Beginning middle-level teachers face numerous challenges, including becoming productive team members, designing and implementing interdisciplinary instruction units, serving as effective student advisors, and developing consistent disciplinary models. A formal mentoring programs can help beginning teachers meet these challenges and develop…

Examines critical questions concerning classroom management posed by beginning teachers, highlighting strategies for establishing and sustaining an effective classroom climate at the middle level. Teachers establish good management by proactive preplanning, deliberate introduction of rules and procedures, and immediate assertiveness. Order is…

This instructional resource for classroom teachers and teacher educators who are actively involved in the development and enhancement of mentoring relationships between classroom professionals describes a mentoring relationship between an experienced teacher and a first-year teacher in middle school language arts. The resource outlines lessons…

This paper describes a new portfolio-based assessment program for beginning science teachers who seek a license to teach in Connecticut's middle and high schools. This is part of the comprehensive Beginning Educator Support and Training (BEST) induction program for beginning teachers in Connecticut. The science portfolio assessment requires all…

Examined the impact of a preservice program that modeled effective teaching practices for early adolescents and incorporated collaboration between school teachers, preservice teachers, and instructors. Participant surveys and interviews following their first teaching year revealed the relative ease of program implementation within an existing…

Shows how a first-year science teacher met the challenge of an innovative program in which all sixth-grade content teachers at one school assumed responsibility for teaching content-area literacy. Describes the various strategies he taught for reading and learning in content-area instruction, including compare and contrast, sequencing activities,…

This study investigated the impact of induction assistance on two beginning physical education teachers, one in grades K-2 and the other in a middle school. The teachers were observed, videotaped, and interviewed, and a case narrative was completed for each. Results indicated that continued supervision and feedback positively affected the…

Teachers who had received a specialized preparation for middle level teaching were studied to determine the effectiveness of such a preparation program and to help form a knowledge base from which teacher education institutions could document, design, and implement middle level preparation programs. The paper reviews the literature investigating…

Establishing and maintaining an orderly classroom is a primary determinant of teaching success. This booklet presents an approach to school discipline that blends the best features of existing successful programs and current research findings. The publication, written in story form, tells of two beginning teachers who realize that their success…

In attempting to identify causes of the high rates of attrition of beginning teachers and possible solutions to their exodus, this study identified what beginning high school and middle school teachers in the Baltimore County Public School system found were their most urgent concerns and most valuable types of assistance. A questionnaire was sent…

The goal of this study was to develop theories about how novice teachers connect the process of reflectivity to their classroom management. The study focused on whether novice teachers connect their observations about situations which occur in case studies to their own experiences, whether they reflect before or after their actions, and whether…

Offering a comprehensive view of teaching that takes into account the great variety of backgrounds, abilities, and interests of secondary students, this book uses a holistic, integrated approach to teaching the English language arts, including group activities throughout to provide listening and speaking opportunities in literature, composition,…

This volume contains personal reflections by four teachers in Texas on their year-long Trinity University intern teaching experience at Mark Twain Middle School, an urban professional development school in San Antonio. Part 1 by Corinne McKamey, "To understand teaching you have to be there, engrossed in the human interactions," is a…