An elementary teacher who completed her preservice fieldwork with Hawaii's PETOM (Preservice Education for Teaching of Minorities) program discusses the experimental process she uses to teach students to read and to love reading. By presenting her diary, the article highlights her whole-language approach to teaching a love of reading. (SM)

Describes the Star Project in which each student was allowed to select a topic in any area of interest and then to create a project around that topic. Students selected mentors (often parents) to monitor and encourage their progress. The article describes the project's successes and failures. (SM)

An inquiry-based curriculum can become the vehicle for bringing students out into the community and bringing the larger world to the classroom. The article describes one Hawaiian teacher's elementary curriculum that encouraged talking, sharing, and collaboration and incorporated reading and writing for real purposes into the curriculum. (SM)