We believe in our pupils having fun, meaningful experiences across the curriculum!
For the past 2 years we have been developing a creative themed curriculum. The children have thoroughly enjoyed this way of working and have experienced many varied and memorable experiences. All classes have a different theme for each term and the children help to plan the topic by suggesting activities and saying what they would like to learn. Each class has a role play area and the displays in the classroom reflect the topic.
Our curriculum embraces the 'Every Child Matters' agenda, so each child has the opportunity to learn about life in the wider world.
Examples of this are:
The planning of the curriculum is based around the skills children need for life and the children knowing how they learn. Each term we have a 'learn to learn' day which is a curriculum day where all the school work together on a particular topic.
This involves them working in mixed age groups and using a range of skills that they have been developing throughout the year.
'Learn to learn' days have included
Throughout ICT is at the heart of our curriculum. Children are taught ICT skills which they can then use in cross curricular projects. They are encouraged to make choices about the ICT they use and whether it is appropriate for the task.
They will be taught to develop their enquiring minds and be eager to explore the world around. This will include a practical approach to problem solving, research, experimentation and a suitable choice of communication of the results.
At the heart of the curriculum, literacy and numeracy skills will be seen as vital to the successful development of all aspects of the curriculum.
We expect high standards in all aspects of school life and work, with the emphasis at all times on providing a supportive and happy atmosphere in which to work. Children will be encouraged to produce their best possible work and be proud of what they produce.
Useful Links to Curriculum Resources
Phonics Interactive Learning
This is a programme that you can install on your computer to help children learn the phonics sounds.
Times Tables Booklet
Maths Guidance for Parents
Reading Guidance for Parents


Introduction to Visual Thinking Strategies
Monday, March 19, 2012
12:00am - 12:00am
Art Museum educators and classroom teachers have been using the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) methodology for over twenty years to engage visitors and students of all ages in discussing works of art. Open-ended group discussions can provide amazing opportunities for students to share their voices, listen to their peers, and sharpen their critical thinking and communication skills. This workshop will provide a brief overview of how VTS was developed as well as an introduction to the VTS methodology, including opportunities for participants to practice facilitation at the Museum of Art, RISD.
A Public Humanities Professional Workshop.
About the Facliitators:
Michelle Grohe is the Director of School and Teacher Programs at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, where she oversees the School Partnership Program. She received her Masters in Art Education + Design from the Rhode Island School of Design, and has worked at the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey, and the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts. Michelle has also co-instructed the art museum discussions for Harvard Medical School’s course, Training the Eye: Improving the Art of Physical Diagnosis since 2009, and was named the Museum Art Educator of the Year in 2010 by the Massachusetts Art Education Association .
Ray Williams has worked as an art museum educator for more than twenty years, having led education departments at the Harvard Art Museums, Peabody Essex Museum, the Smithsonian's Freer and Sackler Galleries, and UNC-Chapel Hill's Ackland Art Museum. He has developed innovative projects in museums that support interfaith dialogue, preparation for citizenship, and professional reflection among health care professionals and business leaders. A graduate of Western Carolina University, Williams holds an MA in art history from the University of North Carolina and an EdM for the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is currently teaching a course for the public humanities program at Brown University and designing museum workshops on teamwork and communication for Harvard affiliated hospitals.


Note: To protect the privacy of our members, e-mail addresses have been removed from the archived messages. As a result, some links may be broken.
One system I've used for assessment of Elementary Education majors' art
work focuses on the criteria all students can accomplish, not based on
talent or artistic ability. I use a rubric that is designed to rate a
student's developmental level. After all, life experiences inform our level
of abiity and talent. Therefore, if students are assessed on "where they
are" on a continuum (naive to sophisticated) based on specific criteria,
they understand that the assessment is not biased, less subjective, or a
no-win. The criteria are task-specific instructional expectations. What
learning do you want students to demonstrate/show evidence? The students
discuss the criteria prior to their assignment/problem--such as the impact
of a conceptualized idea into a form; degree of elaboration/invention,
etc.; degree of technical facility; degree of appropriate
design/composition attributes--whatever relates to the study. They do not
receive letter grades on art work but do so on the completion of a
portfolio of artwork. Hope this helps! Studying the works of Grant Wiggins
(CLASS) and others will offer more complete explanations and support.
I've found students accept this form of assessment for products and written
work (different criteria, of course). They should be familiar with the use
of rubrics when they become teachers of all subjects.


Nov. 18, 2010
Early Literacy Collection Given to 35 Colorado Public Library Sites
The Colorado State Library announced today that 35 Colorado public library sites in 25 library systems have been awarded an Early Literacy Collection of 24 picture books. The collections contain picture books based on research on what works with young children to inspire learning.
“The use of these books in libraries across Colorado will help support crucial brain and learning development in infants and young children,” said Commissioner of Education Dwight D. Jones. “Early literacy skills are the foundation for reading readiness.”
The storytime collection was funded through federal funds designed to promote early literacy. Library sites were selected based on a demonstrated commitment to serving children, success in implementing literacy programs for children and interest in early literacy development in the community. All 35 library sites serve populations under 25,000 and are located across Colorado.
The following library districts/systems were awarded one or more Early Literacy Collections:
- Akron Public Library
- Canon City Public Library
- Cortez Public Library
- Delta County Public Library District
- Dolores Library District / Montezuma County
- East Cheyenne County Library District
- East Morgan County Library District / Brush
- Elbert County Library District
- Garfield County Public Library District
- Gunnison County Library District
- Kiowa County Public Library District / Eads
- Lamar Public Library
- Mancos Public Library District
- Montrose Regional Library District
- Northern Chaffee County Library District / Buena Vista
- Park County Public Library
- Penrose Community Library District
- Rampart Library District
- Rangely Regional Library District
- Rio Grande Library District / Monte Vista
- Spanish Peaks Library District / Walsenburg
- Sterling Public Library
- West Routt Library District / Hayden
- Wray Public Library
- Yuma Public Library
The early literacy collection books provide parents and caregivers with techniques for engaging infants and young children in language and literacy games that promote learning and school-readiness. In the program, children have exposure to language and literature and arrive at kindergarten ready to learn. Parents, child care providers and others are encouraged to discover ways to engage very young children in fun and playful interactions that also build healthy brain development. Public library storytimes are an excellent way for parents and children to read together, tell and talk about stories, say nursery rhymes and sing songs.
Early literacy skills are research-based practices from the Every Child Ready to Read (ECRR) program -- a national initiative from the Public Library Association to promote pre-literacy skills in children from birth through age five in public libraries. The State Library works with early literacy librarians throughout the state to promote literacy through books, songs and activities. Parents are encouraged to go to http://www.StoryBlocks.org to find other fun literacy activities.


- food wall display or Eating the Alphabet book
Foundational Skills/RF.PK.MA.2.a: With guidance and support, recognize and produce rhyming words (e.g., identify words that rhyme with /cat/ such as /bat/ and /sat/).
Head Start Outcomes:
Literacy Knowledge/Phonological Awareness: Identifies and discriminates between sounds and phonemes in language, such as attention to beginning and ending sounds of words and recognition that different words begin or end with the same sound.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 8: Listen to, identify, and manipulate language sounds to develop auditory discrimination and phonemic awareness.
Word Play: Rhyming Game #1
ELA Focus Skills: Phonological Awareness (Rhyme), Vocabulary
Ask children to name some plants they eat. Then invite children to play a rhyming game using different foods.
- Say, I will name a plant food and I want you to name a word that rhymes with it. Demonstrate for children.
- Point to a picture of a bean and say, Bean. Pause as if thinking; then say, Seen. Bean and seen are rhyming words. Have children focus on the ending sounds as you stretch out the sound in each word, be-e-a-a-n-n and se-e-e-e-n-n
- Point to a picture of a lime and say the word. Ask, Can you think of a word that rhymes with lime? (time, dime, climb) Allow time for children to respond. Accept made up words as well as actual words.
- Repeat the process with the words pear (bear, tear, rare); corn (horn, torn, born); fig (big, dig, wig); and pea (me, tree, sea).
Adaptation: With very young children, say two words that rhyme and one that does not (bean, green, lime) and ask children which word does not rhyme.
Adaptation: In groups with varying ages, challenge older children to come up with as many rhyming words as possible in five minutes for the words bean (lean, mean, clean, machine, magazine, seen, teen, thirteen) and pea (bee, he, key, knee, see, me, tea, we).
Educator Tip: Guided and independent Letter, Sound, and Word practice continues to take place in center activities. It is helpful to set up the literacy center immediately after the direct instruction and repeat instruction before children work in the literacy center identifying letters.


Calvin and Harriet Beecher Stowe: Partners for freedom
He was a young seminary professor and biblical scholar. She belonged to a leading family of social activists and clergymen. Together, they helped change the course of American history.
Calvin E. Stowe graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, with highest honors before entering Andover Theological Seminary in 1825. He completed his theological studies with the Andover Class of 1829.
Stowe taught Greek at Dartmouth College and Biblical Literature at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati. At Lane, Calvin met and married Harriet Elizabeth Beecher, daughter of the school’s renowned president, Lyman Beecher.
The marriage, it turned out, was no ordinary one. It grew to be a great alliance for American social reform and freedom.
Harriet’s brother was Henry Ward Beecher, one of the era’s most celebrated clergyman and preachers. Her sister was the writer and reformer Catharine Beecher, a prominent champion for improved education for women and girls.
Convinced of his wife’s own talents, Calvin told Harriet she "must be a literary woman." He remained one of her greatest supporters.
In Ohio, Calvin Stowe became a rigorous and well-known champion of free, universal public education, in part to integrate the rising tide of new immigrants into American society. The Ohio legislature distributed a copy of Stowe’s Report on Elementary Education in Europe to every one of the state’s 8,500 school districts.
Harriet Stowe wrote stories and novels and gathered material for her most famous work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which she wrote mostly in Brunswick, Maine, while Calvin taught at Bowdoin College.
In 1852, the year before Calvin Stowe’s return to Andover Theological Seminary as professor of sacred literature, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, burst onto the American literary and political worlds as a sensational best-seller. Exposing the brutal reality of slavery in the American South, Harriet's book ignited Abolitionist sentiments on the Andover campus and throughout the nation.
The Stowe name became one of the most hated in the slave-owning states of the South. During the years before the Civil War and Emancipation, the Stowes entertained leading Abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth in their Andover home. They also became prominent members of the Abolitionist community in Andover and in the rest of the North.
When Calvin retired after the war, another of Harriet’s brothers, Charles Beecher, opened a school in Florida to teach newly emancipated slaves. At his urging, Calvin and Harriet joined him each winter, extending their activist partnership well into their golden years.
About Andover Newton’s History
Since 1807, the Andover Newton community has crossed borders, climbed over barriers, and made connections. The nation’s oldest theological school and its first graduate institution, Andover Newton’s many innovations created the model used by almost all American theological schools today. Few schools of any kind have had as profound and lasting an impact on American life--- in religious and public service, in government, on public and higher education, in literature, linguistics, scholarship, social justice, equality, freedom, and the development of America’s core ideals and values.
Andover Newton alumni and alumnae have included the founders of schools and colleges around the world, many nationally distinguished preachers, clergymen, and scholars of theology, three presidents of Brown University, the 9th president of Dartmouth College, and the author of the national hymn, “America.”
For more about Andover Newton's history, please click here.


Designed for children ages 3 to 5, the Preschool Fieldtrips provide an interactive exploration of the Museum. Children will discover instruments like the cello, saxophone, ukulele, piano and more! Tours feature a storytime, a group drum circle and a special take-home surprise!
K-12: MusicVentures Fieldtrip
The Museum’s MusicVentures Fieldtrip takes students on a musical exploration of the people, historical events and innovations that influenced music making and musical instruments. Led by a trained facilitator, students embark on creative thinking adventure through the instruments on display, sound and video clips, and an interactive activity.
The Museum is committed to reaching students from low-income areas who may not be receiving music education in the classroom. We understand that it’s not financially feasible for many schools to take a field trip the Museum so we created the Title One Fieldtrip program to reach schools that serve these students. This initiative, for third grade classes from Title One designated schools, brings these classes to the Museum at no charge.
North Coast Strings is a musical ensemble designed to be an entry point for adults who want to learn to play a stringed instrument (violin, viola, cello, bass) or for those who have played in the past, but haven’t picked up their instrument in a number of years. The orchestra is hosted by the Museum of Making Music and directed by Paula Simmons.
The national New Horizons Band program was developed by professor Roy Ernst of the Eastman School of Music in 1991. The program offers adults, primarily people who are over 50, the chance to learn how to play a concert band instrument and perform with other beginning musicians. The program has introduced thousands of older adults, retirees, and seniors to the joys and benefits of music making. The local North Coastal New Horizons Band is the Carlsbad affiliate of the National program.
The Museum of Making Music offers specialized tours for both Boy and Girl Scout Troops. Throughout the museum, scouts will learn about the history of American Popular Music and become familiar with the different instruments as well as important events and people in the history of making music. In conjunction with the tour, scouts earn a special Museum of Making Music badge and fulfill a number of requirements towards earning their respective music-related badges.
The Museum of Making Music regularly hosts youth camps and educational workshops specifically focused on providing an introduction to making music and encouraging musical development for the whole family! In addition to an annual Summer Music Camp, past educational activities include a girl guitar workshop, a teen workshop on effects pedals, summer classes for preschoolers, music and wellness workshops and Girl Scout camp.
See a list of upcoming camps & workshops...
In conjunction with "The Harp: A Global Story of Man, Music & Medicine," the museum has developed a community-outreach program that will bring hand-painted harps to different locations throughout Carlsbad. Illustrated by local artists, these instruments will be on display as objects of delight and curiosity to residents. Additionally, children from the Carlsbad Boys & Girls Clubs will have the chance to learn and create music with beginner-friendly Harpsicles® during educational sessions.
The music program at Joli Ann Leichtag Elementary School is a unique multi-year museum/school partnership that seeks to provide a systemic music education to the 800+ students at the school. This program features weekly music instruction, lessons in music history, and hands-on experience with dozens of instruments.
The Museum of Making Music provides informative, music-filled presentations for your local club or social group. The Speakers Bureau presentations provides a brief, engaging overview of the of the museum's history, its exhibitions and multi-faceted programming for children and adults.
Each year the Museum of Making Music receives hundreds of requests for donations to support community benefit programs and third-party fundraisers. Unfortunately, we are unable to make financial contributions to these events, but we are more than happy to provide donations of admission passes to the Museum of Making Music. Although we can not accommodate every request, we do consider each and every one that we receive.
If you are hosting a charitable event and would like to request a donation, please fill out our in-kind donation request form.
Street Address:Museum of Making Music5790 Armada DriveCarlsbad, CA 92008Phone: (760) 438-5996Fax: (760) 438-8964Toll Free: (877) 551-9976Send us an eMail


their proposal to increase funding for the already failing Head Start Project. The progessive thinktank is lobbying to increase funding from 7,200 dollars per student to 10,000 dollars per student. That’s nearly 40 percent more than what we're spending now.On Wednesday, The Center for American Progress released
As a part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty” the Office of Economic Opportunity launched Project Head Start, which aimed to "boost school readiness" for 3 and 4-year-old children from low-income families.
In 2010 The Department of Health and Human Services found that for students going from kindergarten to first grade:
With only a few exceptions, teacher and classroom characteristics did not differ significantly between children in the Head Start group and those in the control group.
Impacts at the end of kindergarten and first grade:
This pattern of limited cognitive impacts in the school years may suggest that the magnitude of the initial cognitive impacts may not have been sufficiently potent for the early gains Head Start children made to be sustained as they developed and moved into the elementary school years.
The Department followed up with the study observing Head Start participants and their control group counter parts through the end of the third grade and found:
In summary, there were initial positive impacts from having access to Head Start, but by the end of 3rd grade there were very few impacts found for either cohort in any of the four domains of cognitive, social-emotional, health and parenting practices.
Impact on Children’s Cognitive Development:
There is clear evidence that Head Start had a statistically significant impact on children’s language and literacy development while children were in Head Start... However, these early effects dissipated in elementary school, with only a single impact remaining at the end of 3rd grade for children in each age cohort: a favorable impact for the 4-year-old cohort (ECLS-K Reading) and an unfavorable impact for the 3-yearold cohort (grade promotion).
At the end of 3rd grade, there was suggestive evidence of an unfavorable impact—the parents of the Head Start group children reported a significantly lower child grade promotion rate than the parents of the non-Head Start group children.
That means spending almost 40 percent more per participant to leave our children’s circumstances unchanged or even worse than when they when they first entered school.


|National Standards for Music Education
from the Elementary Classroom Teacher Resource Index
1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
7. Evaluating music and music performances.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
From National Standards for Arts Education. Copyright � 1994 by Music Educators National Conference (MENC). Used by permission. The complete National Arts Standards and additional materials relating to the Standards are available from MENC: The National Association for Music Education, 1806 Robert Fulton Drive, Reston, VA 20191.
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Fifth & Sixth Grades
The Harmony 5th & 6th grade provides students with the opportunity to further develop leadership, academic, social, and mediation skills in preparation for the culminating experience of their elementary education, the graduation project, and toward the greater goal of developing lifelong learners. Course work is often designed as a path to practice the skills of real work that they will do in the world.
What We’re Currently Learning
Harmony 5th & 6th graders investigated Brain Science this semester as the core hub of our integrated life skills curriculum. Through this lens, our class explored a wide variety of topics including: the nervous system, the basic anatomy of the brain, functional areas of the brain, the emotional center of the brain and the amygdala, strategies for managing negative emotional responses, the neurological and anatomical changes in the teenage brain, autism and Asperger’s Spectrum Disorder, and neurological and brain injuries and disorders.
We watched a variety of videos, TED talks, documentaries, and hosted guest speakers, such as Mr. Steve Volan, Bloomington City Council member and current IU graduate student, who spoke about living with Asperger’s. We were also fascinated by IU Brain Science Department’s, Dale Sengelaub. Dale gifted our class much time. He brought in his brain collection, gave a captivating presentation, sent thoughtful email answers to student inquiries, and fielded student questions for over one and a half hours! Additionally, he will join our students at our annual Harmony School Open House, including his brain collection in our student exhibition of their brain science research projects.
Our ultimate goal, besides learning science and the various life skills topics, is to provide students with practical strategies for dealing with the specific issues in our personal lives and to employ in our relationships as citizens in diverse communities. This is where our mindfulness training comes into practice. We’ve learned and practiced mindful breathing and meditation, and talked about other mindfulness practices as well.
All in all, this has been an illuminating unit of study! Below we have several pictures of this wonderful experience.


Fun and learning go hand in hand at Early Learning Centre. These new applications for iPhone are a great way to help children develop and have fun while they play.
Our apps are designed to develop a range of skills, from spelling, counting and co-ordination to the fun of colouring, music and playing games.
Manic Martians and Flashcards are available now and there are more great apps coming soon – enjoy!
Help children learn to recognise and read letters and count with the Flashcards phonics app.
This fun app includes big, bold and colourful alphabetic and numeric Flashcards with a friendly voice to help with the sounding of letter phonics. A fun way to help children with counting and spelling. It also contains counting and "say what you see" games, encouraging children to learn whilst playing.
This free iPhone app helps children develop their reading and numeracy skills and instills confidence.
Make your way over the planet by quickly bopping as many of the Martians as you can. Be careful not to hit any of the astronauts by mistake. Then lift off into space in your rocket to travel to the next planet.
This free iPhone app helps children to develop hand-to-eye co-ordination and fine motor skills, as well as stimulating the senses.


AMONGST the fundamental rights the 1973 constitution grants is the right to free and compulsory education to children from five to 16 years under Article 25A, in “such manner as may be determined by law”. Likewise, Article 37 of the chapter ‘Principles of Policy’, also puts emphasis on education.
The principles of policy do not confer legal rights or provide legal remedies. They are instruments of instruction or general recommendations that are addressed to all authorities in the state to remind them of the basic principles of the new social and economic order promoted by the constitution.
The fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution have to be enforced by the state, and in the case of their violation the courts are duty-bound to provide legal remedies available under the law.
If in any part of Pakistan there are lapses in ensuring elementary education (in public institutions), if schools and educational institutions have not been created, and there are obstacles to providing free elementary education — for instance, lack of teachers and funds, and schools being blown up — the superior courts can be approached. Or they can take suo motu action against the violation of this right.
The prime objective of these constitutional guarantees is to enable the efficient participation of citizens in the progress of the country.
In this context, merely inserting education in the list of fundamental constitutional rights appears insufficient in the absence of practical steps.
The state of education is appalling in Pakistan. The situation can be gauged from reports that suggest that 25 million children are deprived of education in Pakistan, never mind their constitutional rights. Equally shocking is the fact that every 10th child in the world who does not attend school is a Pakistani.
According to the UN’s International Human Development Indicators, Pakistan spends only 2.7 per cent of GDP on education which comes to less than the subsidy our national airline receives every year.
Female education, especially in the terror-hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, has suffered even more. Some reports indicate that since 2009 over 300 schools have been blown up by the Pakistani Taliban in the area.
The decentralisation of education was done by the previous government. Local governments were given administrative control of schools and the federal government was responsible for planning, policymaking, provision of funds and for enacting laws regarding the curricula, for establishing centres of excellence and determining the standards of education.
The provincial governments were made responsible for overall monitoring and higher education. This arrangement could have existed but none of the provincial governments established a vibrant local bodies system despite the constitutional requirement under Article 140A.
The newly elected democratic government amended the Concurrent Legislative List through the 18th Amendment, and education devolved to the provinces.
Under this new arrangement provincial governments are liable for funding, planning, policymaking and for all other necessary steps leading to the betterment of education in their respective territories.
The provincial assemblies have been given the power to enact laws to regulate educational institutions and develop syllabus and curricula.
This arrangement was put in place with the objective of bringing education systems under effective administrative control and improving the standard and quality of education in the country.
Unfortunately, it has been observed that the provincial governments have miserably failed to establish an effective regulatory system and also fallen short of creating uniform, modern curricula.
Devolution seems to have been introduced without taking its perils into account. Clearly, the framers of the 18th Amendment failed to realise the dire effects of haphazard decentralisation.
In the absence of central control on the curriculum, the standard and quality of education has deteriorated even more and the gap between public and private education (not including the religious seminaries) is increasing day by day.
In line with this constitutional change, where the devolved departments and powers of local government are concerned, the chief ministers are exercising financial and other control according to their own discretion.
The best way to provide uninterrupted and comprehensive education is to administer it through the local bodies system.
It is important to note that devolution and decentralisation of administrative controls is imperative for the provision of effective education but at the same time no state can afford numerous educational systems at the primary level.
In Pakistan we must have a uniform curriculum at the elementary level in order to prepare a sound academic foundation and reduce the intellectual divide.
Education being the most important fundamental right needs to be treated with utmost seriousness. The government must rebuild the schools of Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and make arrangements to provide free and compulsory education all across Pakistan.
The immediate and unhindered provision of education is a constitutional responsibility of the state and its organs. Meanwhile, the blowing up schools is an attempt to abrogate Article 25A of the constitution. And abrogation is defined as high treason liable to punishment under Article 6 of the constitution.
The writer is an advocate.


Students enrolled in a bachelors in elementary education with an emphasis on grades K-5 will learn the core subjects and professional practice fundamentals they need to work as teachers. Common courses include classroom management, educational psychology, foundational in teaching, diversity and inclusion, and core content. In addition, students will also complete supervised practice teaching assignments. Once they earn appropriate licensure, as outlined by their state, they will be able to teach in both public and private elementary schools.
Why a Bachelor’s Degree?
Most entry-level elementary teaching positions only require candidates to have a bachelor’s degree and state teaching certification. The specific requirements can vary by state, so please be sure to verify the program you are interested in meets requirements in your area before enrolling. In some cases, students may also opt to continue on to a master’s level program after a few years of classroom experience. The foundational course work completed as part of a four-year degree program will serve as an excellent foundation for this graduate study.
Getting Into a Bachelor’s Degree Program
Students with a variety of educational backgrounds may be interested in pursuing a bachelors in elementary education online. Please be sure to verify specific admissions requirements with each individual school, but here are a few common criteria to consider as you do your research:
- High school transcript or GED test scores
- Previous college transcripts (if applicable)
- Minimum GPA (as determined by the school)
- SAT or ACT test scores (if required)
- Application form and fee
- Application essay (if required)
- Letters of recommendation (if required)
Inside an Elementary Education (K-5) Bachelor’s Degree Program
Students researching programs in elementary education will likely find an expanding number of options when it comes to online learning. Most distance learning programs run in an asynchronous format, meaning there are no scheduled class times. Instead, students are free to log in to the virtual learning platform at any time and from any location with access to the internet. This provides the flexibility working adults, busy parents, and those with travel restrictions need to pursue higher education. Technology such as chat, e-mail, interactive discussion boards, web conferencing, and streaming audio and video help to keep students connected to their peers and professors on a regular basis as well.
This type of program will usually take four years of full-time study. Students can, of course, expect variations depending on transfer credits brought in, the number of classes required for the program, level of enrollment, and any breaks taken. Classes may include topics such as classroom management, child development, learning psychology, teaching practice, learning assessment and evaluation, diversity and inclusion, and core content courses in reading and language arts, elementary mathematics, and elementary science. Undergraduates will also need to complete student teaching assignments, though these can be arranged remotely for online students.
What’s Next for Elementary Education (K-5) Bachelor’s Degree Holders?
Once students complete their online bachelor’s degree in this area, they will need to earn their teacher certification as well. The specific requirements for this will vary by state, but after they have earned their licensure, graduates can pursue teaching jobs with both public and private elementary schools. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports a relatively strong job outlook for elementary school teachers with demand expected to grow by 17% from 2010 to 2020. This is slightly higher than the 14% growth anticipated for all occupations during this projection period.
In May of 2012, the reported average annual wage for elementary school teachers, excluding special education, was $56,130. However, it is important to note, these statistics may not always reflect actual pay or job openings in your area. This will depend on the cost of living, your level of experience, the general job market, and the specific employer.


You know the phrase well: we can’t see the forest for the trees.
There is a strong sentiment that America’s children are over-scheduled and need to spend more time in relatively unstructured settings such as unsupervised outdoor play. Richard Louv, the San Diego journalist who coined the phrase “nature deficit disorder,” makes a compelling case that children need more time in nature in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods. In a recent Slate blog post, Emily Bazelon begins:
“In their new book, The App Generation, education professors Howard Gardner and Katie Davis argue that kids today are becoming more risk averse: ‘Rather than wanting to explore, to try things out by themselves, young people are always pushing to find out exactly what is wanted, when it is wanted, how it will be evaluated, what comes next and where we end up’ they said in a recent Q-and-A.”
Ms. Bazelon contrasted this description of American children’s difficulty with feeling lost, with a Swiss “forest kindergarten” in which young children go to school outdoors every day in all weather.
It’s easy (for me, anyway) to be swept up by the fantastic idea of sending children off to a forest kindergarten. It’s interesting to imagine such schools springing up in the US and how well adjusted our children would then be. That’s the forest part. It certainly makes for a happy fantasy. But we know that not many schools or districts will convert their programs any time soon to be like the forest kindergarten as described.
Now for the trees. I personally would be happy if we just look for simpler, less dramatic—certainly less so than forest kindergartens!—solutions to this problem. Why not begin by providing even a little more time and space for the less-structured, yet engaging and challenging experiences in settings where we currently find our children? We seem to be attracted to the dramatic, impractical ideas, while simply adding more time for hands-on investigation in which we challenge children to think for themselves appears impossible. It’s as if we cannot make the time for children to engage in such pursuits even when we know how valuable they are. Somehow this seems frivolous, while we emphasize the structured, “serious” experiences that lead to more prescribed, “certain” results.
For that matter, what about the rest of us– the adults? A recent experience I had as a co-instructor of a science teaching course for early childhood educators raises the question of why we see this as something only children need. I was facilitating experiences having to do with sinking and floating, a topic often explored in the early years. The adults were chattering away, engaged in thinking about various factors that affect whether something sinks or floats in water. But at a certain point the educators insisted I provide an explanation for why we were seeing what we were. I dutifully explained a bit about density and how objects that are more dense than water will sink, etc, all in what I thought were reasonably simple terms. Most of the teachers pretty much stopped the excited discussions they were having before this explanation and looked stunned. Several then expressed frustration with not understanding. I explained that the concept is not simple, and that it was fine if they did not understand, and that science is exciting because there is so much that is not yet understood. I was struck at how they were so uncomfortable with the lack of certainty brought on by not understanding, as if they were incapable of doing a little work to try to understand it better. They really just wanted to be told. And we wonder why children are having difficulty.
Jeff Winokur is an early childhood and elementary science specialist. He is an Instructor of Elementary Education at Wheelock College, and currently working with the Aspire Institute and Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care on new, state-wide Science, Technology, and Engineering standards for preschools.
Photos courtesy of Ullakko, Thelouse, and Anguskirk and used under Creative Commons License.


Online Chemistry Degree Programs
Chemistry is a fascinating field with a wide variety of career options. With online chemistry degrees widely available, there's nothing stopping you from beginning a career as a chemist.
The Facts about the Science of Chemistry
Chemistry, the study of molecules and their reactions, properties, and structure, is a fascinating field with a vast array of career options. Within the field of chemistry, there are many different areas for specialization, including materials, inorganic, organic, environmental, nanoscience, physical, and biological chemistry. A bachelor's degree in chemistry typically takes four years to complete. Undergraduate degree programs consist of fundamental chemistry courses as well as classes in mathematics, biology, and physics. Expect to enroll in lectures and attend hands-on labs. Master's degrees and PhD programs also include lab time, and tend to have heavy research components.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the average salary of chemists with bachelor degrees in 2006 was $59,000. Those with master's and PhD degrees tended to earn more. Of course, these salaries are not guaranteed and vary based on location and area of specialization, but an accredited degree is generally required to work in the chemical industry and in research and development departments.
What to Do with Your Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry
With a bachelor's degree in chemistry, you can qualify for entry-level positions in the chemical industry and teaching positions in high school-level chemistry classes. Research positions at larger pharmaceutical or biotechnology firms or at a university often require a master's or PhD degree in chemistry. Jobs in these fields are predicted to keep growing at a 9 percent rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Because it can be applied to so many issues, like drug development or biochemical research, chemistry research is likely to attract continued research funding.
Of course, you do not need to apply your chemistry degree directly to chemistry research. People with degrees in chemistry and some other career training can enter fields such as medicine, agriculture, or pharmaceuticals.
Pursue your Chemistry major today…
Kaplan University is focused on recognizing the achievements of military and veteran students and offers the flexibility of an online education.
- MS in Environmental Policy
- BS in Environmental Policy and Management
Study online with California University of Pennsylvania.
Earn a respected bachelor's degree, master's degree, or Ph.D. online at Walden University.
Earn your degree online with Grand Canyon University. We offer approximately 100 bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs in a variety of fields that can be completed 100% online.
- B.S. in Elementary Education: Science (Leads to initial teacher licensure)


What Can I Do With A Major in Music?
Music is an auditory art form incorporating instrumental or vocal tones as its medium. Common elements of music are pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. Music, as a word, originates from the Greek word, mousike, or “the art of the Muses”. Most often defined as a performing art, music has been created, performed, and defined within numerous cultural and social contexts around the world.
Some students pursue careers closely related to music, such as performers, educators, songwriters, conductors, arrangers, composers and actors. Others choose careers behind the scenes, or in the business area of music in careers such as producers, engineers, managers, agents, and in publishing and sales.
Full- and part-time faculty here at CCSU specialize in bass, bassoon, cello, clarinet, composition, computer technology, euphonium, flute, guitar, harp, horn, oboe, organ, percussion, piano, saxophone, trombone, trumpet, tuba, viola, violin, and voice.
Visit CCSU’s Music Department webpage here.
Sample of Related Occupations
Church Music Director
Film Music Editor
Instrument Making and Repair
Music Software Programmer
Music Store Manager
Sound Engineering Technician
For additional information on each occupation or any others you may be considering, please visit the Occupational Outlook Handbook, a nationally recognized source of career information, put together by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Professional Associations & Additional Career Information
American Composers Forum
American Federation of Musicians
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
American Guild of Musical Artists
American Guild of Organists
American Music Conference
American Music Therapy Association
American String Teachers Association
American Symphony Orchestra League
Artistshouse Careers in Music
Association of Performing Arts Presenters
Berklee Careers in Music
Broadcast Music, Inc.
Chamber Music America
Meet the Composer
Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association
Music Business Solutions
Music Critics Association of North America
Music Library Association
Music Publishers’ Association
Music Teachers National Association
National Association for Music Education
National Association of Schools of Music
National Music Publishers Association
National Piano Foundation
Performing Arts Career Guide
Piano Technicians Guild
Recording Industry Association of America
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
The Cantors Assembly
Women in Music National Network
Internships, Co-ops and Employment Opportunities
Music majors may find experiential opportunities or employment in a number of areas depending on your skills, abilities and experience. Career-related internships and co-op placements are a great avenue to establishing yourself as a qualified candidate for full-time, professional-level career opportunities after graduation.
The following list of employers and job titles shows opportunitites where the employer was specifically looking for music majors. This list is meant to be a resource for further career-related investigation and DOES NOT REFLECT current openings. To look for current openings, please visit Central Connections, CCSU's online job, internship, and co-op database, on the CACE website here.
Bilkent University Preparatory School - Band Internship
Carl Fischer, LLC - Music Publishing and Marketing Internship
ESF, Inc. - Creative and Performing Arts Specialist
Sennheiser Electronics Group - Artist Relations/Marketing Communications Internship
Waterbury Symphiny Orchestra - Performing Arts Management Internship


Scientists have long known that the human mind develops most rapidly during the first five years of life, a point President Barack Obama underscored in his State of the Union address when he urged states to provide universal access to high-quality pre-kindergarten programs. Investment in early childhood education is an investment in the nation's future, and Maryland is well-positioned to heed the president's call.
Children who attend high-quality, public pre-K arrive at school better equipped with the cognitive and social skills needed for learning, and there is a large body of evidence suggesting that they retain that advantage throughout their school careers and beyond. Currently, nearly 29,000 of Maryland's approximately 73,000 4-year-olds are enrolled in high-quality, public pre-K programs, with another 10,000 or so attending comparable private nursery schools and day-care centers. But too many kids still don't have access to the kinds of experiences that challenge their minds and prepare them to enter kindergarten ready to learn.
During the last decade, Maryland has greatly expanded access to public pre-K while raising standards of care. It introduced the nation's first system for holding pre-K programs accountable and consolidated early learning initiatives in a single agency, the state Department of Education, which spearheaded the creation of public-private partnerships between schools in poor neighborhoods and community-based early learning centers and service providers.
In late 2011, the state won an early learning challenge grant funded through the federal Race to the Top competition aimed at encouraging local jurisdictions to come up with innovative approaches to increase the quality of instructional programs for students, provide additional training for caregivers and narrow the student achievement gap along racial and class lines. Maryland used that money for a variety of purposes, including the creation of local early learning councils that bring together stakeholders to focus on school readiness.
Sen. Bill Ferguson and Del. Samuel I. "Sandy" Rosenberg, both Baltimore Democrats, are proposing to take that a step further. They have proposed legislation this year that would set up something of a state-level "Race to the Top" in which local jurisdictions could compete for grants to help create more high-quality preschool services, additional partnerships between pre-K programs and health and social service agencies and expanded professional development opportunities for caregivers by tailoring initiatives to local needs. The bill would require the governor to allocate at least $10 million a year for the program from the state's casino gambling-supported education trust fund. Essentially, the Race to the Top grant helped the state set up the framework for expanded, high-quality pre-K; the Ferguson-Rosenberg bill — known as "Race to the Tots" — would help those programs get off the ground.
We know what works. In 2001, only about 40 percent of Maryland 4-year-olds entering kindergarten had the skills needed for success in elementary school. Since then, the state's efforts have steadily raised standards and staff training efforts to the point where, today, more than 80 percent of children who attend public pre-K arrive at kindergarten ready to learn. The achievement gap has narrowed, and each successive cohort of kindergarten students has arrived in class better prepared to succeed than its predecessors.
But Maryland can't entirely eliminate the achievement gap until it eliminates the school readiness gap. That's why expanded access to high-quality pre-K programs is essential if Maryland is to create the highly educated work force it will need to compete successfully in a global marketplace. Children who enter the elementary grades without the skills they need will always find it difficult to catch up. The school readiness gap is the precursor of the achievement gaps that develop later, and the key to closing it is high-quality instruction that begins before children enter kindergarten.
The legislation proposed by Delegate Rosenberg and Senator Ferguson would build on the progress Maryland already has made, and it would pay big dividends down the road. President Obama cited research showing that every dollar states invest in high-quality early childhood learning programs returns $7 to $10 to their coffers in the form of higher tax revenues and lower social welfare costs.
Maryland has a chance to make difference in the lives of thousands of students whose prospects would be improved by wider access to high-quality pre-K. But the enormous benefits offered by such programs can only be realized if the state chooses to fund them.


Best Start: On Track Guide
This guide provides professionals who work with young children and families with some indicators of healthy child development from birth to 6 years of age. It provides information and tools to assist each professional in his observation of the child and encourages professionals to connect children and their families to community resources and, if needed, to appropriate services.
CNC Caregiver Uses CPR to Help Save Man’s Life
Liliane Charbachi is a caregiver with the Durham District School Board’s CNC program. As part of her annual professional development, she renews her CPR training at a PD day event. Read more or listen to her radio interview…
Immigrant families raise healthy, well-adjusted children
A new University of Maryland-led study challenges the assumption that minority and immigrant children are most often disadvantaged or at-risk. Read more…
Multilingual children likely to ace English
Children who speak more than one language do not experience any more difficulty in speaking the language of their home nation, according to a new survey.Read more…
Kindergarten registration is starting in many communities!
You can support the families that you work with by providing multilingual resources on topics like Getting Ready for Kindergarten.
Multilingual Parenting Information
Did you know that Peel CAS has parenting information on topics like Discipline and Supervision
available on their website in ten languages!
Canadian Council on Learning: Early Childhood Knowledge Centre
The Canadian Council on Learning is a catalyst for lifelong learning, promoting and supporting evidence-based decisions about learning throughout all stages of life, from early childhood through to the senior years. Here , you’ll find some quick links to a variety of information on Early Childhood Learning.


Texas Federation of Music Clubs organized
On this day in 1915, twenty-two Texas music clubs came together to form the Texas Federation of Music Clubs in Brownwood, during the annual meeting of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs. The TFMC was designed to establish a center to aid communication and cooperation for Texas musical organizations and to make music an integral part of the civic, social, educational, and religious life of Texas. Lucil Manning Lyons, president of the Fort Worth Harmony Club, became the TFMC's first president. By 1918, when the TFMC was chartered under Texas law, forty-eight clubs were enrolled. During its first thirty years the Texas Federation of Music Clubs distinguished itself with music education and appreciation campaigns and with the promotion of musical therapy and musical performance. The organization achieved particular recognition for these efforts during the Great Depression and both world wars, and in public education. Nevertheless, TFMC membership and activities diminished significantly in the post-World War II era. No records for federation activities since the 1960s have surfaced.


Video:Teaching Your Child to Use Scissorswith Kathy Moore
Being able to use scissors is a good benchmark for measuring fine motor skill development in your child. These simple instructions will help you teach your children how to safely use scissors.See Transcript
Transcript:Teaching Your Child to Use ScissorsHi, I am Kathy Moore for About.com Parenting. Developing mastery of fine motor skill is an important milestone of childhood. Being able to use a pair of scissors is a good benchmark for measuring fine motor skill development in your child. This program will offer tips and ideas on how to get your child cutting safely with scissors.
Children and Scissor SizeBegin by choosing a pair of scissors that is the appropriate size for your child's hand. Demonstrate the proper grasping technique for your child by placing your thumb middle and ring fingers in the handles of the scissors. Place your index finger on the outside of the handle to stabilize the scissors and offer a better grip. Then, just curl the pinky finger into your palm.
Choose Easy Objects to CutOnce your child can properly hold the scissors, give her some sturdy paper to cut. We use those annoying magazine subscription cards to practice on. You can use construction paper, junk mail or anything that is fairly sturdy but not too hard to cut. Sometimes we practice by cutting up plastic straws or even play dough.
Try Hand Muscle ExercisesIf your child seems frustrated, do not give up. Just change the activity. Try making a game to music using finger puppets, focusing on the thumb, index and middle fingers. Scissors can even become a talking puppet. Cut nothing, but open and close the blades in a pattern - slow and fast, wide and skinny. These activities will help train your child's muscles.
Scissors and SafetyUsing scissors should always be a supervised activity that is done while sitting. Because scissors seem like such a grown-up tool, my kids are really careful with scissors. To reinforce the safety aspect I also teach my kids how to properly hold a scissors while walking. For this lesson I use a technique I learned when I was in kindergarten. To do this, I have my child close her fist around the closed scissors blades. Then we march around the kitchen or living room holding our scissors safely. Teaching this custom will prevent injury if the child falls while walking with the scissors.
Teaching your kids to properly hold and use a pair of scissors helps develop the same muscles needed to correctly grasp a pencil, a skill they will use the rest of their lives. Plus, it is fun. Thanks for watching. To learn more, visit us on the Web at parenting.about.com.
About videos are made available on an "as is" basis, subject to the User Agreement.


- Elementary Education
- NewPath Learning Science Curriculum Mastery® Flip Chart - Grade 6
NewPath Learning Science Curriculum Mastery® Flip Chart - Grade 6
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Flip chart provides a hands-on and comprehensive review of standards-based curriculum skills. The chart has been developed to address the standards for grade 6. Chart is mounted on a sturdy easel and features 10 double-side, laminated pages. One side shows a colorful, graphic overview of the topic; the other side serves as a write-on/wipe-off activity chart with questions, labeling exercises, vocabulary review, and more. Includes activity guide with blackline copy masters, review questions, vocabulary terms, and suggested activities. 18" L x 12" W each.


By Christina Kopsini
The average retirement age in Greece stands at just 57 years and eight months according to a survey conducted by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT).
The survey used a sample from the quarterly work force report from the April-June 2012 period for people aged between 50 and 69 years, and reached some very interesting conclusions.
The average age of retirement for men is 58 years, while for women it is a few months earlier. Less than one in three (28.3 percent) of the respondents said that obligatory retirement was the main reason for their exiting the labor market. Almost six out of 10 had secured the right to retire, while a 5.7 percent share of workers stated that they had exited the market due to health problems.
It also appears that the age of retirement is affected by education level, due to its connection to work and the social security system. It was found that those who have only obtained an elementary education (primary school leavers) are more likely to retire later, at the average age of 59 years and three months. In contrast, the more educated a worker is, the earlier they retire, with the average age of retirement for university graduates standing at 56 years and four months.
Private social security programs account for a minimal share of pensioners – less than 0.2 percent (2,208 people). The vast majority of people (88.1 percent) receive their pensions from a public social security fund, while just over 0.2 percent (3,885 people) receive a combination of state and private pensions. If one adds those who are on their way to obtaining a pension from a private sector schemes, it emerges that no more than 6.6 percent of people turn to private funds for their pensions.
On the other hand, a very high number of 1,216,495 people aged between 50 and 69 years have opted against retiring for now even though they have attained that right after their years of service. Pensioners on the grounds of age account for 38.9 percent (473,690) of retirees, the ELSTAT survey has shown.


Alternative to the first-person shooter simulation, ICT-USC offers law enforcement training through map-view simulations designed for incident commanders. The ICT-USC simulations focus on tasks of knowledge and soft skills, such as leadership and decision making, as opposed to the physical foundational skills, i.e. shooting. One of the institute's incident command simulations displays a map-view of a situation, providing a computer-generated news feed of happenings and developments. Data can be examined in detailed reports constructed from information found in the game's engine. "The simulation becomes a lot more involving when officers start to see real data and situations," says Richmond. Certain ICT simulation designs look to incorporate a viewable and interactive population. He also comments that ICT raises the realism of the simulation by putting synthetic characters in the game, which allows officers to actually see crowds and watch the police deal with them — creating a sympathetic connection.
"What the entertainment industry has known for years is that emotional connections are how you hook people," Richmond says. "As the personal involvement increases, it becomes more difficult for trainees to dismiss the whole exercise. If you can get people to care, you can get them to learn because they are tuned into it."The instructor level
Incorporating a new technology into a training curriculum or course can be a difficult task for any field. The training instructor can run into many questions integrating a video game.
"I believe video games are incredibly powerful in teaching … that's not in question. The value proposition comes in determining what you are learning and how you can design the games to teach particular things," Richmond says.
Van Lent suggests performing a cognitive task analysis to examine the training. This analysis offers a formal way to study what someone does and understand the information they are accessing for the learning objective. This analysis also examine's the internal processes and methods the trainee employs to be successful at the task as well as looks at the decisions the student makes and how they affect the outcome of the task.
Additionally, in the tactical simulation, with programs such as Canadian Forces: Direct Action or SWAT4, instructors can manipulate certain game aspects to adjust the training realism. For instance, instructors are able to allow only a single "life" to the trainee's character. Without this limitation, most games supply up to an infinite number of lives until the mission is over. This digital reincarnation is commonly known as a "respawn." The single "life" adds to the realism of the simulation and forces the trainee to act much more logically.
A main aspect of training is knowing what is being taught through the simulation. "The video game is not teaching what the right decision is, but teaching how to make the right decision," Van Lent explains.
MacDonald's advises law enforcement set goals before beginning simulation training. "We typically integrate simulation as part of a specific course," he says. "But the simulation is just a tool." He says students need to sit down with instructors before the course starts and identify what the learning objective is, then pinpoint how the simulation will be used to achieve that objective.
He further warns that "in many cases a simulation cannot determine if a student has met a specific learning objective. For example if you want to train students to move in a tactical formation, you will likely need an instructor watching to determine if the movements they use are correct." While the game can hold positive and negative consequences, such as awarding points in achieving a correct outcome, the engine cannot weigh everything. "Some of it could be the game; some of it has to be the instructor watching," he adds.
Another perspective discusses incorporating the game into a classroom. Sharp would traditionally begin by going over the topic in lecture, in small groups or individually, then going through an exercise and afterward debriefing students on decisions they made. With the simulation, he adds, instead of just coming up with a plan, trainees are able to discuss the plan, then actually fight the battle and record what happens. When they return to class, the replay allows instructors to critique their actions giving the opportunity to discuss the plan and any changes as shown in the "film."
Sharp calls the simulation a "practical exercise." "The real learning took place in the exercise," he says. "We did exercise after exercise and placed trainees in roles they had never been in before. That's where they really learned and that's what a simulation is. At some point trainees need to be thrown into a situation where they don't know what's going to happen. And you do that with a simulation — a PC simulation, projected on-screen or otherwise.


Olivier Messiaen (December 10, 1908–April 27, 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist.
Messiaen was born in Avignon into a literary family: his mother was the poet Cécile Sauvage, while his father was a translator who worked on an edition of Shakespeare in French. He began composing at a young age, and at the age of eleven, entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he had a traditional music education under Marcel Dupré and Paul Dukas among others.
He secured a post as organist of La Sainte Trinité church, Paris, in 1930. He retained this position into his eighties, and the music he composed for the organ throughout his life was informed by his interest in theological subjects.
In 1939, with the outbreak of World War II, he was called up for military service. He was captured by the Germans, and in 1941 wrote one of his most famous pieces, the Quatuor pour la fin du temps as a prisoner of war.
Later the same year, he was released, and in 1942 took up a post as professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatoire (he became composition professor in 1966). He also gave informal lessons to young avant garde composers, including Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. It was through these that he met his second wife, Yvonne Loriod, who was to become a champion of his work as a pianist.
He went on to teach in many places abroad, including in the summer school courses at Darmstadt.
Messiaen's musical style is typically a mix of extended, but essentially tonal, harmony with often complex rhythms and structures. He frequently used what he termed modes of limited transposition, which he formulated in conjunction with a mathematician friend, and are not related to church modes. He was also interested in medieval and Indian rhythms. During the early 1950s, he became interested in dodecaphony, and is considered to be a pioneer in the field of serialism, a method to which he introduced his pupil Pierre Boulez. His music is rife with a variety of idiosyncratic sound-structures that he dubbed 'special chords' (accords speciaux). His sheet music sometimes contains indications of particular colors; Messiaen experienced a condition known as synaesthesia that caused him to see colors whenever he heard music.
Many of Messiaen's works are concerned with the Roman Catholic faith (for example Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jésus), but he also drew inspiration from Hinduism; his Turangalîla Symphony takes its name from two Sanskrit words with manifold meanings, including 'time', 'play' and 'love song'.
Messiaen was also influenced by bird song, often walking in the woods with manuscript paper and transcribing the songs he heard. His books of piano pieces, Catalogue d'oiseaux, and his orchestral work, Oiseaux exotiques, are both based on bird song. All of his works composed after 1955 include fragments of birdsong.
Messiaen was a pioneer in the use of new instrumental forces. His works introduced the Gamelan-like sound of a large tuned percussion section into European music. He was also a champion of the Ondes Martenot, of which his sister-in-law, Jeanne Loriod, was a leading exponent. This biography is published under the GNU Licence


Posted on Friday 9th August 2013
Birmingham University Physics graduate, Stuart Bahn, turns to creating apps to help music students develop their skills whist waiting for the bus.
Former physics student, Stuart Bahn, left Birmingham with a degree in physics. He then decided to move to London to pursue a career as a professional guitarist. Now a successful guitar tutor and business entrepreneur, Stuart has combined his science background with music to launch the first in a series of Android phone apps to help guitar students learn about the fundamentals behind great music, during otherwise ‘dead time’.
“In my experience, it’s a lack of understanding of music theory, or ‘how music works’, that holds most guitarists back” Stuart says, “The problem is that the subject is seen as dry and some traditional teaching methods don’t appeal to young people drawn towards music. Failure to get to grips with basic music theory can prevent even the most talented students from achieving their full potential. The ubiquity of mobile phones makes them an ideal supplement to good quality teaching. My aim with this app is to give students a convenient and accessible tool that helps them develop an understanding of music, without seeming like hard work or cutting into their practice time. They can now work on gaining their edge anywhere, any time they choose without the use of the dreaded textbook”.
Although physics is unusual pathway to becoming a guitarist, music is surprisingly mathematical and what I learned in Birmingham has been put to good use in my music career. The ability to code applications is another happy spin-‐off from my time in Birmingham, even though I didn’t enjoy the I.T. job I had for a year. Funny how things work out sometimes!.
‘Music Theory Chords in Keys’ is distributed via several channels including the Google Play app store and is available now to buy for 59p or equivalent.
About Stuart Bahn
Stuart Bahn is a professional guitar educator in Ealing, west London and a former Course Leader for The Academy of Music and Sound. He is a memberof the Music Masters Association and UK Association for Music Education.


Mathematics, more than any other human endeavor, relies on deductive reasoning to produce new knowledge from the investigation of natural events, whether they occur in our immediate environment or in the immensity of space. It serves as a universal language which represents, interprets, and integrates all such knowledge.
The subject of mathematics is divided into algebra, geometry, analysis, and probability. Some of the concepts of each of these subdivisions are particularly useful in helping to discuss or solve problems in other fields. These concepts are frequently called Applied Mathematics.
Requirements for a Major in Mathematics
38 hours of coursework, consisting of the following:
All of the following:
|MAT171||Calculus with Analytic Geometry I||4|
|MAT271||Calculus with Analytic Geometry II||4|
|MAT272||Calculus with Analytic Geometry III||4|
|MAT310||Probability and Statistics||3|
|MAT340W||Foundations of Geometry||3|
|S&M286||Problem Solving in Science & Mathematics||2|
One of the following:
|CSC135||Computer Science I||3|
|CSC165||Computer Science II||3|
Requirements for a Minor in Mathematics
20 hours of coursework in Mathematics numbered 171 or above, including at least six hours at the 300-level or higher
Requirements for a Major in Mathematics with Teacher Licensure
42 hours of coursework, consisting of the following:
1. The Mathematics major outlined above
2. One additional course from the following:
|PHS110||Introduction to Physical Science||4|
|PHS111||Introduction to Earth Science||4|
|or any PHY course|
3. Plus Professional Education Course Requirements
For a list of these courses, please refer to the Education section of the catalog concerning requirements for certification in Secondary Education. To qualify for Student Teaching, a student must have a cumulative 2.50 GPA and a 2.75 GPA in the Mathematics major outlined above.
Requirements for a Major in Elementary Education with a Mathematics Specialization
28 hours of coursework
Please refer to the Education section of this catalog for a listing of required courses.


Written for Courses in Early Childhood Curriculum and Environments in Early Childhood Education in Education departments or in Child and Family Studies.
Covers Birth to Age Eight. This invaluable and beautiful resource presents a balance of theory and application to help novices and practicing early childhood professionals understand why and how to design, arrange, and make changes to early childhood learning environments that help children achieve national and state standards through a play-based curriculum. Vivid contemporary photos of indoor and outdoor centers make reading this resource an enriching and aesthetically pleasing experience.
The Second Edition of Julie Bullard’s Creating Environments for Learning: Birth to Age Eight is a powerful resource for today’s early childhood professionals that helps students learn the basic content and principles on environments and curriculum, and see environmental and curricular possibilities in practice–-developmental and learning theories, current research, curriculum standards and outcomes, children’s interests and their motivation to play, children’s diversity, assessment of learning, and evaluation of the environment. It also contains a wealth of practical ideas and tips, lists of materials, and engaging vignettes and examples from the author’s vast classroom experience.
This new edition enhances students’ understanding of curriculum by improving upon how curriculum is developed, and by teaching how to advocate and/or design a play-based curriculum, preparing them to use the latest research knowledge as they do so. Still organized by chapters on centers, this text helps pre-service and practicing teachers learn to create, maintain, and enrich indoor and outdoor learning environments to support children’s development from birth to age 8. This is a must-have book for any college course or program that wants its teachers to know how to intentionally set up engaging and appropriately challenging early childhood learning environments and to understand the evidence and reasons for why they’re doing it.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Understanding the Importance of the Environment
Chapter 2 Establishing an Emotionally Supportive and Equitable Environment
Chapter 3 Establishing a Context for Learning
Chapter 4 Planning a Play-Based Curriculum
Chapter 5 Arranging an Effective Environment
Chapter 6 Design Considerations
Chapter 7 Developing Dramatic Play Centers
Chapter 8 Developing Manipulative and Sensory Centers
Chapter 9 Developing Block and Building Centers
Chapter 10 Developing Literacy Centers
Chapter 11 Developing Science Centers
Chapter 12 Developing Math Centers
Chapter 13 Developing Art Centers
Chapter 14 Developing Music Centers
Chapter 15 Integrating Technology
Chapter 16 Special-Interest Centers
Chapter 17 Creating Outdoor Environments
Chapter 18 Creating Spaces for Families and Teachers
Chapter 19 Meeting Environmental Challenges
Purchase Info ?
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$35.99 | ISBN-13: 978-0-13-286838-9


Pre-school education is an important stage in a child's development where children learn as they play. A good quality pre-school experience builds on the valuable learning that takes place in and around the home and develops the learning and other skills that children will rely on in later life.
Evidence suggests that a quality pre-school experience can bring a range of benefits, including a smoother transition into primary school and increased educational attainment.
Every three and four year old child has a funded, part-time pre-school education place of five sessions a week if the parents which to take it up. Local authorities have a duty to provide this under the Standards in Scotland's Schools Act 2000.
No, it is not compulsory. It is for parents to decide whether they want their child to participate.
A child’s pre-school education entitlement starts:
|17 August||for children who are three years old by 31 August*|
|5 January||for children who are three years old between 1 September and 31 December|
|18 April||for children who are three years old between 1 January and 28 February|
*Children cannot start until their third birthday. For example, a child born on 26 August could not start pre-school education until that date.
You should contact the pre-school education provider of your choice to apply for a place for your child.
Aberdeenshire Council offers different types of pre-school nursery education. The majority of places are provided through nursery schools and classes run by the Council. It also works in partnership with private day nurseries and playgroups to make sure there are enough places and a range of provision available.
All centres must meet the registration criteria and National Care Standards laid down by the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care (Care Commission) and are inspected annually.
All pre-school centres are also regulated by HM Inspectorate of Education and are quality assured by us. You can read or download the reports on the HM Inspectorate of Education and Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland website.
All funded pre-school education centres will follow A Curriculum for Excellence, Early Level covering eight curriculum areas:
- Expressive arts
- Health and wellbeing
- Religious and moral education
- Social studies
A range of experiences and learning opportunities are provided to stimulate and support children to develop and lead their own learning.
Pre-school education centres work with parents to support each child's learning and development. Opportunities are available for staff and parents to share assessment information and review each child's progress and development.
The primary school will talk with your child's pre-school centre and you, to make sure that planning for your child takes account of their achievements and development needs. The primary school curriculum is planned to build on children's pre-school experiences.


Perceptions concerning Visual Culture Dialogues of Visual Art Pre-Service Teachers
Mamur, Nuray, Kuram ve Uygulamada Egitim Bilimleri
The visual art which is commented by the visual art teachers to help processing of the visual culture is important. In this study it is tried to describe the effect of visual culture based on the usual aesthetic experiences to be included in the learning process art education. The action research design, which is a qualitative study, is conducted in this research. The study is conducted with the 12 pre-service teachers of Pamukkale University Faculty of Education -Department of Fine Arts Education, Program in Art Crafts Education. The data have been obtained through observation, interview forms and document analysis. The data are analyzed by using content analysis. As a result of the study it is observed that the critically cogitation skills provided that to be aware of the visual culture analyzes, in terms of the visual objects which included the apprehend series and to develop the pluralistic perspective that has got not only meaning in visible. As a consequence, Pre-service teachers have found that the analyzing of the visual culture and the learning area which included in education programs and to make more conscious choices in art and cultural events.
Visual Art Education, Visual Culture, Visual Culture Education.
In our era, there is a period in which there is a postmodern expression getting common in every part of life. Especially it is observed that expressions, strategies and politics about post-modern and postmodern pedagogy are getting widespread. In this spread while art is tend to focus on differences and variations in creating hypothetical fundamentals (Eker & Seylan, 2005), education focuses on how to structure, how to live, how to listen and how to learn knowledge by removing it from being only a set of visual proposals (Kale, 2002). In the base of both fields post-modern understanding individualism and identity concepts are emphasized more and they head for creating a human being who is based on the approach of self-assertion, developing a personality in different identities and being tolerated against other identities (Gudjons, 1993). Therefore, roles of art education and art educators are highly affected by this approach. It is suggested that art lessons particularly should take place in creating, spreading and adopting visual culture. Consequently, unless art educators take a defensive role, it is pointed out that they have the opportunity to contribute to the globalization of culture by taking a constructive role (Duncum, 2000).
According to Barnard (2002) it is a stubborn fact that a human-specific communication way, cultural expression, is as important as language. That is because every age creates a human type suitable for its own structure and within that human creates a culture suitable for its own structure (Gençaydin, 1995). What is the common culture of our age? It is easy to answer this question when we glance at around us. Our environment is full of various and complicated visual images. In today's world predomination of media such as photography, cinema, television and internet lead to the rise of visual culture (Bülbül, 2010). Our common culture has become a product of what we watch (Barnard). With the rapid development of technology first the camera and then cinema and television which determine animated images were invented; therefore, the world has gone into a period in which "visual images culture" flows at a rate that can be explained by its own rules (Parsa, 2007). It is observed that in the last 40 years electronic images and in the last 10 years numeric based computer images have covered all areas of life (Parsa, 2007). Nowadays, from occupation to art, amateurism to professionalism, individual to government, every level of visual production and stocking is possible (Karadag, 2004). When the images are in the centre, it is observed that eye-centered societies are composed (Parsa, 2007). Also in daily life almost in all corners, building entrances, subways, shops and parks optical electronic eyes are placed and they observe everything. …


Richard Kogan, M.D.: Music, A Window to the Soul
Listening to Dr. Richard Kogan passionately perform the technically masterful passages of Chopin’s Polonaise at an interview at Weill Medical College of Cornell University recently, transported me to a state of rhapsody. Dr. Kogan, a psychiatrist and concert pianist who was a roommate of Yo-Yo Ma at Harvard (and still plays in trios with him and fellow classmate Lynn Chang), analyzes the tortured creativity of Tchaikovsky, Schumann and Gershwin through their letters, diaries, medical data and music.
While it’s hard to make other than tentative diagnoses on historical figures, Kogan explains, Tchaikovsky, writing 1300 letters to his patron, among others, clearly suffered from depression. Would he and Schumann, a victim of bipolar disorder, have been more productive if they had been able to take Prozac or Lithium? According to Dr. Kogan, there is a delicate balance between creativity and inner turmoil. Perhaps, he ventures, Tchaikovsky and Schumann would not have been as productive if they had taken mood stabilizers. Kogan is convincing as he poses this dilemma: the artists he treats in his practice as well as those in history would rather be creative and suffer than not be creative at all. Kogan cites Socrates as opining that creativity is only possible if an individual is out of his senses.
After Beethoven became deaf, catastrophic for anyone but particularly for a musician, he contemplated suicide. Kogan explains that Beethoven decided to devote himself to furthering his artistic expression and actually incorporated his suffering into his music. “He became a great composer because of and not in spite of [his deafness]. The ninth symphony, which speaks to us all, was written while he was deaf.”
In some cases, meaningful relationships helped to organize the musicians’ lives and root them. Kogan offers Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann’s partner and George Sand, Chopin’s lover as prime examples. Music can help people and alleviate their pain and suffering. Gershwin, for example, was a difficult behavior problem in school when he was about 11 years old. Those problems magically vanished when he was exposed to music. Shortly thereafter, as a teenager, he composed “Swannee River” which became an international hit. Later, very depressed, Gershwin’s music resonates with sadness illustrated by the lullaby “Summertime,” poignantly played by Kogan. Gershwin writes of a burning smell, clearly a neurological symptom, not picked up by his psychiatrist. The subsequent fatal brain tumor was not diagnosed until his untimely death, just a few years later. Expanding on the healing power of motivation and music, Kogan recalls how hard it was for him to memorize every bone in the foot for his Anatomy class in medical school, and conversely, how relatively easy it was to commit to memory, not only thousands of notes of music but also the numerous case histories of his patients.
In addition to motivation, a community of people making music together is key. As a young boy, Kogan remembers the isolation of playing alone in his home and being the only one in school to play an instrument. As a result, he rebelled against a strict practice schedule in his teenage years. Today, he has ensured that his three children play in the company of other musicians by having them learn string instruments. His oldest daughter, a cello student at Juilliard pre-college program, is attending a music camp this summer with numerous opportunities to perform with others.
Underscoring the important and challenging role of parents and educators to ensure that everyone has the ability to make music, Kogan affirms that music is indeed the universal language, that it breaks down barriers to a larger vision, that it enables people to become more creative and “think outside the box.” Yo-Yo Ma, he says, is an innovative thinker, always looking for new ways to interpret, create and expand music. Kogan feels strongly that music education should never be lost in the public schools. In higher education, in medical school, Kogan feels it becomes a tool for infusing a humanistic element into the medical school; it sharpens the diagnostic skill of students as well as sensitizing them to human suffering.
From Greek mythology flows the image of Apollo, the god of music and medicine, who fulfills the role of physician/healer and bridges the disciplines of music and medicine. Dr. Kogan, is our society’s modern day Apollo; we are fortunate to have him in our midst.#


How do I reach all students? Students in our heterogeneous classrooms bring many distinct challenges to learning.
One very important way to address the challenges is to consider them from the planning phase of the lesson. Rather than only relying on differentiating instruction as a response to student understanding of lessons. Universal Design for Learning is just such a process. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines 2.0 is an interactive assistant for thinking about and planning for individual student needs as we develop our lessons.The goal is the success of all students in an engaging and motivating learning climate.
In fact, the Model Curriculum Unit Project has used UDL as a lesson-planning component. Since the standards in math and ELA do not address the specifics of instruction for special populations, UDL has provided that support.
Access the guidelines document at https://sites.google.com/site/udlguidelinesexamples/home. The guidelines were developed by the Center for Applied Technology (CAST). You may wish to check out the very informative CAST site at www.cast.org. In the meantime, the districts involved in our Southeast DSAC Leadership Network will be invited to use the tools as they plan units and lessons and to support one another through the Network as they work toward providing the means for development of resourceful and knowledgeable learners who are strategically goal-directed and purposefully motivated.
Researchers (like Nonie Lesaux of Harvard) and practitioners (like consultant, Regie Routman) are realizing and talking about how language and literacy development are connected to the development of self-regulation and executive function. UDL makes it a point to bring these two critical areas together. The Guidelines document is an indispensable reference when planning successful lessons with learners of all ages.


SELECTING BOOKS FOR YOUR BUNNY
Wouldn't it be nice if someone would just give you a list -- when your child is two, read these books; when your child is three, read these . . .? If you've been looking for the perfect literacy development recipe, stop searching! No such prescription is possible.
While there is information about the expected sequence of child development, it is also well established that no two children are exactly alike. Every child develops in a unique and highly individualized way. Among early childhood educators, the prevailing philosophy is that we must pay attention to what we know about how children develop, as well as what we learn about the individual needs and ineterests of the specific child. This approach to early childhood education is known as developmentally appropriate practice.
While it is impossible to develop the perfect, age-specific reading list, there are certain book characteristics to look for as you select materials to read to your developing child.
- Simple and repetitive songs and poems
- Classic nursery rhymes
- Hand and finger games
- Sturdy books made from cloth, cardboard, and plastic that the child can handle and chew on
- Old magazines and catalogs to examine and tear
- Books about daily life and the toddler's world
- Simple predictable plots with repetitive phrases
- Books that invite chatting, chanting, humming, and dancing
- Illustrations that include objects the toddler can identify -- "point and say books."
- Traditional folk, fairytales, and fables
- Wordless picture books that allow pre-schoolers to develop their own stories
- Books about first experiences, achievement, and problem solving
- Increasingly complex plot lines
- Easy-to-read books with controlled vocabularies
And remember . . .
It is the language and social interaction that surround the reading, not just the words and pictures of the book itself, that foster literacy development. So, have fun with books! Re-read old favorites again and again. Share a wide variety of books with your child -- storybooks, concept books, information books, poetry books, books about people like you and about people who are different.
READ! READ! READ! Just 20 minutes a day can make all the difference in your child's life!
Prepared by the Texas Library Association Children's Round Table and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission


What Can You Do with a Degree in Art History?
Art History combines knowledge of many fields, including history, economics, political science, architecture and gender studies. An undergraduate degree in Art History is excellent preparation for advanced study in other areas, providing a broad and integrated understanding of human culture.
A degree in Art History provides an excellent foundation for acquiring specialty graduate training in Art Education or History. At the college level, Art History is a fascinating collection of specializations and the career of a professor means research into your favorite historical periods and ideas as well as teaching at an advanced level.
A degree in Art History is crucial to a career in museums. There are many roles in museum and art foundation institutions, including education, curatorial, exhibition design, development and administration, publicity and marketing, and docent lecturing.
To work in the competitive field of commercial art galleries, it is key to have qualifications in Art History. Understanding the interpretation and historical context of artworks is central to a career in the fast-paced world of art marketing in galleries and international art fairs.
Businesses like Sotheby’s and Christie’s rely on trained Art Historians to provide the research and evaluation of the artworks they sell. Specialists in various periods and cultures help identify and assess the value of historical objects from jewelry to furniture to fine art. A degree in Art History is a requirement for this career.
Corporate Collection Consultant
Today, many large corporations own impressive collections of artwork, both for display and as a significant financial asset. The corporate art consultant is an expanding career field. Advising corporations on buying artworks for exhibition and investment is a specialized curatorial practice that demands advanced knowledge of Art History and a degree in the field.
Preservation and Conservation
A background in Art History is very important if you’re interested in pursuing art restoration. Museums, collectors and others require the services of art restorers to repair and preserve valuable historical objects. A degree in Art History provides the knowledge of artistic materials and techniques from the past that is critical to maintaining artworks for the future.
Art Libraries or Visual Resource Archives
The study of Art History is key to a career specialization in art archives and libraries. Today, these professions are based on skills such as working with electronic databases and digital reproductions in archive and imaging programs. Behind these technical systems, you must have a background in the history and culture of the artwork images and documents you organize.
An academic background in Art History is critical to this specialized field, which involves all issues of property law related to works of art, including image reproduction rights, exhibition rights, estate and inheritance, sales, authentication and repatriation.
Writing about art as a career for newspapers, magazines and art-world internet sites requires an academic background in Art History as a professional qualification.
Historical Design Consultant: Your knowledge of the artworks and material culture of historical periods can be used for a specialization in costume and scenery design for theater, film, television and advertising.
With visual communication becoming an increasingly important part of everyday life, federal and state governments are hiring art and design specialists for a wide variety of positions. Academic training in Art History is a very important qualification for these careers. These institutions include the National Endowment for the Arts, Historic Landmark sites and trusts, State Arts Councils and Offices of Cultural Affairs, among many others.
Non-Governmental Arts Organizations
A degree in Art History is necessary background for a career in the many NGO groups that support the visual arts, including Alliance for the Arts, Andy Warhol Foundation, Artist Trust, Creative Capital Foundation, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Even more career options that an Art History degree supports include work as an artist’s representative or agent, negotiating with galleries and collectors; as a collection consultant for private art patrons, from celebrities to independent investors; or as a promoter/events planner for the art-world social scene!
From the glamorous to the scholarly, Art History is a field of study that opens many doors. Art History offers the convergence of culture, beauty, and commerce that is both fascinating and practical.


Phonics from A to Z:This revised and updated edition summarizes the current research on phonics and offers more than 50 pages of practical suggestions for making phonics instruction come alive in the primary classroom. Includes special sections on meeting the needs of struggling readers and English language learners, speed drill forms and fluency routines, ready-to-use lessons, word lists, games, learning center ideas, and a comprehensive index. For use with Grades K-3.
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