Whether you're doing a story on the shortage of teachers in California or the do's and don'ts of helping children with homework, UC Davis can be of help. Below, the News Service offers several back-to-school story ideas, but please contact us for help with any other back-to-school stories. Helping New Teachers -- Starting school can be difficult not only for children, but also for new teachers. Pauline Holmes, a supervisor of teacher education, says new teachers can be overwhelmed by the challenges of preparing lessons for several subjects, supervising extracurricular activities and learning to work with school administrators. The Division of Education at UC Davis is a special partner with the Davis and Winters school districts in a local project of the statewide Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program. The university organizes Saturday workshops for new teachers, and faculty members serve on the project's advisory board and help evaluate the program. Brown-Bagging It -- Parents struggle to make the grade with those infamous brown-bag lunches. Lucia Kaiser, a UC Davis Cooperative Extension nutrition specialist, urges parents to be both creative and practical in choosing lunchtime foods. Children should be involved when drawing up a list of items that represent the grain, protein and fruit-and-vegetable levels of the Food Guide Pyramid. Cheese cubes or oven-baked tortilla chips with a container of salsa might be healthful alternatives to the old peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, she says. Parents should remember that kids have just a brief lunch period so food should be easy to open and eat. Candy or other sweet treats should be reserved for later or special occasions to make sure that the more nutritious lunch items are eaten first. And that brown paper bag might be exchanged for an insulated fabric lunch box with ice packets to keep food from spoiling. Developing Healthy Friendships -- Jonathan Sandoval, a professor and interim director of the Division of Education, offers advice for parents concerned that their children develop healthy friendships. The editor of "Crisis Counseling, Intervention and Prevention in the School," he says parents should watch for signs of anxiety, such as sleeplessness or lack of appetite. One of the best things parents can do for a child having trouble making friends at school, Sandoval says, is to involve them in a variety of supportive clubs and sports activities away from school. "Parents don't just have to rely on chance to help create friendships," he says. School administrators can help parents discourage a child from running with the wrong crowd by changing a child's class or schedule. Taking Credentials Back To School -- Children head back to school with new lunch boxes, backpacks and running shoes, but at least 60 teachers in Northern California are going back to school with something new -- credentials. They are the first graduates of an innovative program designed to help those teaching with emergency permits to earn teaching credentials in 11 months and still be available to teach during the school year. The program is a unique partnership between UC Davis and California State University, Sacramento. A second class of 60 took courses this summer, and many of them begin supervised teaching internships this fall. Helping Children With Math -- Feel guilt and frustration when you child asks for help with math homework? Judith Kysh, an extension specialist in mathematics education and director of the Northern California Mathematics Project, offers relief. The former teacher and co-author of four math texts for high-school students says parents don't need to know specific math formulas to help their children -- providing answers can even hinder a child's progress. Instead, she says, parents should ask questions to guide the child. And with word problems, Kysh suggests several strategies like drawing diagrams or, when all else fails, guessing and checking.