A teacher might demonstrate respect for immigrant children by a willingness to be awkward in dialogue with them, use body language and voice intonation, investigate their cultural heritage, and recognize the hardships faced by immigrant families. Showing intentness and commitment to bridging language gaps is equally important. (MLH)

A project conducted by two university instructors and a group of Madison-area primary teachers attempted to improve at-risk students' early literacy capabilities. The Teachers Helping Teachers project helped participating teachers create their own small professional-development communities, emphasize children's strengths, and improve instruction.…

Reading (Ohio) Community Schools' successful Early ID program evaluates each kindergartener and first-grader's fine motor skills, visual perception capabilities, and knowledge of basic language concepts. The process is highly structured and allows volunteers to follow a sequential set of skill activities through primary, intermediate, and advanced…

To experience the world of professional science, students must have access to the scientific community and be allowed to become real scientists. A partnership involving the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Lewis Center for Educational Research has produced Jupiter Quest, an engaging curriculum…

Although Darling-Hammond's emphases as a teacher, researcher, and college professor shifted over a distinguished 25-year career, her three driving concerns remain the serious and thoughtful training of highly professional teachers; elimination of inequities in school funding, resources, and access to qualified teachers; and personalization of…

Despite the Soviet emphasis on character education, communist "vospitanie" had little lasting influence once political enforcement was removed. Between 1988-92, the juvenile crime rate rose 50 percent. American educators should be cautious about promoting lists of virtues that serve a political agenda or are justified primarily on political…

Teachers using a constructivist approach to learning are not invisible, as Lawrence Baines and Gregory Stanley suggest in a December 2000 "Kappan" article. Rather, they are an integral part of an active, student-centered learning process. Assisted by teachers, learners select and transform information, construct hypotheses, and make decisions.…

Instead of presenting a body of research attesting to constructivism's effectiveness, Lynn Chrenka cites a litany of "supportive" comments from dead geniuses. The teacher as expert and lecturer is anathema to constructivist doctrine. Sages who speak passionately and authoritatively about a subject they love are increasingly rare in public schools.…

Students and teachers in Pierce School District in Arbuckle, California, re-enacted an 1840s wagon train. Staff and students dressed authentically, turning thrift-store outfits into period garb. The 4-day simulation instilled knowledge in students and helped them think more critically. True instructional innovation comes from the bottom up. (MLH)

Given most AmeriCorps members' passion and dedication, a recent college graduate assigned to an overcrowded Oakland middle school felt guilty about her half-hearted commitment to Teach for America. She gradually realized her situation was all too realistic and typical of teachers serving in underresourced schools across the nation. (MLH)

Renewed teachers are an integral part of their schools and have a philosophical/spiritual center; a commitment to students, lifelong learning, and school; a sense of collegiality, leadership, and personal responsibility; a strong love for life; and the ability to appreciate people as individuals, communicate, and banish their egos. (MLH)

To be great teachers and contribute to their school systems, teachers must gain others' support. Teachers can tap endless resources: their colleagues, students, parents, professional organizations, professional literature, other schools, universities, and themselves. Teachers allowed to teach according to their beliefs are happiest. (MLH)

Despite higher expectations for student learning that require problem-solving, in-depth discussions, and extended small-group projects, central-office directives (in response to standards and testing pressures) are proliferating and intruding on instructional time. These and other routine interruptions convinced the author to end a decade-long…

According to a Michigan State University study of auto workers, the equivalent of an eighth-grade mathematics education is adequate preparation for nonprofessional, high-tech work. Another MSU study by Nell Duke discovered that children in higher SES classrooms have richer print experiences than do less advantaged children. (MLH)

In July 2000, the Commonwealth Court (of Pennsylvania) issued a decision upholding Bethlehem School District's 10-day suspension of a middle-schooler who had created a website that childishly ridiculed a teacher and the principal. This decision is another that subordinates students' 14th Amendment rights to school-safety concerns. (MLH)