Provides advice to school leaders in working with the school community to design, develop, and implement plans for a safe and secure learning environment. Argues the process requires communication with students, staff, parents, community, and the school district. Focuses on analyzing potential threats, incidence management, and incident reporting.…

Identifies key components of U.S. Language immersion programs and offers a description of existing partial and full immersion schools. The survey parallels information-gathering efforts in Canada and Europe by providing details and summaries of demographic information, teachers, materials, target language proficiency and use, program structure and…

Discusses the design, implementation, and rationale for an international education component in Botswanan secondary schools. Maintains that sustained development requires that students learn the interconnection of cultural, economic, political, and technological systems. Includes a breakdown of main topics with corresponding notes and comments.…

Observes the ever-changing relationship between media technology and political coverage and illustrates this through the use of political cartoons. Briefly reviews political reporting from the days of the early republic and hand-printed newspapers to the current era of the Internet. Includes historic cartoons and suggested activities. (MJP)

Investigates the issues, candidates, and political climate of the 1896 presidential election. The Democratic Party candidate, William Jennings Bryan, espoused a Populist platform attacking big business, protectionism, and the gold standard. William McKinley, the Republican Party, pro-business candidate easily won the election. Includes cartoons…

Details a series of service learning projects conducted by a California middle school social studies class. Creative, inexpensive, and substantive, the projects included writing to Manuel Noreiga in prison, creating a feed-the-homeless garden, and translating city documents into other languages. (MJP)

Recounts the experiences of a California middle school class that produces an ongoing magazine of oral histories. The multilingual, multicultural, working-class students have interviewed hundreds of participants. In the process they have learned how to research, interview, transcribe, and publish. Includes sample transcripts from the magazine.…

Explores the educational possibilities inherent in combining Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) with communications technology. A MIDI system (a combination synthesizer and computer) allows students to compose, record, experiment, and correct at one site. A MIDI file can be sent via e-mail to others for comments. (MJP)

Reports on a study that explored the information locating and use activities, motivation, and learning patterns of children and adults using either a print or multimedia resource to complete an independent research task. Comparisons are presented between activities of print users and multimedia users, motivation in children and adults, and the…

Examines specific approaches to the acquisition and teaching of word, syntax, and text attack skills in foreign language (FL) classes. The role played by computers in second-language reading is considered, and a discussion of problems currently facing the teacher who wishes to allocate reading a more prominent place in the FL learning program is…

Two preservice teachers working with middle school students with severe disabilities participated in this study of the acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of skills relating to use of positive consequences and instructional prompts. Results indicated that immediate feedback was more effective than delayed feedback, skills were maintained…

Summarizes 11 ERIC documents and journal articles on teaching conflict resolution to students, particularly students in the middle grades. Includes discussions of conflict among students and strategies for dealing with violence in schools, descriptions of conflict resolution programs and projects implemented in schools, and an analysis of the…

An eighth-grade science teacher shares her successes and strategies for designing and implementing an individualized scientific investigation approach for students with three major problems: (1) low reading ability, (2) high absenteeism, and (3) limited background in science. (ZWH)

Teacher educators are responsible for preparing teachers to be culturally responsive. The paper presents a case study of one middle school teacher with a diverse group of students who led her classroom in a culturally responsive manner, examining teacher conceptions of self/other, teacher/student relations, and conceptions of knowledge. (SM)

A case study of one female middle school student examined her tendency toward learned helplessness. Observations and interviews with the student and her teachers indicated that she lacked confidence; her belief that she could not change her intellectual and social situation was pervasive. Approaches to intervention are discussed. (SM)