This book is intended to give support providers the understanding, knowledge, and skills for providing transition and employment services in school, employment, community, and residential settings and thereby improve the quality of life for the individuals that they support. It not only shows how to support an individual with a disability but also…

Efforts to promote self-determination have been a principal focus of transition planning in support of students with disabilities for nearly two decades. However, research and recommendations related to self-determination have been primarily centered on promoting student participation in the IEP process and ensuring broader preparation for…

It is essential that children who are deaf-blind have learning experiences that improve their quality of life. Unfortunately, even when educational teams work together to create individualized education programs, these students do not always have full and equal opportunities to learn. This issue of "Practice Perspectives" describes the basics of…

To engage students in a real-world issue (Bransford, Brown, and Cocking 2000) that affects their communities, the author designed an entire unit to investigate air pollution in their home state, Connecticut. The unit's goal is to understand how the use of resources, such as fossil fuels, might affect their quality of life. Through this unit,…

Given the current national debate over immigration reform and the plethora of anti-immigrant policies, practices, and laws, school curriculums should include materials that will allow students to learn about, and reflect on, the impact this debate has on the lived realities of those most impacted. Specifically, teachers and their students will…

Academics debate the veracity of historic sites and what they represent, but no one that has visited historic places as a student, or traveled with students to historic places, can deny their power to teach. Every community has historic sites. Historic sites are, by definition, primary sources. They are artifacts of the past that often contain a…

Traditional-age college students face a host of challenges during the transition from home to campus. Perhaps one of the most substantial challenges--one that relates directly to adjustment and quality of life--involves the formation of new relationships, and the awareness, development, and establishment of boundaries between their own emerging…

One of the important aspects of integrating contemplative practice into higher music education is the emphasis the practice places on individual experience. Students begin to learn to sensitize both their outer and inner listening. They begin to trust their own experience and the inner guidance that can be found in that trust. They begin to trust…

Far too much curriculum time in primary schools is overly regulated and assessment driven, with the result that many children attending them are either bored or made to feel anxious. The antidote to this tendency is for teachers to rediscover the value of deregulated ("wasted") curriculum time via a renewed commitment to the value of play,…

Many principals use harassing supervision to encourage low-performing teachers to leave. Principals are driven to this tactic because teacher evaluation systems don't systematically identify low-performing teachers, principals don't understand the teacher removal process, principal training programs don't build principal expertise in hiring and…

Every survey of teachers that's ever been conducted has shown that the number one reason for them staying or quitting their jobs is related to the quality of their work environment. Here's a book with practical strategies for how to make the job of teaching easier and more rewarding by overcoming day-to-day frustrations. Veteran educator Allen…

Instructors teaching students about social inequality, especially sexism and racism, often face some degree of student resistance. Opposition is particularly strong when students are from a white, middle to upper class background. As Haddad and Lieberman (2002) remark, "Students from privileged backgrounds lack personal experience with structures…

Special education professionals can play a critical role in enhancing the quality of life not only for a child with a disability but also for that child's entire family. To realize this beneficial impact on the child's family, professionals must operate with these assumptions: (1) Special education professionals must acknowledge that they have a…

Adventure recreation activities like mountain biking, bouldering, and kayaking used to require considerable travel to unique locations. This is changing, however, as the new trend emerges in the United State of providing adventure recreation experiences in cities and towns, such as New York City and Golden, Colorado. This article highlights…

In this article, the author discusses the dilemma between retaining and promoting students who are unprepared for the next level, and offers a solution to this dilemma. In a perfect world, every student would be academically prepared for the next grade, and there would be no need to choose between holding students back and passing them on…