A kindergarten teacher recounts her classroom experience introducing children to reading via the whole language approach, which is based on the belief that children learn to read and write naturally by listening, watching, speaking, and writing. Classroom photographs and samples of student work illustrate the article. (DB)

Excerpts from students' writing illustrate the differences between Foxfire and other learning approaches and the dilemmas students face in Foxfire classes, including choices, decisions and responsibilities; developing new skills in a new process; participating in the democratic process; effectively working together; and nontraditional evaluations.…

No good time exists to face the realities of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Children across the United States and Canada are accompanied to clinics and schools by frightened, worried parents. In the book, In Understanding ADHD (2001), Ken and Andrea McCluskey bring to life the realities of the everyday journey of coping with…

Intended to show that English teachers' activities outside the classroom enhance their regular classroom work and permit them to teach new, larger audiences, the articles in this journal issue emphasize how English teachers can reevaluate their skills and express those skills in a language that businesses understand. Some of the articles explain…

Excerpts are presented from a teacher's diary of her first year of teaching gifted primary grade students. Principles learned over the first year include: (1) lesson planning must be flexible; (2) gifted students prefer subject matter content to brain exercises; and (3) work in the affective domain is as essential as study in the cognitive realm.…

Explores the use of introspective writing by others as a means of understanding two characteristics of intrapersonal communication: the process of selective memory which defines and redefines personal history and the pattern of habitual thinking which confirms self-identity. Recommends the classroom use of memoirs and journals. (PD)

In this collection of the best writing on teaching and teachers from the "Harvard Educational Review", authors discuss the multiple demands, distractions, desires, and dilemmas that teachers face in their daily work. Geologists study volcanoes for years yet cannot predict exactly which will be the next to erupt. Meteorologists use highly…

A teacher reflects on his experiences teaching American Indian literature and offers advice to other teachers: (1) clearly defining "Native American literature," noting diversity of Indian nations; (2) teaching works in their cultural context; (3) paying attention to continuance and Native time sense; and (4) being wary of translations. (SV)

A college English teacher discusses how her experience in learning to play a guitar has illuminated the teaching and learning processes, especially for first-year composition students who are motivated but not talented, or not highly motivated and expect failure. It is concluded that patience and kindness are important teaching tools. (MSE)

Analyzes a personal narrative from an interview with a high school teacher who is also the parent of an adolescent. Reviews the changing uses of narrative in moral development research. Proposes trust as an affective and evidential dimension of the relationship between adolescents and adults. (DK)

A teacher discusses her transition to a new school and an innovative program based on Foxfire practices. Journal entries reflect the frustrations, self-doubts, and personal growth that resulted from her teaching experience. She attributes her personal growth to reflective journal writing, a core practice of Foxfire. (LP)

Teachers in the southern Maine teachers' network comment on dilemmas they have faced when implementing the Foxfire approach, including realizing their own strengths and weaknesses, achieving a balance between content and process, appropriate teacher intervention, developing student decision-making skills, applicable assessment and evaluation,…

This paper introduces autobiographical analysis as a "disruptive strategy" that is deliberately structured to enable preservice teachers to develop new ways of thinking about teaching. Specifically, we: 1) describe how we incorporate a process of critical examination of preservice teachers' biases and assumptions throughout their…

The focus in education in the past 10 years has been on proficiency tests. Every educator in the country is worried about providing opportunities for our students to pass the proficiency tests. Teachers try lots of things--open-ended questions, multi-step questions, essay questions--all in an attempt to get our students ready for The Test. But…

Contemporary American culture has taken on protecting children from the consequences of their own actions so much that parents are raising children for whom being responsible for one's own actions and one's own work is anathema to "good parenting." Unlike the culture of the past, many parents spend hours on end with their children under…