A Research-based Program
Music TogetherÂ® is grounded in research in music and early childhood development. When creating the program, coauthors Kenneth K. Guilmartin and Dr. Lili M. Levinowitz, examined the field of music educationâand then reached beyond it into the realm of early childhood learning. They realized that even the best song they could discover or compose would miss the mark if not presented in ways children can receive readily and process meaningfully.
So, the pair turned to the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and early childhood learning for valuable insights into how the brain processes and organizes musical material, how children learn, and how the surrounding environment can support this learning. Then they distilled their findings into four basic principles, which remain the cornerstones of Music Together's philosophy today.
Learn more about the research basis of Music Together and Ken and Lili's positions on early childhood music education in these formative articles:
Music Together as a Research-based Program by Susan Hoffman
Music Education in the new Millenium by Kenneth Guilmartin
The Importance of Music in Early Childhood by Lili Levinowitz
Please watch our videos and read some of our testimonials about classes.


The Population Council is identifying the elements of formal schooling that lead to more protective behaviors, reduce HIV risk, and improve learning outcomes among poor young people in Malawi.
When good-quality schooling is available, disadvantaged children stand a better chance of escaping poverty. Indeed, it is likely in the poorest countries that schooling makes the greatest contribution to childrenâs futures.
But in Malawi, one of the worldâs poorest countries, nearly half of girls marry before age 18, and young people face high risk of HIV infection. Schools in rural Malawi have limited resources and inadequate supplies, extremely high student-teacher ratios, and a dearth of trained teachers.
To better understand the effect of school quality on learning and health, the Council began following the progress of more than 2,500 in-school and out-of-school adolescents in the Balaka and Machinga districts of Malawi in 2007. Multiple rounds of data on young peopleâs schooling experiences, learning, and health outcomes have been collected. Longitudinal studies of this duration and breadth are unusual, and such comprehensive data on young people from a developing country are rare.
With each round of data collection, participants are asked a series of questions about their experiences in school, including attendance, grade repetition, classroom environment, and educational attainment. The participants complete a literacy and numeracy test to assess their learning. In 2010, 2011, and 2013, the data collection expanded to include testing, with consent from participants and their parents, for exposure to HIV and herpes.
The studyâs longitudinal design, encompassing repeated assessments of the schooling environment and yearly follow-up of a sample of in- and out-of-school adolescents, permits the direct comparison of outcomes and experiences reported over time. This information provides a uniquely rich and broad picture of the relationships between schooling, educational outcomes, and HIV risk among young people in Malawi. Council findings will inform policy recommendations and program designs for school and community-based interventions that reduce HIV risk and improve student learning.
Key findings thus far:
- On-target progression through school is associated with a lower risk of early premarital sex and marriage for girls. However, it is common for students to start their schooling late, repeat grades, and withdraw temporarily or permanently. Nearly 25 percent of girlsâ dropout is related to pregnancy.
- Many girls who leave school face a rapid loss of both literacy and numeracy skills. Further, because girls leave school during adolescence at much higher rates than boys, over time we observe a gender reversal in literacy outcomes and a widening gender gap in numeracy outcomes, both in favor of boys.
- Girls who can read and those who can do math are less likely to report their sexual behavior inconsistently than those without these skills.
- Literate girls marry and have children significantly later than girls who cannot read.
- Girls who attend school are significantly less likely to engage in premarital sex than their peers who have recently left school.
- By Round 5 of data collection (2011), girls who were currently attending secondary school were about 60 percent less likely to test positive for herpes than girls who had dropped out before completing primary school.
- Girls who perceive themselves to be at risk of becoming infected with HIV are more likely to marry early than girls who perceive no risk of future infection.
The Council continues to analyze this dataset to learn more about the effects of schooling and is pursuing additional funding to implement interventions to improve girlsâ literacy and numeracy based on these findings.


Animal Fun Facts
Share information about your favorite animal.
- Target Age: 4-6
- Creative Expression
- Language and Literacy Development
- Problem Solving
- Related Episodes:
- #119: The Ram in the Pepper Patch
- #125: A King and His Hawk
- #126: The Roar That Makes Them Run
- #127: The Spider and the Lie
- Collection of animal pictures or toy animals
- Informational books about your child's animal of choice
- Poster board
- Construction paper
1. Help your child gather a collection of animal pictures or toy animals. Have fun sorting them in various ways, for example:
- animals with 2 legs, 4 legs, 6 legs, 8 legs, 0 legs
- animals who live in the sky, in the water, on or under the ground.
- farm animals, pets, wild zoo animals, wild backyard animals (insects, worms, squirrels, et cetera)
- animals whose names have 1 syllable, 2 syllables, 3 syllables
Have your child pick up two pictures or toy animals at random. Ask, "Can you think of a way these two animals are alike? Can you think of a way these two animals are different?"
2. Have your child choose one animal he or she would like to know more about. Together, research that animal. Seek out animal encyclopedias and nonfiction books in the library. Do some research on the Web.
Help your child make an informational poster with pictures of the animal and some interesting facts. One idea is to make Q & A flaps, so the poster becomes a Fun Fact quiz that family members and visitors can take. Write a question on a small piece of paper (Q: "What do elephants eat?"). Tape the top edge of the question paper to the poster, so it becomes a flap you can lift. Write the answer to the question in the space covered by the flap. (A: "Elephants eat leaves, bark, grass, and fruit-200 to 400 pounds every day!")
Talk about It
Play an Animal Guessing Game with your child. Have your child think of an animal. Ask "yes or no" questions to narrow down the field until you can guess the animal. Then, switch roles and have your child ask you questions in order to guess your secret animal.
"Is your animal a pet?"
"Is your animal bigger than this book?"
"Does your animal have four legs?"
"Can your animal fly?"
- Biggest, Strongest, Fastest by Steve Jenkins
- The Little Animal Encyclopedia by John Farndon and Jon Kirkwood
- My World: Weird and Wonderful Wildlife by Angela Wilkes


5 Skills Learned from Coding in the Classroom
Itâs December, which means itâs the Month of Code! Month of Code is a month dedicated to celebrating and using coding in the classroom.
With the increase of the availability of technology in schools, many teachers are using this access to teach their students how to code. This can prepare students to head into STEM jobs in after graduation.
STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and math, is a fast-growing segment of the United States job market. Studies show that STEM jobs will increase by 8.9% by 2024, compared to 6.4% for non-STEM jobs. A large part of these jobs will be in the computer and math fields. âThe largest group of STEM jobs is within the computer and math fields, which account for close to half (49 percent) of all STEM employment,â according to the US Department of Commerce STEM Jobs: 2017 Update.
Coding in the classroom isnât just for job preparedness. Other than the obvious practical skill of coding, teaching coding in your classroom can help students learn other important skills that will help them be successful lifelong learners.
âThe goal of Computer Science education is not to have everyone be a Computer Scientist or software engineer, just as the goal of teaching math isnât to have everyone become a mathematician. The reason we need to teach Computer Science is simple and broad: because it helps students learn everything else,â Dan Kusan reasons in his blog post, Hour of Code â Why Computer Science Education Matters.
Coding helps to build skills that arenât easily taught on their own.
5 Skills Learned from Coding in the Classroom:
1. Problem Solving
Coding exercises taught in the classroom help students solve complex problems. âIt also consists of some very specific problem solving skills such as the ability to think logically, algorithmically and recursively,â says Computer Science for Fun.
2. Critical Thinking
Coding can help students build this important skill, since they canât just start working on the problem at hand. âYou canât just wing it when youâre working on a coding problem. You really have to take the time and energy to look at it and understand it at a different level,â says Jennifer Williams. Itâs important for students to map out what theyâll do, and the order in which theyâll complete it. This skill can be transferred to other subjects such as reading comprehension.
3. Computational Thinking Skills
According to Computer Science for Fun, computational thinking is a âcollection of diverse skills to do with problem solving that result from studying the nature of computation. It includes some obviously important skills that most subjects help develop, like creativity, ability to explain and teamwork.â
In coding, things rarely work the first time. In order to be successful, students learn that it often takes hard work to solve an issue at hand. When they solve the problem, there is an âimmediate sense of accomplishment that students realize when they succeed. Theyâve overcome a challenge and receive instant acknowledgment and gratification â itâs the same reason many students (and adults) addictively play games,â says Dan Kusan.
5. Courage to Try New Things
Coding helps students gain the courage to try new things. A benefit about coding is that students often fail before being successful. This requires them to try out new ideas until one sticks. And âcoding has no âright wayâ or defined path, which allows the freedom for students to succeed on their own time and in their own way,â according to STEMJobs.
Even if youâre not convinced that teaching your students coding is necessary for them to learn future job skills, just trying out simple coding exercises can teach them other skills that can be difficult to teach alone, such as the ones above.
Are you interested in introducing coding to your classroom? Eduro Learning offers 3 different online courses focuses on coding and design.
No matter your experience, there is a coding and design course for you:
Introduction to Coding in the Classroom: Uncover the thinking and learning processes that are inherent in coding as well as explore different resources to help bring computer programming into the classroom. This course is designed for educators K-12, who have little or no previous programming experience.
Coding & Design: Learn several ways of thinking about complex problems and their solutions and create an impact project that incorporates elements of design thinking and/or app design practices. No coding experience is required.
Advanced Coding & Design: Embedding Computational Thinking: Discover a variety of ways to bring elements of coding into the classroom to build the foundational skills and ways of thinking that underpin computational science. No coding experience is required.


David Spencer's Education Paragon is a free educational resource portal helping David Spencer's secondary school students, their parents and teaching colleagues with understanding, designing, applying and delivering assessment, curriculum, educational resources, evaluation and literacy skills accurately and effectively. This wiki features educational resources for Indigenous Aboriginal education, field trips for educators, Davids Music Jam, law and justice education, music education and outdoor, environmental and experiential education. Since our web site launch on September 27, 2006, online site statistics and web rankings indicate there are currently 1,878 pages and 14,603,137 page views using 7.85 Gig of bandwidth per month. Pages are written, edited, published and hosted by Brampton, Ontario, Canada based educator David Spencer. On social media, you may find David as @DavidSpencerEdu on Twitter, as DavidSpencerdotca on Linkedin.com and DavidSpencer on Prezi. Please send your accolades, feedback and resource suggestions to David Spencer. Share on social media with the hashtag #EducationParagon. Thank you for visiting.
"Human rights refer to the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." Examples of rights and freedoms which have come to be commonly thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education." Source: Wikipedia.org
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." Source: Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted on December 10, 1948. The Declaration is now over 60 years old.
- United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights HTML version
- United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Adobe PDF version
- 20th anniversary of the Convention, November 2009
- Convention on the Rights of Children Video
- UNICEF 'Top 10 Cartoons for Children's Rights' as selected by polling broadcasters and communicators, to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Children] videos
- CyberSchoolBus Human Rights Module
- The UN Works - What's Going On
- Quiz on The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Canadian Museum for Human Rights
"The Canadian Museum for Human Rights will be a powerful symbol of Canada's unwavering commitment to recognizing, promoting, and celebrating human rights.
Projected to open in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 2012, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is perhaps the most transformational project before our nation today. As the largest centre of its kind anywhere, it has the potential to be one of Canadaâs most significant contributions to promoting human rights here and around the world.
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights will examine world events and encourage action and vigilance around the globe. Yet it will be grounded in the Canadian experience â from our social history to Aboriginal concepts of peace and justice and the enshrinement of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms into our Constitution.
Most importantly, it will build a new generation of informed and impassioned human rights champions though a funded one-of-a-kind human rights program and experience for tens of thousands of students across Canada." Source: Canadian Museum for Human Rights <http://www.canadianmuseumforhumanrights.com/index.cfm?pageID=23>.
Friends of The Canadian Museum for Human Rights
1560 CanWest Global Place
201 Portage Ave.
Winnipeg, MB R3B 3K6 Canada
toll free 1-866-828-9209


Our mission requires that we develop in all students the foundational skills, core content knowledge, critical thinking ability, and personal characteristics necessary to succeed in demanding high schools on their way to college. We can only accomplish this through a highly structured and disciplined environment in which rigorous instruction drives every classroom and frequent assessments allow us to ensure every student is receiving the ongoing academic support necessary for success.
As a college preparatory school, the School has the highest academic standards for all students. It is expected that students will take challenging classes, complete high quality work promptly both at school and at home, study for and perform well on exams, and receive excellent support from the teaching staff through after school tutoring and summer school if necessary. The highest effort from students, teachers and parents/guardians is necessary to reach this goal.
All students at the School take the same set of academic classes based on their ability. Each student will be enrolled in 1 Language Arts class (Reading and Writing), Math, Social Studies, Spanish, Art, Science, Gym 1/2 and Technology during the year. General intentions for each core subject are described below.
Students will receive core instruction daily in Spanish. Students participate in active learning.
Reading proficiency is essential to the mastery of all other academic subjects. Students of the School will graduate reading at or above grade level. Throughout their education, students will read classical texts from diverse cultures in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Students will receive intensive phonics and phonemic awareness instruction to meet the needs of students who are reading below grade level.
Written expression is closely linked with success in college-preparatory and higher education. Students will master the writing of 5-paragraph essays in all five genres: expository, narrative, persuasive, literary response, and correspondence. Student will master grammar and mechanics.
Mathematics is considered the universal language. No matter the studentâs life goals, math will be intimately involved. To this end, the School will place a strong emphasis on all children being ready for an advanced math track upon arrival at high school.
Student will study an intensive curriculum of the scientific method, earth, physical, and life sciences, and will design, execute, write and present their own idependent experiments. All science classes will include the Earth Science, Biology, and Physical Science contents included in the ODE standards.
A variety of special subjects are at the heart of Columbus Bilingual Academy North.
Students participate in active learning.
Diversity enrich teaching and learning.


HCS Launches New Literacy Pathway Plan
More than 12,000 K-5 students in the Huntsville City Schools will be greeted when they return to school on Aug. 6 with new books and other classroom resources designed to teach and strengthen the development of both their reading and social skills. The Huntsville Board of Education unanimously approved the new reading resource as a centerpiece of its Literacy Pathway plan in April. In short, the Pathway is a set of beliefs, practices, routines, and resources designed to guide teachers in providing effective literacy instruction. The rollout of the curriculum resource â published by the nonprofit Center for the Collaborative Classroom â comes as educators, policymakers, and the public across the nation are increasing their call for students to develop a range of skills crucial to success in school and in life. Such skills include the ability to think critically and solve problems, communicate effectively, collaborate and resolve conflict, and be lifelong learners.
In anticipation of the rollout, teachers and administrators in the districtâs elementary schools have used the summer to attend professional-learning sessions designed to empower them to create conditions for learning that will be academically rigorous while nurturing the needs of the whole child.
Specifically, the district is making resources from three Collaborative Literacy programs available to all elementary schools:
- Being a Reader, an early-reading curriculum for students in grades K-2, will provide students with the foundational skills and strategies they need to learn to read well and to love reading. Students will be supported through whole-class and small-group instruction.
- Making Meaning will provide a full year of research-based whole-class and individualized reading and vocabulary instruction for grades 3-5.
- Being a Writer, which will be available for grades K-5, teaches the writing process while developing intrinsic motivation for the craft of writing through immersion in the narrative, informational, and opinion/argumentative writing genres.
Since 1980, Collaborative Classroom has been at the forefront of helping schools integrate academic learning and social development to help students grow as critical thinkers who learn from, care for, and respect one another. Every day, more than 2 million students in more than 80,000 classrooms experience the research-proven, award-winning curricula.


Performing Art is an essential part of education that includes dance, music, and theater. Many institutions and schools have found the importance of performing arts in their students life and thus have enabled arts as the part of their curriculum. While it offers a unique medium to the kids to express, capture their passions and emotions it also enhances their creativity,power of thinking, explores new ideas and most of all bring joy in every part of their lives.
Best acting schools in Indore enables art education in their students from day one. While the students come from different parts of the country they contribute art from their culture which in turns enables them to broaden their perspective in varied traditions from all parts of the world. It is challenging and plays an integral part of their development.
Letâs look at benefits associated with performing arts and how its presence is highly important in our kidâs lives,
1. Gain in self confidence
Improvisation is one of the important aspects of performing arts. Thinking out of the box enables them to do things differently. Trusting their ideas and abilities is a part of self confidence. Furthermore an elevated confidence is essential in school, college, career and the even while working.
2. Imagination has no boundaries
Performing arts improvise students to be creative. Creative ideas allow them to work on it. New ways of learning through imagination is more important than gaining knowledge alone.
3. Empathy and enhanced tolerances
When you have people of varied cultures around you, work together in collaboration to achieve best quality of performance you relate better and show compassion and inbuilt better tolerances. Understanding the characters, roles of different participants that belong to several cultures and backgrounds encourages empathy
4. Co-operation with fellow artists
In an act when there are more than one characters the cooperation of the others will enable the act to be outstanding. Thus, combining creative ideas with the other participants will have better outcomes. Discussions, feedbacks, planning and then execution requires dependability and cooperation.
5. Increased concentration
Continuous practice, learning and performing develops the capability and skills of mind, body and voice.
6. Better communication skills
It is self explanatory that when you are performing in a drama or an act it needs a great verbal and nonverbal communication. Apart from the listening and observational skills students develop vocal protuberance, verbalization, tone and expression.
7. Fun with enhance physical fitness
Dram is a mixture of laughter, emotions, sadness and joy. These all factors are required to live a stress free life. And drama also exhibits physical strength while using the intensive physical movement. This increase the flexible, equilibrium and control of your body.
8. Sharp memory
While rehearsing and performing the varied form of art one has to remember the movements and the posture. Furthermore, when you use all parts of your body into an act it increases your memory power.
With so many benefits considering it for your kids is definitely worth every penny you invest in it.


Special Educational Needs
At Brookside, most children will progress well through the curriculum with some differentiation being made to teaching styles. However, some children will need more help or different help from this in order to make good progress at school. These children are considered to have special educational needs. Special educational needs can cover quite a wide range including physical or sensory impairments, learning difficulties, communication difficulties, emotional or behavioural difficulties. If you have any concerns about your childâs learning at any time, please come and speak to the class teacher or Zoe Poppleton the current SENCo.
On the links below, you will find information about Brooksideâs SEN policies as well as information provided by Nottinghamshire County Council for parents who have a child with an additional need.
Using the Tablets
There are lots of activities the children do with a teaching assistant at Brookside to help to improve their Literacy and Numeracy skills. Playing a game on a tablet with a teaching assistant is just one of them.


An education curriculum vitae is a document of a personâs background information such as past working experiences, educational background, training, research and teaching experience. An educational curriculum vitae bears the pertinent information in regards to academic matters. This type of document is used in seeking job opportunities like that of a resume example, the only difference is that a curriculum vitae template bears a much detailed information and is quite longer than a one or two-page resume.
Education curriculum vitae will be presented to future employers with a curriculum vitae cover letter attached to it that explains the full details of a job seekers reasons why he is interested with the job and the company as well.
Music Education Curriculum Vitae
Format for Higher Education Curriculum Vitae
Elementary Curriculum Vitae
Health Curriculum Vitae
1. Elements of a Curriculum Vitae
Do you want an effective job curriculum vitae that can guarantee that you end up getting that call or email that will open the door to the interviewerâs office and maybe even that vacancy youâre applying for? Itâs not impossible. However, other than deciding whether to include a job cover letter or not, there are things that you have to consider:
- Identifying Information â Include your given name, address, contact number, e-mail address, marital status, number of children.
- Educational Background â Start writing from the most recent degree attained with the dates of completion.
- Achievements â Awards, honors, and recognition attained must be mentioned.
- Thesis and Dissertations â Provide the title, theoretical background, conclusion, and names of your panelist.
- Experiences â Cite your professional experiences (teaching/research experience).
- Interests â the subject matter and courses you are interested in especially teaching them.
- Academic Service and Professional Affiliations â Mention the department or any university groups you have rendered your service, as well as professional groups you belong to.
There are lots of things to take consideration to, if youâre afraid you might forget some details while writing a curriculum vitae, just refer to our CV Templates that would surely be a great help.
Student Curriculum Vitae
Training and Education Curriculum Vitae
2. The Difference Between CV and Resume
1. Curriculum Vitae
- Curriculum vitae format template bears the summary of a personâs basic information, skills, experiences, and achievements.
- A curriculum vitae is a bit longer and is more detailed than a resume. It is highly detailed in terms of educational background, academic and professional achievements.
- CVâs emphasize a personâs accomplishments such as awards, publications, honors, scholarship grants, details of the seminars and workshops.
- CVâs are used for academic job application, like a Teaching Curriculum Vitae
- A resume is a short legal document that features a brief, clear and concise synopsis of a job seekerâs personal background in regards to education, skills, and work experiences.
- Resumes do not really follow a chronological pattern of listing down the work experiences and seminars attended. They can be written down interchangeably.
- Resume does not include the full details of a personâs thesis works, published works etc.
- Resumes are attached with resume job cover letters.
Decide on what type of job you will be applying for. For applications to fields of science, education, or managerial positions, a formal curriculum vitae would be worth having. For the rest, a resume would surely suffice.


Welcome to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine!
Some of your MSc Modules - in particular those with 'Statistics' or 'Epidemiology' in the Module title - will contain some basic mathematical content.
The interactive self-assessment exercise and study materials offered on this web page are intended to help any students who, for various reasons, may feel that they would benefit from refreshing their basic maths skills. (Please note that these materials are not intended to teach statistics or specific techniques that you will cover during the Modules in Term 1, they are for revision of basic concepts only).
The materials are divided into 4 sessions consisting of the following topics:
Session 1: fractions, decimals, percentages, rounding, ratios and proportions, order of operations (brackets), simple calculator arithmetic;
Session 2: simple algebra, simple equations, simple inequalities, using and rearranging formulae;
Session 3: simple graphs, applied problem solving and probabilities (using 'mathematical thinking'), exponents (powers) and standard form (including calculator use);
Session 4: logarithms (including calculator use), transforming curve to straight line graph.
As a reasonable guide, the questions in the interactive self-assessment may take you about 30-60 minutes to complete (excluding the time taken to carefully study the worked solutions). The important thing to consider is whether you understand how the answers are obtained rather than the speed with which you are able to do them. Even if you get the answers correct, you might like to read through the worked solutions as some contain additional information about calculator use or other background information, although this will add considerably to the time estimation given above.
Note that there is often more than one way to obtain the correct answer, so if you have your own method that consistently leads you to the correct answer for several similar questions then you can continue using your own method and need not convert to using the method given in the solutions provided here. Please also be aware that we cover some basic maths concepts in more depth in these materials than you will need for most LSHTM MScs, in the hope that this helps to improve your understanding and build your confidence. For example, most MSc students at LSHTM find that they do not need to remember or fully understand all the rules of indices or rules of logarithms, but some students prefer to have a sense of how these rules are linked so that they feel more comfortable using logarithms in their statistics and epidemiology Modules.
If after attempting the self-assessment exercise, you still feel that you are struggling to follow through the solutions, then have a look through the PowerPoint slides and Word documents (at the end of each session) for further guidance and exercises for extra practice (and check your answers against the solutions provided). Afterwards, you might like to work through the self-assessment exercise a second time to see if you can improve your score (but only after sufficient time has elapsed so that you are not simply memorising the answers from the previous time)!
Please note that you will need a calculator for some of the questions and exercises. The recommended calculator used in these materials is the Casio fx-85GT or fx-85GT PLUS.
If you return to the main Study Skills web page (http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/edu/studyskills.html) you will find links to a number of external maths revision websites (under the subheading 'Maths and Numeracy Skills'). You may find it helpful to have a look at these if you require some additional worked examples. They will also help to reinforce what you have done during these sessions.


Mrs. Deana Saada-Smith, Music Specialist
Martha Jones Families,
Here is the third edition of the Martha Jones Music News. This will be the final newsletter for the 2017-2018 school year.
I feel so fortunate to work in a school that not only supports Music Education, but also values its importance in childrenâs lives. It has been a wonderful year of music making in Westwood. I hope you have enjoyed communicating through this newsletter some of the music learning that is experienced by your children.
As the summer months approach I hope that you and your children will continue to experience the joy of music in your daily lives.
Please visit my website for updates on the music program:
Kindergarten â Sounds Around Me, Musical Pictures, Celebrating with Music
We are in the final stretch of Kindergarten music. We continue to cover three main topics/units in each music class. We discuss and learn about the musical sounds around us, we learn that we can use pictures and books to help us better understand and enjoy music, and we learn about seasonal celebrations and the music that accompanies the season. This season, we will be focusing on our country, singing songs about America as well as songs about the spring.
Ask your children to teach you the song âSpring is Hereâ! Later in the unit, you can ask your children to sing you the chorus to the song âThis Land Is Your Landâ, with the hand motions!
Grade 1 â Musical Stories
The focus is learning that music can be used to tell a story. By the end of the unit students will understand:
1. Music can make pictures in my mind.
2. I can show music with a picture.
3. I can put my musical ideas down on paper.
Ask your children to tell you about the game Maestro, Maestro!
Grade 2 â How Sound Is Made
The focus is learning how sound is made. By the end of the unit students will understand:
1. I can make sounds with my body or an instrument.
2. Sound comes from vibration.
3. Changing force affects volume.
4. Changing length, size, or tension affects pitch.
Ask your children to teach you the song from the story Mortimer! We added instrument sounds and music to the book and performed it in class.
Grade 3 â My First Concert (continued) and Recorder Stories
The focus is continuing to play the recorder. We will also be learning how to tell a story with musical themes added to the story. By the end of the unit, students will understand:
1. I can make music with my recorder in an ensemble and on my own.
2. I can use music to tell a story.
3. Music can communicate moods and emotions.
Ask your children to play you their favorite song from our upcoming concert (see below). Thank you for continuing to check your childâs practice chart each week and for helping your child find the time in their busy schedules to practice for 10 minutes minimum per week. Practice is essential for success.
Mark your calendars:
End of the year concert is scheduled for
Thursday, June 7th at 2:00PM (3MacDonald)
Parents are welcome!
Grade 4 â Theme and Variations
The focus is learning about the Seven Elements of Music, with a focus on the musical form, Theme and Variations. By the end of the unit, students will understand:
1. Composers can base their compositions on a musical theme.
2. Theme and Variations is one example of a musical form.
3. Music has elements that can be varied.
4. I can create my own musical piece by varying a theme.
Ask your children how they chose to vary their version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? Which of the Seven Elements of Music did they choose?
Grade 5 â What is the Music in Me?
The focus is becoming a composer and performer. By the end of the unit, students will understand:
1. I get ideas from the music around me to create my own new music.
2. Musicians improvise to express themselves.
3. Musicians create new music styles through experimentation.
Ask your children about their Code Song Project and later in the unit, how they learned to improvise to the Twelve Bar Blues. They will be writing their own composition in this unit, including a melody and a bass line.


The Development of a Web-Based Literacy Learning Environment: A Dialogue between Innovation and Established Practices
Journal of Research on Computing in Education
computer-assisted instruction, literacy, Web-based learning environments
Education | Educational Methods | Elementary Education | Language and Literacy Education
This article describes the development of a Web-based literacy learning software application: Technology Enhanced Learning Environment on the Web (TELE-Web). TELE-Web was developed based on an existing literacy program for elementary school students. In describing the development of TELE-Web, we adopt an emerging perspective on technology and established practices in education and literacy. This perspective also explores how technology is affected by literacy practices in educational contexts, instead of concentrating only on the effects of technology.
Zhao, Yong; Englert, Carol Sue; Chen, Jing; Jones, Su Chin; and Ferdig, Richard E. (2000). The Development of a Web-Based Literacy Learning Environment: A Dialogue between Innovation and Established Practices. Journal of Research on Computing in Education 32(4), 435-454. doi: 10.1080/08886504.2000.10782290 Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.kent.edu/engpubs/102


Welcome to Music at Discovery!We want children to experience learning through their entire body. Teaching to all seven intelligences, children will come to fully understand both musical and academic concepts. Each student can participate in music through many facets including movement, singing, playing instruments, reading, and creating to name a few. Children will feel welcome and comfortable to share their thoughts and ideas. We strive to give every child an overall appreciation of a variety of musical styles.
Our program follows the Loudoun County Elementary Music Curriculum, which is aligned with the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLâs) and the National Standards for Music Education.
Students in grades K-5 will have music twice a week for 30 minutes in the music room and in their classrooms. Miss Heck and Miss Zumbach are thrilled to share our love of music with your child and look forward to an exciting year in music. Please contact us with any questions or comments at Ariauna.Heck@lcps.org and Helen.Zumbach@lcps.org.âWhen words fail, music speaks."


Recent advances in cognitive science create smarter law learning opportunities for legal education. Legal educators can use empirical research from cognitive and learning science to improve student learning, in turn easing the bumpy transition from college to law school and maintaining confidence. More importantly, legal educators can instill effective learning strategies vital for studentsâ success in school, the bar exam, and in practice. Some colleges and universities are failing in providing students with robust critical thinking, writing, and learning skills. The lack of foundational skills can create difficult transitions for students when pursuing graduate and professional educations, such as law school. Research shows that students often rely on improvised and ineffective learning strategies like rereading, cramming, and rote memorization, which are especially ill suited to the demands of legal education requiring higher order thinking and analysis. Inversely, retrieval practice, the testing effect, and periodic review create more effective long-term learning and higher order thinking and analytical skills, yet are counter-intuitive and not always used by students. Luckily, help is available: legal educators can leverage cognitive and learning science to maximize law learning. This Article explains how legal educators and students can leverage cognitive science for smarter law learning. It first summarizes key research findings on effective study and learning strategies, and then suggests simple, practical, and easily implemented ways to integrate them into the law school classroom.
Jennifer M. Cooper,
Smarter Law Learning: Using Cognitive Science to Maximize Law Learning, 44 Cap. U. L. Rev. 551


Education and Early Childhood Development
January 26, 2017
Supporting Children, Families and Communities
Provincial Government Recognizes National Family Literacy Day
National Family Literacy Day is an initiative created to raise awareness of the importance of reading and engaging in other literacy-related activities as a family. It falls annually on January 27.
âIt is important that we emphasize to families the importance of reading to children at a young age. Parents and caregivers are our childrenâs first teachers and play a vital role in literacy development. I encourage families to come together to recognize National Family Literacy Day by taking some time to share in the joy of reading and to celebrate learning and the essential role literacy plays in building crucial skills that help young people throughout their entire lives.â
- The Honourable Dale Kirby, Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development.
Tomorrow (Friday, January 27), Minister Kirby will be in St. Johnâs to visit the Fort Townshend Child Care Centre at 10:00 a.m. and the Rabbittown Community Centre at 3:30 p.m. in support of National Family Literacy Day.
The Provincial Government supports a number of early learning and literacy initiatives including:
- Offering the K-12 literacy plan, Learning for a Lifetime;
- Supporting the Kinderstart program;
- Partnering with public libraries, family resource centres, child care centres and family child care homes; and,
- Providing Mother Goose programming and Parent Resource Kits that encourage learning at home.
- Family Literacy Day was created by ABC Life Literacy Canada in 1999. This yearâs theme is Play for Literacy. For more information, visit: abclifeliteracy.ca/
- January 27 is National Family Literacy Day.
- Family Literacy Day was created by ABC Life Literacy Canada in 1999 as a national initiative to raise awareness of the importance of reading and engaging in other literacy-related activities as a family.
- The Provincial Government supports a number of early learning and literacy initiatives aimed at encouraging more reading at home.
- 30 -
Media Relations Manager
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development
2017 01 26 4:05 p.m.


Schools Need a 'Neotenic' Revolution
We are in the midst of a period of unprecedented interest in schooling and its improvement in the United States. The past three years have seen a flood of commission and task-force reports that threatens to drown us. Until recently, these reports focused almost entirely on secondary schools. Elementary schools have been virtually ignored.
Our society's habitual patronizing of those who work with children results from our persistence in viewing childhood as a stage on the way to growing up (rather than as an important and valid stage of its own), a vocabulary that undervalues the roles of people who work with children, and the habitual reluctance of elementary educators and others who deal with children to speak out about the importance of their work. Although this is not a conscious conspiracy, it is clear that something basic is wrong in the way we regard the different levels of schooling in the U.S.
Yet there is a growing body of evidence to support what we have known for a long time: What is learned in elementary school (and earlier) provides the foundation for all future learning. Furthermore, with the rapid changes in family structure, alterations in traditions, the influence of the media, and the impact of new technology, elementary schools play an increasingly important role in stabilizing the lives of children.
Secretary of Education William J. Bennett's recently formed Elementary Education Study Group provides an opportunity to call attention to the importance of viewing the different levels of schooling as a continuum in which each element must be defined by reference to the others, rather than as a hierarchy in which the latest stage is the most significant. By adopting the idea of a continuum, we can begin to make learning as effective as possible by:
â¢ Appreciating opportunities for continuity;
â¢ Building a better-articulated curricular sequence from kindergarten through high school (and beyond);
â¢ Integrating concepts;
â¢ Making connections between various areas of the curriculum; and
â¢ Calling attention to the interrelationships along the continuum.
In short, we must consider where a child is coming from, as well as where we want him to end up.
By dignifying the primary importance of the elementary school, we will be able to acknowledge that there is much in elementary-school practice that can serve as a model for improving practice at all levels of schooling. Toward this end, Secretary Bennett's study group has the ability and legitimacy to rally forces for a carefully conceived, gradual, yet vigorous neotenic educational revolution.
The concept of neoteny, as defined by Ashley Montagu, refers to "the retention into adult life of those human traits associated with childhood." Stephen Jay Gould and others view neoteny as having evolutionary consequences in the human species. Borrowing this concept and applying it to schooling, one can identify many characteristics traditionally associated with elementary schools that have implications for secondary-school (and even collegiate) reform and improvement.
As a matter of fact, a number of recent reports and studies suggest improvements in secondary schools that reflect practices that have always been intrinsic to elementary schools. Some of these are: an emphasis on teaching students rather than on teaching disciplines; flexibility in scheduling; responsibility for monitoring the performance of individual students; familiarity with subjects across the curriculum; a variety of instructional approaches; a clear curricular progression.
As we look to various elementary-school practices to improve other levels of schooling, likewise we should foster--rather than extinguish--certain childlike characteristics that contribute to the aims of a learning community and make schools more vital places. Among such characteristics are a desperation to learn (the inquisitiveness most children bring to school), playfulness, curiosity, a propensity to question, a willingness to make mistakes, imagination, enthusiasm, humor, flexibility, and energy.
Montagu observes that these traits tend to disappear as people grow older. It would be useful to examine what aspects of elementary-education practice encourage these qualities and can be sustained in secondary schools. We might also analyze what in secondary-school practice weakens these desirable traits.
A neotenic educational revolution will not be easy to accomplish. Neither will it--nor should it--happen all at once. We need to begin by fostering a change in attitude. We must recognize that after the family, the elementary school is the most important institution in a child's life. We must embrace the notion and articulate the consequences of viewing schooling as a continuum that reflects the characteristics noted above, rather than as a hierarchy that leads to increasingly valuable stages of learning. We must accept the notion that there are many elementary-school practices that can contribute to improved performance in secondary schools and colleges.
In keeping with our nation's historical willingness to take a revolutionary stand against what we see as no longer functional, or not in our best interests, the Elementary Education Study Group has the chance to fire the "shot heard round the world" in the neotenic educational revolution.
Vol. 05, Issue 23, Page 36


Learn the fundamentals of music theory continuing with chord inversions part 3. Alfie Magliano (Skrizzly Adams, Niykee Heaton, Sean Kingston) teaches you about dominant seventh (7th) chord inversions and demonstrates how to find the first, second, and third inversion of these four note chords on the musical staff and the piano keyboard. This is just one of 66 comprehensive music theory video tutorials at Music School Online (MSO) teaching pitch, rhythm, melody, harmony, notation, chords, inversions, scales and so much more that unlock the secrets to communicating with other musicians. Utilize these music theory lessons as a reference guide or an all encompassing music education. Learn music theory at your own pace whenever and wherever you want.


All MYCÂ® levels incorporate singing, listening and ear training, movement, keyboard, rhythm ensembles and dictation, and composition into their curriculum. Within all of these elements, and all concepts taught using all four learning styles (visual, analytical, tactile and auditory) are engaged and used to ensure that each child is able to received, and understand, to their best ability, everything that is being taught.
Select an age group below to learn more about each individual level.
An early-childhood music education method that integrates and utilizes Conservatory repertoire within our own method.
Why Study Music
From developing cognitive skills to establishing self-esteem, provide an amazing foundation that your child will carry with them for the rest of their lives.


Food Finder Project
Food- Finder is a braille and large print map of the freezer and fridge in the form of a poster fixed to the front of the fridge. The Food- Finder assists blind and vision impaired students in independently locating items within both freezer and fridge. Food Finder is a laminated map of the inside of both the body and door of the fridge with clear adhesive braille and large print cues.
Removable labels representing the items stored within the fridge/ freezer are attached to the poster. Each label is a picture of the item with large print and braille and a Velcro backing that marries to the Velcro on the poster; this ensures changes can be made. The labels are kept in the food finder book, in alphabetical order, with large print and braille and a matching picture.
The Fridge Food-Finder assists in the creation of an accessible kitchen for blind and vision impaired students while increasing their independence in locating and collecting items. It fosters independence, ownership of learning, orientation and mobility and social skills. These are foundational skills for life, and can help in increasing future employability.
The Food Finder poster and the accompanying braille large print recipes were designed and developed by the project managers and braille specialist at Insight Education Centre. The project managers encouraged evidence-based strategies used with blind and vision impaired people in the implementation of the deliverable using explicit language, a systematic approach, tactile cues and peer support to encourage independent engagement in meal preparation. The concept of the Food Finder and the strategies for implementation can be transferred to other components of meal preparation and ultimately to other learning areas and other environments such as the home and community.
(Garam & Stampton, 2015)
Garam, K., & Stampton, J. (2015). Accessible Kitchens A Pathway To Independence (Unpublished manuscript). Monash University Department of Occupational Therapy, Melbourne, VIC.


PYP for parents
Designed for students age 3-12, the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) provides the knowledge, concepts, skills personal attributes and the capacity to take action, all of which younger students need to equip them for successful lives, both now and in the future.
Learning through inquiry, a childâs investigations across and beyond subject areas will strengthen knowledge and understanding as they explore global, topical and relevant âbig pictureâ questions, or transdisciplinary themes.
The PYP provides an ideal foundation for children to become successful, lifelong learners by developing their:
- social and emotional well-being
- independence, as they take responsibility for their own learning
- international mindedness
- understanding of the world and their ability to function effectively within it
- attitudes and dispositions for learning
- ability to take mindful, appropriate and sustainable student-initiated action
- language skills; all students study an additional language from at least 7 years of age.
Learning in the PYP is underpinned by six transdisciplinary themes, each selected for their relevance to the real world. Young learners explore the commonalities of human experience by investigating these themes through a programme of inquiry.
Who we are
Inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; person, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; and human relationships.
Where we are in place and time
Inquiry into our orientation in place and time; personal histories; the discoveries and explorations of humankind; and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations.
How we express ourselves
Inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values.
How the world works
Inquiry into the natural world and its laws, the interaction between the natural world and human societies; the impact of scientific and technological advances on society and on the environment.
How we organize ourselves
Inquiry into the interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities; the structure and function of organizations; and their impact on humankind and the environment.
Sharing the planet
Inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and other living things; access to equal opportunities; and peace and conflict resolution.
The exhibition is an extended, in-depth project celebrating the culmination of a childâs learning experience in the PYP before they move on to the next stage in their education.
Young learners conduct an in-depth inquiry into real life issues or challenges, and present their research, investigation and resulting action to the whole school community.
Recent research into the impact of the PYP exhibition found it to be a âvaluable and pivotal experience in the life of the schools, families and students who were involved.â
Success with the PYP
Learning in the PYP is viewed as a continuous journey; teachers work with students to identify their needs and then document, monitor and provide ongoing assessment and feedback to plan the next stage of their learning.
A recent study asked parents and educators how they defined success with the PYP. Educators cited enhanced student learning outcomes, a shared vision of learning within their school, focused decision making, and increased international mindedness in the school community.
In another recent study, PYP educators showed a commitment to using inquiry methods as a key pedagogical approach, and understood how to promote transdisciplinary themes and their exploration. To do this, these PYP schools adopted a variety of thinking tools in their classroom to engage students.
How does the PYP in the early years compare to other early childhood learning approaches?
The PYP framework is compatible with many other early childhood learning approaches including Montessori, Reggio and Waldorf.
Relationships, play, symbolic expression, learning environment and learning experiences are important components for learning in the PYP and many early childhood programmes. The PYP also provides the added dimension of international mindedness within a quality assured and research informed framework for early learners.
Will teaching the PYP differ at International schools and State schools?
A childâs learning experience may differ depending on the mission and aims of each school and their unique identity and context. However, a schoolâs ethos will reflect the IB mission to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect and their approaches to learning and approaches to teaching will meet the high expectations of IB standards and practices.
As a global framework, goals from other curricula can be aligned within the programme although key concepts will remain the same. Schools that implement a national, regional, state or other curriculum of choice will ensure alignment to the PYP framework.
Implementation of the PYP is a transformative experience for students, schools and the wider learning community. Professional development for teachers together with a rigorous process of authorization and regular evaluation ensure that IB World Schools deliver the best possible education for PYP students.


Early language and literacy skills are basis of all future learning in schools. If these are not developed well in early years, children will not be able to catch up in later grades with school texts becoming more dense and abstract. Therefore, strengthening teaching-learning for developing early literacy skills among students is crucial. The Language and Learning Foundation (LLF) was formed in 2015 with the aim of developing and implementing a variety of professional development opportunities for teachers, teacher educators and other stakeholders in the area of early grade student learning with a specific focus on language and literacy.
Our vision is that all children will have strong foundational skills and abilities of language and literacy, thinking and reasoning. Based on this strong foundation, all children will learn and grow to their full potential.
By 2020, our goal is to influence classroom practice of more than 75,000 teachers and teacher educators in collaboration with state governments. This will impact learning of more than 7,00,000 children in government schoolsâ


What Is Gouache: History And Applications. Online Colleges. Online Classes.
What is Gouache
The title of the present article is What Is Gouache. However, I will also refer briefly to subjects focusing on the issue of online education, as it fascinates me personally.
Most people are not quite sure what exactly the term gouache painting means. Gouache is a technique and a product at the same time!
The name gouache (pronounced "gwash") is French and derives from the Italian aguazzo (=mud), both referring to an opaque water color. However, this type of color is distinctively different from water color: it consists of pigment and a binding agent (usually Arabic gum), as water color does, but (unlike water color) the main difference is the following. The particles are larger, the ratio of pigment to water is much larger and, in addition, chalk is also present: the result is the "opaque" character of this painting medium.
The technique appeared first in Medieval times, in the decorative embellishments of illuminated manuscripts. The German artist Albrecht DÃ¼rer (16th Century) used this medium in his nature paintings. During the 17th century, gouache was introduced to England. Topographical artists started using this method from around 1740.
Opaque techniques flourished during Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: the artists were fascinated by the medium and its brilliance of color, and started using it extensively. After the first world war, and around 1930, the medium improved significantly and the result was the "Designers Opaque Water Color".
Who Uses Gouache?
Fine artists: they either use it in together with water color or by itself. The medium is excellent for abstract work, as it gives colors an outstanding brilliance and solidity.
Designers: the name, "Designersâ Gouache," was given because of the easiness of its use as well as its brilliance. Gouache is obviously very popular among designers!
Calligraphers: the medium is highly preferred in calligraphy, due of its opacity, permanence of results, but also because of its superb "flow" during work.
Airbrush artists: its unique covering power, and its opaqueness, make gouache popular in airbrushing.
More Links About Gouache
As I will continue adding information about gouache, I just wanted to put in some of my thoughts concerning e-Learning. Having taken online classes myself (in fashion design, as you can read on the appropriate page), I feel that I am in the position to include my opinions on the subject.
Online classes are based on information and communication systems to deliver their objective, which is usually E-Learning.
E-Learning can be "asynchronous" (without a supervising teacher, each class unit completed on one's own pace) or "synchronous" (under the supervision of a teacher, and only as a means to enhance teaching in a live class).
At a completely separate article, I intend to discuss in further detail the advantages and disadvantages of distance learning. Right now, I am just presenting facts.
When referring to online colleges, one generally means the colleges that offer a complete online education usually leading to a degree.
Other terms applied are: distance learning, distance education, or D-Learning.
Distance education has been known as early as of 1728, through the first advertisement at the Boston Gazette! In Britain, it first appeared in 1840. In both cases, the teachers (Caleb Phillips and Isaac Pitman, respectively) of the "weekly mailed lessons" offered to their prospective students a convenient method of learning shorthand.
Online Bachelors Degree Programs
Bachelor's and Master's degrees are offered in the following majors: creative writing, video games, digital video, art and design, web technology, music education, general education, or the business behind music and entertainment. Of course, degrees specialized in other fields are also offered but, as a musician/artist, I am approaching the subject from my own perspective!
Masters Degree Education Online
Most online Master's degree programs (in the Liberal Arts field) are offered in the field of general education. However, and according to my research, I am pleased to confirm that degrees are offered in Music Education, Creative Writing, Arts and Design. Some universities offer even Doctoral degrees online!


Growing awareness around the importance of integrating social, emotional and cognitive learning into early childhood education was evident on a recent trip to China by Beginnings School Founder and Housman Institute CEO, Dr. Donna Housman.
Dr. Housman had been invited to visit a range of early childhood schools in China and offer her expertise around the integration of theory and practice in childrenâs emotional, cognitive and social early development.
Her visit came on the heels of growing recognition and research evidencing that skills such as empathy, self-regulation, and emotional competence are foundational to childrenâs lifelong learning, success, mental health and well-being. The begin toâ¦ECSEL approach, practiced at the Housman Instituteâs Lab School Beginnings, has been shown to significantly improve these competencies and children who receive begin toâ¦ECSEL significantly outperform their peers in these important constructs.
The response to Dr. Housmanâs visit and her approach was overwhelming. In addition to her many school visits, Dr. Housman spoke to principals, teachers and administrators about the importance of integrating emotional, social and cognitive early learning into daily instruction. Housman Institute Research Coordinator Jingyi Ke joined Dr. Housman, co-presenting at a training workshop in Shanghai for more than fifty teachers and talking with school directors in both Shanghai and Beijing about how to promote these critical skills.
This international interest in the begin toâ¦ECSEL approach coincides with the introduction of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Developmentâs (OECD) âBaby PISAâ. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a triennial international assessment, which aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students. Data from the PISA reveals that children who attend high-quality early learning programs tend to score higher at reading at age 15, are better prepared for school, and tend to perform higher academically. To better understand the relationship between early childhood education and the long-term development of children, the OECD initiated the so-called âBaby Pisaâ, or the International Early Learning and Child Well-Being Study. The assessment evaluates four early learning domains: pre-literacy skills, pre-numeracy skills, self-regulation, and social and emotional skills. The study is intended to provide countries with a common framework and comparable information for best practices and to allow nations to work together to improve early learning outcomes and overall well-being for children.
The sharing of best practices and collaboration during Dr. Housmanâs visit was both instructive and informative for all participants. Housman Institute expects to continue this important collaboration to improve early learning outcomes and overall well-being for children worldwide.


Relationships Between Art Education and the Workplace
Moore, Jamie Lynn
This study undertakes the challenging and imperative task of making connections and finding trends between what art education teaches and how these skills, abilities and thinking patterns translate into the workplace. The arts, traditionally viewed as "special" or "extra" subjects in the school system, are not only teaching students important aesthetic skills, but also enabling students to learn and apply significant 21st century proficiencies needed and desired in the current and future workforce. Evidences of how art education enhances workplace readiness for a competitive global market are necessary to justify the arts in school and bring awareness to the community, school board members, leaders and policy makers. Many studies have been conducted exploring what art education teaches, the importance of art on student learning and development and skills needed for attaining jobs in a variety of enterprises. After reviewing these studies to gain insight on past and current research findings, relationships between art education, learned skills and abilities, student achievement, the workforce and the development of a thriving community were noted. A voluntary survey was distributed to the most successful businesses in Wake County, identified by the Wake County Chamber of Commerce, to reveal connections between individuals' art experiences and career choices and needs. Data collected was then organized, analyzed, and interpreted by the researcher. This study goes beyond the traditional research focus and attempts to weave all of these elements together and create a comprehensive overview eliciting how individuals' art education influenced their selection and preparation for their chosen profession and what relationships can be made between art education and the workplace. The outcomes of the study revealed several significant conclusions. According to the results of the survey, art education experiences teach a variety of skills and abilities that are used often in many creative and non-creative industries. The majority of participants were involved in industries considered non-creative such as accounting/finance, administration, construction, and real estate and indicated that creative aptitudes and 21st century skills were needed for their work. Visual imagery proved to be a major component of the workforce regardless of level or position within a company, however participants had to rely on their pre-employment art experiences as only two respondents received art or design training within their company. In conclusion, this study found immense data proving the need for high quality art experiences in order to prepare students for the workplace.
Moore, Jamie Lynn. (January 2012). Relationships Between Art Education and the Workplace (Master's Thesis, East Carolina University). Retrieved from the Scholarship. (http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3872.)
Moore, Jamie Lynn. Relationships Between Art Education and the Workplace. Master's Thesis. East Carolina University, January 2012. The Scholarship. http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3872. December 16, 2018.
Moore, Jamie Lynn, âRelationships Between Art Education and the Workplaceâ (Master's Thesis., East Carolina University, January 2012).
Moore, Jamie Lynn. Relationships Between Art Education and the Workplace [Master's Thesis]. Greenville, NC: East Carolina University; January 2012.
East Carolina University


By Jane Bloom GrisÃ©, University of Kentucky College of Law
Scott Turow, the bestselling author of One L, compared reading cases to âstirring concrete with my eyelashes.â Reading cases is challenging for many law students, but critical reading skills are incredibly important for success in law school and legal practice. Empirical research shows that lawyers read cases differently than non-lawyers. In addition, top law students use different reading strategies than lower performing students. While expert legal readers read cases to solve client problems, novices often read to memorize facts. Higher performing law students use an arsenal of different reading strategies depending upon the complexity of the case, but novices tend to indiscriminately highlight large quantities of text. Critical Reading for Success in Law School and Beyond was written to teach students the skills utilized by lawyers and higher performing law students. This book introduces students to a series of critical reading strategies so that they can become effective readers and move on to be successful in law school and law practice.
The Critical Reading program is premised on two ideas. First, it is based on the idea that critical reading should be taught. While it is often assumed that students enter law school fully equipped to read and understand cases and statutes, there is no evidence to support this assumption. One student in a focus group conducted in connection with the Critical Reading program indicated that reading a case was like looking for a purple dinosaur without knowing what a dinosaur was or what the color purple looked like. Critical reading strategies can be taught, and it is important to explain to students, as adult learners, how these strategies will improve their ultimate performance.
Second, Critical Reading is based on the idea that strategies should be presented in a sequential manner. As Bloomâs taxonomy suggests, students must master the lower level skill of understanding before they can be expected to engage in higher level skills, such as analysis and synthesis. For this reason, Critical Reading starts by examining the purpose for reading casesâto solve problems. Students are also introduced to the structure of cases so that they can understand different sections of cases. Critical Reading then presents information about civil and criminal procedure so that students can understand some of the commonly used terminology found in cases.
Then the program teaches students pre-reading strategies such as understanding the context of cases and doing case overviews before reading more carefully. After students master these foundational skills, they are introduced to techniques for reading facts and understanding complicated text. Rather than simply providing a template for a case brief, the program examines the components of a case such as the issue, holding, and dictum, and provides techniques to understand the main ideas in the case. Higher level skills such as finding rules, synthesizing cases, and evaluating cases are addressed at the end of the book.
These strategies can be introduced and incorporated into all classrooms in a few ways. First, students can be advised that they should read cases to identify rules and concepts that will be used to solve client problems or hypotheticals on a final exam. Students should be explicitly told that they do not need to memorize most cases.
Second, students can be instructed to read actively and pretend that they are either one of the parties in the case or the judge. Studies have found that higher performing students read actively in this way. Professors who ask students how they would decide the case or how one of the parties would argue in the case are encouraging students to adopt this active reading strategy. Finally, professors can take one sentence from an opinion and model good comprehension techniques such as paying attention to conjunctions, noticing repeated words, and shortening long sentences by inserting periods.
Critical Reading describes these and other strategies that can be introduced in the fall and/or spring semesters. As you are planning the spring semester, consider incorporating critical reading strategies into your courses. If you would like to discuss how you can introduce these strategies to your students, please feel free to contact me at firstname.lastname@example.org.


One of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
1A member of an indigenous people of south-western China and Laos.
- âThe Lahu, Red Karen, and White Karen represented matrilocal societies.â
- âIn addition to the Shans, numerous other ethnic groups live in the Shan state, mainly in the hills: Palaungs, Pa-Os, Was, Lahus, Akhas, and other tribal people, as well as the Kokang Chinese.â
- âThere are also significant numbers of Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Pao, Palaung, Lahu, Wa, and Rohingya.â
- âIt was after they had consumed the last host, that the Lahu fled to the camps in Thailand.â
- âMany Lahu were once animists who converted to Christianity after contact with missionaries.â
- âShelby Tucker has examined ethnic and cultural diversities and mentioned the social and cultural milieu of the Kokangs, Was, Akhas, Lahus, Karens, Rakhines, Chins, Kachins and Mons in the backdrop of ethnic Burmans.â
- âHe was Delmos J. Jones, who was then with the CUNY Graduate Center and who I had known in Thailand while he was doing fieldwork amongst the Lahu.â
- âIn the early 20th century Christianity was introduced, and many Lahu decided to follow that as well.â
- âTraditional clothing of the Lahu is black with bold embroidered patterns and bands of cloth for decoration.â
- âGeddes' master plan was for there to be studies of each of the âsix main hill tribesâ, identified as Hmong, Yao, Karen, Lisu, Lahu and Akha.â
2mass noun The Tibeto-Burman language of the Lahu.
- âThe first wave of revision affected eight writing systems: Kazak, Kirgiz, and Uygur, based on the Arabic script; Jingpo, Lahu, and Miao, based on the Roman alphabet; and Dai, based on the Indic script.â
- âIn the following years, the written languages of Bai, Bouyei, Dong, Hani, Naxi, Lisu, Lahu, Va, Zaiwa, Miao, and Xibei were also readopted.â
- âChinese-style topic constructions are widespread in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and some South-East Asian languages like Lahu, Lisu, and Zhuang.â
- âAfter 1958, newly revised Jingpo, Lisu, and Lahu written languages were still offered along with Chinese in schools and literacy classes in rural areas, while in urban schools Chinese basically replaced them.â
Relating to the Lahu or their language.
- âThe book Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs by Shanshan Du details the near ideal gender equity among Lahu communities.â
- âThe Lahu Shehleh also call themselves Black Lahu but customs and dialect are different to the Lahu Na.â
- âIn type 2 communities, the monopolistic stage slowed down progress in literacy development, and even saw a rise in illiteracy in Yi and Lahu communities during the Cultural Revolution.â
- âSome are from the Akha, Karen, or Lawa minorities, but most come from the Lahu hill tribe.â
- âAll the other Lahu tribes have supplemented their traditional costumes by sarong and Thai shirt.â
The name in Lahu.
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- 6 Benefits of Music Lessons for youth
Between dance and sports, your kidâs schedule is jam-packed with fun extra-curricular activities. So why add music lessons to the list? Maybe they wonât become the next Mozart, but they may improve academically, practice better manners, and build more confidence. Read on to learn more about the benefits of music education.
1. It Develops Academic Skills
Albert Einstein was not a revolutionary physicist, but a violinist playing and performing Mozartâs sonatas before reaching high school. By the time he reached the age of thirty, he had revolutionized the way humanity viewed time and space, forever distinguishing himself as an intellectual icon.
Fact: music is math. Through understanding rhythm, beat, and scales, children are learning how to create fractions, divide, and recognize patterns. Music is incredibly stimulating, and it is impossible to play music without counting. Research studies have also shown that music improves memory. A child can also learn about basic physics through playing an instrument. For example, plucking guitar strings or violin teaches children about sympathetic and harmonic vibrations.
2. It Cultivates Physical Skills
The movement of hands, arms, and feet thatâs required to play certain instruments can help children develop coordination and motor skills. Some instruments demand different actions from your right and left hand simultaneously, which is great for high-energy kids. Itâs like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time. Beyond developing ambidexterity, playing an instrument enhances coordination and perfect timing. This can prepare children for other hobbies, like dance and sports.
In addition to developing the physical skills necessary to play an instrument, learning how to perform cultivates coordination and motor skills even further. We teach performance at MPC because we recognize that a musical performance goes far beyond that act of playing the instrument. Whether itâs a singerâs choreography, microphone positioning, or creating presence behind a keyboard, performing music is about a coordinated grace.
3. It Trains Patience and Discipline
Itâs said that the best things in life are worth waiting/working for and being able to play music is no exception. Especially in todayâs age of instant gratification, learning an instrument can help teach children the value of perseverance and patience. To succeed it takes time and effort, and helps children understand that if they want to be good at something, they will need to be patient and give it proper focus and attention. It teaches perseverance through hours, months, and sometimes years of practice before they reach specific goals, such as memorizing a solo piece.
4. It Boosts Self-Esteem
Music lessons offer a forum where children can learn to accept constructive criticism. Turning constructive criticism into positive change helps build self-confidence. This self-confidence built by overcoming challenges can enhance all areas of life, both in and out of education. Not to mention the huge sense of achievement theyâll feel when their hard work turns into a beautiful performance. Our mission at MPC is to help children achieve their goals so they feel confident in any situation.
5. It Enhances Creative Self-Expression
Playing an instrument is a great form of self-expression and can help bring out your childâs creative side. Some feelings are hard to verbalize, and there is nothing more important to childhood development than self-expression. Music can provide a creative outlet that allows them to express themselves freely. This process is incredibly important in the development of emotional skills, communication skills, and psychological awareness.
The process of songwriting is also a huge creative outlet for self-expression. At MPC our guidance is the vehicle to help kids express themselves through music. Having a healthy creative outlet for self-expression allows children to grow and develop a positive sense of self.
6. Itâs Fun
We can go on and on about the benefits of learning a musical instrument, but what matters most is that the musician enjoys themselves. While other hobbies like watching Netflix or playing video games are passive, playing music actively engages and stimulates the brain, making you feel happy and occupied.
At Musicianâs Performance Centre we are passionate about music, and we believe in using this passion to grow in all aspects of life. Weâd love to hear from you! For questions or inquiries about signing up for music lessons contact us at 705-300-3561.
McCullough, S. (2018, September 4).


Quill.org provides free online tools to help low-income students become sharp writers. Our mission is to help the 30 million low-income K-12 students in the United States who struggle with writing.
In 2011, a Department of Education study found that 76% of eighth grade students are not proficient at writing, one of the most important skills young people need to improve reading comprehension, advance critical thinking, and produce new knowledge. While poor writers may gain admission into college, they will not have the skills they need to thrive. College-level learning depends on college-level thinking expressed through the written word.
By using Quill, teachers are able to implement research-based expository writing instruction in their classrooms. We want to improve outcomes for every single student who does not have consistent access to the finest writing instruction. By automatically grading the writing as they work, students are able to receive instant feedback and personalized instruction. This tailored experience enables students to learn faster, and it saves teachers hundreds of hours spent on grading.
Quill currently provides four writing tools that enable students to build writing, grammar, and proofreading skills, and we will continually launch new tools that advance student writing and thinking. Through our tools, students gain the ability to express, with clarity and precision, complicated thoughts in writing. Although some of the steps might seem simple, each activity helps teachers progressively build the skills students need to read deeply and think critically about the world around them.
In September of 2014 we launched Quill Proofreader, a tool that helps teachers identify which students need support in basic grammar. We then supplied lessons to improve those skills. These Common Core-aligned lessons help students with basic concepts such as possessive nouns and subject-verb agreement. Students receive instant feedback on their work and personalized pathways for advancing through the program. Quillâs curriculum now provides over 40 hours of instruction spanning 42 Common Core standards.
While exploring new ways to expand our program, we found that literacy experts consistently recommended âsentence combiningâ as a high-leverage strategy for teaching writing skills. In sentence combining, students take multiple ideas and combine them together into a single sentence. At its core, sentence combining requires students to examine the relationships between ideas, order those ideas, and then express them logically and succinctly. Writing Next, one of the seminal reports on literacy development, lists sentence combining as one of eleven highly effective strategies for developing writing skills.
The main hurdle in building a sentence combining tool is that students can produce a myriad of answers, a technically challenging problem. How do you fairly evaluate student work when there are potentially hundreds of correct or almost correct answers? With the advice of experienced technology advisors, we believe we have solved this challenge. Our sentence combining tool employs cutting-edge language analysis software so that we can assess the quality of student responses and provide students with immediate feedback.
A team of a dozen or so educators, including teachers at KIPP and Achievement First, are working on our product to ensure that it meets the needs of our targeted end-users: teachers who work in schools in impoverished neighborhoods and the low-income students they serve. By applying innovative technology to a research-validated strategy, we believe that we are on the verge of creating a revolutionary learning experience, which will be made available, for free, to millions of students.
Since launching in September of 2014, over 200,000 students have answered 20 million questions, an average of 100 questions per student. Once they have completed these questions, students master six to twelve Common Core writing standards.
There are over 2,000 schools using Quill, and 62% of our students attend low-income schools. Quillâs rapid growth is largely attributable to word-of-mouth traffic, with many teachers discovering Quill through press and then sharing it with their colleagues. We publicly publish our impact metrics at Quill.org/stats.
Quill is free for students and teachers so that every person can use our tools to become a better writer. Quill then builds partnerships with schools through our Quill Premium service, where schools receive in-depth data on student progress across national writing standards. Quill is now working with over a hundred schools through its premium service. Furthermore, Quill raises and dedicates funds in order to provide financial aid for Premium to schools with low-income populations and limited budgets. If you work in a school with low-income populations, you can apply for Quill Financial Aid.
Quill is an open source organization, and we work with a large community of developers and educators to launch new literacy tools aligned with our mission. More than 100 educators and developers have helped to build Quill, and our vision is to be like Wikipedia, enabling thousands of people to launch their own activities on our platform. Through a crowdsourced, community-led effort, we will be able to scale Quill to meet the needs of every learner in the world.


One challenge school librarians have faced in collaborative work is being acknowledged as equal partners with classroom teacher colleagues. In states where school librarians are required to hold classroom teacher certification and have classroom teaching experience, this may not be as much of a challenge. If, on the other hand, teaching certification and experience is not required, classroom teachers may need to be convinced that the school librarian is indeed an âequal.âThe reverse may also have been true. I may be that when professionals serving in school libraries are perceived of as âcoachesâ or âmentors,â their classroom teacher colleagues may feel âless thanâ in terms of knowledge and expertise. A hierarchyâwhether or not it is intentionalâis implied. If school librarians position themselves as professionals who know more than their colleaguesâin all areas of teaching and learningâclassroom teachers may perceive that the school librarian is trying to âfixâ a classroom teacherâs instructional or other practices.
In either case, relationships will suffer and collaboration may not be successful in the long run.
If, on the other hand, school librarians and classroom teachers collaborate as equal partners who learn with and from one another, then relationships have a better chance of thriving and collaboration is more likely to be on-going. Educators are adults who need to be respected for their knowledge and experience. Collaboration needs to be experienced by both/all parties as a problem-solving activity that benefits both/all educators and subsequently, all students.
In the best of instructional partnerships, mentorship goes both ways. It is reciprocal. There will be areas of the curriculum in which school librarians may lack knowledge or lack teaching experience. Classroom teachers may have little or no knowledge of or experience teaching the inquiry process or reading comprehension strategies. One or the other educator may be stronger in integrating technology tools and devices. One or the other may have better student observation skills or classroom management skills.
School librarians who approach collaborative work as educators with both strengths and areas for growth and who communicate the dispositions (character traits) of lifelong learners will have more success as coteachers. School librariansâ opportunities for professional development in their daily practice are truly limitless!
Job-Embedded Professional Development
In a learning commons library model, adult learning is as important as student learning. It is, after all, the adults who organize the learning environment and create learning opportunities for students. If adults do not engage in on-going professional development and continue growing their practice, then future ready students will be short-changed.
âCollaborationâ involves âworking with a member of the teaching team to plan, implement, and evaluate a specialized instructional planâ (AASL 2016). Collaboration requires effective on-going communication, joint planning, individual and collective action, and commitment to a shared outcome.
While coplanning, coimplementing, and co-assessing a lesson or unit of instruction, school librarians and classroom teachers are engaged in a just-in-time opportunity to learn with and from one another. Most educators do not have the golden opportunity school librarians have; they are not positioned to learn with and from colleagues who teach in all content areas. Due to that fact, itâs my experience that collaborating school librarians can accelerate their instructional expertise at a faster rate than most classroom teachers. And still, school librarians have more to learn from every educator and student they have the good fortune to serve.
One of the Future Ready Librariansâ¢ gears is personalized professional development. When school librarians and classroom teachers engage in reciprocal membership, they are indeed providing and receiving personalized professional development. And students are receiving a higher quality of instruction. Win. Win. Win.
Questions for Discussion and Reflection
- What is your definition of a learning commons, and how does your current library measure up to that description?
- How do you ensure that the colleagues with whom you collaborate perceive classroom-library collaboration as the work of equal partners?
American Association of School Librarians. 2016 âPosition Statements: Definition for an Effective School Library Program.â www.ala.org/aasl/advocacy/resources/statements


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Do You Think Teaching Children Music Is Impossible If You or Your Children Donât
Have an Ear for Music?
Wrong! You and your children can sing! Some of you will disagree and say that the
absence of the musical ear runs in the family: your dad, grandfather, great-grandfather
and aunt didnât have one, and so, teaching children music is an unwise decision.
Hold on! Letâs come to an understanding once and for all.
If you can not repeat a tune and someone else in your family could not sing, this
only indicates that your relatives were unable to find the suitable âmusicalâ environment
for you. But it was not their fault, because their own childhood was just as ânon-musicalâ
and could not find teachers who employed the right techniques of teaching children
Most people are absolutely sure that inborn musical abilities and voices are impossible
to change. Yet the truth is, everyone has a natural ear for music and a singing voice.
Any person who can hear and speak has an ear for music!
Moreover, people at any age can learn to sing properly. In this case, you will have
to make certain efforts: learn a special breathing technique, special articulation,
and learn to control your vocal chords. You must also be very diligent and persistent.
All this put together can drastically change your voice and, accordingly, develop
your ear for music.
If your children show an interest in music and musical instruments, you should immediately
indulge this interest and seek ways of teaching children music, for example introducing
them to a music teacher. If the teacher tells you that âYour child is a charming
boy/girl, but absolutely has no musical talent,â donât listen! Get a second, third,
or fifth opinion, and find a teacher who is a true professional and can instruct
you how to work with your child by creating an individual, unique plan of teaching
Of course it is more interesting and easier for music teachers to work with gifted
children, but if the musical abilities of your kids have not been revealed yet, do
not give up on teaching children music lessons. You are not too late; you can still
Once I worked at a musical school in small town in Sakhalin, Russia. The number of
children wishing to play musical instruments had been limited, and we sometimes had
to enrol almost everyone without preliminary testing. Quite often we had up to 40
percent of âtooters,â as we, the musicians, called them. Those were children who
were not able to sing. So why did we teach them? Simply because as teachers, we could
not refuse teaching children music as the desire to learn and the initiative came
from the children themselves.
Adults and children who can hear a tune âin their headâ but can not reproduce it
vocally and would like to correct the problem can reverse this with training. Sometimes
this problem is not very obvious, and it can not be seen right away. But as children
develop creatively, the problem becomes more apparent and leads to the inability
to express themselves. In the future, âtootersâ may develop a number of inferiority
complexes, such as feelings of isolation and other personal problems.
Even when it seems that hearing and voice coordination has been disrupted, this problem
can be mended.


Phonics Instruction Is Bearing Fruit
Andrea Neal column for Dec. 10, 2003
INDIANAPOLIS â One of the myths of education reformers is that there is no such thing as a silver bullet. They insist it will take a variety of innovative approaches over many years to effect real change in low-performing schools.
News bulletin: There is a silver bullet at the primary level that can work its magic in test scores pretty quickly. ItÂ¹s phonics and it improves math skills as well as reading because both rely on a studentÂ¹s ability to make sense of stories and story problems.
Exhibit 1: In Indianapolis Public Schools, the percentage of third graders passing the ISTEP exam jumped this year from 46 to 54 percent. While students made gains in three of the four grade levels tested, the biggest increase was in third grade, the first class to have experienced two consecutive years of a phonics-based reading program. The program is Open Court published by SRA/McGraw-Hill, which offers the most systematic phonics of any textbook on IndianaÂ¹s state-approved list.
Exhibit 2: In Detroit, 55 percent of fourth-graders passed MichiganÂ¹s Educational Assessment Program this year, compared to 33 percent the year before. As reported in the Oct. 4 Detroit Free Press, Kenneth Burnley, chief executive officer for Oakland County schools, "credited the 22-point fourth-grade reading improvement to a program called Open Court, on which the district spent nearly $20 million last year."
Exhibit 3: In the Poudre School District in Colorado, an affluent community in comparison to Indianapolis and Detroit, third graders this year achieved an all-time high 84 percent proficiency rate on the reading test of the Colorado Student Assessment Program. The number compared to 81 percent the year before and 76 percent in 1998. Nancy Sebring, executive director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, attributed the growth to the districtÂ¹s emphasis on literacy at the elementary level, and the district-wide reading program, Open Court.
Memo to Indiana school systems: If you havenÂ¹t yet put phonics back into your elementary reading instruction, you are missing the boat. Whether your ISTEP scores are high or low, you can nudge them higher.
"I do believe that our Open Court adoption in grades K-2 has had a big impact on improving our test scores at 3rd grade," says IPS Superintendent Duncan Pat Pritchett. "Open Court is a heavily phonics-based program, which is providing our students with the decoding skills necessary to be successful readers."
More good news comes from the federally-funded program for disadvantaged students known as Title I. IndianapolisÂ¹s Title I full-day kindergartens began using Open Court in 1999-2000, two years before the district adopted the series. Three years after implementation, ISTEP passage rates for the Title I students went from 39 percent to 52 percent.
Other assessment tools show similar boosts, according to Nancy Beatty of IPS. Scores from the Signposts Early Literacy Battery indicate that 36 percent of Title I full day kindergartners scored above the 50th percentile in 2001 compared to 50 percent in 2002 and 56 percent in 2003.
Are there other factors that contribute to these improvements? Of course, Pritchett and Beatty agree, and teacher dedication and professional development are right at the top. But itÂ¹s indisputable that IPS reading scores are moving in the right direction after only two years of intensive phonics.
Four other Indiana school districts formally use Open Court â Baugo in Elkhart County, Porter Township, Milan and Western Wayne â and dozens of others have supplemented their reading texts with phonics-based instruction, programs such as Saxon, Direct Approach and Success for All. (As a matter of disclosure, the private school where I teach uses Open Court).
In 2000, the Indiana General Assembly passed a bill requiring new elementary teachers be trained in phonetic skills. The same year, the Indiana Department of Education created a "phonics toolkit" to help teachers incorporate phonics into their teaching. Two years later, President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires schools receiving federal funds to use phonics-based programs.
There were naysayers aplenty, including some high-profile profs from IndianaÂ¹s education schools and leaders in the International Reading Association, who continue to insist there is no best way to teach reading.
The proof, thank goodness, is in the pudding.
â¹ 30 â¹
Andrea Neal, former editor of the Indianapolis Star editorial page, is a middle school teacher, columnist and adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation. Contact her at firstname.lastname@example.org.