Good Practices in the Classroom VIDEO
This program surveys alternative assessment practices. Evaluation expert Carol Rolheiser and Paul LeMahieu of the Delaware Education and Development Center discuss the importance of portfolio assessment to the evaluation process, how this and other innovative methods work, and what factors to keep in mind when assessing the whole student. (30 minutes, color).

Going Online in Your Classroom VIDEO
The Internet is bringing new possibilities to education. This program introduces the terms and techniques needed by students and teachers alike to use Internet technology with confidence. In addition, instructors share some of their creative lesson plans that incorporate the Internet as a means of collaborative communication through videoconferences, chat rooms, and e-mail; as a gateway to cyber-libraries; as a platform for virtual field trips; and as an instant online publishing tool for Web sites and intranets. Administrative issues such as Acceptable Use Policies, Netiquette, and content filtering are also addressed. (58 minutes, color)

Integrated Learning: Technologize Your Lesson VIDEO
With access to computers and other high-tech resources, teachers are designing technology-rich learning experiences that challenge students in new ways, fueling their desire to excel. This program spotlights three outstanding multidisciplinary middle and high school initiatives: World Traveler, a unit designed to teach geography and associated knowledge areas within the context of a virtual trip abroad; Age of Exploration and Discovery, which features slide show creation and reinforces the benefits of careful planning and of setting well-defined goals; and ENVISION, a simulated high-tech, corporate-style office. (55 minutes, color)

Integrating Thinking, Reading, and Writing Across the Curriculum VIDEO
This teleconference for teachers, administrators, and parents addresses the issues of improving comprehension; cognitive coaching; the link between thinking, reading, and writing; and the integration of instruction and assessment. The program features Syracuse University Professor Harold Herber, Professor Dorothy Strickland of Rutgers University, Robert Peterkin of Harvard University’s Urban Superintendents’ Program, Fairfax County (Virginia) teacher Diane Flemming, and Ann McCallum, a member of the IRA Board of Directors; the moderator is Paul Anthony. (80 minutes, color)

Making a Difference: Great Teachers, Part 1 VIDEO
This documentary focuses on three teachers who have made a positive impact—academically or personally—on their students’ lives. Selected as a result of an essay contest that asked students to write about the teacher who had most challenged and inspired them, the teachers are shown at work in the classroom, doing what they excel at: teaching and making a difference. (28 minutes, color)

Making a Difference: Great Teachers, Part 2 VIDEO
This program follows three outstanding teachers throughout the school day to show how they motivate students. We see the classroom skills that help make them great teachers—charisma, concern, perseverance, and enthusiasm—and how they impart self-esteem to their students. These instructors teach Social Studies, English, and Special Education. (24 minutes, color)

Making a Difference: Great Teachers, Part 3 VIDEO
This program focuses on three instructors singled out as "great teachers." One teacher’s infectious enthusiasm, another’s solid dedication, and a third’s sense of humor foster self-esteem in even the most difficult students. This is an interesting study of three very different educational "styles" that produce the same positive educational results. (26 minutes, color)

Respecting Diversity in the Classroom VIDEO
Too often educators look upon a multicultural classroom as a problem to be dealt with rather than a resource to be developed. Using actual classroom situations, this program is a "how to" primer offering innovative ideas about exploring the richness of culture and ethnicity. What is the difference between ethnicity and race? When children don’t respond, is it because of cultural differences or a teacher’s preconceived expectations? What roles can religion and language, both foreign and "street," play in the multicultural framework? What communication strategies best address differences in learning style and social interaction? This excellent workshop resource includes a 56-page facilitator’s guide with reproducible handouts. (60 minutes, color)

Responding to Misbehavior VIDEO
This program examines various classroom disruptions and analyzes some techniques that enable the teacher to deal with misbehaving students without interrupting the class. (26 minutes, color)

Teaching Lessons and Learning Lessons in the Special Ed Classroom  VIDEO
This timeless, down-to-earth program shares the hard-won experiences of an award-winning special ed teacher. Speaking with an engaging mix of candor, earnestness, and passion, he explains how personal introspection, collaboration with other staff members, promoting trust, structuring the academic environment, instilling success, and developing teacher/student interdependence have transformed his classroom into a place where students thrive. Part success story, part how-to manual, the program is an excellent source of ideas and inspiration for teachers of all types of students. (26 minutes, color)

Teaching Social Skills VIDEO
This program examines the importance of structuring lessons to include social skills. Teachers are observed in their classrooms talking about why social skills are meaningful, and encouraging students to cooperate with each other in planned activities. (26 minutes, color)

Teaching with Television: ESL VIDEO
How television is successfully integrated into a beginning-level ninth grade ESL curriculum is the topic of this informative program. During actual classroom scenes, we see how television puts the meaning of words into context for ESL students through visual imagery, and how that imagery is used to reinforce both old and new vocabulary. ESL teachers at all grade levels will find this program a valuable teaching resource. (27 minutes, color)

Teaching Writing: A Process Approach—Level  VIDEO
In sports, a good coach is part of the team, and emphasizes participation rather than final scores. This video outlines a similar approach to the teaching of writing: the process model, in which the instructor treats students as fellow writers involved in a creative and unpredictable progression of ideas and actions. With commentary from veteran writing instructors—including Dr. Lois Matz Rosen, author of Within and Beyond the Writing Process in the Secondary English Classroom, and Michael Steinberg, author of The Writer’s Way: A Process Approach to Writing—the video explores individual and group activities that facilitate steps in the process. Real-life classroom scenes showcase teachers achieving results by circulating among students with encouragement and constructive advice. Accompanying the video is a workbook containing a teacher workshop outline and activities, as well as teacher resources, tools, and student-based learning projects. A stylish, inspiring guide to an effective and thoroughly tested teaching method, the Teaching Writing package offers a winning game plan for any composition, journalism, or creative writing instructor. A viewable/printable teacher’s guide is available at www.cambridgeeducational.com. A Cambridge Educational Production.

Those Who Can … Teach   VIDEO
Historically, America has displayed an ambivalence toward public school teachers, expecting much from them while frequently offering little respect, meager pay, and inadequate working conditions. This program traces the evolution of teaching as a profession, honoring educators who risked everything to stand up for teachers’ rights. Stanford University’s Linda Darling-Hammond; Lorraine Monroe, of the School Leadership Academy; and others talk about issues such as training, unionization, standards, bureaucracy, and professional growth, while four intern teachers share the lessons of their baptisms of fire. (56 minutes, color)

What’s a Teacher For? The Nurturing No-Nonsense Classroom VIDEO
This program is based on a cross-disciplinary educator workshop in which Indiana University choir director James Mumford employed choral singing as a tool for participant self-discovery and education. As students, the participants came to grips with the fear of public performance as they experienced firsthand Mumford’s empowering method of instruction, which involves creating a climate of trust, gently holding everyone to high standards, stimulating engagement through passion, and validating others’ difficult past experiences without being constrained by them. Footage of the participants back in the classroom illustrates how the workshop’s lessons translate to the real world. (41 minutes, color)