Recently the authors visited Poland for a few days. The purpose of their visit was to talk to some Polish teachers about using interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in the teaching of mathematics. They ran a workshop for primary teachers and secondary teachers and they found that these teachers were quite responsive in working with the mathematics…

In this article, two teacher educators examine two curriculum moments they have experienced, one with children and the other with pre-service teachers. They find possibilities for shifts in their understandings and insights into their own identity making and that of students. Drawing upon Connelly and Clandinin's (1992) notion of teachers as…

In this article, the author recounts her teaching experience with new high school students at Northwest Yeshiva High School, an Orthodox Jewish high school on Mercer Island. In teaching the students about writing, the author describes how she was moved by the narratives written by her students, and that after reading their stories she decided to…

This paper explores the implications of spirituality for teaching and learning in multicultural state schools through the examination of several teachers' personal and professional narratives. In attempting to capture the intangible, these narratives provide insights into the possibilities, both conscious and unconscious, of creating a climate…

The author shares insights gained through teaching middle and high school struggling readers and raises issues related to the complexity of addressing the literacy needs of adolescents for whom reading is difficult. The role of university-based reading clinics in helping inservice teachers' think differently about struggling readers and the…

In this article, the author shares her mother's teaching career without any college education or teacher training and discusses what it conveys about teachers who are not fully certified. While the author favors more traditional paths to teaching, culminating in full certification, she admits that there are other viable options. Just as 60 years…

This article reflects on an approach designed to facilitate teachers' learning through responsive narratives. Analysing participants' interaction during a case study of an international conference, we highlight the significance of teachers engaging directly with each other's life stories and using their own voices to re-shape their…

In this article, the author relates some of the bitter realizations he encountered during his student-teaching years when he realized that not all teachers were willing to help novice teachers. Some of them seemed to believe that teaching is as instinctive to a teacher as flight is to a bird. Despite these obstacles, the author states that he…

Early days on the job can be less than joyful for new teachers who regularly find themselves in seemingly impossible situations. Four educators who survived to tell the tale share their experiences and offer insight into what gave them the strength to continue on their chosen path.

This article describes a curriculum developed by the author and the children in her public school kindergarten class. Teaching practices that foster children's intellectual--and overall human--development are documented. The goals and purposes of schooling are discussed as well as issues pertaining to the role of the teacher, structures that…

For the purpose of reflective analysis, this article, which employs narrative inquiry as a research methodology, combines two "crossing the boundaries" dilemmas I experienced over the course of a decade. While the dilemmas relate to different issues that emerged in my career (standardized testing as a K-12 teacher and the formal…

This article is both a sequel and a companion to the account by Gill Hatch, published in "MT196," of her experience in her first teaching post--as a College of Education Assistant Lecturer. A chance remark by Gill in 2001 made the author aware that their careers as mathematics teachers had begun in similar environments. They set about compiling a…

Argues that theater instructors must also be artistic directors. Relates one instructor's experiences in taking over the acting and directing program at the Los Angeles High School of the Performing Arts and how his changing attitudes were reflected in his restructuring of the program. (PA)

A noted educator reflects on six satisfactions that he experienced during his career in teaching: introducing students to great ideas, getting a foothold on immortality, improvising on the job, enjoying teaching as a meaningful aesthetic experience, sharing your love of what you teach, and knowing you made a difference in a student's life.

The author's initial entry into the field of adult education has been via an indirect route from the industrial environments where she has worked for the last 20 years in various engineering positions. She came to recognize many years ago that a large part of her job involved the education of adult employees. As a research and development…