Book excerpt: No matter what you teach or how long you've been teaching, The Interdisciplinary Teacher's Handbookwill help you inspire the curiosity and motivation at the heart of students' best learning experiences. True advocates of localized, exploration-based methodology, Tchudi and Lafer present a thoughtful approach to interdisciplinary teaching with lots of advice on developing your own program and curriculum. Rather than reduce interdisciplinary education to either "theory" or "practice," Tchudi and Lafer offer a full explanation of how the two areas can work together. They provide a rationale for interdisciplinary teaching so that you can understand the "why" before accepting the "how." Since the teacher's attitude is as important as the student's, Tchudi and Lafer include brief exercises that ask you to reflect on your most powerful learning experiences so that you can discover ways in which interdisciplinary methods match your natural thought processes. These "Intermusings" enable you to introduce new methods with an experiential understanding of how underlying theories work. Tchudi and Lafer never lose sight of the day-to-day difficulties teachers and administrators face. They offer practical information on several levels. The second part of the book is filled with "Interdisciplinary Jumpstarters," ideas for organizing interdisciplinary projects on a number of topics, complete with lists of additional materials. Throughout the book, Tchudi and Lafer suggest resources for interdisciplinary teaching that are commonly overlooked, such as local businesses, government agencies, and people and places with histories and stories to tell. Administrators and teachers at all levels and from all disciplines will find inspiration and practical support in The Interdisciplinary Teacher's Handbook.