National Education System
The Thai education system comprises 4 levels, namely: pre-school education, primary education, secondary education, and higher education. Details of the 4 levels of education can be summarized as follows:
Pre-school Education: is provided for 3-5year old children. It aims to encourage the harmonious physical, intellectual, emotional and social development of the children prior to formal education. The pre-school education can be provided in many ways such as child care centres, nursery schools and kindergartens. The Ministry of Education has established a kindergarten in every provincial capital to serve as a model for the private ones. Since this level of education is optional, therefore, the private sector has played an active role. Most pre-schools are private and located in Metropolitan Bangkok. These schools are under the supervision of the Office of the Private Education Commission, Ministry of Education.
Primary education: emphasizes literacy, numeracy, communication skills, and abilities relevant to future occupational roles. At this level, education is compulsory and free of charge, provided for children aged 6-11 including the disadvantaged ones . Primary school curriculum is an integrated curriculum comprising five areas of learning experiences, namely: basic skills development, life experience, character development, work oriented education, and special experiences. The last area is provided for children in pratom 5 and 6 which are the last two grades at the primary level. Eight core subjects from the National Curriculum. Flexibility is built into the curriculum to integrate local wisdom and culture as long as it is consistent with the learning standards in each of the subject groups There include Thai language, mathematics, science, social studies religion and culture, health and physical education, art, career and technology, and foreign languages. Primary education is under several government agencies. Most of the government primary schools are under the Office of Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education. There are also demonstration schools attached to some universities.
Secondary Education: is divided into two levels, each covering a period of three years. The lower level emphasizes on learners intellect, ethics morality and basic skills. It allows the learner to explore his individual interests and aptitudes through a wide choice of both academic and vocational subjects. The upper level aims to provide appropriate academic and vocational knowledge and skills correspondent with the learner’s interests and aptitudes. This knowledge and these skills will beneficial for learners to continue study at a higher level or to enter the world of work. Secondary curriculum covers eight broad subjects: Thai language, mathematics, science, social studies religion and culture, health and physical education, art, career and technology, and foreign languages. There is also a wide range of exploratory pre-vocational subjects available. The use of the credit system at this level facilitates flexibility in the teaching-learning process. Both public and private sectors are involved in the organization of secondary education. Public schools are mostly under the Office of Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education.
Higher Education: aims at the full development of human intellectuality, and the advancement of knowledge and technology. This level may be organized in the forms of colleges, universities, or institutions for specialized studies.


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Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic ReadingPaperback
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- Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books,U.S.
- Format: Paperback | 130 pages
- Dimensions: 183mm x 234mm x 8mm | 249g
- Publication date: 7 February 2007
- Publication City/Country: Portsmouth
- ISBN 10: 0325008876
- ISBN 13: 9780325008875
- Sales rank: 17,081
Inferring, questioning, determining importance. It's not easy to explain these abstract reading strategies to elementary readers, yet knowing how they work and how to use them is an important first step to connecting with texts. Fortunately Tanny McGregor has developed visual, tangible, everyday lessons that make abstract thinking concrete and that can help every child in your classroom make more effective use of reading comprehension strategies. Comprehension Connections is a guide to developing children's ability to fully understand texts by making the comprehension process achievable, accessible, and incremental. McGregor's approach sequences stages of learning for each strategy that take students from a fun object lesson to a nuanced and lasting understanding. Her lessons build bridges between the concrete and the abstract by incorporating writing, discussion, song, art, and movement into a web of creative connections that reinforce each strategy on a variety of levels. All the while Comprehension Connections offers an inside look at the dynamic of McGregor's teaching, showing you how her ideas look in action, and including the language she uses and that she encourages her students to use as they build their facility with: schema inferring questioning determining importance visualizing synthesizing. Many students struggle to understand what it is they are supposed to do as they learn to read strategically. Help them make connections to the ideas behind reading and watch as your readers go deeper into texts than ever before.
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Gaming | Feature
Using Mobile Games in the Classroom and Living Room
Teaching methods today are not the same as they were even just a few years ago. Technology as a teaching tool has come a long way. While overhead projectors and bulky desktop computers used to complement classroom instruction, iPads and mobile games are now being used to deliver teaching material in a way that was never before possible.
Both students and teachers benefit from using technology in the classroom. From the captivating curriculum on mobile devices that keeps kids engaged to the immediate feedback about their performance, educational games help students better prepare for the always-evolving virtual world they live in. Instead of being intimidated by today’s technology tools, some teachers are embracing these resources to enhance teaching and learning.
If children are immersed in a game’s message, they achieve better results. When children are engaged, teachers do not have to merely dictate the lessons. Instead, they can allow children to think and problem-solve in practical, hands-on ways. Through edu-gaming, kids can explore their individual interests and feel empowered to learn.
An effective educational game is one that caters to a player’s interests first. For example, Evanced Games, a company that designs mobile games as a playground for kids to do something fun with the knowledge they acquire, provides apps that can be used for classroom instruction. Two of the apps, Froggy Phonics and Tic-Tac Bananas, help reinforce foundational skills such as word patterns and cognitive skills, including cause and effect.
These apps teach kids primary skills that also increase student engagement. With iPads in their hands, students collaborate with one another while challenging each other to move forward in a game. The apps are not only simple forms of educational entertainment. They also encourage social skills such as teamwork and camaraderie. This fosters a sense of community in the classroom.
Incorporating Games Into Your Classroom
While a game-based approach to teaching is an effective way to motivate students, it is important to remember that the instructional objective is essential. Rather than masking learning, educational games allow kids to embrace learning and feel proud for tackling challenging, yet achievable obstacles.
Engaging kids using educational games in the classroom encourages them to reason and perform like problem-solvers. Critical thinking and strategizing skills can be used to expand students’ learning opportunities beyond the curriculum. In a differentiated learning environment, games can help teachers personalize learning based on how their students best acquire knowledge. Allowing today’s kids to use these innovative tools, piques their deepest interests and meets their educational needs. Even better, the students can take the games home, helping to bridge the classroom environment and the living room.
Angie Cullin is a special education teacher at St. Malachy School in Brownsburg, IN.


Principled Practices for Adolescent Literacy
A Framework for Instruction and Policy
By Elizabeth G. Sturtevant, Fenice B. Boyd, William G. Brozo, Kathleen A. Hinchman, David W. Moore, Donna E. Alvermann
Routledge – 2006 – 216 pages
This book presents an evidence-based framework for understanding the literacy needs of adolescents. The premise is that educators and other critical stakeholders need to understand evidence-based principles in order to develop effective curriculum to meet the needs of diverse learners. Recommendations are provided for middle and secondary education, professional development, teacher education research and policy.
At the center of the book are Eight Guiding Principles developed by the authors through a process that included an extensive review of research and policy literature in literacy and related fields, a comparison of National Standards documents, and visits to the classrooms of 28 middle and high school teachers across the United States. The Principles are broad enough to encompass a variety of contexts and student needs, yet specific enough to offer real support to those involved in program development or policy decisions. They provide an overarching structure that districts and teachers can use to develop site-specific curriculum that is both research-based and designed to meet the needs of the learners for whom they are responsible.
Important Text Features: Organized to help readers understand empirically supported principles of practice that can be used to address literacy concerns in today's schools, each chapter that addresses one of the eight Principles follows a similar format:
* The Principle is presented along with a brief explanation of the research base and a sample of national standards that support it.
* One or more case examples spanning a wide variety of disciplines, grade levels, and local conditions - provide an in-depth look at the Principle in action.
* A well-known adolescent literacy expert offers a response to each case example, giving readers an informed view of the importance of the Principle, how it is enacted in the cases, and examples of other work related to the Principle. Discussion questions are provided that can be used for individual reflection or group discussion.
Principled Practices for Adolescent Literacy is intended as a text for pre-service and in-service upper-elementary, middle and high school literacy methods courses and graduate courses related to adolescent literacy, and as a resource for school district personnel, policymakers and parents.
Contents: R.T. Vacca, Foreword. Preface. Why Principled Practices? Research on Youth's Literacy Development: An Overview. Principle 1: Adolescents Need Opportunities to Participate in Active Learning Environments That Offer Clear and Facilitative Literacy Instruction. Principle 2: Adolescents Need Opportunities to Participate in Respectful Environments Characterized by High Expectations, Trust, and Care. Principle 3: Adolescents Need Opportunities to Engage With Print and Nonprint Texts for a Variety of Purposes. Principle 4: Adolescents Need Opportunities to Generate and Express Rich Understandings of Ideas and Concepts. Principle 5: Adolescents Need Opportunities to Demonstrate Enthusiasm for Reading and Learning. Principle 6: Adolescents Need Opportunities to Assess Their Own Literacy and Learning Competencies and Direct Their Future Growth. Principle 7: Adolescents Need Opportunities to Connect Reading With Their Life and Their Learning Inside and Outside of School. Principle 8: Adolescents Need Opportunities to Develop Critical Perspectives Toward What They Read, View, and Hear. Supporting Principled Practices. Appendix: Additional Resources.


Our General Studies curriculum promotes academic excellence, individual responsibility and creativity and is based on the Alabama State guidelines for Elementary education. Our program emphasizes experiential learning, providing students multiple ways of learning and applying information. Both individual and collaborative learning are employed to encourage students to acquire strategies for learning as well as informational content.
The Language Arts curriculum is literacy based. Early grades incorporate phonics and phonemic awareness. Students are taught grammar, writing, spelling, vocabulary, listening and comprehension skills, and reading fluency. At every grade level, student writing portfolios are maintained allowing teachers and families to track progress in writing skills.
Our Math program emphasizes concepts, math facts and problem solving. Upper School mathematics is leveled with eligible students advancing to Algebra I coursework. Math is integrated into other areas such as art, science, and social studies/history. Life skills are incorporated through individual classes and tzedakah projects. For older grades, applied math projects are a major component of the program.
Social studies provides opportunities to learn about diversity within our own community and that of our larger world. Students study the social, governmental, and historical aspects of our country and the global community. In accordance with Best Practices, Social Studies materials are supplemented with additional resources, such as field trips, speakers, newspapers, magazines, student projects, technology and knowledge of the world around us. Because of our affiliation with the Birmingham Jewish Federation and local synagogues, we also welcome international visitors to our school regularly to speak with students and share about cultural and geographic diversity.
In science each grade covers four modules per year in the general areas of "Life and Earth Sciences" and "Physical Science and Technology". The curriculum uses inquiry-based activities teaching age appropriate concepts in the context of "real science, while promoting collaborative learning". Opportunities for science integration at NEMJDS include journal & portfolio writing, math activities and graphing, Arts and Sciences Presentation Day, and Web quests. These are relevant to both the curriculum and current events and frequently include a Judaics component. In Science, the developmental needs of our students are met by the "Focus, Explore, Reflect and Apply" learning cycle. This cycle allows the spiraling that develops concepts and skills across grade levels.


If you have a little one who is fascinated with colors and fireworks, this simple experiment is for you (and your child). The idea for this experiment originally came from Action Pack. You most likely have everything you already need in your cupboard for these fireworks in a jar: oil, water, and food coloring! If you haven’t already, be sure to download my FREE Fascinating Science for Kids eBook with this experiment and 14 equally-engaging others!
1. Fill your jar 3/4 of the way full with warm water.
2. In a separate bowl, mix a 3-4 tablespoons of oil and several drops of different colors of food coloring (I used 4 drops of each color: red, yellow, blue, and green).
3. Use a fork to gently mix the oil and food coloring together.
4. Gently pour the oil mixture into the jar.
5. Watch what happens—the food coloring will slowly sink out of the oil and into the water. When this happens, it will expand and begin to mix with the other colors.
The Science Behind It:
Food coloring dissolves in water but not in oil. Because the oil is less dense than the water, it will float at the top. The colored droplets will begin to sink because they are heavier than the oil. Once they sink into the water, they will begin dissolving into the water (which looks like a tiny explosion).
Download your free Science eBook with this idea and many others by clicking below and entering your e-mail address. You’ll immediately receive an e-mail that will have the link to the eBook! If you would rather not be an e-mail subscriber, “like” us on Facebook and then send us a private message to claim your FREE eBook.


Why are children in poor, urban neighborhoods more likely to experience early childhood developmental delays?
One answer to that confounding question involves the higher prevalence of cockroaches in the inner city—and efforts by parents to get rid of them.
In a recent study, Gina Lovasi, M.P.H., Ph.D., an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University and a former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Health & Society Scholar (2006 – 2009), found that higher prenatal exposure to a pesticide that was commonly used to exterminate cockroaches and other pests led to higher rates of mental and physical deficits in young children. Such impairments can undermine children’s health and educational attainment as they grow.
“There is a clear-cut association between this chemical and delayed mental and motor skill development in children, even when there are other potentially harmful environmental factors present,” Lovasi said.
Called chlorpyrifos, the chemical was banned for residential use in 2001 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) but is still widely used internationally and in the U.S. agricultural industry. It is currently under review by the EPA and may be banned for agricultural use as well.
Proponents of the chemical say current standards protect consumers and enable farmers to protect crops from insect losses. But critics are calling for tighter restrictions.
Lovasi’s Study Builds on Previous Study of Chlorpyrifos
A study published in 2006 in the journal Pediatrics found that prenatal exposure to the chemical delayed physical and mental development in young children.
The earlier study came under criticism because it did not control for environmental factors such as building dilapidation and neighborhood poverty.
Lovasi joined with the research team to conduct a subsequent study on the same population of low-income expectant mothers in the New York City neighborhoods of the South Bronx and northern Manhattan to weed out other possible explanations for early development problems in their young children. She conducted the research while a Health & Society Scholar at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
The study—called “Chlorpyrifos Exposure and Urban Residential Environment Characteristics as Determinants of Early Childhood Neurodevelopment”—was published online on March 18 in the American Journal of Public Health.
“We tested alternative explanations to see whether they could be driving delays in development,” she said. “But what we found reinforced our earlier finding of a pesticide-neurodevelopment association.”
Lovasi noted that she and her team did find that high neighborhood poverty was independently associated with a lag in neurodevelopment in young children. But the link to poverty did not explain away effects of chlorpyrifos, she said.
“We don’t know yet why exactly poverty is affecting neurodevelopment,” she said. “But we do have more confidence that this pesticide is responsible for slower development.”
The Health & Society Scholars program is supported by RWJF. It supports up to 18 doctorally prepared researchers each year to participate in an intensive two-year training program at one of six universities.


One of the foundational skills of a good guitarist is "Knowing what chords sound good together."
The most complete understanding of this skill comes from reading books on harmony. I recommend Harmony for Computer Musicians by Michael Hewitt. It's my favorite book on the subject, and it's a very practical modern approach to understanding chord progressions and harmony. Knowing how chord progressions work provides a solid guide for understanding what does and doesn't sound good.
Even when you know the rules, though, it still needs to be applied or it's useless. This means digging into music we know and figuring out how to play the things our favorite musicians have put into our heads.
Whether you know it or not, your own musical ideas in your head are imitations of songs you've already heard and like. That's why it's so important to learn how to cover your favorite songs, or at least pieces of them, because the musical ideas in those songs have pieces of what you want to play in your own music.
Today's example is the rising bass lines from the songs "Everlong" by the Foo Fighters.
So you can see the frets rising on the 5th string: frets 4-5-7-9-10-12.
Even though you can play this riff with two fingers, a lot of things are happening musically.
What's happening is that Everlong is in D major. So the D's on the 4th and 6th string are ringing in the background. On top of that, octaves are being played. An octave might be the simplest chord, and they sound good with distortion. Adding the complexity of playing them over the D's and it sounds awesome.
What octaves are being played certainly matters. On the 5th string, fret 4 is C#, which is degree 7 of a D major scale. On the same string, fret 5 is D again, which is degree 1 of the D major scale, obviously. Then it continues ascending. Fret 7 is E, fret 9 is F#, fret 10 is G, and 12 is A.
Looking at that sequence of notes, C# - D - E - F# - G - A, it's clear that it's just climbing the D major scale, which makes sense because the song is in D major.
The fact that the line ends on A is important, because A is the root of degree 5, which is the most dominant degree of the key. The strongest chord relationship in music is the relationship between the I chord, and the V chord of any key. The I chord feels like resting, and the V chord feels strong, or tense. In order to sound interesting, a song has to take us through these states of rest and tension.
These rising chord progressions have a very energetic feeling to them. It's like they're building us up. That's why they're used a lot in fast punk music where the goal is to get the crowd going. It's just how the music feels. Dave Grohl, of the Foo Fighters, has a long history of playing just that kind of music, and so naturally, these rising progressions show up a lot his music.
"My Hero" also has these rising octaves in the chorus. Coincidentally, it was also on the same album as Everlong.
Think of this as a songwriting tool. So if you're trying to develop a musical idea that's stuck in your head, and if it needs a powerful building sound, a rising chord progression is a place to start. Start at I and walk up to V. Now you know a song where you've heard it before, and how to do it.
Being a musician is about taking the music in your head and getting it to come out of the instrument just like you imagined it. A big part of being able to do that is knowing why music you already know sounds the way it does.


MITCHELL-BARRETT, RHONDA (2010) An analysis of the Storyline method in primary school; its theoretical underpinnings and its impact on pupils’ intrinsic motivation. Doctoral thesis, Durham University.
This study explores the relationship between the Scottish Storyline teaching method and pupils’ levels of motivation when engaged in a Storyline topic. It also examines the theoretical underpinnings for Storyline drawn from constructivism, progressive education, drama methodology and intrinsic motivation.
Storyline as a pedagogy emerged in Scotland during the late 1960s, as a means to support primary school teachers in teaching a topic based curriculum. Storyline as a teaching methodology has been widely adopted across Europe and America and in these countries, the method continues to grow in popularity. In order to meet the demands of the Scottish ‘Curriculum for Excellence’, there was recently a Storyline revival in Scotland. Yet in England, Storyline remains little known or virtually unheard of. However, with changing curriculum demands, teachers are searching for a pedagogy to teach topic based, cross curricular learning themes and as this paper will demonstrate, the Storyline method presents one such approach.
For the purposes of this study, pupils’ levels of intrinsic motivation were attained using an intrinsic motivation itemised questionnaire and the views and opinions of a sample group of pupils were gained through semi-structured interviews. This blend of data provides an insight into the scoring of pupils’ motivational levels and also their thoughts and experiences of the Storyline method. This research was then viewed within the wider context of the primary school curriculum, making links to recent developments in education policy making, and considering Storyline as a methodology to meet the needs of an unknown future curriculum.
|Item Type:||Thesis (Doctoral)|
|Award:||Doctor of Education|
|Keywords:||Storyline, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, constructivism, progressive education, drama methodology|
|Faculty and Department:||Faculty of Social Sciences and Health > Education, School of|
|Copyright:||Copyright of this thesis is held by the author|
|Deposited On:||07 Dec 2010 15:17|


Teacher Guide prepared by: Nancy I. Colamussi, Elementary Education, B.S., M.A., Rocky Point School District, Long Island, New York.
dig Parent's / Teacher's Guide
Greek Power (May / June 2003)
This Guide contains project ideas, short answer, extended response, and a matching section. The variation is designed to have the children think critically, as well as to test their comprehension. An answer key to the matching can be found at the end of the guide.
Extended Response: Comprehension & Critical Thinking
The questions below can be used as written, simply answered in complete sentences, or easily transformed into longer essay (ELA) style questions, or even research topics. In any case, have the students support their answers with details from the text or use critical thinking skills to create a thorough and interesting answer. Consider the level of your students when deciding how to use the questions.
"An Ancient Hangout" p. 6-9
"The Other Side of the Coin" p. 10-13
- Every Greek city had one main center called the agora. Explain what this was and why it was an important part of Greek life.
- Write about a place in your school or your community that serves as the agora. Explain the part that it plays in your daily life.
- Project (Individual or Group): Pretend you are on the planning board of your town. Design an agora for the community. What would be included in it? How would it be decorated? What would take place there? (Create a sketch or a model to demonstrate your idea.)
"If at First you Don't Succeed . . . " p. 16-21
- Explain the differences and similarities between excavation and survey archeology. Use a Venn diagram to organize this information.
- List the types of professionals that may take part in a survey. Write about ways that they could work together to discover important information about a site.
- What is the goal of the EKAS?
- What is the goal of the APKAS?
- What are the archeologists trying to understand about the small Greek Islands they are studying? What conclusion would you draw?
"The Greeks Take Sicily" p. 22-25
- Project: Read the article on pages 16-21 and create a timeline from 650 B.C. to 570 B.C. Use the information in the article and fill in the gaps with your own conclusions about this time period. Be sure to use different colored pens to differentiate between actual facts and your own thoughts.
- Write a welluctured persuasive essay based on the archeologists' finds at Abdera telling of the fate of the ancient people there. Draw your own conclusions based on the evidence presented. Your conclusion must be a logical possibility.
Match the vocabulary words marked 1-10 with the correct definition in column A - J.
||A. standard house design in the city of Palike.
||B. the city that King Ducetius founded on top of the hill at the Palici.
||C. In Greek mythology, the daughter of Hephaestus, the God of Fire.
||D. Pools of water, where according to legend, a suspect's guilt or innocence can be determined.
|_____5. pastas house
||E. smaller streets, running North to South, perpendicular to the main street.
||F. sacred spot, honored as the birthplace of the twin Gods.
||G. In Greek mythology, the King of the Gods.
||H. Italian for 'the little hill'.
||I. Principle (main) street running East to West.
||J. Greek leader of the Sicilian people in the mid fifth century B.C.
"Mosaic Keepers" p. 26-29
"Outreach at Isthmia" p. 32
- What were some of the factors that determined the appearance of a mosaic?
- What have conservators and archeologists been working together to accomplish?
- Explain the role of the Getty Conservation Institute.
- What are some of the specific tasks that the trainees carry out in order to help preserve the mosaics?
- Project (Individual or Group): Read the definition of a mosaic on page 28. Use tiny colored squares of paper to create a mosaic that represents something special to you.
Critical Thinking Essay: Based on the article on page 32, what do you think that the archeologists uncover at the ancient site of the Isthmian Games? Give reasons to support your answers.
- "The Greeks Take Sicily"
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145 "Choral music education has its roots in informal community singing and in music for the church."
147 Goal of the curriculum…comprehensive education as performers, listeners and creators of music with choral music as the medium….
" Warm-ups should be thought of as a group voice lesson where the fundamentals of singing are reinforced and tied to the challenges of the literature. Explain this statement and give an example.
148 Warm-ups - establish a supported sound, increase flexibility and build long-term vocal technique.
Be prepared to talk about the boys changing voice or "break" during adolescence. Do girls' voices change?
149 Comprehensive choral program - fundamentals of music including the skills of music reading, stylistic awareness, critical listening and expressive performance.
Challenge of music reading ---singing is intuitive and students can learn so much music so quickly by ear
150 Explain: “The choir teacher should begin with the sound of the music before the symbol.”
Explain: “The process of imitation provides the means for connecting familiar sounds to the new symbols that are needed for music reading.”
152 Choosing appropriate repertoire
students' ability level - strengths and weaknesses
variety of musical challenges
balance of difficulty
of styles and cultures
Be sure to study the questions on p. 154
154 What is tessitura, and why is it important? What is the difference between tessitura and range?
155 “From a curricular standpoint, the large mixed choir is where the fundamentals of choral singing…are taught and developed.”
156 The small select choir: additional challenges for the more advanced students
What are the other normal choral ensembles?
161 Profile of success:
understanding of how to communicate with students
set of strong musical skills
avoidance of a “one size fits all” approach
willingness to seek help when needed
understanding of the importance of musical excellence and the
commitment required to achieve it.
Knowledge of the singing voice and strong keyboard skills


Classical MPR in the Classroom is a standards-based video series to assist elementary music teachers in the classroom. The videos and curriculum are available for free on the Classical MPR YouTube channel as well as here on classicalmpr.org.
The Minnesota Music Education Standards feature benchmarks that are unique to this state. Specifically, one of these standards involves identifying and describing the cultural and historical traditions of Minnesota American Indian tribes and communities.
However, many classroom teachers may have difficulty addressing these benchmarks due to a lack of guidance. For example, how does a teacher learn how to appropriately approach American Indian music and culture? And how would a teacher get permission to teach an American Indian song?
Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) musician and educator Lyz Jaakola (also a Classical MPR 2013 Artist-in-Residence) provides some answers in Teaching American Indian Music, Arts, Culture and Traditions.
"There is no one way to be Anishinaabe; there is no one way to be American, for that matter," Jaakola says. Drawing on the American Indian culture of oral tradition, Jaakola loves to share her knowledge while embracing her Ojibwe and Finnish heritages.
Jaakola is a formally trained opera singer, but she has also immersed herself in other musical traditions including blues, jazz, and Anishinaabe. This video includes footage of Jaakola's Artist-in-Residence performance at a Saint Paul school, which is combined with an interview of Jaakola to provide a well-rounded informational tool for teachers.
Jaakola demonstrates Ojibwe-style singing, drumming, and flute-playing, and describes the background of each song and instrument. She received permission from elders in her tribe to teach these songs to the children, and she includes sheet music for the arrangements that she composed specifically for this curriculum. The video's curriculum also includes a more in-depth narrative about Anishinaabe-Ojibwe music traditions since the mid-20th century, written by Jaakola.
In Fall 2013, watch for a second installment of Teaching American Indian Music, Arts, Culture and Traditions with Lyz Jaakola.
Classical MPR thanks The Sunup Foundation for generous support of this music education initiative.


By Kristen Chase.
This weekend, I was intrigued by a New York Times article that addressed the common practice of delaying the start of kindergarten for children in order to put them ahead of their peers. I realize that while the practice of redshirting children may not necessarily affect you as a homeschooler, as an educator and a parent, I find the discussion pertinent and fascinating.
As someone who skipped kindergarten and later third grade, which was then followed by a challenging elementary school experience because I was two years younger than my immediate peers, I’ve always felt that being older would be better — both socially and intellectually. And as I read in “Delay Kindergarten at Your Child’s Peril” by Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt, I realized that I was not alone in this belief. It seems logical that a child too young might struggle, and therefore holding them back would give them an advantage.
This practice is particularly popular with boys, who have somehow been deemed less adept in early social and academic settings and therefore will benefit from being one of the older kids, if not the oldest, in their classroom.
However, as Wang and Aamodt report as part of a preview to their new book “Welcome to Your Child’s Brain: How the Mind Grows From Conception to College” the reverse is actually the case. On the contrary, children who start younger have a better chance of doing better, not just academically but socially as well.
As neuroscientists, the authors discuss the rapid change in a young child’s brain (generally up through age 6) – one that is ripe for learning. As a music educator, I was taught that music aptitude (similar to language, as in foreign language aptitude) is formed through age 9, at which point it stops. That’s why early music exposure (not necessarily formal music education, mind you) is key. That’s also why children have a much easier time learning a foreign language than adults.
And so, they purport that holding kids back a year until they are older actually does children a disservice. Sensational title aside (oh my, the peril!), their point is worth noting: Children are in school (or let’s say “being schooled” for us homeschoolers) to learn. And they will actually learn more and have a greater level of success, at least according to the authors’ research, if they are around their same age or older peers.
If you think about this concept outside of the context of school, then it really does make sense. My son, who is my second born, has learned so much just by being around his older sister. Unlike my oldest daughter, who I spent many hours with doing flashcards and educational activities because, well, she was my only child back then, my son never got all that attention from me. But he still learned his letters, numbers, colors, and quite frankly, much more than my daughter knew at his age because he’s been exposed to so much through her.
In my opinion, this research holds weight in regards to the socialization issue that many homeschoolers encounter; young children benefit socially and academically from being around older kids as well as their same age peers.
I have to say that after reading this article, I’m much more inclined to provide my kids with opportunities to interact with kids of a variety of ages. And I’m reminded that school, whatever my school choices are for my children, is, first and foremost, about learning, and not about being the best or getting ahead.
Kristen Chase is a mom of 4, writer, and co-publisher of Cool Mom Picks and Cool Mom Tech, a popular shopping and trendspotting blog for moms, as well as 4 Kids or More, an online resource for the modern larger family. She’s a 2nd generation homeschooler, having been taught middle and high school by her own mother back when people were still using quills and ink wells, and is now a very well-adjusted and socialized homeschool mom herself.


Scientia 2006: Mary Jo G. Biazzo
Mary Jo G. Biazzo is receiving a Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education with minors in Science and Nutrition/Dietetics. She is a member of Delta Epsilon Sigma, the National Honor Society for Catholic Colleges and Universities; Kappa Delta Pi, the International Honor Society in Education; and Kappa Gamma Pi, the National Catholic College Graduate Honor Society. She decided to pursue a Citation in Honors as a way to push herself academically, and prove to herself that she is determined, and prepared to succeed in any challenges she decides to take on. Mary Jo would like to thank her advisor, Ms. Ellen Burkhouse, for her time, encouragement, support, and valuable thoughts throughout the process; her reader, Professor Lloyd Hildebrand, for his support, and for reviving her love of children’s literature; Ms. Christina Elvidge for her encouragement and guidance; and her parents, and boyfriend Stephan, for their unconditional love and support.
The Role of Multicultural Children’s Literature in the Elementary Classroom
Director: Dr. Barbara Burkhouse
Reader: Mr. Lloyd Hildebrand
Full Article in PDF Form
Multicultural children’s literature is often defined as literature that recognizes and accepts human differences and similarities related to gender, race, culture, disability, and class. The definition of multicultural children’s literature that best fits this paper is: literature for children that recognizes and accepts human differences and similarities related to different cultures, races, and geographical regions. It is literature that emphasizes respect for the different cultures in society. In today’s diverse American society, multicultural children’s literature is a useful way to introduce children to cultures that may be unfamiliar to them, as well as the cultures of their own backgrounds.
Multicultural children’s literature is a valuable tool for educators to incorporate into the curriculum. The many benefits of using this tool will be explored. This type of children’s literature has not always encompassed a wealth of material as it does today. The history of multicultural children’s literature, as well as reasons for lack of representation of certain cultures, will be touched upon. Educators planning on incorporating multicultural children’s literature into their curriculum need to be sure that they choose appropriate and sound literature of this type. What are the criteria educators need to look for when exploring this type of literature? The critical measures involved in choosing multicultural children’s literature will be examined.


Written by Peter Lehner, Executive Director, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council)
I played the cello for many years, but I doubt I ever produced any music as inspiring as 19-year-old Juan Manuel Chavez playing the prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite #1, on a cello made out of an oil can and discarded wood.
Juan is a resident of Cateura, a landfill outside Paraguay’s capital city, Asuncion. About 2,500 families make their homes—and their livelihoods—in and around this dump, sifting through 1,500 tons of solid waste each day to pluck out items for recycling.
Recycling is a grim way of life in Cateura, but it also provides a ray of hope, in the form of an unlikely orchestra. On instruments lovingly assembled from trash—discarded tin cans and utensils, sheets of x-rays, forks, bottle caps, pipes and oil cans—the children of Cateura are learning to play music.
Many of the instruments are made by local resident Nicolas Gomez, a trash-picker himself. A documentary about the orchestra, Landfill Harmonic, is in the works, and the film’s teaser video has gone viral.
The orchestra not only turns waste into music—it turns waste into dreams. Through the orchestra, kids from the slums of Cateura have traveled to Brazil, Panama and Colombia, playing everything from Beethoven to the Beatles and Paraguayan polka.
“I can’t live without this orchestra,” Rocio Riveros, a 15-year-old who plays a flute made of tin cans, told the AP.
The orchestra is ingenious and inspiring and deserves every accolade—but it is not the answer to a very serious waste management problem. Asuncion, like so many cities in the developing world, lacks a fully developed system for collecting and disposing of its garbage. The resulting air and water pollution is a health hazard for the people of Cateura and millions of others like them.
Some Latin American cities are taking steps to improve waste collection. In Puebla, Mexico, members of the Green Wallet initiative earn points on a debit card for every kilogram of waste they bring to designated collection points around the city. The points are redeemable at local businesses, for everything from children’s clothes to movie tickets to cell phone minutes. In Belo Horizonte, Brazil, the city has formally incorporated the local waste pickers association into the municipal waste management system, giving them access to recycling points, a sorting center and even a truck for transporting recyclable materials. In Curitiba, residents get food baskets and money for their neighborhood associations by bringing 8 to 10 kilograms of waste into collection centers.
These initiatives are a small but promising step toward making these cities healthier places to live. For now, Cateura’s Recycled Orchestra brings joy and purpose to the lives of its young residents. In the future, perhaps the orchestra will also draw the attention and resources needed to provide them with clean air, clean water and a safe and healthy way to make a living.
This is part of NRDC’s Wasteland series, featuring people, towns, businesses and industries that are finding innovative ways to cut waste, boost efficiency and save money, time and valuable resources.
Read more: air pollution, Cateura, Children, education, garbage, instruments, Landfill Harmonic, latin america, music, music education, natural resources defense council, nrdc, orchestra, paraguay, Peter Lehner, pollution, Recycled Orchestra, recycling, solid waste, trash, waste, wasteland, water pollution, youth
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.


A format for looking at and talking about photographs.
As Professor of Art Education Terry Barrett says, "Describing is a logical place to start when viewing an exhibition or particular photograph because it is a means of gathering basic information on which understanding is built." Carefully looking at and describing a work of art is crucial in the understanding of the work. This format introduces you and your students to questions that will help you carefully view and describe photographs on the Picture This Web site, and therefore, gain better understanding of them.
Length of Activity varies, depending on how many images are viewed and described. Plan to spend 15–20 minutes for each image viewed.
Materials: Images printed from the Picture This Web site, or have students view images directly from a computer monitor.
Use Take a Good Look! format to guide your students in careful observation and description of images in the Picture This Web site. Guide a discussion by asking your students questions from the following list. It is not necessary to discuss every question below in every photograph - address the questions in each category below that pertain to the photograph you are viewing.
- What is the main subject of this photograph?
- What is going on in this photograph?
- What do you see that makes you say that?
- What do you think interested the photographer about this subject?
- When do you think this picture was taken?
- What do you think happened just after the photograph was taken?
- What happened right before the photograph was taken?
Light is an essential element in the making of any photograph.
- Does the light seem to be natural or artificial?
- Harsh or soft?
- From what direction is the light coming?
- What parts of the image are clearly in focus?
- Are some parts out of focus?
Note: The range between the nearest and farthest things that appear in focus define the photograph's depth of field.
- What colors do you see, if any?
- Do you see visual textures within the photograph?
Composition of the Photograph: How Things Are Arranged
- How would the picture change if you moved the camera to the right or left, or up or down?
- What has the photographer left out of the picture?
- Where do you think the photographer was standing when he/she took this picture?
- How far was the photographer from what you see in the picture?
- How could you change the vantage point to make the picture look different?
- Close your eyes. When you open them and look at the photograph what is the first thing you notice?
- Why is your attention drawn there?
- Are there other centers of interest?
- How are the centers of interest created?
- Is there strong visual contrast - lights and darks,
- varying textures, etc.?
- Is the visual weight on one side of the photograph about the same as the other?
- How about from top to bottom? Diagonally?
Historical and Cultural Context
- Where do you think it was made?
- Who do you think the people in the picture are?
- What does it look like they are doing?
- Does this tell you anything about when, where, and what was going on when the photograph was made?
- What was happening in history during the time this photograph was taken?
- How was the photograph first seen or used?
- How is the photograph seen today?
- What biographical information do you know about the photographer?
- Does this information tell you anything about why the photographer may have created the photograph?
- What do you think the photographer was trying to express through the image?
- What do you see that makes you say that?
- Subject: The main thing depicted in a photograph. The subject may be people, objects, shapes, places, events, etc.
- Framing: What the photographer has placed within the boundaries of the photograph.
- Vantage Point: Where the photographer positioned the camera to take the picture.
- Dominance: What is most influential or important in the image. In a work of art, the dominant point is where your eye is drawn first.
- Contrast: Opposition or juxtaposition of different forms, lines, or colors in a work of art to intensify each other's properties and produce a more dynamic expression.
- Balance: To arrange or adjust parts in a symmetrical way.
Questions written by Tomoko Maruyama, Curator of Education, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, and Cass Fey, Curator of Education, Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona.


Centered around the famous painting on special loan from the Terra Foundation of American Art, A New Look: Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre tells a dynamic tale about art education, mentorship and practice, and learning from historical art. On view through April 14, 2013 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
, the Morse installation sets the artist's work into an environment echoing what is shown in the picture. The exhibition is a collaboration between PAFA's Senior Curator and Curator of Modern Art, Robert Cozzolino, and PAFA's Curator of Historical American Art, Anna Marley.
Known today primarily for his role in the development of the telegraph and the Morse code, Samuel F. B. Morse began his career as a painter. One of his most important works, Gallery of the Louvre (1831-1833), depicts masterpieces from the Louvre's collection. On a visit to Paris in 1830, Morse first conceived of his monumental Gallery of the Louvre's an art lesson for Americans. He reasoned that most Americans could not travel to Europe to see original paintings by Renaissance and Baroque artists so he would bring their masterpieces to them.In this painting, Morse imagines an exhibition of his favorite paintings from the famed museum installed in the grand Salon Carré at the Louvre. Morse meticulously copied 38 paintings spanning five national schools and three centuries, including works by Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci,Titian, Caravaggio, Rubens and Poussin. The artist himself is shown in front, leaning over his daughter in a space where visitors study, sketch and copy from the masters.
In PAFA's installation, the Morse painting is on one side of the gallery with objects that help provide a broader context for the themes of artistic practice and identity, while the other half of the gallery is hung salon-style with paintings from PAFA's collection that highlight the academic genres taught and exhibited at PAFA in the first half of the nineteenth century. The effect is that of walking into a room mirroring the one depicted in Morse's painting.
The exhibition coincides with the demanding copy class taught at PAFA where students are encouraged to select works installed in the Morse room. "Not only will visitors encounter a gallery resembling the one depicted by Morse, " says Marley, "but they will witness artists copying historical pictures in the gallery as is represented by Morse."
By making copies next to Morse's painting, PAFA's students will show audiences how American artists - whether professional and famous, or emerging, or still in school - operate on a continuum of history that traces lessons and knowledge back to the Renaissance and ages beyond.
The painting recently underwent extensive conservation and has been on a three-venue national tour. This is the second time the Morse painting has been shown at PAFA; it was exhibited in the summer of 1985 shortly after Daniel J. Terra acquired the painting in 1982. Terra, who amassed an important collection of American art, was born and grew up in Philadelphia before attending Penn State University. He eventually moved to Chicago which is where the foundation that bears his name is based,


Fall Bulletin Board Ideas for September and October
Leap into learning fun with some interactive and educational fall bulletin boards. Not only will your students enjoy a colorful display, they will be able to learn while interacting with the board. The ideas below are perfect for fall learning as students transition back into the swing of the school routine.
Sight Word Sentences
According to the Common Core Standards, students are to recognize and read grade-appropriate words (Reading Foundational Skills K-5/Phonics and Word Recognition/3). What better way to help them practice than by turning it into a game!
Cover a bulletin board with plain paper or fabric and trim the edge with a colorful alphabet border. On the board place 10-20 sight words* (depending on the grade you teach) that your students should know or that they need to practice. Below the board have a small table set up with lined paper asking them to create sentences using the words on the board. You can instruct them to make silly sentences for fun or sentences related to a specific topic to test for comprehension. Challenge students to create at least 10 different sentences that contain the words on display. You might also want to use spelling words instead of sight words.
A Cup of Kindness
Stressing the importance of kindness and good character traits in the classroom begins the very first day of school. In this bulletin board, students contribute acts of kindness that they have either done or been the recipient of throughout the school day. This is a great bulletin board to relate to the story of Johnny Appleseed and how his acts of kindness helped change the landscape of the country.
Cut out a large tea cup out of poster board and label it “A Cup of Kindness”. Hang it on a bulletin board covered in paper of your choice and hang a colorful border around the edges. Cut small pieces of white paper to resemble a sugar cube and place them in a folder under the board. At the end of the school day, encourage students to record the acts of kindness they have either done or been the recipient of throughout the day. The sugar cubes then get hung on the bulletin board “in” the teacup. Set a kindness goal for your students for the week and, on Friday, count to see how many acts of kindness have been recorded.
What Color Would You Be?
Fall brings with it a beautiful display of colorful leaves and the perfect opportunity to talk with your students about what makes each of them unique. Pose the question, “If you were a color, which one would you be?” and have them brainstorm what color they might be and why. Have them write a short response on a construction paper leaf of the same color. For darker colors, have them write their response on a plain sheet of lined paper, cut it out, and then glue it onto the cut-out leaf shape.
Cover a bulletin board with plain light blue fabric. In the center, post the words, “If I were a color, I would be…”. Hang the finished leaves that the students have created around the board to help complete the display. You may want to have students share their responses before hanging the leaves on the board to practice public speaking. This is a fun and intriguing bulletin board for Back to School Night, Open House, or Parent-Teacher Conferences.
What are some of your favorite fall bulletin boards? Share them with us below!


Seeds of Empathy
Seeds of Empathy is a program for children aged 3 – 5 years that is delivered in child care centres or pre-school settings. Seeds of Empathy is the ‘younger sibling’ of the Roots of Empathy program which is directed at elementary school-aged children.
The goals of the SOE program are to:
- Foster the development of empathy in children aged 3 - 5 years;
- Support the acquisition of early literacy/numeracy skills and attitudes in children aged 3 - 5 years;
- Prevent aggression in children aged 3 - 5 years; and
- Support and train early childhood educators in creating and maintaining empathic and inclusive learning communities.
The core components of the SOE program are the family visits and literacy circles. Family visits bring a parent and baby from the community into the child care setting where a family guide encourages the children to observe the baby’s development, label the baby’s feelings, and talk about their own feelings and those of others. Literacy circles are designed around a set of children’s literature, with a literacy coach reading to the children and using stories to help the children explore their own feelings as well as the perspective of others.
Supported by the Ministry of Children and Family Development, Seeds of Empathy has been implemented in 14 Aboriginal sites, both on and off reserve, across BC.


Most teenagers with Down syndrome will have been introduced to reading and writing during their primary school years, but individual rates of progress vary widely. Some teenagers will start secondary school able to read and write at the level of a typical 8-9 year old. This level of literacy is enough to allow them to record their work and to read and write short texts. However, some other teenagers will still be at the beginning stages of literacy development.
Strategies for teaching reading and writing to teenagers:
- Select words appropriate for the teenager’s language comprehension level and interests, and that can be used to build sentences
- Make individual books based on the teenager’s experience and interests
- Create sentences for use in everyday conversations
- Teach whole words first, then introduce letter sounds and syllables using the teenager’s sight vocabulary to help them to understand phonics
- Make reading and writing both fun and functional (creating a newsletter or newspaper, keeping a diary, or writing letters)
- Choose words and sentences that relate to the teenager’s interests or knowledge from everyday life and things the individual likes to communicate about and do – these are more likely to be learned and used by the teenager
- Teenagers learning to read should receive daily practice
- Teenagers should have use of a computer and software to support all aspects of literacy teaching
- Use photographs and pictures to support storytelling, description of events and writing
Teaching adolescents with Down syndrome to read and write requires enthusiasm and creativity, but the methods are those that will benefit many other pupils. It is important that secondary school pupils are given reasons for reading and writing. Functional tasks such as sending an email to someone, filling out an application form or reading the newspaper should be incorporated into their regular programme. The benefits of being able to read are extensive, but in particular, the spoken language of teenagers with Down syndrome will improve as they learn to read. All teenagers with Down syndrome should be included in reading instruction, supported as necessary to help them learn, and be provided with reading books and other materials for use in the classroom and at home. They will also benefit from some additional materials to help them to learn, such as personal word cards, adapted and home-made books.
When planning literacy teaching, take account of:
- The age of the student – try to use age appropriate resources
- The level of hearing loss, if any. When was their last hearing test?
- Vision: has the pupil had a recent vision check? Do they need to wear glasses?
- The student’s level of oral language comprehension
- The speech skills of the student
- Their phonological awareness level
- Existing level of reading skills
- Existing level of writing skills
- Level of handwriting skills
- Level of spelling skills
- Level of auditory memory skills
- Conversation and communication skills
- The level of support for learning at home
- Student’s interests and leisure activities
- Student’s level of motivation and approach to learning
- The opportunity for use of different media and computers
- The social and academic confidence and self esteem of the student
More skilled readers may need additional activities to continue to develop their reading comprehension and writing skills. Teachers should try to maintain a focus on language development throughout all teaching and learning activities and in the classroom environment. Literacy can be used to support and develop working memory and learning across the curriculum.
(Adapted from Down Syndrome Education International)
For teaching literacy, a three-pronged approach exists:
- Learning to Read: Focused reading, writing & spelling programmes – learning the technical skills involved in reading and writing – accuracy, fluency, word attack skills
- Reading for Meaning: Developing comprehension skills – understanding what you read and relating it to what you already know
- Reading to Learn: Supported literacy across the curriculum – supporting the student to access the curriculum including learning important subject-specific vocabulary, how to extract the key points in a text, summarise information, etc.
Pupils with Down syndrome in post-primary school should be supported in all three areas.


Create a story basket full of storytelling props to retell favourite fairy tales together in a playful way! So easy to set up with items from around the house and beneficial for so many strands of early literacy development.
As part of our
Continue reading Fairytale Storytelling Basket
Use simple storytelling props to act out a favourite traditional tale of Little Red Riding Hood in imaginative play! There are so many opportunities for early literacy development in this type of exciting dramatic play and it is developmentally appropriate for young children.
Continue reading Little Red Riding Hood Storytelling Dramatic Play
Here’s a magical invitation to play for children who is interested by fairies, princesses and sparkles! Combining play dough, sensory play, motor skills and creative storytelling in one play prompt, this Fairy Play Dough is a great way to engage little ones in learning and creativity as they play! Invitation to Play with Fairy Play Dough!
We have made another story box for telling stories and to serve as a little stage for puppet shows! This time the story that Cakie chose was one of her absolute favourite fairy tales, Jack and the Beanstalk. Just as with our Little Red Riding Hood story box, we used
Continue reading Jack and the Beanstalk Story Box
We put together a story box so that we can retell the story of Little Red Riding Hood using puppets and story props! Story boxes are a wonderful tool for young children and encourage a playful, fun approach to early story telling. They encourage creativity, imaginative play and a whole host of early literacy skills
Continue reading Little Red Riding Hood Story Box


Creating and nurturing a laboratory of innovation and best practices
Brazil, like many developing countries, faces wide-ranging economic and social inequities and major challenges in education. Its constitution provides for mandatory free elementary education and sets a minimum to be spent on education of 25% of state and municipal revenues and 18% at the federal level. But high rates of grade repetition and dropout mean that many children make only limited progress. In PISA 2000, Brazil was the lowest performing country. More than half of its students ranked at Level One or below. Fewer than 1% scored at the top level.
Since then, thanks to wide-ranging educational reform, Brazil's performance has begun to improve. Its students still perform at well below the OECD average, but its experience shows how a country facing major challenges in teacher quality, infrastructure and student commitment, and with a highly decentralized education system, can use national and international benchmarking to identify problems and drive reform.
Under Brazil's decentralized education system, its 27 federal states have primary responsibility for schooling, in association with the municipal authorities of Brazil's 5,561 municipalities. In 2001, a National Education Plan set out guidelines, goals and priorities for the three levels of government at federal, state and municipal level. In 2007, a federal Education Development Plan combined increased spending in classrooms with performance monitoring to drive improvements.
One of the main objectives was to raise the quality of Brazil's 1.5 million teachers, many of whom had only high school education. Low pay and poor working conditions, including teaching two shifts a day (often in two different schools) discouraged potential candidates. Teacher absenteeism was high, partly because of the difficulty of getting from one school to the other in city traffic or along rural roads.
A base salary was introduced for teachers and minimum entry qualifications were raised. At the same time, the government introduced a new indicator of education quality called the Basic Education Development Index (IDEB), in order to track schools' performance. IDEB draws on student test results and graduation rates to provide a nation-wide performance map through which the federal government can identify weaknesses and provide technical and cash assistance.
For states, the combination of monitoring and support provides a real incentive to use effective strategies and improve student achievement. States have to diagnose the problems in low-performing schools and develop an improvement plan to send to the federal education ministry. The ministry tracks progress in order to identify best practices that can be shared with other states. By setting individual quality goals and then leaving schools free to choose how best to achieve them, the Education Development Plan has effectively transformed Brazil into a giant laboratory of best education practices.


Alberta empowers more students to succeed
“Kids learn at their own pace, and we need to make sure parents and teachers are informed about how kids are doing and where they might need help,” said Education Minister Jeff Johnson. “Moving the provincial assessment to the start of the school year allows more time to identify areas where kids might need some extra attention and get them the support they need to succeed.”
The series of new computer-based tests - known as Student Learning Assessments - will be developed by experts and administered at the start of Grades 3, 6 and 9. This will better enable parents and teachers to be aware of a child’s strengths or areas needing improvement over the course of the school year to support more personalized learning.
"Assessing children's literacy and numeracy skills at the beginning of the school year is a step in the right direction," said Brad Vonkeman, president of the Alberta School Councils' Association. “This shift should encourage a greater focus on each student's individual learning needs and promote better communication between teachers and parents."
The tests maintain a strong focus on literacy and numeracy, but will also help educators and parents understand how well students demonstrate competencies such as creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving.
“This is very good news for Alberta students and parents,” said Carol Henderson, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association. “I congratulate the Premier on fulfilling this important campaign promise. The current testing program provided little value for learning and did not fit with the vision of Inspiring Education. The Alberta Teachers’ Association looks forward to working with government to develop this new program that will advance student learning.”
“This change will ensure that each Alberta student will now start Grade 3 with a snapshot of his/her strengths and where they may need to improve,” said Jacquie Hansen, president of the Alberta School Boards Association. “From there, students, parents and teachers will draw up an individual roadmap to build on each student’s strengths and to address each student’s challenges. Follow through will be key to make this individualized learning possible.”
While most students are comfortable taking such tests on a computer, traditional paper copies will also be available.
Grade 3 students will be first to write the new assessments, with pilots starting in September 2014. Full implementation for Grade 3 is expected by September 2015. Pilots for Grades 6 and 9 are scheduled to begin in 2015 and 2016, respectively.
Alberta Education will continue to work with the Alberta Teachers’ Association, Alberta School Boards’ Association, College of Alberta School Superintendents, Alberta School Councils’ Association and the Alberta Assessment Consortium to develop and test the Student Learning Assessment process.
Our government was elected to keep building Alberta, to live within its means and to fight to open new markets for Alberta’s resources. We will continue to deliver the responsible change Albertans voted for.
To call toll free within Alberta dial 310-0000.


On April 24, anthropologist Hilda Lloréns '96, presented "Arrancando Mitos de Raíz: Guía para una Enseñanza Antirracista" en Puerto Rico (Pulling-up Myths from their Roots: A Guide for the Anti-Racist Teaching of Puerto Rico's African Heritage), published in 2013. The book's presentation, which was sponsored by the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work and the Intercultural Center, detailed the findings of the research project, "Beyond the Self: Towards an Integral Approach to an Anti-racist Pedagogy in Elementary Education."
This research project was funded by the National Institutes of Health and spearheaded by Isar Godreau from the Institute of Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Puerto Rico-Cayey. The project sought to explore whether institutional racism was embedded in school curricula and whether black children were exposed to racism and discrimination in school.
The research team found that at the institutional level, in curricular materials and lessons, students were taught five recurrent and specific myths about Africa, the African heritage and blackness in Puerto Rico. These five myths are: 1) Africa is a poor, primitive place of little importance in the world; 2) slaves were passive victims of slavery; 3) all black persons in Puerto Rico were slaves prior the abolition of slavery; 4) the contributions of African heritage are limited to music, folklore and hard labor; 5) in Puerto Rico, the majority of black persons disappeared as a result of race mixing or "mestizaje." At the interpersonal level, racial discrimination among students included rejection, humiliation, mockery and even physical abuse of black children. Consequently, the research team found that students who are victims of racism experience emotional instability, anxiety and isolation. Students often begin to experience racism in elementary school and continue to encounter racism throughout the entirety of their schooling experience.
During the presentation, Lloréns explained the findings of the research, as well as the contents of "Pulling-up Myths by the Roots." The book offers a practical guide for teachers, social workers, education students and the community-at-large to understand the effects of racism and suggest ways in which they can begin to effect anti-racist change both at the institutional and interpersonal levels. Lloréns donated a copy of the book to the J. Eugene Smith Library.


Note: To protect the privacy of our members, e-mail addresses have been removed from the archived messages. As a result, some links may be broken.
I, too, would like to participate in a discussion of inquiry based art
education. I'm sure educators (and art educators) use the term
"inquiry-based" art education in a variety of ways. One approach to
inquiry-based art education is to look to the art disciplines as models for
inquiry into art. This approach can be quite consistent with DBAE.
You might be interested in checking out a new curriculum resource called
"Our Place in the World," which the Getty Education Institute has recently
posted on its website (ArtsEdNet.getty.edu). For an overview of my DBAE
approach to inquiry-based art education click on "Our Place in the World"
in the upper right corner of the ArtsEdNet's homepage. Then, when you're on
the "Our Place in the World" home page (with 7th graders mural in upper
right corner) scroll down till you see a link to "inquiry-based approach."
In this resource I attempt to use four art historical inquiry questions as
key issues running throughout the lesson plans and performance assessments.
Each of these questions is symbolized by an icon. Click on "about the
icons" for an introduction to each of the icons. Click on "areas of art
historical inquiry" for an overview of art historical inquiry questions.
If you then click on one of four inquiry icons that are addressed in this
curriculum unit, you'll get an index of lessons from the resource that
address that inquiry issue.
There is also a short introduction to a suggested sequence of seven lessons
that address the four inquiry questions (as well as the theme: "Art helps
us find our place in the world.") further down on the home page. You can
check out any of the lesson plans by clicking on its name in the list of
Core Lessons at the very bottom of the home page.
If you're interested in key inquiry questions from other art disciplines
(art history, art criticism, and aesthetics), click on the links to the
disciplines that appear just above "How does Our Place in the World apply
inquiry-based learning?" on the homepage.
If you choose to check out Our Place in the World and its approach to
inquiry based art education, I'd very much like to hear your response.


Read the list and find the common characteristic of al the things each person likes.
John likes bowling but not baseball.
John likes math but not recess.
John likes cleaning but not weeding.
John likes coffee tables but not picnic tables.
John likes ________.
My eight year old could not figure this out. I could not figure this out.
Please leave a comment with your answer or if you are stumped.
I will put the answer in the comments in a day or two.
My Issue with This Question
I think that part of my problem with some workbook problems is that they oversimplify facts. Only by oversimplifying one can come to a right answer. However if a person (like me) thinks with a bigger picture view, it can be hard to get inside the head of the workbook question writer to see their smaller view or their more narrow perception of the stated facts. I will explain when I reveal the answer, why the flawed answer the author came up with is not an accurate answer. A problem for students is that they can’t always get inside the head of the writer of the question either, so they may guess and get the question marked wrong or are unable to come up with any answer, therefore getting it marked wrong for being left blank. Children who ponder at questions like this too long can be labeled ‘slow’ or perhaps as ‘daydreamers’ or worse, may be suspected of having ADD. If enough questions are marked wrong, the child’s grade is lowered and people get a wrong idea of the level of intelligence or abilities of the student. Guessing and getting a wrong answer or leaving a dumb workbook question wrong is not necessarily an indication of the student’s grasp of the overall topic (in this case, logical thinking skills).
I find this workbook question dumb, not the entire book, just to be clear. I do like this workbook in general; it forces me to teach each of the logic categories, so I feel like I’m touching upon the basic principles.
For years I mostly avoided all workbooks out of hating them for the very reasons I stated here. However now I am using some a bit here and there. I am making sure to keep a close eye on the assignment and my child’s grasp of the subject matter. I discuss the tricky, misleading or stupid workbook questions with my kids and we talk about why they are troublesome.
From: Logic Countdown by Bonnie Risby, grades 3-4, lesson 5 category: relationships.
Technorati Tags: Logic Countdown, Logic workbook , teaching logic grade 3, teaching logic grade 4, elementary education.


Language Development in Early Childhood Education:
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“The acquisition of language is essential to children's cognitive and social development.” From the NAEYC position statement, November 1995.
Readers of this book will receive a solid foundation for understanding language development from birth to age eight. The text supplies a basic overview of phonetics, semantic, syntactic, morphemic, and pragmatic aspects of language knowledge, while also providing practical suggestions for interactions with children and templates for observing and documenting infant and toddler language development. The appendices provide supplementary information on additional readings. The new edition has been extensively revised with coverage of the latest research and hot topics in the field such as:
New To This Edition:
- Updates the section on the role of brain maturation in language development--Provides awareness of the connections between physical, cognitive, and language development.
- Describes the techniques used by researchers to discover the perceptual abilities of infants to distinguish speech sounds and patterns of intonation—This helps students understand the complexities of research with very young children.
- Provides templates for observing and documenting infant and toddler language development in the assessments chapter—This shows practical ways for teachers to begin to systematically observe individual children’s language development.
- Includes guidelines and strategies for interacting with English language learners at each developmental level, providing practical ways in which teachers can enhance language development among ELLs.
- Reviews current research on autism and its connection to early language development.
Beverly Otto, Ph.D., an early childhood educator for over 25 years, is a professor in the Teacher Education Department at Northeastern Illinois University. She earned her doctorate at Northwestern University in Teaching and Learning Processes with a focus on emergent literacy. Dr. Otto teaches courses in language and literacy development for preservice and in-service teachers, along with research for classroom teachers. She also serves as advisor for the MAT: Language Arts-Elementary Education and MSI: Language Arts-Elementary programs. Her major professional goal is preparing teachers to support children’s life-long learning through language and literacy development. Dr. Otto has also served as department chair as well as associate dean in the College of Education.
Dr. Otto is the author of Literacy Development in Early Childhood: Reflective Teaching for Birth to Age Eight ,
(© 2008 Pearson)and has also authored articles published in international, national and state professional journals. Her field-based research on emergent literacy has been presented at international, national, state, and local conferences. She has served as a consultant to early childhood centers, school districts, as well as the Illinois State Board of Education.


This site is a quick guide to finding a college or school that offers classes or degrees in microbiology.
Microbiology is the science and study of microorganisms. Microbiology classes and educational programs are often paired up with immunology (the study of the immune system). There are several other branches of microbiology, with a few of the most common including bacteriology (the study of bacteria) and parasitology (the study of parasites). Scientists who specialize in this area are typically called microbiologists.
Students start out earning a bachelors degree in microbiology, which provides their early base of learning. Graduate programs include both Master of Science and Ph.D. degree programs. Individuals may specialize over a variety of disciplines, such as cell biology, genetics and microbial physiology, evolution, biotechnology, and immunology.
A majority of students earning a bachelor’s degree will go on to either graduate school, medical, pharmacy or dental school.
However, many students who earned a four-year degree can move into a variety of research or technical positions. Some of these jobs may include research support working with scientists in a government, school or private company lab. Other jobs may be in the quality assurance departments of companies or government where microorganisms are studied in either the general environment, water, food or pharmaceuticals. Hospitals and human and animal health clinics need specialists to study microorganisms in both humans and animals. The medical and scientific community also needs salespeople who can speak the language of the medical or scientific professionals they talk to everyday.
Earning a graduate degree in the microbiology field expands the career choices. A masters degree will allow someone to teach at a two-year or community college while a doctoral level degree is usually necessary for teaching science at the college level or higher. A Ph.D. in Microbiology may also qualify someone for other advanced or executive positions in business or government.
If you have taken classes or been enrolled at a college in a microbiology program, we would be eager to hear about your experience. Thanks.
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Senior Secondary Music Education (MUED4602)
UNIT OF STUDY
This unit of study investigates the principles and practices of music teaching and learning at the senior secondary school level. It covers: aural skills, creativity, assessment, planning, repertoire, music analysis, musical understanding, resources and curriculum development. Musical content in this unit of study concentrates on music of the last 25 years with and Australian focus.
Our courses that offer this unit of study
Further unit of study information
3 hour seminar/week
Student presentation/s; reading assignments; major assignment (100%)
Faculty/department permission required?
Unit of study rules
Prerequisites and assumed knowledge
Study this unit outside a degree
If you wish to undertake one or more units of study (subjects) for your own interest but not towards a degree, you may enrol in single units as a non-award student.
If you are from another Australian tertiary institution you may be permitted to underake cross-institutional study in one or more units of study at the University of Sydney.


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Making a mind-music connection
COLIN EATOCK | June 13, 2011
Photo By FotoliaScientists and musicians are joining together to explore how music affects our brains.
Music — people sing it, play it and listen to it. In some form or other, it's one of the great universals of human culture. But how much do we really know about it?
Rice University's Shepherd School of Music is hoping to shed a little light on that question this week with a conference called Exploring the Mind Through Music. And from tonight through Thursday, the conference will present five free public lectures.
"The human brain has more connections in it than there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy," says composer and conference organizer Anthony Brandt. "As far as we know, the human brain is the most complicated natural phenomenon that exists in the universe - and we're all walking around with one in our heads. And barring some genetic condition, we all have the software for appreciating music."
Like many musicians, Brandt is intensely interested in how music "works." But increasingly, neurologists, biologists, psychologists and other scientists are concerning themselves with how the brain processes music. This relatively new frontier has attracted much attention: Daniel J. Levitin's 2007 book This Is Your Brain on Music parked itself on the New York Times' best-seller list for more than a year.
However, Brandt believes that musicians and scientists aren't talking to each other as much as they should. This is why he's organized the conference at Rice.
"We're trying to encourage dialogue," he explains. "So we're bringing in 15 musicians and 15 scientists, engaged in all sorts of research. The musicians will be studying with science faculty, and the scientists will be studying with music faculty. The idea is that the musicians will learn how to design experiments, how to evaluate research and what we know about the brain. The scientists will learn from the musicians how music is structured, what its capable of doing and things like that."
Among the musicians speaking will be Fred Lerdahl from Columbia University and Robert Zatorre from Montreal's McGill University - two pioneers in the study of musical cognition. The scientific group will include Christine Neugebauer from Memorial Hermann Hospital and Aniruddh Patel from Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, Calif.
Patel, who's a neurobiologist and an amateur musician, agrees with Brandt about the value of sharing ideas among musicians and scientists.
"These kinds of dialogues are absolutely essential for this field," he says. "Music is enormously complex, and when you study it, you want to approach it with sophistication - and the people with the most sophistication are the people who work with music full time."
One of the main reasons music cognition is such a hot topic these days, suggests Patel, is that the technology now exists to actually watch what goes on inside people's heads when they listen to music. Simply put, music lights up the human brain like a Christmas tree.
"If you look at images of a healthy human brain as it processes music," he says, "you see an enormous number of networks and areas involved. Music is a complex stimulus, with many different aspects: rhythmic, melodic, patterns, expectations and emotional responses. It seems to have access to more of our brain than any other thing we do."
If all this is starting to sound like a purely academic gabfest, both Brandt and Patel are quick to point that there are practical "real-world" applications to this kind of research.
"Rather than having musicians physically practice for eight hours a day," proposes Brandt, "and risk all sorts of injuries, scientists have discovered that 'mental practicing' is just as effective. You practice just two hours a day, and the rest of the time you sit in a quiet space and play the music in your head."
And Patel notes that music has therapeutic value. "We've learned that moving to a musical beat turns out to be helpful to people with Parkinson's disease. It's being used now as a therapy."
As well, both say that music education has wide-ranging implications for overall mental development.
"Music seems to improve the way the brain encodes speech," Patel says. "And this leads to enhanced development of reading skills."
Says Brandt: "Science shows the value of musical cognition - and could transform our attitudes toward arts education. Scientists are establishing, over and over again, that thinking is creative, and creativity is essential to everything we do. That the arts should be taken out of education would be a colossal tragedy. We're dealing with that right now in Texas."
Colin Eatock is a writer who covers classical music. He lives in Toronto.


Global task force calls for action to ensure the world’s children are learning
As the debate intensifies over the post-2015 global development agenda, a new report from the Learning Metrics Task Force lays out a framework to put learning on the agenda and to track learning among the world’s children and youth in order to achieve quality education for all.
The new report, Toward Universal Learning: Recommendations from the Learning Metrics Task Force, presents key indicators to track learning at the global level and monitor progress in foundational skills, such as literacy and numeracy.
The report also calls for new global indicators including a “learning for all” indicator that would combine measures of education access, completion and reading into one statistic.
“Learning serves as the foundation for all of the priorities in the run-up to 2015 -- from better livelihoods to climate change. So it is critical to identify a clear set of indicators that can be tracked globally in order to monitor progress and hold ourselves to account in improving the learning outcomes and opportunities of all children and youth,” says UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova.
“As highlighted by the task force, data alone will not solve the problem. But reliable data does empower us to better target policies and resources required to deliver on the promise of education," she added.
Jointly released by the UIS and the Centre for Universal Learning at Brookings, the report is based on recommendations from technical working groups and input from broad global consultations.
To learn more, visit www.brookings.edu/learningmetrics.


Literacy policy: Whilst the Early Years curriculum in England has begun to recognise literacy development as embedded in social practice, national and local policy-derived documentation continues to focus on cognitive approaches, and theorised guidance on supporting literacy learning with new technologies is notably absent.
Practitioner beliefs and literacy practices: In the early years setting, there was an emphasis on the acquisition of traditional literacy skills, such as sharing stories, mark-making, phonics, rhyming etc, and staff supported children’s learning in joint shared attention episodes. Although the nursery had diverse electronic resources, their use was only occasionally integrated into pedagogic planning or supported by practitioners, with the exception of provision for children with learning difficulties where computers were recognised as offering choice and control.
Whilst most practitioners acknowledged the centrality of new technologies in the children’s future lives, many lacked confidence in their use, were uncertain about their pedagogic value and/or feared their potential harm to ‘childhood’. Some software and internet access to approved sites offered literacy-learning potential, but only those children who had developed computer skills at home accessed these, either alone or in collaborative participation frameworks with peers. These frameworks were characterised by motivated joint activity, where an ‘expert’ peer used talk and actions to direct and discuss game progression with less experienced peers.
Parental beliefs and literacy practices: At home, the young children experienced a range of everyday literacy practices with diverse media. Home ownership of mobile phones, TVs, satellite, computers and internet was widespread, although two families in the lowest income band (>£10,000 per annum) had no computer, with implications for social inclusion/equality. Whilst safeguarding against their over-use, most parents recognised the potential of new technologies for their children’s learning, but were less sure about how to support screen-based literacy activities. Some children were not allowed computer access at home, but did use mobile phones, TV/videos, and ‘smart’ toys which converged new and traditional technologies (e.g. talking books, interactive toys). We therefore found a ‘digital divide’ where some children in the nursery displayed strategic, meta-level literacy knowledge with new technologies derived principally from participation in supported activity at home, whilst children with less experience only participated in low-level activities or did not use them at all.
Multimodal literacies: Analysis of the children’s engagement with a range of media revealed that becoming ‘literate’ in today’s world involves mastery of diverse practices and technical skills, along with the ability to adapt, improvise, identify relevant features in static and dynamic texts and to navigate around them. It was clear that reading on-screen was profoundly different to reading print. It involved the use and interpretation of multiple modes (images, sounds, movement, layout, spoken and written language), which appeared in non-linear, hyperlinked formats with diverse possible pathways. We are developing a theorised framework for supporting literacy learning in diverse media through ‘collaborative multimodal dialogue’ (defined as the inter-subjective, multimodal meaning-making processes that occur through joint engagement in activity) to enable educators to help all children achieve their full potential as members of a society in which knowledge and communication in both traditional and new technologies are highly prized.


Teaching With Technology: Electronic Reading Buddies
Great software can enhance children's early experiences with literature.
- Grades: Early Childhood, PreK–K, 1–2
ONE THING IS FOR SURE: COMPUTER PROGRAMS WILL NEVER really supplant great storybooks. Software simply can't replace the special "multimedia experience" of the imagination. So what role can computers and software play in a child's literacy development? The answer is that, with electronic storybooks, they can supplement the reading experience. familiar characters can serve as informal reading tutors by labeling objects in a story(helping children make symbol/sound relationships) and by reading a word or phrase if the child wants to hear it spoken aloud. here are five of the best-ever electronic storybooks that make great additions to any early childhood software collection.
Arthur's Reading Games
Ages 3-7/Teaches: strategies for word recognition
Arthur bets an ice cream cone with D.W., his little sister, that she can't read 10 words. By using context clues, resourceful D.W. wins the wager for instance, she reads the "bank" sign on the bank building. Broderbund/ The Learning Company, 800-522-6263; Windows/ Mac; $29.95.
Just Grandma and Me
Ages 3-6/Teaches: early reading strategies
Two of Mercer Meyer's lovable characters, Little Critter and Grandma, spend a day at the beach. Kids listen to the waves and get to make their own sand castles. They can also activate a sticker option available on each page of the story that transfers some of the objects from the page's illustration to a display panel on the left of the screen.
Children then click and drag each object from the panel to the appropriate space in the picture. As the object is highlighted, its name is read aloud so that early readers can see the object, hear its name pronounced, and learn the spelling of the word. Broderbund/The Learning Company, 800-521-6263; Windows/Mac; $19.95.
Disney's Animated Storybook: 101 Dalmatians
Ages 3-7/Teaches: pre- and early - reading skills
The classic tale about 101 adorable dalmatians and the nasty Cruella De Vil is nicely adapted to software. As in typical e-book format, the story text is highlighted as the computer reads it aloud. The original feature here is that each page also includes a clever "interactive thesaurus" that introduces kids to synonyms. Disney Interactive, 800-900-9234; Window/Mac; $19.95.
Dr. Seuss Preschool
Ages 2-4 /Teaches: early-reading skills
Dozens of Dr. Seuss characters lead children through eight three-level activities that teach early-reading skills. Children match letters as they help Horton the Elephant find baby Elma Sue's mother. The program is engaging and fun and immerses children in witty and playful Seussian language. Broderbund/The Learning Company, 800-521-6263; Windows/Mac; $19.95.
Ages 4 and up/Teaches: creativity
Simon & Schuster has brought this 1999 Bologna New Media Prize winner to the United States. Based on Czech illustrator Kveta Pacovska's picture book, the program allows children to explore and experiment with the story's images and music by moving the mouse. The graphics and music are beautiful, and there is a surprise around every corner. Simon & Schuster Interactive, 800-223-2336; Windows/Mac; $19.95.


DEMOCRACY AND ART
DEMOCRACY AND ART; The End of Equality
Published: November 9, 1997
To the Editor:
Cheers to Mr. Rothstein for his article about the N.E.A. He touches on two important points.
The first is the fact that this country does not have a policy to teach art education in the schools Many people believe that they have a ''cultural understanding'' of this country based on television and movies.
It would be refreshing to see the Government create an endowment that financed art programs in the schools, so that an understanding of art can be cultural and not shaped by monetary or social values.
Secondly, since art draws on religion, politics and domestic issues, along with personal perceptions, how can Government interfere by choosing which art to finance?
We should be glad that nonprofit organizations like the Metropolitan Museum of Art are broad in their emphasis. Let's hope that one day such artistic diversity can be respected in schools as well.