This article explores three questions developed to be central to the creation and implementation of an effective classroom warm-up: Does it help jumpstart students' use of German? Can it capture students' attention? And does it encourage building rapport through providing opportunities for personal expression or relevance? Based on my experience…

Philosophy for Children (P4C) is founded on a respect for children's rational abilities and their expressive capacities. It is a pedagogical approach that is designed to provide children with the opportunity to freely express themselves and practice the skills necessary for making well-reasoned choices. An individual child may feel unable to…

This article reports on the student benefits of a school-based Hip Hop and beat making program. While a significant amount of literature has reported the benefits of Hip Hop programs in North American schools, comparatively little is known about the benefits of such programs in the Australian context. Using an ethnographic approach, this study…

This study examined student artwork as free expression in order to conduct an analysis of diaspora as related to urban, middle school students learning English. Subjects consisted of middle school students representing a variety of countries with Spanish being the primary first language of the majority of participants. Using a qualitative approach…

In this article, the author talks about her teaching approach which is from a transactional/ constructivist perspective, embracing both the work of Dewey and Vygotsky. She believes that learning is imbedded in social interaction as part of a sociocultural process that begins at birth. Learning does not occur in isolation, but within a network of…

Describes the Teachers and Writers Collaborative, a program in which a professional writer works closely on a long-term basis with a particular group of public school students and their teacher. Object: to encourage children to write creatively, out of their own experiences, about what is real to them. (MG)

Team writing and shared ideas are interpersonal experiences that motivate children to write. (JH)