Community colleges recognize the need to plan and implement change through professional development, particularly in light of the constantly changing environment in the community college. This digest briefly examines four of the delivery methods being employed by community colleges in the field of professional development. Between 1999 and 2002,…

This topical bibliography and commentary discusses several classroom techniques designed to encourage beginning writers to grow beyond uninspired composition. The strategies employed in the classroom are of equal value for both expository and creative writing. The various classroom techniques discussed share an emphasis on student-centered…

This instructional program with accompanying videotape is designed to guide parents through the process of teaching good decision making skills to their children in kindergarten through grade 5. The user's guide contains the following sections: (1) "About the Program," with learning objectives, suggestions for using the program, and a program…

With the increasing diversity of the United States population, there is a growing awareness of the need for culturally specific responses to help survivors of disasters and violence. When school psychologists are called upon to intervene, they need to be able to link survivors to support systems. In order to provide services to survivors of…

After providing a snapshot of the state of technology and technology use in America's schools, this paper notes that a major obstacle to technology integration in schools is the lack of teacher training. The paper then goes on to describe "Learning with Technology," a sustained, six-session professional development experience with a goal…

Intended for teachers, this workbook uses 20 well-known children's books as models to teach expository and narrative writing skills. The workbook teaches students about brainstorming, focus, organization, elaboration, and writing conventions with readily-available quality children's literature, such as "When I Was Young in the…

This training guide for a one-day workshop provides an introduction to the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program for administrative personnel at higher education institutions. The six sections of the guide, each corresponding to a workshop session, include activity sheets, questions for participants to answer, and space for notes. Following…

Emphasizing brain research, this guide is designed to help trainers teach caregivers to provide responsive care to infants/toddlers and to understand why responsive care is important. The training is targeted for anyone in a caregiving role, especially child care providers and home care providers. The guide is organized in three sections. Section…

Emphasizing that reading aloud is a way to show children how to handle books and give them chances to talk about those stories, this manual provides several activities that reinforce parents' belief that they are their children's first and best teacher. The activities also reaffirm and validate their prior knowledge about reading and its benefits.…

This study investigated what happened when the "Ultimate Writing and Creativity Center" computer program was utilized by four second grade students in an after-school writing workshop. The setting for this study was a public elementary school in a suburb of Philadelphia. The sample consisted of four students in second grade. The…

Written by teachers for teachers, this book offers the first-hand perspectives of 7 teachers who used the writing workshop approach. It offers teachers in grades 1-8 a wealth of practical advice, based on the personal struggles, accomplishments, and classroom-proven solutions of the authors. Equally valuable to teachers already using writing…

This paper presents and discusses two research initiatives in New Zealand elementary schools in terms of factors influencing the path of professional development and sustained attention to information literacy. The first study was a comparison of professional development processes and children's learning outcomes in four elementary schools.…

Intended for use as staff development for both new and experienced teachers who will participate in mentoring programs, this guide discusses effective mentoring in English education. Section 1 of the guide discusses the Texas Center for Reading and Language Arts and outlines how its multiple projects are designed to share successful strategies and…

This paper describes the technology training offered in the Department of Urban Education at the University of Houston Downtown (Texas) and the implementation of this training. Brief descriptions of five three-hour workshops covering the following topics are provided: (1) e-mail and Internet discussion; (2) WWW (World Wide Web) and Web search; (3)…

Discusses the development of single concept or skill laboratory investigations in an inservice summer workshop and their successful use in the classroom. Included are two examples, respectively, relating to operation of a triple beam balance and classification of phases of matter. (CC)