College Friday Every Friday, Amy Katz of Philadelphia wears a different college T-shirt. The shirt is the starting point for activities in her third-grade class that include having students locate the college town in their social studies atlas, figure out how many miles it is from Philadelphia, estimate how long it would take to drive there, and use the Internet to search for the best airfares or to take a virtual tour of the college. She says it’s a great way to get kids to think beyond elementary school.

Preventing plagiarism Before assigning a major research project, Chicago special education teacher David Stone has students find an article on the subject. They rewrite the article to hide evidence of where it came from, then bring in two copies—one for him and one to exchange with another student. The students try to identify the source of the article, which he says gives them background information on the topic and also discourages plagiarism when the original source is quickly identified.

Badge billboard Sylvia Landis of Pottstown, Pa., always keeps plastic name badges from conferences to use in her classroom for important reminders. She pins the badge on her clothing and inserts her own message, which might be a reminder to bring in field trip money or an algebraic formula to review. Some days the message is an abbreviation, such as DYDYHW for “Did you do your homework?”