Presents personal recollections of a retired teacher who taught for 43 years. Information is presented on changes in educational environments over the years, joys and frustrations of a long teaching career, and high points of interactions with students. (DB)

Suggests techniques for making the art period a creative rather than mundane experience for high school students. Included are hints on beginning the class, preparing materials, conducting the lesson, ending the class, assigning homework, and communicating with students. (SJL)

Describes the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP) in Honolulu, Hawaii. Terms it an exceptional reading program illustrating how certain dynamics of social interaction may be essential for reading achievement. (FL)

Examines characteristics of rhetorical communication, particularly as they apply to classroom communication and presents the implications of a rhetorical model of teaching. (JMF)

The results of this study indicate that analysis of teachers' verbal behavior according to specific purposes reveals differences that are masked when the purpose is disregarded. (JD)

To hold student interest, distance learning instructors need to think and present ideas visually. Presentations should be limited to three or four key points that would benefit from visual depiction. Visual aids used for presentation may be image-related, concept-related, or arbitrary graphics. Sophistication of visual aid is not as important as…

Relates experiences of three colleagues who organized the panel "Confronting Class in and out of the Classroom" at a Conference on Basic Writing workshop. Suggests social class has been ignored in composition studies; neglect appears to be ending; neglect must end; and instructors' own class histories must be understood and accepted…

Discusses recent use by scholars of the term "negotiation" in critical discussions of teaching writing to talk about how students might have a hand in shaping the world of difference of which they are part. Advocates discussing not only positive associations but also negative associations of negotiation, thinking about political and…

Describes what a teacher learned when she asked her first-grade students weekly to recall what the teacher said to them. Notes lessons learned from doing this--children's work, behavior, attitudes and lives are all mixed together; children are listening even when they seem inattentive; and every category of response was connected to the teacher's…

Reviews research on common "practitioner advice" given to early childhood teachers on the phrasing and presentation of classroom and school rules. Notes that typical classrooms have more rules than the optimal four or five, and that positive phrasing may be unrealistic for very young children, who may need behaviorally specific…

Presents an activity to involve students in mathematical communication and creative thinking. The activity is similar to the "pass it along" gossip game in which each person in a chain adds a piece of information. The class analyzes the resulting mathematics problem using George Polya's problem-solving techniques. (MKR)

Discusses findings from a two-year study of high school physics classes, showing definite gender disparity in discussions and instructional activities. Offers four suggestions for ways teachers can foster gender equity and address interactions among students that promote gender inequities. (SR)

Finds that the association between likelihood-of-use ratings and the perceived politeness of Behavior Alteration Techniques checklist items was significantly smaller in the experimental condition than the control condition; respondents in the experimental condition endorsed fewer polite items and more impolite items than those in the control…

Uses case studies to explore how academic activities and discourse work together in classrooms to shape learning and instruction. Theories of social constructivism predict that the discourse arising before, during, and after activities can explain variability in students' social and academic participation in curriculum events, as can the nature of…

Teachers are encouraged to participate personally in the curriculum development process by drawing on experience and consulting with colleagues in creating curricula specifically for their classes. The underlying concept and one practical strategy are outlined. Dialectic processes of curriculum development are viewed as conducive to spontaneous…