The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Welcoming School Climates." Contents include: (1) Welcoming and Safe Schools…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Student Voice." Contents include: (1) Steps for Helping Students Become…

Concept mapping has long been used an assessment tool by educators to illustrate students' conceptual development of a topic over time. In this article, we chronicle the use of concept maps in a language arts environment. Focusing on a literacy tutoring program for struggling readers/writers centered on hands-on science experiments, we explain how…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Student Voice." Contents include: (1) Maybe One Day, the Pain Won't Feel the…

The first year in teaching will be rewarding and stimulating, but it will also be hard and stressful for most NQTs. A good induction program benefits not only NQTs but also those who support and assess them. Good teachers make good schools--but good schools also make good teachers. In this book, NQT development expert Dr. Sara Bubb, explains…

New tools and technologies are being developed to cater to the e-learning triangle of content, technology, and services. These developments (in technology, needs of students, emergence of new modes of education like MOOCs or flipped classrooms, etc.) have resulted in a change in the approach to teaching. "Innovative Applications of Online…

A professional sports event requires considerable planning in which years are devoted to the success of that single activity. School-based sports events do not have that luxury, because high schools across the country host athletic events nearly every day. It is not uncommon during the fall sports season for a combination of boys' and girls'…

This article shares the insights of a tutor as she works with a fourth-grade African American girl. For this case study, the authors use interactive read-alouds and writing samples to document the reading and writing events of this yearlong tutorial experience. They report on the power of critical literacy to engage a developing reader and improve…

Increasingly, music teachers are required to assist, tutor, or teach reading skills in the music classroom. In the effort to meet such mandates, music teachers may be challenged to either relinquish valuable music instruction time or attempt to combine instructional strategies of both music and reading into singular lessons, units, and classroom…

September 2007 saw the introduction of the new "Q" standards for the award of Qualified Teacher Status. Drawing on a meeting of 140 primary and secondary school ITT tutors, this article sets out to record and discuss the teachers' initial reactions to these new standards a few weeks before their introduction. The article shows classroom teachers…

This manual consists of an introduction to our Academic Peer Instruction (API) program at LaGuardia Community College, a compilation of the materials we have developed and use for training of our tutors (with answers), and a bibliography. API is based on an internationally recognized peer tutoring program, Supplemental Instruction. (Contains 6…

Managing practical science activities effectively is demanding for any teacher and especially so for inexperienced practitioners. Add the problems posed by integrating children with learning and behavioural difficulties and one has the sort of challenge that makes working in education rewarding--but not easy! As a newly qualified teacher, the…

This paper looks at new teachers' use of information and communications technology (ICT) at the start of their first year of teaching. A previous study was made of 40 student teachers (May-July 2007) who were identified as very good users of ICT. This is a follow-up study involving 30 of these 40 participants during their first months of teaching…

Teacher candidates were tracked to monitor whether their former tutoring experience influenced their experiences as teacher candidates. Through interviews, email and group discussions, participants reflected on their teacher preparation experiences and their orientations to effective reading and writing instruction. At times, teacher candidates…

This article, which forms part of the policy booklet "Lessons from the Front" written by participants and Ambassadors of the Teach First scheme, argues that educational outcomes are often adversely affected by the size and structure of many urban complex schools. Rather than multiplying the efforts of teachers, too often the…