This article describes The Bare Book Project, a writing and research project that challenged pre-service and in-service teachers to create their own original pieces of children's literature, and use aspects of their personal writing as models for students in elementary school classrooms. Building on research regarding teacher modeling in writing…

Project-based learning (PBL) takes student engagement to a higher level through reflective collaboration, inquiry, critical thinking, problem solving, and personal relevance. This article explains how six high school teachers developed an interconnected, interdisciplinary STEM-focused PBL called "Sculpting the Barnyard Gene Pool." The…

This white paper describes instructional approaches that apply to successful teaching with the Smithsonian "Learning Lab." After defining its use of terms such as "deeper learning" and "authentic resources" the authors review the research basis of three broad approaches that support integrating digital resources into…

The process of digital storytelling allows basic writers to take a personal narrative and translate it into a multimodal and multidimensional experience, motivating a diverse group of writers with different learning styles to engage more creatively and meaningfully in the writing process. Digital storytelling has the capacity to contextualize…

This multiple case study explores how three online, high school teachers used technological tools to create meaningful learning activities for their students. Findings reveal that teachers use a wide variety of tools and approaches to online learning. Tools are categorized as content, communication, and management tools. Approaches include…

Explores the possibilities for incorporating items on the calendar in the English curriculum. (Author)

An inexpensive process for developing student creativity. ( )

This paper outlines how to teach macroeconomic principles through mock stock market investing while helping students develop economic awareness, interest, and comprehension on a more sophisticated level. The basic textbook is "The Economy Today" (B. R. Schiller). After two weeks of teaching basic economic concepts and vocabulary, such as…

Suggests teachers use imagination in designing their own stencil materials to avoid monotony in art activities. (DS)

Describes the development of WebSchool, a summer teacher institute designed to teach collaboration using Web-based resources so that teachers could develop their own intranets where students could upload their work, teachers could upload projects, and students could download assignments and information about tests. (LRW)

This book gives a general explanation of, and information about, the laws and how they work, and is written very simply and clearly with numerous examples and illustrations. It was written by students and staff in the eighth-grade social studies class of Miles City Junior High School, Montana, with the assistance and advice of members of the…

Describes seven simple art projects which reinforce reading skills. Examples are: vowel finger puppets, a blend mobile, a shoebox-top racing game, and book illustration. (SJL)

This curriculum unit is part of a larger unit on women's history that allows students to explore the many ways that history has been recorded, including quilting. The unit teaches students how women used quilts as their pens to record issues of their time. Students then connect this to their own lives by expressing contemporary issues through a…

Presents ideas for creating high-impact, low-cost, stimulating classroom displays. The article suggests arranging the environment to allow comfortable movement along with a pleasant, organized backdrop to teacher and student displays. Individual displays should not only share student work but extend and develop learning. Eight creative ideas are…