“It's Easier to Be Yourself When You Are Invisible”: Female College Students Discuss Their Online Classroom Experiences

There has been considerable scholarly interest in issues related to gender in the classroom, especially in terms of finding ways in which classrooms might be configured to be more welcoming--and less chilly--to female students. There is some evidence to suggest that the online learning environment may provide educators with opportunities to achieve a more female-friendly classroom, and this study was designed to gather information about that question. 125 female college students who had completed at least one online, college-level class were invited to discuss their experiences learning online. These data show that female college students respond to the online environment in a variety of ways. A small group of students indicated that they did not enjoy learning online, while others expressed mixed feelings. The majority, however, had positive things to say about their online classroom experiences; and of these, a large number identified anonymity as the most important positive aspect of the online learning environment.     

Now That You Are a Professional in the Classroom,What Do You Need to Know?

This article provides pre- and new in-service teachers, cooperating teachers, mentors, and student teacher supervisors with some suggestions to make beginning teaching easier and more productive. It also helps teachers feel less overwhelmed by the demands of a new career.     

Oral Interpretation:Skills Training in the Classroom

<正>There is an increasing demand for interpreters in China as itsmodernization programmoves on.The oral interpretation class offered in English department just comes to meet thisvery demand.The purpose of the class,I believe,is to make the students familiarize with the-main techniques in paragraph interpretation and the related skills,speed,sense group,andnote-taking,for example.The following are the specific points to be emphasized and the re-lated methods undertaking in interpretation classroom. 1.Auditory Comprehension Before coming to interprete,students should be given,first of all,a sufficient amount ofpractice in listening comprehension,with a special view to developing their ability to attainthe meaning through guessing or context analysis.Listening comprehenssion,as we know,is the fundemental for quick and fluent interpretation.So before interpretation starts,stu-dents should have much guided listening practice in the classroom with the focus on compre-hension.Some students blieve that they have     

“Love and Rage” in the Classroom: Planting the Seeds of Community Empowerment

Although no one unified anarchist theory exists, educational approaches can be taken to support the full liberation of the self and the construction of an interconnected community that strives to rid itself of eco-sociocultural oppressions. An anarchist pedagogical approach could be one that is rooted in a love/rage unit of analysis occurring along a spectrum of various types of actions and contributions within a community. Anarchism as a violent destruction of the state is a stereotypical view that has perhaps led to its own early demise as a social movement. Anarchism that embraces adaptation through more inclusive forms of resistance, including a reconstruction for the K–12 classroom context, is one that stands a chance in evolving a society toward love, justice, and empowerment. This article explores those possibilities aiming for accessibility while still honoring core anarchist calls for strong, localized democratic participation and decision-making outside of permanent hierarchies.     

“The Quare in the Square”: Queer Memory,Sensibilities, and Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde is perhaps the most well-known historical homosexual in the public imagination. However, for a new generation of queers less connected to “gay” labels, Wilde appears other and forgettable. To reanimate Wilde's memory for twenty-first-century queers and ensure his legacy going forward, I read the 1997 Oscar Wilde monument in Dublin, Ireland. Through discursive, visual, and material analyses, I argue the monument first complicates Wilde's sexuality, casting doubt on his gay label. Second, the monument reframes Wilde as the practitioner of a proto-queer sensibility. In doing so, the monument marks historical anachronisms and renders Wilde a more resonant figure for contemporary queer audiences.     

“Rights are the Words for Being Fair”: Multicultural Practice in the Early Childhood Classroom

This article addresses the practices of multiculturalism and social justice as they are explored by an early childhood classroom. In response to the school requirement of participation in the Martin Luther King assembly, the children and their teachers seek to create a meaningful contribution reflective of the children’s voices and conceptions of justice and equality. The article examines classroom practices as children and teachers co-construct meaning around multiculturalism in early childhood. Through classroom research and discussion, the children develop their own concepts around these issues, finding meaningful ways to share their knowledge with the larger school community.     

“I Don't Feel Comfortable Reading Those Books in my Classroom”: A Qualitative Study of the Impact of Cultural and Political Vignettes in a Teacher Education Course

This article chronicles a qualitative study of the impact of a pedagogical practice called cultural and political vignettes (CPVs) on graduate students enrolled in a teacher education course. CPVs are cultural and political “situations” that are presented to teachers so that they can practice the decision-making skills that they will use in the diverse classrooms of New York City public schools. This study investigates whether engaging in CPV activities helped participants to feel more prepared to address culturally and politically sensitive issues in the elementary schools at which they are employed. The preliminary findings of this qualitative study are promising. They indicate that responding to, creating, exchanging, and engaging in situated performances of CPVs provided participants with occasions to practice their written, verbal, and nonverbal communication skills in a supportive classroom environment where they could discuss cultural and political issues that are rarely addressed in teacher preparation courses.     

‘What Do You Think?’ Let Me Tell You: Discourse about Texts and the Literature Classroom

This article examines the practice of studying texts in secondary school English lessons as a particular type of reading experience. Through a critical stylistic analysis of a popular edition of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the article explores how reading the text is framed by educational editions, and how this might present the purpose of studying fiction to students. The article draws on two cognitive linguistic concepts – figure/ground configuration and narrative schemas – in order to explore how ‘discourse about a text’ can potentially influence how students read and engage with a text. Building on a previous article, the notion of pre-figuring is developed to offer an account of how a reader’s attention can be directed to particular elements of a text, thus privileging some interpretations and downplaying others. The article then reflects more widely on the perceived purposes of studying fiction with young people, exploring in particular the recent rise of support within the profession in England for Hirsch’s ‘cultural literacy’ model, which sees knowledge about texts as more valuable than authentic reading and personal response.     

“La Migra” in the Classroom: Transfronterizx Students Exploring Mobility in Transnational Higher Education on the US-Mexico Border

Based on an ethnographic study of a pre-engineering freshman course at a large university on the US-Mexico border, I explore how 4 Latinx undergraduate students, 2 of whom crossed the border on a daily basis to pursue higher education (HE), built a Lego robot that they named La Migra (a colloquial term for US Border Patrol). In particular, I demonstrate that the students drew from local authorized border crossing activities to design the robot to accelerate cross border mobility. In using the new mobilities paradigm (Sheller &; Urry, 2006 Sheller, M., &; Urry, J. (2006). The new mobilities paradigm. Environment and Planning A, 38(2), 207–226. doi:10.1068/a37268[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Urry, 2007 Urry, J. (2007). Mobilities. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. [Google Scholar]) and borderwork (Rumford, 2008 Rumford, C. (2008). Citizens and borderwork in Europe. Space and Polity, 12(1), 1–12. doi:10.1080/13562570801969333[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]), I also show that the design of the La Migra robot, rather than a public good, was actually symbolic of the uneven distribution of mobility. In total, findings contribute a particularistic account of the understudied significance of physical border crossing to mobility in the context of transnational HE.     

Educating Multiples in the Classroom: Together or Separate?

The drastic increase in the birthrate of twins and multiples makes the education of these children an important issue for parents and educators. Many educators and parents disagree on whether it is better for these children to be educated in the same classroom or apart. After conducting research, one can analyze the feelings of parents and educators on the education of twins and multiples. In addition to research, additional interviews were also analyzed to assess the feelings of twins and multiples on being educated together or apart from one’s siblings. The children interviewed offered the most insight into the implications involved in separating twins and multiples in the classroom versus keeping them in the same classroom. While both separation and keeping children together has its pros and cons, one can conclude that the children involved should have the most say in their own education. Twins and multiples themselves may be the best source of information when rendering a decision about whether or not to educate them in the same classroom.     

IT in the Language Classroom: What is the Teacher's Role?

This paper concerns the role of the language teacher in classroom lessons that involve the use of IT-an issue in CALL which has had little attention in the literature. The three main actors in classroom-based language learn     

How to Create “Thriller” PowerPoints? in the Classroom!

PowerPoint^? presentations in academia have a reputation for being less than engaging in this era of learner-centered teaching. The Net Generation also presents a formidable challenge to using PowerPoint^?. Although the research on the basic elements is rather sparse, the multimedia elements of movement, music, and videos have a stronger evidence base and have the potential to increase learning. That research will be briefly reviewed. Since the use of multimedia as instructional tools has been largely ignored by the major sources on PowerPoint^?, this article presents 30 specific practical applications enabling faculty members to improve the effectiveness of their PowerPoint^? presentations and to grab and maintain students’ attention and foster deep learning.     

Experiments with Industry's “Pair-Programming” Model in the Computer Science Classroom

Anecdotal evidence from several sources, primarily in industry, indicates that two programmers working collaboratively on the same design, algorithm, code, or test perform substantially better than the two working alone. Two courses taught at the University of Utah studied the use of this technique, often called pair-programming or collaborative programming, in the undergraduate computer science classroom. The students applied a positive form of “pair-pressure” on each other, which proved beneficial to the quality of their work products. The students also benefit from “pair-learning,” which allowed them to learn new languages faster and better than with solitary learning. The workload of the teaching staff is reduced because the students more often look to each other for technical support and advice.     

Urban Educators’ Voices: Understanding Culture in the Classroom

This article discusses urban educators’ views of their teaching experiences. The article is based upon survey research conducted with teachers in two poor, urban districts during the 2005–2006 academic year. The teachers reported a variety of positive and negative views regarding their classrooms, their students, and the students’ social worlds. The data illustrate the importance of classroom processes for the teachers, and how they believed that their students’ social locations, behaviors, and attitudes impede the delivery of educational content. We believe this research raises interesting challenges regarding the need for urban educators to incorporate students’ perspectives into both instructional processes and curriculum content. Furthermore, this research should contribute to the empirical foundation needed for the creation of better teacher preparation programs.     

Assistant Teachers in Prekindergarten Programs: What Roles Do Lead Teachers Feel Assistants Play in Classroom Management and Teaching?

Assistant teachers are a ubiquitous yet virtually overlooked part of the early education workforce. Assistant teacher education level and its relationship to various classroom characteristics and the roles lead teachers feel assistants play in classroom management and teaching were examined in a nationally representative sample of 3,191 state-funded prekindergarten classes. Research Findings: Most classrooms had at least 1 paid assistant teacher, and classrooms with multiple assistants were more likely to be in Head Start. Lead teachers in public schools were more likely to have a bachelor's degree or higher, to be paired with an assistant with a high school degree, and to report fewer release hours for planning (alone or shared with assistants) than teachers in Head Start. Hierarchical multiple regression indicated that assistant teachers were rated as most useful to teaching duties when the classroom was in a Head Start setting, when the discrepancy between the lead and assistant teachers’ education was smaller, and when there were more shared release hours for planning. Practice and Policy: Implications focus on future prekindergarten teacher workforce needs, the need for more shared planning time and guidance in its use, and the need for more attention to and support for the training and roles of assistant teachers.     

“If There's a Dance in the Book, I Feel It...Inside”: Lessons in Emergent Literacy

This case study illustrates the impact that an emergent literacy environment (both at home and at school) can have on literacy acquisition. The author's 3-year-old niece and 30 of her nursery school classmates were interviewed about their perceptions of reading. The impressive hypotheses the main character had formed about language learning by the age of 3, without any formal instruction, offers food for thought in view of the increasingly popular lockstep language arts programs currently being advocated by phonics zealots and basal text publishers.