When Jim Chadwell, the former principal of Northwest High School in Texas, renovated his media center four years ago, he had two things in mind: Starbucks and Barnes & Noble. According to Media Specialist Naomi Bates, Chadwell wanted a place where students could read, do research, and work on classroom assignments, but also socialize. That is…

This is a case study of drama education curriculum for young children taught by a drama specialist. Specifically, to understand unique drama teaching practices employed by a drama specialist, 9-week-long drama programs for one kindergarten and two 1st-grade classes were observed and the drama specialist was interviewed. Regular classroom…

Background: Twenty-six young people with intellectual disabilities and mental health needs from Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities were recruited as part of a bigger study to examine the effectiveness of a liaison worker in helping young people and their families access appropriate intellectual disabilities and mental health services. Method:…

Some essential components of "keeping current" with trends and new developments in the school library field for library media specialists includes attending conferences and reading professional literature. Beginning in May 2007, one article on "keeping up" each year has been devoted to summarizing the major themes in conferences and professional…

An excellent way for an undergraduate, novice director of television and film to pick up background experience in directing performers for cameras is by participating in nonbroadcast-film activities, such as theatre, dance, and variety acts, both as performer and as director. This document describes the varieties of activities, including creative,…

While participating in the Bilingual Teacher Research Forum (a teacher inquiry group), I decided to do research in my classroom to investigate the ways in which emergent bilinguals (EBs) expanded their appreciation and understanding of writing in English as a second language. The purpose of this study was to examine and describe first-grade EBs'…

The Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) "Guide to Accreditation" includes a full description of TEAC's principles and standards, the accreditation process and audit, and detailed instruction on writing the "Brief." This revision includes expanded information on (1) preparing an "Inquiry Brief Proposal" and the audit of the "Inquiry…

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between a teacher's expertise, instructional practices, belief about assessment, use of assessment, and student achievement. There is minimal and sometimes conflicting research to support the relationship between teacher characteristics and student achievement. For the present study, teacher…

This article presents a story of the transformation of summer reading at Barnstable High School (BHS) in Massachusetts which took place during the last year of the author's practice as a school library media specialist before she began her work as a professor and researcher at Rutgers University. It is a true story about effecting change and…

Purpose: Self-declaration of personal values has been suggested as a means of identifying students with greater predilection for future primary care careers. While statistically significant differences have been demonstrated, absolute differences between those interested in primary care and those interested in specialist careers tend to be small.…

Bullying. Death. Disabilities. Peer acceptance. Cultural differences. Adoption. Sibling rivalry... These are some of the unfortunate realities and personal challenges that children experience and must deal with on a daily basis. Library media specialists are frequently asked to suggest books teachers can use to give children insight into…

Library media specialists are a literacy model. They hold the world of literacy at their fingertips and in their collections. Everything individuals need to know about literacy can be found in some form in the library domain, either in the stacks or in the professional repertoire that librarians posses. There are plenty of ways that library media…

New standards are not meant to be plugged into an existing information literacy curriculum. They are meant to get library media specialists to think differently about how they interact with classroom teachers, develop their curriculum, and provide instruction. Yet, the mission of the standards remains the same--to have staff and students become…

The announcement of the mandate for Constitution and Citizenship Day shortly before September, 2005, probably led to groans of dismay. Not another "must-do" for teachers and schools already stressed by federal and state requirements for standardized tests, increasingly rigid curricula, and scrutiny from the public and officials. But the…

The educational network of educational institutions that are implementing programs of primary professional education includes twenty-three vocational schools and two professional lyceums. There are departments of primary professional education in eleven technicums of technology and in a professional pedagogical (secondary-level) college. About 21…