Parents: Why music?
Why Learn Music?
- Music is fun! Above all, you should learn to play or sing because it’s enjoyable and you will possess a skill that many people wish they had.
- Academic achievement Studies show a direct link between academic, language and motor skill development and learning music.
- Music relieves stress Playing music or singing is known to relieve stress and enhance your self- awareness making you feel more positive.
- You can build your confidence and self-esteem Learning to sing or play a musical instrument develops your sense of aspiration and achievement.
- It’s a social activity You have more opportunities to meet people that share the same interests through taking part in groups and you develop listening and team working skills.
- It will develop your creativity Music stimulates the creative side of your brain making you open to new ideas and helping you express your emotions.
- Learning music teaches discipline and responsibility It teaches you that the amount of effort you put into your practice will reflect in the way you sound.
Watch the below video which highlights precisely the magic music making has on a child’s development.


About This Chapter
1. Oral Fluency & Its Relationship to Reading Comprehension
Oral reading fluency is an important element of reading comprehension. This lesson will explore that connection for teachers seeking to improve oral fluency with their students.
2. Steps in Learning to Read
Learning to read is a multifaceted process. This lesson will explore the steps necessary to learn how to read and will end with a short quiz to test what you have learned.
3. Strategies for Improving Reading Rate & Accuracy
In this lesson, we learn to identify a student's current reading rate, level of fluency and mastery, and most importantly, learn the necessary strategies to enhance these skills.
4. Strategies for Teaching Automaticity & Fluency
Learn why fluency is important to reading comprehension and what strategies the experts recommend to improve a reader's accuracy, speed, and rhythm. You'll find out the basics of repeated reading and other techniques for teaching fluency.
5. Prosody: Definition, Elements & Instruction
This lesson will introduce prosody and the various elements of it by providing examples from a sample text. We'll also explain some ways to improve prosody.
6. Techniques for Assessing Student Fluency
Fluency is an important component of reading, and to teach it properly, we need to know how to assess it. This lesson gives you strategies for assessing the components of fluency.
7. Teaching Reading Strategies to ESL Students
Reading strategies help improve student literacy, but which strategies are appropriate for English as a second language (ESL) students? How can teachers incorporate reading strategies into their instruction to improve ESL students' literacy skills? Keep reading to find out.
8. Activities that Promote Reading Fluency
Learning to read can be a fun and exciting experience for young students. Providing activities that promote reading fluency helps to improve a child's skill.
9. Teaching Reading Fluency to Improve Reading Comprehension
Fluency is one of the key pillars of good reading instruction. This lesson will give you some ideas about teaching fluency and explain how fluency enhances reading comprehension.
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Other chapters within the OSAT Elementary Education (CEOE) (050/051): Practice & Study Guide course
- Oral Language Development
- Literacy Development & Print Awareness
- Early Literacy Word Recognition and Spelling
- Late Stages Literacy Word Recognition & Spelling
- Vocabulary Knowledge & Skills
- Reading Comprehension Instruction
- Understanding & Analyzing Literary & Narrative Texts
- Analyzing Informational & Expository Texts
- The Writing Process & Language
- Writing to a Specific Audience
- Elements of Literary Research
- Oral & Visual Communication
- Historical Concepts & Research Skills
- Government, Civics & Economics
- Fundamental Geography Concepts
- History Study Skills
- Oklahoma & U.S. Political History
- Global Political History
- Historical Analysis & Interpretation
- Number Sense, Numeration & Operations
- Algebraic Patterns, Equations & Functions
- Geometry & Properties of Shapes
- Measurement in Math
- Area, Perimeter, Surface Area & Volume
- Time, Proportions, Ratios, Rates, Velocity & Density
- Statistics & Charts
- Probability & Events
- Math & Problem Solving
- Mathematical Representation & Communication
- The Nature & History of Science
- Scientific Process & Inquiry
- Physical Science Fundamentals
- Earth, Space Science & Weather
- Types of Living Organisms
- Interactions Among Living Things
- Health & Fitness in Children
- Visual Arts Concepts
- Music, Drama, Theater & the Arts
- OSAT Elementary Education (CEOE) (050/051) Flashcards


Games can be a huge success in an educational environment when they are used in a consistent and proactive manner. They can be a huge motivation factor for students. When students are motivated, they tend to participate more and pay attention. It really helps students learn to collaborate in a positive manner. It is also one of the few times where peer pressure can be a positive thing to help students come out of their educational comfort zone and help them become more vocal and in charge of their own destiny. This peer pressure can be used to create a controlled form of competitiveness that will heighten student involvement. The one thing that games help teachers achieve is to take away the stress of getting the wrong answer. Kids understand that games will have situations where getting an answer wrong is commonplace. This really helps students learn to manage risk much better. Students will learn to cooperate with one another much more and there can be many positive social aspects that are brought to life through classroom games.
As you cruise through all of the classroom games that we setup for you here you will quickly learn that you can use these with just about any content area and any grade level. We have a number of matching games available and the numeracy games can be used as games of chance or to help students learn their numeracy skills, it is entirely up to you. Five different sets of cards contain colors, fruits, numbers, sports, and different modes of transportation. Each set can be used as a Concentration card game—with simple 6-piece and expanded 12-piece sets—or used as part of a Bingo game with the customizable blank Bingo cards. Can be placed in a folder or envelope to be used as an individual work station activity, or mounted on a bulletin board for fun team competitions. Boost your students' memory and recall skills with these fun cards. As with all of our card games, we recommend laminating each piece to hold up to extended use.


Phonological Awareness Skills Counting Syllables
Phonological awareness skills are a range of abilities which underpin literacy development. A child with strong phonological awareness is able to manipulate and play with the sounds in words. Some of these skills include:
● Hearing and counting syllables in a word ● Identifying rhyming words and producing rhyming pairs ● Identifying the first and last sounds in words. For example; ‘cat’ starts with the ‘k’ sound and ‘fish’ ends with the ‘shh’ sound. ● Breaking words into sounds. For example; ‘cat’ is ‘k’ – ‘a’ – ‘t’. ● Blending words together to make sounds, such as ‘m’ – ‘oo’ – ‘n’ to make ‘moon’.
Children begin to pick up and learn these skills in preschool and kindergarten. Children who have more trouble learning to read and spell often have underlying issues with their phonological awareness skills. Further, research shows that children who currently have or have had in the past speech and language delays often have less developed phonological awareness skills. This series of blog posts will give you some practical strategies and activities to help your child learn some of these new skills and give them a great start to their formal education.
Counting Syllables This is one of the earliest phonological awareness skills that children learn. Breaking words into beats or syllables is the first step towards being able to ‘sound out’ a word.
Here are a few quick activities you can do at home to strengthen your child’s ability to hear and count syllables and to build their phonological awareness skills:
1. Collect a group of objects or toys from around the house. Using your lap or table as a drum, beat out the syllables in each of the object’s name. For example; ‘aeroplane’ would be ‘ae-ro-plane’, 3 beats. Sort the objects by number of syllables.
2. Set your child a mission to find a word with the MOST syllables. Can they find a word with more than 4 syllables? More than 5? You can do this by looking for long words in books, or looking for long words on your shopping list.
3. Count the syllables in the names of family members. Find out which family member has the longest name with the most syllables. You could do first names only at first and as your child becomes more confident, include last and even middle names!
Have fun counting out the beats in words as you watch your child learn important new skills.
Speech pathologists work with children to strengthen their ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in words. If you’re concerned about your child’s phonological awareness skills, book an appointment at Newcastle Speech Pathology today. Alternatively, you can drop into one of our free coffee consults to discuss the issue further. Check out our Facebook page for more information.
If you would like more strategies for building your child’s phonological awareness skills, you can check out our blog post about rhyming
Written by Bec Speech Pathologist Newcastle Speech Pathology


Hobbies Playing Music Instruments of the Modern Orchestra Share PINTEREST Email Print Jacky Lam / EyeEm / Getty Images Playing Music Music Education Basics Music History Music Lessons Music Theory Playing Guitar Playing Piano Home Recording By Espie Estrella Espie Estrella is a lyricist, songwriter, and member of the Nashville Songwriters Association International. our editorial process Espie Estrella Updated March 21, 2019 By the 1700s, other instruments that were designed soon took over the role of previous instruments. Wind instruments such as bassoons, flutes and oboes were paired. By the 19th century, instruments in the brass and percussion sections grew, as did the string section. Instruments of the Modern Orchestra Aside from the violin, viola, piccolo, English Horn, French Horn and bassoon, other musical instruments of the modern orchestra include: Clarinet: From its first inception during the late 1600s to today's clarinet models, this musical instrument has certainly gone a long way. Due to the many improvements it underwent, various types of clarinets were made throughout the years. Contrabassoon: Also known as double bassoon, this reed instrument that belongs to the wind family of musical instruments is bigger than the bassoon. That's why it's called "the bassoon's big brother." It is pitched lower than the bassoon and demands lung-power from a musician. Double Bass: Also known as acoustic bass, bass violin, string bass, contrabass, upright bass, stand-up bass and doghouse bass. Trombone: During the 19th century, trombones with valves that did or did not have slides developed. Trombones come in varying sizes and shapes, the most commonly used today is the B-flat trombone. There is also a bass trombone that is used to play orchestral music. Trumpet: There are different types of trumpets, the most commonly used is the B flat trumpet. There is also the C, D, E flat and piccolo trumpet (also known as Bach trumpet). There are also trumpet-related instruments such as the cornet, flugelhorn and bugles. Tuba: There are various types of tubas created through the years. In 1835, Johann Gottfried Moritz and Wilhelm Wieprecht created the bass tuba in F. Tubas that are used in the military or brass bands are the BB-flat bass and E-flat bass. Bass Drum: The bass drum is a percussion instrument and is the lowest and largest member of the drum family. Bass drums are used in orchestral music as well as marching bands. Kettledrum: Also known as timpani or orchestral kettledrums; it belongs to the percussion family. Timpanis emerged from kettledrums that were used in military and royal parades in India. The use of kettledrums then spread to Europe and was later adapted by classical composers (i.e. Bach and Handel) for the symphony orchestra. Snare Drum: The snare drum is another percussion instrument mostly used nowadays for pop and modern orchestral music. Snare drums have a cylindrical shape and can be played either by hand or with the use of sticks. Cymbals: Cymbals are believed to have been used in Egypt and Israel during Ancient times. Cymbals were also used in Greece to honor Dionysus the god of ecstasy. In Pompeii cymbals of different sizes were discovered. It would later on be introduced in the orchestral music of Europe. Triangle: During the 18th century, triangles were often used in Turkish Janissary music and in orchestras. In the 19th century, triangles were used because of its unique sound.


If your child is studying music in Canada (or the U.S. to a lesser extent), chances are you have heard about RCM (Royal Conservatory) exams. But what exactly are these exams and are they the right choice for your child?
Having gone through the RCM system myself and prepared numerous students for these exams, I have compiled for your benefit my top six reasons for doing RCM exams!
(While this article focuses on children, keep in mind that RCM exams are open to music students of all ages!)
1. Your child will get a solid, well-rounded music education
The RCM Certificate Program has been carefully designed to ensure that students get exposed to a wide variety of musical styles and genres. You can expect to play inventions, minuets, sonatinas, sonatas, and nocturnes, just to name a few. In addition, the co-requisite theory, history, and harmony exams that begin at intermediate levels help ensure that students also know about how music works and how it evolved.
2. Your child will make faster progress on their chosen instrument
Participating in RCM examinations keeps students on their toes and forces them to practice more often in order to meet their exam goals. This means students achieve results and progress much faster on their instruments that those not partaking in an exam program.
3. You get valuable feedback from professionals
When students receive their official exam score, they also get individualized feedback from an RCM examiner, which includes detailed comments on each part of the exam. All RCM examiners are professionals in their field, so you can be sure that the feedback you get is valuable and will tell your child exactly what they need to do to improve.
4. Your child will learn about discipline and goal-setting
Preparing for an exam is no easy task – it takes patience, discipline, and many hours of practice. This is an important lesson that children get to learn fist-hand when they partake in the RCM exam system and one that will hopefully transfer over to other aspects of their lives.
5. They make a valuable addition to applications and resumes
For students who want to make music their career, having an RCM certificate will look great on music school applications and can give them an important competitive advantage. But even for those who don’t plan to pursue music professionally, they are a neat addition to any resume and are often great conversation-starters at job interviews!
6. They can help your child graduate high school
High school students all across Canada can earn credits towards graduation with RCM exams. The specifics differ depending on the province, but in Ontario, where we are located, students can earn 2 out of the 30 credits required to graduate by successfully completing the RCM Gr. 7 and Gr. 8 practical exams along with their theory co-requisites. For information on other provinces, click here. For US test takers, it is up to each state/school board to decide whether to count successful completion of RCM examinations towards high school credits.
Just fill out our quick trial lesson form and wait to hear from us within 1-2 business days. If you like your trial lesson, you can sign up for regular lessons with us! Our lessons are available online (Zoom or Skype) as well as in-person if you live close to our location. Start learning your favorite instrument with one of our amazing teachers today!


Learning how to make friends and getting along with others are not always easy to do. You have to make an effort, and you have to know the rules—like ask before joining in, take turns, play fair, and be a good sport. This book teaches social skills for children using the basics of cooperation, getting along, making friends, and being a friend. A special section in both English and Spanish includes questions for discussion and ideas for activities and games adults can use with children to reinforce the social skills being taught.
Praise for the series
“Surely needed . . . I heartily applaud this important series.”—Jay A. Monson, Ph.D., professor of elementary education, Utah State University
“Top Five Character Education Series”—Booklist
“Positive, gentle messages are given without preaching.”—Library Media Connection


ERIC Number: ED343097
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1990
Spelling Research: The Most Commonly Asked Questions about Spelling...and What Research Says.
Loomer, Bradley M.
In an effort to improve spelling instruction in the elementary and middle schools, this booklet presents answers to 12 of the most commonly asked questions about spelling, based on a review of spelling research and a polling of authorities in the field. The booklet answers questions such as: (1) What is the most important single factor in spelling success? (2) Which words should be included in the spelling curriculum? (3) Is it profitable to teach spelling rules? (4) How much time each week can profitably be spent on spelling? and (5) Is there value in activities that encourage students to write their spelling words in some meaningful context? The booklet also presents 20 recommendations based on the research. Fifty-eight references are attached. (RS)
Descriptors: Elementary Education, Instructional Effectiveness, Middle Schools, Research Utilization, Spelling, Spelling Instruction
Useful Learning, 711 Meadowlane Ct., Mt. Vernon, IA 52314 (free).
Publication Type: Guides - Classroom - Teacher; Guides - Non-Classroom
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Teachers; Practitioners
Authoring Institution: N/A


by Jennifer Hummler & Steven Bowen
Boy, we really wish everybody would stop using mnemonic devices to teach music “literacy.”
Reading music is hard, it takes a lot of time, effort, and memorization… except it doesn’t! It’s not hard, not even close! Unfortunately, many people believe that first statement, and it can keep them (or their children) from taking the leap into music literacy.
Music reading is EASY — like really, really easy. Becoming a fluent sight-reader – someone who
can read and perform complicated music at first sight and in real time – is a process that does
take some time and dedication. However, just reading music – identifying notes – couldn’t be
much easier. Here’s a little-known secret: it’s in alphabetical order! Not only is the staff set up in alphabetical order, but we only need to know seven letters for the musical alphabet: A–G!
Almost everyone has heard “Every Good Boy Does Fine” or some other mnemonic for identifying notes on the various lines and spaces of the musical staff. These little tricks were, no doubt, invented with the very best of intentions, and many music teachers who still use them also have good intentions. They think, “Well, everybody does it this way, right?” Mnemonic devices can be helpful for memorizing complicated lists or disparate facts. But since music notation works by applying a pattern, why not just memorize the pattern? Using random sentences assigned to lines and
spaces just convolutes a very simple process.
We hear so often “I can’t remember what that note is.” When it comes to music reading, that’s fine! We don’t need to remember much of anything. Because it’s not about remembering, it’s about understanding. Unfortunately, once a child has been taught mnemonic devices to remember the notes on the staff, it’s understandably difficult to get them to “unremember” and to start thinking. When it comes to music education, we’re looking for long-term
comprehension and a deep appreciation for music as both an academic subject and an art form.
Without going into a full-on lesson on how to read music (which we will do at some point!), there are really two options to get someone to be able to identify notes on the staff:
METHOD 1. Teach the student that notes “live” alternately on the lines of the staff and in the spaces between the lines (i.e., line-space-line-space-etc.) and are named in alphabetical order A–G (i.e., ABCDEFGABCDEFGABC, etc.),
METHOD 2. You can make your student memorize four seemingly random sentences and then memorize which situation calls for which sentence (“Hm…treble-clef line notes. Is that ‘every good boy does fine‘ or ‘good boys deserve fudge always‘?”). Assuming your student gets this far, he/she may still not know exactly which B (for example) to play on his/her instrument. Oh, and forget about reading off the staff. METHOD 2 doesn’t work with ledger lines.
By the way, students of Method 1 can read absolutely any note, even in clefs they don’t play, even multiple lines off the staff. It’s because they actually understand how music notation works. This fits so neatly into the, “If you teach a man to fish…” philosophy, don’t you think?
In closing, mnemonics never educate musicians on note identification, chum.
(Couldn’t resist. : P )


|Other titles||Art education in the public schools of the United States|
|Statement||A thesis ... for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Yale University, 1946|
|The Physical Object|
|Pagination||215 leaves ;|
|Number of Pages||215|
Margaret E. Mathias writes a book titled, "The Beginnings of Art in the Public Schools". The book discusses issues important to art education in kindergarten, first and second grade. The book is the first well-known book on art education. Art education in the United States reflects the social values of American culture. Apprenticeship was once the norm and the main sense, however with the democratization of education, particularly as promoted by educational philosopher John Dewey, opportunities have greatly eduevazquez.com Eisner has been an influential advocate for the benefits of art in the schools. - Ashmun Institute, now Lincoln University, is founded on October 12, and as Horace Mann Bond, the university's eighth president states in his book, Education for Freedom: A History of Lincoln University, it becomes the "first institution anywhere in the world to provide higher education in the arts and sciences for male youth of African. Jul 01, · 11 Facts About the History of Education in America ’s’s. 1. The first schools in the 13 colonies opened in the 17 th century. The Boston Latin School was the first public school opened in the United States, in To this day, it remains the nation’s oldest public school. 2. Early public schools in the United States did not.
Apr 13, · The United States annexes Texas. President James Polk orders the invasion of Mexico. Massachusetts Reform School at Westboro opens, where children who have refused to attend public schools are sent. This begins a long tradition of "reform schools," which combine the education and juvenile justice systems. Discover the best History of Education in Best Sellers. Find the top most popular items in Amazon Books Best Sellers. A Brief History of the Education of Dominated Cultures in the United States (Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education) AP® European History Crash Course, 2nd Ed., Book + Online (Advanced. Public Schools In the United States, the standard school system developed from an uncoordinated conglomeration of dame schools, reading and writing schools, private academies, Latin grammar schools, and colleges into a well-organized system in which a child may progress from kindergarten to college in a continuous and efficient free public. Before this country officially became the United States of America, there was a need for public education. When the first settlers created the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the governing General Court created the initial education system, which consisted of public and Latin schools designed to teach children Puritan values and how to read the Bible.
New England. The first American schools in the thirteen original colonies opened in the 17th century. Boston Latin School was founded in and is both the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States. Is syms-Eaton academy in Hampton, Virginia founded in 2nd was The first free taxpayer-supported public school in North America, the Mather School, was opened in. A history of American art education must begin by narrowing down what is to be discussed, but what might go into a definition of art education is not a simple matter, the field as it now exists in the schools having grown from various and scattered roots. M ost Americans assume that we’ve always had public schools, that they came with the Constitution and are an indispensable part of our democratic system. But nothing could be farther from the truth as I discovered when I wrote my book, Is Public Education Necessary?, published in In writing that book I wanted to find out why the American people put education in the hands of government Author: Sam Blumenfeld. May 31, · School: The Story of American Public Education [Sarah Mondale] on eduevazquez.com *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Esteemed historians of education David Tyack, Carl Kaestle, Diane Ravitch, James Anderson, and Larry Cuban journey through history and across the nation to recapture the idealism of our education pioneers/5(43).


Creating art helps students integrate knowledge and experience.
Lesson Plan Ideas
Learning Objectives for Grades: 3rd – 5th
Developed by: Rachel Heisler University of Minnesota Duluth, Art Education Major, under the direction of Brenda Deterling, K-5 Art Teacher, Congdon Park Elementary & Lincoln Piedmont Elementary, Duluth, Minnesota
- Investigate the works of Henri Matisse.
- Learn the differences of geometric and organic shapes by creating a collage.
- Create sculptural art from a 2D project (Transfer ideas from 2D to 3D).
- Explore various materials to create wearable art, combining soft and hard materials–contrasts of textures.
- Explore Elements of Visual Art: line, shape, color, form and texture.
Discuss Henri Matisse’s work and his use of organic and geometric shapes.
Using 8″ x 8″ white paper as their background have each child create a collage by cutting out geometric and organic shapes from Fadeless® Assorted Art Paper. Shapes should overlap and go off the page to create an interesting composition. Glue shapes in place with white glue.
Looking at the collage, cut out three shapes from Pacon® Peacock® 40 point Display Board. First draw the shapes and cut with scissors.
Using Pacon® Plast’r Craft®, cover board shapes. First cut the Plast’r Craft® a little larger than the shape you’re covering, dip in water and squeeze out excess. Then cover shape, smoothing Plast’r Craft® as you go. Let dry overnight.
Using the collage as inspiration, paint plastered shapes with acrylic paint. Each shape has to be a different color.
After paint dries, assemble by stacking shapes in an interesting way. With the teachers help, hot glue pieces together.
Pick out feathers, beads, or glitter to embellish your pin! With teacher’s help, hot glue items on.
Decide how the pin should hang when clipped on to something and hot glue a pin-back with teacher’s help. Let pin dry while glue sets.
- Matte collages with black paper to make the colors pop!
- Let Plast’r Craft® dry overnight.
- Have extra helping hands when hot gluing!
- Glue pin back high on the back so it will hang nicely!


A new analysis of more than one million K-8 students across the U.S. found declines in math and reading among all students, with the sharpest declines seen for Black and Latino students.
“When you look at the national trends, it's bleak,” says report author Kristen Huff, EdD, vice president of assessment and research at Curriculum Associates and a former senior fellow at the New York Regents Research Fund. “There are systemic reasons for these historical inequities, and now, they have not only been maintained but exacerbated.”
For the analysis, released on March 18, Huff looked at 2020-21 data in reading and math from Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready Diagnostics. She compared this data to historical trends to assess the impact of the pandemic on students.
The key takeaways are mostly negative, however, Huff says there are ways to help students recover from the learning loss we’re seeing.
Overall declines in reading and math
“The kids are not okay in reading,” Huff says. “If you look at our data, you will see that across all grades, one through eight, there is a decrease in the percent of students who are performing at grade level this winter. And that decrease is particularly acute in the early grades one, two, and three.”
For example, the analysis found that the percentage of first grade students who were prepared to do grade-level work was 36 percent — a decrease of 10 percent when compared to the historical average. Second graders also experienced a 10 percent decrease against the historical average, while third graders saw a six percent decrease. Decreases for grades four through eight ranged from 4 percent to 1 percent.
Huff says the data from grades one through three is particularly worrisome because kids are learning to read in these early grades. “This is when students benefit most greatly from direct instruction and phonics, phonemic awareness, and other foundational skills in reading,” she says.
Math declines were similar. Only 36 percent of fourth graders were prepared to do grade level work, a decline of 16 percent compared to historical averages. Third grade saw 12 percent declines, while fifth grade saw 11 percent declines and declines in other grades ranged from 10 to 2 percent
“The biggest drop in math that we're seeing right now is in fourth grade,” Huff says. “What happens in fourth grade? Proportional reasoning, fractions. What is this? This is the basis of algebraic preparedness.”
She adds students need to develop these skills because, “Algebra is the cliff where we lose students on their pathway to college and career readiness.”
The Pandemic is Intensifying Existing Inequalities
“All of this bad news is especially bad when you disaggregate by race, ethnicity, or income,” Huff says.
For instance, in schools composed of primarily Black and Latino students, the number of third graders not prepared to work at their grade level in math increased by 14 and 10 percent, respectively, compared to a five percent increase for the majority of schools with primarily white students.
The data also shows that declines in reading and math are steepest in communities in which the median annual household income is below $50,000, and that students of color are more likely to be attending remote school than white students.
As concerning as the report is, Huff offers optimism.
“The ray of hope is that we actually know what needs to be done to help these students get on a path back toward grade level,” she says. “It's acceleration, not remediation, high-quality materials, coherence across the educational plan for the students. It's giving the students targeted help. ‘For today's lesson, Eric, we are going to be studying how to do mixed fractions. I know from data I have, that you are behind in these three prerequisites required to engage with today's lesson. So I'm going to give you a special homework assignment to help you get familiar with these concepts.’”
High-quality tutoring and having clear actionable data is also key. “It's not a mystery, what we need to do,” Huff says. “Now there are funds, we just need to make sure the funds are distributed for interventions that we know work and to the students and communities who need it most.”
She adds, “We hope to create a sense of urgency about how to use the resources at hand to create targeted interventions for students who need them the most.”


Art education is a very important part of a child’s development. Children learn about their senses by touching and feeling. This is exactly what artistic processes involve. The children are in direct contact with the materials used. Therefore, art is a fantastic way to train children’s senses.
How important is an art in children’s lives and how can it promote their development?
Art is very important for children. This enables them to express themselves very well. This is because many art forms are very close to children’s natural play. For example, role-playing games that children make again and again on their own quickly become a play. Experimenting with words and sounds can also come very close to music or poetry. The artistic education ties in and motivates the children to play.
They say art is important for children’s self-esteem. Why is that?
Children don’t just like to experiment by nature. You also want to leave traces with what you have tried. And that applies both to the world around them and to their interior. There should be something left of what they do. Art can help them do this. In order for this to succeed, they have to experience the design process as something positive. This is where artistic education counts. It helps the children to perceive art as a positive experience, to support them in the development of their own projects and thereby to strengthen their self-confidence.
What possibilities are there for the creative promotion of children?
The opportunities to support children in their creative activities are endless. You can do that with very small things, like sitting in a meadow, feeling the grass around you, and playing with it. But it can also be real projects, such as staging a small play together with an RPG.
The most important thing is always to include the child’s natural disposition. It doesn’t make sense to impose an art form on a child that it doesn’t like. It is better to support the forms of expression that the child shows anyway while playing and that they enjoy.
It is less important that parents have a particularly good understanding of certain artistic processes. A certain basic attitude is much more important. Those who approach children with sensitivity and alertness are best able to recognize and encourage their creative dispositions.
The children get a lot of space to independently develop creative processes in free play. Of course, there is also a planned daily schedule. For example, small rituals, like recurring songs, accompany everyday life in the crib. The transitions from one art form to another are often fluid. Thus, when you paint together, you may also sing or the children combine role-playing with dancing.
Are there different phases depending on age, when which form of artistic expression is more important?
Basically there are no restrictions. Since very young children often move to music, this is perhaps a particularly easily accessible form of expression. But basically you can recommend any art form for all ages.
What is more important in the selection is how to bring art closer to the children. You mustn’t be overwhelmed, but you shouldn’t be underwhelmed either. Small children can only be creatively encouraged with simple games. If it gets too complicated, they will quickly lose their fun. However, as the children get older, the demands must also grow with them so that they do not get bored.
Introduce the best smartwatch for kids as they grow older to their primary years. With smartwatches, children continue to exercise their brains with various games and other features that the smartwatch can provide.


Suppose you’re a painter, and you want capture a realistic scene of two men playing chess in a parlor. How would you do it? Most people, I think, would sit in the room and paint what they saw. Or, depending on their era, maybe they’d work from a photograph. A very meticulous artist might pencil out couple of single-point perspective lines to guide the recession of the room’s furniture. Vanishingly few artists would use a separate sheet of paper to create a 3-dimensional gridded space where everything in the room was geometrically plotted out with each object considered as its own individual study. But this is exactly what Thomas Eakins did.
There’s a decent chance your reaction is: Thomas Who? Eakins is an odd case, a man considered one of the leading American painters of the back half of the 19th century who has slowly slid into something that isn’t quite obscurity but is pretty far from household-name status. You’ve probably heard of the people considered his peers at the time: Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, James McNeil Whistler, (kinda) Mary Cassatt. A combination of scandals (Eakins was heavily involved in art education, and was involved in scandals revolving around nude models and students, and it’s a dense thicket that’s almost impossible to judge from 130 years out without getting lost in the gap between then-contemporary and current social mores; last time I looked, his wikipedia page was dominated by speculation about his sexual preference), changing tastes, and the random drift of history have shunted him off to the side. But in his day, Eakins was a big deal, renowned as a new kind of big-brained artist.
Eakins was a creature of his time. He worked during a period of unprecedented exuberance about the progress of science. He brought that spirit into his artistic practice, pursuing representational realism through a combination of techniques derived from science and mathematics. His approach was powerful but flawed, with inconsistencies that led to visual paradoxes; similar paradoxes lurked around the edges of the very science world that inspired him.
Eakins’ belief that perfect representation of reality could be attained in painting through advanced science-based technique was a manifestation of a mode of thought pervasive in late 19th-century American and European intellectual circles, an idea that science and knowledge had reached a summit. His social position in the academic elite of Philadelphia put him in contact with scientists, artists, and thinkers whose output presents a similarly teleological outlook. He basically soaked up their hubris. And this isn’t something I can claim to prove, but I’d guess that the passing of that particular scientific worldview has something to do with the slow drift of Eakins into semi-obscurity.


Green Space and Health
The houses of parliament, parliamentary office of science and technology has produced a key briefing note that touches upon the well-being benefits of green space, as well as the challenges in green space creation and maintenance
- Physical and mental illnesses associated with sedentary urban lifestyles are an increasing economic and social cost.
- Areas with more accessible green space are associated with better mental and physical health.
- The risk of mortality caused by cardiovascular disease is lower in residential areas that have higher levels of ‘greenness’.
- There is evidence that exposure to nature could be used as part of the treatment for some conditions.
- There are challenges to providing green spaces, such as how to make parks easily accessible and how to fund both their creation and maintenance.
In times of stress or ill health to be able to spend time outside in nature is a very simple way of feeling better in both body and mind. These benefits are now being actively promoted by the NHS.
“Access to greenspace, particularly including trees, reduces cortisol (stress) levels, increases physical activity and speeds recovery if you have been ill. The NHS Forest makes the simple connection between health and the environment.
The NHS Forest provides a chance to engage patients, staff, visitors and the wider community together in a positive, inclusive and very tangible project. The NHS Forest is an easy way to encourage people inside healthcare organisations to look outside their windows and begin to connect to their immediate environment, leading on to understanding of, and engagement with, wider environmental issues, in particular climate change.
Planting trees and making healthcare organisations greener, physically nicer places can save money. Not only are maintenance costs often reduced, but staff morale is improved, patients recover more quickly and are therefore using fewer resources. In the longer term, communities who have better access to greenspace stay physically and mentally healthier.”
A Dose of Nature: Addressing chronic health conditions by using the environment
Medical research from around the world demonstrates that a Green Prescription can deliver physiological and psychological benefits for patients, even if the exact mechanisms by which these accrue are not yet fully understood. The evidence also shows that doctors are ready and willing to give Green Prescriptions, and that an effective partnership with other providers is required.
The benefits of gardening and food growing for health and well-being
This study reviews the extensive scientific literature showing the benefits of gardening and community food growing for both physical and mental health. It presents a compelling case for action by health professionals and the NHS; local authority planners and Government planning policy specialists to create, protect and promote gardening and community food growing.
Feel better outside, feel better inside report
Ecotherapy is an intervention that improves mental and physical health and wellbeing by supporting people to be active outdoors: doing gardening, food growing or environmental work. This report provides the people who plan, commission and provide health and social care services with compelling evidence for providing ecotherapy services that can: • help people look after their mental wellbeing • support people who may be at risk of developing a mental health problem • help the recovery of people with existing mental health problems.
King’s Fund – Gardens and health Report – May 2016
This report was commissioned by the National Gardens Scheme in 2015. Its intention is to contribute to the understanding, assessment and development of the links between gardens, gardening and health. It sets out the evidence base on how gardens and gardening relate to health across the life-course. It highlights how, at different points in the health and social care system, gardens and gardening can make a strong contribution to keeping us well and independent.
Social and therapeutic horticulture: evidence and messages from research
The reported benefits of social and therapeutic horticulture include increased self-esteem and self confidence, the development of horticultural, social and work skills, literacy and numeracy skills, an increased sense of general well-being and the opportunity for social interaction and the development of independence


Whether you are a professional or a beginner, sight reading is an absolute must for making music. During music lessons, this is taught right from the start and is practiced and perfected until you become a professional. This raises the question for us: how can we help? Our solution: The Open Sheet Music Education exercise generator!
As part of our project, OSME, we have developed an exercise generator. Its task is to create personalized sheet reading exercises for musicians. After being in talks with different music teachers, we came to the conclusion that this generator can be very helpful for practicing sight reading. The “Sight Reading Practice Generator” provides different settings that allow you to create a variety of exercises that meet the exact needs of a particular musician.
What can I do with the OSME Exercise Generator?
The first thing you can do is name your exercise, enter yourself as a “composer” for example, and specify the tempo/beats per minute (BPM). Amongst other things, this should help the teacher/student to organize and categorize many different exercises.
In the General Settings, you can specify how many measures you want to be in the exercise. Here you can also generate bar and key. You can also select whether the articulation should be staccato or tenuto.
In the instrument settings you can adjust the preset instruments (in this example it’s the trumpet), their lowest or highest ranges (for example C1 to A3), as well as the clefs (for example G or F clefs).
Our practice generator also has additional settings for experts to further refine the settings. Under “Pitch Settings” you can determine which notes should appear in the exercise. Apart from that, intervals (such as prime, second, third, etc.) and tone lengths (whole, half, quarter, etc.) can also be inserted.
Once you are happy with all your preferences, the exercises are generated at the touch of a button and displayed on the screen using Open Sheet Music Display (OSMD). The exercises on display can then be saved or printed by the musicians. This simple process can then be repeated over and over again.


The memory installed on a computer is what helps determine how fast or slow the computer's performance is. Therefore, ensuring that your computer is equipped for maximum performance is essential to a fast-operating computer. Sometimes if you run numerous memory-sapping programs, your preset manufacturer settings might not be adequate enough. No need to worry, though, for you can allow a computer to use more installed memory by customizing the computer's virtual memory settings found within the computer's performance options.
Right-click on the "My Computer" icon found on your desktop, and select "Properties" from the drop-down menu that appears.
Click on the "Advanced" tab located within the "System Properties" window that appears.
Click on "Settings" found within the "Performance" section of the "Advanced" tab.
Click on "Advanced" within the "Performance Options" window that appears.
Click on "Change" found within the "Virtual Memory" section of the "Advanced" tab in the "Performance Options" window.
Click on "System Managed Size" to set your memory to that recommended by your computer system, or allow your computer to use more installed memory by specifying your own by clicking on "Custom."
- Set your memory settings to the values recommended by Microsoft by multiplying your RAM by 1.5 to determine what your minimum specification should be, and then multiply that figure by 3 to determine what your maximum specification should be.
- Beware of setting your computer's memory settings too high or too low, for each extreme can reduce computer performance.
Kayla Lowe has been a freelance writer since 2008. She writes for various online publications and is also the author of the book "Maiden's Blush," a Christian-fiction romance novel. Lowe is pursuing a degree in elementary education.


The Imagine in the Park is a Children’s Art Festival that is FREE to all guests and visitors.
This festival encourages experiential learning for children; it provides the opportunity for families to work with artists in their discipline.
10 Reasons Why Arts Education Is SO IMPORTANT
By Lauren Martin
1. Creativity. This may seem like a no-brainer, but the arts allow kids to express themselves better than math or science. As the Washington Post says, In an arts program, your child will be asked to recite a monologue in 6 different ways, create a painting that represents a memory, or compose a new rhythm to enhance a piece of music. If children have practice thinking creatively, it will come naturally to them now and in their future career.
2. Improved Academic Performance. The arts don’t just develop a child’s creativity—the skills they learn because of them spill over into academic achievement. PBS says, A report by Americans for the Arts states that young people who participate regularly in the arts (three hours a day on three days each week through one full year) are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to participate in a math and science fair or to win an award for writing an essay or poem than children who do not participate.
3. Motor Skills. This applies mostly to younger kids who do art or play an instrument. Simple things like holding a paintbrush and scribbling with a crayon are an important element to developing a child’s fine motor skills. According to the National Institutes of Health, developmental milestones around age three should include drawing a circle and beginning to use safety scissors. Around age four, children may be able to draw a square and begin cutting straight lines with scissors.
4. Confidence. While mastering a subject certainly builds a student’s confidence, there is something special about participating in the arts. Getting up on a stage and singing gives kids a chance to step outside their comfort zone. As they improve and see their own progress, their self-confidence will continue to grow.
5. Visual Learning. Especially for young kids, drawing, painting, and sculpting in art class help develop visual-spatial skills. Dr. Kerry Freedman, Head of Art and Design Education at Northern Illinois University says, Children need to know more about the world than just what they can learn through text and numbers. Art education teaches students how to interpret, criticize, and use visual information, and how to make choices based on it.
6. Decision Making. The arts strengthen problem solving and critical thinking skills. How do I express this feeling through my dance? How should I play this character? Learning how to make choices and decisions will certainly carry over into their education and other parts of life—as this is certainly a valuable skill in adulthood.
7. Perseverance. I know from personal experience that the arts can be challenging. When I was trying to learn and master the clarinet, there were many times when I became so frustrated that I wanted to quit. But I didn’t. After practicing hard, I learned that hard work and perseverance pay off. This mindset will certainly matter as they grow—especially during their career where they will likely be asked to continually develop new skills and work through difficult projects.
8. Focus. As you persevere through painting or singing or learning a part in a play, focus is imperative. And certainly focus is vital for studying and learning in class as well as doing a job later in life.
9. Collaboration. Many of the arts such as band, choir, and theater require kids to work together. They must share responsibility and compromise to achieve their common goal. Kids learn that their contribution to the group is integral to its success—even if they don’t have the solo or lead role.
10. Accountability. Just like collaboration, kids in the arts learn that they are accountable for their contributions to the group. If they drop the ball or mess up, they realize that it’s important to take responsibility for what they did. Mistakes are a part of life, and learning to accept them, fix them, and move on will serve kids well as they grow older.
article taken from: https://www.learningliftoff.com/10-reasons-arts-in-education-important-kids/


On February 17, 1870, after campaigning by the National Education League, the Elementary Education Act 1870, drafted by liberal MP William Forster, and commonly known as Forster's Education Act, was introduced in Parliament. The Act established the framework for compulsory schooling of all children in England and Wales between ages 5 and 12 in England and Wales, however the bill did not entirely require education of children, and in any case the education had to be paid for by the parents.
"A driving force behind the Act was a perceived need for Britain to remain competitive in the world by being at the forefront of manufacture and improvement.
"The Act was not taken up in all areas and would be more firmly enforced through later reforms. There were objections to the concept of universal education. One was because many people remained hostile to the idea of mass education. They claimed it would make labouring classes 'think' and that these classes would think of their lives as dissatisfying and possibly encourage them to revolt. Others feared that handing children to a central authority could lead to indoctrination. Another reason was the vested interests of the Church and other social groups. The churches were funded by the state with public money to provide education for the poor and these churches did not want to lose that influence on youth.
"The Act established the foundations of English elementary education. The state (Gladstonian Liberalism) became increasingly involved and after 1880 attendance was made compulsory for children until they were 12 years old.
"The Act was passed partly in response to political factors (such as the need to educate the citizens recently enfranchised by the Reform Act 1867 to vote wisely). It also came about due to demands for reform from industrialists, who feared Britain's status in world trade was being threatened by the lack of an effective education system. The spectacular military successes of the Prussian army prompted Gladstone to consider the military benefits of an Education Act; as he remarked: 'Undoubtedly, the conduct of the campaign, on the German side, has given a marked triumph to the cause of systematic popular education' " (Wikipedia article on Elementary Education Act 1870, accessed 06-07-2012).


An early grade reading assessment (EGRA) conducted by the World Bank found that only 23% of students in Grades 2 and 48% in Grade 3 met expectations for functional reading levels and Myanmar students were performing worse than in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and some parts of Central America and Africa. Studies have also found consistently low levels of basic numeracy skills. A considerable proportion of the differences in students’ early reading skills is determined by non-school factors, such as socio-economic status, and support at home, and these are highly correlated with the mother’s education level. In Myanmar, only 23% of children age 36-59 months have attended an organized early childhood education program, and 5% of children under age 5 have three or more children’s books at home.
STRATEGIC GOAL 4: ALL CHILDREN IN MYANMAR CAN ACCESS, LEARN AND THRIVE IN QUALITY LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS FOR ECCD AND BASIC EDUCATION
FOCUSING ON: The most marginalized children from remote, rural areas, especially girls, children with disabilities and from the poorest households, conflict-affected and displaced children and those from minority ethnic groups.


The Importance of Music in Education
Why is music important in education? This might be the question that keeps on bothering you right now. Well, you have to know that music plays a very significant role in the overall development process of your child. This process involves 3 life aspects such as intellectually, emotionally and socially. It provides creative challenges, aesthetic appreciation and self-expression including self-discovery opportunities. These are some of those factors which show the essence of music in education.
Practical and Emotional Maturity
Music education promotes emotional maturity while the students learn setting and achieving their personal goals. Practical maturity can be gained through music as the students know the benefits brought by diligence practice and hard work. Self-assessment, time management and the capability to admit criticism & performance skills are the significant lessons that the students will learn through learning with music.
Music education helps the students with the necessary skills they should possess and it also promotes value which result to personal improvement like self-discipline, teamwork, practice, self-confidence and dedication. All of the values and attitude that show them are important so that the students will become successful in facing challenges in life. These values are given by means of other disciplines which involves several ways. The value of music in education is that the students who love music can easily shift the habits they have learned to continue music to their academic subjects. Thus, the music in education is a very important component to meet a comprehensive education program.
Those children who are more interested to learn music with education are proven more capable to solve their problems in life. They become more efficient than other kids when it comes to analysis and critical thinking. Due to the fact that playing and learning music involves the use of the part of the human brain that is also used when it comes to mathematical thinking, music can aid in making the students better in mathematics.
The promotion of music in education provides the students with the interest which takes up extensive energy and time out of the classroom. The students are more encouraged to be involved in various extracurricular activities by means of through music which include competitions, sports and bands. Being occupied with some activities that are related to music helps keep the students away from negative things like taking alcohol and drugs.
Life and Success
The significance of music in education is the truth that it promotes a special type of discipline which contributes to characteristics and personal traits improvement. This will help the individuals to achieve success in all life aspects. Music helps in the development of the overall intelligence of a student that shifts to success in the academic subjects. It also opens the doors for cultural and social aspects. All of these will lead to success and happiness in life. All of these would be the best explanation why music is important to education. It helps a student to achieve success in their education. Their skills are developed and music makes learning the academic subjects easy and enjoyable for every student who pays attention to music.


Grade Math Test Prep Super Teacher Worksheets Workbooks Writing Practise Kindergarten Free Printable Elementary Fun
Grade Math Test Prep Super Teacher Worksheets Workbooks Writing Practise Kindergarten Free Printable Elementary Fun.
Printable worksheets and activities for teachers, parents, tutors, and families. superteacherworksheets.com - grade k-. science teaching and assessment resources from college of medicine. org. teacher vision. classroom-ready lesson plans,, and resources.
Math resources for teachers. challenge your students with creative mathematics lessons, printable worksheets, activities, quizzes, and more. math best practices for the elementary classroom e-book printable worksheets, activities, quizzes, and more during math education month (april)or anytime of the year.
Elementary teacher worksheets main idea grade created materials minute maths trig graphing calculator multiplying fractions worksheet year 6 simple adding envision. Printable school worksheets elementary teacher. Free printable worksheets busy teachers elementary teacher. Play teacher worksheets writing decimals words worksheet volume abacus math elementary education curriculum free homework sheets grade decimal kindergarten resources. Super teacher worksheets multiplication grade 8 math sheets arithmetic fact diagnostic assessment free radical form answer elementary. Printable worksheets teachers elementary teacher. Possessive pronouns worksheets super teacher worksheet elementary math problems fraction exercises grade 7 learning websites.


Early Childhood Outcomes/Learning:
Exploring Ideas & Potential
Public Libraries have always been aligned with learning, literacy and education. As ALA said in its 2009 Congressional Testimony regarding children’s literacy skills, “(Librarians)… regularly aid teachers in building students’ research and information literacy skills; they possess deep knowledge of adolescent literacy development; and they are the absolute best resource for ensuring that schools have a wide variety of reading materials that students both need and want to read.
The public library is the community’s center for early literacy coaching for parents and child-care providers.” In the Newman Report for Ontario’s Ministry of Culture Wendy Newman stated that one of the key policy themes with particularly high potential to advance Ontario’s interests and priorities in the knowledge-based economy to 2020 is early childhood learning. Many communities have partnership programs to support “healthy child development”. This Idea Forum will explore if and how public libraries are or should be involved, and how this will “improve urban library service.”
The agenda will be guided by these questions:
- What’s our definition of “early childhood outcomes/learning” for this forum? How do you define this topic in your library and/or community?
- How is this topic addressed in your community now?
- What are the desired early childhood outcomes for a community?
- Where do – or could – public libraries fit in these outcomes or in this learning model?
- What, if anything, can CULC/CBUC contribute to the early childhood outcomes that will improve urban library service in Canada?”
These Forums don’t have a speaker to initiate discussion; you, the participants initiate your conversations and my role is to guide the ebb and flow of the conversation. To prompt your thinking, here are a few resources:
Resources to read or scan: (these sources are related to public libraries)
- Proposal to “Leave no Library Behind” in the “Leave No Child Behind” Campaign
- Overview of Every Child Ready to Read @ your library® by Elaine Meyers and Harriet Henderson
- Early Learning Initiative for Wisconsin Public Libraries by Barbara Huntington, Youth and Special Services Consultant – this gives an excellent overview of the background and rationale.
- ALA’s Nov 2009 Testimony to Congress on Libraries Role in Improving Literacy Skills of Children and Young Adults
- Public Library Service to Children and Teens: A Research Agenda by Virginia Walter in Library Trends Spring 2003
Other sources to consider: (these are a sampling of community agendas regarding early childhood outcomes – see how/if public libraries are involved)
- Canadian Network for Leadership in Education and Early Learning & Care
- Our Best Future: Early Learning in Ontario
- Understanding the Early Years Initiatives – a federal program managed by HRSDC.
- With the Best Future in Mind
- Understanding the Early Years: Regina
- Understanding the Early Years: Halifax
- Early Education Commission & United Way of Atlanta: A community leadership collaborative supporting the United Way’s goal of ensuring children are ready for school Introduction/Highlights: Brain Development Research
- Thinking Strategically Critically Seeing Possiblities slideshare from Rebecca Jones


Ocean Literacy Program - Ongoing
Responding to the lack of ocean-related topics being taught in schools, a group of education professionals, ocean scientists, governmental organizations, and non-governmental organizations in the USA initiated the Ocean Literacy Framework. The framework was developed as a conceptual tool for educators to help build understanding of the ocean in grades K-12. This Ocean Literacy Framework is now used across the globe and has even been included in the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science and Sustainability through UNESCO's Intergovernmental Ocean Commission. Additionally, as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #14: Life Below Water, and Ocean Literacy Toolkit was developed.
A Canadian Context
In 2018, the Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition began conceptualizing what Ocean Literacy means in a Canadian context, to include diverse Canadian perspectives and traditional ways of knowing. This alliance of organizations, networks, institutions, communities, and individuals is leading a Canada-wide research initiative to better understand Canadians' varying relationships with the ocean and to examine how Ocean Literacy is understood and practiced across all regions and multiple sectors. The Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition launched a Canadian Ocean Literacy Strategy and Implementation Plan in 2021 with the vision to "take action together to ensure a healthy, sustainable, and equitable relationship with the ocean and Canada's waterways for present and future generations."
The main goals of this strategy are:
1. Ocean Knowledge: Increase understanding of how the ocean influences us and how our behaviours, decisions, and actions impact the ocean.
2. Ocean Values: Strengthen positive public and organizational perceptions of the ocean and promote a greater ethic of care.
3. Ocean Actions: Reduce barriers and increase engagement to contribute to behaviour and societal changes that support ocean health, community livelihoods, and human wellbeing.
SIMRS Ocean Literacy Development
Strawberry Isle Marine Research Society's goal is to increase ocean literacy in children and youth through place-based education and hands-on learning to help create meaningful connections to the ocean and marine life within it. Our Ocean Literacy program is supported by the Government of Canada's Emergency Community Support Fund and the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust in response to the challenges presented by COVID-19 that inhibited access to experiential learning in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
This program aims to promote ocean literacy by offering:
1. Accessible & inclusive online/virtual, in-person, and at-home learning opportunities for vulnerable children and youth.
2. Place-based educational material and resource kits for Indigenous and remote communities, that can be easily self-delivered by local community members.
3. Career development volunteer opportunities and mentorship for students and youth in ocean conservation, research, and education. Emphasis will be to create equal opportunity for marginalized groups including women and girls, LGBTQ2s+, and BIPOC.
Flexible and Adaptable Learning to Suit Your Needs!
SIMRS Ocean Literacy Program is meant to be extremely adaptable to suit the needs of teachers, students, and community members while being flexible to work within different health and safety protocols currently in place. This is why SIMRS offers everything from in-person (socially distanced) learning, online/virtual in-class learning, to DIY at-home learning options. SIMRS' expert educators teach about essential principles and key concepts of the Ocean Literacy Framework while engaging students in current and localized research programs, allowing them to participate in citizen science and environmental monitoring efforts that directly benefit the health of ocean ecosystems. SIMRS value and embody the concept of "nothing about us, without us" and seek to work with together with communities, schools, or individuals to incorporate traditional ecological knowledge, cultural values, and customs in this program. SIMRS welcome participation of all children and youth and can easily adapt for varying abilities and learning styles.
How to register:
To sign-up for the Ocean Literacy Program, please click "Register Now" below or email email@example.com


DO’S AND DON’TS FOR PARENTS
• At the outset of lessons make clear to your child, in an enthusiastic manner, that music training is a long-term process, just like school, but with many high points of joy along the way.
• Your child has his own unique pace, so avoid comparing your child to siblings or neighbors’ children who may appear to be playing better than your child. Anticipate ups and downs in your child's attitude and progress, along with a number of “growing pain” periods.
• Seriously contemplate how to help your child. Knowing when to help, when to be supportive, and when to withdraw to encourage your child to help his or herself is a parental art in itself.
• Stress that quality, not quantity, of practice is what results in real progress.
• “Music comes to the child more naturally, when there is music in his mother’s speaking voice,” said violin educator Shinichi Suzuki. So be pleasant and encouraging about your child’s practicing. Naturally, there will be occasions when you will need to be firm. But remember with “music in your voice,” coach your child, guide your child, but don’t police.
• When you help your child, be at your child's side—not at the other end of the room or in the next room. Teach your child to treat the practice session with the same respect given to to his lesson time or homework.
• During a crisis, always talk it out with your child in an atmosphere of mutual respect. If the issue is serious, you may need to discuss it with the teacher first. Allow your child to participate in the final decision so the child feels that his or her voice has been heard.
• A sense of humor is a powerful tool with which to resolve disagreements about practicing.
• Always let your child feel you are proud of his or her achievements, even when they are small.
• Never belittle your child’s efforts.
• Don’t despair at temporary lapses in practice. Your child will make progress in the lesson itself, although less rapidly.
• Don’t threaten to stop lessons if your child doesn’t practice. Threats can work during periods of high motivation in music but may boomerang during a “growing pain” period. The day may come when your child will remind you of your threat and insist that you make good on it.
• Don’t criticize your child in the presence of others, especially the teacher. The teacher has skillfully built up a good relationship with your child, and your child's loss of face will tend to undermine it. Speak to the teacher, and only the teacher, privately about problems.
• Your financial investment in your child’s music lessons pays its dividends through the skills he or she acquires over the years, not by the amount of daily practice, nor in how much he or she plays for you or your guests. Remember you are giving your child a music education for artistic use, for self-expression, and for pleasure. Don’t expect him or her as a child to be grateful for your sacrifices. Your child's gratitude will come years later when your child can play and enjoy music as an adult.


As a performance coach and professional athlete, I’m perplexed at how little importance and emphasis coaches and parents give to fundamental motor skills based training for our young burgeoning athletes. And yet it’s one of the most important things we can do for them in preparing their bodies (and minds) for the physical rigors of their chosen sport or sports.
“Countless scientific studies have proven that there is a positive interrelationship between neuromuscular motor skill competence (fundamental motor skill / FMS) and muscular strength in youth athletes. Vern Gambetta, considered to be the Founding Father of Functional Sports Training, defines athleticism as ‘executing athletic movements at optimum speed with precision, style, and grace.’ 1
A common misconception is that children naturally attain proficient levels of FMS; however, many children do not. The consensus among professionals is that a higher exposure to physical activity provides more opportunities to promote neuromotor development.2
At Victory Sports Performance, athletes as young as eight years old train with us every day. We provide young athletes a fun and encouraging environment in which they can learn proper movement patterns that will set them up for success in the future! Check out the video above to see one example of how we teach quick feet and body control to our youngest athletes!
To learn more, sign your child up for a free trial now. Together, we’ll unleash their full potential!
1Rick Howard, MED, CSCS,*D, USAW. Integrative Neuromuscular Training for Youth. National Strength and Conditioning Association.
2Stodden, D, and Goodway, JD. The dynamic association between motor skill development and physical activity. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance 78(8): 33, 2007.”
Contributed by Mitch Marmelstein


USAID's Top 10 Education Resources of 2019
Before we move into 2020, we wanted to take a look back at what education looked like in 2019. Below, we’ve rounded up a few of the top resources USAID published this past year.
Top Ten Resources
1. USG Strategy and USAID Education Policy
The U.S. Government Strategy on International Basic Education provides an overview of how U.S. Government agencies, including USAID, will coordinate to promote international basic education. The USAID Education Policy details an Agency-wide vision and direction for supporting partner countries in strengthening their capacity to deliver quality learning opportunities for children and youth.
2. Education Reporting Toolkit
Learn about the new education reporting requirements that are now in effect. This short webcast provides a high-level overview of the new education reporting guidance to help you complete your FY19 PPR process. View the toolkit for a complete listing of resources related to changes to USAID education reporting that take effect in 2019.
3. Learning Agendas
In order to focus research, fill gaps in the evidence base, and improve outcomes to achieve the 2018 USAID Education Policy vision, USAID developed four learning agendas (Foundational Skills, Education in Crisis and Conflict, Youth Workforce Development, and Higher Education) in consultation with mission staff, implementing partners, education researchers, and more.
4. Social and Emotional Learning and Soft Skills Policy Brief
This Policy Brief provides an introductory understanding of what USAID means by the terms “social and emotional skills” and “soft skills,” and specifies the desired outcomes and quality standards for programming that teach social and emotional skills or soft skills.
5. Disability Inclusive Education Toolkit
This Toolkit provides guidance and resources for integrating disability into the USAID Program Cycle.
Don’t miss a new resource in 2020Sign up now for weekly updates about your favorite topics from EducationLinks.
6. Education Finance How-To Note
Partner country education systems are strained under the pressure of scarce financial resources, demographic changes, and growing enrollments, and these pressures will only grow with time. This How-To Note focuses on how to sustainably build and finance quality education.
7. Universal Design for Learning to Help All Children Read
The toolkit supports the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) educational framework, which guides the development of flexible learning environments that accommodate individuals with learning differences.
8. The Effects of Gender-Based Violence on Academic Performance
This study aims to identify and quantify the effects of bullying on academic performance using the data sets collected from surveys conducted in 2011 in Botswana, Ghana, and South Africa.
9. Towards the Design and Implementation of Comprehensive Primary Grade Literacy and Numeracy Programs
This resource is intended to support all stakeholders involved in designing, implementing or overseeing early grades literacy and numeracy program development and implementation.
10. USAID Higher Education: A Retrospective 1960-2020
USAID’s legacy in advancing global higher education is manifested in the achievements and contributions of the individuals and institutions it has supported who have made impacts in three key development areas: building country capacity, advancing social progress, and creating economic and social opportunity.


Play nourishes every aspect of children’s development –it forms the foundation of intellectual, social, physical, and emotional skills for success in school and in life. It paves the way for learning.
Canadian Council of Learning
As we keep reading about play disappearing from our early childhood classrooms due to the increased emphasis on academic and standards, teachers are struggling to ensure that needed balance. As teachers of young children we need to fight and advocate that children learn through play.
Providing children with child- initiated free play and intentional play opportunities is an integral part of the early childhood learning space. When we are thinking about intentional play we are thinking about designing activities that reflect the child’s or children’s developmental stage. The activity is designed to encourage children to thinking deeper, to explore a new concept, to investigate what if, to solve problems that have been asked, and engage in observations and inquiry process.
Now consider how the learning opportunities change on a daily and weekly bases. A child in the group went to a museum of dinosaurs. The following day they discovered that the sand table had been turned into an archaeological dig site. Measuring tapes, magnifying glasses, paint brushes, bones, clipboard with paper and field hat with vest. With intentionality teachers can create play that reinforces the skills needed to meet the demands of the standers.
By being intentional about the play opportunities children can learn during their play, a win, win for everyone involved.
Think of an interest of a child or children in your group and design a learning activity that encourages the children to think, explore, investigate, solve problems and to share their learning with others.
If you are new here, start here.


Style: Synchromist, Regionalism
Education: With his mother’s encouragement, in 1907 Benton enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago. Two years later, he moved to Paris in 1909 to continue his art education at the Academie Julian. Influenced by the latter, Benton subsequently adopted a Synchromist style.
Achievements: After studying in Europe, Benton moved to New York City in 1913 and resumed painting. During World War I, he served in the U.S. Navy and was stationed at Norfolk, Virginia. His war-related work had an enduring effect on his style. He was directed to make drawings and illustrations of shipyard work and life, and this requirement for realistic documentation strongly affected his later style. Later in the war, classified as a “camoufleur,” Benton drew the camouflaged ships that entered Norfolk harbor. His work was required for several reasons: to ensure that U.S. ship painters were correctly applying the camouflage schemes, to aid in identifying U.S. ships that might later be lost, and to have records of the ship camouflage of other Allied navies.


ERIC Number: ED433247
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1999
Consider the Earth: Environmental Activities for Grades 4-8. Second Edition.
Gates, Julie M.
This book is designed to educate students in grades 4-8 about eight specific aspects of the environment. Activity-oriented experiences for both urban and rural children to gain certain understandings are provided. Concepts addressed include the fact that humans are animals and are living organisms, animals differ from plants in their ability to move from place to place and in their inability to make their own food, and humans have five senses that help them to enjoy and understand their world. Sections include: (1) Soil; (2) Plants; (3) Water; (4) Wildlife; (5) Weather; (6) Environmental Problems; (7) Oceans; and (8) Ecosystems. (CCM)
Descriptors: Ecology, Elementary Education, Environmental Education, Meteorology, Oceanography, Plants (Botany), Science Activities, Soil Science, Water, Wildlife
Teacher Ideas Press/Libraries Unlimited, Inc., P.O. Box 6633, Englewood, CO 80155-6633; Tel: 800-237-6124 (Toll Free); Web site: http://www.lu.com
Publication Type: Books; Guides - Classroom - Teacher
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Practitioners; Teachers
Authoring Institution: N/A


Our curriculum provides for all areas of development – social, emotional, cognitive, and physical and our standards are consistent with the PA Dept. of Education content standards for EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING.
Our programs are based upon Developmentally Appropriate practices. Therefore, our activities are child-centered and child-initiated supported by teacher intervention to ensure the quality of play. This we believe is the best environment to promote and encourage THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING. This is also the best environment to capitalize on the child’s unique interests and abilities.
Children may work cooperatively or independently in our classroom. Messes and spills and laughter are EXPECTED. We have an outdoor play area complete with slides, climbing equipment, musical equipment, rubber mulch and a colorful kid-size wooden train! We also maintain a Butterfly Garden, a currently occupied Bluebird House, and pavilion. We have a large indoor play area where our Music & Movement program takes place twice a month, and children can play in inclement weather. Our hands on Science Program is a curriculum where children are encouraged to touch and experiment. Themes in this program change monthly and include rocks and minerals, machines, and water activities to name a few. Field trips include visits to the Pumpkin Patch, the Apple Orchard, Frances Slocum State Park, and the Back Mountain Library.
Children in our Four Year Old classes go to Learning Lab once a week. In Learning Lab the same skills we are developing in the regular classroom are reinforced in a more structured environment. Learning Centers focusing on a set of themes – a letter in the alphabet, a color, a shape, a skill (such as cutting, left/right, etc.), writing activities, an “opposite” (such as over/under, full/empty) and a reading center are completed by each child. In this environment our four and five year olds can build confidence in their abilities, and prepare for the next step in their education – Kindergarten!


Teacher Mai-Liss Tou, with her son Hayden, 4, says a homework ban could weaken a student’s sense of responsibility. (PHOTO: Courtesy)
By Melis Mevlutoglu
Assigning homework in elementary school and high school may give students moving onto post-secondary a sense of responsibility.
Quebec’s elementary school, College de St. Ambroise, is banning homework for the year as a pilot project. The elementary school has over 300 students and teaches students from Grades 1 to 6. This pilot project has been put in effect to see whether or not a homework ban would increase a student’s grades.
On the heels of College de St. Ambroise eliminating homework for the school year, the GTA’s Peel District School Board is thinking about doing the same.
Peel’s coordinating principal for elementary education, Catherine Roper says the board’s current homework policy is under review.
“Educators are very much about research,” says Roper. “If there’s research that shows things are a better practice we absolutely always consider that.”
Although a ban may be considered in the future, a lack of homework may have an affect on students once they move to post-secondary.
Thomas Street Middle School teacher, Mai-Liis Tou says a homework ban can decrease the amount of responsibility that young adults have.
“Your marks are going to drop at least fifteen per cent from high school to university,” says Tou. “You’re not going to have that responsibility that you have things that have to be done.”
Humber College nursing professor, Wendy Chow, teaches over 100 students a year. She says she regularly assigns an ample amount of homework for students to complete.
Chow says a homework ban may decrease stress for students, but it could also affect how students do in their post-secondary studies.
“I think it could negatively affect them because in post-secondary it’s a lot of independent learning,” says Chow. “Without having practiced it throughout the years of public school, high school, and so forth, they won’t do well.”


The Owl’s Nest was quiet on Wednesday as Judy Wizmur shared her mother’s story. Terry Herskovits survived the Holocaust during World War II.
The event was put on by the Rowan Center for Genocide Studies and the Office of Social Justice Inclusion and Conflict Resolution. It is part of a series of programs called, “Dining for Diversity.”
“Holocaust survivors are getting older and many of them are passing,” said Stephen Hague, coordinator of the Rowan Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and history instructor. “So it’s a really rare opportunity for them to, students, faculty and staff to hear from a Holocaust survivor.”
Herskovits was born in Czechoslovakia with 11 other siblings. Her father had wanted her to go to school and become a secretary to the town’s Jewish lawyer. She didn’t get the chance to even finish high school because at the age of 14, she moved to Budapest. This was after her father had been attacked by a gang for being Jewish.
When Herskovits was in Budapest, she met a dress designer by the name of Gizy who gave her employment and eventually became really close to her.
In 1944, Nazis began to take over Hungary. Herskovits and Gizy were able to find someone to hide them in a farmhouse in exchange for payment. Eventually they were discovered and Herskovits was forced to get on a train so that it could to take her to Auschwitz. The train tracks were bombed by Russians before it got to the concentration camp.
“It would be a shame,” Wizmur said. That was what Raul Wallenberg told Herskovits when he took her off the train, right before it left for Aushwitz.
Wallenberg helped Herskovits and Gizy by giving them papers and a safe place to stay during the rest of the war.
After the war ended she began to realize the terrible truth: Her parents had been killed and only seven of her siblings survived.
After the war ended, Herskovits met her first husband and had two children, one of them being Wizmur, in Budapest. Even though the war was over, the Russians didn’t leave Hungary after it ended. They took over the country.
“One could not speak against the authorities,” Wizmur said. “The penalty for speaking out could be imprisonment or worse.”
Wizmur’s dad was running a successful business and the government didn’t like that. They decided to leave the country with the help of a man her father knew. That same man later sold them out to the government and her father was killed. Herskovits spent three years in jail after her capture. Her children went to live with Gizy.
“On the first night that she was home. She and I were sleeping in the same room and in the middle of the night I got up and I said ‘Mommy I have to go to the bathroom,’” Wizmur said. “It was as if she never left.”
In 1956, Herskovits and her new husband, along with the children, decided to escape to Austria. They made it across the border safely and eventually they came to the United States.
“It’s important, like her coming here and sharing her story,” said Patricia Matias, a senior elementary education major who was at the Dining for Diversity program. “Because otherwise, we get general facts in school, but it’s not as personal and I guess, as detailed as this is.”
Matias still remembers the time she visited the Holocaust Museum and the impact that a room filled with the survivors’ shoes had on her.
“It’s hard to like wrap your head around the fact that this actually happened and so many people died because of the mere fact that they were Jewish,” Matias said.
Hague said that he hopes that everyone who came to the event leaves with a sense of activism to make sure that the events that lead to the Holocaust never happen again.
For questions/comments about this story, email firstname.lastname@example.org or tweet @thewhitonline.


Whilst a small amount of research and ongoing advocacy for tertiary-level musicians’ health education exists, there is still a need for health education resources to be tested, particularly with the secondary school music community. This scoping review study evaluated the range of evidence from health promotion interventions trialled at secondary schools and tertiary music institutions globally and across all genres of music. We investigated aspects such as the types of strategies that had been implemented and evaluated, and the enablers or barriers with implementation. Scoping reviews aim to map the key concepts that underpin a research area, allowing the researchers to synthesise the extent of evidence from multiple study designs. This ‘mapping’ of research evidence can then be used to formulate recommendations for future research. Findings may potentially inform health education strategies and curriculum development for implementation and evaluation in diverse music education contexts.


Child Therapy Resources
Children with special needs often benefit from a variety of child therapy interventions. Depending on the special need, a child may have physical, occupational, behavioral, psychological, and/or speech therapy, in addition to tutoring and other types of intervention.
There are also many forms of child therapy that help with pediatric conditions, such as music therapy, equine therapy, sensory tools and toys, and more. For children with special needs, sometimes several differing therapies have a role to play in helping them reach their potential. While there is some overlap in what some of them offer, a coordinated program that uses the knowledge and training of each professional can help children with motor skill development and life skills.
California has an abundance of resources for child therapy for children with special needs. Due to the size of cities and the vast number of services available, it is often difficult for you as a parent to build a comprehensive treatment program on your own.
How ADA Helps
ADA’s goal is to help parents find appropriate child therapy treatment plans implemented by the best professionals in your local area. This includes resources for the following:
Behavior therapy is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on reducing behavior problems and promoting adaptation skills. Behavioral therapy uses psychological techniques to improve physical, mental, and communicative skills.
Physical therapy (PT) focuses on improving gross and fine motor skills, balance and coordination, and strength and endurance. Your child may be evaluated by a physical therapist to assess muscle and joint function, mobility, strength and endurance, oral motor skills such as feeding and talking, posture and balance, even the status of the heart and lungs.
Occupational therapy, or OT for short, is a treatment therapy that helps children achieve independence in all facets of their lives. If your child has physical disabilities or developmental delays, occupational therapy can improve their cognitive (thinking), physical and motor skills as well as address psychological, social, and environmental factors that impact your child’s functioning.
Speech therapy is a clinical program aimed at improving speech and language skills and oral motor abilities. This means talking, using sign language, or using a communication aid. Children who are able to talk may work on making their speech clearer, or on building their language skills by learning new words, learning to speak in sentences, or improving their listening skills.
We feel that access to the right information is the key to planning a successful future for your child. To provide you with the tools to enable you to plan a happy and successful future for your family, we have compiled a list of qualified therapy professionals who specialize in these areas.
We welcome you to reach out for help. Please contact us today.


Howard, K., Kelley, J., Campbell, P. S. (2018). World Music Pedagogy: Secondary School Innovations. 3, 226. New York, New York: Routledge.
Kelley, J. (2017). Daniel Baker's "El Sistema: Orchestrating Venezuela's Youth". Music Educators Journal. 103(3), 8-9.
Kelley, J. (2017). Kiri Miller's "Playing Along: Digital Games, YouTube, and Virtual Performance".
Kelley, J. (2020). The effect of gender salience on interest in music activities.. Other.
Kelley, J., Farley, A. (2019). Self-compassion levels in musicians and non-musicians.. Contributions to Music Education.
Demorest, S. M., Kelley, J., Pfordresher, P. Q. (2017). Singing ability, musical self-concept, and future music participation. Journal of Research in Music Education. 64(4), 405-420.
Kelley, J., Demorest, S. M. (2016). A comparative study of music programs in charter and traditional schools. Journal of Research in Music Education. 64(1), 88-107.
Kelley, J. (2016). Gender Differences in the Choral Classroom. 18(1), 26-36.
Kelley, J. (2016). "Everyone's magical and everyone's important": Karaoke community and identity in an American gay bar. International Journal of Community Music. 9(2), 135-155.


Music and movement in family
Music Together is a method of music education primarily aimed at infants and children under 6 years of age and their families. It was born in 1987 at the Center for Music and Young Children in Princeton, in the United States, and today there are already hundreds of centers using this method all over the world.
A Music Together class is not a "music lesson" but a space to make music with children and their families. It is a relaxed, fun, participatory and exploratory experience that allows the child to develop musical intelligence as well as create the foundation for future musical progress.
But in addition to this musical development, approaching them to music in an active and creative way, from early childhood, helps them to develop their intellectual potential (cognitive and language acquisition, for example), physical (the effects of music and movements learned favors the development of their psychomotor skills), emotional (their expressive possibilities are expanded and the recognition and acceptance of different emotional states, for example) and social (music is made in a group, with the cohesive effect that this entails, and furthermore, different ages are mixed in each group).
Discover the joy of making music with your children by supporting their growth and development! It is not necessary to have previous knowledge of music or English.
In the Tamarindos Apartment Hall, Puerto del Carmen
Babies 0-9/10 months, with mom or dad (or both!): 10:30-11:30
Children from 0 to 3 years old, in family: 11:30- 12:30
Guests of the center are also welcome to join individual classes.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be happy to talk to you:
Marta Ranch: 619132625
More information also: http://www.musictogetherlanzarote.com/


ERIC Number: ED468431
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 2002
Schools That Work: Where All Children Read and Write. Second Edition.
Allington, Richard L.; Cunningham, Patricia M.
This book presents practical information for those wanting to create elementary schools in which all children become readers and writers. It describes critical factors that can advance or impede the development of more effective educational settings, noting exemplary efforts in real schools and offering a variety of activities for taking stock of a school's educational efforts. The book focuses on how schools must change if they are to meet the educational demands of the 21st century. The 12 chapters look at: (1) "The Schools We Have: What We Must Change"; (2) "The Stories of Schools Where All Children Become Readers and Writers"; (3) "What Do We Now Know About Reading and Writing?"; (4) "Who Does What?"; (5) "The What of Reading: The Reading Curriculum"; (6) "Time: Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Years"; (7) "Tests, Assessments, and Report Cards"; (8) "Professional Development: The Key to Change"; (9) "Family Involvement"; (10) "Schools That Work for All Children"; (11) "A Tour Through a School: What to Look For"; and (12) "Getting Started." (Contains 302 references.) (SM)
Descriptors: Administrator Role, Beginning Reading, Childrens Literature, Curriculum, Diversity (Student), Educational Change, Elementary Education, Evaluation Methods, Faculty Development, Family Involvement, Literacy Education, Paraprofessional School Personnel, Parent School Relationship, Reading Comprehension, Reading Instruction, Reading Skills, School Culture, School Visitation, Special Education, Student Evaluation, Teacher Collaboration, Teacher Role, Time Factors (Learning), Volunteers, Writing Instruction, Writing Skills
Allyn & Bacon, 72 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116 ($31). Tel: 800-666-9433 (Toll Free); Web site: http://www.ablongman.com.
Publication Type: Books; Guides - Non-Classroom
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Administrators; Teachers; Practitioners
Authoring Institution: N/A


Remember – pupils should be increasing their knowledge of music through engagement with musical sound, supported by acquiring further verbal knowledge about music.
I completely agree with this statement from the recent OFSTED professional development materials for music education. The music should come first. What fascinates me is when the history and theory, this ‘further verbal knowledge’, becomes too little or too much. Are there limits to the amount of history we should be teaching, and when does the history mean we are not exploring the music sufficiently?
Two things that interest me particularly:
- How important is the study of music as a score-based activity? Do I alienate those that find the reading of western notation tricky by exploring repertoire at the score level? Do I remove an essential part of the study of a piece analytically by avoiding the notation and focusing on the performance of the work via recording or live performance? Is there a balancing point?
- How important is it for pupils to know about the biography of musicians and composers? Where, again, is the balancing point? How much is enough, how much too little? Should we be encouraging a historical study of music that places works at the centre, composers, styles or are there other ways of creating the bigger picture of music history?
Why does all this matter? With regards to western art music, I want pupils to develop the bigger picture, to see the connections with the past and become increasingly aware that we continue to perform these historical works (i.e. anything written before today!). This is why music is so fascinating – we continue to recreate works of the recent and distant past through performance. Every performance is a historical re-enactment, no? All music is history…?