Teachers dislike faculty meetings that seem time-consuming and pointless. Principals can help make faculty meetings more useful by holding meetings with a purpose, talking about teaching, planning meetings that fit teachers' needs, setting realistic agendas with printed time allotments, and ensuring that meetings begin on time and stay on track.…

Better organization and more efficient use of time are the key elements of a plan to boost student achievement at a Virginia district. Teachers focus almost all classroom time on direct instruction, guided practice, core courses, and applications to the real world. At the secondary level, teachers now also emphasize critical thinking and problem…

Discusses time management skills, noting that effective time management entails awareness of such things as how we use time and when our mental energy peaks and falls. Offers time management suggestions for day-care administrators such as developing a realistic "to-do" list, scheduling uninterrupted time to engage in important tasks, and limiting…

Time for teachers cannot be readily constructed and scheduled by reformers. Teachers need to construct their own time. The article examines different kinds of time for teachers, arguing that much of school reform will fail if it ignores the multiple constructs, boundaries, rhythms, and patterns of time for teachers. (SM)

Summarizes a study to determine principal's perceptions of their competency in primary responsibility areas and their greatest challenges and frustrations. Beginning principals are challenged by delegating responsibilities and becoming familiar with the principal's role, the local school, and school operations. Their major frustrations are role…

A Vermont elementary school principal offers advice to other schools attempting to revise their assessment approaches and stack their bulky armfuls (student portfolios) in a better load. Educators are advised to integrate portfolios into current classroom practices, share both the burden and the benefits, adapt portfolios to their own needs and…

Administrators who focus on school-community relations for an uninterrupted time daily or several times each week will strongly affect community relations, parental involvement, and, ultimately, student achievement. (MLF)

Continues a description of elements in the online searching process, highlighting: (1) search strategy formulation, including free text search construction versus controlled terminology, and terms and search statements; (2) the actual online search, including speed and cost considerations; (3) feedback or reviewing results; and (4) presentation of…

Although the amount of available time imposes limitations on accomplishment, the key issue is time usage. Effective classroom management conserves instruction time by planning activities and tasks to fit the learning materials; setting and conveying procedural and academic expectations; and appropriately sequencing, pacing, monitoring, and…

A number of college publications editors and designers share their secrets for coping with writer's block and other forms of creative anxiety. Suggested techniques include a change of scenery, guarding one's time, sharing ideas with others, thorough research, and organization. (MSE)

Describes how a management information system (MIS) at NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was adapted to ensure adequate training to accompany the development of computer applications. Highlights include semantic differences; user needs; time and budget constraints; and problems between users and programmers, including examples.…

In a survey, 129 adult female students classified load (responsibilities), power (personal resources), and margin (relationship of load to power). Areas of high conflict were child care, self-expectations, family relationships, time management, and health. Results corroborated the intrapersonal conflict faced by women students in meeting several…

Describes the development of a case management program for children at the Center for the Vulnerable Child at Children's Hospital in Oakland, California. Case management was introduced into multidisciplinary clinical programs for foster children, drug-exposed infants, and adolescent mothers and their infants. (PAM)

The "Problems in Time" survey is a 35-item questionnaire assessing common time management difficulties in 7 general categories: academic goal setting, work overload, procrastination, poor planning and organization, inadequate speed, distracting activities, and irrational thinking. This survey is appended. The survey's use in college…

This special section features research concluding that volunteers find the time because they believe they have more time to help (Rowland); an extension program using volunteer master teachers (Feather); use of volunteer marketing professionals (Fromer); retaining volunteers through leadership training (Balliette, Smith); "problem" volunteers and…