Abstract
This paper discusses the trend towards Internet-based learning and Internet-ready classrooms. The paper discusses how technology can be used within a classroom setting and the ease with which the changes toward Internet-ready classes can be made. The paper also looks at the benefits of the use of these Internet-ready classrooms to enhance and supplement traditional teaching and learning models.

From the Paper
"It is clear from this argument that I advocate the commitment and investment to internet-based learning and internet-ready classrooms, as well as of the benefits of the use of these classrooms to enhance and supplement traditional teaching and learning models. The horizon is clearly before us: students are increasingly computer and informational technology literate, and they do, in many cases, arrive in our educational system with experience in using the technology that we are now debating about bringing to them on a daily basis. The issue to my mind, then, is not whether our district should commit to a policy of bringing ourselves into the wired generation, but when we will begin moving on to a thoughtful and transparent discussion of how we will use these classrooms with the still very real pressures of workload and the like. The internet is here and with us to stay, how we use it will shape the conditions of our own future."

Tags:technology, wired classrooms, policy teaching

Abstract
This paper examines the importance of motivation in elementary school classrooms. The paper discusses the role played by motivation in enhancing a student's academic performance and looks at how educators can shape motivation.

From the Paper
"In recent years educators have increasingly acknowledged the significance of the role of motivation in enhancing students' academic performance. Essentially, students who derive tremendous pleasure in the learning of any subject demonstrate a strong motivation to learn. Concomitantly, how educators are able to utilize appropriate instructional strategies and create an ideal learning environment to increase motivation has also become a popular subject among researchers. At the same time, this emerging acknowledgement of the importance of motivation is accompanied by two..."

Tags:Motivation, Elementary, School, Classrooms

Abstract
This paper examines the research on the effectiveness of teaching in mixed-grade classrooms as compared to single-grade classrooms, with a particular emphasis on academic achievement and an even more specific math performance. The paper investigates the historical and cultural forces that shaped the one-age/one-grade classroom as a way of identifying the underlying pedagogical assumptions about the primacy of single-age teaching in he 21st century.

From the Paper
"We are now so accustomed to the idea that students should be segregated from each other along narrow age bands that must of us do not question the efficacy and the rightness of doing so. But, of course, the idea that children should be placed into grades defined by age and separated from their peers is a recent trend in education as we well know. The practice is based as much in historical and social beliefs and circumstances as it is in sound pedagogy, and recently some schools have begun to ask whether single-grade classrooms are in fact the most effective atmosphere in which to teach elementary-age students. This paper examines the research on the effectiveness of teaching in mixed-grade classrooms to that of teaching in single-grade classrooms with a particular emphasis on academic achievement and an even more specific focus on how well students in both kinds of classrooms perform in math. Before looking at how these two types of classroom environments serve their students in the 21st century, it will be useful to examine the historical and cultural forces that shaped the one-age/one-grade classroom to begin with as a way of identifying the underlying pedagogical assumptions about the primacy of single-age teaching."

Tags:mixed, grade, single, education, classroom, student, grade, school, elementary, teach, pedagogica

Abstract
The following paper presents information and statistics encouraging the use of multicultural education in classrooms. The United States has always been very diverse, but its diversity is growing more and more with each passing year. The paper first presents the numbers and statistics associated with this growing diversity as compared to the numbers in the past. Secondly, the paper points out some documented cases promoting the benefits of using multicultural education in classrooms. And lastly it presents some ideas and recommendations, which can be used by educators to implement into their curricula.

From the Paper
"The first example of cultural differentiation was perhaps one major basis for why the United States was formed. A group of people sailed away from the culture and religion they once knew, and ventured out to a new land, to seek the freedom they longed for. And now as our country grows more culturally diverse it is essential that students be taught to accommodate with our ever-changing cultural landscape. Today, with more than one-fourth of the U.S. population is enrolled in school; the student population is quite diverse. One-fourth of the population accounts for about 72 million people, which were in school throughout the United States in October 1999. Eight million were enrolled in nursery school and kindergarten, 33 million in elementary school, 16 million in high school, and 15 million in college. Among children enrolled in kindergarten, the majority were White non-Hispanics (60 percent), followed by Blacks (16 percent), and Hispanics (17 percent). Asians and Pacific Islanders accounted for 5 percent of children enrolled in kindergarten. (1) The numbers accounting for children enrolled in elementary school are the highest, which is why it is essential that multicultural education be introduced at a very young age. The Institute of International Education estimates that there are 450,000 international students in the United States, and most of these students come from Asian and Latin American countries. (2) The presence of multiculturalism in American education is indisputable, but it is still a minority movement. Many skeptics feel that by integrating diversity into the American education system, it would be impoverishing the "White European" cultural model, thus doing away with the classics of art and literature, and depriving the students of essential knowledge. However, others have argued for the benefits of multicultural education as an active approach to learning, which encourages the learner to create his or her own knowledge. (3) As teachers prepare for the many educational challenges of the next century, it is essential that they learn how to build bridges between students' home cultures and the cultures of their school environment. These bridges are essential for student academic success, and without them, a serious disservice is done to both students and the larger society in every day life that will ultimately benefit from the development of their special talents. (4) Therefore, because our society has become so diverse, more teachers should implement multicultural education into their classrooms."

Tags:diversity, statistics, curriculum

Abstract
This paper discusses the themes and ideas in the book, "Life in Classrooms" by the highly acclaimed psychologist and educator Philip W. Jackson. It shows how although Jackson published this scholarly work in 1968, more than 30 years later, it is still quite relevant to our present-day classroom life and structure. It attempts to explain why Jackson considered life in a classroom quite unnatural and thus unfavorable for the proper psychological and intellectual development of a child.

From the Paper
"Keeping this in view, we realize that recent incidents of school violence may be subtly connected with this negative aspect of life in classrooms. When a child fails to make his presence felt, he resorts to violent and destructive tactics, which suddenly throw him in the spotlight. We can draw another extremely important conclusion from this group and crowd element. What schools mostly fail to understand is the fact that group operations are not always as smooth to adapt to as it appears on the surface."

Tags:psychologist

Abstract
This paper explains that Jocelyn Smrekar in her article 'Early Childhood Bilingual Classrooms' by (2005) suggests that the bilingual education of young children should not be merely about language acquisition but also about a kind of cultural meeting of the minds of teachers and students of a variety of different backgrounds. The author points out that Smrekar's views in this sense coalesces with the esteemed cognitive academic language learning approach (CALLA), which states that valuing the student's own prior knowledge and cultural experiences and relating this knowledge to academic learning in a new language and culture is a key aspect of creating a learning-friendly environment for foreign language acquisition. The paper criticizes Smrekar because, unlike CALLA, she does not give much advice for teachers in terms of creating hands-on approaches that might be effective in the everyday life of the classroom.

Table of Contents:
Article Summary
In Favor of the Article's Point of View
Against the Article
Summary

From the Paper
"Smrekar provides helpful reminders that young children do not learn language as if by magic, rather individual students may vary in the levels of exposure they have to the language at home and in their social environments. She also encourages teachers not to judge student's overall intelligence harshly, merely because they make common initial linguistic mistakes in using English such as code mixing, or referring with a specific word to all general examples of a type, or conversely use under-extensions of specific vocabulary words, or not using a general vocabulary word in a host of specific contexts."

Tags:calla, empowering, diverse, hands-on, culture

Abstract
This paper helps to show research studies on the effects of a language minority child in the bilingual education program. The paper outlines the immersion program, a new and controversial program, which is designed to get kids into normal classrooms after one year in a classroom learning English. This paper discusses the pros and cons socially as well as mentally for the child.

From the Paper
"Immersion is a relatively new development within education and is a form of bi-lingual education. Due to the increase of immigrants from different countries, many states have incorporated in their school systems teaching for the language-minority students. It has required many states to develop a system of bi-lingual education. Immersion programs are being introduced at a variety of levels within educational systems. There is much controversy about whether immersion is good for children that come into the schools without any knowledge or experience with the countries language. Like some researchers, I believe that total immersion or submersion is a "non-approach" and that it has been described as a "sink or swim" technique. My claim is that the only sufficient way to teach a language-minority child is to immerse them into English speaking classrooms while they are young and then mainstream them later with the other children after their language proficiency is complete. My intention is to show evidence to my audience that our country is spending billions of dollars every year to promote the bi-lingual classrooms and to persuade them that the only cost effective and learning proficient way is to completely immerse them into English speaking programs."

Tags:bilingual, education, submersion, lep, vocabulary, skills, immigrants, foreign

Abstract
This paper examines how Patricia Marr Cunningham and Richard L. Allington's 1998 book, "Classrooms That Work: They Can All Read and Write", has significantly altered the author's opinion of what is involved in literacy instruction. It looks at how, in the book, the authors describe several reading approaches, including phonics and literature-based process writing, The Four Blocks, cross-checking, Guided Reading, Basal Reading, and Individualized Reading.

From the Paper
"Cunningham and Allington's Four Blocks Literacy Model, has been a crucial help in my classroom experience, and has helped me to finely focus my teaching approach, and has broadened my understanding of literacy. The Four Blocks Literacy Model is described in their book and further outlined in their website at www.wfu.edu/~cunningh/fourblocks. At their website, Cunningham and Hall note six critical understandings that are the "building blocks" of successful reading and writing among children. These building blocks include developing a desire to learn to read and write, learning new concepts and adding words and meanings, learning to print concepts like reading from left to write, developing phonemic awareness, learning to read and write words that they find interesting, and learning letters and sounds that are connected to interesting words they have learned previously."

Tags:phonics, literacy, four, blocks, literacy, model

Abstract
In this article, the writer discusses that in comparing and contrasting the Montessori method of teaching with traditional classroom structures, it is evident that Montessori methods are far more effective and productive than traditional methods.

From the Paper
"It is disturbing that instead of teaching students how to think, traditional classroom structures cram useless information into their heads for twelve years, hand them a diploma, and all too often send them out into society as indoctrinated robots incapable of thinking for themselves."

Tags:traditional

Abstract
This six-page paper is a persuasive paper about the benefits of technology in the classroom. The author of this paper takes us on an exploratory journey through the technological explosion and details the many ways that explosion has benefited the American student. The paper used six sources to be complete.