Ms. Harac's Art Classes - Intro to 2D Art and 2D Studio Art (HS credit course)
ART EDUCATION IS FOR EVERYONE.
“We cannot teach people anything, we can only help them discover it within themselves” –Galileo
VISION: To teach, serve, nurture and develop students understanding and passion for art.
Why I do what I do.
- To teach kids art. As simple as it may be, sometimes this is forgotten.
- I want students to become passionate about something, to create things that they never thought possible and to ignite their future.
- Create better young people. Young people who are responsible, caring, creative, encouraging and work for a cause rather than applause.
- To work with students who otherwise might not have a chance at doing well in a class or in life.
- To create and maintain healthy relationships with these young lives that will affect them for the rest of their lives.
- To get students involved in their community.
- To use interdisciplinary lessons, working with other teachers and classes to expand learning boundaries.
- To use art as an outlet and a means of communication.
- It’s fun.
The art of teaching.
As an art educator I get the opportunity to work with all kinds of students with all sorts of backgrounds. I get to serve, teach and care for these students by developing their artistic skills. Standards are an important boundary to use within the classroom, but getting a good art education shouldn’t be focused solely around them. I want to create a classroom full of young people who look forward to learning about art, the history of art, different techniques and finding new ways of expressing themselves. I want to broaden their concept of what art is and expose them to different art forms and techniques. Teaching respect, responsibility and relationships is also a very important part of being an art teacher. Without these boundaries, students do not feel comfortable in their classroom. When they aren’t comfortable, no learning takes place. I want to provide a creative learning environment that students feel comfortable in and will thrive in.
Art is important.
- It helps students with the cognitive learning process as well as critical thinking and problem solving skills.
- For some students, art can prove to be very motivational and something in which they can look forward to succeeding in.
- Art teaches multiculturalism and history and can be used in other subjects. It teaches students to work collaboratively.
- Art is good for overall academic achievement.
- Art is a safe way for students to express themselves.
- Art strengthens communication, explorations and imagination.
- Art develops self-confidence and persistence.
- Art not only helps students intellectually it helps them socially by strengthening their confidence as well as their ability to work with other students.
- It teaches students how to learn from the world around them and see beauty in uncommon places.
- Art provides fulfillment in what they have produced and aides in lifelong participation in the arts.
- It teaches students how to appreciate the many forms, techniques and styles of art.
- It helps students express themselves and cultivates freedom of expression.
- There are often no right or wrong answers in art and this helps student’s gain perspective on value and self-evaluation.
- Art can often be non-verbal communication and can prove to be therapeutic for many.
Grading. (please see art rubric for a more in depth understanding)
o Does the student put forth effort and work hard during class time?
o Do they participate in class discussions and help their peers?
o Do they have a positive and respectful attitude in class towards their peers as well as their teachers?
- Quality of work
o Do they take the time to finish the project or do they rush through?
o Do they follow directions?
o Do they take care of their final projects?
o Do they respect the classroom and other students work?
o Is their work neat or sloppy?
- Knowledge of tools and media that is being covered.
o Does the student understand the basic concepts being covered?
o Do they know what the different tools are used for?
- Skill level
o Are they using the skills appropriate for the specific class?
o Are they performing below or above their projected skill level?
- Care and use of materials
o Does the student take care of their own work?
o Do they respect the classroom and materials?
o Do they respect other students space and artwork?
o Is the student able to effectively analyze their own work?
o Are they able to effectively analyze art from their peers?


Welcome to Stratford Friends School. For over forty years SFS has led the charge in providing the best education practices for students with language-based learning differences. What our experience has taught us is that children who learn differently thrive when given excellent instruction by caring teachers who take the time to understand what each child needs to succeed. We know that our teaching practices, rooted in Quaker values, allows all of our students to thrive.
At the cornerstone of our programming is a two-hour daily literacy block. During this time students work with their teachers to become strong, independent readers and writers. The research-based Orton Gillingham, Take Flight® curriculum is used to directly and systematically teach students to unlock the code and become fluent readers. Students receive direct instruction in reading comprehension strategies in rich literature and informational text.
The research-based Saxon Math® and Making Math Real® programs teach more than isolated skill development. Teachers utilize a multisensory approach to help students understand larger math concepts so they are able to think like mathematicians. At SFS, technology is infused into our curriculum giving our students the opportunity to develop 21st-century skills and they enjoy taking on STEM challenges like robotics, programming, and designing futuristic cities.
As students develop academic skills, our School Psychologist facilitates a social thinking and friendship curriculum also fosters social and emotional development. This dynamic curriculum in combination with our rich academic experience provides a balanced education program that reaches the whole child.
Our lower school student-to-teacher ratio of 6:1 (10:1 at middle school), along with our flexible programmatic structure, enables us to specifically target each student’s individual academic needs while fostering a sense of belonging and community.
Each day is filled with a rich curriculum that not only provides instruction that addresses students’ individual needs but also challenges them to develop their gifts and find their passions. Opportunities to grow as artists, musicians, and athletes are vital parts of our program that allow our students to nurture their creative spark.
Grounded in strong Quaker values, SFS provides so much more than a nurturing environment. It provides all children with the assurance that the way they learn matters; fairness requires that unique learners have equal access to diverse learning experiences. The lessons the children learn through the Quaker principles will continue to inform who they are as adults and prepare them to become positive forces in the world. I am privileged to be a part of the Stratford Friends School mission.


Before you can begin deciding how to invest your money or how to run a business, you need to be sure that you have the underlying numeracy skills required to make the right decisions. While we spend many hours of our younger lives learning different elements of mathematics, we can still sometimes struggle with the basics.
This is nothing to be ashamed off, as more people than you think could do with a little helping hand with their maths. So if you’re looking to start managing your finances better, here is how you can improve your numeracy skills.
Take Your Time
It’s important to not stress yourself out when learning any new skill, and this includes numeracy. Everyone has their own pace that they find it comfortable to learn at, and you should not try to compare yourself to others.
Rushing through calculations can also lead to making silly mistakes that you would not have made had you spent a little bit more time and care on the question or calculation.
Believe in Yourself & Don’t Let Mistakes Put You Off
We all make mistakes. This doesn’t reduce our ability level, it just means we are human. Mistakes provide you with opportunities to improve your learning, and you should treat them as such. If you believe in yourself, nothing will be able to stop you.
Playing games is a proven way to help people learn subjects in a fun and interactive way. For improving your numeracy skills, learners have many choices of famous games that can help them learn to add and subtract without it being too taxing. Classic games like snooker and darts are fun to play with friends, and give you different sets of numbers you need to add up.
For example, in snooker, each colored ball is worth a different amount, so you must add these together as you pot them. In darts, each section of the board is worth a different amount of points. There are then also double and triple score zones which can help you practicing multiplication without it getting too daunting. If you find you aren’t very good at playing, you can still watch dart games either in person or on TV. Looking at darts betting odds can also help you to get a better understanding of probabilities and fractions. This will help to give you an understanding of which fractions hold a higher value, as they can be counter intuitive to regular, whole numbers. It will also help you to use the odds to calculate the probabilities of different outcomes of a darts match.
If you prefer your entertainment to be a little more sedate, then you still have options. Games like Scrabble and Monopoly can be fun ways to practice basic addition, subtraction and multiplication. If you’d rather play games alone, then there are mobile app versions of these games. You could also try your hand at puzzles like Sudoku. Sudoku requires you to work with numbers, reasoning and logic to fit the numbers 1-9 in the correct order of a grid.
Use Numbers in Real Life
Numbers exist all around you, so there is always an opportunity to practice your skills. For example, while you’re doing your grocery shopping you can add up the cost of your bill every time you put something in your basket. Then you can see how close you were at the cashier.
Chunk, Partition, and Grid
For decades people were taught long division and multiplication methods to do calculations by hand. These have been replaced by newer methods of teaching, and can make it easier for people who are not as naturally gifted with numbers.
One of these tools is the grid multiplication method which allows you to break (or partition) larger numbers down into their constituent parts (or chunks) to make it easier to calculate. For example, you can work out 19 x 5 like this.
You then add up the numbers 50 and 45 to get your final answer: 95. This method can be used for larger numbers. You just need to add more columns and/or rows to your grid.
There’s no need to feel daunted by numbers. You just need to find methods and tools that work for you. Don’t let mistakes get you down, and remember to believe in yourself. If you make your learning fun by playing games, and break complex maths problems down using the grid method, nothing can stop you.


This year’s academic calendar allows the educational staff to focus on student achievement each Friday afternoon. The question I continue to hear is, “Why are we dismissing an hour early every Friday?” To some who do not understand the need for this time, it may seem a little superfluous or unnecessary. In this article, I will share the reasons for this essential Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) time.
The administration and teachers at St. James are using the very best data-driven educational practices to guide our work. In the past, most schools operated as if their primary purpose was to ensure students were taught or were merely provided with the opportunity to learn. In today’s educational environment, PLCs are dedicated to the idea that schools exist to ensure all students actually acquire the essential knowledge, skills, and layout of each unit, course, and grade level.
PLCs focus on three big ideas. The first is a focus on learning. The goal of St. James schools is to focus on all students learning at the highest level possible. During PLCs, teachers collaborate on essential skills that all students must know. Teachers utilize pretests/posttests and formative assessments to determine student need. Once the data is reviewed, teachers collaborate on a plan for students who are struggling, students who do not need extra support, and students who need enrichment. It is very important that data is current so that strategies can be implemented in a timely manner to ensure students gain foundational skills. The guideline for teacher interventions to be most effective is having PLCs one hour per week.
The second big idea behind the PLC process is to build collaborative teams where members have a collective responsibility. At St. James Schools, teachers collaborate with grade levels or content areas on student data that stresses specific standards. Data is gathered through a variety of means. This collaboration allows teachers to combine their knowledge and bring their personal expertise to the table. Therefore, if a teacher has tried multiple strategies to help a struggling student, a colleague may provide a new approach for the classroom teacher to try. This practice will only be successful when all teachers take responsibility for the success of all students.
The third big idea is that PLC work is results oriented. In other words, PLCs are focused on evidence of student learning. The work of a PLC is truly an all inclusive cycle. For this process to be successful, parts cannot be eliminated. The PLC process is not merely a program that can be implemented without a commitment to learning by all professional educators. It truly takes a team that shares knowledge and a common commitment to figure out the best way to meet the needs of our students. If we are to fulfill the moral imperative of our profession, we can no longer settle for simply giving students the chance to learn; we must ensure high levels of learning for each student in our collective care.
The educational staff at St. James R-I Schools is committed to ensuring high levels of learning for every child. The PLC process is the tool that enables us to fulfill that commitment. It allows us to create individualized learning for every student based on need. Most students have an area or concept that they struggle with. This process allows the team of teachers monitoring that student’s learning to totally focus on specific needs that a student may have. Because every skill is a building block for the student to reach mastery, we need to be able to hone in on the specific area a student needs assistance and develop research based strategies to get that student over the hump. We are fortunate to have an exceptional team of administrators, teachers, and paras who take the PLC process seriously. Each member works very hard to provide the very best opportunities for every child. We appreciate the support of our parents and community members for working around our Friday afternoon early release.


The Primary version of these lessons (yellow book) includes 10 components that are taught within each lesson, eight phonemic awareness skills and 2 additional activities to develop letter name and letter sound recognition and language awareness activities. The lessons should be taught daily in 1st and 2nd grade classrooms and can be used for intervention support for students in 2nd grade and above who struggle to decode.
Through the daily lessons, students engage in activities teaching early skills such as rhyming and onset fluency, basic skills of blending and segmenting sounds, and working with the complex and advanced skills of substituting, adding, and deleting phonemes. Through teacher modeling and daily practice, students receive scaffolded support to meet the needs of all learners in a classroom. The skills taught are supplemental to the literacy curriculum that is currently in place. When the lessons are taught consistently each day, teachers see improvement in students reading, spelling, and writing, as the students learn to hear the sounds in words.
The Primary curriculum can also be used with older learners
The Primary curriculum can also be used with older learners who demonstrate a difficulty in struggling to decode words. Teachers, interventionists, Reading Specialists, and Special education teachers can use the lessons to provide explicit phonemic awareness instruction in addition to explicit phonics instruction, as both skills are essential in helping all students learn to read. The phonemic awareness screener assessment can be used as a tool to determine the skills that should be taught to meet the individual needs of students.
Use with the daily Letter Naming Activity. They can be printed out on heavier stock paper and then cut in half, as each sheet contains two flashcards.
3 Assessments for 1st grade students, with a scoring guide. Screener assessment for students in 2nd grade and above.


If you are looking for new classroom activities, tips for classroom management and discipline, or need more assessment ideas, this collection is for you. This one-of-a-kind compilation of ideas, tips and
This collection brings to life the framework for music learning proposed by Jane Frazee in Artful-Playful-Mindful. A compilation of collaborative work by a group of Orff practitioners from across
Aural Training in Practice offers valuable support to teachers preparing students for ABRSM Practical exams. The three volumes, covering Grades 1–3, 4–5 and 6–8, provide: information on
Equip your youngest learners with the tools they need to play Orff instruments today! The author shares beginning barred percussion techniques in this insightful resource that works for students as young as
Music can be understood. Music is a way to express yourself. Music learning is enjoyable. These three statements form the core of Erik Whitehill's teaching and are at the heart of this resource designed to
This item has been discontinued and we can only sell our remaining stock. Add to cart to check availability and for more information.
Easy Bucket Drumming is a collection of fun and upbeat arrangements for students age six and above. As students work through this resource, they will learn to read quarter- and eighth-note rhythms,
This sequential program, designed to equip students K-5 to read and perform vocal or instrumental literature, connects music literacy and online digital assessments allowing music educators, students,
The First Steps in Music curriculum becomes real in this DVD featuring two master teachers with a kindergarten and a first grade class. Shot in real time, the teachers sequence a wide variety of
Advanced research continually points to the importance of music in the lives of young children. Written by John Feierabend, a national leader in early childhood music education, this creatively illustrated
Integrate technology into your teaching in a way that makes things easier, better and faster! Here are easy-to-use digital tools to help you implement this practical, creative and flexible resource for
Here's the ultimate survival kit for music subs and a great resource for any music specialist! Included in this invaluable kit are time tested and student approved songs, games, activities, practice pages
Assess your students with this substantive assessment collection of 48 worksheets and activities that may be completed on devices (tablets, iPads, Chromebooks) or may be printed out and completed by hand.
This research-based K-4 general music series offers groundbreaking educational power, convenience, and affordability. Incorporating outstanding folk repertoire from all over the world, Jump Right In:
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The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the factors affecting elementary teacher’s ability to understand the academic needs of their racially, culturally, and ethnically diverse special education students and the ways in which their values and beliefs influenced their use of culturally responsive practices in the special education classroom. This study revealed five major reasons for the disproportionate number of Black students in special education as perceived by three White teachers in North Carolina: (a) the inadequate coursework in teacher education programs regarding teaching strategies to effectively teach racially, culturally, and ethnically diverse (RCED) students, (b) the cultural dissonance that created a divide between White teachers and their racially, culturally, and ethnically diverse students, (c) lack of knowledge on the instructional strategies that should be utilized in order to effectively teach racially, culturally, and ethnically diverse students, (d) cultural considerations for Response to Interventions (RtIs) and (e) a disconnect between the home-school cultures. It is significant because findings from this study could add to the knowledge base of strategies to close or eliminate the achievement gap of racially, culturally, and ethnically diverse students in special education programs. Furthermore, these experiences may provide an additional opportunity for local educational agencies (LEAS) to examine the impact of culturally responsive teaching practices on the achievement of RCED students in the special education classroom.
Jones-Goods, Kimberly M. and Grant, Marquis Carter
"A Phenomenological Study of Cultural Responsiveness in Special Education,"
Journal of Research Initiatives: Vol. 2
, Article 17.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.uncfsu.edu/jri/vol2/iss1/17
Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Disability and Equity in Education Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Educational Psychology Commons, Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration Commons, Elementary Education and Teaching Commons, Special Education and Teaching Commons


ERIC Number: ED198302
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1981
School and Work in Prospect: 14-Year-Olds in Australia. ACER Research Monograph No. 10.
Williams, Trevor; And Others
A study examined the educational and occupational plans of Australian fourteen-year-olds as part of program of research on the transition to adulthood. A twenty-item questionnaire was administered to 969 students in 243 schools across Australia. The questionnaire contained items pertaining to respondents' State of residence, school system attended, year of schooling, school rurality, family background, sex, achievement in basic skills, achievement difficulties experienced, support of significant others, and self-concept of ability. Factors found to affect student achievement in primary school included school rurality, family rurality, ethnicity, large family size, family socioeconomic status, and sex. Failure to master basic literacy and numeracy skills at the primary school level was directly linked to learning difficulties at the high school level. Successful mastery of basic skills at the primary level was also connected to self-conceptions of ability and plans to complete high school. Being non-English born and from a socioeconomically-advantaged family also had a positive effect on the decision to complete high school and seek further education. Family socioeconomic status and self-concept of ability exerted the two largest effects on occupational aspirations, with sex and family size also figuring as factors. (The questionnaire is appended.) (MN)
Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Adolescents, Basic Skills, Demography, Education Work Relationship, Educational Attainment, Educational Background, Elementary Education, Ethnic Origins, Family Characteristics, National Surveys, Occupational Aspiration, Questionnaires, Rural Environment, School Location, School Role, Secondary Education, Self Concept, Sex, Socioeconomic Background, Socioeconomic Status, Student Educational Objectives
Lawrence Verry, Inc., River Road, CT 06255.
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Authoring Institution: Australian Council for Educational Research, Hawthorn.
Identifiers - Location: Australia


How to Make Glowing Water Cool Science Experiments for Kids Video
How to Make Glowing Water
Making water that glows in the dark is a super fun activity. It can enhance the fun factor in your party. If you want to know how to make glowing water then there are various methods that you can use.
Using Tonic Water: – This method is quite simple.
- Get hold of some standard tonic water that is easily available at most local stores or supermarkets.
- Pour some tonic water in a clear container.
- Now illuminate it with a black light and you have your glowing water.
- Tonic water is absolutely safe to drink.
Using Highlighter Pens: –
- Take a clear container and fill it with water.
- You can take highlighter of any color but yellow is the most likely to glow in the dark.
- Uncap the highlighter pen and use a pair of scissors or knife to cut the pen. Now take the ink-soaked felt out.
- Dip this felt and let the ink bleed into the water until it changes the color.
- Stir it well to make sure that ink is evenly mixed with the water.
- Now shine a black light at this water and do not forget to turn the lights off to see the glowing effect.
Using Fluorescent Paint: –
- Take some water in a clear container and pour some fluorescent paint.
- Mix it thoroughly by using a stirring stick or a similar tool.
- Your water is ready to glow and you can run a black light on this.
Cite This Page
You may cut-and-paste the below MLA and APA citation examples:
MLA Style Citation
Declan, Tobin. " Fun Facts about How to Make Glowing Water ." Easy Science for Kids, Feb 2020. Web. 21 Feb 2020. < https://easyscienceforkids.com/how-to-make-glowing-water-cool-science-experiments-for-kids-video/ >.
APA Style Citation
Tobin, Declan. (2020). Fun Facts about How to Make Glowing Water. Easy Science for Kids. Retrieved from https://easyscienceforkids.com/how-to-make-glowing-water-cool-science-experiments-for-kids-video/
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English workbook for grade 1 pdf
Daily Grammar Worksheets PdfThis content was uploaded by our users and we assume good faith they have the permission to share this book. If you own the copyright to this book and it is wrongfully on our website, we offer a simple DMCA procedure to remove your content from our site. Start by pressing the button below! American English File 1 Workbook. Read more.
Brain Quest Workbook--Grade 1.pdf
This has enabled the Department to make these workbooks, in all the official languages, available at no cost. We hope that teachers will find these workbooks useful in their everyday teaching and in ensuring that their learners cover the curriculum. We have taken care to guide the teacher through each of the activities by the inclusion of icons that indicate what it is that the learner should do. We sincerely hope that children will enjoy working through the book as they grow and learn, and that you, the teacher, will share their pleasure. We wish you and your learners every success in using these workbooks. The Department of Basic Education has committed to improving literacy and numeracy skills of learners.
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Source 2: mcdougal littell grammar for writing workbook answers grade 6. Here are the 11 most important rules of grammar to help you select words and punctuation. Sixth Grade Reading Street www. Improve your language arts knowledge with free questions in "Simple past, present, and future tense: review" and thousands of other language arts skills. NOTE: The reading dimension is not scored for elicited narrative stories. The diagnostic pretest which immediately follows is an indication of the type of material that will be covered in this textbook.


The Baptist Associations of Union County (N.C.) and Chesterfield County (S.C.) realized the need for schools in the Piedmont region mid-1870s North Carolina. Due to the destruction and poverty left by the Civil War, many schools were closed in the region, but the baptist organization authorized the construction of a church-backed school for those that lived in Union as well as for members of the association. After G.M. Steward donated ten acres of land to the Baptist Association, the Wingate School opened its doors in 1896.
Named in honor of Dr. Washington M. Wingate, a prominent educator and past president of Wake Forest College, Wingate School supplied Piedmont students from first to twelfth grade with a well-rounded education. Marcus B. Dry, the first principal of the school, along with Miss Polly Crowder taught the students during the school’s early years. Soon, other public schools in the area had opened and took students away from the Wingate School. In response to the outside pressures, Wingate began to consolidate and focus more on upper level grades in high school in the early 1900s.
In 1923, the Wingate School underwent two major changes. First, the Wingate School successfully transitioned to a two-year junior college. Soon after becoming Wingate Junior College, the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina started to support the college. However, as with many colleges and universities in the state, Wingate endured several struggles during the Great Depression. The convention backed away from supporting the college, and many students dropped out because they could not afford to pay tuition. To further complicate things, the school’s financial situation grew more cumbersome with the burning of the administration building in 1932.
Despite the problems that Wingate faced, the college’s president, its willful teachers, and Baptist supporters sought to continue the institution. Eventually, the administration building was rebuilt and in 1949 the North Carolina Baptist Convention continued supporting the school. Several years later in the year 1952, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accredited Wingate College. Charles Cannon, a Kannapolis supporter, donated funds to the school in the 1950s. According to William Powell, “Cannon say Wingate as a place where the children of textile workers and others in the middle class might receive an opportunity to attain higher education” (Encyclopedia, p. 1215). After the influx of funds to the university, the student body had made it to the 1,500 mark by the end of the 1960s.
Wingate Junior College became Wingate College in 1977 after several majors were added to the curricula of the institution. In addition to becoming a a four-year school, Wingate instituted its innovative Winternational program in 1979. Winternational allowed every sophomore the opportunity to visit either London, Paris, or Amsterdam during the Christmas break period. After the addition of several other majors and graduate programs in both business and education, Wingate College became Wingate University in 1995.
Wingate University presently enrolls slightly more than 2,500 students, and the institution offers Bachelor of Arts, Science, Music Education, Fine Arts, and Liberal Studies. According to the school’s website, the student-to-faculty ratio is 14 to 1, and Wingate boasts in its nineteen athletic teams. Some famous alumni of Wingate include Anthony Dean Griffey (a Grammy Award singer of the Metropolitan Opera), Edward Walker (designer with the show “Trading Spaces”), and Leon Levine (founder of Family Dollar).
“Wingate.” William S. Powell, ed. Encyclopedia of North Carolina (University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, NC 2006).
“Wingate.” North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program website. A Division of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. (accessed January 31, 2012).
“History.” Wingate University website. http://www.wingate.edu/about-wingate/history, (accessed February 2, 2012).


One of the first friends I made when I moved to Melbourne was heavily involved in student politics. Although I knew nothing about it, I was intrigued by her world of deals, alliances and factions, so complex and arcane. To make it easier for me to understand, my friend would divide her milieu into "goodies" and "baddies". Like Glinda asking Dorothy, are you a good witch or a bad witch, this simple distinction stripped things right back, allowing me to instantly distinguish who was on the side of righteousness, and who was not.
With my university days long gone, and small children looming large instead, my focus has moved to the other end of the educational spectrum. Consequently, I've been updating my goodies and baddies list. And instead of dividing people based on how they spell "womyn's room", I find myself drawing a line on the grounds of their attitude to the teaching of literacy. For me, the goodies are those who embrace what's known as explicit systematic phonics, while the baddies are the proponents of what's generally referred to as the "balanced literacy" approach. For those who aren't teachers, don't have children, and don't remember their own primary school years, a phonics approach involves instructing beginners to focus on the structure of a word. Young children are taught to identify the sounds represented by individual letters and their combinations, and to sound words out, in order to decode them. So, a new reader will learn to read the word "cat" by sounding out "c-a-t".
By contrast, balanced literacy teaching draws upon a variety of techniques, but most of them come from the non-evidence-based "whole language" approach. This encourages beginners to guess words, based on accompanying pictures, sentence structure, first letters and other cues, only sounding out words as a last resort.
In recent decades, arguments about how best to teach reading and writing have blown up into a fully fledged literacy war, with feelings on both sides running high. Yet the objective evidence is incontrovertible. Explicit systematic phonics (where phonics is taught explicitly as a distinct strand of the curriculum) has been shown to be far more effective than its rivals, achieving the best outcomes for the greatest number of beginners.
In response to the overwhelming evidence, the 2005 National Inquiry into Teaching Reading made the recommendation that "teachers provide systematic, direct and explicit phonics instruction so that children master the essential alphabetic code-breaking skills required for foundational reading proficiency". Yet the majority of our primary schools are still a long way from implementing these recommendations, instead treating phonics as a small part of the literacy program, teaching it in a way that is at best ad hoc and inconsistent.
A fundamental problem is that a generation of teachers, through no fault of their own, were never trained or equipped to teach systematic phonics. Instead, the faddish whole-language approach was embraced at an institutional level. And, as it is with institutional fads, once this commitment was made, it became very difficult to change course.
What often muddies the debate is the fact that many children will learn to read proficiently using a balanced literacy approach. But crucially, a significant minority of kids will not. Some of these children will bumble through eventually, probably with their self-confidence and their attitude to reading permanently damaged. But some kids never will. And they are the real victims, particularly those from less privileged backgrounds, with parents unable to access, or afford, effective remedial interventions.
Many will argue that my goodies-verses-baddies analysis is too simplistic. Things are rarely so clear-cut, and we should look for the nuance in any debate. After all, isn't it just a matter of opinion? Well, no. That's the point. Some beliefs are not mere opinion, and to treat them as such is intellectual cowardice.
People have different opinions about climate change, for example, but whether it is real or not isn't up for grabs. It's happening, and to pretend it isn't does everyone a disservice. How we should teach literacy is similarly unambiguous.
Back at university, it seemed to me as if my friend and her fellows were playing at being politicians, practising for real world politics, in the relatively safe space of the campus. Sadly, the question of how we should teach literacy is not similarly safe, nor is it consequence-free. Because learning to read and write is a threshold skill. All other learning suffers if a child hasn't mastered it. And ensuring that every child has the best possible chance is something that should matter to us all.


This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.
At Fort Valley State University (FVSU) the next generation of leaders in agricultural and life sciences are coming face-to-face with technology that will help them solve the toughest challenges of the future.
“Bioinformatics is ‘biology in silico,’ or ‘digital biology,’ and it is transforming biological research into an informational science,” said Dr. Ramana Gosukonda, associate professor of agricultural sciences at FVSU’s College of Agriculture.
Gosukonda and his team created a bioinformatics curriculum at FVSU where students majoring in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects join with computer science majors to become competent bioinformatics programmers and gain hands-on experiences in writing algorithms and coding for biological problems. USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is supporting the project with a $150,000 grant from its 1890 Capacity Building program.
Bioinformatics practitioners – bioinformaticians – use computers to store, organize, and analyze the vast amounts of data generated by scientific research. In other words, they take big data and turn it into practical data that researchers can use to compare existing information with new data. The capacity, speed, efficiency, and accuracy of bioinformatics are what make biology in silico so exciting for Gosukonda.
“Application of bioinformatics is key to our understanding of diseases and identifying new molecular targets for drug discovery, gene therapy, and economic production of healthy food items,” he said.
Many bioinformatics projects involve examining the genetic diversity of wild plants and animals. In one such NIFA-funded project researchers at the University of Minnesota used a $459,000 Agriculture and Food Research Initiative grant to develop bioinformatics software tools and then used them to study the biodiversity of wild pandas. This type of research could inform conservation and reintroduction efforts for other endangered species.
“Being strongly intertwined with computer-based approaches, the current state of research underscores the need for bioinformatics education more than ever,” Gosukonda said. “This curriculum must be offered at the undergraduate level, especially at four-year colleges, where a majority of the students pursue their education.”
Since the grant’s award in September 2015, Gosukonda has created hands-on programming modules and case studies for two bioinformatics courses to enhance students’ knowledge and skills in the subject. The bioinformatics lab is nearing completion and will be stocked with powerful workstations and state-of-the-art education delivery systems. So far, 20 undergraduate and 30 graduate students are enrolled.
Students aren’t the only ones that benefit from Gosukona’s program, the university does, too. “The immediate effect is greatly enhanced teaching, research, and educational state-of-the-art technology infrastructure,” he said. “Further, a value-added program like bioinformatics will help FVSU in its efforts to increase the recruitment, retention and graduation rates of minority students.”
NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research, education and extension and seeks to make transformative discoveries that solve societal challenges.
This month USDA is celebrating historic progress over the last eight years to improve the quality of life and access to opportunity for all Americans. Learn more online in The People's Department: A New Era for Civil Rights at USDA.


The latest report shows only 35% of fourth graders in the United States are proficient in reading. I have been searching for articles answering this question; Why are so many of our students not reading? Many scientific studies have found that explicit systematic phonics instruction is the most effective way to teach children how to read, and most struggling readers cannot decode words. Some students crack the phonics code very quickly and become capable and confident readers easily. However, without explicit and systematic phonics instruction many children will end up having reading difficulty.
- Phonics instruction is teaching students the sounds made by individual letter or letter groups and teaching them to blend separate sounds together to make one word.
- Explicit phonics instruction is directly teaching children the specific associations between letters and sounds, rather than expecting them to gain this knowledge indirectly or by doing a stack of phonics worksheets.
- Systematic phonics instruction is beginning with simple letter sounds and moving onto more complex sounds.
Daily phonics instruction is crucial for all students in grades K-2 and for struggling readers in grades 3 and up. Just 5-10 minutes of systematic, explicit phonics instruction each day has proven to increase reading success.
I believe phonics lessons are most effective with small groups of students who are working on similar phonics challenges. Since phonics is very systematic, it’s important to find out which sounds the students are using and confusing. There are many different phonics assessments available, however just by listening to students read aloud you can see which sounds they are having trouble decoding.
Phonics Lessons Sequence:
- Introduction: Show students the word chunk and have students read it several times.
- Phonemic awareness: Say or show pictures of words and have students thumbs up or down if they hear the word chunk in the word.
- Making Words: On white boards, with magnetic letters or letter cards have students create and read more words with the word chunk by adding beginning and ending sounds. Help students understand the meanings of the words they create. Having picture cards is very helpful for primary students and ELL students.
- Find the Chunk: Show students some larger words with the word chunk and have them find the chunk and help them decode the word.
- Dictation: Have students write words on a paper or white board as you dictate.
- Seat Work: NOT WORKSHEETS! Have student write and illustrate their own sentences using the words. Have students play games to practice reading the words. Card games like Memory and Go Fish are great. I have some free board games which you can use with any words.
I believe the best way to increase students reading proficiency is to provide differentiated, explicit and systematic phonics instruction in small groups. Students should also be immersed in a literacy rich environment with many authentic and motivating reading and writing opportunities.
I was looking for an easy-to-use phonics program without worksheets. I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, so I creating this one. It has helped many, many of my students become successful readers!


The magnitude 7.8 earthquake that devastated Nepal this past weekend, leaving more than 6,000 dead and thousands of others unaccounted for, may have come as a surprise to most, but students of natural disasters and seismologists knew it was coming.
You might remember from elementary education that earthquakes are typically caused when underground rock breaks along a fault (though oil and gas industry practices are increasingly being linked to man-made quakes as well). And Nepal is situated on a site where stress continues to build, at the collision point of the Eurasian Plate and the relatively small, thin, and fast-moving Indian Plate that's responsible for the creation of the Himalayas, described by the United States Geological Survey as "among the most dramatic and visible creations of plate-tectonic forces" we have.
The Indian Plate has seen considerable seismic activity in recent years (a 2004 earthquake in Sumatra left nearly a quarter-million dead, and another the following year in the Kashmir region of Pakistan destroyed entire villages, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information), but it's been causing problems for much longer.
In January of 1934, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake hit eastern Nepal, causing significant damage to cities hundreds of miles away. The USGS archive of historic earthquakes describes the event in rather clinical terms:
10,700 deaths. Extreme damage (X) in the Sitamarhi-Madhubani, India area, where most buildings tilted or sank up to 1 m (3 ft) into the thick alluvium. Sand covered the sunken floors up to 1 m deep. This liquefaction damage extended eastward through Supaul to Purnia, India. In the Muzaffarpur-Darbhanga area south of the zone of liquefaction most buildings were shaken apart by "typical" severe earthquake damage. Two other areas of extreme damage (X) from shaking occurred in the Munger (Monghyr) area along the Ganges River, India and in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Large fissures occurred in the alluvial areas.
A 102-year-old man that the Times of India interviewed earlier this week, and who claims to have been living in Nepal when the 1934 earthquake hit, remembers things a bit differently.
"I was in my sugarcane field at the time of the earthquake," Hem Prasad Timilsina told the newspaper on Wednesday. "When we heard about the destruction the calamity had wreaked in Kathmandu"—the quake is estimated to have destroyed one-fourth of the homes in Nepal's capital city—"we walked for two days to reach here, just to marvel at what had happened. There was no system of public transport those days. You could count on your fingers the number of cars in Nepal, all owned by the rulers. ... It was bad all around."
In 1934, geologists didn't have a framework to understand earthquakes or similar processes, according to the New York Times—and they wouldn't for another generation. At the time, Mahatma Gandhi blamed the Bihar event on divine retribution for India's caste system, which designates a sizable percentage of the population as "untouchables," and which Gandhi had been fighting since going on a fast against class segregation in September 1932.
What's been described as a landmark paper was published in 1968 that dismissed Gandhi's theory and, more significantly, convinced many of plate tectonics for the first time. Since then, we've made significant progress. We know now—after taking a closer look at geologic records dating back to 1255—that an earthquake of the same size hits the area around Nepal every 75 years or so, according to Nepal's National Society for Earthquake Technology. This one was six years late.


Free Printable Flashcards With Pictures - 25 Consonant Blends Your Child Needs to Know!
Does phonics instruction help kids to become better readers? The answer according to the experts is a resounding YES! It is worth your time to help your student learn and master phonics (with tools such as these free printable flashcards with pictures) as a cornerstone of their reading journey so they can learn to DECODE words they encounter in text.
If you are struggling to get your kiddo to be a reader, take the time to teach phonics (at any age of readiness!). After your student has a firm grasp of the alphabet (letters and sounds), begin to teach the rules of phonics.
Here are 25 phonics pictures to print that include initial & final consonant blends, and four consonant digraphs.
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This is the perfect way to practice phonics consonant blends with phonics flashcard letters and sounds with your reader.
Kids are VISUAL! They really respond to repetition and daily practice with flashcards, going over and over the cards orally and eventually knowing them by memory for great reading.
You can bring these with you anywhere - stick them in your purse and bring them out while your sitting at the doctor's office or in line at the drive-through.
The best phonics flashcards have the letters and a picture for your child to "clue in" to the sound. These 25 cards include double consonant blends, plus four of the consonant digraphs like "sh" or "ch".
Do phonics flashcards with letters and sounds work?
YES! They do. It should NOT be your entire plan, but for many kids, it's a great idea to use flashcards to really get those letter, blends and sounds shored up in their minds for great reading and decoding. There are a ton of great programs out there and other flashcard types you can buy at the store.
But yes, they do work for many kids! Bonus points if you can get your child moving while you go over the flashcards. Go over the blends while you are on a walk or jumping on the trampoline and your kids will get it even more!
I hope you enjoy these easy free printable phonics blends flashcards!
These flashcards are in .pdf format so that you can print as you like or download for easy access. Just CLICK HERE to get them and I'll zip it over to you!


As noted on this Fountas & Pinnell blog post, “a reading minilesson takes only a few minutes per day and usually involves the whole class. Each minilesson engages your students in an inquiry process that leads to the discovery and understanding of a general principle. It builds on a shared literacy experience (e.g., interactive read-aloud, shared reading, book clubs, guided reading) that the children have participated in prior to the lesson. The reading minilesson serves as a link between that prior literacy experience and their ability to apply this experience to their own independent reading.“
8 Research-Backed Ways to Aid Struggling Emergent Readers – Edutopia Blogpost
Current research shows that struggling emergent readers don’t just need time—they need rigorous instruction in the foundational skills of reading to make strides in catching up to their grade-level peers. This article shares eight research-backed ways to support these students, as a part of crafting a program to support struggling emergent readers, one that includes intensive systematic instruction in phonological awareness, sound-symbol correspondence, blending and segmenting, handwriting instruction, and sight words.
From Sage Publishing comes Sean McBlain’s new book, Child Development for Teachers. Dr. McBlain has worked for over twenty years as an educational psychologist, and is currently a senior academic at Plymouth Marjon University in the UK. Each chapter of this book includes a focus on a theory of child development to support understanding; case studies and critical questions to explore the learning and help the reader to develop critical thinking skills; and practical strategies for supporting children in the classroom which focus on how teachers can use an understanding of child development to enhance their practice.
This conversation centres around the importance of student talk and opportunities to foster thoughtful talk within a community of learners. Language infuses the reading and writing students do every day in the classroom. You can listen to the podcast or read the transcript.


Roy, Jamini (1887–1972) By Xaviers, John
Jamini Roy is considered one of the most important modern artists of pre-independent India. While proficient in Western academic realism, he completely rejected the style to adopt folk traditions such as the Kalighat patua. He mass-produced his folk-like paintings in a guild or kharkhana in order to reject the uniqueness of the modern art object, and to democratize the art collection process (he rejected bourgeois taste and buying habits). Roy invented his own folk-inspired form as an anti-colonial visual idiom. While an agnostic, he deliberately painted Indian religious or mythological themes as an antidote to the ideas of colonial art education. Adamant about the use of homegrown art materials, Roy often used tempera with tamarind glue as a binder. Roy painted Christian themes to test his ideas, and to see if the folk schema that he developed in his workshop could be used successfully in non-Indian religious contexts. Roy simplified his curvilinear painting method to such an extent that the indexical mark of his brush strokes could be replaced with the reproducibility of a schema in an art workshop. Such simplification has resulted in an upsurge of Jamini Roy replications. This, however, is a problem largely in the eyes of collectors, who hold the very bourgeois art ethos that Jamini Roy rejected while mass-producing multiple copies of his works.


5 Great Benefits of Music Education in Schools
Integrated Learning Strategies is excited to feature benefits of music education in this guest post. While many of the recommendations below are great for select children and parents, some accommodations or exceptions may be made for children with learning challenges and learning disabilities. Integrated Learning Strategies (ILS) is a learning and academic center. As a reminder, ILS is not a health care provider and none of our materials or services provide a diagnosis or treatment of a specific condition or learning challenge you may see in your child or student. If you seek a diagnosis or treatment for your child or student, please contact a trained professional who can provide an evaluation of the child.
Music education is incredibly important to the development of a person. On this page, we are going to take a look at five of the biggest benefits of music education in schools. These are benefits which will not only help a person develop their musical talents, but also in other areas of their life.
Develop Language and Reasoning Skills
Music can help a person develop the areas of their brain which focus on language and reasoning. These are, of course, fabulous skills to develop. Not only will they help you as you go through school, but also once you have graduated. Better language and reasoning skills will lead to better jobs in your chosen industry.
People Develop a Sense of Achievement
Anybody who has ever completed a masters in music education and gone on to teach children will know that the sense of achievement really means something. Sure, not all children out there are going to have the same sort of talents when it comes to music. That is fine. However, even the smallest of achievements can really put a smile on their face and make them feel like they can tackle anything that life throws at them. Basically, students are going to be developing self-confidence, which is wonderful.
Music helps a Person Relax
People listen to music all of the time because it helps them to relax and unwind. With the help of music, students can still learn something without the process feeling like a chore. Music education allows students to take a break from heavy subjects such as mathematics, languages, and science. Adding music to the curriculum is a great to boost morale and productivity in other classes.
Better SAT Scores
Studies have shown time and time again that those who undergo musical education tend to have better SAT scores than the norm. This results in people being accepted into better colleges and more tightly regimented programs. Basically, music education is a great step towards getting the career that you really want.
Learning an instrument is not going to be easy. It requires a lot of dedication and practice. This is one of the main reasons as to why schools implement music education. It teaches discipline. It shows children that if they want to get something out of life, they are going to need to put in the time and effort required to get there. This does not just apply to instruments; it applies to everything. It should come as no surprise that some of the biggest names in industry are quite good with instruments.
Remember, these are just a few of the benefits that children can gain when it comes to music education in schools. We haven’t even touched upon the hand-eye coordination benefits, the creativity benefits, and a whole host more. Have you got what it takes to be a music teacher? Do you want to help children out? This could be the best career path for you!
Integrated Learning Strategies is a Utah-based center dedicated to helping mainstream children and children with learning challenges achieve academic success. Our services provide kids with non-traditional tutoring programs within the Davis County, Kaysville, Layton, Syracuse, Farmington, and Centerville areas. Areas to find Integrated Learning Strategies include: Reading tutors in Kaysville, Math tutors in Kaysville, Common Core Tutors in Kaysville, Tutors in Utah, Utah Tutoring Programs
15 Jan 2020 - Emotional Grounding
10 Sep 2019 - Development


"Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world."
Creating Long-Term, Positive Systemic Change
Our Literacy and Girls’ Education Programs are having significant impact in the communities that we serve. We have launched the next phase of growth in order to reach five million more children over the next five years ─ 15 million children by 2020. With your support, we have the potential to vastly expand our impact over the next five years and scale faster to transform communities across the globe.
To learn more about the opportunities below, please contact us at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Maximize your Impact: Invest in Our Greatest Need
Literacy and gender equality in education are two of the most effective tools for combating poverty, improving health, and increasing civic engagement in underserved communities. The barriers that prevent children in these communities from staying in school and thriving are numerous. Under-trained teachers, lack of academic resources, social and economic pressures to earn money or start a family — all pose major challenges.
Our programs are designed to ensure students have the guidance and resources they need, in the right sequence and at the right time, to support them through two critical periods in their education. These periods are early grade primary school, when children build a foundation in literacy, and the secondary school years, when girls are at greatest risk for dropping out.
For investors who wish to have the maximum impact to ensure students have the holistic support they need to succeed at both these junctures in their education, we encourage supporting our organizational efforts to change the world through education. We’ll put your money where it's most needed.
Maximize your impact.
Lead a Reader: Invest in Literacy
Children who have a strong foundation of literacy skills are more likely to succeed throughout their education, break the cycle of poverty, and be better equipped to realize their full potential. Unfortunately, in parts of the world where we work, insufficient teacher training, lack of quality reading materials, and poor learning environments severely impede students’ literacy development. Research shows that if children fail to develop basic reading and writing skills by the third grade, they will never catch up. With such a narrow window of opportunity, it is essential that we reach as many students as we can every single year.
By investing in our Literacy Program through a Lead a Reader sponsorship, you can ensure children across Asia and Africa have the support and resources they need to develop strong literacy skills and a lifelong habit of reading. Help us reach hundreds of children with our life-changing program.
Lead a Reader
Graduate a Girl: Invest in Girls’ Education
Educating girls is one of the most powerful and effective ways to address global poverty. Research shows that girls who finish secondary school have smaller and healthier families, lower HIV infection rates, and higher wages. Educated women are also more likely to educate their own children—ending the cycle of illiteracy in one generation.
By investing in our Girls’ Education Program through a Graduate a Girl sponsorship, you can ensure girls around the world have the support they need to graduate from secondary school with the skills necessary to negotiate key life decisions.
Graduate a girl.
School Superhero: Invest in a School Community
Change the lives and prospects of hundreds of children, their parents, siblings, teachers, and the wider community forever. Your investment will enable Room to Read to implement its entire literacy program throughout the school for a four-year intervention period. Your support will make it possible for the school to receive a brand new library filled with hundreds of colorful, engaging children’s books, letter cards, word cards, exercises, workbooks and literacy games. In addition, the teachers, librarian and the head teacher in the school will also receive training and ongoing support on how best to engage with students using these specialized learning materials that are geared towards early reading and writing skills. Room to Read will also conduct ongoing monitoring and evaluation to ensure the program has maximum impact.
Room to Read is committed to the sustainability of our programs. During the four-year period, we will establish strong partnerships with the government to ensure the schools’ continued success at the end of the Room to Read led intervention.


In 2009, the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network created an Arts Education Advocacy Tool Kit for those interested in sharpening their skills and strategies to support arts education. The easy-to-use tool kit has sample documents, useful lists, and an accompanying video. This practical resource has four sections: Habits of Effective Arts Education Advocates, Coalitions and Networking, Creating an Effective Arts Education Advocacy Plan, and an Appendix of valuable sample documents including a video companion piece.
Habits of Effective Arts Education Advocates
Nine common-sense habits are outlined in the tool kit, including Know Your Beliefs, Make Advocacy a Daily Priority, Understand that Advocacy Is Time Sensitive, and Building Long-Term Relationships. Whether you are an experienced advocate or just learning how to make your voice heard, these tips will prove useful to your work.
Coalitions and Networking
Next, the tool kit outlines how you can form coalitions and networks to support arts education advocacy work. This section includes useful checklists of potential allies to help you build an effective network for your community, and it outlines specific criteria to consider. To effectively address system-wide challenges, it recommends working in a coalition, including individuals with diverse skills and perspectives. For example: Parents can be counted on to raise concerns about quality, access, and equity in children’s education. Students know firsthand how the arts affect their lives and their school environment, and they can be very articulate communicators. Business and community leaders have access to valuable resources and can influence public opinion.
Creating an Effective Arts Education Advocacy Plan
This section guides you through developing an effective art education advocacy plan for your community: determining your goals, making your strongest case, and shaping your message to the audiences you want to influence.
Appendix of Samples
The Appendix contains tips for visits to elected officials as well as sample letters; statements; and presentations, such as an example of testimony for a legislative committee meeting and a presentation to a local school board. A video companion piece provides step-by-step instructions to aid advocates in setting up meetings with federal or state representatives, including how to schedule an appointment and the types of materials to bring.
Begin to harness the power of advocacy to improve arts education in your community by downloading the Kennedy Center’s Arts Education Advocacy Tool Kit free of charge.


The Secondary English Education Program
develops outstanding English teachers who prepare their students to become confident, capable and critical participants in communities of readers and writers.
Teaching involves the growth of an individual as a professional, as a scholar, and as a human being--growth which develops only through experience in teaching and through lifelong learning.
Our pedagogy models our core beliefs about learning: students learn best when provided with opportunities to read, write, speak, and listen for meaningful purposes in authentic literacy contexts. As we introduce a broad range of scholarship and instructional practices in the field of English education, we also guide candidates through assignments and projects that require reflective application of theories and methods within the practical realities of urban secondary schools.
These 'realities' are marked by culturally, linguistically, socio-economically, and developmentally diverse school populations. Another focus of our program then is to understand the varied strengths of diverse learners and how they can best be used to promote literacy development and positive engagement with literature.


Proclaim It All Across the Land!
One strategy Artspiration has utilized to promote Youth Arts Month is proclamations. A proclamation is an official announcement of an important matter. Here are the basic steps to getting a proclamation.
Identify who you want to make a proclamation. Some to consider are school boards, city councils, and county board of supervisors at the local level. You can also consider state and federal contacts that serve your region like a senator or house member.
Contact the city clerk, mayor’s office, or city council member and inquire about issuing a proclamation for Youth Arts Month. Include an example of the document for them to build on.
Once confirmed, attend the scheduled city council meeting to receive the proclamation. Take pictures. Prepare to say a few words about the importance of arts education. Sometimes, they will mail it to you or have it ready for pick-up.
Showcase and highlight the proclamations. We display the proclamations as a part of our Young Artist Showcase Celebration. Afterwards, we hang them prominently throughout our building.
Thank the city council with a letter, share photos of the proclamations, and invite them to events.
Here is a list of the 2019 Proclamations for Youth Arts Month
Create CA - Join the Movement
We believe that every student has the right to a dynamic, creative education.
We are Californians working together to demand that every student has access to an arts education.
Visit the website
and join the movement today.
The California Alliance for Arts Education has many resources available to help students, parents, and community members get the arts into schools. One very important way is through the LCAP process. The Alliance has an LCFF Toolkit about how to let your district know more about the arts. The Toolkit includes everything you need for action and is available in English & Spanish: http://artsed411.org/LCFF
Here are some helpful and creative hints on how to work effectively with your School Board:
Also through the Alliance is the Student Voices Campaign. In its third year, The Student Voices Classroom Guide structures the campaign as a project-based learning opportunity recommended for grades 7-12 for any subject area. Through the Campaign, students create 2-minute videos that capture their vision for their school to share with their local school board to help with the LCAP process! studentvoicescampaign.org/
Visit our sister county's website for more great resources from the Bay Area. Check out their Toolkit here.
Council for Art Education have an outstanding Youth Art Month program. This year's theme is "Your Art, Your Story." Please visit their site for more information.
Creativity is power--celebrate it!
The City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs launched the #408Creates social media campaign in partnership with other San Jose arts organizations, artists, and local businesses. Through the campaign, the goal is to highlight the range of creativity happening everyday in the South Bay.
We invite you to join us in celebrating San Jose’s creativity by tagging photos of your creations and creative experiences #408Creates on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Your tags will help showcase the uniqueness of this place where we live and work. It also helps us know what and how people are creating in San Jose, so that we can continue to develop programs that further strengthen the cultural vibrancy of the city. Web Site
Music In Our Schools Month® or “MIOSM®” is NAfME’s annual celebration during March which engages music educators, students, and communities from around the country in promoting the benefits of high quality music education programs in schools.
Music In Our Schools Month® began as a single statewide Advocacy Day and celebration in New York in 1973 and grew over the decades to become a month-long celebration of school music in 1985.
The Educational Theatre Association and the International Thespian Society have partnered with the American Alliance for Theatre & Education (AATE) to sponsor Theatre in Our Schools to raise public awareness of the impact of theatre education and draw attention to the need for more access to quality programs for all students.
Visit their website for valuable resources, tools, and more!


The eleven subjects of the National Curriculum (2014) are taught and studied through Years 1 to 6. These are:
English, Maths, Science, Computing, Languages (MFL), History, Geography, Music. P.E., Art and Design and Design and Technology.
Although Religious Education is not included amongst them, as a Church School we regard and treat it as a core subject. Subjects may be taught individually, whilst at times they are grouped together as part of a topic. For detailed information on each one and it’s place in the curriculum at Shorne, please click on the relevant subject in the menu on the left.
Full details of the current primary school curriculum are available from the following link: Primary School National Curriculum for England


Sound Design: Music and the Art of Foley Endorsed by NAfME
Designed by Robert W. Smith to reinforce National Core Arts Standards, orchestra, band, and choir students experience life as working movie musicians performing original underscores, creating Foley effects, and selecting digital sound effects for animated movie scenes. Choose from hits like:
This workshop connects to three Artistic Processes of the National Core Arts Standards: Create, Perform, and Respond. Within each of the Artistic Processes, workshops reinforce specific performance standards in:
Describe and demonstrate how sounds and musical ideas can be used to represent sonic events, memories, visual images, concepts, texts, or story lines.
Select, develop, and organize multiple melodic, rhythmic and harmonic ideas to develop into a larger work that exhibits unity, variety, complexity, and coherence using digital and analog tools, resources, and systems.
Preserve draft musical works through standard notation, audio, or video recording.
Participating groups should have a minimum of 40 attendees. Each group should submit a completed application at least six weeks prior to the proposed workshop date. The entire workshop experience will last approximately 60-90 minutes. Along with the completed applications, groups should provide the following: a link to a video of your group’s most recent performance up to three minutes in length per group.
Groups will be provided the sheet music prior to their workshop. Groups wishing to sight-read may do so at their director’s discretion. Park-to-Park admission tickets are required.
Uniforms are not required for Sound Design: Music and The Art of Foley and will be up to the discretion of the group’s director and based on the provided and signed Performance Guidelines.
Pearl/Adams is the official supplier of percussion equipment for the Sound Design: Music and The Art of Foley workshop. Timpani (set of 4), Concert Bass Drum, Marimba, Xylophone, Vibraphone, Chimes, Orchestra Bells and Congas are provided upon request as listed on the STARS Application. ALL SCHEDULED WORKSHOPS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
The NAfME’s mission is to advance music education by promoting the understanding and making of music by all. Universal Orlando Youth Programs is committed to supporting this mission through the development of educational and entertaining experiences for students and educators. Visit NAfME Academy to learn from one of today’s most respected music educators, Robert W. Smith, in his webinar titled, “Administrating the School Music Program from a Business Perspective.”
There is an additional fee to participate in the music workshops. All scheduled workshops are subject to change.


The "Into the Book" web site is designed to help elementary students practice eight reading comprehension strategies through playful interactive activities. The site focuses on eight research-based strategies: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing. "Behind the Lesson," the teacher area of the site, provides information, lesson plans and other resources for teachers.
Search Results (10)
This module uses literature and informational text such as My Librarian Is a Camel to introduce students to the power of literacy and how people around the world access books. This module is intentionally designed to encourage students to embrace a love of literacy and reading.
FreeReading is an open source instructional program that helps educators teach early literacy. Because it is open source, it represents the collective wisdom of a wide community of teachers and researchers. FreeReading contains Comprehension Activities, a page of activities to address important comprehension skills and strategies.
This module focuses on a deep study of the classic tale Peter Pan. Students will consider the guiding question: How do writers capture a reader’s imagination?
In this eight-week module, students explore the questions: “Who is the wolf in fiction?” and “Who is the wolf in fact?” They begin by analyzing how the wolf is characterized in traditional stories, folktales, and fables. Then they research real wolves by reading informational text. Finally, for their performance task, students combine their knowledge of narratives with their research on wolves to write a realistic narrative about wolves.


Search by category music education
D Notation is an iOS app for writing music notes with a focus on education. The app is based on an invention - The Musical Notation Keyboard by Andrey Bayadzhan and Ro...
EducARTE is an educational, artistic, intuitive and multistasked and gamified methodology. Our primary objective is to bring students the opportunities to learn Mu...
From the Emoji School of Music - MUSIC F.A.S.T! - Fun Accessible Simple Teachable! The Poly-SENsory Way.
It’s 1000 years since the Micrologus of Guido D’Arezzo creating 1. Traditional Notation System (TNS) of the Music Stave 2. Solfege 3. Gudionean Hand signs – for teachi...


College classroom in Tomball helps new teachers learn technology
Lone Star College-Tomball has created a mock classroom at its campus to help new teachers learn with new technology.
The new TEaCH Lab has desks and chairs that are easy to move and manipulate to change the setup of the classroom for collaborative group work or a whole group setting.
The classroom chairs are brightly colored - blue, red, green and yellow - to brighten up the class and to help group students more easily.
The desks have small dry-erase boards attached to the edge that can be also used as partitions during test taking.
The new lab, will be completely operational for classes this fall, is adjustable for educators planning to teach in kindergarten through 12th grade classes, said Latoya Hardman Lewis, director of the Associates of Arts in Teaching program at LSC Tomball and a teaching fellow and instructor in the TEaCH lab.
"In K-12 classes, teachers are constantly grouping people so you can make the learning environment conducive to what you are teaching," Lewis said. "This is a space where future teachers have experience doing that."
The lab also has a set of 12 iPads, equipped with usable apps for the classroom.
"We will teach students not only how to use the apps, but how to create assignments using those apps," Lewis said.
"Technology is anything that makes life easier," Lewis said. "It doesn't have cords, but it does make learning so much easier. The chairs swivel, the desks are not straight. It just makes learning more natural and authentic."
"We are thinking about space in a different way," she said. "How can space contribute to learning?"
The lab is called TEaCH to emphasize the technology focus of the new space.
This summer, a new large, interactive white board is being installed in the lab as part of the final steps.
"It is a 21st century classroom designed to help students acquire the 21st century skills they need for the workforce," Lewis said.
Those skills include communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking.
Most of the lab was complete earlier this spring and was used for education classes.
"I love this class," said LSC-Tomball student Elyssa Morgan, an elementary education student, who works part-time at a local preschool.
LSC-Tomball education students have already brought what they've learned into classrooms throughout the region where they are working as student teachers.
"When I work at the pre-school, I implement many of the things I've learned in the class," Morgan said.
"The (LSC Tomball) students are becoming a resource and they're really excited about that as well," Lewis said.
And, with the new lab, LSC-Tomball instructors are able to teach classes in a more creative way.
"It makes a difference when it comes to being excited to learn in the classroom because the creative design of the classroom helps to make learning more interesting and fun," said Elizabeth Henao, an elementary education student at LSC-Tomball. "It's not your typical PowerPoint type of instruction. It's so much more than that."
The new TEaCH lab will continue to grow with new technology, as funding allows.
"There's some other technology that I'm going to be looking for in the future," Lewis said. "I've seen an interactive table where you can project information on a table. I'm constantly on the look out."
For more information about LSC-Tomball, visit http://www.lonestar.edu/tomball.htm


Enjoy this Easy Science for Kids Warblers Quiz – you’ll get your quiz score after completing this FREE online interactive quiz on Warblers. You need to answer all the questions to be able to get your score. You can do this fun quiz about Warblers again, till you get the perfect score and become a quiz champion!
Tip: To get it right the first time, read the page with fun facts about the Warblers.
About the Warblers Quiz & our FREE Online Quizzes
Our easy science quizzes are a free online quiz resource for teachers and educators of kids in elementary school, grammar school and preschool. This fun Warblers quiz helps your kids learn fun facts about the Warbler while enjoying this FREE interactive science quiz for kids.
If your kid is home-schooled by you, or is in an after-school enrichment program, then this is a fun activity, with reading comprehension benefits for kids in grade 1-5. Kids enjoy competing against their classmates, to see who scores the best, doing this free and fun interactive science quiz on Warblers.
To use this free online quiz as a reading comprehension training activity for kids, you can set a timer, to encourage kids to do the reading comprehension activity faster. Or limit the number of times they can read about the quiz topic, before they do the actual interactive quiz questions and answers game.
Younger kids who cannot yet read or write, such as Pre-K kids, Kindergarten kids or Preschool kids, will benefit from doing this quiz about the Warbler Birds and our other fun quizzes, as a listening comprehension activity; you read out to them our fun facts about the Warbler Birds and then read the Warblers quiz question and answers. You will select the Warblers quiz answer they think is correct, and at the end you get the quiz score. Your child can try again and again, till gets the perfect score faster, as he or she learn to listen more carefully and develop a better memory and attention span!


“I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage.”
“That’s the good thing about being President; I can do whatever I want.”
Barack Obama surely comes from the most diverse background of any U.S. President. Barack’s father was from Kenya; his mother from Kansas. Barack was born in Hawaii, but spent much of his childhood in Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority nation in the world. Barack sites his mother, Ann Dunham, as the most influential person in his life.
She separated from his father while Barack was still a toddler and later moved the family to Indonesia to follow her new husband, Lolo Soetoro. There, she wrote a dissertation on the role of handicrafts in a village’s economy. She worked to help poor people and women start businesses.
Barack attended a private preparatory school in Hawaii. Later he went to Occidental College in Las Angeles, followed by Columbia University and Harvard Law School. He became hugely popular after he was elected as editor of the Harvard Law Review. His gift for public speech and writing helped propel him into politics, first as an Illinois Senator; later as President.
The economy was in a shambles during the 2008 election. Obama promised change and he seemed very different than a typical President. Many people clambered to his message and he defeated Republican candidate, John McCain. In 2012, he defeated Mitt Romney and earned a second term.
- Barack Obama was born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is one of our youngest Presidents and the first African-American President.
- Obama met Michelle at the law firm where he worked. They were married in 1992 and have two daughters.
- During Obama’s first term, he focused on steering the country out of a severe depression. He approved a deal to bail out the auto industry and made changes to rules regarding loans for homes.
- He signed the Affordable Care Act into law, which was designed to provide affordable health care to all Americans. Many people felt that it overstepped the government’s role and would increase the federal deficit.
- In 2015, the Supreme Court voted to make gay marriage legal throughout the country.
- Obama faced serious problems internationally, particularly in the Middle East. He was criticized for his handling of increased terrorist risk.
- Obama worked to bring about strict environmental protection laws.
Questions and Answers
Question: What will people remember about Barack Obama’s presidency?
Answer: Americans have probably never been more divided in their thinking, except perhaps during the Vietnam War. Liberals favored Obama’s handling of social issues like gun control, gay marriage, abortion, health care, and the environment.
Conservatives disagreed with his policies on these subjects and also worried that he didn’t take a strong enough stand against terrorism. Conservatives believed that he took too much Presidential power and showed too little regard for the Constitution. The federal deficit soared during his time in office.
Cite This Page
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MLA Style Citation
Declan, Tobin. " Barack Obama Facts for Kids ." Easy Science for Kids, Feb 2020. Web. 25 Feb 2020. < https://easyscienceforkids.com/barack-obama/ >.
APA Style Citation
Tobin, Declan. (2020). Barack Obama Facts for Kids. Easy Science for Kids. Retrieved from https://easyscienceforkids.com/barack-obama/
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Literacy Activities That Students Do (Not You!)
Reviewed by Stacy Thorpe
The Big Book of Literacy Tasks: 75 Balanced Literacy Activities Students Do (Not You!) offers a learning facilitator ample opportunities to reflect on a student’s role as an active participant in their own learning and literacy development.
Nancy Akhavan has authored a book that provides research based ideas for developing readers and writers in grades K-8. These activities are not explicit lesson plans that tell a teacher exactly what materials to use and how to present them, but rather a collection of strategies that good readers and writers use to develop their own connections and ideas. These literacy tasks will help teachers foster student thinking while modeling what good readers and writers achieve.
There are three sections presented in The Big Book of Literacy Tasks: Everyday Tasks, Weekly Tasks, and Sometimes Tasks for Reading, Writing and Thinking. Each section contains several ideas, strategies and mini lessons for supporting good literacy practices, while placing the ownership of the learning in the students’ hands.
Each task contains an instructional playbook that tells you
- how to present the strategy and what you may say to students
- an example of what typical successes look like
- how to model and tweak your instruction to get the best results, and
- watch-fors and workarounds to help you address the potential challenges that may arise when students are not performing the tasks.
Tasks for every day
The Everyday Tasks are 35 activities designed to build skills that good readers and writers use each and every time they read and write. These tasks help students make connections, learn to read and write with purpose, and most importantly, think about reading and writing. Included in this section are tasks for developing focus, using details to support comprehension, and collaborating with peers.
Task 34 is Works Too Long and Never Gets Any Writing Done (I think I have had this writer in every writing group I have taught!). This lesson helps a teacher facilitate writing organization through modeling, peer support, and the use of a FOCUS framework that guides students to completed piece of writing.
Tasks for weekly reading and writing
Next, Akhavan provides 14 Weekly Tasks that are more specific and take more time for students to complete. These tasks involve use of more complex texts in reading and more specific output requirements for writing assignments. The skills presented in this section include creating an outline, organizing research, sharing writing with an audience, and writing a book report.
Task 50 addresses the book report. Responding to Literature With Some Kick to It goes beyond a basic summary that includes important characters, events and big ideas, and encourages students to give their opinion and honest recommendation to read or not read the book.
Some tasks for deeper digging
The Sometimes Tasks are the most demanding tasks in the book. These tasks require more student thinking and a deeper dig into the literacy experience. They invite students to make connections between texts, to use peer-to-peer analysis, to think aloud, and to critique the validity of a text.
Task 70, Creative Debate, invites students to take on the perspective of a character and debate that character’s side of a conflict or controversial issue from the book. Akhavan includes a Debate Planning Sheet to help students narrow their focus and efficiently present their argument and information.
The final piece of this book that I’d like to mention are the reproducible forms. Instead of questions that are specific to a piece of writing, Akhavan gives teachers checklists that encourage student thinking and reflection. These forms include Conversations About the Texts, My Strategies for Independence, Checking My Understanding, Making Connections, and Identifying the Central Idea.
Encourage students to reflect
Overall, this book inspired me to think about the learning tasks that I present in class. Akhavan encourages teachers to push away from assigned passages with worksheets that require canned responses, and instead promote more freedom in student thinking and more reflection about their connection to the reading and writing going on in their classroom.
Stacy Thorpe teaches Special Education in Gobles, Michigan. She recently completed her Master’s degree in Learning Disabilities at Spring Arbor University. Thorpe is always trying to find new ways to help ALL students grow and learn. When she is not teaching or researching, she is spending time with her husband and three sons: cheering them on in sporting events, enjoying their musical performances, supporting their involvement on Solar Car and Robotics Teams, and enjoying family campouts.


We do lot's of work within school around on how to keep children safe while using computers and in particular, the internet.
Staying Safe Online
1) Don’t post any personal information online – like your address, email address or mobile number.
2) Think carefully before posting pictures or videos of yourself. Once you’ve put a picture of yourself online most people can see it and may be able to download it, it’s not just yours anymore.
3) Keep your privacy settings as high as possible
4) Never give out your passwords
5) Don’t befriend people you don’t know
6) Don’t meet up with people you’ve met online. Speak to your parent or carer about people suggesting you do
7) Remember that not everyone online is who they say they are
8) Think carefully about what you say before you post something online
9) Respect other people’s views, even if you don’t agree with someone else’s views doesn’t mean you need to be rude
10) If you see something online that makes you feel uncomfortable, unsafe or worried: leave the website, turn off your computer if you want to and tell a trusted adult immediately.
Each child has a unique username and password for Mathletics.
'Mathletics is a captivating online learning space providing students with all the tools they need to be successful learners, both in the classroom and beyond. ...Mathletics supports and caters to each teacher's unique blend of student-driven learning and teacher-led instruction.'
Throughout each year group, children are expected to know different times tables and to use this to aid them with division sums. Holy Family have signed up to TTrockstars which is a fun, innovative way for children to learn their times tables while having a good time. There are competitions available and the children can even play against each other to see who is the fastest!
Each child has a unique username and password and we encourage parents to allow children time to be able to play and more importantly learn.
Just type in TTrockstars into google and follow the link.
Computers are now part of everyday life. For most of us, technology is essential to our lives, at home and at work. ‘Computational thinking’ is a skill children must be taught if they are to be ready for the workplace and able to participate effectively in this digital world.
The new national curriculum for computing has been developed to equip young people with the foundational skills, knowledge and understanding of computing they will need for the rest of their lives.
Through the teaching of computing at Holy Family and St. Michaels, they will learn how computers and computer systems work, they will design and build programs, develop their ideas using technology and create a range of content.
Our computing provision is being continually improved and updated, to meet the changing digital landscape. Children will use a range of technology throughout school, including desktop computers, laptops, IPads, digital cameras, and Beebots. They will learn to design and build programs using software such as Scratch, Kodu, Python, and Espresso Coding.
Year 3 used scratch to show off their coding skills.
Year 5 have been creating mazes using their coding skills. They have been working very hard.
Foundation Class enjoyed learning some new computing skills using their technology area.
Year 6 used laptops to research Ancient Chinese symbols.


Donkeys – The Stubborn Animals
Donkeys come from Africa and the Middle East, where they were tamed more than 5,000 years ago. These slow animals are used today as work animals in poor countries. They carry materials, plow fields and draw up water. Donkeys are related to horses and zebras, but they have much longer ears than either one. They’re also usually smaller than horses.
Donkeys have a reputation for being stubborn. They are more cautious than horses. If a situation seems unsafe, they dig in their heels and won’t move. Owners must patiently work to gain a donkey’s trust.
Fun Facts about Donkeys for Kids
- China has more donkeys than any other country in the world.
- In the U.S., donkeys are kept as pets or to breed mules.
- A mule is a cross between a donkey and a horse. Mules are very strong, but bigger than a donkey.
- A boy donkey is called a jack. A girl donkey is called a jenny.
- Donkeys make a loud braying noise that goes on for several seconds.
- Donkeys are sometimes called burros.
- There are wild donkeys in Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Mississippi.
- Plow: prepare a field for planting
- Reputation: known for
- Stubborn: willful
- Braying: loud “hee-haw”
Learn More All About Donkeys
Watch a video about a baby donkey:
A video of a cute baby donkey’s first steps.
Question: What do donkeys eat?
Answer: Like horses, donkeys eat grains and grass.
Question: How long do donkeys live?
Answer: Donkeys live up to 40 years if given proper care.
Cite This Page
You may cut-and-paste the below MLA and APA citation examples:
MLA Style Citation
Declan, Tobin. " Fun Donkey Facts for Kids ." Easy Science for Kids, Feb 2020. Web. 21 Feb 2020. < https://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-donkeys/ >.
APA Style Citation
Tobin, Declan. (2020). Fun Donkey Facts for Kids. Easy Science for Kids. Retrieved from https://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-donkeys/
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Music and Learning – Holistic Learning at ISZN
Hans Christian Anderson once wrote: ‘Where words fail, music speaks!’
How true this statement is! Why is music important? Simply put, it provides us with joy. But even more than this, music opens corners of the mind unreachable by conventional methods and evokes creativity and emotion that cannot be replicated by traditional classroom practise. In fact, a 2016 study at the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute found that musical experiences in childhood can actually accelerate brain development, particularly in the areas of language acquisition and reading skills. To build on this concept, the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation has determined that learning to play an instrument can improve mathematical learning and even increase test scores.
However, academic achievement isn’t the only benefit of music education and exposure. Music ignites all areas of child development and skills for school readiness: intellectual, social and emotional, motor, language, and overall literacy, as it helps the body and the mind work in conjunction. In fact, exposing children to music during early development helps them to learn the sounds and meanings of words whilst dancing to music helps children build motor skills and allows them to practice self-expression.
ISZN has long understood the importance of music within the learning environment and in addition to our Morning Move and class Music lessons, a musical performance is given each year to showcase the students’ skills and enthusiasm. The recent production of Peter Pan allowed many of our students to demonstrate their confidence and most of all, to simply enjoy the freedom of creative expression that the opportunity provided.
For as Plato said, “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.”


“Art is in every society; it is not just ubiquitous, but systemic,” noted Professor James Haywood Rolling, Jr. to a Fordham audience during his presentation for the Graduate School of Education’s recent winter lecture: “Natural Rights, Human Response: Creative Activity as a Catalyst for Social Innovation.” Sharing insights from his broad perspective as an expert in art, teaching, and educational leadership, Rolling emphasized that making art not only allows people to express themselves, but it is also fundamentally essential to what makes us human.
More specifically, research shows us how humans have created works of art to illuminate and imagine possibilities; and, sheltered society’s art treasures during the world’s numerous artistic and industrial revolutions to preserve them for future generations. Thus, art is something much more than just a useful language or a way to make beautiful things; creativity throughout history has generated systems truly significant to society’s development.
This development happens not just among adults, but also among children, through the art and structures they create. Rolling illustrated this idea by highlighting research contained in GSE Assistant Professor David Rufo’s article: “Building Forts and Drawing on Walls: Fostering Student-Initiated Creativity Inside and Outside the Elementary Classroom,” published in Art Education.
Consequently, according to Rolling, by “making marks” (creating original art), “making models” (creating systematic understanding via art), and “making special” (creating new or unique concepts using art), humans are singularly able among all living creatures to cooperate in large groups and work to avoid conventions that limit observation and originality. He summarized it this way: “Perhaps the most crucial and unacknowledged of all natural rights is the right to signify meaning—to signify one’s lived experience, affinities, aspirations, beliefs, and cultural values as ideas worth spreading.”