November/December 2005

Teacher Magazine, Vol. 17, Issue 03
Education For Your Students
Following are application dates for student contests, scholarships, and internships. Asterisks (*) denote new entries.
November 11, 2005
8 min read
Education Grants
Following are application deadlines for grants and fellowships available to individuals and schools. Asterisks (*) denote new entries.
November 11, 2005
6 min read
Education Awards
Following are application deadlines for awards, honors, and contests available to teachers. Asterisks (*) denote new entries.
November 11, 2005
1 min read
Storm-battered Bonnebel High reopened October 3. Even teachers were pressed into service working to clean waterlogged classrooms, cutting and hauling trees, bleaching walls, and "picking up things that we never, ever thought that we would have to pick up," as history teacher Jo-Ann Ordoyne put it.
Storm-battered Bonnebel High reopened October 3. Even teachers were pressed into service working to clean waterlogged classrooms, cutting and hauling trees, bleaching walls, and "picking up things that we never, ever thought that we would have to pick up," as history teacher Jo-Ann Ordoyne put it.
Photo by Christopher Powers
School Climate & Safety Picking Up the Pieces
Outside of New Orleans, a high school battered by Hurricane Katrina reopens. But for many displaced students, life is far from being back to normal.
Erik W. Robelen, November 11, 2005
7 min read
School & District Management Crescent Wrench
As schools in the suburbs begin to reopen, New Orleans’ own system remains in limbo. For years, the Crescent City’s district has been immensely troubled—both academically and managerially—and the devastation wrought by Katrina has led everyone from community leaders to U.S. congressmen to consider starting with a clean slate. “We’re not going to rebuild a failing system,” Louisiana superintendent of education Cecil Picard told Education Week, Teacher Magazine’s sister publication, in an e-mail. But change doesn’t come easily—or without controversy.
Catherine Gewertz, Erik W. Robelen & Michelle R. Davis, November 11, 2005
2 min read
BRIC ARCHIVE
Sam Swope
Education Opinion The Occidental Tourist
For the author of a book on education, a junket to Japan became an opportunity to better understand two cultures connected by the horrors of war.
Sam Swope, November 11, 2005
21 min read
Pete Villa, a 4th grade teacher at Cumberland Head Elementary School in Plattsburgh, New York.
Pete Villa, a 4th grade teacher at Cumberland Head Elementary School in Plattsburgh, New York.
Michael Betts
Teaching Profession Endangered Species
Age-old societal pressures and new worries are making male teachers, always in the minority, even more uncommon. Some groups are trying to turn the tide.
Kellie Rowden-Racette, November 11, 2005
18 min read
IT Infrastructure & Management Opinion Got Mail
While e-mail links teachers with parents, a surprising number don't use it at all.
Kevin Bushweller, November 11, 2005
3 min read
Education Older—and Wiser
In her ongoing blog, Hanne Denney, a 47-year-old “career-changer," relects on the challenges and rewards of starting over in teaching.
November 11, 2005
1 min read
Education It's All in the Family
As they learn more about themselves, older elementary-age kids find out the meaning of family—those they were born into as well as those they make. This spirit of self-explorationis reflected in several new novels for 8- to 12-year-olds.
Lani Harac, November 11, 2005
2 min read
Education Opinion Diverse Experience
I read with great sadness and indignation the interview with Sarah Sentilles, particularly her indictment of Teach for America [“Training Days,” , Books, August/September]. Her complaint is that folks who enter Teach for America are simply there to pad their résumés, then move on to what they really want to do.
November 11, 2005
1 min read
Education Opinion Listen and Learn
I greatly appreciated your recent article on Guitars in the Classroom [“Striking a Chord,” August/September]. I first realized the tremendous kid-appeal of music when I walked into a classroom with my guitar in 1972, and I’ve been teaching with music ever since.
November 11, 2005
1 min read
Education Opinion You Know the Drill
Rail Road Flat and NCLB, a place and an idea that created the perfect storm—a lost community adopts “drill and kill” as a means to an end [and] test scores as the sole indicator of school success [“One-Track Minds,” August/September].
November 11, 2005
1 min read
Education Opinion Wrap Sessions
In reading the article on student involvement at Kennebunk High School [“Vocal Arrangement,” August/September], I was astonished to discover high school classes discussing how to have safe oral sex using Saran Wrap. Surely we can muster sufficient judgment to determine that parents are not sending their children to school so we can encourage already-rampant promiscuity by conducting “how-to” sessions on sexual issues.
November 11, 2005
1 min read
Roxane Rollins takes kids back to the Wild West, down to the root beer in saloon.
Roxane Rollins takes kids back to the Wild West, down to the root beer in saloon.
Steve Goldstein
Social Studies Go West
Roxane Rollins takes kids back to the Wild West, down to the root beer in the saloon.
November 11, 2005
1 min read
Frank McCourt: Reading, writing, and reminiscing.
Frank McCourt: Reading, writing, and reminiscing.
Kit Defever
Education Q&A In the Garden
Author Frank McCourt on his long road to becoming a good teacher.
November 11, 2005
5 min read
The fact that the Iron Curtain came down decades ago doesn't bother Jimmy Lodge. Because most other schools have long since dropped Russian classes, he and fellow Glastonbury students are recruited more ardently by colleges and companies.
The fact that the Iron Curtain came down decades ago doesn't bother Jimmy Lodge. Because most other schools have long since dropped Russian classes, he and fellow Glastonbury students are recruited more ardently by colleges and companies.
Gale Zucker
Curriculum Russian, With Love
The end of the Cold War ended most schools' interest in the language, but one district in Connecticut soldiers on.
Aaron Dalton, November 11, 2005
8 min read
Classroom Technology Ramblin’ Man
Kentucky native Joe Bowen isn't just crossing the country by bicycle. He's bringing elementary school kids along for the ride.
Mark Toner, November 11, 2005
1 min read
Reading & Literacy Opinion Reality Check
A teacher learns that perfecting students' prose only goes so far.
Thorunn R. Mccoy, November 11, 2005
6 min read
School & District Management Opinion Misunderstood Youth
Fifty years after it was first published, The Blackboard Jungle is still considered a classic—for reasons other than you might think.
Adam Golub, November 11, 2005
6 min read
Federal Dispatches
School news from points across the globe.
November 11, 2005
2 min read
School Climate & Safety Can’t Touch That
From bracelets to tagging classmates "it," new no-nos keep surfacing.
November 11, 2005
4 min read
Education Overheard
Notable quotes on teaching and schools from around the country.
November 11, 2005
1 min read
School Choice & Charters Split Decision
Public schools are finding new reasons to segregate the sexes.
Mark Bixler, November 11, 2005
3 min read
Some homeschoolers want courses offered a la carte
David Kidd
School & District Management Here and There
Some homeschoolers wanting to sample a class or two are being told they have to take the whole meal.
Kristine Hughes, November 11, 2005
4 min read
Education Opinion Whaddaya Know?
Who's buried in Grant's tomb? Our education system makes it difficult to care.
Ronald A. Wolk, November 11, 2005
3 min read
In the 1970s and '80s, Jennings, who founded the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, encountered harassment as both a student and teacher. While he acknowledges that teens struggling with their sexuality today no longer do so in isolation, he finds the educational system "no more accepting than it was 25 years ago."
In the 1970s and '80s, Jennings, who founded the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, encountered harassment as both a student and teacher. While he acknowledges that teens struggling with their sexuality today no longer do so in isolation, he finds the educational system "no more accepting than it was 25 years ago."
Emile Wamsteker
Student Well-Being Straight Talk
Kevin Jennings doesn't speak for gay, lesbian, and transgender students. Instead, the longtime activist helps them find their own voices.
Samantha Stainburn, November 11, 2005
17 min read