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Although English language learners (ELLs) are one of the fastest growing groups of students in the United States, many teacher preparation programs have yet to require preservice teachers (PSTs) to receive training in effective practices for teaching ELLs. We examined a four-week field experience pairing an elementary PST with an ELL. We examined the strategies PSTs used to support ELLs as they implemented cognitively demanding mathematics tasks. Through interviews, observations, and written reflections, we found that the PSTs tried to support students, with varying degrees of success, by allowing for multiple modes of communication, including visual supports, pressing for explaining, and checking for understanding. Implications for teacher preparation are discussed. [For the complete proceedings, see ED583989.]

Epitaxial MgB2 thick films were grown on Al2O3 substrates at 600 oC by using the hybrid physical chemical vapor deposition (HPCVD) technique. In order to obtain a high magnesium vapor pressure around the substrates, we used a special susceptor having a susceptor cap and achieved a very high growth rate of 0.17 um/min. Hexgonal-shaped columnar structures were observed by cross-sectional and planar view transmission electron microscope (TEM) images. For the 1.7-um-thick film, the Tc was observed to be 40.5 K with a Jc of 1.5 x 10^6 A/cm^2 at 30 K. The vortex pinning mechanism by intercolumnar boundaries will be discussed., Comment: 10 pages including 6 figures