CBy Amy Thomas, Junior Kindergarten Teacher
“Play isn’t the enemy of learning; it’s learning’s partner. Play is like fertilizer for brain growth. It’s crazy not to use it.” -Stuart Brown in his book, Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul
This September, New York City implemented universal pre-kindergarten, making it the latest of many cities and states to do so. In recent years, pre-k education has gained national press as research has consistently and repeatedly demonstrated the positive impact that high-quality early childhood programs have on student success in schooling and beyond.
A recent New York Times article, titled “The Building Blocks of a Good Pre-K,” challenges the notion that high-quality programming is marked by a singular commitment to an academic curriculum. In fact, it argues quite the opposite – that some of students’ deepest learning occurs during play. The authors write, “As they play, children develop vital cognitive, linguistic, social, and emotional skills. They make discoveries, build knowledge, experiment with literacy and math, and learn to self-regulate and interact with others in socially appropriate ways.”
This phenomenon is not new to us at The Langley School. A few summers ago, the faculty read Tony Wagner’s book, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World (2012). In it, Wagner writes about the changing role of the workforce and the necessity for students to develop a sense of play, passion, and purpose. He describes preschools in which teachers are acting as guides while the students take control of their own learning through authentic play experiences that encourage innovation and collaboration. I am proud to say that play is one of the cornerstones of Langley’s Primary School curriculum.
Students in our Primary School begin each day with “choice time,” a largely unstructured play time in which students are able to make play choices based on their own interests. Students in my junior kindergarten classroom enter each morning ready to take on a day of fun and learning. Some skip over to the play kitchen and begin working on their restaurant menu. Here they practice their phonetic spelling skills as they attempt to write words like “hot dog” while also practicing number formation as they list prices.
Others head to the block bin and begin working on their latest architectural project. This past week, their work focused on designing a new parking garage for Langley. Through careful thought, they were able to create a two-level parking garage with an entrance and a floor plan that enabled them to fit all of the cars from the car bin inside. Other students may find a comfy spot in the book corner to flip through one of their favorite books with a friend. I can hear them pointing out letters or see them dragging their fingers underneath the text as they pretend to read. This is purposeful play and it is one of the most valuable learning experiences that I can give my students.
In addition to its academic benefits, play helps students develop the social and emotional skills essential to success in school and in society. Students must work together to problem-solve when conflicts arise. What will they do when two students want to be the dog in the puppet theatre production? How will they react when someone else is reading the book they want to read? These experiences help students develop the communication skills necessary to articulate their desires, while simultaneously giving them the knowledge that they may not always get what they want when they want it, and that is okay.
In an ever-changing society, students need to develop more than the traditional content-based knowledge. They must develop an understanding of how to communicate, collaborate, and think critically. These are skills that we develop each day in The Langley School’s Primary School classrooms. As children play, we provide them with rich educational experiences in which they can take risks and expand their capacity for future learning.


Nearly everyone has a story about an elementary school teacher; someone who left a mark on their life. How would you like to be the one the next generation tells stories about?
Your course work
In addition to the core curriculum, your elementary education course work will cover reading assessment and literacy instruction, the nature and management of elementary classrooms, and classes specific to teaching math, science, social studies and an integrated curriculum.
The elementary education methods courses are offered in a wide variety of school settings including urban, suburban and rural schools. Your experience is capped off by student teaching, where it's time to apply what you've learned!
This is a good time to consider becoming an elementary school teacher- continued demand for educators and advancing classroom technology puts you in a position to make a real impact! Outside the classroom, elementary educators are often found in places like zoos and museums, as tutors, in camp settings and even government organizations.


Apes Worksheet – Best Free Online Science Printables for Kids with Hidden Words Puzzle
The Apes Worksheet – Download the best FREE online science printables for kids with hidden words puzzle. This fun facts about apes worksheet includes a hidden words puzzle as well as a find the missing word search game for kids. Our free to print worksheet about apes is ideal for kids from Preschool up to Grade 5. Kids will enjoy the word search game and have fun learning fun facts about apes.
Elementary school kids can use the missing hidden words puzzle as a reading comprehension worksheet. By needing to find the missing words the kids will have to read and re-read the facts about apes and thereby not only learn really well but also enhance their reading skills.
Preschool kids can use this free online science printable as a listening comprehension tool. Educators or parents can read the fun facts about apes out loud and then help the children find the missing words in the word seek puzzle. Young kids who haven’t learned to read and write can enjoy learning to recognize the letters and words in the hidden words puzzle.
Teachers can use the free printable apes worksheet to supplement science lessons and gain kids interest in science. Educators can use the apes fun facts for kids worksheet for after school education programs and extra-curriculum science activities.
Parents can use the fun facts about apes worksheet to awaken their kids interest in science and make learning science fun for kids. This best free printable hidden words puzzle about apes is ideal for doing homeschooling activities with your kids or early learning science activities.
EasyScienceforKids.com is a great place to learn about animals for kids with fun facts and free worksheets. We offer the best free online hidden words puzzle games and free easy science printable worksheets for kids.
The ape family is an intelligent group of primate animals. Apes considered good parents. Do you know that we humans come from the ape family? What ape has the same blood type as humans? Find out more information and fun facts about apes by downloading this best free science printable words puzzle.
Free Apes Worksheet Science Printable for Kids
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Ethiopia is a linguistically and culturally diverse country of around 80 different ethnic groups, the Oromo being one of the largest. The Oromiya region has seen territorial disputes with neighbouring states and internal religious conflict, but the lives of everyone in the region are affected by severe socioeconomic problems.
Conditions of poverty and deprivation affect children most severely
The seventh SOS Children’s Village in Ethiopia is located in the town of Jimma in the Oromiya Region. Jimma (also spelled Jima) is the largest town in south-western Ethiopia and has a population of approximately 160,000. With a total population of over 27 million, Oromiya is the largest Ethiopian state, both in terms of population and area.
SOS Children’s Villages decided to support the local population and children without parental care in the region due to recent socio-economic developments: the cost of living has been steadily on the rise. This means that food and clothing are increasingly beyond the means of the average income group. The cost of services such as health care and education has also substantially increased. According to the market statistics published by the Ethiopian government, the cost of living was 55.4 per cent higher in 2011 as compared to 2010.
Women need to play a leading role in the fight against poverty
In light of these increasingly difficult economic circumstances, it is also becoming harder for families to provide for their children. Women in Oromiya have an average of 6.2 children – the highest number in all of Ethiopia. As elsewhere in the country, families tend to have many children partly due to traditional values, and in part due to a lack of awareness and availability of contraception (only around 13 per cent use it in Oromiya), as well as the fact that girls usually marry and start a family at a very young age.
Gender inequality also continues to be a factor that affects the lives of many young girls and women in Ethiopia. In Oromiya, only 29.5 per cent of women are literate, as compared to the 61.5 per cent of men. Without an education, young women have little choice but to be dependent on a husband or other male relative to provide for them, thus putting them in a very vulnerable position. Ensuring the availability of education to all children in our care and from the local community is therefore a priority for SOS Children’s Villages’ work in the region.
What we do in Jimma
SOS Children's Villages began its work in Jimma in 2012. Our social centre here provides a family strengthening programme to members of the local community. The programme aims to help parents develop their capacities in a holistic and sustainable manner, to achieve self-reliance and economic autonomy, and to ensure access to essential services such as health care and education. We provide guidance on income-generating activities, as well as counselling and psychological support. The social centres also offer day-care, where up to 450 children are looked after, fed, and taught simple literacy and numeracy skills while their parents are at work. The overarching aim of these services is to support families, and the community as a whole, so that children can be protected and cared for and will not be abandoned.
Our medical centre here is also open to the community and serves approximately 6,000 patients each year. Amongst others, it provides the following services: consultation and treatment, minor surgery, vaccination, family planning services, ante/post natal care, voluntary HIV testing, and health education.
For children from the region who are no longer able to live with their parents, 15 SOS families can provide a loving home for up to 150 children. In each family, the children live with their brothers and sisters, affectionately cared for by their SOS mother.
Together with children from the community, they attend the SOS Kindergarten here in Jimma. This way, children from SOS families are integrated into the community from a young age. The children then continue their education at the SOS Hermann Gmeiner School, which offers primary and secondary school education to around 640 students.
When young people from the children’s village reach an age where they feel ready to move out of the family home, the SOS Youth Programme makes shared accommodation available to them while they complete their education or vocational training. With the support of qualified counsellors, the young people plan for their future and prepare for independent adult life.


Boost your child's speech, language and communication with Hungry Little Minds
Hungry Little Minds is the new Department for Education campaign empowering parents and carers to engage their children (aged 0-5) in positive activities and behaviours that will boost their communication, language and literacy development.
The three-year campaign recognises the massive impact parents have on their child’s learning. Reading, playing and chatting are simple things you can do to help your children develop - even when they are too young to say much back!
'Early learning’ shouldn't be seen as a chore - far from it. In fact:
- It takes little time
- Can happen anywhere
- Is easily interwoven with everyday tasks.
And ultimately, it is as rewarding for parents and carers as it is for their children.
What activities should I do?
Children love it when you chat, play and read with them - it doesn't matter if they are too young to understand! Whatever the time and wherever you are, you can turn almost anything into a game. And every little thing you do together will help set them up nicely for the day they start school.
The Hungry Little Minds campaign provides lots of ideas that can help boost your child’s learning. You can slot them into your routine and your children will love them. Such as:
- Play ‘I spy’ on the bus with them and you can see their imaginations light up
- Talk to your child about what has happened so far in the day – for example, “We went to the shops this morning, didn’t we? We bought some apples.” And talk about what is going to happen next – “After lunch we’ll do the washing up”
- Look at picture books together. With each new page, give your child time to point out things to you and talk about what they can see
Visit the Hungry Little Minds website for simple tips and activities, or to find out what’s available where you live.


Plaza School Art and Music
Elementary art and music are the foundation of an award-winning K-12 Fine and Performing Arts program in the Baldwin School District, which has been named one of the Best Communities for Music Education in 2019. We have received this distinction for several years and remain proud of our rich tradition of music instruction
Elementary students are engaged in aesthetic development in visual arts and music in this configuration:
- Visual Arts - Once a week for K-grade 3 and twice a week for grades 4-5.
- Music - Twice a week for K-grade 3 and once a week for grades 4-5.
Young performers may select band or string instruments, participate in a beginner ensemble, and receive small-group instruction starting in the fourth grade. There are opportunities to display work of young artists in each elementary school and through district and county exhibits.
If you have any questions about the program, please contact your child's music or art teacher or the Director of Fine and Performing Arts.


Baltimore materials are designed to provide the student with solid and relevant learning. To do that, Baltimore offers the teacher a range of resources that allow the customization of teaching according to the preference of his student. Baltimore collections include activities with CLIL approach, project development based on STEAM methodology and the most current and modern education concepts in the world.
Magic Tree is a collection developed for the Bilingual Program in Early Childhood Education that offers extraordinary resources to create an environment with a wide variety of activities involving children, with different skills and preferences, in a successful and fun second language learning journey. Games, music, videos, stories, and activities that make language learning as fun and easy as possible. Ideal and adaptable for Preschool Bilingual Programs from 2 to 10 hours a week.
Educational series developed for a Bilingual Program in English in Elementary Schools that promotes this motivating experience in the process of developing communication skills that are so important to the world of the 21st century. Modern and interactive resources address topics that are interesting and relevant to the student. They allow the teacher to create and maintain an environment with a wide variety of activities involving students with different skills and preferences. A successful and fun second language learning journey, just like life is supposed to be. Games, music, videos, stories, and activities make language learning as fun and easy as possible. Ideal and adaptable for Bilingual Programs in Elementary Education from 2 to 10 hours a week
For more information about book collections or online platform contact us.For more information about book collections or online platform contact us.
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After a week in solitary confinement, Marguerite appealed to Mogilevsky to end the torture. She told herself that he was not a cruel man and did not want her to suffer. After all, they had had pleasant conversations discussing French literature and political philosophy. He had shared his story of growing up in a provincial town and his thirst for social justice. He would be reasonable, she believed. So she asked the guard for a pencil and a scrap of paper, and she wrote to Mogilevsky in French requesting to see him. Within a couple of hours, he called her to his office.
He again questioned her about foreign agents in Russia, but her vague replies irritated him. Exasperated, he turned her over to his secretary for questioning. Marguerite did not see Mogilevsky again for two months, and she was sorry. “Although we disagreed on many subjects from world revolution to herrings, of which he was evidently fond, for he often had a bowl of our prison soup for his dinner, I took a certain enjoyment in our verbal duels. He was a keen alert mind and he was a stimulating and resourceful enemy,” she said.
Marguerite’s admiration for Mogilevsky contrasts with the opinions of other American and British prisoners who met him. One described him stupid and completely ignorant of conditions in Europe. Another portrayed him as “thin, nervous in manner” who was not terribly perceptive.
But Marguerite described him as an idealistic revolutionary fighting the injustices he had endured as Jew growing up in southern Russia. She wrote: “I had listened sympathetically to his accounts of his early life, first as a small boy with a thirst for knowledge growing up in a provincial town where all but elementary education was denied him, and already smarting under a sense of social injustice . . ..”.
Yet either Marguerite embellished her description of the Chekist or he did not tell her the truth. Rather than growing up poor, Mogilevsky was born in 1885 into a family of Jewish merchants in Pavlograd in the Ekaterinoslav Province in what is today Ukraine. He he attended high school and while still a teenager, joined Socialist revolutionaries. He spent several months in prison until he fled to Switzerland, where he studied law and met Lenin, who recruited him to the Bolshevik Party.
Returning to Ekaterinoslav in 1906, Mogilevsky worked as a propagandist in local factories for a year, and then he suspended his party activities in order to finish law school at Moscow University. After the Bolshevik Revolution, Mogilevsky served as chairman of the Ivanovo revolutionary tribunal, with the ultimate power to execute anyone he believed to be an enemy of the state. After proving himself in Ivanovo, he went to Moscow where he soon gained the attention of Felix Dzerzhinsky, who appointed him to head the investigation section of Cheka in 1919. In that role, he helped uncover a British plot to oust Lenin. When he met Marguerite, he was in a new position as deputy director of the Special Section that aimed to create a foreign intelligence service.
According to prison records, Mogilevsky interrogated Marguerite her twice before relinquishing her to his secretary. Eventually, Marguerite provided a lengthy report of her espionage activities. She told of volunteering to catch German spies in Baltimore in 1917 and recounted her work for the Military Intelligence Division in Berlin. She described the organizational structure of MID into positive (intelligence) and negative (counterintelligence) branches, and she admitted that she had come to Russia to assess political and economic situations and to locate American prisoners. Marguerite named many of the people she met in Germany, Poland, and Russia, and offered insights into their political beliefs, although— true to her word, —she made no mention of either Merian Cooper or Francis McCullagh.
Based upon her signed confession, Cheka listed three charges against her: She had been a spy in Baltimore; she worked for the U.S. War Department in Berlin; and, most serious of all, “she gave information to Cheka in very poor quality,” identifying only Stan Harding as a foreign agent. “On the basis of the above mentioned fact she is considered as a hostile and dangerous person to Society,” the prison report concluded.
But Cheka officials were sufficiently satisfied with her admissions to move her from solitary confinement.


Classroom Assessment in U.S. High School Band Programs: Methods, Purposes, and Influences
Kancianic, Phillip M
McCarthy, Marie F
Hewitt, Michael P
MetadataShow full item record
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among characteristics of high school band directors and their school settings, purposes and uses of classroom assessment methods, and factors that influence the use of classroom assessment. MENC: The National Association for Music Education provided a membership list from which 2,000 U.S. high school band directors were selected by simple random sampling. Participants received a postcard via mail inviting them to complete an online survey. Non-respondents received a second postcard two weeks later and a paper version of the survey four weeks later. The independent variables included 11 personal and 11 school characteristics. The dependent variables included 23 assessment methods, 19 purposes of assessment, and 23 factors that influence the use of classroom assessment. The overall survey return rate was 39.75% (N = 795); the usable response was 31.7% (N = 634). Descriptive statistics illustrated the respondents' use of classroom assessment methods, the level of importance they attributed to purposes of assessment, and the level of influence they attributed to factors that affect assessment. Pearson product-moment correlations and multiple analyses of variance were performed on the data to test 22 null hypotheses. Excepting the MANOVAs (α = .05), the experimentwise alpha was set at .01 to reduce the risk of Type I error. Classroom assessments focused primarily on the evaluation of student performance skills. Lack of time was viewed as a major impediment to assessment. Teachers were more influenced by internal factors (e.g., philosophy of education and class goals) than by external factors (e.g., school requirements and local, state, or national standards). Music colleagues were influential among less-experienced teachers and those who had district-wide assessment training. Three prevalent issues emerged from the results: teacher autonomy, the role of assessment training, and teacher workload. Recommendations included investigating the relationship between teacher autonomy and classroom assessment, examining and improving current assessment training for pre-service and in-service teachers, and developing efficient assessment strategies that have a minimal impact on teacher workload. It was also recommended that the many non-statistically significant findings be examined by future researchers.


When my son Jasper was three years old, I decided to take my career experience as an art professor, turn it homeward and make some pocket money in the process; I transformed my garage into an art studio and invited all of the neighborhood preschoolers over for weekly art lessons!
With freshly painted lime green floors and cute little tables and matching stools, I set about planning creative yet developmentally stimulating art projects. A few gestural drawing activities to get the hands moving, a neat-o printmaking project involving favorite toys, and lots of painting that would quickly evolve into fingerpainting, whether it was meant to or not. Now, teaching three year olds is basically like herding cats, and I was quickly shown up by a spider someone caught sight of in the corner and the paintbrushes became sticks and swords as I lost all the boys to the allure of spider hunting.
Twelve years now into the field of art education, I’ve learned that art education isn’t about planning for a developmentally stimulating project outcome. To do so is to miss the point. Often parents and even educators believe that art for art’s sake (aka ‘having fun’) is great and all, if time allows. The brilliance of art, however, is that the process is the point. Developmentally, art is beneficial to every aspect of a child’s growth, from fine and large motor skills, social skills, to being mentally, emotionally, and even physically therapeutic, all while under the clever guise of just ‘having fun.’ Art for kids is the educational equivalent of pureeing veggies to add to your mac ‘n cheese; healthy without kiddos even knowing that they are eating healthy!


Defending the Right to Learn
Fadi (12) was forced to flee the war in Syria when his hometown was bombed by armed forces. He now lives in Lebanon - where thousands of refugee children are denied access to quality education. Yet Fadi’s determined to defy the odds with the support of our Shield project…
More than 630,000 Syrian children now live as refugees in Lebanon - the majority of whom face significant barriers to accessing education. Despite a national campaign by the Ministry of Education to turn this situation around, more half than half of school-aged Syrian children are denied their right to learn. This is representative of the mounting challenges that Lebanon faces - a country home to the highest number of refugees per capita in the world.
Fadi is just one of thousands of displaced Syrian children inside Lebanon. He was forced to flee - together with his family - when his hometown was bombed by government forces. Like many others, Fadi has missed vital years of schooling - and so lacks the minimum literacy and numeracy skills to enter the formal education system. Yet Fadi had his own career ambitions in mind - and the day he signed up for the Shield project those ideas came to life…
How Shield Works
War Child is working in partnership with local organisations and Plan International in Lebanon to address the urgent needs of children from both Syrian refugee and host communities through a major new project - Shield.
Shield is designed to uphold the safety and fundamental rights of vulnerable boys and girls through an integrated child protection programme that draws on catch-up education and psychosocial support activities. Some 9,000 children will directly benefit from the project over the next two years - children like Fadi.
Shield works to ensure that children are better protected from violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect - both now and in the future. Special classes support children to enter formal schools. Psychosocial support activities are held in the heart of communities to maintain the emotional resilience of children taking part. And children with more severe mental health needs are met with targeted services.


Art is an incredible expression for many individuals, providing an outlet for joy, excitement, anger, and sadness. However, art education for children isn’t just for finger painting and pasta art. It can be a valuable avenue for expressing complex feelings that children struggle to discuss or communicate. Teaching kids to express their emotions through the use of a paintbrush or colored pencils will help them to see art as not just creating a picture, but as a tangible, physical extension of themselves. At Creative Learning Arts School, we’re proud to offer incredible arts education for children ages two to 12 years old with focus on painting, drawing, and sculpting. If your child is interested in learning the beautiful expression of art, contact us now for more information!
Emotional Education 101
The word “emotion” is often confusing for children, especially when it’s used in a negative or sad way. A great way for kids to conceptualize the abstract idea of emotion is to discuss it in an uplifting manner and how it pertains to color. Going around the classroom and talking about favorite colors or shade combinations and how they make a child feel can begin the conversation of the emotional range of colors. When kids see different hues, you can assist them in changing their perspectives of the color wheel and make it easy and simple to assign a feeling to a certain shade. Orange can be happy, red can appear to be angry, and blue can make a child feel calm or relaxed. Also, the mixture of two shades, like blue and yellow to create green or red and white to create pink can also be an avenue of expressing complex emotions or feelings through a child’s paint palette. By assigning colors to feelings, children can grasp how to express their emotions through the use of painting and coloring. When a child picks up his or her paintbrush, pencil, pastel, or crayon, the color isn’t just a color to him or her anymore. It’s a tangible statement that has the power to be a conduit of an emotion, feeling, or experience he or she wants to articulate via artistic expression.
Dealing With the Hard Stuff
It can be hard for children to understand how to talk about an issue, especially if it’s particularly difficult or saddening. The loss of a pet, a friend moving away, or struggling in a subject at school can bottle up emotions that may come out as angry words, tantrums, or lashing out at friends and family. Art class can be the perfect place to allow a paintbrush to become an extension of hurt and frustrated feelings. This is an especially good therapy for children who might not be as openly verbal or expressive as other kids and struggle to find the right words to express emotion. Kids can even change their negative experience into a story and rewrite the ending to reflect how they would have rather the outcome concluded. A child only needs to be given the artistic tools to communicate emotions and it can be an incredibly healthy and rewarding experience.
Art Education at Creative Learning Arts School
Creative Arts Learning School is an amazing place for your son or daughter to receive quality arts education in sculpture, painting and drawing. Our teachers are dedicated to always taking an individual approach to each and every student, so the classroom is run on ensuring every student’s success. Enroll your child now for optimum growth and education in an exciting and uplifting environment. Take a look at our online gallery for inspiration and a peek at our happy students. Contact us now to enroll your son or daughter in art class!


Welcome to the Lopez family!
For many families, kindergarten is their first introduction to school, so we want to make sure that their first experience is a positive one! Our kindergarten classrooms are nurturing environments where each unique personality is valued, and students are guided to reach their fullest potential.
One of the most important areas of development for kindergarten students is their social/emotional growth. Kindergarten is a time when young children are navigating social interactions with peers; learning how to be successful with conflict resolution; and understanding how to be a student at school. These important foundational skills will carry your student through all the grade levels to come. Kindergarten utilizes the Leader in Me model, using Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Happy Kids to teach even our youngest students to be leaders in their actions.
Our classrooms offer a comprehensive curriculum based on the Colorado Academic Standards. The standards are addressed through the district adopted curriculums in math, literacy, science, social studies, and writing. We utilize a wide range of learning modalities to ensure the academic and social emotional growth of each student.
We look forward to working with you and your student, and helping them to reach their full potential!


With the extreme partisanship we see in government and politics today, one area recently emerged where policymakers came together to find common ground: Early childhood learning.
The conferences were hosted by New America, which characterizes itself as “a new kind of think and action tank: a civic platform that connects a research institute, technology lab, solutions network, media hub and public forum.” They took place over the last two years where “more than 30 individuals from top-level research organizations, early learning programs, and advocacy organizations came together at New America to distill years of research on what it takes to provide a quality pre-K experience for three- and four-year-old children.”
Now the outcomes from those conferences have been published, which New America outlines in an overview titled “3 Practices and 3 Policies Indispensable for Quality Pre-K.” These practices and policies are meant “to assist policymakers and political candidates interested in promoting the importance of quality in pre-K, as well as for state education leaders who aim to improve their early learning systems.”
These statements — which were nicknamed 3+3 Indispensables — include:
Engage in positive interactions with children and their families, recognizing the strengths and diversity of their backgrounds.
Use learning trajectories in subject areas and domains, supported by effective curricula, to help children meet goals in learning and development.
Promote children’s social development and self-regulation in ways that reflect an understanding of the multiple biological and environmental factors that affect behavior.
Allocate increased, predictable, and sustainable funding to establish the conditions necessary for high-quality teaching and learning.
Provide educators with professional learning (pre-service and in-service) based at a minimum on the 3 Indispensable Practices and on in-service opportunities aligned with the definition of professional development in the Every Student Succeeds Act.
Use high-quality data to promote continuous quality improvement and better continuity from ages 0–3 to pre-K and pre-K to grades K–3.
For more context and background, “the Alliance for Early Success published Indispensables for Quality Pre-K, a website and downloadable two-pager designed to assist policymakers and political candidates interested in promoting the importance of quality in pre-K, as well as for state education leaders who aim to improve their early learning systems.”


Impact of Music Education
What does research say about music education?
What does a young child gain from making music with his family?
How does music education give teenagers a safe place to challenge themselves?
How does a weekly chorus or orchestra rehearsal impact an adult’s life?
A toddler feels joy and connection singing with his parents.
When teenagers perform regularly for peers, they push past their limits.
Weekly chorus and orchestra rehearsals for adults are a source of friendship, celebration, and solace.
Read about a World Health Organization study about the role between the arts and health.
Upper Valley Music Center in Numbers
Last year, over 1,000 students of all ages participated in lessons, group classes, ensembles, and workshops.
Over 1,000 supporters contributed to create a permanent home for music education in downtown Lebanon.
UVMC partners with 35 organizations and agencies to create music education opportunities for all kinds of people.
UVMC awards over $20,000 in tuition assistance each year so that financial means are not a barrier to making music.


The first grade class at JAIS is designed to be warm and supportive, as an introductory year to the Elementary school program. Instruction is tailored to the students‘ various learning styles and abilities. A number of teaching strategies are employed to help each child learn to the best of his/her ability. These include small and large groups based upon interest or ability, individualized learning packets, field trips, and one-on-one instruction. The curriculum has a strong yet age-appropriate emphasis upon the academics, especially reading, writing and mathematics.
The Language Arts program is designed to develop and reinforce the skills gained in the previous grades, to ensure that the students are on the path to becoming fluent readers and writers. This consists of phonics instruction, sight word recognition and mastery, guided reading, grammar, reading comprehension, literature appreciation, and creative writing. This is done through planning and modeling stories read, and creating whole class texts. Graphic organizers are introduced. Students plan and write their own simple stories. In addition, the use of non-fiction texts is developed as a method of finding information when researching a theme, extending into Science and Social Studies classes.
The Mathematics program is based on the AERO standards using materials from a wide variety of sources. The Math program combines a traditional approach to the teaching of math, as well as a conceptual theme-based program. This combined approach provides the students with concrete and abstract methods for the development of computation and skills, problem-solving abilities. Units taught are: numeration and place value, numbers and number operations, number patterns and number theory, money, statistics, fractions, geometry and symmetry, measurement, and probability.
The Science units capitalize on children‘s natural curiosity and inquisitiveness by allowing the students to explore with hands-on activities. The curriculum stresses the acquisition of basic skills that are so important to the students‘ future academic success. In first grade students explore: new plants, pebbles, sand and silt; the animal kingdom.
The first grade Social Studies units focus on holidays around the world (throughout the year), communities and homes, Antarctica, from farm to table, children and their lives through history, and map skills.
The following classes are taught to JAIS students by specialist teachers: physical education, music, art, Spanish or French and swimming.
Click HERE for a link to the JAIS curriculum.


Desmos Graphing Calculator started as a simple concept, but now it can work on intricate math problems.
A complex calculator inside your web browser
It is your go-to tool for solving some of those difficult math problems.
Desmos Graphing Calculator started as a Chrome extension used to visualize graphs and charts. As time went on, the scope of equations this software could perform expanded. It strayed far from the original concept; now, it is a virtual online calculator capable of handling challenging math problems.
There are a couple of methods for demonstrating the results of your equations. These include graphs, tables, charts, and more. You can also alter the task you’re working on at any time if you stumble upon new information along the way. This extension displays the results in real-time, meaning that all mistakes can be corrected mid-calculation if needed.
Math and science students will reap the most benefits from this virtual calculator. Although those who use math daily can download a more complex calculating software, having a rather decent one is enough to save time in urgent situations.
Despite the fact that this extension can handle more demanding math tasks, real-life problems cannot be solved with a simple extension. Desmos Graphing Calculator is a well-developed software, albeit its advantage is convenience rather than sophisticated math problem-solving.
Where can you run this program?
You can use this program on Windows Vista and later.
Is there a better alternative?
No. Although math-oriented programs, such as Universal Math Solver, deal with more complex problems, this app remains a great choice for anyone.
It runs smoothly, is easy to navigate, and produces some fantastic results. Its beauty is somewhat based on its simplicity, but it could do with improvements in speed.
Should you download it?
Yes. If you’re looking for a calculator that is simple to use and delivers consistent results, this is a great choice.


We argue that differences in economic and political structures at the turn of the previous century caused two distinct paths of democratization in the currently advanced democracies. Countries which were "proto-corporatist" in the early to mid nineteenth century democratized subsequently under working class pressure (mainly Northern Europe and Scandinavia), while democracy was voluntarily extended in those countries that were "liberal" in this period (Britain and its settler colonies, and partially also France). Three reasons lay behind this: (1) Shaping an effective labor force in early industrialization required public goods, notably elementary education and sanitation, but proto-corporatist societies did not require democracy to provide them. Liberal societies, on the other hand, in which landowners were politically powerful and hostile to reform did. (2) In liberal countries the working class was fragmented into uncoordinated craft unions, hence not capable of sustained political pressure to bring about democracy; instead, democracy was the result of an inter-elite conflict, thus voluntarily extended by reformist elites. Industrialization in proto-corporatist societies, the other hand, generated industrial unionism and unified working class parties that could organize political pressure to bring about democracy. (3) Reformist elites in liberal countries did not fear that democracy would lead to major redistribution, since the fragmented working class meant that skilled workers and the middle classes would be opposed to redistribution to low income groups - reinforced by an elite-skilled worker-middle class coalition behind a majoritarian political system. By contrast, a unified working class threatened industrial elites in the proto-corporatist countries with redistribution once democracy was pushed through. As a consequence of these differences, liberal societies extended democracy voluntarily (after intra-elite struggles) because modernizers and industrialists needed political majorities to support public goods expansion, and they did not need to fear a unified working class; elites in proto-corporatist societies resisted democracy because they had the public goods anyway and had good reason to fear a unified working-class.


English 2 follows English 1 to solidify the foundational skills for effective communication in English as well as to foster international awareness, as both are typically required in the globally expanding domain of scientific and technological research activities. It also prepares students to study or do research abroad in the future. Students are assigned training exercises that cover the four language skills — reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The reading and listening materials include topics such as international and intercultural issues as well as the fundamentals of science and technology. Practice exercises in writing and speaking are provided so that students can develop communication competence to participate in discussions and conferences where opinions are exchanged through both text and speech. TOEFL-type exercise problems are also used in the course.
This course aims to establish a solid base on which students can build toward a higher level of communication competence specifically in an English language environment. The base is, as mentioned in "Course description and aims" of English 1, composed of three elements: (1) identifying relevant information accurately, (2) exercising fair judgement to form a valid opinion, and (3) stating opinions clearly and persuasively.
Each student is assigned to a group led by an instructor. Instructors for each group conduct the course using the "Course description and aims" and "Student learning outcomes" as the basic framework. "Class direction," "Course schedule," and other information below explain the features of each class.
By the end of this course, students will:
・Strengthen practical English abilities that are required for learning at university and for research activities both in Japan and abroad
・Be able to accurately grasp the main ideas and arguments of written and spoken materials in diverse areas including international and intercultural issues, science, and technology
・Have increased their knowledge of effective vocabulary and expressions to actively communicate their ideas and opinions in English
・Be able to write their own short paragraphs with a clear purpose
・Be able to state their opinions with good organization
Four language skills, fostering international awareness, communication skills, studying abroad, TOEFL
|Specialist skills||✔ Intercultural skills||✔ Communication skills||Critical thinking skills||Practical and/or problem-solving skills|
Students are required to read a passage in the textbook, solve exercise problems and submit the answers to the instructor before each class. The instructor will explain the key points of each unit, useful expressions, grammar and answers to the exercise problems in class. The class activity will also include discussion, writing and viewing news videos in English.
|Course schedule||Required learning|
|Class 1||Introduction / paragraph writing||to read the passage in Unit 6 and solve the exercise problems|
|Class 2||Unit 6: Doctors "grow" ear for transplant in patient's forearm||to read the passage in Unit 7 and solve the exercise problems|
|Class 3||Unit 7: A German grocery chain is selling first-of-its-kind "no-kill" eggs||to read the passage in Unit 8 and solve the exercise problems|
|Class 4||Unit 8: Why scientists want to engineer spicy tomatoes||to read the passage in Unit 9 and solve the exercise problems|
|Class 5||Unit 9: Children are susceptible to robot peer pressure||to read the passage in Unit 10 and solve the exercise problems|
|Class 6||Unit 10: British doctors may soon prescribe art, music, dance, singing lessons||to review the overall content of the course|
|Class 7||Review||term paper|
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Science at Hand: Articles from Smithsonian Magazine's Smart News, Keiko Miyamoto, Kinseido.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
Activities in class 40%
Term paper 20%


Judging people, even eggs, based on their outsides is never a good idea. 4 eggs, about to hatch, find that it’s what is inside that counts. They brag and compare themselves to one another, until one ugly, but wise egg, teaches them a lesson.
This script includes discussion questions, and director’s notes that give suggestions for casting, costumes, and simple set design.
Debra A. Cole is a celebrated humanities teacher, youth theatre director, and children’s playwright with degrees in journalism, art history, and elementary education. She understands the needs of young performers and their directors and creates pieces that encourage engaging discussion, creative thought, and quirky playfulness. Her goal is that young performers discover the power and delight that theatre brings to actors and audiences alike.
Visit her website:
Excerpt from the play:
SHINY BROWN (M/F): proud and arrogant
SMOOTH WHITE (M/F): proud and arrogant
SPARKLY BLUE (M/F): proud and arrogant
UGLY SPOTTED (M/F): kind and humble
(The action takes place in a large nest.)
(Lights come up on a large nest with four eggs sitting inside. Only eyes and legs can be seen coming out of the eggs.)
(stretching legs) Awwww… finally a little wiggle room!
(stretching legs) My toes were so cramped in there!
(stretching legs) Is that what those things are called? Toes? Well, whatever we call them, they feel much better now!
(moving toes joyfully) Toes are fun! And, look, our toes all look alike!
(Shiny Brown, Smooth White, and Sparkly Blue all turn toward Ugly Spotted’s toes and then up toward his shell. All three shake their shells “no” from side to side.)
(in disgust) Well, our toes may look the same, but our shells are NOT all the same. (bragging) Look at mine. My shell is shiny and brown. THIS is what a shell should look like. I AM BEAUTIFUL!
Ooooo… your shell is beautiful, and look at mine! It’s so smooth and white. THIS is what a shell should look like. I AM PERFECT!
Shiny Brown and Smooth White, you two are beautiful, but look at me! THIS is what a shell should look like. I AM SO GLAMOROUS!
Well… I have spots! I AM UNIQUE!
(Shiny Brown, Smooth White, and Sparkly Blue lean once again and look at Ugly Spotted. All three shake their shells “no” from side to side.)
Spots? I don’t get it. Where is your shine? Your gloss? Clearly, you don’t have what I have.


© 2015 GIA.
Teaching Band and Orchestra: Methods and Materials is a classic in the field of instrumental music education—the ideal text for college instrumental students and an invaluable reference for practicing teachers.
This book covers every critical area in the professional life of band and orchestra teachers at the beginning and secondary levels. Author Lynn G. Cooper shares the experience and knowledge he has gained from more than 40 years of teaching instrumental music and music education. Topics include recruiting and retention, creating lesson plans, assessment, curriculum development, selecting literature, running effective rehearsals, organizing concerts, and much more.
This Second Edition is significantly expanded and updated, including major new sections on advocacy, technology, and the challenges of teaching middle school students. There are new suggestions for teaching strings, completely new and expanded string and full orchestra literature lists, and more suggestions for the non-string player who is assigned a string class. Also included in this Second Edition are additional student assessment strategies, updated Suggested Band Literature Lists, and more examples of effective warm-up and technique-building literature for rehearsals.
Teaching Band and Orchestra: Methods and Materials also goes into detail about the administrative realities of being a music teacher, from the job search to fundraising to motivating your students. A plethora of forms, sample letters, charts, and lists of suggested literature round out this enlightening text. Sample course syllabi and additional supplemental resources are available online.
Teaching Band and Orchestra: Methods and Materials provides instrumental music teachers with the tools necessary to be successful in the classroom or on the podium.
Dr. Lynn G. Cooper retired in 2007 as Chair of the Music Department and Professor of Music at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. During his twenty-two year career at Asbury University he conducted the Concert Band and taught courses in conducting and instrumental music education.
Prior to his 1985 appointment at Asbury University he taught in the public schools of Michigan for nineteen years. The last fourteen of those years were spent developing an outstanding band program at Ypsilanti High School. He also founded, and for seven years conducted, the Ypsilanti Community Band, an excellent adult concert ensemble.
Dr. Cooper is an active adjudicator, clinician, guest conductor, and author. An active presenter at professional conferences, Dr. Cooper has given clinic-lectures at state, regional, and national conferences throughout the United States. He presented at the 2006 MENC National Conference, the Texas Bandmasters Association Conference in 2006, and the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in 2004 and 2008.
He served on the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Music Educators Association (KMEA) for sixteen years, including a two-year term as President. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the KMEA in 2009. Dr. Cooper serves as Chair of the KMEA Band Music Selection Committee. He also serves on the Board of Advisors of the Center for Music Education at Sam Houston State University in Texas.
Dr. Cooper received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from The University of Michigan, and his Doctor of Education degree from the University of Kentucky.
Download sample course syllabi and a sample exam from Teaching Band and Orchestra:
Instrumental Methods Syllabus
High School Methods Syllabus
Elementary and Middle School Methods Syllabus
Job Interview Exam


The SAT I, sponsored by The College Board, is a test measuring critical reading, verbal reasoning, writing, and math problem-solving – those abilities shown to be important for successful academic performance in college.
Most widely used admissions test among colleges and universities.
Tests students’ knowledge of reading, writing, and mathematics.
Each section scored on a scale of 200-800, with two writing sub scores for multiple-choice questions and the essay.
Why take the SAT I?
Admission requirement for many 4-year colleges. The scores from the SAT I are used as a determining factor in admissions decisions by many 4-year colleges.
To see how one’s academic skills compare with those of other college-bound students.
Who takes the SAT I?
All juniors will take the SAT I as part of the SAT State Testing Program in the spring of their junior year. Students considering 4-year colleges should plan to take the SAT I again in the fall of their senior year.
How does a student register for the SAT I?
For the SAT State Testing Program, all juniors will be registered through the school counseling office. Ms. Lemoine will assist students in the registration process. The SAT I is offered on specified Saturdays throughout the school year. (Alternative test dates are available to those who cannot test on Saturdays for religious reasons.) Students may register online at or by mail using the registration bulletin which is available in the guidance office. Registration deadlines are generally 4-6 weeks prior to the testing date.
Junior year – Spring SAT Reasoning Test and/or ACT
Senior year – Fall SAT Reasoning Test and/or ACT


A way back / music by Lachlan Davidson ; music resource kit by Lorraine Milne.
This music resource kit is based on composer Lachlan Davidson's jazz-rock inspired piece A Way Back which was commissioned by the Australian Society for Music Education for performance by school bands. The extension activities in the kit are designed for use in the classroom and involve the three basic areas of musical activity - listening, performing and composing. They cover the following musical elements/concepts and are applicable across all music curricula in Australia:
Unusual time signatures (with a focus on 7/4); Sub-division of beat; Rhythm patterns and phrases (riffs) in 7/4; Melodic patterns and phrases (riffs) in 7/4; Changing metres; Dorian mode; 12-bar blues harmonic pattern; Blues scales (for melodic improvisation); Composing a melody to be sung with an original set of lyrics
For older students, a full score and set of performance parts are included. While the full version (CD Track 1) will provide a challenge, the second simplified version (CD Track 2) allows less advanced students the opportunity to construct their own arrangement of the performance elements (riffs, melody, harmony part). Improvisation is also an important part of this piece and engages students in 'on-the-spot' composition.
The components of this kit include: a set of teaching notes; a full score of A Way Back (arrangement 1); separate parts for C, Eb and Bb and bass instruments, piano, guitar, bass and drums; riffs for C, Eb and Bb and bass instruments; a CD recording.
Contents note: Teacher's resource kit by Lorraine Milne -- Study score and parts for 'A Way Back' by Lachlan Davidson -- 1 CD (featuring Whizzbang Orkestra with Bryn Hills & Damien Woods).
Kit commissioned by the Australian Society for Music Education (ASME), 2005.
Music resource kit based on jazz-rock inspired piece 'A way Back'.
ISBN for teacher's booklet: 9780909168612
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Hours of Content: 7
Have you ever said to yourself: "I'd like to learn to code, but where should I start?”
There is an overwhelming number of options that are available to those who want to learn. Introduction to Programming is designed to give you the foundational skills that will prove important for any type of programming you want to do. You’ll learn to code web pages, create a mobile application and use external data sources. (Mobile covered in Level II of the course)
This course, which includes video lectures, lab exercises, and full program code will prepare your for entry-level jobs in development— or simply make you comfortable with code and confident in a more advanced study.
As you build a portfolio of skills, you’ll also build a portfolio of completed projects that can be used to demonstrate your new skill sets.
In Level I of the course we focus on foundations-- The things that all developers need to know to be successful. With each passing chapter of the course, you'll learn new skills and demonstrate them in a lab exercise.
This program will introduce participants to all of the following technologies:
- HTML5 and CSS: Construct the visual aspects of websites and mobile applications with this language pair
- Python: You’ll learn the basics of coding and programming logic using the Python programming language
We Created Introduction to Programming For You
If you've been considering learning to code-- or have tried before and it didn't quite take-- then this course is for you. We're not teaching a random programming language, but, instead, laying a professional foundation with the skills today's programmers need to know.
A mix of lecture and activity, this course is designed not just to expose you to important topics for new coders, but to help you retain the information and immediately put it to use.
Comprehensive and Efficient
Introduction to Programming is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the programming field. However, we know you're busy and don't spend time on unnecessary theory and background. You'll complete the course in just a few weeks worth of evenings-- however, the lessons will stay with you throughout your programming career.


As one whose passion is blended between literacy and technology, I seek out the best EdTech resources to share with educators to support literacy in their classrooms. Most of my teaching and learning experience involves both Google and Apple options, but recent investigation and application allow me to say, without a doubt, in the area of Assistive Technology to support struggling readers in the classroom, Microsoft Learning Tools wins, hands down, and offers students a comprehensive option.
Adolescents who struggle with reading face multiple challenges throughout the school day. They are constantly confronted with a text they cannot read in almost every discipline, motivation and peer acceptance play a major role in identity and self-esteem, diagnostic tools to pinpoint exact deficits are difficult to locate, and many of their teachers have had little to no training in foundational skills of reading. While many adolescent readers may have difficulty in comprehension and vocabulary, a rising number of older students are diagnosed with Dyslexia and experience decoding issues.
Dyslexia is not a visual issue; kids don’t see letters and words backward or in reverse. Dyslexia is a specific learning disability in reading; which impacts learning, not intelligence. It’s mainly a problem in reading accurately and fluently. Decoding issues are a sign of dyslexia and direct instruction beginning with letter-sound correlation is often needed, but there are immediate things all teachers can do to help students, even if they have no understanding of how to teach phonological awareness, phonics, and fluency. This support can come in the form of Assistive Technology. “In a broad sense, assistive technology (AT) is any device, piece of equipment or system that helps a person with a disability work around his challenges so he can learn, communicate or simply function better.” (Understood.org)
As previously stated, I believe that Microsoft Learning Tools provides students who struggle with reading, including those with dyslexia, a comprehensive set of free tools to support their daily literacy needs. If the goal of AT is to provide students tools for independence, I recommend all teachers become familiar with the top 5 ways I see these tools helping students:
- Text to Speech – Text to Speech provides both the visual and audio needed to support fluent readers. By seeing the words and hearing it read aloud, students are not only able to access text that may have been too difficult to read independently but are reinforcing vocabulary and fluency.
- Display Controls – Display Controls allow students to customize their reading experience by font, size, color, and language. But, Microsoft Learning Tools takes it a step further, allowing students options with spacing, syllables, and parts of speech. There is also an option to mask part of the screen minimizing distractions and focusing on the line read. (Slideshow below highlights options available)
- Annotation Tools – Many struggling readers often use all of their cognitive energy decoding text and can’t remember what they had just read. Annotation tools allow students to take notes as they read. simply by switching browsers, students can use Microsoft Edge to annotate and save images directly from web pages into their OneNote Notebook. While there are many annotation tools out there, this one was so simple, streamlined and provided many annotation options! Plus…
- Optical Character Recognition – Microsoft also allows students to the option to capture text from pictures and pdf when shared to OneNote. So not only can students annotate digital text, they can save their notes, share them, and then extract the text in the image to customize with text to speech or display controls.
- Dictionary – Finally, Microsoft Learning Tools allows students to learn unfamiliar words with the built-in dictionary. Not only does the dictionary define the word, but it also provides a picture and an audio clip to hear the word.
All students should have the tools and resources needed to access content in the classroom. Microsoft Learning Tools allows students to not only access information but provides customization, annotation tools, OCR, and a visual and audio dictionary for FREE. The beauty of these Learning Tools is the ease and compatibility they have to work together. Supporting struggling readers in multiple areas not only supports their literacy development but provide options for future learning that they do in and out of school.


Three elementary schools interacted with students around the world when as part of their annual Read Across America Campaign the students Skyped with each other across an ocean
Three elementary schools used Skype to read and interact with students in Great Britain, Canada and Kenya.
“We strive to prepare global citizens so we wanted to expand our horizons to include other countries,” said Judy Warmath, coordinator of Elementary Education for Madison City Schools. “Through innovative exercises like Skyping with schools abroad and having guest readers from other countries, our teachers are making reading more fun while also broadening our students’ knowledge and awareness of other countries.”
Students at Heritage Elementary took turns reading “The Gruffaloe” with middle schoolers outside of London via Skype. The Heritage students enjoyed the story, and the British pronunciations. After the story they exchanged questions and ideas about everyday life.


This kit features science experiments for kids that are good, clean fun! Get into the world of geology by making three amber soaps with images of prehistoric insects trapped inside. Amber is prehistoric plant resin from ancient forests. As it drips, it can trap leaves, seeds, fur and other ancient biological artifacts. Learn about amber and the prehistoric treasures it has the power to preserve! It’s a brilliant kit for science kids with curious minds.
• Kids make their own prehistoric amber soaps
• It’s a hands-on lesson in geology and science for kids
• Develop a love for history and a passion for discovery
• Includes supplies and a full-color instruction manual
Age Recommendation: Ages 8 and up


The subject of group instruction is relatively new in the field of music education. Traditionally, music is being taught in private lessons, like the old model of the master and the apprentice. The student comes to the master to learn a set of skills and hopefully as a bonus, absorb some of the master's art as well.
Funny enough, most of the implementation of those acquired skills will happen in a group situation such as an orchestra or a smaller ensemble. Are all the students getting proper training so they would fit in and play well in an ensemble?
The financial situation in which less and less money goes to arts and less money goes to education, puts art education at the very bottom of the food chain. This forces many organizations to gravitate towards group instruction and there are several models of that. What happens to the individual in those settings?
Independently of the trend, we have witnessed some interesting developments that show the possible advantages of group instruction such as the Suzuki method which started in Japan and combines group and individual instruction and El Sistema in Venezuela.
I have been asked to teach a course on this subject for our Master of Music Education program. The course which I will teach next school year is trying to touch upon the most important issues concerning working with young groups and youth orchestras.
Is there a difference between a chamber music group and a group learning to play the violin? Is there a difference between the two activities focused on music and a regular classroom?
Let us take a closer look at some of the main issues and try to see what all group situations might have in common.
In the following video you can see highlights from a workshop. It was a joint project of two organizations: Internal Compass and Interfaith Encounters.
The only thing I knew about the group before I met the students was that some spoke Hebrew and some spoke Arabic.
Other questions I had in mind were:
1. Different levels - no matter how hard we try to build a group, even if theoretically all group members start at the same level of proficiency and understanding, or even, for the sake of argument, have exactly the same potential, as soon as the group starts working, we will see differences due to differences in learning skills and learning habits, in motivation and in attitude.
2. The Individual and the Group - What is the purpose of this activity? Is it to build a team or is the purpose of this activity to enhance the ability, the awareness and the perception of the individual ? In other words, is the group a goal, a tool, or both?
3. Diversity - how do we deal with different backgrounds, for example different languages, as in the video?
Here are some of the answers I offer, as can also be seen in the video:
The first and most important principle I call FCD - Furthest Common Denominator. Instead of trying to find the lowest common denominator, where everybody will feel comfortable, I am always looking for the furthest common denominator, where everybody is out of their comfort zone.
The other principle I often use is to assign Open Tasks - tasks where there are no right or wrong answers. This is easy to do when you have a class based on improvisation or a one time workshop. How do you do it when you have a group that has to perform a Schubert Quartet or a Beethoven Symphony?
Well, this is what my class is all about...
And for diversity, I can only repeat what I have said time and time again:
We are all just one group:
What people have in common is much more and much greater than what separates them. When we realize this, we can respect and enjoy the differences rather than fight over them.


A Multiplication Chart 1-1000 is the basis of the multiplication operation. During the old days, the multiplication table was an integral part of elementary education around the world because it lays the basis of arithmetic operations with base 10 numbers.
Many educators believe the kids must memorize the tables up to 9 or 15. The multiplication table is attributed to the ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras. Here you can find multiplication tables from 1 to 100. You can get the PDF; JPG & Excel downloads for the full table as well as worksheets. Kids can find a variety of printable charts of the multiplication table from this site.
The Free Printable Multiplication Chart 1-1000 is available in different formats, colours and sizes. So, if you want to print a poster for the wall of your room you can do it for free from this site.
Multiplication Table 1 To 1000
A child needs to memorise the multiplication table as it boosts the confidence of the child. Multiplication tables help in learning mathematics in a better way and it also leads to better results in other subjects. If a child learns the multiplication table in primary classes he/she will struggle less in secondary classes. If you build the basic mathematical blocks today you will be able to do more complex tasks very easily tomorrow.
The multiplication table is also very helpful in our day to day life. Suppose you went to a shopping mall and you found that a discount is available on your favourite brands, here multiplication will help you out to find out how much you will save. This site provides you with the free Multiplication Chart 1-1000 prints for free. You can take out the prints in various colours like green, blue, red, brown etc. You can hang the print on the wall as a calendar or stick it on the wall like a poster. So what are you waiting for? Grab the opportunity before it is gone.
Multiplication Chart 1 To 1000
Multiplication is repeated addition (the number must all be the same before we can use it to multiply) but you should know the table as well because it is not possible for you all the time to add the numbers quickly. In multiplication, you have a certain number of groups of the same size. The Multiplication Chart 1-1000 available on this site will help students to master the tables from 1 to 1000.
This Multiplication Chart 1-1000 provides all the factors from 1-1000 mentioned across the top row and the first column of the chart. Here, the product of the two factors can be ascertained when the two factors under question will intersect on the chart. Here, multiplication chart 1 to 1000 is available in different formats- JPG, PDF & EXCEL. If you have a printer it will hardly cost you anything. So don’t wait, download the multiplication chart for free and enhance your fundamental mathematical skills.
Printable Multiplication Table 1 To 1000
This site provides you with the printable multiplication table 1 to 1000 in different formats. The multiplication table enhances your basic mathematical skills and here we are providing free printable charts for free to build your skills stronger.
If you use the chart to learn the multiplication table you will have a good knowledge of addition. For example, 7 plus 7 equals 14, which is equivalent to two numbers 7. Or 2 times 7. It is very difficult to memorize multiplication tables 1 to 1000 but with the help of the printable chart available on our site you can do it easily.
Free Multiplication Table Chart For Kids in PDF
As you know that learning multiplication is a very important part of our child’s elementary education. If your child masters multiplication, it will help him/her gain a solid foundation in mathematics that will help them throughout school and beyond. First, you learn to walk before you run in the same way you learn the multiplication table first before you master multiplication skills.
If your child has not memorized the Multiplication Chart 1-1000 will find these levels of math much more difficult than they need to be and trust us there is no time to use a calculator or to take a minute to work out a math strategy before coming up with the answer.
So get a free multiplication table chart for kids in PDF now and help them in building blocks for a foundation for better mathematical skills.
Mr. Khan is a Red Hat Certified (RHCE & RHCSA) in 2018, and completed MCA (Master of Computer Application) in 2013, from IGNOU New Delhi, India, and BCA (Bachelor of Computer Application) in 2010, from Integral University Lucknow, India. He has extensive analytical & programming experience, with an emphasis in Python, Java, ‘C’ Languages & MySQL Server Database.


Our priority is for all children to gain the skills of reading, writing and maths. It is important to us that children enjoy their learning and we teach a thematic curriculum so that children can practice their literacy and numeracy skills whilst learning about a wide range of topics. The topics covered are broad, balanced and meet the requirements of the National Curriculum. Within each topic children will learn English, maths and science, together with technology, information technology, history, geography, French, art, music and PE. We also offer RE and Personal, Social and Health Education and citizenship. Children are predominantly taught through cross curricular topics which add to the enjoyment and engagement in learning. RE is taught using the Locally Agreed Leicestershire Syllabus - a link for this can be found below. Our own scheme of work is also attached below. We follow the Cambridgeshire Scheme of Work for Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) and more information can be found below. This is such a large document that we have given the overview here but please ask for more information on the units if you would like further information.
Early reading, writing and phonics is taught using Read Write Inc, a high quality scheme which is intended to ensure that all children are reading by the end of Year 1. Older children will follow a scheme of work linked to the National Strategy and intended to give them an opportunity to practise both reading and writing skills across the curriculum. Maths is taught using the Maths No Problem scheme. This gives children a practical base for their maths which can then be developed into more abstract thinking as they move up the school. Children learn maths in parallel groups of same age children - these groups are different to the class groups but are not set by ability.
Children also have the chance to take part in a range of sporting opportunities such as netball, cross-country, after school football, gymnastics and rugby.
As part of our policy on enrichment children have a number of opportunities to take part in special events in school, such as visits by musicians, artists or dance troupes. They will see at least one play a year. All children will take part in a trip outside school. Year 4 children have an opportunity for a one night residential. Year 6 children will be offered the opportunity to take part in a one week residential visit. Year 3 children have the chance to learn to play a ukulele and can continue to attend ukulele club in year 4, 5 and 6 for a small charge.
Children are taught swimming at Enderby Leisure Centre. Children in Year 1, 2, 3 and 4 are going in half term blocks at present. Children in years 5 and 6 cannot spare the time from the curriculum and are already able to swim the required 25 metres.
Our full curriculum is shown in the document below.


In this ongoing series, we explore what culturally responsive teaching looks like at different grade levels and offer concrete examples and resources. Last month we explored ideas for read alouds that build relationships in Kindergarten. This month, educator Lindsay Barrett offers guidance on culturally responsive teaching in grade 1 through the intentional selection of texts for reading instruction.
First grade is a transitional year in many ways. Students arrive displaying the innocent, literal thinking reminiscent of Kindergarten and grow to be more aware, critical thinkers—often with a few new permanent front teeth! While read aloud is still a crucial aspect of the curriculum (find many text selections and lesson plans here and here), first grade is also when many students make the leap to independent reading. How can teachers help students actively dig into grade level reading? Selecting instructional texts using a culturally responsive lens is one important strategy. (What is culturally responsive teaching? Check out this post.)
One way to draw first graders into classroom reading instruction is to rethink your sources for shared reading material. Supplement your collection of traditional nursery rhymes and tried-and-true favorite poems with selections that reflect your students’ lives. Pencil Talk and Other School Poems includes students of diverse backgrounds in the illustrations and touches on themes relevant to many students (e.g. “Why can’t recess last all day?”) Excerpts from the classic Bein’ With You This Way not only celebrate diversity but also offer the chance to discuss how speech patterns can be recorded and honored in written text (“Big nose. Little nose. Straight hair. Curly hair. Different—Mm-mmm, but the same, Ah-ha!”)
Selecting culturally responsive texts for small group reading instruction is another opportunity to engage students. In her article for “Rethinking Schools,” educator Sandra Osorio encourages teachers to choose text sets that reflect not just students’ appearances but cultural backgrounds and experiences as well. She shares her personal journey to compile text sets that resonated with her largely bilingual, bicultural student population and the increase in engagement she observed when she found texts that were a good match. This is consistent with leading research on student motivation; John T. Guthrie and colleagues have written extensively about how access to reading material relevant to their lives builds students’ intrinsic motivation to read, which in turn boosts reading achievement. (Guthrie’s work is parallel in many ways to the tenets of culturally responsive teaching.)
Seek out books that portray topics or settings to which your students can relate and look for illustrations that depict characters that reflect their backgrounds. From simple texts like Best Friends, which depicts Asian Indian buddies swimming and playing at the park, to high-interest texts for independent readers like At the Firehouse With Dad, Bebop Books allow students to see themselves in books. Spanish versions are also available. The Confetti Kids series portrays a diverse group of children who grapple with common childhood issues like moving to a new home and deciding what to play with friends.
Sandra Osorio also shares how she learned to quiet her standards-driven urge to “move things along” and make time and space for student discussion about personal connections to texts. Early reading instruction often focuses on “making it through” the text with a certain accuracy percentage or fluency rate. Even though sometimes your instinct (and your students’) may be to breathe a sigh of relief when a book is finished and set it aside, don’t miss out on the opportunity to engage students in meaningful conversation.
Admittedly, it can be difficult to construct meaty questions about early reading texts. For the very earliest of levels, use the illustrations to spark discussion. For instance, the illustrations of Cleaning Day add to the simple text by showing how the family dog adds to the mess:
Even shared reading texts can spark meaningful discussion. After reading Rainbow Stew as a read aloud, use excerpts as shared reading material. Ask students to reflect on the rich descriptive language (“Slip, slide, squishy stride, we snip off red tomatoes”) to answer “What are you imagining when you read this part?” and use the text as a springboard to discuss sustainable living, reframing disappointing situations in a positive light, and strengthening family bonds.
First grade is undoubtedly a year for solidifying foundational skills and diving into the mechanics of reading. But it’s also a year for children to begin to meaningfully engage in independent reading. Providing culturally relevant texts can be the perfect invitation for them to sink their (new) teeth in.
About the Author: Lindsay Barrett is a former elementary teacher and literacy nonprofit director. She currently works as a literacy consultant and stays busy raising three young boys. Find out more about her work at lindsay-barrett.com.


The purpose of this article is to examine the national anthem of the United States in terms of its functions, norms, and variants. After providing an historical background of the song's origins, I use various sociocultural conceptualizations of music and social functions as guideposts around which to wrap historical and autobiographical narratives that build a case against absolutist portrayals of "The Star- Spangled Banner" in school music curriculum. Finally, I discuss ways this understanding can inform educators in constructing learning experiences designed to help students come to know the multiple meanings and soundings of this and other important songs representative of specific natural groups.
|Original language||English (US)|
|Number of pages||1|
|Journal||Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education|
|State||Published - Dec 1 2007|
ASJC Scopus subject areas


NASA – NASA Explorer Schools NASA Now Classroom Videos
“Join us in the Icing Research Tunnel at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, when aeromechanical engineer and icing specialist Judith VanZante gives a tour and explains how engineers apply simple concepts in physical science to create windy, cold and wet conditions for aircraft. VanZante explains the hazards of ice on aircraft, how it is formed, and why research on ice plays a major role in aeronautics. “
American Chemical Society
“American Chemical Society – Science for Kids”
8 Videogames to Get Your Kid Into Engineering | Game|Life | Wired.com
“Kids have always loved building things and solving problems, but before videogames, the best tools we could offer them were Lincoln Logs and Legos. Today, we can give them a whole lot more. Here are eight games you can use to help prepare your child’s brain for a life of building and engineering.”
Bruno Maisonnier: Dance, tiny robots! | Video on TED.com
There’s a place in France where the robots do a dance. And that place is TEDxConcorde, where Bruno Maisonnier of Aldebaran Robotics choreographs a troupe of tiny humanoid Nao robots through a surprisingly emotive performance.
Bruno Maisonnier works at Aldebaran Robotics, maker of the tiny, compelling humanoid Nao.
Sum It Up: An Introduction to Static Equilibrium – Activity – www.TeachEngineering.org
“Students are introduced to static equilibrium by learning how forces and torques are balanced in a well-designed engineering structure. A tower crane is presented as a simplified two-dimensional case. Using Popsicle sticks and hot glue, student teams design, build and test a simple tower crane model according to these principles, ending with a team competition. “
Forces and Graphing – Activity – www.TeachEngineering.org
“explore forces acting on an object, to practice graphing experimental data, and/or to introduce the algebra concepts of slope and intercept of a line. A wooden 2×4 beam is set on top of two scales. Students learn how to conduct an experiment by applying loads at different locations along the beam, recording the exact position of the applied load and the reaction forces measured by the scales at each end of the beam”
iLearn Technology » Blog Archive » DIY: a maker site for kids
“DIY is an online club for kids to earn maker skills. Kids (otherwise known as Makers) share their creations and work with a larger online community and collect patches for the skills they learn. Each skill has a set of challenges that help kids learn different techniques and create something fantastic. When a child completes a maker challenge, they can add photos and video to their online portfolio to show off their creation.”
Posted from Diigo. The rest of Look Up! Educator Network group favorite links are here.


MUSC3353 Music in the Community
- 6 points
|Semester 1||UWA (Perth)||Face to face|
- Details for undergraduate courses
- Level 3 option in the Music Studies; Music General Studies major sequences
- The area of knowledge for this unit is Design and Creative Arts
- Category B broadening unit for students
- Level 3 elective
- This unit introduces students to music in the community as forms of social practice—music therapy, music performance residencies and teaching artists, school outreach and community music-making. By fostering an understanding of the theoretical and practical bases out of which music in the community has emerged, the unit provides students with practical experiences that develop a repertoire of reflective practitioner skills for engagement in community music practices. Key questions to be explored include—What are the foundations of the community music movement? What processes are involved in producing musical activities for community music goals? What skills and understandings need to be developed by musicians practicing in various community settings? What are the therapeutic functions and applications of music? How do these processes operate? How can music assist in improving health and wellbeing?
This is an elective unit in the Music Studies major in the Bachelor of Arts degree. It is also open to students enrolled in other majors and degree pathways who fulfil the prerequisites and who have an interest in music.
- Students are able to (1) understand principles and concepts of community music for the range of social, cultural, therapeutic and medical benefits that underlie the work; (2) articulate some of the main lines of enquiry and practice within the discipline such as African drumming for self-administered therapeutic benefit; the practical skills involved in founding and developing a community choir; music therapy in community contexts; teaching artists and musicians; (3) explain how advances in knowledge have affected an understanding of music and its role over time (e.g. music shaman); (4) demonstrate a practical understanding of music in the community using skills acquired in workshops (e.g. to run a musical workshop for young adults with no previous musical experiences); (5) engage in analytical processes commensurate with Level 3; and (6) develop generic research and critical skills to enable successful tertiary study and patterns of lifelong learning.
- Indicative assessments in this unit are as follows: (1) a presentation; (2) an essay; and (3) an investigative project. Further information is available in the unit outline.
Supplementary assessment is not available in this unit except in the case of a bachelor's pass degree student who has obtained a mark of 45 to 49 overall and is currently enrolled in this unit, and it is the only remaining unit that the student must pass in order to complete their course.
- Unit Coordinator(s)
- Professor Alan Lourens
- Unit rules
- any Level 2 MUSC unit
- MUSC2010 Music in the Community
- Contact hours
- lectures: 2 hours per week
- Unit Outline
- Semester 1-2020 [SEM-1-2020]
- The availability of units in Semester 1, 2, etc. was correct at the time of publication but may be subject to change.
- All students are responsible for identifying when they need assistance to improve their academic learning, research, English language and numeracy skills; seeking out the services and resources available to help them; and applying what they learn. Students are encouraged to register for free online support through GETSmart; to help themselves to the extensive range of resources on UWA's STUDYSmarter website; and to participate in WRITESmart and (ma+hs)Smart drop-ins and workshops.
- Books and other material wherever listed may be subject to change. Book lists relating to 'Preliminary reading', 'Recommended reading' and 'Textbooks' are, in most cases, available via the Booktopia Textbook Finder, which has the functionality to search by course code, course, ISBN and title, and may also be posted or available at the appropriate school's administrative offices. Where texts are listed in the unit description above, an asterisk (*) indicates that the book is available in paperback.


Art and design
Statement of Intent
Our aim is to provide an Art education which enables children to reach great heights in their creativity and skills whilst appreciating and understanding the creative world in which we live.
Through Art and Design at Horfield Primary School, we aim to facilitate meaningful, memorable learning experiences within our vibrant, varied curriculum. As well as using Art and Design to enrich all subjects and to authentically create connectedness within the curriculum, key Art and Design knowledge and skills are progressively taught and developed. Children's understanding of the visual elements of art and design (line, tone, texture, colour, pattern, shape and 3D form) is firmly rooted within a clear progression of skills in drawing, painting, sculpture, printing and textiles. Children use sketchbooks to develop and explore new ideas, externalise their thoughts, make connections and deepen their understanding. These sketchbooks provide a wonderful record of their creative work and experiences. Children learn and explore the work of different artists, illustrators, craft makers, Bristol artists and about some of the amazing art that Bristol has to offer. This enables children to develop their knowledge of how Art and Design shapes our history, culture and creativity, and provides inspiration for their own work as artists.
An example of Year 3 Art and Design
Inspired by the fabric and wallpaper designs of William Morris, Year 3 developed their observational drawing and printing skills. They created a direct press print of their own design using polyblock.
An example of Year 5
Art and Design
Inspired by The Little Ships of Dunkirk by Louise Borden, Year 5 embarked upon an exploration of different media to capture their “little heroic boats.” They developed their skills in water colour, textural direct press print, oil pastel and mixed media collage using acetate and torn layers of tissue paper.
Imagination Station, a cross-curricular, creative writing strategy that was created here at Horfield, blurs the lines between Art and Design and English, sometimes truly merging the two. In Imagination Station lessons, children combine Art and Design and English to create truly unique, inspirational, innovative pieces of work. Imagination Station can provide an additional opportunity, beyond Art and Design lessons, for children to develop key Art and Design skills. Laurel Steel, our Creative Arts Lead, has delivered Imagination Station training throughout Bristol and beyond and now many schools have also adopted this exciting, creative strategy.
“Horfield’s Imagination Station sketchbooks are truly stunning. The combination of Art and English is so inspiring. I’m taking it back to my school immediately! The books are clearly evidence of outstanding, imaginative teaching and inspired children.”
Delegate feedback from a Headteacher at Mrs Steel’s training, Sharing Best Practice Conference in Cornwall,
An example of Year 1 Imagination Station
Inspired by the illustrations of Eric Carle in Mister Seahorse, Year 1 children developed their understanding of primary and secondary colours and experimented with brusho dye and oil pastel mark making to create wax resist. They then created their own descriptive writing to capture the magic of Mister Seahorse floating through the water.
An example of Year 6 Imagination Station
In response to The Island by Armin Greder, Year 6 developed their skills in using directional mark marking to create texture, tone and depth. Their dramatic, expressive characters inspired superb first person narratives.