Deskilling approaches to staff development separate the conception of curriculum from execution of curriculum. The article discusses the experience of one staff developer regarding deskilling staff-development practices, shares journal reflections, and describes a set of strategies used to encourage teachers to actively participate in their own…

Whole-faculty study groups show promise as a vehicle for integrating initiatives and focusing school improvement efforts on increased student learning. The paper describes the San Diego Unified (City) School District's experiences in developing and implementing successful whole-faculty study groups. The groups increased collegiality and improved…

D. M. Kagan's (1992) developmental learning-to-teach model reflects her emphasis on mastery of procedural routines and highlights only one sector of the teacher education community. Kagan's claim that research supports a developmental model misrepresents the full body of research on professional growth among preservice teachers. (RLC)

An experienced supervisor of student and cooperating teachers discusses good mentor qualities, emphasizing the importance of treating student teachers the way one would want to be treated as a student teacher. The paper discusses how to establish a good rapport, work cooperatively, provide flexibility and feedback, conduct evaluations, and…

A committee of secondary school and college educators met in 2001 to develop content standards for teaching public school history. Adam Scrupski came away from that meeting amazed at the arrogance with which they imposed on New Jersey students, the firmly held belief that the story of America is predominantly one of capitalist, imperialist…

If ever there ever was an unsung heroine in journalism, it was LaBerta Miller Phillips, who taught journalism and advised student publications at Fort Worth's segregated I.M. Terrell High School from 1922 to 1966. When asked how she was farsighted enough to be teaching journalism all those years when there were few jobs open to blacks in the…

This guide accompanies one of a pair of videocases depicting educational life in Deming, New Mexico. The videocase includes 28 minutes of unstaged but edited videotape footage of teaching and learning in and around junior high and mid-high schools in Deming. The first section of the guide, "Teaching Note" (Todd Kent) contains a…

This collection of essays on teaching is written from the perspective of a high school English teacher. The ideas for these essays are drawn from experiences, from debates in the faculty lounge, from confrontations with parents, and from crisis interventions with distraught students. Personal narratives and classroom vignettes are used to…

This paper describes how teacher portfolios could be used to provide teachers with the opportunity to grow professionally in concert with other teachers and in ways that promote school, district, and professional student performance standards. An opening section discusses the lack of progress in developing effective teacher evaluation and…

While much has been said and written about teaching excellence, educational research has not defined what it means to be an excellent teacher, so it is important for teachers in all subject areas to initiate and sustain a dialogue about teaching excellence. Six attributes characterize excellence in a secondary school communications teacher. First,…

Discusses the importance of library instruction in the secondary school and describes how librarians can interact with classroom teachers by means of a three-step plan (meeting with department chairpeople to outline program objectives and planned teaching methods, class presentation, lab period). Gaining faculty cooperation and students'…

In this paper we analyze instructional materials supported by a Dynamic Geometry software, which were produced by teachers during an in-service training program. We discuss illustrative examples, as well as the outcomes of the critical discussions that took place during the presentations of these materials by the teachers. In order to analyze…

Reviews the movement to raise state university entrance requirements and presents opinions on the changes from educators in secondary and higher education. Suggests that higher standards will exacerbate shortages of mathematics and science teachers in the near future and will raise enrollments and hence costs for high school science courses. (RW)

Bilingual teacher education in California is examined. A discussion of such issues as the status of bilingual teachers, competencies for bilingual teachers, and bilingual secondary and vocational teacher education is followed by a list of recommendations for teacher training institutions. (FG)

This article examines the psychological needs of a high school student whose best friend was murdered. After describing how one teacher handled the situation, the article offers a school counselor's view and a school psychologist's view of how to handle such a situation. (SM)