Describes a collaborative, or peer-group, faculty mentoring program at East Carolina University's medical school which incorporated development of skills in key areas for career development, a structured values-based approach to career planning, and instruction in scholarly writing. (EV)

Focused, sustained staff development occurs too seldom in U.S. schools. The "just-in-time" approach involves learning teams composed of teachers who teach a specific content area at the same time or at contiguous grade levels. "Bite-sized" training sessions, facilitated by a staff-development professional, occur every few…

Staff at disadvantaged schools lacking sufficient technology must take matters into their own hands. Guerilla technology tactics include finding all the hidden technology on campus, scanning the school budget carefully, helping others spend their technology money, and scrounging free computers at universities and local businesses. (MLH)

Examines two cases of university department-based, practice-centered peer inquiry projects as a means of faculty development. Compares the leadership, structure, and outcomes of each department's project. Discusses the role of department culture, the norms of scholarly collaboration, standard work patterns, curricular standards, university status,…

Suggests that all stakeholders should share a focus on "innovations," referring here simultaneously to technologies and their social, cultural, political, and historical contexts. Introduces a new perspective through which writing center professionals can approach collaborative relationships with other stakeholders in the move towards…

Describes how one exemplary support teacher defines and enacts his role with beginning teachers. Based on interview and observation data, the article illustrates specific principles and strategies that shape his mentoring practice and discusses how he learned to do this kind of work, offering a vision of educative mentoring and some ideas about…

Some teachers are building and sharing their wisdom and know-how through lesson study, in the process creating memorable learning experiences for students and for each other. This paper describes how lesson study can transform teaching and how schools are implementing lesson study. A sidebar presents questions to consider in lesson study. (SM)

Describes the use of a professional development process called lesson study, which puts teachers in a leadership role for improving their own classroom practices. Administrators also play a critical role in whether lesson study will succeed or falter. A sidebar offers questions for administrators to consider as their schools work toward using…

Using the Professional Circle model, teachers can move from isolation to collaboration while pursuing goals with others who share similar interests. A Professional Circle offers teachers continued motivation, acknowledgment, and support of self- development efforts. Presents guidelines for developing a Professional Circle, describing the…

Describes "The Southworth Project," an effort to bring together a small group of law students and journalism students to generate in-depth coverage of a Supreme Court case involving students, the University and the First Amendment. Examines the Southworth Project in detail and explains how the Project ideas developed. Notes the project's…

It is difficult to say how anyone deeply involved in any profession experiences time on the job. In teaching, especially, the school year is divided into quarters and marking periods, and highlighted by special events and vacations. Somehow the year marches along at a rapid pace that seems to accelerate the longer one is in the profession and…

This brief article explains that effective professional development: (1) Involves teachers in the planning and selection, but balances the needs of individual educators with the needs of the campus and district; (2) Provides a practical, utilitarian component to all efforts; (3) Links educators to each other to create a larger learning community;…

This article describes how long-term collaborators interpret substantive differences of opinion and the strategies they use to negotiate them. Long-term collaborators are coauthors who have had a working relationship for ten or more years. Differences of opinion refer to differences in interpretation about substantive issues related to research…

This paper examines the concept of professional trust and argues that trust is an essential component of what it means to be a professional. The first part of the paper discusses the nature of trust in general and attempts to establish two main points: that we are all involved in relationships of trust and that all trust involves risk. The second…

This brief article describes one teacher's experience moving to a new school and the lessons learned from that experience. It touches upon: finding a sense of belonging as a new, yet experienced teacher; creating a balance; and the moment of breakthrough.