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This case study used an expanded method for helping student teacher interns examine their interpretation of what it is to be a teacher. Participants were two faculty members and four groups of preservice teachers working in a collegial environment at a small liberal arts college. Students participated in a professional development seminar that functions as a culminating reflective activity for the students' professional preparation. Study components included the students' own case studies of themselves, analysis of student progress toward 10 program competencies, journals, self-analysis videotaping, and portfolios. During the seminars the researcher-facilitators modeled reflective strategies and an action research process by responding to the interns' written commentaries and engaging them in discussion. Constant change and modification to respond to the group and their changes was a central component of the process of the study. The process showed that the student teaching seminar raised the interns' philosophy of teaching to a consciousness that was intentional, not just implicit. Through the seminar's many opportunities for reflection, the interns were able to "work at" their philosophy. Interns used the knowledge gained from their professional coursework as building blocks for designing their own teacher identity. (JB)

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