support--or rejection--is a powerful social force. Socially accepted children have high self-esteem and self-confidence; enjoy the company of others; and have mutual loyalty, respect, trust, and support. Children who are rejected by peers are often disliked and ignored. Rejected children are perceived to be aggressive in peer interactions and…

Introducing nursery rhymes to young children can inspire them to explore language and motivate them to explore word play further in meaningful experiences (like cooking) that can be integrated into all aspects of the curriculum. Whether they slice, dice, or add allspice, these actions are appealing, because they contain many activities that help…

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…

Researchers agree that increased parental involvement is necessary if low-SES, underrepresented student populations are to overcome a history of reading deficiencies. However, the fact remains that parental involvement alone is insufficient for achieving desired academic outcomes. Teachers must design interactive/constructivist homework…

Children must be involved and interested in order to learn. Children who come to kindergarten with background knowledge gained from enjoyable trips with their parents, when they explored the world around them, are usually more curious about their world and experience more success in school. Good teachers connect new information in their curriculum…

Today, many classroom teachers are busy preparing for standardized tests. The No Child Left Behind Act encourages such behavior. Little time is left to devote to subjects that previously were considered a vital part of the curriculum, such as social studies, physical education, art, and music. Needless to say, if these subjects have taken a back…

This discussion of classroom teachers serving as mentors of children draws from the literature on the origin of mentoring, the definition of mentoring, and the current theory on the characteristics and qualities that define an excellent mentor-mentee relationship. Parallels between the study of adult mentoring relationships and the teacher-child…

This article focuses on overweight children and the role that educators (and schools) might play in supporting and reinforcing this unhealthful lifestyle. Included are strategies for promoting more healthful eating and activity habits. The article concludes with a list of resources offering additional help in addressing this growing threat.

In this article, inclusion and exclusion are interpreted not as functions of individual developmental deficit but rather as socially constructed phenomena within the peer group, highlighting the need for teachers to intervene with the entire class rather than focusing on perceived social skills deficits of particular children. The three sections…

While the middle school movement has gained legitimacy in recent years, attracting preservice teachers to the middle levels remains challenging. Essentially, attracting middle level preservice teachers is analogous to catching minnows in a bucket. As university faculty attempt to bait students into teaching young adolescents, grades 4-8,…

The following article describes how Mrs. Mansfield (Mary), Ms. Bortz (Elaine), and the author combined their talents in order to promote students' literacy learning through the integration of multicultural literature and information technology with a reading/writing curriculum. The students in Mary's and Elaine's classrooms, who come from diverse…

In this brief article, the author shares observations of parents and children from over 27 countries who participated in a university preschool program, and also provides examples that illustrate cultural variations in parenting behavior. It is shown that the patterns of parental attitudes and behaviors exhibited in the preschool differed greatly…