Presents advice on how teachers can successfully tap into the pool of parent volunteers as a powerful educational resource, offering 14 proven ways to get parents involved and providing words of caution about 6 pitfalls to avoid. Advice from both teachers and parents is included. (SM)

A fourth-grade teacher from Brooklyn (New York) explains how she organizes her students into heterogeneous groups for maximum learning, describing creative social studies, math, and reading groups and special groups to start off the school year. (SM)

Discusses how teachers can choose quality inservice workshops to suit their needs. The guide explains quality inservice in action, five ways to select a great inservice, questions to ask before and after the inservice, how to win $1,000 for the next inservice, and where to go for more information. (SM)

Shared reading lets elementary teachers show children what reading is about. Teachers read the text aloud and encourage students to read along. All levels of readers can participate. Teachers can do letter or sound searches to help children understand how to use what they know about letters and spelling patterns in order to read unfamiliar words.…

Discusses why it is important to teach arithmetic, showing teachers how to match what they are teaching with children's real-world needs, presenting seven basics for teaching arithmetic today, and offering seven classroom strategies for implementing the instruction. The seven basics emphasize the importance of arithmetic skills and math facts as…

Presents three reading-comprehension strategies for elementary teachers to use during read-alouds. The first involves reading and using critical-thinking skills. The second uses character mapping to make predictions about a story. The third involves story mapping to encourage independent reading. The strategies encourage students to support one…

Dan DuCote brought in his friend Mike Shane to be the sixth-grade team leader and introduce intraclass instruction. Mike did just that, without consulting the other three teachers. And the war was on! (Editor)

Midge Curry, fourth-grade teacher, is popular with both students and fellow teachers alike, and her principal thinks she is doing a great job. She, however, thinks she is a fraud. Describes her interaction with the school counselor and how she learned to evaluate and improve her performance as a teacher. (Editor/RK)

This article presents ideas for turning elementary-level nonreaders into readers. Activities include teachers'"all-about-me letters" to gain insight into students' interests, and interviewing students to document their use of reading strategies. A reading strategy record sheet for the student interviews is included. (SM)

Presents tips on how to create a positive, friendly classroom community from day one. Ideas include beginning the year with getting-to-know-you activities; identifying and positively involving students with potential behavior problems; offering opportunities for students to assist one another with activities; working together toward a goal; and…

Presents strategies for getting organized and creating a classroom environment that promotes science learning for primary students. Teachers must first decide what topics they are going to cover and what materials they need. Next, they should determine how to organize the materials. Finally, they should identify and set up areas in the classroom…

This is a brief summary of the responses to this magazine's August 1979 opinion poll, covering a wide range of topics, such as likes and dislikes about teaching, school violence, use of audiovisuals, teacher unionization, national educational and political issues, and respondents' personal characteristics, interests, and income. (SJL)

Presents 80 quick activities that elementary teachers can use to get to know their students, reward good work, communicate with parents, brush up on basic skills, spruce up the classroom, pamper themselves, or publicize the school. (SJL)

Presents tips to teachers on preserving their enthusiasm, organizing their time, maintaining class control, boosting school morale, and maintaining public support. (Editor/SJL)