When faced with a multitude of tasks, any opportunity to "kill two birds with one stone" is welcome. Drama has always excited the author: as a child performing in plays, later as a student and now as a teacher directing performances and improvising within lessons. The author was lucky enough to have inspirational teachers during his…

A random sample of elementary teachers in grades 4-6 from across the United States were surveyed about their writing practices. Their responses raised concerns about the quality of writing instruction in upper-elementary grades. Almost two-thirds of the teachers reported that the teacher education courses they took in college provided them with…

Given the dearth of research on elementary education majors' experiences in middle level endorsement programs (Anderson, 2009), and the shortage of teachers aspiring to work with young adolescents, this case study examined the topic to provide insight into the experiences of preservice elementary education teachers. Specifically, this study…

Using an explanatory mixed methods design, this study uses the National Standards of Quality for Online Courses to measure the extent to which teachers in a blended middle school and a fully online supplemental high school are designing quality online learning environments for students. As a part of fully online graduate coursework, graduate…

As we strive to help pre-service teachers understand both why and how to teach for social justice, we face the challenge of making whole language teaching less abstract and intangible. Frequently pre-service teachers understand the principles of teaching for social justice but have no sense of how to infuse them into their teaching. They accept…