For many novice teachers, the first solo effort in the classroom is a "sink or swim" experience. With good pre-service preparation that includes extensive field experience, the beginning teacher may feel more confident, but even those with the most confidence still find the complexities of decision-making bewildering. For those novices who are…

In 2004, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released evidence that points to arts and music teachers possibly being greatest at risk for leaving their current teaching positions. In classifying teachers as stayers, movers, or leavers, the NCES found arts and music teachers to be the highest of all assignment areas of teachers who…

For many teachers, an appointment to a rural school is their first experience of living and working in a context where they are highly visible and are likely to be known of and known about by far more people than they know of and know about. Space for "making errors" and recovering from them without impairment to becoming an effective…

The central theme of this article is that teachers' professional development in England is not being taken as seriously as it needs to be. With reference to the induction of newly-qualified teachers and the early professional development pilot schemes, it draws on data from several related pieces of research, to argue that cases of…

The learning process is forever riddled with controversies. Principal among them is that many students leave the classroom with the feeling that the odds are stocked against them, or that teachers bear grudges that are often used to malign their work or progress. But if the main focus in this teacher-student function is to make students realize…

Traditional composition classes teach the tools of choreographic craft, yet leave students in an odd limbo in which they create a special breed of "college dance" that has little to do with the current dance world. In the twenty-first century, choreography teachers must go beyond an emphasis on traditional craft and help students find their own…

The stakes are high when one decides to leave a tenured teaching position or an assistant principalship to interview for a principal's position. However, the stakes are high for the future employer as well. The school district needs to know that the applicant is ready for a job that is very complex. As a new principal, the applicant will be…

Many teacher education programs are working at a feverish pitch to ensure that their graduates are considered "highly qualified" in light of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, which reduces teacher competency to proof of subject matter knowledge as demonstrated by passing a state test and completing requisite number of courses in the…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 provided a clear mandate to school administrators to provide additional training for professional and paraprofessional staff. With its requirement that school districts must ensure that all staff are "highly qualified" for the roles assigned to them, it leaves no room for excuses or…

According to Swedish legislation as well as laws pertaining to disabled citizens, Swedish schools are to be accessible for all children and adolescents. This implies that disabilities of any type must not be allowed to prevent students from completing their schooling on their own terms. The purpose of this research was to study the degree to which…

The season of new buds and blossoms also signals fashion changes in the college classroom. Shorts, short skirts, tees, muscle tops, underwear exposed by low-rise pants, hospital scrubs, and flip-flops appear. With the advent of warm weather, women's clothing style can be tight and/or revealing. Jewelry and accessories become more visible. Today,…

The Funds for Excellence program at Thomas Nelson Community College (TNCC) offers teachers the opportunity to take time off to enter or re-enter business and industry to update their skills and knowledge; to update and enhance occupational/technical curricula and courses; and to improve communication between area business and the college.…

Public schools are unique environments where the rights and responsibilities of one individual or group can easily, if unintentionally, infringe on the rights and responsibilities of other individuals or groups. This can leave public school employees wondering about the nature and scope of their rights. While it is well established that public…

The role of co-investigator, in which the teacher leaves the classroom for half a day to work on a selected research project, is delineated. Teacher collaborators become involved as active participants with professional researchers in all phases of the research project in progress. The issues involved in collaboration, including the…

In this article, the authors present a laboratory exercise in data collection and statistical analysis in biological space using clustered stomates on leaves of "Begonia" plants. The exercise can be done in middle school classes by students making their own slides and seeing imprints of cells, or at the high school level through collecting data of…