Discusses the author's experiences as a homosexual teacher at Berkeley High School. Examines how language is used regarding homosexuality and bisexuality. Concludes that teachers have an obligation to educate other teachers on the impact of homophobia and homophobic language. (SG)

What English educators call "praxis," the intersections between theory and practice, remains the most viable theory for literacy teachers at all levels, and Paulo Freire, the educator who explained "praxis" to them, remains their most important source of philosophical inspiration. Freire's definition of "praxis," that it requires action and…

Gustave Weltsek, a high school English teacher, has turned to process "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to avoid passing on traditional views and interpretations of the play. He has helped the students to see relevance in William Shakespeare's text by using improvisations to get them talking about issues that are important to them.

Effective professional development programs focus on maintaining and nurturing the young traits like great enthusiasm and energy as other knowledge is gained to meet the teachers' evolving professional needs. The difficulties and experiences of many first-year teachers and some guidance to avoid them are described.

Researchers of literacies in out-of-school settings often argue that their studies hold significant implications for teaching practices. This argument seems to be partially supported by studies that have won the Alan C. Purves Award between 1998 and 2001, acknowledging RTE articles most likely to impact educational practice. Yet this line of…

History gets a really bad "rep" in school. History teachers seemed to do everything they could to suck the interesting out of history, leaving only names, dates, and battles to memorize until the test was over. History can be brought up on its feet and given room to play when it's combined with theater. They work so well together. In this article,…

In its lifetime, the profession of language teaching has undergone many changes. Early attempts at language teaching almost entirely lacked a theoretical base. In the 20th century, however, two sets of language teaching methods emerged; the first set borrowed theories from psychology, linguistics, and sociolinguistics whereas the second set was…

This paper argues for the integration of the lexical approach with a data-driven corpus-based methodology in English teaching for technical students, particularly students of Engineering. It presents the findings of the author's computer-aided research, which aimed to establish a frequency-based corpus of student engineering lexis. The Student…

The ability of high school grades (grade point average) and SAT® scores to predict cumulative grades in different types of college courses was evaluated in a sample of 26 colleges. Appended are: (1) Sample Sizes, Means, and Standard Deviations for Subgroups Defined by Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Course Type; and (2) Prediction of Cumulative GPA by…

The discrepancies between test-based and teacher-based criteria of high achievement are well-documented for students of all ages. This study seeks to determine whether certain high school students who score high on tests of academic achievement are more likely than others to be nominated for advanced academic programs by their teachers. Using…

This essay is entitled "The 'I' of the Storm" in order to stress the very personal nature of teaching in the immediate, post-Katrina semester of Fall 2005. The University of New Orleans (UNO) was the only university in the city to open that semester, and many traumatized instructors, the author included, were serving the thousands of…

In line with other public sector provision, the English school system has been subject to modernization since the advent of the New Labour government in 1997. This article views the reform of education in the light of the movement towards new public management and traces the process of the reform of workforce remodeling that has seen the shedding…

This article explores the literacy lives of students enrolled in English Composition courses at two open-admission universities in Central Appalachia and the complex role of immediate and extended family members as sponsors of literacy in these students' lives. Some relatives emerged as both sponsors and inhibitors-or perhaps more accurately,…

This paper reports a small-scale study of wider reading at Key Stage 3 in current English classrooms in secondary schools in the south of England. Six English teachers, three of whom were relatively new to teaching, were interviewed on what they thought about wider reading. The findings indicate that because of a lack of time and absence of demand…

Eisner, Gardner, and others have argued that the arts should be better integrated into the K-12 curriculum. In this study we examine three high school senior boys who, as part of a unit of instruction on identity, each produced a mask through which he artistically expressed his sense of self. Using a sociocultural framework based in the work of…