In the months following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, DC, there were hundreds of incidents involving violence, intimidation, and discrimination aimed at Muslims or people who "looked" like Muslims (Gollnick and Chinn 2006; Levin and McDevitt 2002). People of color or individuals speaking with an accent were…

Expulsion is commonly schools' last resort to maintain discipline and keep schools safe. But increasingly, educators are turning to "restorative justice"--an alternative method from the field of criminology--with promising results. According to Randall Comfort, assistant upper-school director, Mounds Park Academy, St. Paul, Minnesota, using this…

Cyber harassment involves using an electronic medium to threaten or harm others. E-mail, chat rooms, cell phones, instant messaging, pagers, text messaging, and online voting booths are tools used to inflict humiliation, fear, and a sense of helplessness. This type of intimidation differs from traditional bullying in several important ways. Unlike…

Name-calling is a pervasive practice, particularly in middle schools. According to students, parents, teachers, counselors, and other school staff who see its effects, it doesn't just go away. Instead, rampant name-calling can create a climate where children become disheartened, lose self-confidence, and dread coming to school. Efforts to…

In reality, gender bias is very much an issue for both boys and girls. However, it is difficult to detect because it affects girls and boys in different ways. In school, it is the boys who may be expected to "act out" and rebel at school work, while the girls are expected to be docile, conforming, and willing to work hard. In this article, the…

An article by Peg Dawson condensed from Principal Leadership (Jan 2005) is presented. Dawson discusses the research on the impacts of the lack of sleep towards students. Lack of sleep is associated with academic and behavior problems, tardiness, and absenteeism, reduced alertness, and heightened irritability.

Teachers of young children are concerned about biting. While it is unusual for a preschooler to bite, biting is still within the range of normal behaviors a 3- or 4-year-old may exhibit. Children at this young age have neither sophisticated language nor refined social skills, so they tend to express their wants physically. This article discusses…

In this article, the author responds to a teacher's request for advice on what she can do about the bossy behavior of one of her students which she is worried may escalate to bullying. The author provides some strategies on how to help the child who constantly tries to control others. She also suggests finding other attributes besides the child's…

It is important to remember that a young child never thinks she gets enough attention. Even children who have a parent with them 24/7 will sometimes use attention-seeking behaviors. In this article, the author responds to a teacher's request for advice on how to help one 3-year-old child in her class who seeks attention through one annoying…

The purpose of this study was to identify behavioral differences between children who dropped out of piano lessons and those who continued for 3 years. Two videotaped first-year lessons of 14 pairs of piano students were systematically observed to record the duration or frequency of occurrence of selected student and teacher behaviors. Students in…

The ability to shape appropriate behavior while extinguishing misbehavior is critical to teaching and learning in physical education. The scientific principles that affect student learning in the gymnasium also apply to the methods teachers use to influence social behaviors. Research indicates that reinforcement strategies are more effective than…

All teachers desire to keep their students on task and focused on meeting lesson objectives. Classroom management, perhaps the most critical factor involved in a lesson's success, includes several considerations. In this article, the authors, who are physical education teacher educators themselves, discuss the five management practices, which they…

In this article, the author introduces innovative activities designed for students to eliminate the teacher's stress of the last days of school. As an elementary teacher for many years and now a substitute teacher, the author states that she had always dreaded the last week of school. To minimize stress and to keep the children learning, she uses…

The author extends the work of Holt and Laury (1997) on a simple noncomputerized card game for teaching the essential aspects of public goods theory. He suggests a course of several lectures and discusses the behavior of subjects in various game sessions. Among other things, the results provide experimental evidence with respect to the private…

An increasing number of students diagnosed with difficulties such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and Asperger?s syndrome are being seen in schools. Sensory integration difficulties may be part of the symptomatology of these disorders. These difficulties may result in difficulties with both classroom behaviors and academic performance.…