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Recently, community meetings on the importance of "time to teach" were held at 13 sites across the state of North Carolina, and 2,400 surveys were completed by teachers, parents, and other citizens. This paper presents findings of that study and identifies specific practices that can increase the effective use of school time for teaching and learning. To improve the schoolwide factors that influence time-on-task, school administrators and teachers should establish clear criteria for increasing attendance, arriving in class on time, and minimizing class disruptions and external distractions. Teachers can improve the inclass factors of time for teaching and learning by monitoring instructional time, communicating expected classroom behaviors to students, beginning class within the first minute of the period, preparing all instructional materials and activities beforehand, and utilizing other efficient classroom behaviors. Increasing the amount of time that teachers spend teaching and the time their students are on task requires neither expense nor special training and is almost guaranteed to result in higher student achievement. (LMI)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert