Elementary Archives

Sin Fronteras Boy

Fourth-grade English language learners use wikis to study border issues and gain literacy skills.

Talking Back to the World

Student poetry about what raised me is woven into graphic art.

TV Selfishness and Violence Explode During ‘War On Terror

Six years into the ‘War on Terror

Think Less Benchmarks

Thanks to the folks at the Discovery Channel

The Scripted Prescription

Testing mania reaches the pre-K classroom. It saddened me to think that my daughter’s first impression of school was based on taking a test and failing it.”

“

Polar Bears on Mission Street

San Francisco fourth graders learn about global warming and take action to save the polar bears.

Continent Ecology

Children’s books that promote environmental education in the primary grades.

‘I Just Want to Read Frog and Toad’

Another child’s love of reading runs smack into No Child Left Behind.

The War in Iraq and Daily Classroom Life

Suggestions from a 5th-grade teacher on bringing the War in Iraq into the curriculum.

A Little School in a Little Chinatown

One of the founders of a folk arts-based school slated to open in Philadelphia this fall hopes small schools can create possibilities for reclaiming communities.

Exploring Our Urban Wilderness

My students’ home terrain consists — at least on the surface — of houses, streets, schools, and stores. Like many urban kids, the bit of unpaved, unfenced nature my second […]

What About Play?

The ideas presented in this article are discussed at greater length in Dr. Olfman’s upcoming book Childhood Lost: How American Culture Is Failing Our Kids (Praeger Press) in which some […]

Testing Lang

Lang was a student of mine last year, an eight-year-old with big brown eyes and a shy, quiet nature. He hated writing; putting pencil to paper was a brutal task […]

Strawberry Fields Forever?

When I was a child, my mother couldn’t help us with our homework. She had gone to work as a maid in a Mexican hacienda at age 11 and hadn’t learned to […]

When I was a child, our home was filled with the sounds of Spanish, mariachi music, and boisterous conversations. At home, my Nana cooked enchiladas, menudo, and tamales. During family celebrations we broke piñatas, danced, and […]

Framing the Family Tree

My seven-year-old daughter came home from school with a handmade calico tie for her dad for Father’s Day. The oversized tie was carefully cut from the blue and orange fabric […]

Heather’s Moms Got Married

Last spring, my second graders gathered on the rug, discussing the impending 50th anniversary of the historic Brown vs. Board of Education decision. I asked how their lives would have […]