Instructors are responsible for making teaching come to life. This article seeks to energize the classroom through an exploration of the tacit synergies between the language of poetry and the language of management. In the process, the authors delve into both the opportunities and the obstacles in bringing together two disparate discourses. As an…

The activities in the guide will help you connect the suggestions and strategies in "Classroom Instruction from A to Z" to your real-life teaching experiences. For each of the 26 chapters in the book, you will find a series of three activities that will help you reflect on your current practices. They ask you to ACT now and turn your classroom…

Presents five cross-curricular activities involving student snapshots that are designed to keep students motivated. Activities include creating a class book with teacher and student photographs, making photo magnets using frozen juice can tops, developing a first-week word wall with students' names and photographs, and creating a post office with…

In this article, the author reflects back to when he was in fifth grade, when his teacher taught the class to bake bread in school. It was November, and baking bread tied into the lesson. His teacher and some open-minded parents and students knew that to bake, sew, paint, sing, play an instrument, or dance as part of a lesson for a math class,…

Creating a class book can be an effective way to stimulate early elementary students' creativity and self-expression. The six steps are to: introduce the project; create the story; decide who does what; get it down on paper; put it all together; and share the experience. (SM)

In this article, the author discusses how children's book character Flat Stanley has linked students around the world and describes how teachers used the appealing character as a tool to bring reading, writing, geography, and other subjects to life through a classroom exercise. Often folded or laminated for protection and accompanied by…

Elementary teachers offer their ideas for enhancing the final days of school. They help students review material, highlight achievements, fill spare time, and create summer plans. Suggestions include making class diplomas, producing action news, making friendship trees, writing letters to their future selves, and preparing summer activity guides.…

A fourth grade teacher commemorated Black History Month with a study of African culture and geography. Students were assigned to make a chosen African country come alive through an oral presentation. Finger puppets, which students outfitted in traditional tribal attire, were used to enhance the project. (SM)

This book presents six units filled with games, hints, and special game variations for teaching elementary school physical education classes. It is intended to help physical education teachers increase the time students are active in class, minimize discipline problems, develop healthy attitudes that lead to a lifetime of physical activity, save…

A Maryland teacher used Alaska's Iditarod sled-dog race to spark learning and bring adventure into a fourth grade history and geography course. Students followed the Iditarod, conducted reading races on related material, studied race strategies, and considered necessary mathematics. They learned about Alaska while experiencing cooperation and…

The article presents strategies used by elementary teachers from around the country to promote mathematics learning in the classroom. Their ideas include using manipulatives, participating in cooperative learning, keeping math journals, collecting portfolios, and reading literature that relates to math concepts in real life. (SM)

The course selected for the creative approach was History and Philosophy of Early Childhood Education, an offering in the Department of Human Development. The subjects were 58 undergraduates in 3 classes. The creative approach required innovative student team presentations on seven early childhood education programs, and offered the choice of an…

Based on the idea that drama infuses the classroom with activity, imagination, language, and powerful learning experiences, this journal offers commentary and suggestions on classroom drama practices at the elementary level. The first section argues that drama motivates self-active learning and promotes language development, learning across the…

In this article, the author relates how his visits to classrooms across America to speak to children about writing and illustrating books have left him impressed by the creative ways in which educators manage scant resources to motivate students and to develop exciting lessons. He shares six things that he has learned from these visits about how…