Visual Arts: A Student-Centered Approach
For the past six years, I have worked as a Visual Arts teacher in a 2nd through 8thgrade setting at a school for students with language based learning differences. Working in this specialized learning environment has required me to consistently design differentiated learning experiences that make art accessible for all my students. Originally trained as a discipline based teacher, I transitioned to a choice-based teaching methodology three years ago to reflect current art education trends and increase the student-driven curriculum happening in my classroom. The corner stone of my teaching philosophy is Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB), a structured choice-based approach to art education that enables students to develop artistic habits through authentic learning experiences and responsive teaching. TAB emphasizes experimentation, innovation, and curiosity; students make art about the things they love (e.g. youth culture, fan art, anime, comic books, etc.) while simultaneously practicing the studio habits of artists. From research, to sketching, to refining, students are taught how each phase of the artistic thinking process works through step-by-step guidelines and regular practice.
Stop Motion Samples
Stop motion animation is a great way to tell stories in a dynamic and creative manner. In the above videos, students used a wide range of materials including playdough, paper cut-outs, and green screen images! Students love the stop motion process because they are able to quickly and easily manipulate characters and props to make their ideas come to life. The possibilities are truly endless!
Tableaux Vivants (Living Pictures) Samples
The term “tableaux vivant” means “living picture” in French and the practice dates back to the late 19th century. Tableaux Vivants are essentially carefully orchestrated still images where people pose to dramatically depict scenes from stories, artworks, pictures, etc. For this project, students worked in teams using their bodies to depict dramatic scenes while simultaneously learning basic photography skills such as framing and light their subjects.


5 Must-Take Computer Science Degree Program Courses
- Computer Networking Fundamentals
- Database Fundamentals
- Introduction to Computer Programming
- Operating Systems
- Discrete Mathematics
Students in an associate’s in computer science degree program take not just various computer courses but also courses in computer programming and mathematics. The curriculum, which combines theory with practice, teaches students how to design, maintain and use computers and computer systems. Many of the nation’s fastest-growing occupations are computer science careers, and computer science professionals are generally qualified for careers related to information technology, computer programming, and software development. The various courses offered in a computer science associate’s degree program train students in computer science, research, engineering and similar fields required in our technology-based society. Here are five courses in an associate’s in computer science degree program.
Related resource: 5 Cheapest Associate’s in Computer Science Degrees Online
1. Computer Networking Fundamentals
The computer networking fundamentals course teaches students about the internet and internet protocols and procedures. They also learn how computers communicate with each other through computer networking as well as how to manage and maintain network connections. The course helps students increase their knowledge of computer science and prepare for computer-based careers. Students learn about several approaches to computer networking and how to work with communication models. At the end of the class, the student will be able to design a computer networking system.
2. Database Fundamentals
Database management and computer programming are two of the largest foundational skills in computer science, and this course teaches students about the importance of a database. They not only learn about the purpose of a database but also learn how to effectively design and use a database. The type of programming language the student uses in the database may vary by course and instructor, but most use SQL.
3. Introduction to Computer Programming
The computer programming course is often taken as a two-part course with the Intro to Computer Programming taken first and followed by the Programming II course. The first course lays the foundation for everything the computer science student will learn throughout the associate degree program. They learn about the basic coding language, which might be different from one school to the next as well as how to work with algorithms. Once students are proficient in the computer programming course, they’re able to advance to areas of specialization, such as website design, software, and programming.
4. Operating Systems
Regardless of what type of computer an individual has, there will be some sort of operating system, and this course teaches students about the various types of operating systems, when each one will be used and how to successfully use them. The course focuses on the most commonly used operating systems. Students also learn how to link one operating system to another and have them work together. Students also learn the codes used in different operating systems. They also learn about threads, memory management, processes, file systems, and security.
5. Discrete Mathematics
This course, which is a combination of lectures, class assignments and exams, helps students understand and utilize discrete structures while understanding how they are the backbone of computer science. Modern computer science is built almost completely on mathematics and discrete math. Students learn about functions, logic, relations, sets, counting, and probability and learn how these things are used in computer science applications. In order to learn the basic algorithms used in computer science, computer science students must have a solid understanding of discrete mathematics.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that computer and information technology jobs should see a growth of 12 percent between 2018 and 2028. Individuals who complete courses in an associate’s in computer science program are qualified for entry-level positions in a variety of computer-based fields, and the demand for these professionals will continue to grow.


Literacy provides students with the capacity to realise their place in the world and empowers them to the essential and fundamental skills to access learning and to engage in meaningful ways to the local and global communities.
Of late we have seen some sensationalised reporting on reading and debate over teaching techniques which has left some parents confused about the best way to support their child with reading. Parents can best do this by reading to them, reading with them, and listening to them reading.
These three approaches assist considerably and the longer parents spend with their children reading the better. Ultimately it helps boost literacy development. Also talking about books when they complete their reading is a positive way to assist with their comprehension levels, especially when parents ask about the main characters, meaning of the title, theme, messages, likes and dislikes and the overall impression they had of the book.
This is particularly helpful with established readers and supports knowledge about different authors, cultural norms and cultural literacy. Also encourage reading to establish library habits and take an interest in their choices and encourage them to be adventurous.


ERIC Number: ED355828
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1988
Practical Handbook to Elementary Foreign Language Programs. Including FLES, FLEX, and Immersion Programs.
Lipton, Gladys C.
Designed for teachers, supervisors, administrators, and community advocates, this book provides practical advice on how to establish, maintain, and improve foreign language programs at the primary and middle school levels. Foreign Language in the Elementary School (FLES) options are explored, ways to evaluate existing programs are explained, and recommendations for selecting appropriate materials are presented. A special section on promoting FLES is included. The 10 chapters are as follows: "Introduction"; "Why FLES?"; "Goals and Objectives"; "How to Organize Programs" (e.g., parent role, curriculum); "What Is the Content of FLES?" (e.g., content-enriched, content-based approaches); "Teaching the Four Skills and Culture"; "Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages in the Elementary School"; "Evaluation"; "Selection of Material"; "PR for FLES--How to Get Publicity for Your Program"; and "FLES, FLEX (Foreign Language Experience Programs) Immersion Can Be..." A variety of appendices offer sample lesson plans for FLES, FLEX, and immersion; games for FLES, FLEX, Immersion; sample programs; and a selected bibliography. Contains 221 references. (LB)
Descriptors: Curriculum Development, Elementary Education, FLES, Immersion Programs, Instructional Materials, Lesson Plans, Middle Schools, Models, Modern Language Curriculum, Parent Role, Primary Education, Program Administration, Program Evaluation, Second Language Instruction, Second Language Programs
National Textbook Company, 4255 West Touhy Avenue, Lincolnwood, IL 60646-1975.
Publication Type: Books; Guides - Non-Classroom; Reference Materials - Bibliographies
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Practitioners; Community
Authoring Institution: N/A


Job Description and Jobs
- 1) Directs and coordinates activities of teaching personnel engaged in instructing students in vocal and instrumental music in school system: Consults with teaching and administrative staff to plan and develop music education curriculum.
- 2) Observes, evaluates, and recommends changes in work of teaching staff to strengthen teaching skills in classroom.
- 3) Analyzes music education program to evaluate instructional methods and materials.
- 4) Orders instructional materials, supplies, equipment, and visual aids designed to meet training needs of students.
- 5) Authorizes purchase of musical instruments for school system.
- 6) Inspects and authorizes repair of instruments.
- 7) Establishes interschool orchestra, band, and choral group to represent schools at civic and community events.
Is being a "MUSIC SUPERVISOR" your very best career choice?
Our Career Interest Test
will show you which careers match your interests.
Our Free Personality Test will show you which careers match your personality and why.
Click here for "MUSIC SUPERVISOR" Jobs
See the Future Outlook and Educational Requirements for "MUSIC SUPERVISOR"
Our Most Popular Products
End Of Job Description for: "MUSIC SUPERVISOR"
Job Number: 6759


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
One Planet Education Network (OPEN) Launches a
Global Music Education Program Series:
MUSIC FROM SPACESHIP EARTH –
Cultural Histories of the World Through Music™
Boston, MA, November 13, 2020: OPEN, an international education social enterprise is launching a groundbreaking “cultures through music” program series with its global network of schools in South and North America, Africa, Australia and East Asia. Two separate “live” events are required to span all the time zones - November 19th (South & North America and Africa) and 20th (Australia and East Asia).
During these hour and a half events, OPEN students and music professionals will deliver 5-7 minute performances and presentations revealing histories of the countries and cultures where their music emanated, and hinting at possible musical directions for its future.
Insight to cultures can be shown through the musical instruments invented there, the evolution of the various forms music through time, the catalog of music, the influences that shaped that music, and how local songs, traditions and styles have influenced others nearby or across the world. Music becomes the medium to tell the stories of the lands and people from the far corners of the world.
Students from Kenscoff, Haiti and Brooklyn, NY USA Perform in OPEN’s “We Are One” Program Prelude To Music From Spaceship Earth – June 2020
During the course of this multi-year education program, your students will hear from music superstars, music scholars, music technologists, sound engineers, ethnomusicologists, music producers, publicists, managers, local historians and indigenous leaders. Your students will continually research various cultures and their histories as told through song, while also learning about the evolution of the music industry and instruments.
Students will be offered ongoing opportunities to teach their peers internationally, taking turns presenting to one another through "Live" performances, storytelling events, live streams, and via digital recordings. OPEN will archive all for the enjoyment and historical research of future cultures that will follow us.
In the spring we will feature our first country of focus with a festival on the music and cultures of Liberia. Liberia will also co-host our launch events, setting the stage for the spring event.
Our goal at this critical juncture in our history is to lift our collective spirits and send us all on an amazing journey learning more about each other and our music. Sharing music, histories, performing and playing together across borders, we created this program to inspire this and future generations. The current technology allows for it, so let’s use it to its fullest potential!!
George Newman, Founder of One Planet Education Network – “The time is NOW for us all to join together across borders, cultures, races, creeds, politics, economics, and anything else that is used as a cudgel to divide us. Music is the medium that can bridge the chasms, help us obtain perspective, and make lasting positive connections between our children. We’re all so thrilled with the initial response to our planned program series from so many cultures and places around the world. We invite all schools on Spaceship Earth to join us in months and years ahead to take this to places that only our creative young geniuses can imagine.”
Contact information – Info@oneplaneteducation.com


Why we need literacy development in education and training?
Literacy changes lives and we know that in 2017 only 62,736 adults with literacy needs (12%) are accessing adult literacy services. That means there are 457,000 adults who have unmet literacy needs, many whom are in the workplace and in some further education and training (FET).
Currently adults (both working and unemployed) can usually only access between 2 and 6 hours adult literacy tuition per week (through the ITABE programme – Intensive Tuition in Adult Basic Education) or a Back to Education Initiative part-time course if available. There is a current gap in intensive or full-time provision for the number of adults who need effective supports and pathways.
1 Answer to parliamentary question number 350 on 15 January 2019 https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2019-01-15/350/#pq_350
In the context of further education and training (FET), NALA works to ensure that FET courses are inclusive of, and effective for, adults who may have language, literacy or numeracy needs. This is called ‘integrating literacy’. ‘Integrating literacy’ means designing and delivering courses in ways that remove unnecessary literacy barriers and that develop the key course-related language, literacy and numeracy. It requires education and training providers to take a whole-organisation approach to literacy.


NROER is a solution developed to address the challenges faced by the education sector of our country. It intends to reach the unreached, include the excluded and prioritizes to extend education to all. It is a collaborative platform involving everyone who is interested in education. It offers resources for all school subjects and grades in multiple languages. It brings together all the digital resources for a school system such as educational videos, audio, images, documents and interactive modules and also allows you to contribute your own resources.
The Repository is based on the concept of Semantic Maps. It organizes its collections into the ever growing semantic maps of concepts. The map itself is a learning resource for teachers, through which they can critically assess the curriculum and aids them in the construction of their own unique learning themes for their classrooms. The digital resources are all mapped to subjects, which currently are divided into 5 categories namely, Math, Science, Social Science, Languages and Art Education. Each subject has a list of concepts. This enables access to a library from where teachers can access audio, videos, learning objects, images, question banks, activities/presentations and more related to the concepts. They can also upload resources which are subject to review by experts. In addition to this, NROER allows teachers to download, share, comment and rate media resources.
Objectives of NROER are:
- To store, preserve and provide access to a variety of digital resources to students and teachers.
- To enable the participation of the community in the development and sharing of digital resources.
- To enhance the quality of the education system of the country.
- To facilitate teachers to create and share contextual teaching and learning resources.
- To celebrate innovations in resource creation.
Features of NROER are:
- Open access to anyone who wants to access the resources.
- Resources are available for free.
- Resources are share-able.
- Resources are available in the form of discrete chunks in contrast to those available as bulk and make it difficult for a person to segregate information from them.
- Eliminates the need of research from several places, since all resources on any particular subject or topic you desire are present in one place and are comprehensive.
- Resources sometimes may need to be contextualized, by wraparound materials that support them.
- Resources can be added to the NROER pool, subject to proper licensing.
This initiative is also a significant step towards inclusive education. Opening access to all requires a debate on the issue of ownership, copyright, licensing and a balancing of reach with legitimate commercial interests. This is particularly important for public institutions and public funded projects. NROER frees itself of these boundations since it carries the CC BY-SA license which allows it to legally reuse, revise, remix and redistribute content. To contribute to the repository, one must ensure that they are hosting the resources under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-SA) and that the documents uploaded are encoded using non-proprietary, open standards.
Also, to ensure the smooth functioning and to properly avail the services of the Repository, one needs to take support of various ICT (Information and Communications Technology) tools, which enhance the utility and add value to it.
Hence, the NROER is a comprehensive digital repository for open Educational Resources (OER ), which in addition to providing opportunities for users to access and create educational resources also allows them to enroll in various online courses and participate in online contests.
I hope this will open doors to new ways of interactive learning for the students and teachers and will revolutionize the entire education system of our country. We are most willing to address any doubts you have related to the context and invite you to share with us any additional knowledge you may possess on the same. The Comment Box awaits you.


Breaks down the fundamentals of melody, harmony and bass using a range of pop, rock and classical songs.
Bridge Sessions easily intersect with state standards for music education, as well as standards for many other classroom subjects. Although no advance preparation is necessary to attend, we encourage teachers to connect Bridge Sessions back to your classrooms. Please contact us if any additional information would be helpful.
Classical, pop, rock
Double bass, violin, guitar, voice
Music You’ll Hear
Canon in D (Pachelbel)
I, IV, V medley: Louie Louie, La Bamba, Beethoven’s 9th, Stir It Up, Twist & Shout, Amazing Grace
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Bass, harmony and melody
Major vs minor keys
I, IV, V chords
- Introduction to basic elements of music
- Introduction to string instruments and both acoustic and electric guitars


The impact of reading rooms on literacy development: A case of selected basic schools in Chongwe district
MetadataShow full item record
The study sought to evaluate the impact of the Reading Rooms on literacy development among basic school pupils. It targeted pupils from rural schools of Chongwe District, Lusaka Province. A sample of 210 respondents comprising of 4 Ministry of Education officials, 12 Head teachers, 4 librarians, 40 teachers and 150 pupils were purposively and randomly selected from the research site. In order to provide accurate results, the researcher adopted a mixed (triangulation) approach and employed both quantitative and qualitative research designs. Data were collected using open-ended questionnaires and interview guides. The data collection exercise was undertaken over a period of six weeks. The actual procedure began by seeking authority from the District Education Board Secretary (DEBs) to conduct interviews with some officials at his office and carry out research in selected basic schools in the District. In order to achieve the study objectives, interviews with District Education Board Officials and trained school librarians were conducted to solicit information on the Reading Rooms. During interviews, the responses to the questions were written down by the researcher as the interviewees gave their views. Tests (literacy skills) were also administered to one set of pupils in schools with Reading Rooms and another set of pupils in a school that was similar in all respects apart from a Reading Room; i.e. the control group. The difference in scores was taken to mean the impact of the Reading Rooms. Both qualitative and quantitative data analyses were employed. Descriptive data were analysed through thematic approach where it was categorized, tabulated and arranged under themes and sub-themes. Quantitative data were analysed using the Social Package for the Social Sciences Software (SPSS) and interpreted as percentages and graphs.
- Education


As we move through this unit about the structure and function of the human body, the students are following the story of a fictional character named Angelina. She fell at recess and hurt her arm. As the story progresses, Angelina visits the hospital to have an x-ray taken of her arm. The students learned about x-rays and worked through a puzzle of the hand bones. Each student made a handprint with white paint and will glue the puzzle to their handprint.
1st Grade-Patterns of the Stars
The students conducted an investigation with a flashlight and some aluminum foil to mimic the night sky and understand why we can only see stars at night. We also watched an informational video about the life cycle of stars.
2nd Grade-Changing Earth's Surface
Using the Canvas app, students connected to our PLTW activity and followed a presentation to observe and take notes about the changes water, wind and natural disasters cause to land over time.
3rd Grade-Traits Through the Generations
As we continue to learn about genes, the students were introduced to 2 identical "parent" plants. Although the plants look identical, the students learned that each parent plant contributes a dominant or recessive gene. Students travelled through 8 stations, each representing a phenotype (a trait such as stem length, color, type of leaves, etc.). At each station, the students determined the genotype that would be passed from each parent creating a dominant or recessive phenotype for the baby plant. After completing the stations, students used paper cutouts to illustrate the baby plant.
4th Grade-Data Collection & Display
With experience in how computers store data, students looked at different data sets to make conclusions. We had an introduction to Tynker, an iPad app that allows students to create their own games and animations using visual blocks to code. Understanding data sets will be put into practice as the students create a game that will track data and represent that data in a graph.
5th Grade-Mystery at School 1
There is an illness spreading at our fictional school. The students learned about bacteria and viruses as they distinguished between communicable and noncommunicable diseases.
Welcome to the STEAM Studio Blog for Jamestown Upper & Lower Elementary Schools in Hudsonville, MI. Here you will find the latest projects and concepts we've been working on in class.
comes to Hudsonville with 17 years of teaching information and technology skills to elementary students. After earning a BA in Elementary Education at the University of Northern Iowa and a Master’s degree from the University of Iowa in 2000, she drew a circle on the map and chose Southwest Michigan.


The arts at GSB enrich the student experience and the life of the school.
The arts promote courageous exploration, self-awareness, and cultural literacy as students are encouraged to take creative risks, to discover their passions, and to present their work before an audience.
Finally, the arts remind each of us what it means to be human and of the transformative power of creativity.
Beginning in preschool, children explore musical concepts through movement, classroom instruments, and singing. There are several opportunities for Middle School students to perform for an audience, including fall and spring musical productions. The Upper School offers choral music coursework and performance opportunities for a range of abilities and interests; in addition, the award-winning GSB Players stage two productions each year, a play in the fall and a musical in the spring.
Drama and its appreciation are important parts of the enrichment program at Gill. Participation in drama encourages cooperation and teamwork and helps to develop confidence and poise. Theater is creative storytelling at its best, serving to inspire, uplift, challenge, and engage everyone – artists and audience alike.
Whether are serious about studying an instrument, learning about music, or you just want to explore, Gill’s music program will expand your knowledge and nurture your inner musician.
Every grade in our Lower School enjoys art as a yearlong course. Through studio practice, students learn about the language and history of art and gain an appreciation for creating and understanding visual art. In the Middle School, students in fifth and sixth grade take a semester each of Studio Art and Woodworking. In seventh and eighth grade, students can choose to explore sculpture and ceramics as well, furthering their experience in their chosen medium. A wide variety of two- and three-dimensional art courses are offered in the Upper School Fine Arts program, including Studio Art, Drawing, Painting, Honors Portfolio Development, AP 2-D Art and Design, Photography, Advanced Photography, Graphic Design, Digital Illustration, Woodworking, Advanced Woodworking, Sculpture, and Ceramics.
Painting and Drawing
Working primarily from life—in still-life, portrait, and landscape contexts—skills in using cohesive color schemes and painting techniques develop.
Student creativity is captured while learning several methods of hand-building pottery, as well as throwing on the potter’s wheel.
Capitalizing on mathematical and collaborative problem-solving skills, students learn to design and build projects.
As a documentary and media art, learning photography and visual editing becomes a skill to be used for a lifetime.
In our media-driven world, digital production skills become a powerful communication tool for students.
Our latest student art gallery features work from Fine Arts classes, including Woodworking, Photography, Graphic Design, Studio Art, Drawing, Honors Portfolio, and AP 2D Art and Design.
Thanks to the tremendous teamwork of the cast, crew, producers, and directors, the GSB Players delivered a one-of-a-kind socially distant performance of the moving Broadway musical, Two by Two.
Visual Arts Chair
Sarah Isusi chairs the Fine Arts Department at GSB, and teaches Upper School Studio Art, Drawing and Painting, Portfolio Development and AP 2D Design. Isusi holds a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Painting and a Master’s of Art in Teaching from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a Master’s of Fine Art in Painting from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Prior to coming to Gill, she taught International Baccalaureate Art and Design to Upper School students in Baltimore and later developed the Fine Arts program for a Charter School for Performing and Fine Arts in Philadelphia. She is an active member of the N.J. Art Education Association, as well as the Center for Contemporary Art in Bernardsville and the Print Center of N.J., where she shows her work annually.
Performing Arts Chair
Paul H. Canada, Chair of the Performing Arts Department, has been teaching theater and staging award-winning Upper School productions for three decades. He holds a Master’s of Fine Arts in costume and set design from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, as well as a Bachelor’s of Music Education in vocal music from Mississippi College. He has worked extensively as a director and designer in educational and community theatre, and as a designer in professional theater.
GSB celebrated the grand opening of the new Performing Arts & Community Center (PACC) in November 2018 with more than 400 guests in attendance. In addition to locations such as the Chapel, the Founders expansion, and the Parents' Association Student Art Gallery, the arts are vibrant and alive across our campus.


Lower School Art
The arts are an essential part of developing critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, and empathy. In the PK-6th grade art room, the focus is to create, appreciate, and enjoy art by exploring various artistic styles and historical periods of art following the Alabama Course of Study for Visual Arts. We begin art making with foundational skills based on developmental stages and move into creating more complex masterpieces inspired by famous artists and themes. We look at works of art and discuss them by describing, analyzing, and interpreting what they see. We use various media including several types of paints, oil pastels, markers, colored pencils, collage papers, printmaking, and clay to help enable them to create their own works of art. We celebrate the artistic pursuits of each student by displaying student artwork at the LSA Art Show in the spring. The end of the school year culminates with the creation of a student art portfolio as well as a digital art portfolio on Artsonia.com.
Upper School Art
In the 6th – 12th grades, students come to art everyday and are exposed to the arts through history and a large variety of techniques. The fundamentals, like drawing and painting, are covered as well as graphic design, photography, and sculpture. The kiln in the art room provides opportunities to create with clay and glass. In addition to the annual art show, the students’ paintings have also been on display at the Art Walk in conjunction with the Show Choir’s Dinner Theatre fundraiser.
Welcome to Lee-Scott!
We are pleased that you have chosen to visit our site, and we hope you will schedule a visit to learn even more about the people and programs that are Lee-Scott Academy.


LEARN: Review of Perfect Pitch in the Key of Autism
Blog post written by Sanja Cajic (Sydney Representative)
Kupferstein and Rancer (2016) Perfect Pitch in the Key of Autism: A Guide for Educators, Parents, and the Musically Gifted
This book combines the knowledge, research, and experience of two researchers and professionals, Susan Rancer and Henny Kupferstein. Rancer and Kupferstein propose a theory that individuals with autism and individuals gifted with musical potential, are wired to process musical information in a unique way, therefore requiring an adapted teaching approach that takes their unique learning style into account.
The authors describe a common trait of individuals with autism/individuals gifted with musical potential, namely Absolute Pitch (AP) - an ability to identify a tone by name without an external reference pitch. The presence of AP in a student calls for a different approach to learning notation, requiring teachers to use various techniques to help students link notation presented visually to the pitch the student can hear. The authors argue, that using a traditional music teaching approach with a student with AP can have detrimental effects, leading the student to feel incapable.
The authors’ adapted music teaching approach for students with AP is called the Rancer Method, and is an innovation in the music teaching field. Chapter 6 of the book outlines the Rancer Method fully, illustrating lesson set-up and discussing lesson materials required. Since the method focuses on the ‘process’ of learning music, the book is user-friendly, giving music teachers the knowledge required to test for AP and to use the adapted teaching techniques with their students.
In addition to outlining the Rancer Method, the book also provides general music lesson tips and ideas when teaching students with autism. The book is also filled with interesting material, including how to identify whether students are left-brain or right-brain learners using student behaviours and presentation, and what this means in terms of their learning style and preferences. Finally, the book also outlines some common traits for people with autism which might require further awareness and training for teachers, including synaesthesia, sensory challenges, and reading and memory differences.
What are the key topics covered?
Identifying and testing for Absolute Pitch (AP)
Understanding left and right-brain learning traits
Piano teaching ideas and lesson set-up
Music therapy tips
The Rancer Method – an outline of the method and how it can be used with students
Identifying features and traits of students with autism
Which art forms are discussed?
Piano teaching, music theory teaching, and music therapy.
What disciplines are involved?
Music education, music therapy, and psychology - particularly neuropsychology.
Who is it aimed at?
This book is highly suitable for music teachers wishing to incorporate music education for students with autism in their music studios. This book is also suitable for music therapists, parents of children with autism, and anyone interested in finding more about an adaptive music teaching approach.
Thank you so much to Sanja for taking the time to write this book review. If you are interested in reviewing a book for the blog, please get in touch with Robyn our Blog Editor.


Foundation Stage (FS1 & FS2)
Our Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum is a broad and balanced curriculum with relevant and appropriate content that matches the different levels of the young child’s needs. We take into account the children’s different starting points and rates of development and encourage the children to be active, motivated and independent learners.
Children learn by playing, observing, experimenting, taking risks, questioning, repeating and talking. Children learn best through first hand experiences. The teaching and learning pedagogy we adopt is one that is structured to accommodate the vital teaching of phonics, reading/writing and number. These teaching and learning sessions take place every day.
The curriculum is structured to provide rich and stimulating experiences that are challenging and enjoyable. The curriculum is flexible, is influenced by, and caters for, individual needs, interests, enthusiasms and learning styles.
The curriculum provides opportunities for teaching and learning, both outdoors and indoors. Our enclosed outdoor space is secure and offers children the ability to explore a different environment, presenting them with different challenges and experiences.
Our dedicated woodwork room encompasses all areas of learning and development where children feel empowered and valued by being trusted and given the responsibility to work with real tools.
We offer children a range of practical, investigative and recorded activities and provide opportunities for whole class, group, paired and individual activities. We aim to challenge the children, expect the most of them and have high expectations of children’s behaviour.
The curriculum is planned in seven areas of learning and development; all areas are important and inter-connected.
- Communication and language development involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situations
- Physical development involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity6, and to make healthy choices in relation to food
- Personal, social and emotional development involves helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour in groups; and to have confidence in their own abilities
- Literacy development involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children must be given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interest
- Mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces, and measure
- Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment
- Expressive arts and design involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology


Kindergarten homework is not developmentally appropriate. There I said it. Five-year-olds are not meant to sit down to do paper and pencil tasks about reading and writing. Somewhere along the way, someone who was most definitely not a kindergarten teacher decided that five and six-year-olds MUST read by the end of kindergarten. This created unrealistic expectations of teachers to somehow overcome brain science and teach students how to read. Teachers began assigning sight word homework in addition to leveled readers and math worksheets. Suddenly, kindergarten kids have as much homework as older elementary students. Yet, there are no studies to support the notion that homework in kindergarten helps kids to achieve more. Some teachers have stopped assigning homework altogether but others are required to assign kindergarten homework. Read on to find developmentally appropriate ways to assign kindergarten homework that parents will love.
Teachers Under Pressure
The pressure put on teachers to have all kindergarten students meet the same high academic standards at the same time is completely unrealistic. Then that pressure was transferred to teachers who decided that in order to achieve this goal, they needed to share the responsibility with parents. Then parents decided that they need kindergarten homework to help them to achieve this goal. This notion isn’t all bad. Sharing learning responsibilities with families is a productive way to help students achieve and giving parents activities and skills to practice at home is certainly helpful. The problem is that we’ve lost sight of what we know is natural child development. So what can teachers do to help their young students to practice skills at home but still allow them to be kids? We can start by giving students a variety of homework options rather than requirements. In distance learning or remote learning situations, teachers are under even more pressure! Check out this page for some distance learning types for Kindergarten teachers.
Keep Homework Fun!
Kids work hard all day (or for half the day) at school. They don’t need to go home to sit with worksheets and pencils to continue to practice sight words (which the latest brain research doesn’t support anyway, but that’s a blog post for another day). In school, we know that all kids have different learning styles so we need to remember this when assigning homework. Sending the same worksheet with each student is not differentiating. You can differentiate homework by giving students options and allowing families to choose the activities that are the best fit for their students.
Keep “assignments” fun and engaging with a variety of ways to practice important foundational skills. Think about how you design engaging centers and apply that to homework. Practice writing letters and numbers in sand, finger paint or shaving cream! Create math problems with toys or breakfast cereal. Play games with dice to develop number sense and social skills like taking turns. There are so many fun possibilities!
Give Families Options!
Think about your academic goals for the week or the month. Then create a list of 15 – 20 choices full of skills you want your students to practice. This can be a list, a chart, or even a calendar! You can send this list home to give families options and give kids some choice in their assignments. You can choose to include only academic tasks but I like to include some more developmentally appropriate skills that are often overlooked. Skills like memorizing phone numbers and addresses are important things kids do not often do anymore. You can add life skills like practice playing games (winning and losing with grace), tying shoes, helping to fold laundry and more.
I try to limit paper-pencil options but when I include them, I try to keep them open-ended. For example, instead of practicing writing letters with a pencil, encourage students to write letters in sand or pudding. If you want kids to practice writing, give them fun writing prompts or open-ended options. For math practice, instead of doing a page of addition problems, have students tell and solve their own additions story problems using their favorite toys. There are a lot of easy, no extra materials needed ways to practice these skills that won’t stress kindergarten kids or parents.
How Do You Find the Time to Revamp Homework?
I am hopeful that the pendulum is swinging back to more developmentally appropriate practices in kindergarten. I’m happy to see that many districts across the country are returning to play-based learning in kindergarten. This gives me hope! In the meantime, let’s try some new homework options for our youngest students. What other suggestions do you have for homework in kindergarten? I’d love to hear them!


ERIC Number: ED384160
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1994
Deaf Awareness: A Program To Increase Student Awareness of What It Is Like To Have a Hearing Impairment.
Learning activities are presented to promote awareness of hearing impairments and to help children understand and accept people with disabilities. Through games, stories, information, and personal dialogue, students learn about hearing loss and communication methods as well as the broader issue of differences and the experience of being disabled. Some of the learning activities can be used in studies of language, math, science, art, social studies, and religious education. For each instructional unit, the learning objective is identified, along with materials needed and instructional strategies. Topics of the units include: people's similarities and differences, ideas and feelings about disabilities, how the ear works, types of hearing loss, how children with normal hearing learn to talk and ways that hearing-impaired children are taught to speak, lipreading and sign language, hearing aids, and practical problems encountered by people who are deaf. Appendices list 13 books for children about hearing impairment, 4 books on sign language, 6 resource organizations on deafness, a diagram of the human ear, the American manual alphabet, 12 lipreading sentences, a diagram of a hearing aid, and 4 scenarios involving interaction with a person with a hearing impairment. (SW)
Descriptors: Attitudes toward Disabilities, Classroom Techniques, Communication Aids (for Disabled), Communication Skills, Consciousness Raising, Disabilities, Elementary Education, Hearing Impairments, Learning Activities, Lesson Plans, Lipreading, Manual Communication, Social Integration, Student Attitudes
Publication Type: Guides - Classroom - Teacher; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Teachers; Practitioners
Authoring Institution: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the International Convention of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf (Rochester, NY, June 28-July 2, 1994).


4 Strategies to Build Strong Teacher Leadership (eSchool News)
School leaders take on many forms, including students, support staff, and teachers. Building strong teacher leaders helps support a positive and high-achieving school culture, and one of the first stops on the path to teacher leadership involves defining the purpose of teacher leadership.
Technology Revitalizes Hands-On Education in Classrooms (Scientific American)
Enter the maker movement: students are making things, designing things—actual things. The maker movement is an approach to design that shifts production of items from corporate manufacturing to a smaller, personal scale with the help of technology. This movement—in conjunction with the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts/architecture, and math movements—has taken hold in part thanks to a strong push from the federal government to promote science in schools and classrooms across the country.
Goodbye, Snow Days: Students Study From Home (Associated Press)
The early arrival of wintry weather in the Midwest this week gave Grewing an opening to test out a virtual class day at St. Cloud Cathedral high school in central Minnesota, having students whip out laptops or iPads and work from home. After a successful test run, Grewing declared Tuesday that students’ cherished snow days are a thing of the past — at least at Cathedral.
New York City’s public school district is gearing up to scrap a controversial policyforbidding its 1.1 million students from having cellphones on campus. The thing is, plenty of students are already ignoring the ban. It turns out some of the poorest kids in the city are the ones who will notice the change most.
Principals Push for More Safeguards for Student Privacy (Education Week)
With rising concern over student privacy ushered in by the increasing use of technology in schools—from apps in the classrooms, cloud services for storage, and other digital products that collect students’ personal information—the National Association of Secondary School Principals released today a set of recommendations to help safeguard student privacy.
Can A Teacher Be Too Dedicated? (The Atlantic)
James Cavanagh is 22 years old, fresh out of the University of Delaware. With his degree in elementary education, he could have gotten a job anywhere—and he chose to teach at one of the most demanding public schools in America.
Playing High-Action Video Games May Speed Up Learning, Studies Say (Education Week)
Contrary to the popular stereotype of a distracted teenager lost in Halo or Call of Duty video games, new evidence suggests playing such high-action video games may help students learn and react faster—but not more impulsively.
Why Education Is a Global Matter (U.S. Department of Education)
Educators, families and students are working hard to implement a comprehensive vision for cradle-to-career improvements here in the U.S. so every child can receive a world-class education, and to ensure that our nation remains globally competitive. But U.S. education leaders are also committed to an international education agenda that’s deeper and more collaborative than ever.
Number of Homeless Children in America Surges to All-Time High: Report (Associated Press)
Titled “America’s Youngest Outcasts,” the report being issued Monday by the National Center on Family Homelessness calculates that nearly 2.5 million American children were homeless at some point in 2013. The number is based on the Department of Education’s latest count of 1.3 million homeless children in public schools, supplemented by estimates of homeless pre-school children not counted by the DOE.
Having run New York City’s public school system for eight years under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, I am often asked, “If you could wave a wand and change one thing, what would it be?” This isn’t an easy question. Lots of things need changing. For example, giving far more school choices to families, using technology to improve teaching and learning, adopting a knowledge-based curriculum and starting education before a child is 5 years old. But if I had to choose one, it would be to professionalize teaching, making it like other well-respected professions, such as law and medicine.
A new study shows that mobile technology may offer a cheap and effective solution. The research, released by the National Bureau of Economic Research this month, found that preschoolers whose parents received text messages with brief tips on reading to their children or helping them sound out letters and words performed better on literacy tests than children whose parents did not receive such messages.


How an independent educational assessment might be useful for your child
In a situation where a parent or school feels that a child’s learning isn’t progressing in the way they would want it to, and the child is becoming stuck with learning, or frustrated, an educational psychologist can be consulted, to produce an educational psychologist’s (EP’s) assessment.
How does an educational psychologist support a child?
Children’s development varies and not all children achieve at the same rate. However some children have difficulties in specific areas which other children seem to find easy.
Often parents are concerned about literacy or numeracy skills that are below the child’s apparent ability. Handwriting, spelling, writing speed or reading comprehension may just not reflect what the child is really capable of.
A child may be experiencing general difficulties with learning in school, poor examination results in comparison to class work, or showing avoidance of homework and reading at home. Learning styles vary and some children really struggle with attention, concentration and motivation in class. There may be difficulties with the processing of information either visually or verbally, or both. Memory, organisation and planning may be poor.
Some children find it difficult to make and maintain friendships. They may lack confidence and self esteem, or find social situations challenging. Some may experience bullying or develop a dislike of school.
Very bright children are sometimes overlooked at school, and an assessment can highlight ways to extend and support these pupils as well as ensuring their specific learning styles and strengths are maximised. Children approaching examinations and school transitions and transfers can really benefit from an educational assessment, and often parents just want to be sure that their child is in the right school for them.
Sometimes there is just a feeling that something is ‘not quite right’, and a detailed assessment of strengths, weaknesses and learning styles is sought to shed light on what might be going on.
Uses for an Educational Psychology report
The assessment and the report will play a key role in obtaining an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) which can prompt a local authority to provide the required support, and it will be crucial should you need to mount a legal challenge regarding a school place or the provision being made in your school.
For older children, the assessment will enable them to receive extra time/help in examinations if appropriate. It is an important document and you should ensure you keep a copy. You should also give a copy to a new school or college as your child moves through the education system.
How A Parent Can Help
Children develop at different rates and you should pace any learning at home. It is also important to have good open communication with teachers. Schools should have an open door policy where you can go in and observe your child and discuss your child’s needs with teaching staff.
It is part of the teacher’s role to keep an eye on the levels of social skills in children, so you can ask about your child’s friends. Then you will be ready to talk about learning more formally. You have to decide as a parent what bits are important to you.
Ask if there are any problems – if your child’s learning is not progressing in the way that the teacher expected at this stage. Take notes when you talk to the teacher, it may raise further questions.
MORE INFO: Please complete the form with brief details or email me at : firstname.lastname@example.org


As YCIS moves into 21st Century learning, our purpose-built Learning Communities give students every opportunity to dig deeper into self-directed learning. The development of “soft skills” (including communication, collaboration, co-operation, resilience and flexibility) is fostered and grown and students move into wider thinking, as well as better developed social skills. These learning spaces are flexible, open, transparent and able to be used effectively by both large and small groups of students.
Learning Communities are ideally sized groupings (70-140) of students and teachers (including specialists and learning support), which are designed and organised to facilitate:
- Purposeful collaboration
- Integration of knowledge
- A spirit of belonging and connection.
The physical spaces in which Learning Communities operate are flexible and cater for both individual and collective needs and responsibilities. There are spaces for quiet individual study and reflection, for teamwork and conversation, and for small and large group instruction. These spaces, coupled with the furnishings, support the sharing of outcomes and the design and making of the physical manifestations of learning. Creative expression in all its forms is enhanced by the spaces within our Learning Communities.
Every teacher in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 ensures that each child is treated with the upmost care and respect. We provide a curriculum and learning programme that are both challenging and stimulating, ensuring that children enjoy their learning, as well as feel part of an ever-growing educational environment.
Through Character Education, the children acquire the skills of becoming responsible global citizens, as well as learning to take ownership of their own learning. Our open Learning Communities environment helps to provide the students with a sense of well-being and confidence in communicating in two languages. Students are provided with a plethora of resources and opportunities, creating a stimulating atmosphere, where creativity, exploration and imagination are greatly encouraged and developed.
Our bilingual teaching and learning programme in the Upper Primary helps students develop the skills they need in English and Chinese in order to become proficient speakers. In each area of the Learning Communities, students immerse themselves in both languages as Western and Chinese Co-Teachers facilitate learning and provide feedback.
Students are supported throughout the programme by differentiated classes and groups. YCIS provides services to students who qualify for our English as an Additional Language (EAL) programme and for our level-based Chinese classes. We want to build our students up to be capable communicators and confident risk-takers.
Learning Communities teams collaborate on, innovate, design and implement learning programmes that are:
- Conducive to creative and critical thinking
We draw on students’ interest to create units of study that follow the standards based on the National Curriculum in England. We find it important that students enjoy learning while exploring and retaining necessary foundational skills. Flexible co-teaching enables us to use fluid grouping not only within our space, but also across the year levels. This allows us to cater for individual needs to deepen understanding and embed concepts. We are also able to provide choices and a differentiated environment where students can thrive.
Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do within our Learning Communities. Teachers openly collaborate on all aspects of learning, which in turn models excellent collaborative skills for the students. Teachers meet every day to discuss and share best practices, to reflect on the day’s learning, to plan the next steps and to ensure that all students within the community are making the necessary progress in all aspects of their learning. As well as collaboration amongst teachers, collaboration amongst students is continually encouraged and improved. Students have the opportunity to work with a diverse range of personalities and nationalities in a variety of engaging projects, to help build their communication skills for now and the future.
The Arts (visual and performing arts, music and violin) are core to the YCIS programme. The Arts encourage students to see what they look at, hear what they listen to, and feel what they touch. Students seek, find and develop multiple solutions to problems, recognising that the world is filled with different possibilities and perspectives. Fine motor skills are developed through creating artworks and playing (violin and classroom music instruments). Gross motor skills are developed through movement (dance) and exploration of space (drama).
Year 3 is the final year of the Violin programme. Students are now playing more complex music, and perform as an ensemble throughout the year. Performing Arts is introduced from Year 4, providing students with the opportunity to develop drama and dance related skills and understandings. Self-discipline, including concentration, is important in the Arts subjects. In the Arts classrooms, students are learning and creating with others, developing their collaborative skills. Learning is made visible through displays of student artwork, performing in concerts and in Years 4, 5 and 6, through the recording and performing of music compositions.


The article discusses findings from recent research that show that people consider risk information easier to understand and recall when it’s presented using a visual aid. Furthermore, it typically takes people less time to understand information when it’s presented visually than when it’s presented numerically.
The article argues that in order to be able to make sound health decisions, patients need to understand the risks and the benefits that come with medical treatments, screenings, and lifestyle choices. But many people have difficulty understanding the numerical concepts that are essential for understanding risk-benefit information.
It reports research showing that well-designed visual aids can be particularly effective for vulnerable populations, such as older adults, high-risk patients, immigrant populations, and those who have poor numeracy skills and little medical knowledge.
The full research article is available here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3354448/


Help your child to overcome reading and spelling problems and create a happier more confident child.
How frustrating is it for a child who knows a lot of information, but cannot communicate that through their writing. And how much testing today occurs in schools where children must show evidence of what they know – through reading and writing? Does your child fail at school because they cannot read, write information and spell it correctly? Yet you know they are smart and can do things. Does your child lose enthusiasm for school because others can read and spell and your child cannot? Reading and spelling failure is a huge area in our school and can attract bullying and negative behaviours.
Katrina Walsh, Speech Pathologist for Children
Katrina is a Speech Pathologist who specialises in teaching children to read and spell, with 30 years of success.
Katrina has designed a specialised reading and spelling program for children.
Easy step-by-step activities to work with your child at home or in class
Fed up fighting with your child’s frustration and anxiety about reading and spelling?
- Easy to use
- Kids have fun while learning
- Get back to the basics and learn how words work
- Katrina’s reading and spelling program is skill-based, not age-based
- Suitable for mums and dads, carers and teachers to use to help kids
- Comes complete with DVDs to explain the program
- You can keep in contact with Katrina about your child’s progress
You can email Katrina Walsh about the program and any difficulties your child is having.
How to order
Give our office a call on: 0408 284 038 Have your credit card details ready. Programs shipped the same day.
Total Cost: $283.90 includes postage & handling anywhere within Australia.
Some helpful information
How do you teach your child to read and spell when they have not been able to learn that at school?
Katrina has designed a specialised reading and spelling program covering problems with reading and spelling for children. It is made especially for parents to help with literacy development in children at home. It can also be used in classrooms with groups of children and one-one for individual support. The reading and spelling program covers both sound-out-able words and sight words. It helps with both sides of the process – the reading and spelling of words.
Reading and spelling difficulties, known as literacy difficulties, are one of the biggest problems our students are facing.
Our world is full of technology but learning difficulties and resistance to school will still occur if your child is having problems with reading and spelling. Different websites will say your child is probably dyslexic and then go on to say how many people are dyslexic. Dyslexia is an actual condition, but has so many features that it is impossible to design a one solution will fix-all way to help your child learn to read and spell. That is why parents need to identify what exactly is preventing their child from learning to read and spell. Speech Pathologists are trained to identify both language and phonemic awareness problems that children may be facing that are stopping them from progressing at school. There are special assessments that can be given to students that are standardised and have serious research backing their use.
Speech Pathologists are not just about talking properly.
Reading, spelling and writing are communication skills and Speech Pathologists are the specialists in this area. Best of all, therapy is based again on extensive research, so every practise session your child will have is based on evidence, not a current trend or whim. The latest news “just discovered” on some websites is often not at all.
Speech Pathologists are also trained to identify other issues that might be contributing to reading and spelling failure.
Including knowing when to refer to Paediatricians, Optometrists or Psychologists, to name a few. Because there are so many factors that make up a reading and spelling problem, trying to put them all into one group called dyslexia and then use the same program for all kids will not address specific weaknesses and skills.
Using a Reading and Spelling Program like the Clever Cat Program will allow parents to zero in on specific skills their child needs.
Clever Cat focuses on both sounding out words and visually recognised words. It teaches the children how to link letters with the sounds they make and how to write them as well. It uses a series of structured games to enhance children’s reading, spelling and writing abilities with positive reinforcement and no negativity. How many children today think they are dumb because they cannot read and spell?


Involving families in their children's early education is vital for brain and literacy development. Parents who interact regularly with their children and who believe their children are interested in talking and reading, are more likely to provide at-home vocabulary-building and print-rich learning experiences.
Nurturing parents and family members not only shape development during the initial years of life, but also during adolescence and young adulthood.
Positive parental and family influences need to be in place long before children enter elementary school in order for them to be successful. ELM assists preschool teachers to establish this critical school/home learning connection by providing families with take-home books through the classroom lending library. Additionally, ELM provides take-home literacy bags which include a book and a supplemental literacy activity.
ELM encourages families to use myON Reader at home which exposes children to technology and furnishes them with a seemingly endless variety of interesting books for their ages


This is a guest post by Lesley Boatright, who will be contributing a series of posts over the next few months. If you like what you see here, check back frequently for more posts from here and click here to read her blog, Practice Makes Perfect.
Well, school is out for me, and my summer break has begun. But as you well know, that doesn't mean I am not thinking about school. I've started planning some social studies units, and one that I want to focus on is homes. What better way to introduce the concept of houses and homes than to read Three Little Pigs?
I found a great pairing of fiction and nonfiction text in the Story World Real World series. It pairs Three Little Pigs and Where Would You Like to Live?
I plan on reading Three Little Pigs first. After reading the story, we will take a minute to discuss the structure of a fiction text, identifying the characters, the setting, the problem, and the solution using first, middle, last. Since this will be close to the beginning of the year, I will not have the children write this out. Instead I will use my story stepping stones to have the children practice summarizing the story.
After we finish this, I will have the children use flashcards to order the houses from weakest to strongest.
We will analyze and compare the three types of houses, filling out a three-part chart as a group that tells the good and the bad about each house.
At the end of the lesson, the children will write about which house they would like to live in and tell why.
This is the first part of the lesson I have developed to go along with the fiction story, Three Little Pigs. Look for my post in a few weeks that outlines how I will work in the nonfiction story Where Would You Like to Live?
You can download the lesson packet at the bottom of this page.
Lesley Boatright is an Early Childhood/Elementary Education teacher from Southwestern Pennsylvania. After graduating college, she moved to South Florida, where she taught kindergarten in the Palm Beach County School District for 8 years. After having children, she decided (with her husband) that Florida was too far away from the rest of the family, and she moved back to her hometown, where she took a few years off to spend time with her son. She has been teaching in the parochial school system for 18 years now, first at kindergarten, and currently in a first grade classroom. Lesley has also taught 2nd and 3rd grade Spanish and 4th grade social studies. Visit Lesley at her Facebook page, blog, Pinterest, and on Teachers Pay Teachers to get great teaching ideas.
For more information about the Story World Real World series shown in this post, click here to visit our website, or click the image on the left below to download a series information sheet with key features. To download the lesson packet, click the image to the right.


Following the Government’s announcement yesterday that pupils will be returning to school from 8 March, we’re here to support teachers in this transition and offer insight, advice and resources through our primary conference Everyone back to school: literacy by stealth (9-13 March).
As we prepare for children to get back to their usual school routine once again, how do we harness their interests and popular culture to engage them with literacy and overcome barriers between school and home to raise attainment in primary schools?
Our inaugural primary conference, Everyone back to school: literacy by stealth, will showcase some of the innovative approaches we have used to find new ways of engaging children in reading, writing and spoken language, as well as exploring the importance of popular culture in young people’s literacy development.
We will be exploring important questions such as: what are the best ways to engage pupils with reading and writing? How do we help them learn at the same time as reconnecting with their peers, friends and teachers? How do we make literacy learning appealing, fun and relevant to children who have had such a difficult year? And how do we make the most of the different ways children themselves have found to develop their literacy skills while they’ve been at home?
Experts from education, sport, media, and video games are coming together to discuss the best ways to support primary pupils’ literacy development at this time, provide innovative and classroom-ready activities for you to use and ways to support both home learning and in-school learning.
Speaker Clare D’Netto, Head Teacher at Manor Junior School in Barking, who has successfully utilized graphic novels to engage readers, says:
“More than ever before teachers see the need to be creative in engaging children in literacy at home and at school. Ignore popular culture at your peril… It has a place in the hearts and minds of young people and therefore makes a powerful stealth-teaching tool in the classroom! The Literacy Trust 2021 conference is the perfect opportunity to open our eyes to teaching “Literacy by Stealth.””
Speaker Constance Stienkuehler Squire professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine comments:
“I plan to dive into how games reorganize literacy activities (including traditional print reading and writing) rather than replace them. I also plan to detail a series of studies show how interest impacts reading, leading to game-related text as a savvy strategy to increase reading and academic vocabulary, especially among teen boys.”
The stellar line-up also includes, bestselling author Tom Palmer, UK comics laureate Hannah Berry and Dr Sally Bushell, who led on the creation of Litcraft. The winner of the Ruth Rendell Award, Hip hop artist, poet and author Karl Nova will round off our conference with a celebration primary literacy.
Here's Tom Palmer explaining what he's got in store for his talk at the conference:
The conference takes place from 9-13 March. Tickets are £65 for those with full membership of the National Literacy Trust and £75 for non-members.
More information, the full schedule and list of speakers and tickets for Everyone back to school: literacy by stealth are available on our website.


It is essential to get the basics right. Improving literacy and numeracy is a continued focus so that students can engage in all aspects of learning. We also need to respond to the individual needs of each student and ensure that every child and young person is supported to achieve their best.
Key highlights include:
- establishing a statewide Reading Centre to provide specialist advice
- creating an Autism Education Hub in partnership with experts
- providing additional guidance officers and mental health coaches.
To learn more about our exciting initiatives and what we have delivered, view the
Advancing education action plan (PDF, 2.2MB) and the
Advancing education 2020 report card (PDF, 2.8MB) or
download the accessible version (DOCX, 109KB).
We have made significant progress and built strong foundations for ongoing success by delivering:
Improved literacy and numeracy
Strong and resilient students
Key: * Aligns to relevant 2017 election commitments and Minister's Charter Letter commitments.
Ideas into action
Improving literacy and numeracy
Targeted teaching, support and monitoring of individual students has resulted in significant gains in foundation literacy and numeracy skills at Mount Isa Central State School.
The school has a strong focus on using data to improve children's skills in literacy and numeracy, and student progress is measured regularly. Data also informs goal setting and feedback processes for students, teachers and parents.
The support for early learners to develop foundation literacy and numeracy skills has resulted in strong gains in the proportion of students achieving at or above the National Minimum standard in Year 3 NAPLAN writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation.


An Essay by NJWA College Student Kai Chiang
From the beginning of education, schools give students the opportunity to learn music. In elementary and middle school, students generally participate these classes once a week, but once we reach high school, they typically become electives. Learning music is extremely advantageous, yet many students choose to drop it and lose an extremely important aspect of their education. Music classes should be a required course up until at least college, as music education comes with the benefits of superior school statistics, higher neural growth and activity, and greater self-esteem.
Music education has been proven to improve students’ academic capabilities and test scores. A PBS report from 2012 found that, “students in elementary schools with superior music education programs scored around 22 percent higher in English and 20 percent higher in math scores on standardized tests, compared to schools with low-quality music programs”1. Moreover, music programs in schools result in higher graduation rates. Graduation rates from schools with music programs have about a 90.2 percent graduation rate and a 93.9 percent attendance rate, while schools without them typically have a 72.9 percent graduation rate and an 84.9 percent attendance rate.1
Learning music helps the brain to better interpret human language and can make it easier to learn a second language. Recent studies have discovered that studying music helps to rewire the brain’s circuits and helps to develop the brain’s left side that processes language.1
In addition, the study of music will also help to teach students logic behind fractions, without them even thinking about it from a mathematical sense, as fractions are intertwined with musical performance. Modern music is typically written in 4/4 timing. This means that there is four beats in a measure and quarter beat is worth one note. Teaching students how to count out rhythm and play along to it will teach them how to divide bars into beats. This can be extremely helpful because it gives a students a practical and fun way to use what they are learning in the classroom for something more enjoyable.
The brain of a musician and a non-musician work differently. Dr Eric Rasmussen states that, “There’s some good neuroscience research that children involved in music have larger growth of neural activity than people not in music training. When you’re a musician and you’re playing an instrument, you have to be using more of your brain.”2 Every student should have the opportunity to help their brains thrive and grow.
Furthermore, music can be extremely helpful for students outside of academics. It can also help with self-esteem, stress relief, and creativity. Music helps to develop confidence. It is a skill that must be worked on, and eventually can be used with others who are at a similar skill level. After being able to play with other musicians, students should be encouraged to play for an audience in a school band or other group. Music in general is a good way to release stress. Playing it is especially helpful. It gives students a constructive way to vent, that may result in something great. Music can help students to articulate emotions in ways that they may not be able to otherwise.
Many people argue against music education, calling it a distraction, and saying that it is unaffordable. Calling it a distraction is wrong. Saying that music distracts a student from another class would be like saying that English homework distracts students from the Math homework. Many times, schools say that it is too expensive to keep music programs, while still supporting sports programs. There will always be things cut due to a budget, but cutting music should not be an option. Music education is essential.
If music were added to a core curriculum, graduation and attendance rates would rise and students would graduation with higher brain function. The implications music education could have on our society is immense. Music programs continue to be cut across the country, when instead, they should be added. It is imperative that our nation begins to emphasize music in our schools.


By Paula Dugger, M. Ed., Guest Blogger
Big books for shared reading are excellent tools to appeal to young children as you model reading skills kids can use with each page. Using narrative texts and nonfiction books for kids during this time is a great way to improve reading comprehension strategies across multiple content areas. In today's post, I'll describe how you can easily incorporate low-level big books into your guided reading activities to provide a strong foundation for content-area literacy among your students.
Informational texts are part of the larger category of nonfiction. They make it easy to introduce and reinforce nonfiction text features and print concepts. Some features in the books that I'll discuss today include table of contents, bolded words, labeled images, glossary, and index. To help students understand the difference between fiction and nonfiction, place a narrative text, such as The Dove King, next to an informational text, such as Doves. Engage kids in a discussion about the differences they notice about the cover and the pages inside each leveled reader.
This is a simple way you can use big books to help kids compare and contrast text types. If kids struggle to identify differences between the paired texts, you can direct their attention to the nonfiction text features in Doves. The labeled images, bolded words, and glossary can be helpful to show kids so that they understand how to improve vocabulary while reading.
To help kids understand the relationship between bolded terminology and the glossary, have kids search for bolded words before reading the book. Then have kids read the text on the page to see if they can make meaning of the bolded word. If they run into difficulty, this is a teachable moment that you can use to highlight the helpfulness of the glossary at the end of the book. Additionally, the large size of this nonfiction book serves as an advantage to reinforce science concepts if you're planning a lesson about how animals use parts of their bodies to survive and take care of their baby animals.
Planets is a level C guided reading book that also has fantastic nonfiction text features to engage young kids about the topic of planets. Images of planets, simple sentence structure, and a helpful illustration at the end of the book provide great opportunities to encourage students to make inferences about each planet's proximity to the sun. While reading this big book with your students, ask questions that encourage students to review the information presented on each page: Which planet is closest to the sun? Which planet has rings around it?
Another low-level big book from the Kaleidoscope Collection that would be helpful for enriching a science lesson about animals is Butterfly. You can use the simple sentence structure in this guided reading level A informational text to teach one-to-one matching. With two words on each page, you can also improve vocabulary by prompting students to find meaning in pictures.
Titles of low-level narrative texts within the same collection, such as What Is a Friend?, can easily help you activate students' prior knowledge for a social studies lesson about friendships and helping others. This level C big book is also useful for demonstrating one-to-one matching and having students take turns to model their reading skills. While reading the title and looking at photographs in the books, you should think aloud by modeling the following questions: What is this story about? What do I know about being a friend that will help me read the book?
Whether you choose fiction or nonfiction big books for future lesson planning, allocate enough time to allow students to voice what they are thinking before, during, and after reading. This ensures oral language development and allows kids with limited background knowledge to learn from their peers in a guided reading group. It's important for you to validate all feedback from your students by using positive phrases, such as Good thinking or That’s a good start, let’s continue reading.
Empowering young learners to ask questions is also a very important reading comprehension strategy that is relevant across all content areas. There are many more low-level big books that are highly motivational for kids who are learning to read, which are valuable tools that you can leverage to improve content-area literacy.
Be on the look-out because the Hameray team will be offering more narrative and informational big books in 2019. Don't forget to visit our blog soon for more tips to help your students!
Paula is an educational consultant who has previously served as a Reading Recovery Teacher/Teacher Leader, first grade teacher, Title I and high school reading teacher, and a Reading Coordinator. If you like what you read here, you can enjoy more from Paula on our blog.


Kindergarten-Bone Puzzle 2
As we move through this unit about the structure and function of the human body, the students are following the story of a fictional character named Angelina. She fell at recess and hurt her arm. As the story progresses, Angelina visits the hospital to have an x-ray taken of her arm. The students learned about x-rays and worked through a puzzle of the hand bones. Each student made a handprint with white paint and glued the puzzle pieces to their handprint.
1st Grade-Patterns of the Stars 2
2nd Grade-Investigating Erosion
While conducting an investigation using a sand model, the students observed and explained ways that wind, water, and natural disasters change the shape of the Earth.
3rd Grade-Traits Through the Generations 2
As we continue to learn about genes, the students were introduced to 2 identical "parent" plants. Although the plants look identical, the students learned that each parent plant contributes a dominant or recessive gene. Students travelled through 8 stations, each representing a phenotype (a trait such as stem length, color, type of leaves, etc.). At each station, the students determined the genotype that would be passed from each parent creating a dominant or recessive phenotype for the baby plant. After completing the stations, students used paper cutouts to illustrate the baby plant and recorded their observations in their STEAM journals.
4th Grade-Data Collection & Display 2
Using the Tynker iPad App, the students are learning to code their first game by following step-by-step directions. The students learned about x and y axes, how to add characters to the game and code actions the characters can follow.
5th Grade-Mystery at School 2
There is an illness spreading at our fictional school. The students learned about bacteria and viruses as they distinguished between communicable and noncommunicable diseases. By reading through the patient information, the students found correlations between each student's symptoms and communicable diseases to diagnose the students. In the next lesson, students will begin looking at connections between the students to determine Patient Zero and how the illness spread.
Welcome to the STEAM Studio Blog for Jamestown Upper & Lower Elementary Schools in Hudsonville, MI. Here you will find the latest projects and concepts we've been working on in class.
comes to Hudsonville with 17 years of teaching information and technology skills to elementary students. After earning a BA in Elementary Education at the University of Northern Iowa and a Master’s degree from the University of Iowa in 2000, she drew a circle on the map and chose Southwest Michigan.


Finally…an exciting and dynamic way to communicate basic math concepts to your
TOTAL MATH ـــ the totally comprehensive teaching guide for math available.
Designed by experts in elementary education, TOTAL MATH is thorough and
comprehensive. This step-by-step guide helps students develop essential mathematics
concepts, strategies, and skills in equations, logic, ratios, and test practice.
WHAT MAKES TOTAL MATH SO DIFFERENT FROM OTHER MATH BOOKS?
It’s the most comprehensive book that offers:
- Challenging and motivating lessons in grade-appropriate math skills.
- Drill and practice in basic math concepts, skills, and strategies.
- Word problems that encourage critical thinking.
- A thorough presentation and practice of skills used on tests.
- A glossary of math terms for easy reference and understanding.
- A complete answer key that supports independent thinking and learning.


Most talks about women representation in Rwanda often revolve around the 64%, now 67.5% of parliamentary seats that women occupy. Yes, this political agenda based on gender equity has permitted most women to set foot in the elite positions, but apart from the pride that comes from belonging to a country that set a world record with the highest women representation in parliament, what else do ordinary women get from this?
How does this translate into women having access to other fields which have always been male-dominated, like Visual Art?
Rwandan women have been involved in art-making throughout history. Rwandan women’s role can easily be traced in the most remarkable artistic production of ancient Rwanda like baskets (uduseke, inkangara), bedding mats (ibirago), panels that decorated royal walls, and other traditional objects that have always been part of the Rwandan culture for centuries. However, these women in the decorative arts have always been regarded as artisans making crafts, not as artists, and so even nowadays their works are only used as home decor but not worth the walls of the few art museums and national galleries we have in Rwanda.
Apart from this wickerwork and weaving tradition that had been passed down across generations of women, which have been unfortunately dismissed as craft; women had not been able to access any other art education until 1987 when the first girls were admitted into Ecole Artisanale de NYUNDO that was founded in 1952 and officially recognized as a school of art in 1963. [sing along: Imibare ni isomo rikomeye – okay, let me help you with the math] yes, it took 35 years for girls to be admitted.
How many Rwandan girls graduated from this art school and entered the art world? Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell because there are no art history records on contemporary women artists and their productions. Women who graduated from the art school also faced challenges in gaining recognition as it was difficult for them to find platforms to nurture their talents, exhibit, and profile themselves as artists. So, one can say that there have been many great and interesting women artists, but they remain insufficiently investigated and/or appreciated.
The majority of Rwandan visual artists who have prominence are men. It is only recently that we have started seeing women artists in exhibitions. And shockingly, women representation at Rwanda Art Museum currently stands at 8% only.
Some women found this underrepresentation in the mainstream art frustrating and decided to embark on a journey of changing the game for themselves. Few of them have been trying to organize women artist exhibitions, mostly on International Women’s Day, but finding a space was a challenge and so few women artists would participate.
After seeing this need for visibility for women artists, at the beginning of this year, Rwandan women artists in partnership with Institute of National Museums of Rwanda and Goethe Institut collaborated to organize a three months group exhibition under the theme “MESSAGES OF RWANDAN WOMEN ARTISTS- EACH FOR EQUAL” showcasing the works of living and deceased Rwandan women artists and international women artists living and working in Rwanda at Rwanda Art Museum -Kanombe.
This website is a permanent digital space for Rwandan womxn artists to showcase their artworks.


Apple juice and a pencil, which one is a solid and which one is a liquid. WeAreTeachers Staff on September 12, Anchor charts are a great way to make thinking visible as you record strategies, processes, cues, guidelines and other content during the learning process.
Floette lessay 50 shades. Six Traits of Writing This anchor chart is jam-packed with things for fourth- and fifth-grade writers to remember about the six traits of writing.
Now students can get a good look at what it means to dig deeper.
Her site was what initially inspired me to rethink, reorganize, and redo so much of my classroom- if she ever reads this, Beth, you are ah-ma-zing. I listen to conversations; noting if students use some of the language for properties of liquids and or liquids, i.
Joyful Learning in KC This anchor chart, best for K—2, is made relevant with examples of student work, in this case a fantastic ladybug report. The final section of the graphic organizer is on crafting a strong conclusion to our essay.
Last year there were posters advertising essay writing services at London Underground stations near universities, and another company was distributing flyers to students on the Queen Mary University of London campus.
Here is my long. Make this chart applicable to older students by expanding on each aspect with a specific audience or goal. See more ideas about Handwriting ideas, Teaching handwriting and Teaching writing.
I provide a couple of minutes for students to discuss their ideas about the 'question for the day'. L alena dissertation L alena dissertation mydoom worm analysis essay opi pamplona purple comparison essay juan salvador gaviota analysis essay zahira essay essay on green revolution iran gemini abad essays on global warming peter sculthorpe port essington analysis essay cichorium intybus descriptive essay research essay group intervention discounted dreams essay of mice.
A Structure and Properties of Matter - matter can be described and classified by its observable properties Through a guided inquiry, students plan and investigate oobleck to claim if it is a liquid or solid, based on their observations.
Question for the Day: Writing Realistic Fiction This anchor chart reminds upper elementary students how to create realistic stories. From person Rouges critique essay increasing minimum wage research conclusion ap world history. The moths viramontes essay The moths viramontes essay african liberty essay paper world war 2 weapons essay.
It was a nice way to link the anchor chart with our own work. If you would like these doodles and the explanation sheet that accompanies them, head over to my TpT store and pick them up for free!
You can also find the worksheet with this file as well:). How to Write A Conclusion. In a conclusion paragraph, you summarize what you’ve written about in your paper.
When you’re writing a good conclusion paragraph, you need to think about the main point that you want to get across and be sure it’s included. Dec 15, · The "Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions Cognitive Complexity Anchor Chart:" is a reference for students and teachers on DOK complexity levels, reading comprehension strategies, cognitive and literary elements concepts connections, signal words and different skills and strategies to answering Making Inferences and Drawing.
Inference Anchor Charts Kindergarten Anchor Charts Reading Anchor Charts Reading Comprehension Skills Reading Skills Teaching Reading Drawing Conclusions First Grade Reading Student Teaching Forward A conclusion is the last part of something, its end or result. This writing workshop anchor chart kit comes with pieces to build your own clever conclusions anchor chart and a student-sized printable!
IMPORTANT: This anchor chart is NOT EDITABLE and only comes in COLOR.4/5().
Next you will write your conclusion about whether the mystery matter is a liquid or solid." "Remember to use your observation words to support your conclusion and to use the conclusion anchor chart. Your completed conclusion is your exit ticket' to clean up your area." I have baggies available for students who may want to take home some oobleck.Writing a conclusion anchor chart


This is a story about Finland, and a tradition that has been occurring for over 75 years. My mom sent me a link to this inspiring story many years ago, and today as I was writing a short essay on welfare reform, my dear mom’s enthusiasm for the cardboard box of Finland emerged in my mind.
In the 1930’s, low-income expectant mothers were given either a cardboard box filled baby items like sheets, blankets, fabric to make clothing, toys, etc. or a cash grant. 95% of families chose the baby box. Throughout the past 75 years, the items have changed to reflect the times, like ready-made clothing, and removing the bottles to promote breastfeeding (This would be considered a promotional subsidy or grant, like our book discusses on page 406. They used the baby box to promote and encourage certain “private activities” like breastfeeding which would benefit the baby’s health, and most likely lessen healthcare expenses.) Here is a list of recent items from the BBC News article Why Finish Babies Sleep in Cardboard Boxes that mothers will find in their baby box:
In 1949, the country decided to give the box to all mothers, no matter their income, removing any stigma from receiving a box. The country had a very high infant mortality rate in the 1930s, reaching 65 deaths per 1,000 births. By 1950, this number dropped to 32, and today Finland has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world (1.7 deaths per 1000, compared to 5.8 in the United States) (https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/infant-mortality-u-s-compare-countries/#item-infant-mortality-higher-u-s-comparable-countries (Links to an external site.) In 1949 the government changed the perception of the box from a hand-out to an equalizing gift. This promotional subsidy was and is the “carrot” of the infant mortality and healthcare expense challenges. The box encouraged citizens to see a doctor before the mother-to-be was 4 months pregnant, or they would not receive the grant. The government also made changes to the healthcare system during those 75 years to National Health Care Insurance and a Central Hospital Network.
I do believe that human beings need those carrots and need for government to create responsible public policies that protect and serve the people. I want my representatives to follow more of the Trustee Model, by being informed and exercise their experience and good judgment on critical issues like healthcare. Even if their decisions go against what citizens may feel at a particular time, I want a government and representatives that our Founders envisioned; wise and able to see the bigger picture that the masses may not, like how giving out baby boxes to everyone could create a happier, healthier and more equitable place to live.
Here is a quote from an analysis written by Professor Daniel D. Huff, professor emeritus of social work at Boise State University: “In 1990 the federal government spent 4.7 billion dollars on all forms of international aid. Pollution control programs received 4.8 billion dollars of federal assistance while both secondary and elementary education were allotted only 8.4 billion dollars. More to the point, while more than 170 billion dollars is expended on assorted varieties of corporate welfare the federal government spends 11 billion dollars on Aid for Dependent Children. The most expensive means-tested welfare program, Medicaid, costs the federal government 30 billion dollars a year or about half of the amount corporations receive each year through assorted tax breaks. S.S.I., the federal program for the disabled, receives 13 billion dollars while American businesses are given 17 billion in direct federal aid.” An example of corporate welfare is the subsidies that are given to the fast-food industry every year. The University of Illinois and UC Berkeley did research to show that “taxpayers pay about 243 billion dollars each year into indirect subsidies to the fast food industry because they pay wages so low that taxpayers must put 243 billion dollars to pay for public benefits for their workers”. This is also an issue with big box stores like Walmart.
There are many negative and inaccurate perceptions about welfare, like most recipients are African American, or “they” don’t want to work, which creates the negative attitudes about welfare that keep Americans distracted and far from solving the poverty dilemma. If we could shift our perspective out of judgment and focus on the real sources of the problem like discrimination, inequality, racism, gender bias, etc. (which take time and a willingness to change attitudes) and target reductions in the corrupt corporate welfare system, real change could be possible.
So, my vote is for the cardboard box.