Discusses how managers can handle change and cope with stress, describes a number of books that address these issues, and relates them to library administration. Highlights include organizational change; stress reduction; human behavior and the tools of change; communication skills; leadership strategies; and the use of humor. (LRW)

Claims teachers and students can avoid taking themselves too seriously by developing dimensionality, the ability to recognize varied dimensions of others and of themselves. Suggests young adult literature is a dimensional aid that can help young readers understand themselves. (NH)

An anonymous school board member offers tongue-in-cheek advice to prospective school board members--starting out with the fact that, no matter how impressive board members' resumes are, their backgrounds will not fully prepare them to serve on school boards. (MLF)

A former substitute teacher explains how she won first-graders' attention and significantly improved deportment by pretending to be a Martian with different communication modes and hearing capabilities than terrestrials. Children painlessly learn tips on listening, communicating, and engaging in friendly behaviors. (MLH)

This study describes the development of a self-report measure of functional humor in relationships. People were asked to report on their own and their partner's use of humor in the marriage. The Relational Humor Inventory proved to be a useful instrument for tapping important positive and negative relationship behaviors. (Contains 30 references, 4…

Responds to an article that argues that in the study of bilingualism, conceptual representations should be treated as related but not equivalent to word meanings, as knowledge-based, dynamic and language- and culture-specific. (Author/VWL)

Freshmen in an orientation course at a state university answered questionnaires about their peer mentors' playful communication and about how well their peer mentors help them ease tensions of socialization. Results showed that a mentor's perceived playful communication helped the protege ease tensions of socialization. Proteges liked mentors who…

The authors' previous work with long-term family caregivers demonstrated the importance of conversational cues, the reliance on humor to convey sensitive information, and the ways in which the interviewer can follow up, with appropriate probes and nonverbal encouragement, to gain necessary insight into the caregiver situation. This article offers…

Parody is a form of imitation with the added elements of comedic twists, turns, and exaggerations. To create a parody of something, one has to understand it before beginning to alter it for humorous effect. Parodies are used by teachers of writing, music, and art as a method of educating and evaluating students' understanding of the styles of the…

There are a number of characteristics of gifted children reported by teachers and researchers. Such characteristics may include curiosity, advanced mathematical skills, large vocabulary, acute sense of humour. This paper examines the demands that humour, as a creative activity, makes on cognitive and social development. It is derived from research…

Resiliency is not a fixed attribute. Rather it is a set of protective mechanisms that modify a person's response to risk situations. This article focuses on the child's resiliency development. The author identifies and describes four factors of resiliency development through heightened sensory awareness; high, positive expectations; a clear…

This study aimed to investigate the explanations of 80 kindergarten children on pictorial humor. The children were asked to observe and describe a specific visual stimulus, and say whether they considered it as funny providing their rationale. The study was developed on the basis of humor being an incongruity thus the data were examined against…

This article presents several units from a course on German Humor offered at Washington University in St. Louis in the Spring of 2003 and 2006. The course was constructed according to the principles of the task-based classroom outlined by James Lee and employed at Georgetown University. The emphasis in each of the four units, which address East…

This study qualitatively examined the perspectives of clinical social workers on non-offending mothers of sexually abused children. The study examined whether clinicians still used collusion to explain mothers' behavior, despite research refuting collusion. Findings revealed that, although workers did not use collusion, they still constructed…

This booklet offers a humorous perspective on important guidelines for developing Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for students with disabilities which respect the values of collaboration, student and family leadership, and full inclusion. Humorous section titles and cartoons illustrate important principles: "Developing an IEP Shouldn't Be…