Integrating the Curriculum: Supporting Standards, Connecting Students

Features

Curriculum Integration in a Standards-Based World
Jim Paterson
Proponents of integrated curriculum remain firm that integrated curriculum best meets the needs of students—even in today's "restrictive" atmosphere. Find out how integrated curriculum is faring.

A View from the Top: Scaling the Heights of Curriculum Integration
Mark Springer
The co-founder of two of the most recognized middle level integrated curriculum programs shares his thoughts about the climb to the top.

Spanning the Curriculum: Students Build Community Ties
Karen Meng
What began as an outdoor science lab project grew to a schoolwide passion that brought together teachers, students, and community members and helped them learn about themselves and the world around them.

Designing Effective and Meaningful Integrated Units
Judith A. Brough
An effectively planned and implemented integrated unit maintains curricular, instructional, and assessment integrity and motivates students to get involved in their own learning. The author takes you through the steps to success.

Lost in the Crowd: Creating Stability & Structure
Richard B. Erdrich
Not all adolescents flourish in the middle school environment. One school in Alaska provides a self-contained classroom for those students who need more structure and stability.

Handling Difficult Parents: Doing It for the Kids
Charlene C. Giannetti and Margaret Sagarese
One key to more positive relationships with parents is looking beyond what they say to what they really mean. These authors provide some valuable interpretation.

Departments

Teams in Action
Paul David Osypuk
At Northwestern Regional Middle School in Winsted, Connecticut, team time is an opportunity to share, reflect, and energize by tapping into each other's strengths and focusing on students and their work.

HoTLinkS
Brenda A. Dyck
Hot Internet links and a wealth of Web destinations await educators in search of ideas and resources.

Teaching in the Middle
Rick Wormeli
Educators owe it to themselves and their students to challenge the status quo, to begin each school year by thinking about what works and what is simply habit, to continually ask "Why?" and "Why not?"

The Mark of Leadership
Myrna Olson
The author pays tribute to the principal who, by balancing head and heart, has cultivated a feeling of family, empowered staff and students, and in doing so saved a life.

Spotlight on Social Studies

The Living Spreadsheet: Bringing Data to Life
Alan Haskvitz

Making Connections with Social Studies
Emma McDonald