MARK 1:21, 22
I read this and realized that I have a tendency to think of the synagogue as just the local version of a church with the Temple being the big “headquarters” in Jerusalem. Not so at all as William Barclay points out.
There are certain basic differences between the synagogue and the church as we know it today.
(a) The synagogue was primarily a teaching institution. The synagogue service consisted of only three things — prayer, the reading of God’s word, and the exposition of it. There was no music, no singing and no sacrifice. It may be said that the Temple was the place of worship and sacrifice; the synagogue was the place of teaching and instruction. The synagogue was by far the more influential, for there was only one Temple. But the law laid it down that wherever there were ten Jewish families there must be a synagogue, and, therefore, wherever there was a colony of Jews, there was a synagogue. If a man had a new message to preach, the synagogue was the obvious place in which to preach it.
(b) The synagogue provided an opportunity to deliver such a message. The synagogue had certain officials.
- There was the Ruler of the synagogue. He was responsible for the administration of the affairs of the synagogue and for the arrangements for its services.
- There were the distributors of alms. Daily a collection was taken in cash and in kind from those who could afford to give. It was then distributed to the poor; the very poorest were given food for fourteen meals per week.
- There was the Chazzan… He was responsible for the taking out and storing away of the sacred rolls on which scripture was written; for the cleaning of the synagogue; for the blowing of the blasts on the silver trumpet which told people that the Sabbath had come; for the elementary education of the children of the community.
One thing the synagogue had not and that was a permanent preacher or teacher. When the people met at the synagogue service it was open to the Ruler to call on any competent person to give the address and the exposition. There was no professional ministry whatsoever. That is why Jesus was able to open his campaign in the synagogues. The opposition had not yet stiffened into hostility. He was known to be a man with a message; and for that very reason the synagogue of every community provided him with a pulpit from which to instruct and to appeal to men.
All excerpts in this post are from: The Gospel of Mark (The Daily Bible Series*, rev. ed.) by William Barclay
* Not a Catholic source and one which can have a wonky theology at times, but Barclay was renowned for his authority on life in ancient times and that information is sound.


Westminster’s kindergarten program provides a caring and nurturing environment where a love of learning is initiated with a strong academic curriculum that is developmentally appropriate for the young child. We believe that children learn best when they are actively engaged and enjoying themselves. This atmosphere allows for growth and development of the whole child. Kindergarten students at Westminster must be 5-years-old by September 1.
In kindergarten, they enjoy the process of discovery and learning the basic building blocks of knowledge. Time is devoted to teaching appropriate classroom behavior to ensure the success of each student. Students also learn how to positively interact with classmates, teachers and the world.
Kindergarten at Westminster provides students with a strong introduction to language through literature, print awareness, phonemic awareness, systematic phonics instruction, blending and fluency in reading. High-frequency words and predictable/decodable books are used for initial reading experiences.
Children experience spoken language through large group, small group and individual activities. These activities are designed to promote discussion and listening skills. Written language is experienced through dictation and daily creative writing.
The kindergartners develop an understanding of abstract concepts in a concrete manner. Through the use of manipulatives, students learn the concepts of graphing, patterns, number concepts to 100, money, measurement, beginning addition and subtraction, time, basic geometry and problem-solving.
Science & Social Studies
Science and social studies center around hands-on experiments and projects. Science themes studied in kindergarten are the five senses, magnets, weather, seasons, insects and plants. Social studies units include our city, state, country, American history and American holidays.
Bible & Chapel
Conveying the love and goodness of God is the primary goal of Bible class. Through stories of God’s working in the lives of Old and New Testament people, students learn to recognize God’s work and His plan in their own lives. Additionally, all Lower School students and teachers meet together weekly for a chapel service.


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SuccessMaker Mathematics is an interactive, standards-based course designed to develop and maintain fundamental concepts taught in mathematics in grades K through 8.
The student experience begins with Initial Placement which identifies the appropriate starting point for instruction and then moves the student seamlessly into the courseware.
As learners navigate the content, the experience is highly visual and engaging. Learners work at their own pace aided by full audio support and online manipulatives. The course includes real-world contexts for problem solving and guided interactive practice and assessment to reflect the best practice recommendations of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics while aligned to the Common Core State Standards.
View the scope and sequence and other course information (Flash player required)
|23||Mean Total Hours of Instruction per Grade|
|1,728||Total Learning Objectives|
|1,574||Total Learning Objectives with Remediation Support|
|395||Total Learning Objectives Supported by Tutorials|
The SuccessMaker curriculum is well-correlated to the Common Core State Standards, and students leave junior high with skills derived from strong work on phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension even if it's multiple levels below grade.
Content throughout grade levels addresses Algebraic concepts such as functions, relations, variables, and patterns, preparing students for the algebra demands of middle school and high school.
Students use multiple problem solving strategies like identify missing information, guess and check, solve backwards, solve step-by-step, and more.
SuccessMaker keeps learners on the road to success. At every turn, the program helps students break through roadblocks by delivering tutorials, prerequisite instruction, and other scaffolded interventions based on their individual needs.
Pearson encourages 21st century learning by infusing the core subjects and themes throughout our programs—Life and Career Skills, Learning and Innovation Skills, and Information, Media, and Technology Skills. The ultimate goal—to ensure that every child is prepared for the 21st century with skills like critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, innovation and global competence.
With Pearson’s interactive whiteboard-ready resources, students become more active and collaborative classroom learners and teachers are able to deliver memorable lessons, engage all types of learners, and reduce class preparation time.
Our fully digital programs and ebooks provide cutting-edge online instruction with a seamless transition from the textbook, allowing students to complete assignments, access videos and activities, and take online tests and remediation.
Language-acquisition expert, Dr. Jim Cummins, has worked exclusively with Pearson to embed powerful teaching approaches into Pearson programs, ensuring that English language learners receive the same high quality education as their peers. Dr. Cummins’ expertise in literacy development in multilingual school contexts, as well as the role of technology in promoting language and literacy development, have made Pearson programs the most effective resources for today’s ELLs.
RTI is an ongoing instructional process of using assessments to inform instruction that leads to improved student performance. Pearson's Response to Intervention solution provides a continuum of accelerated intervention strategies that assess, instruct, and monitor at every level for the best possible outcome. Unlike other modular solutions, Pearson's combination of continual progress monitoring and instruction ensure long-term, sustained results.
Pearson offers customizable, integrated K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) solutions to support states seeking to implement standards-based STEM curricula and meet the Federal Department of Education’s Race to the Top and Invest in Innovation (I3) grant priorities. Only Pearson provides a fully integrated approach to STEM curriculum, including courses, training, and community partnerships that will help promote relevant and effective learning and teaching.
Your Pearson sales representative is ready to partner with you to create a customized curriculum and professional development plan to help your struggling students and schools achieve success. Visit Pearson’s Grants and Funding Web site to find useful links to identify possible grants and resources for grant applicants applying for Pearson’s products.
Your opinion is important! Do you want more or less ability to customize your Pearson instructional materials; and, should they be more or less digital?


This inquiry study examines the effectiveness of a graphic organizer tool in supporting English language learners (ELLs) in school writing development as they work towards academic literacy development. The context of the study is a forth-grade mainstream ELA classroom in a rural area of Western New York. The study is based on multiple intelligence theory, asset model of learning, and multiliteracies (Gardner, 1983; Gee, 2003: Ladson-Billings, 1994). The guiding research questions include how ELL students use graphic organizers in working towards independence in writing and what kinds of benefits graphic organizers provide for ELLs to write academic texts. The findings suggest that the graphic organizer functions as a semiotic tool for cognitive development and expression of personal interest within the context of school writing. It concludes with a discussion of the importance of providing choices of meaning-making resources as a motivator in learning how to write academic texts.
|Presenter:||Lauren Hawkins (Graduate Student)|
|Topic:||Education and Human Development|
|Time:||1:30 pm (Session III)|


Saxon Math 3 Homeschool Kit helps children master all basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts, including: reading to 999; adding, dividing, and multiplying by nine; map scales; complex fractions; exponents; weights; measures; and more.
Saxon Math 3 uses simulations and games to help third-grade students understand and practice new concepts. Social studies and science connections are stressed. Your child can learn to: skip-count by whole numbers, compare and order numbers, identify ordinal position to the twentieth, identify and complete patterns, add and subtract multidigit numbers, divide by single-digit divisors, add positive and negative numbers, picture, name, and order fractions, add and subtract fractions with common denominators, understand and calculate measurements, compare and measure mass, identify function rules, graph ordered pairs on a coordinate graph, identify angles, identify lines of symmetry.
* Homeschool Teacher's Manual
* 140 Lessons
* Step-by-step instructions and scripts
* Pre-class preparation instructions
* A complete list of materials needed for each lesson
* Spiral-bound to lie flat when open
* 843 pages
* Student's Meeting Book
* Used for the daily opening exercise
* Provides a colorful way to teach the days, years, and dates
* Student Workbooks/Fact Cards
* All necessary student materials
* Bound in two workbooks
* Practice pages, masters, and fact cards
Saxon Math continues to lead as #1 favorite math program in surveys of home educators! Home school families have told me over and over again how much they love Saxon Math. Mary Pride says “Saxon Math is the best. Period.” Saxon Math's continual and incremental practice provides the child with opportunity to learn and remember the foundational skills and concepts of mathematics.
Saxon Math has taken their elementary classroom program and adapted it for homeschoolers.
Saxon Homeschool Math K-3 Manipulative Kit should be purchased along with this kit for maximum results.
Saxon Math K - 3 Placement Inventory
Saxon Math K - 3 Product Sampler
Saxon Math Scope & Sequence Introduction
Saxon Math Scope & Sequence K - 3


Despite the brutality of its former regime, Iraq was once seen as a model of education in the Arab world. The country boasted some of the region’s highest literacy rates, justifying the Arabic saying, “The Egyptians write, the Lebanese publish, the Iraqis read.”
Today, up to one-quarter of Iraq's adults are illiterate.
Years of war and instability have left their mark. Rather than focus on education, many Iraqis give priority to basic survival, while a decline in the skills of the country’s teachers has taken its toll on those students who do seek to learn.
International Literacy Day on September 8, which is sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific,and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is an opportunity to address these issues.
This year, the UN agency is putting the spotlight on literacy’s importance for civic participation, citizenship, and social and human development.
The message will be delivered in Iraq, where economic sanctions imposed in the 1990s and six years of occupation and violence have dramatically affected the education system.Rural Girls Suffering
Nour Dajani, education program specialist for the Amman-based UNESCO office for Iraq, says the country today counts as many as 5 million people who cannot read or write.
Literacy is obviously dependant on school attendance, which stands at 86 percent in Iraq.
A primary school in Baghdad (file photo)
Dajani calls the rate “reasonable” under Iraq’s current situation, but she says it is much lower among internally displaced populations and girls living in rural areas.
“Young children are forced to leave school either to help their families, or because of displacement there are no schools around, or because of security problems the parents are afraid to send the girls to school," Dajani says.
"The lowest rate of primary enrollment is among rural girls. It's around 68 percent. However, that rate decreases when they shift from elementary education to secondary education. It’s around 15 percent,” she says.
Illiteracy is also of particular concern among the more than 1.5 million Iraqi refugees estimated to live in neighboring Syria and Jordan.
Syria provides free access to school for Iraqi children, but 2009 witnessed a significant drop in the number of Iraqi children enrolled in Syrian public schools.
"According the [Syrian] Ministry of Education, over 49,000 Iraqi students were officially enrolled for the school year 2007-2008, compared to 32,500 in 2008-2009," says Farah Dakhlallah, public information officer for the United Nation's refugee agency (UNHCR) in Syria.
"The longer that the Iraqis are staying in Syria, the more vulnerable they're becoming financially because they're running out of savings," Dakhlallah says, "so children have to drop out of school to support their families."
UNESCO’s Dajani says continued instability also affects the performance, attendance, and qualification of teachers in Iraq. She says they sometimes have two or three shifts, limiting the timing of schooling.Weak Teaching Standards
Nihad Abbas, deputy minister of education for scientific affairs, tells RFE/RL’s Radio Free Iraq that educational institutions are burdened by a decline in the capabilities of teachers.
“The fact is that we need to develop our teachers and our teaching standards. The standards of our teachers are currently very weak. Even those recently appointed have not been subjected to testing, with reliance solely on their college scores," Abbas says.
"This of course involves many negative aspects, which means that our educational standards are below par. This is the reason behind the low rate of passing grades [from secondary school to university].”
Abbas says private schools are achieving better results than public schools because they are employing retired teachers, who are better qualified.
The head of the Education Committee in the Iraqi parliament, Ala’a Makki, says the root cause of the low teaching standards is to be found in the higher education institutions from which the teachers graduate.
“In general, the standards at the educational colleges have slipped," Makki says. "The resulting low standard among teachers is responsible for lower standards among students. Furthermore, the Education Ministry is unable to provide enough workshops and teaching seminars.”
Globally, according to UNESCO, a staggering 776 million adults worldwide still lack basic reading and writing skills. Two-thirds of them are women. Some 75 million children are out of school and many more attend irregularly or drop out.Radio Free Iraq correspondent Muhammad Kareem contributed to this report from Baghdad; translations by Ayad Al-Gailani


How kindergartners' talks and drawings inform our ways of developing a curriculum of caring and imagination [electronic resource] : /
Author's abstract: This study explores how kindergartners' talks and drawings inform our ways of developing a curriculum of caring and imagination. The mandates of kidnergartners' curriculum tend to emphasize children's mastery of literacy skills while ignoring their natural development and imagination. Author's abstract: This study explores how kindergartners' talks and drawings inform our ways of developing a curriculum of caring and imagination. The mandates of kindergartners' curriculum tend to emphasize children's mastery of literacy skills while ignoring their natural development and imagination. There is a need for developing a curriculum that embraces children's diverse needs, releases their imagination, and cultivates their highest potential. There are three strands for the theoretical framework of the study: John Dewey's (1963) theory of education, experience, and imagination; Lev Vygotsky's (1978) theory of social constructivism; and Nel Noddings' (1992) ethic of care. Through children's talks and drawings, literacy and writing skills were developed in a natural setting with age appropriate social interactions facilitated by the teacher. The exchanges between, and encounters with, the teacher researcher and participant kindergartners and their peers provided an arena in which child oriented discussions were encouraged and imagination was cultivated. The findings of this study present powerful evidence that a curriculum of care and imagination should presuppose any standards devised for teaching literacy and writing skills. This study was significant for children, teachers, parents, administrators, and policy makers. For children, the significance of this study was a confirmation that children must be placed in the center of the educational experience. For teachers, this study helps to construct caring early childhood practices of literacy development. For parents, the study reveals the importance of creating an environment where children's imagination can flourish. For administrators, this study reveals that pre-packaged kits might not be the best way to teach children. For policy makers, this study provides an argument for creating a curriculum of care and imagination for kindergartners in the era of standardization. I sincerely hope that kindergarten teachers, educators, parents, and policy makers will work together to develop a curriculum of caring and imagination for kindergartners not only to educate kindergartners to become good citizens of the United States but also good citizens of the world.
School:Georgia Southern University
School Location:USA - Georgia
Source Type:Master's Thesis
Keywords:georgia southern university kindergarten imagination caring reading writing curriculum development
Date of Publication:


Education professors design oral-based curriculum
by Geoff McMaster
As you read this, millions of children in China's Hebei province are learning to speak English faster than ever before. That's because they've adopted a new ESL (English as a second language) program designed by professors in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta.
Located immediately south of Beijing, Hebei province has a population of 64 million people with about 12 million in Grades I to 12. A few years ago the province decided to overhaul the school curriculum to be more student-centred and activity-based, and officials began looking beyond their horders for expertise.
It wasn't long before they found, through a network of diplomatic connections, U of A Education faculty members Jim Parsons, secondary cducation, and his wife Tara Fenwick, '79 BA, '89 MH:d, '96 PhD, in policy studies. The couple had a proposal to help update a hopelessly archaic system of learning English in China.
With assistance from the Hebei Education Research Institute, Hebei Publishing House and Duval Publishing House (a local publisher headed up by former U of A Press director Glenn Rollans, '78 BA, '80 Cert Arts)—and partly funded by the Canadian International Development Agency—Parsons and Fenwick quickly got to work putting together student texts, teacher guides, audio-tapes, storybooks and activity books for students in Grades 4 to 6.
The project has taken off, and the U of A-designed package is now the official ESL program in Hebei province.
"The Chinese had this British system of ESL, published in Singapore, which is highly grammatical and very written says Parsons. "The [texts] are very British, in the best and worst sense of being British. They're aggressively colonizing... all this white man's burden stuff. What the Chinese are finding is their kids are learning the textbooks, but they can't speak English when they're finished."
Parsons admits he's a"simplc guy," good at communicating ideas to 11year-olds—exactly what you need to design language materials. But what helped the program really gain momentum was realizing that to reach the kids most effectively you have to prepare the teachers "who couldn't speak it either." And so lie and Fenwick have run a number of workshops for hundreds of young educators and continue to offer two institutes each summer in Hebei.
"That's been a wise choice, because as we worked with hundreds of teachers.. .their English improved a lot over seven days," he says. "It's the first time many of them have spoken English to westerners. Give me a hot, sweaty room with 400 teachers and I love it."
The project has also enlisted the help of education dean Larry Beauchamp, Joe Wu, '88 MEd, '93 PhD, in the Department of Elementary Education, Barbara Maheu, '95 MEd, of the Alberta Teachers' Association and several graduate studcnts. Last January three graduate students held a five-day institute for more than 100 teachers and supervisors in Hebei.
Secondary education waster's student Lisa Li, a native of China with experience in ESL, has been helping to design materials. She says the project has the potential to spread beyond Hebei into the rest of the highly populated country, helping millions more learn English.
"In the past, all over China we used the same textbook," she says. "But now there is a variety and [provinces and districts] can make their own choices. If the program is good, the numbers could enlarge."
Parsons says two other provinces in China have already started lookinU into the program, and the Hebei Publishing House plans to market the books across the nation.
Published Winter 2001.


U.S. Census Bureau recently revealed that the majority of the 16.6 million full-time government employees at the state and local level work in the education field. There are 9.0 million people around the country who work in secondary and elementary education, which also happens to total more than double of all the government employees at the federal level combined, to include the military and the post office. The consequences of so many government employed personnel in education are bad for the taxpayers, bad for the economy and bad for the children who are supposed to benefit from public education.The
From a basic economic perspective, we as a society have far too many government employees (>20 million) relative to private sector employees (~130 million). Because public sector employees generally create no value (they do not provide goods and services that people voluntarily pay for), they exist as a burden on the economy which must pay their salaries and benefits. They also divert capital and resources from value producing activities and endeavors to those that destroy value. This burden, coupled with the burdens of corporatism (government distortion of the markets or directly funneling taxpayer money to preferred corporations) and social welfare makes everyone except for a select few worse off, it keeps people poor and it destroys prosperity for future generations. 9 million government workers in public education cannot be justified when the private economy only employs ~130 million people – it is wasteful, and it is destructive.
But if money were no issue, if the government could spend endlessly on public education without harming the economy, the taxpayers or future generations, the 9 million government workers in public education would still be a terrible deal for America because they are destroying the lives of millions of children per year. The reasons are partly economic, as our lives are inherently tied to economic forces. Public education exists by way of government coercion and force. Public education requires forced taxation of people who do not support it, compulsory schooling laws to strong-arm parents and children who do not care for public education, and government policies that ensure effective monopolies at the district level throughout the country. When an organization can survive on government force alone, without competition from entrepreneurs who are willing to provide a better service, that organization becomes more expensive to the consumer (taxpayer) while providing an inferior offering.
The virtual absence of competition in public education allows non-market forces to alter education so that it doesn’t serve the end user. Public education ends up being dictated and controlled by those who can siphon money from taxpayers through a system that is not expected to make a profit for shareholders, but like most government programs, to maximize the benefits paid out to politically influential organizations and individuals. More government employees in such a system does not result in higher quality education for the children who are supposed to benefit from the system, it results in more political power for the groups that are trying to take even more money from taxpayers. The bigger and more powerful this mob becomes, the less they need to concern themselves with educating children because their political leverage becomes far stronger than that of despondent parents who feel they have nowhere to turn.
While budget crises across the nation are forcing some states and districts to reduce the number of employees in education, the reductions are not enough to fundamentally improve the lot of the taxpayer, the health of the economy or the quality of education. As long as the government can justify taking our money to fund a coercive system that treats children as prisoners, nothing is going to change. Real change must come from the voluntary action of the people. When parents opt out of the public education system by sending their kids to private schools or by homeschooling them, they are not only giving their child a better education, they are putting stress on a system that cannot otherwise justify its existence through its work product. As more and more children leave the system, the state will be left defending an ever increasing cost of education per child, which will eventually become indefensible. When the mass migration away from the public education system begins, the government will be forced to slash the number of government employees in public education resulting in happier taxpayers, a healthier economy and better educated children.


The only playground design realized by the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi within his lifetime, Playscapes is located in the Olmsted-designed Piedmont Park, Atlanta’s largest park. It was a Bicentennial gift to the city by the High Museum of Art. Playscapes and subsequent play environments were heavily influenced by Noguchi’s unfilled 1933 vision for Play Mountain, a block-long sculptural landscape in New York City with steps of all sizes and slides for summer water-play and winter sledding. Channeling the spirit of Play Mountain, Playscapes was designed by Noguchi as an environment for exploration and imagination rather than regimented and prescribed play. Moreover, traditional play equipment was reconsidered and offered as sculpture, blurring the distinction between landscape and object and making sculpture a useful part of ordinary life, akin to his cataloguing of local landscapes at his California Scenario plaza in Costa Mesa.
Though Noguchi’s original design for Playscapes included a shelter, classroom with office and dark room facilities, and summer art education programs, today’s existing playground fosters an arts appreciation among children through organic landforms and various boldly-colored play equipment, including a spiral tower, several jungle gyms, play cubes, a circular sand pit, and other geometric structures containing integrated slides and swings. The playground was rehabilitated by Piedmont Park Conservancy, the Noguchi Foundation and the Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation in 1996.


Blackboards and overhead projectors are relics of the 20th century in Clarke County School District classrooms.
Every classroom in the district - more than 500 of them - now is equipped with a state-of-the-art multimedia projector known as a SMART Board. The interactive, digital touch screens can display video, audio, digital slide shows or Web sites, while students and teachers can manipulate objects on the screen with the touch of a light pen or even a finger.
While some classrooms have used the technology for years, the Clarke County School District became one of the first in the state to make SMART Boards standard in every classroom this fall and currently is providing hours of after-school training for teachers.
At Cedar Shoals High School last week, sophomore Mariah Parrott stood at a SMART Board in front of her geometry class sliding her index finger on the white board to manipulate lines on a triangle. She picked up a green light pen to mark the different angles before stepping away to show her work to the class.
The ability to manipulate graphics is one of the reasons Mariah's teacher, Beverly Jackson, uses the SMART Board almost every day. Jackson can borrow charts, graphs and entire lessons from other teachers and save it for the class to review days or months later. She can download lessons from the Internet, along with any video or audio files she wants to incorporate into her presentations.
"There is no mess of ink on the hands. There is no looking into bright lights of the overhead projector. I can use different colors to cue students on different parts of the lesson, and I also change colors frequently to help students organize information," she said.
For Jackson, who began teaching in 1982, the digital revolution has dramatically changed her approach to the classroom.
"When I started, there were not even personal computers in the classrooms," she said. "All grade sheets were done by hand. Everything was paper and pencil."
Steve Piazza, the school district's technology support specialist, likes to hear Jackson's enthusiasm for new technology.
Every teacher in the district can get 20 hours of hands-on training on the boards by Christmas break.
The vast majority of teachers are excited about the SMART Boards, Piazza said, but some teachers are catching on faster than others.
"If a teacher's been teaching effectively without it for 15 years, they may not feel this is changing their life," he said. "Others are seeing it and running with it. But many times, they'll see something done on this and say, 'Man I wish I had that 20 years ago.' "
The technology especially lends itself to elementary education, where younger children are more stimulated by images, and classroom set-ups make it easier for students to move around and interact with the screen.
"I've been wowed the way some of our kindergarten teachers are using this," Piazza said. "They'll sit with the teacher and move words and objects to the correct places on the screen and design lessons where students can self-grade themselves to help them make decisions."
Jill Bradshaw, a third-grade teacher at Alps Road Elementary School, has been teaching for 17 years and was receiving SMART Board training after school Tuesday. The tool is a hit with her students, some of whom have been using SMART Boards for two or three years in other classes that already had them, she said.
"My children love it," she said. "If I want to get their attention, I just walk up to that SMART Board. There's an unexpected advantage that sometimes they get to teach me. They love it when the roles change."
However, the boards can have drawbacks.
Some teachers are less tech-savvy than others, and it's easy to be intimidated by new technology. Alps Road instructional coach Kim Smith said one of the most important reasons for the training is to get teachers comfortable with the system so they're not afraid to experiment in their classrooms. And as with all technology, there are inevitably times when the SMART Board doesn't work. Teachers are being taught to always have a Plan B in case there are problems, Piazza said.
While SMART Boards have supplanted blackboards and projectors that were a staple of the county's classrooms for decades, Bradshaw said it's important that some things never get replaced.
"This should never take the place of a book in the lap, marking notes on paper and a human in the classroom," she said.
Athens, GA • Athens Banner-Herald ©2015. All Rights Reserved.


Recent research, published in the journal Music Education Research, reveals measurable benefits of having a few extra hours of music education every week.
In a comparative survey of nearly one thousand pupils across ten schools in Finland, Päivi-Sisko Eerola and Tuomas Eerola, doctoral students at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, measured and compared the quality of school life for students with and without extended music classes at Year 3 and Year 6 (ages 9 and 12 years old).
Their research uncovered significant differences between the two groups, with those who experienced longer music lessons rating the quality of school life higher in a majority of factors, particularly in areas related to general satisfaction about the school and a sense of achievement and opportunity for students.
Student satisfaction is not a trivial issue, Eerola warns, since it is linked with teachers' work satisfaction and their number of absent days due to sickness (Ervasti et al. 2012): 'If financial losses and absences of teachers can be reduced with more music at school we would certainly hear about it afterwards.'
- Päivi-Sisko Eerola, Tuomas Eerola. Extended music education enhances the quality of school life. Music Education Research, 2013; 1 DOI: 10.1080/14613808.2013.829428
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Young English Language Learners
Resources to Support Teachers of Young English Language Learners
Colorín Colorado – a bilingual site for parents and teachers of English-language learners, produced by WETA, includes teaching strategies, instructional activities and additional online resources
English as a Second Language – includes information on standards and assessments, instruction, professional organizations and parent resources
Handbook for Educators of Students Who are English Language Learners with Suspected Disabilities (PDF) – developed by VDOE to provide additional support for educators of ELLs with suspected disabilities.
WIDA Early English Language Development (E-ELD) Standards – available for use by early childhood practitioners (working with children ages 2-1/2 to 5-1/2), such as child care, Head Start, preschool/prekindergarten educators and caregivers. Complements Virginia’s Foundation Blocks for Early Learning and aligns with WIDA's ELD Standards framework for K-12 and Head Start's Early Learning and Child Outcomes program
Reports and Studies
Dual Language Learners: Effective Instruction in Early Childhood – article, by Claude Goldenberg, Judy Hicks and Ira Lit that appeared in the American Federation of Teachers’ journal, summarizing research on effective early education for DLLs including the use of the children's primary language where possible, the adoption of effective practices for building English language skills and the involvement of families in supporting children's learning
Dual Language Learners: Research Informing Policy – report, from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Center for Early Care and Education Research-Dual Language Learners, providing foundational information about to children under the age of six who are DLLs, suggestions for how to better coordinate policies and practices to bridge support to K12 settings and research findings related to effective early childhood programs for those children.
Education for English Language Learners: Promoting School Readiness and Early School Success – report, from the Migration Policy Institute profiles the population of young DLLs, who represent nearly one-third of all U.S. children under age 6, outlines their school readiness and patterns of achievement. The report evaluates the research on early care and education approaches that have been shown to support higher levels of language and literacy development and achievement for this child population, most but not all of whom are children of immigrants.
Impact: Feature Issue on Educating K-12 English Language Learners with Disabilities (PDF) – publication, from the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Integration and Research & Training Center on Community Living, includes articles on DLL and ESL students with disabilities
Multilingual Children: Beyond Myths and Toward Best Practices (PDF) – report, considers issues that range from the strengths of multilingual children (and the practices early childhood professionals can use to develop those strengths) to who is multilingual with thoughtful attention to supporting young children who may speak different dialects.
PreK-3rd: Challenging Common Myths About Young Dual Language Learners:An Update to the Seminal 2008 Report – brief, by Linda Espinosa from the Foundation for Child Development (FCD), discussing commonly held beliefs about the development and learning of young ESL children and provides recommendations to guide policies and practices
Same Different and Diverse: Understanding Children Who Are Dual Language Learners (PDF) – research article (prepared by the National Center on Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness for the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start) identifying important similarities between all children, key differences between DLLs and monolingual children and DLLs as a highly diverse group
Understanding Influences of Play on Second Language Learning – study, by Ruth Piker of California State University-Long Beach, analyzing how non-native English speakers develop skills in English through structured play with both native speakers and other dual-language learners.
Assessment & Standards Resources, State & Federal Resources
Title III: Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient & Immigrant Students includes Title III toolkit, teacher resources and Title III state data as well as information on assessing ELLs, equitable services to private school students, parental outreach and other education programs
US Department of Education English Language Learner Resources – resources and information on the civil rights of ELLs and tools for evaluating services to ELLs.
Virginia ELL Data – Virginia ELL enrollment and language data
Young ELs – website, from the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, with links to reports, data sources, webinars, technical assistance centers and more
Professional Groups and Organizations
ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development)


Punjab Examination Commission
Punjab Examination Commission is Autonomous body which is set up by Government of Punjab to uniform the ducation System and examine the students learning achievements particularly of grade V and VIII. PEC has following responsibilities and activities:
- Punjab Examination Commission History
- Punjab Examination Commission Mission
- Punjab Examination Commission Vision
- PEC Registration
- PEC Model Papers
- PEC Date Sheet
- PEC Roll Number Slips
- PEC 5th Class Result
- PEC 8th Class Result
- Punjab Examination Commission (PEC) Functions
- Contact Detail of Punjab Examination Commission
PEC established in 2005 and conduct 5th class population examination for the first time in the history of Province Punjab. It is the autonomous body working under the Punjab Examination Commission Act XI of 2010 to improve the elementary education system of province.
- District Name
- Father Name
- Date of Birth
|D G Khan||Lodhran||Sahiwal|
|Gujrat||Multan||Toba Tek Singh|
- Design, develop, implement, maintain, monitor and evaluate a system of examination for elementary education
- Formulate policy and programme for the conduct of examinations relating to elementary education
- Collect data for research to improve curricula and teaching methodology
- Recommend measures for capacity building of the teachers and educationists for improving the system of assessment of students
- Identify the areas where improvement in training of the teachers or educationists is required
- Promote public discussions on issues pertaining to elementary education
- Advise the Government on all policy matters relating to the objectives of the Commission
- Approve annual research programme and annual budget of the Commission
- Perform such other functions as may be ancillary to its functions, or as may be prescribed or asmay be assigned by the Government.
The Commission may:
- Issue instructions or guidelines to a local government for data collection and conduct of an examination of elementary education
- Register students for the purpose of examinations of elementary education and maintain their data
- Conduct and outsource research in the sphere of an examination of elementary education.
Grade 8 Links:
Punjab Examination Commission Background
Following were the drawbacks of the previous system.
- Question papers were not according to the given curriculum at different places.
- There was a lot of variety in different areas. Many areas needed betterment in paper setting, marking and difficulty level.
- The result could not be compared as every district had its own criteria and had different papers. Although the comparison among different schools was possible if they had taken the same examination under one district.
- ·The quality of the overall examination system had many different levels and had many variations.
These were the major cause which worked as a working force in the way of development of a body which was able to access the learning ability of the students of the whole province at once. The need of an institution was felt back in December 2005 and on 16th January 2006, with the approval of the governor of the province, “Punjab Examination Commission” was formed.The only task of the body was to establish a new system for the examination of Grade V and Grade VII in Punjab Province.
- · Comparison of results based on area, gender and schools sector was made possible.
- · Those areas which need special care and administration were mentioned.
- · Those areas where teachers needed training came to day light.
- · The dark holes of content of text books were identified.
- · Those areas where more support was required in terms of teachers or funds were identified.
- · Those areas which were successful already came to light.
- · The quality of education in different areas of the province was noted.
PEC is also responsible for arranging trainings about different topics like subject specialties, paper setting and marking techniques, new methodology of teaching having interactive teaching and activity based learning. Mainly the head teachers were trained by PEC and they then shared their knowledge with other teachers at their schools.
Grade 8 Links:


MUSIC CONDUCTORS lead instrumental music groups, such as symphony orchestras, dance bands, show bands, and various ensembles. They may perform before live audiences, on radio, in studios for recording, television, or movie productions. Music conductors audition and select musicians, and direct rehearsals and performances to achieve the desired musical effects. Conductors utilize their knowledge of conducting techniques, music theory and harmony, and talents of individual performers. Music conductors may schedule tours and performances. They meet with composers to discuss interpretations of their work. Conductors may also hire guest soloists.
Salary, Size & Growth
- $50,000 average per year ($24.00 per hour)
- A small occupation (20,600 workers in 2010)
- Expected to grow moderately (1.0% per year)
MUSIC CONDUCTORS need training in music theory, music interpretation, composition, and conducting; and specialized skill on one instrument or voice. Conductors need extensive training to acquire the necessary skill, knowledge, and ability to interpret music. Training may be obtained through private study, in a college or university music program, or in a music conservatory. Formal courses include music theory, music interpretation, composition, and conducting. No licensing or certification is required for music conductors. Those who teach must have a degree in music education to qualify for a state certificate to teach music in an elementary or secondary school.


- State Water Resources Control Board - Main page for the Storm Water Program and General Permits
- Explorers' Club - A fun site for kids ages 5-12.
- Students' Center - An educational site for older kids.
- Environmental Education Center - An educational site for teachers and students.
- Water Science for Schools - Information on many aspects of water, along with pictures, data, maps, and an interactive center where you can give opinions and test your water knowledge.
- Environmental Links For Kids - Links to about 90 different sites that deal with Environmental Science for kids.
- Motor Oil Recycling - Manteca provides its residents with oil collection containers that are picked up on a weekly basis and exchanged for another container.
- Manteca Solid Waste Recycling Division - Information about collection services.
- University of California - Main page for the Statewide Integrated Pest Management Project.
- EPA Pesticide Program - EPA Office of Pesticides Program (OPP) home page
- International Erosion Control Association - A non-profit, member organization that provides education, resource information and business opportunities for professionals in the erosion and sediment control industry.
- Erosion Control - Links to other erosion control information for Business and Industry.
- Concerned Citizen Resources - Become familiar with environmental issues and potential environmental and human health risks caused by pollution.
- EPA Office of Children's Health Protection - Information regarding water quality and children's health.
- EPA Office of Water - Information about urban runoff pollution, also called "non-point source pollution".
- Click here to download the EPA's Citizen's Guide to Pest Control and Pesticide Safety (a large PDF file - takes awhile to download).
- Take care of your lawn in an environmentally friendly way. Download the EPA booklet Healthy Lawn, Healthy Environment (a large PDF file - takes awhile to download).
- Earth 911 - A great organization with lots of information about the environment.


How to Use Primary Sources in the Elementary Classroom
The trend toward incorporating increasing numbers of primary sources into history and social studies classrooms has affected elementary education. With this new emphasis in history and social studies education, the need for a systematic approach to introducing young learners to the analysis of historical texts has become clear. On this site, the teacher-authors of elementary lessons have developed source-specific analysis guides, often using "compare and contrast" or "cause and effect" exercises that may be familiar to students from literature analysis.
As engaging and immediate as primary source analysis can be, the exercise requires preparation and context. Educators must have some background knowledge in order to lead students in a thoughtful analysis of primary sources. Paul Revere's engraving of the Boston Massacre, for example, shows the "Butcher's Hall" on the façade of the building on the right, just above the British soldiers' heads. No "Butcher's Hall" existed; rather, Revere put that name there to underline the idea that the British were slaughtering innocent colonists. Most of the lessons and sources on this site provide background information and brief essays for students to read. Supplemental material from locally required social studies texts can serve as background context as well.
For most elementary students, analyzing primary sources happens at a basic and introductory level. The questions are straightforward and are designed to encourage them to ask simple questions. Historical study is often relatively new to elementary students, who have limited depth of knowledge. In their first exposure to primary sources, students may be best led through the materials slowly and with direction.
Compare/contrast: With similar documents or sources, such as newspaper advertisements from the 1750s and 1760s, a good exercise involves comparing and contrasting their content and appearance. These students are just beginning to think critically and analyze historical texts. Many students at the elementary level have already engaged in compare and contrast exercises with regard to literature. Doing so with primary sources for history will be new to many of them, but educators can build on previously developed skills.


Science for Kids: The “e-Nose”: Scientists try to develop an electronic sniffer
Sniff, sniff, sniff — Yum! Sniff, sniff, sniff — Oh, yuck!!!
For almost 25 years, chemists and other scientists have tried to build a machine that can do exactly that. They want an “electronic nose” that can take a whiff of the air, food or other objects and say whether the odor is nasty or nice. Such a machine could work in factories, and help tell whether food is fresh. An electronic nose also could sniff for harmful air pollutants. And unlike people, it could work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week without getting tired.
A German scientist named Udo Weimar and his team decided to check up on how much progress has been made toward an e-nose in those 25 years. It is not an easy task – odors are really complicated!
Next time you eat, notice the aroma arising off your plate. That smell is made up of hundreds or thousands of chemicals that float through the air and into your nose. For example, it takes more than 1,000 chemicals to make up the rich, deep aroma of coffee. Those chemicals land on millions of special cells in your nose. Those cells have the amazing ability to change the chemicals into nerve signals. They send a message to the brain, which figures out whether your food smells fantastic – or funky.
Dr. Weimar found that electronic noses are pretty good at detecting a few odors, including some that people cannot smell. Carbon monoxide is an important example. Since humans cannot smell this poisonous gas, electronic noses could warn people before they become ill. E-noses could also help sniff out bombs by detecting certain explosive chemicals.
However, present-day e-noses cannot detect nearly as many important smells as humans, dogs, and other animals. So while today’s electronic snouts can’t stop and smell the roses like we do, they may help keep us safer.
This fragrant study appeared in ACS’ Chemical Reviews, a monthly scientific journal.
Listen to the audio version of this story on ACS’ Bytesize Science, an educational, entertaining podcast for young listeners. Click here to listen to Bytesize Science in iTunes. No iTunes? No problem. Check out the latest episodes of Bytesize Science in your web browser.
— Adam Dylewski


Dunk, Dunk, Dribble, Dribble
Emergent Literacy Design
Emergent Literacy Design
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /d/, the phoneme represented by D. Students will learn to recognize /d/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (a basketball dribbling) and the letter symbol D, practice finding /d/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /d/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters. This lesson is geared towards an appropriate literacy goal for students at this stage of literacy development.
Materials: Primary paper and a pencil. Chart that says "Dan dribbles down then dunks"; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); words cards with DO, DOG, DUCK, DUNK, DARK, DOWN
1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The trick is learning what the letters stand for- the mouth moves we make as say words. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move for /d/. We spell /d/ with the Letter D. D looks like a half moon, and the /d/ sounds like we are dribbling a basketball.
2. Let's pretend to dribble our basketball. When I say go, I want you to dribble three times for /d/, /d/, /d/. (Pantomime a dribbling motion while saying /d/)/ Notice how the tip of your tongue starts at the top of your gums behind your front teeth and pops down? When we say /d/, we are pushing air through our mouths while we move our tongue. Try it! Yes, very good!
3. Let me show you how to find /d/ in the word dribble. I'm going to stretch out the word in slow motion and listen for my dribble sound. Dddd-rr-ii-bb-ll-e. Again. DDDdddd-rrr-ii-bb-l-e. Did you see how my tongue hits the back of my teeth and came down? I can almost feel that dribble sound when my tongue hits the tops of my gums.
4. Let's try a tongue tickler. "Dan dribbles down then dunks." Can we stretch out that drum beat? Every time we hear it is at the beginning of the words. Like this, "Dddan ddddribbles, etc." Now, let's see if we can pull that dribble sound off of our words. "Dddd-an ddd-ribbles dddd-own then ddd-unks, etc."
5. (Bring out primary paper and pencil) We use the letter D to spell /d/. Captial D looks like a half moon. We can also practice lowercase d. First, make a lowercase c. Then, right next to the c, begin at the rooftop, and connect a straight line on the side for our c until we reach the sidewalk. Once I see that you have it, and I give you a sticker for your hard work, I want you to make nine more just like it!
6. I want you to listen to the words and sounds I am going to say. You can tell me if you hear /d/ in these words. Do you hear /d/ in dream or awake? Down or up? Cat or dog?
Now, dribble your basketball if you hear /d/ in any of the words I say. "Time, dear, book, monkey, dessert, double, rose"
7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a boy having a silly dream whose name starts with a D. Can you guess?" Read the D page drawing out /d/. Ask children if they can think of other words that start with /d/. Make up a silly dream like David Donald Doo's and include pictures. I will display these on the letter board.
8. Show DOG and model how to decide if it is DOG or LOG. The D tells me to dribble my basketball, so this word is ddd-og, dog. You try some: DUNK: dunk or skunk? DOWN: down or frown? DUCK: luck or duck?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with F. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
Return to the Caravans index.


Help your child broaden their vocabulary with this word game using Post-it Super Sticky Notes. more
Chiming fork science experiment
Science for kids is always fun and the chiming fork brings sound science experiments to a new level. Kids enjoy science and sounds, so combine the two in this fun activity and see if they can record what happens without you letting them know what will happen.
Number of Players:1+
What You Need:
- piece of thread
Step 1. Cut a piece of thread that is about as long as your arm.
Step 2. Tie the middle of the thread to the bottom end of the fork.
Step 3. Wind the ends of the thread around your index fingers.
Step 4. Using your fingers, swing the fork so that it knocks against the edge of the table. Notice the sound you hear.
Step 5. Now touch the flaps just in front of your ear holes with your index fingers and repeat Step 3.
What did you notice?
The sound of the clunk should sound different. Why? Because when your fingers near your ears, you bring the thread closer to your sounds sensors which allows you to hear the vibrations much more clearly.
Find more paper craft ideas:
- Easy origami for kids
- Video tutorials on how to make paper planes
- Make your own Christmas cards
- 5 adorable Mother's Day cards to make
- 5 fun things to print and make
- 5 ways to display kids' art
Find more inspiring kids' craft ideas
- How-to videos for kids' crafts
- Make a melted crayon masterpiece
- Easter crafts
- Christmas crafts
- Fun kids craft ideas
- 30 fun things to do with kids (including craft)
- Dress up ideas kids can make
- Crafts to make from the recycling bin
- Fairy-inspired craft ideas
- Great ideas for paper crafts
Find more party ideas:
- Party projects anyone can make
- Classic party games
- How to throw a perfect slumber party
- Birthday party ideas for under 3's
- Birthday party ideas for 3-5 year olds
- Birthday party ideas for 6-8 year olds
- How to entertain kids on a budget
- Party themes and ideas
- 8 fantastic fancy dress party ideas
- Best birthday party games
- Best birthday party venues for kids


Promoting literacy development : 50 research-based strategies for K-8 learners
Source:Sage, Los Angeles, p.299 (2012)
Call Number:Cubb LB1576 .A58 2012
Keywords:Language arts (Elementary), Language arts (Middle school)
Summary: "Promoting Literacy Development: 50 Research-Based Strategies for K-8 Learners presents the essential literacy strategies that are used by classroom teachers for teaching reading and writing to children in elementary schools. Intended as a supplement to primary texts that are utilized in the reading methods courses, the proposed book will be used principally in undergraduate and graduate teacher education programs. Reading and English language arts are the primary curricular areas that are the focus of this supplementary text, which provides quick access to the essential instructional literacy strategies"--Provided by publisher.


This Science Quest series complements the Geography Quest series and the History Quest series to provide a comprehensive programme of S.E.S.E. activities for children.
The series reflects the changes in content, structure and teaching approaches contained in the science component of the S.E.S.E. Primary School Curriculum.
It introduces children to basic scientific concepts, using experiments that are easy and safe to carry out in a classroom setting. The experiments are pitched at a level appropriate to each class. All experiments have been tried and tested in classrooms by experienced teachers.
Each chapter contains Helpful Hints for teachers to pre-empt any difficulties that may arise. The setting the scene section of each chapter outlines the objectives to be addressed in each chapter. Very little expenditure is required by teachers or pupils for experiment equipment because every day objects are generally employed throughout the series.
- More Details
Builds on the basic ideas dealt with in Book 1 at an age appropriate level. In the 11 experiments the children are encouraged to predict outcomes before carrying out simple and interesting experiments involving bubbles, making rainbows, seeing how plants need oxygen, air in balloons etc.


Children are natural poets. They speak poetry all day long. They say wonderful poetic gems that surprise and delight us and help us look at the world in a new way. In Climb Inside a Poem: Reading and Writing Poetry Across the Year, Georgia Heard and Lester Laminack tap into this natural inclination and demonstrate how reading and writing poetry can also support and extend young children's language and literacy development. Through an anthology of original children's poems and related lessons, Georgia and Lester describe how to weave poetry into the fabric of a school day by reading a variety of poems for a variety of purposes. Building on these experiences, children then engage in a formal unit of study on writing poetry.
Climb Inside a Poem has three components.
- The poetry anthology, Climb Inside a Poem: Original Poems for Children, uses the writings of contemporary children’s poets, whimsical illustrations, and an expansive big book format (14”x18”) to create a 36-page poetry playground.
- Lessons for Climb Inside a Poem provides a five-day sequence of lessons for each poem in the anthology. Through repeated readings and by accessing the poems from multiple perspectives, these lessons model how poetry can be used to support basic concepts in print, develop word awareness, expand reading and writing fluency, and help children write with feeling and voice.
- Reading and Writing Poetry Across the Year takes a broad view of poetry and considers how poems can be used to reinforce and extend a literacy curriculum. Organized into three separate sections, the minilessons in this guide offer tips for outfitting and organizing classrooms where poetry can flourish; highlight a variety of reading strategies that immerse children in the words and music of poetry; and present a complete unit of study for writing poetry.
Instruction in Climb Inside a Poem is organized around 29 poems by acclaimed children’s authors. (listed in order of appearance)
- Where Do I Find Poetry? by Georgia Heard
- Sky Wish by Rebecca Kai Dotlich
- Happy Toes by Pat Mora
- Dear Friend in the Desert by Kristine O’Connell George
- Tooth Truth by Lee Bennett Hopkins
- Quack, Quack by Pat Mora
- Why? Why? Why? by Lee Bennett Hopkins
- Who’s Coming to Tea? by Jane Yolen
- Making Soup by Marilyn Singer
- How I Hopscotch by Kristine O’Connell George
- When I Ride My Bike by Patricia Hubbell
- School Bus Lady by J. Patrick Lewis
- Poem for My Friend by Patricia Hubbell
- Best Friend by Marilyn Singer
- Birthday Candles by Rebecca Kai Dotlich
- Song for My Swing by Patricia Hubbell
- The Stray Dog by Alice Schertle
- Puppy Love by Jane Yolen
- Just Like Grandpa by Alice Schertle
- Happy Teeth by J. Patrick Lewis
- The Cedar Tree by Joseph Bruchac
- Laundromat by X. J. Kennedy
- Emma by Janet Wong
- Spring Riddles by Beverly McLoughland
- Sun and Moon: A Poem for Two Voices by Bobbi Katz
- Singing Down the Sun by Marilyn Singer
- Hey, Crow! by Deborah Chandra
- Hidden Treasure by Bobbi Katz
- Night Story by Beverly McLoughland
Label companion resources
Label support materials
Label product support
- Invite Georgia Heard to speak at your school, district, or conference through Heinemann Speakers.
- Invite Lester L. Laminack to speak at your school, district, or conference through Heinemann Speakers.
No sales resources available for this title


Instruction For Students Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing
who are deaf experience special challenges in learning
to read and write.
to read and write is part of the language acquisition process,
and many of the difficulties deaf students experience are related
to their lack of a strong language base (either English or ASL).
students may lack some of the background knowledge that hearing
students bring to reading.
students' lack of exposure to spoken language makes teaching
traditional sound-letter correspondence difficult, if not impossible.
those deaf students whose first language is signing, learning
to read and write in English constitutes learning a second language
with a different grammar, lexicon, and syntax.
need special methods to teach literacy to students who
should provide students with background knowledge regarding
culture and content, as well as language aspects such as grammar,
use of idioms and vocabulary development.
spite of the difficulties mentioned above, there has been some
success for the use of cued speech to teach traditional phonemic
(sound-letter correspondence) methods of reading to this population,
and this is not necessarily dependent on usable hearing.
should address basic fluency, development of advanced writing
skills and reading comprehension.
fluency is acquired within social contexts in which students
are motivated to communicate and relate to others.
provides students who are deaf with opportunities to enter the
world of literature and enjoy videos, TV with captioning, and
other forms of entertainment with their hearing peers. It allows
them to access information through all types of media. In addition,
strong literacy skills allow Deaf and Hard of Hearing adults
to compete in the job market.
to a wide range of written materials in "print-rich physical
of written, finger-spelled, and signed language, and the relationship
between the three.
to experiment with reading and writing in a risk-free and supportive
Methods for teaching literacy to students who are deaf include:
TV and video at home help expose children to lots of written
English, supporting natural literacy development.
the classroom, captioning allows the teacher to focus on broad
textual concepts in a more directed instructional environment.
video, multimedia, and on-screen captioning are all being used
increasingly to teach students who are deaf.
of these methods include:
ability to individualize lessons to the needs and preferences
of diverse students
combination of text and video is highly motivational and reinforces
the context for literacy learning
technology makes literacy more accessible and more comfortable
signing in the videos and computer applications is of excellent


CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The next Picasso could be discovered this month in one of West Virginia’s public schools as Gov. Joe Manchin on Tuesday issued a proclamation and encouraged schools to celebrate the arts during Arts in West Virginia Schools Month.
“Art education plays an important role in the 21st century classroom,” said state Superintendent of Schools Steve Paine. “Core subjects like math and science remain the foundation, but art education also is important. It allows a child to fine-tune other vital skills necessary to succeed today, such as critical thinking and creativity.”
Arts in West Virginia Schools Month recognizes the importance the four disciplines of the arts -- theater, visual art, dance and music -- play in the lives of everyone, including children. All four disciplines of the arts also are celebrated during March on the national level. National Youth Art Month, Music in Our Schools Month and Theatre in our Schools Month will all be recognized throughout the month of March.
Studies have shown that an arts-based education increases academic success, heightens standardized tests and lowers the incidence of crime among general and at-risk students.
Studies also indicate that young people who participate in the arts for three days a week for one year are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement and three times more likely to be awarded for school attendance.
Another recent study found that an interest in the performing arts can lead to attention improvements, while training in acting can lead to memory improvement.
West Virginia state policy requires all high school students to have at least one art credit to graduate.
For more information, contact Julia Lee, arts coordinator for the West Virginia Department of Education, at (304) 558-7805, or the Office of Communications at (304) 558-2699.


Show your children that learning can be fun!
on December 13, 2010
Learning happens in many ways, at all ages every day. Parents can help improve their literacy skills, and those of their children, by making learning fun and engaging.
Family Literacy Day® is a perfect time to sit down with your family and do a fun literacy activity. Celebrated every January 27, the national initiative encourages Canadians to spend at least 15 minutes a day enjoying a learning activity as a family. This year’s theme is Play for Literacy!
Play for Literacy includes all types of play that encourages literacy and numeracy development as well as comprehension skills, such as board games, card games and word games. Games, and the carefree act of playing, provide a fun outlet in which individuals of all ages can engage in activities that inherently provide new learning or opportunities to improve one’s reading, writing, math and comprehension skills.
“Playing games not only has the ability to bring people together, it also provides a fun environment in which learning takes place,” explains Margaret Eaton, President of ABC Life Literacy Canada. “Card games help improve numeracy skills while board games, and even word association games, sharpen spelling, reading and comprehension skills.”
Research shows that literacy-enriched play settings can result in at least short-term gains in young children’s knowledge about the functions of writing, ability to recognize play-related print, and use of comprehension strategies such as self-checking and self-correction.
“Families, whether they recognize it or not, participate in literacy activities just through normal daily routines - talking, cooking or making grocery lists,” says Kim Chung, Program Director at the Centre for Family Literacy in Edmonton. “Play is another way that provides an easy, fun opportunity for parents and children to positively interact around learning.”
In honour of Family Literacy Day, ABC Life Literacy Canada and the Centre for Family Literacy are offering these fun play-based literacy activities that the whole family will enjoy:
- Host a family board game night where everyone is encouraged to read instructions, spell words and keep score. Invite another family over for a friendly competition!
- Driving in the car doesn’t have to be boring. Turn off the radio and play fun games involving signs, billboards and licence plates.
- Play an active game such as ‘Simon Says’, which improves comprehension skills.
- Open a book and make up a story using just the pictures.
- Rhymes, chants, songs and storytelling create a rich environment for language development.
- Make a batch of cookies and count how many there are.
- Card games like ‘Go Fish’ help children learn to articulate sounds and improve memory development.
- Go outside and be active! Count how many times they can hop or jump.
- When doing an outdoor activity, ask children to count items around them. For example, while playing hockey, ask them to count the number of goals scored by each team.
- Have a scavenger hunt! Give your kids a list of items that have been hidden around the house and ask them to find them.
To take part in Family Literacy Day, and to Play for Literacy, visit FamilyLiteracyDay.ca
to find a local event or access additional tips and activities to create your own celebration.


Arts in Education: Background and Legislation
Publication Date: January 2007
Publisher(s): Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
The "arts" are considered a core academic subject as part of the core curriculum for K-12 education, according to the Goals 2000 panel and as defined in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended. The federal program that supports integrating arts in the schools at the K-12 level is the Arts in Education program, authorized under the ESEA, as amended, and administered by the Department of Education (ED). This program provides grants for model projects that integrate the arts into school curricula. It has, in the past, given two major grants: one to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and one to the Very Special Arts (now VSA ARTS) program for children with disabilities. P.L. 106-554 increased funding from $11.5 million to $28.0 million for additional arts education grants in FY2001. In the 107th Congress, the Arts in Education program was considered under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) (P.L. 107-110) as part of the reauthorization of the ESEA, and it remains a separate program under ESEA, Title V, Part D, Subpart 15.
The FY2006 appropriation for the Arts in Education program was $35.3 million. Both in FY2006 and FY2007, the Bush Administration proposed to eliminate funding for the Arts in Education program. The FY2007 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies (L-HHSED) Appropriations bill (H.R. 5647, H.Rept. 109-515), as reported by the House Appropriations Committee during the 109th Congress, would have provided no specific funding for the Arts in Education program. In contrast, the Senate Appropriations Committee-reported bill would have provided $36.5 million for Arts in Education for FY2007. This would have included $6.369 million for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts program, $7.44 million for VSA ARTS, and $7.936 million for professional development for music, dance, drama, and visual arts educators, a program to be administered by ED. It would also have included $13.755 million for the competitive art education model grants program and $1 million to continue evaluations and national dissemination of information regarding model programs and professional development.
The third continuing appropriations resolution (CR) for FY2007 (P.L. 109-383) carried funding for the Arts in Education program through February 15, 2007, at the lower of the House-passed, Senate-passed, or FY2006 level. In this instance, the FY2006 funding level ($35.3 million ) will be provided.
This report provides background and legislative history on arts in education. It will be updated.


This book examines the importance of ear-training and the creative process of improvisation in the history of European art music, in a sampling of world cultures, and in the making of young musicians in contemporary music education settings. It recognizes the value of listening skills without diminishing the importance of notation as a teaching instrument and a memory aid. Moreover, it recommends ear-training and creative experiences that lead to the greater musicianship of students in various stages of their development.
This book is available only through Primis Online. Visit the website and select chapters to create your complimentary copy - www.mhhe.com/primis/online
Table of contents
1 - Music in the Curriculum 2 - Music 1: Development of Notation3 - Music 2: Improvisation and Solmization since 16004 - Music Teaching and Learning in the New World5 - Theories of Music Learning 6 - Music Learning in X-Cultural Perspective 7 - Traditional Music Learning 1: Japan, India, and Thailand 8 - Traditional Music Learning 2: China, Indonesia, and the Middle East 9 - Traditional Music Learning 3: Africa, Europe, and the Jazz World 10 - Traditional and Change: X-Cultural Comparisons of Music Inst. In World Cultures11 - The Music Learning of Children 12 - Music Learning in the Ensemble Setting 13 - Music Learning in the Private Studio Lesson


The History of the Valley of Kidron in the Holy Land
For most of the year, the Kidron Valley is dry and desolate. When heavy rains fall north of the city of Jerusalem, the Brook Kidron, which gives the valley its name, becomes a torrent.
In the Middle Ages, Muslims called it Wadi Jehannum, or Gehenna. In the fourth century A.D., the name became the Valley of Jehoshaphat and is now Wadi Sitti Miriam, or Valley of Lady Mary.
For centuries, the valley has been a burial place for Muslims, Jews and Christians. All three religions say the Mount of Olives and the Golden Gate above the Kidron Valley will bear significance in end time events.
Tomb of Zechariah
The Mount of Olives and the ancient closed Golden Gate to eastern Jerusalem lie across the valley from each other. The valley begins north of Jerusalem, where it is the Wadi-al-Jos and stretches to the Dead Sea.
The most photographed structures in the valley are the so-called tombs of Zechariah, James the Less, and Jehoshaphat and Absalom's Pillar.
King David escaped from Absalom by crossing the Kidron Brook. Kings Asa, Hezekiah and Josiah ordered idols and instruments of pagan worship destroyed there. Jesus crossed the valley to enter Jerusalem and pray on the Mount of Olives prior to his crucifixion.
For almost four years, Sandra Petersen has written fiction stories and non-fiction articles for sites like FaithWriters, Associated Content, Helium, Textbroker, and Triond as well as Demand Studios. Petersen attended the University of Wisconsin-Superior and earned her Bachelor's degree in elementary education with a minor in music education.
Chris Yunker, http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris-yunker/2543236420/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris-yunker/2121006229/


About This Course
Course Name/Code: Knowing Music Program Administration, SEMU 410
Catalog Description: An online course in which Music Education majors learn principles and strategies for developing a well-balanced quality PreK-12 school curriculum. These include developing various a Philosophy, Conceptual Framework, Mission Statements, Aims, Course Objectives, Units, and Lesson Plans throughout the curriculum. Other “nuts and bolts” topics will be addressed relating to curricular issues facing the professional music educator.
Instructors and Texts
Instructor Who Teaches This Course: Dr. Rick Townsend
Required Text(s): Please use the online campus bookstore to locate required textbooks for the course. Make sure that you search using the correct course code and look for the course with the “OL” suffix in the drop-down list. (See Textbook Ordering Help.)


When school budgets are cut, programs in music and the arts are often the first to get axed. While this makes a certain amount of sense because music isn’t always considered “essential” to education, recently in the U.S. we’re starting to see another justification for cutting music out of schools. The No Child Left Behind Act demands that students meet a certain basic level of academic success, or a school’s budget can be cut. “Extras” like music classes and recess only distract from the primary goals of learning English, math, science, and history, some say.
But does music participation actually cause students to do worse in the core academic subjects? Some studies have found the opposite, with kids’ IQ scores improving after a year of music lessons. Other studies have found that students who participate in music tend to have higher grades and test scores in other subjects. This, however, is only a correlation–we don’t know if music caused the improvement. Kids in music classes might be better in other subjects just because better students are more likely to take music classes. Maybe these kids would do even better in school if they weren’t distracted by music.
Peter Miksza took a look at data from the 1988 National Educational Longitudinal Study to see if he could find stronger evidence of the impact of music on performance in school. He analyzed the records of 5,335 students who either participated in school music programs from 8th through 12th grade or did not participate at all (students who participated only part of the time were excluded from the analysis). Here are some of the results:
As expected, he found that math, reading, science, and social studies test scores were significantly better for the music participants. But he also found that socioeconomic status (SES) correlated with academic success. Perhaps SES could explain the entire difference in achievement between music students and non-music students.
So Miksza created several statistical models of the data that accounted for the SES of the students. Even after accounting for SES, in nearly every case, music students maintained their advantage over non-music students. The one exception was a small effect on reading scores: while music students had an advantage in reading scores, that advantage diminished over time. This could be due to a ceiling effect: the music students may have reached the limits of the test’s ability to discern differences between students of different abilities. In all the other tests, the advantage of the music students was maintained from the 8th through the 12th grade.
A couple of caveats about this study. As Miksza takes pains to point out, it’s not a controlled study; these results are only correlations, so we can’t say whether overall achievement would improve if all students were required to participate in music, for example. Also, while there was a gap in achievement between the music students and non-music students, the size of this gap didn’t change over the course of the study. How can we say that music participation helps improve academics if the music students were better in their other classes to begin with? Perhaps earlier music study (before 8th grade) leads to improved academic performance, while later music study only doesn’t harm it. From this study alone, we don’t know the answer. However, we do have some compelling evidence to suggest that removing music from the curriculum won’t cause students to improve. Instead, it will only deprive those students of the many advantages they gain from having music in their lives.
Peter Miksza (2007). Music participation and socioeconomic status as correlates of change: A longitudinal analysis of academic achievement. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education (172), 41-57


Creating a Fun Atmosphere with Sing-along Songs
One of the most fun group participation activities for family and friends is to engage in sing-along songs. The essence of a sing-along song is that it has a simple enough melody and memorable lyrics for everyone to easily learn. Many of these popular songs have been around for over a century and are taught to children as part of their grade school music education. "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" is a very well known sing-along song. It was a traditional folk song written in the 1860s that became a huge hit in the early 1960s by The Highwaymen. The following sing-along songs are widely known and appreciated by all ages.
She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain
Not many songs over a century old are still as popular as "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain," which originated in the late nineteenth century by an unknown composer. The song uses metaphorical lyrics, although not everyone who sings these lyrics may be aware of the significance of the words. "She" is a metaphor for the chariot carrying Jesus upon his return. Hence the lyrics "she'll be drivin' 6 white horses." The song was originally based on a spiritual song called "When the Chariot Comes."
What A Wonderful World
The song "What A Wonderful World" was first popularized in 1967 by Louis Armstrong and in 1999 was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame. The optimistic children's song was written by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss. It was written as a good-natured counterpoint to the violence and social divisions of that era. Even though the record was only a marginal hit in the United States, it topped the charts in the United Kingdom. The song's popularity grew over many years due to being covered by so many different artists, including Tony Bennett. Then in 1988 the song was re-released and was a hit all over again. In 2002 it was covered by Joey Ramone as a more upbeat pop/rock song.
Louis Armstrong enjoyed one of the longest recoding careers of any singer in history. He was born in 1901 and lived to be 69 in 1971. He rose to fame with his first big hit "Muskrat Ramble" in 1926. His first number one hit was "All of Me" in 1932. Armstrong went on to have over 70 hits including "Hello Dolly" in 1964 before reappearing on the charts in 1988. He was also a national radio host and film star.
Don't Worry, Be Happy
One of the biggest and more memorable hits of the 1980s was "Don't Worry, Be Happy," recorded by Bobby McFerrin. The song made history by being the first Acapella recording to ever hit number one in America. That's interesting because most casual sing-alongs throughout the world are sung with no instrumental backing. The lyrics were based on a saying by Indian mystic Meher Baba. In 1988 the song was featured in the movie Cocktail, which helped it hit number one that year. The song has become a worldwide anthem for optimism and has been recorded by many different artists and sung in various languages.
McFerrin told USA Weekend in an interview that he had seen a poster of Baba with the words "Don't Worry, Be Happy," which was what inspired him to write the upbeat lyrics. Even though McFerrin was the only voice heard on the recording, he recorded several different vocal parts that were mixed together. These tracks included lead vocals, falsetto and bass. McFerrin is widely regarded as a one-hit wonder, although prior to recording his one big hit he recorded the theme song for the television series The Cosby Show.


Introduction to Seismic Refraction
Stephen K. Boss
University of Arkansas
This activity has benefited from input from faculty educators beyond the author through a review and suggestion process.
This review took place as a part of a faculty professional development workshop where groups of faculty reviewed each others' activities and offered feedback and ideas for improvements. To learn more about the process On the Cutting Edge uses for activity review, see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.
This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection
This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are
- Scientific Accuracy
- Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
- Pedagogic Effectiveness
- Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
- Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page
For more information about the peer review process itself, please see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.
This page first made public: Jul 5, 2007
Used this activity? Share your experiences and modifications
First exposure of students to manipulating seismic refraction/reflection principles to developing a very simple model using spreadsheet software. Emphasize computing and numeracy skills and learning to use spreadsheets for data analysis and graphic display.
This is one of the earliest lab assignments in an first course in geophysics for undergraduates (mainly seniors).
Designed for a geophysics course
Integrates geophysics into a core course in geology
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
It is a very simple assignment designed to help students learn to manipulate simple equations governing seismic refraction/reflection using spreadsheet software. In effect, they are creating a simple numerical model upon which later labs will build.
How the activity is situated in the course
This an early lab exercise given during the first two weeks of the semester. At this stage, students are still quite apprehensive of geophysics in general and quantitative aspects in particular. It is a stand-alone exercise, though students will be able to build on their work in succeding exercises.
Content/concepts goals for this activity
Primary goal is to aid students learning to use spreadsheet software for the first time (in some cases). Students must learn to program equations in the spreadsheet, create a spreadsheet where variables can be altered to derive different results, students must be able to plot results using graphic display capabilities of the spreadsheet, students must be able to discriminate data points resulting from direct arriving p-waves (i.e surface waves in this case), reflected p-waves, refracted p-waves on their plots; students must be able to describe why plots of these different phases look the way they do; students must be able to manipulate variables in Snell's Law; .
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
students must learn to plan their actions in constructing the model; students must be able to correctly program equations in the spreadsheet; reflection and refraction equations are relatively complex when programmed in Excel; students learn to carefully step through equation programming and check their output to ensure model is working properly; students must be able to convert data from degrees to radian measure; students must be able to determine why their final plots look the way they do and relate these plots to the simple schematic of their Earth structure; students must be able to derive trigonometric relations from the schematic for the lab.
Other skills goals for this activity
Description of the activity/assignment
Please refer to uploaded file.
Addresses student fear of quantitative aspect and/or inadequate quantitative skills
Determining whether students have met the goals
All students are given the same initial data, so all students should produce the same results. These are compare to my key.
More information about assessment tools and techniques.
Download teaching materials and tips


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Teacher Resources by Grade
|1st - 2nd||3rd - 4th|
|5th - 6th||7th - 8th|
|9th - 10th||11th - 12th|
Buzz! Whiz! Bang! Using Comic Books to Teach Onomatopoeia
|Grades||3 – 5|
|Lesson Plan Type||Standard Lesson|
|Estimated Time||Four 60-minute sessions|
Bam! Beep! Zoom! Students are sure to delight in the study of onomatopoetic words through the use of comic strips. In this lesson, students begin with an introduction to onomatopoeia, which describes words that imitate the natural sound associated with an action or object. As a class, students view several comic strips and are guided in identifying examples of onomatopoeia. The group then discusses the purpose of onomatopoeia and its effect in a story before students work individually to find examples of onomatopoeia in other comics. Finally, students work individually or in pairs to create their own comic books that include onomatopoeic language. After presenting their comics to the class, students discuss the use of onomatopoeia and its effectiveness in each comic strip.
Norton, B. (2003). The motivating power of comic books: Insight from Archie comic readers. The Reading Teacher, 57(2), 140–147.
Comic books have had a motivating power in literacy development for children, especially young boys, since their introduction in the 1930s. This nontraditional type of literature—often dismissed by educators as superficial and shallow—is highly visual, contains complex literary elements, and lends itself to critical examination of moral, ethical, and social issues.
McCloud, S. (1994). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper Collins.
Moon, B. (1999). Literary Terms: A Practical Glossary (The NCTE Chalkface Series). National Council of Teachers of English: Urbana, Illinois.


Outrageous Article About New Science Classroom Facility
The University of Minnesota is abandoning the traditional teaching methods of yesterday in favor of providing students with interactive and technology-laden instruction in the science disciplines. The new mindset facilitates innovative teaching paradigms that replace the old-fashioned lecture format with an environment that offers hands-on learning.
"Our objectives are very ambitious because we want this to be the best facility of its kind in the nation," says Robert Kvavik, who recently retired as the University's associate vice president for planning.
"The new teaching paradigms will emerge faster than we can imagine with the new technologies and this building will be adaptable to the necessary changes," says Kvavik. "Keeping pace with the future teaching paradigms and ever-changing technologies will provide an environment that enables students to learn and better comprehend scientific concepts."
The days of cramming hundreds of students into a tiered classroom to hear a lecture are disappearing at the University of Minnesota. This type of teaching is especially outdated at a time when students can be easily distracted from a monotone lecture by indulging themselves with their own technology, such as cell phones and iPods.
"We're offering the foundational skills needed for success in science and future careers in terms of problem solving, data analysis and interpretation, laboratory skills and experimental design, teamwork, communication, and quantitative reasoning," says Kvavik. "We already have empirical evidence that students who learn in an interactive environment have a better understanding of science.
The previous Science Classroom Building, which was constructed at the end of WWII on the bridgehead over the Mississippi River, was not designed to offer the modern teaching paradigms. Therefore, it was demolished to make room for the new building. Faculty members in the Chemistry Department suggested building a new facility that would house six large traditional tiered classrooms. However, the University's administration managed to obtain buy-in from a sufficient number of stakeholders after explaining why the auditorium-style classrooms are no longer suitable for today's innovative teaching methods. The state legislators agreed to provide funding for the Science Teaching and Student Services Center, having first rejected a proposal for a building with tiered classrooms.
The University had gathered data to verify that large classrooms in the old building were underutilized because departments were abandoning this type of teaching.
The evidence was clear that students' grades improved by as much as one point in the hands-on teaching environment. The students also expressed greater satisfaction with the environment and the faculty members. Students and faculty innovators became primary advocates for the construction of the state-of-the-art building.
Another fallacy that surrounded discussions about the new building was that departments would not have enough faculty or resources to implement the new paradigms. However, this was quickly addressed by pointing out that the Biology, Nursing, and Public Health departments made the change with no additional faculty. As an added bonus, higher enrollment numbers generated by the new teaching paradigm mean more revenue that could be used, if necessary, to hire additional faculty members.
"The interactive classroom is more expensive in terms of space, faculty, and electricity,'' says Kvavik. "However, if you are serious about being a top university that can attract the best students, you have to provide this type of environment or you are simply going to lose."
There are so many errors and false claims in this piece that I don't know where to start. Anyone who has followed this situation closely can spot them immediately.


Teaching K-6 Mathematics
Routledge – 2002 – 336 pages
This developmentally sound, research-based, practical text speaks directly to preservice elementary mathematics students about the multitude of ways they can help their future students learn to see the power, beauty, necessity, and usefulness of mathematics in the world.Part 1 deals with guiding principles that permeate the text, while Parts 2-11 deal with the specific NCTM Standards for grades K-6. Teaching K-6 Mathematics:
*is aligned with the current NCTM Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics;
*integrates content and methodology;
*emphasizes use of technology as a teaching/learning tool;
*stresses problem solving;
*provides basic information on current research in mathematics education;
*focuses on identification of error patterns and analysis;
*uses a down-to-earth, friendly writing style that engages the student rather than prescribing what to do; and
*includes many activities and exercises, including games, tricks, and amusements that can be used in the classroom to increase student interest in mathematics.
*Technology is integral throughout the text. Students are expected to perform Internet searches, investigate new sites appropriate for elementary students, sample new software that could be used in the classroom, and develop ways to blend calculators into the curriculum.
*Manipulatives are considered essential for students to learn elementary mathematics concepts. Cuisenaire rods, base 10- blocks, chips, number lines, and geoboards are all part of the manipulative landscape that is created in this text.
*Careful attention is given to blending rote work, developmental activities, fun, application, technology, manipulatives, assessment, and planning, so that prospective teachers become accustomed to using varied approaches and decision making as a curriculum is determined.
*Tricks, Activities, and Games (TAG) provide a wealth of ideas to attract students to learning mathematics.
"This textbook is a wonderful guide through the many developmental aspects of teaching mathematics effectively. It is a fine example of content and methodology integration, with special attention given to learning modalities, problem solving, technology, error patterns, and analysis….take advantage of this informally written text and discover for yourself its breadth and depth."
—American Journal of Psychology
"A 'nuts and bolts' approach to the teaching of elementary mathematics….well presented and easy to follow."
—Charles E. Lamb
Texas A&M University
"A good beginning point for preservice teachers in elementary education….Students will find this text comfortable, yet informative to read."
—Trena L. Wilkerson
Contents: Preface. As a Teacher of Mathematics: An Introduction. Guiding Principles for School Mathematics. Number and Operations. Algebra in the Elementary Classroom. Geometry in the Elementary Classroom. Measurement in the Elementary Classroom. Data Analysis and Probability. Problem Solving. Reasoning and Proof. Communication. Connections. Representation.