On this category page, I will be revisiting my publication “Music Technology and Curriculum Access”, 2001. This was a personal study which examined whether, at that time, the technology existed to support universal access to all the various areas of music education. Obviously, some of the resources described are now defunct. However, the principles of access remain the same and much of the technology is generic: current models can be applied in much the same way. I will be considering to what extent the technology, both legacy and contemporary has been/ is being successfully exploited.
This is my description of the original study, which is discussed at greater length on the website, Music Technology and Curriculum Access – accessing and enriching music learning.
There are few published materials documenting the use of music technology in the classroom, so I hope that this book, full as it is of descriptions and analyses of real music in real classrooms, will prove useful. It records my personal investigation of ways in which technology can improve access to music for all pupils and, in particular, for those with disabilities. It considers two important questions:
1) Does the technology necessary to address each and every area of the music curriculum exist?
2) Can the relevant technology be incorporated into normal classroom practice?
I conducted several investigations, in order to find answers to these two questions, including:
a) bringing together components to form computer-based systems for the use of particular individuals/groups with severe physical disabilities
b) using identical equipment with groups of varying levels of physical/intellectual ability.
c) creating ‘virtual instruments’ to facilitate live performance and documenting their use
d) analysis of class performances to identify the points at which technology was contributing to differentiation
e) individual case studies
f) identifying a number of software packages suitable for class teaching and analysing them, in terms of physical and intellectual access
g) authoring original, computer based, teaching materials and ‘test-driving’ them in the classroom
h) initiating both individual and group music sessions in a nursing home for young people with profound and multiple learning difficulties, entering observations of the sessions into a keyword database and analysing them in terms of the National Curriculum.


Assessment tasks will be designed to reinforce and extend knowledge and skill competence within set and controlled parameters in accordance with each unit's learning outcomes and performance criteria requirements, including the setting of work based practical application tasks designed to provide evidence of competence outcomes, within periodic and scheduled timelines.
Students will be expected to demonstrate the following required skills:
- instruct effective strength and conditioning techniques;
- give and receive feedback;
- teamwork skills to be able to coach and mentor an athlete through a strength and conditioning program;
- technology skills to assess athletes and select exercises and drills for use within the program;
- planning and organising skills to implement a plan for strength and conditioning for an individual or group, and;
- literacy and numeracy skills to enable the review of training diaries and the timely completion of sessions.Students will also be expected to demonstrate the following knowledge:
- motivational techniques to provide appropriate feedback to athletes;
- the major body systems, bones, joints muscles and their function to enable the selection, instruction and adjustment of appropriate exercises to meet the needs of athletes;
- legislation and organisational policies and procedures to enable the safe delivery of exercise programs including the safe use of equipment and a safe learning environment;
- drills, activities and games to teach the techniques of strength and conditioning, and;
- physiological, psychological and biomechanical changes that occur with strength and conditioning training to enable informed planning and instruction of sessions and prompt response to athlete difficulties during the class.


eVirtuoso-Music Theory Essentials contains a vast array of everyday music theory concepts for all musicians. From intervals to scales and arpeggios to chords, this guide provides step by step instructions to understanding common elements of music theory principles and applying those principles to everyday practice. This music theory book also contains a large amount of reference information for quick usage and review in traditional staff line and tablature (TAB) notation.
This book explores the fundamentals of intervals, scales, chords, key signatures and arpeggios and uses examples ranging from the most common variations to some of the more exotic. eVirtuoso-Music Theory Essentials contains dozens of examples for scales and chords with detailed information on many of them.
For composing, the circle of fourths and fifths is also explained and elaborated upon. eVirtuoso-Music Theory Essentials provides a revolutionary way of approaching intervals from a geometric perspective and using them to build chords and scales. Order this online music education book today and save!!
About the Author
Travis Brown has studied music and music theory for over 20 years. Having learned and practiced multiple instruments, he began teaching others to play various instruments. He has been a private instructor for the past 10 years. Travis believes in teaching students strong fundamentals and appreciation of music, followed by advanced studies in complex music theory concepts for composing, improvising and songwriting. This music theory book was developed using the techniques and knowledge that he has learned and taught to hundreds of his students.
He has also created several other tools to aid in the learning of music theory including eVirtuoso® Intermediate, an interactive computer program designed to help aspiring musicians learn, create, and improve musical development and eVirtuoso Scheduler, an intuitive web site that allows flexibility and collaborative tracking with teachers and students to organize lesson arrangements.


Latent Emissions, Chakaia Booker
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
Who made it?
Artist Faith Ringgold was born in 1930 in Harlem and began making art when she was very young. As a child, she was often sick, and making art helped her pass the time while recovering at home. Her father was a gifted storyteller, and her mother was a fashion designer who would often supply her with fabrics to sew. Ringgold went on to attend the City College of New York City, where she majored in Art Education and soon after graduating taught in the New York City Public School System for nearly twenty years.
When she left teaching, Ringgold devoted herself to creating her art. In her diverse practice, she wrote, illustrated, and published multiple children's books, constructed soft sculptures from fabric, and created politically based paintings. Her most well-known works are her story quilts, where she uses paint and fabric to create visual narratives. Through her work, Ringgold explores race, gender, and American history, and often references slavery and the Underground Railroad. Ringgold once said that "Through art, I tried to create the peace we could not achieve in real life."
At 90 years of age, Ringgold is still creating works and remains a prominent voice in the art world, advocating for women artists of color to be more present in major art museums.
What’s going on in this work?
This work is part of the series, Coming to Jones Road, which was Ringgold's response to a time when she moved from her home in Harlem, New York, to Englewood, New Jersey. She did not feel welcomed by her neighbors and searched for a way to feel connected to her new home. She found that connection in the history of the area and the role it played in the Underground Railroad. In sharing the stories of the slaves who made their way north through the area in search of freedom and a new life for themselves and their families, Ringgold created a way to see herself in her new community.
In many works in the Coming to Jones Road series (in both the quilt and print forms) Ringgold, depicts groups of black silhouetted figures moving through vibrantly colored, glowing tree-filled landscapes. The colors she uses are bright and often contrasting which, creates an intensity and a vibration in each piece. Lines of text create borders and narrate the scenes. Each piece acts as a chapter to the story of slaves risking everything to find freedom.
This print To Be or Not to Be Free, made at the Segura Arts Studio, which was previously a part of the University of Notre Dame, was modeled after a quilt entitled, Coming to Jones Road #7: We Jus Keep a' Comin. In creating the print, Ringgold changed the text that runs around the border from that on the quilt piece. The print's text reads, "Aunt Emmy and Uncle Tate was the first to come to Jones Road in a dream. They followed their dream North to the Palisades and on to Freedom on Jones Road, Barn Door and Precious led 28 of us on that long hard journey thru the woods and swamps with Baby Freedom born on the way, To Be or Not to Be Free. Ringgold 2/11/14."
Take a closer look.
Click on the full images of To Be Free or Not be Free above to see a larger version of the work. Look closely at the print and use these questions to guide your looking. Share your thoughts with your family and friends virtually or with us by responding to this email.
- Focus on the image in the center of the print. What emotions does it elicit? What do you see that makes you say that?
- Now widen your focus to the text around the border. How to the text and image work together? Can one exist without the other? Why or why not?
You know art transforms lives. We have witnessed this in powerful ways as the Friends of the Snite Museum of Art directly support education programs and educators, young people, and their families. Please consider joining us a Friend, by clicking here. Your gift will touch thousands of lives.
Faith Ringgold (American, b.1930), To Be or Not to Be Free, 2014, Color lithograph on Rives Paper. Gift of the Segura Arts Studio, Notre Dame Center for Arts & Culture, 2014.024.003 | Detail of a portrait of Faith Ringgold at an artist talk in 2014 at the Snite Museum of Art. Photograph by Marcus Snowden. | Two detailed views of To Be or Not to Be Free in a circular format, progressively zooming in on the print. | Friends of the Snite Museum of Art logo.


Thomas Jefferson Junior High Bands
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Music is a fundamental part of the complete education of a child. It is a part of everyday life – from the primitive chant to the modern electronic compositions; all civilizations seek to express the personal and collective emotions of people through music. As a culture becomes more sophisticated, its music, notation, and interpretation develop in complexity.
Experimenting with music is a natural activity of all people from infancy through adulthood. Discovery and manipulation of the many facets of music can lead to enjoyment and aesthetic sensibility when guided by a careful and experienced hand. Music is also a discipline, which requires mastery of skills and techniques. A good music education program provides a balance between creative musical experience and the implementation of musical skills. These skills reinforce all other academic areas including: languages, auditory, motor, visual, and speech functions.


- Music of Easter Island
Traditional music from the island consists of choral singing and chanting, similar to Tahitian music. Families often performed as choirs, competing in a hotly disputed annual concert. They were accompanied by a trumpet made from a conch shell and a percussive dancer jumping onto a stone which is set over a calabash resonator. Other instruments include the kauaha, the jaw bone of a horse, upaupa, an accordion, and stones, which are clapped together for percussive effect.
Due to ongoing contacts with Chile and elsewhere in South America, Latin American music has had influences on the music of Easter Island. Tango, for example, has spawned an Easter Island style called tango Rapanui, characterized by a simple guitar accompaniment instead of the frenetic bandoneon.
- EASTER ISLAND MUSIC
- Easter Island
- Real Audio sample of Easter Island music on David Y. Brookman's Easter Island Home Page
CultureStone work Geography and Geology Category: Easter Island
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
Look at other dictionaries:
Easter Island — For the album by Kris Kristofferson, see Easter Island (album). Rapa Nui redirects here. For other uses, see Rapa Nui (disambiguation). Coordinates: 27°7′S 109°22′W / … Wikipedia
Music of Chile — Music of Chile: Topics Nueva Canción Cueca Payada Cumbia Sound Chilean rock Andean music Hip Hop … Wikipedia
Music of Hawaii — Music of the United States AK AL AR AS AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA GU HI IA ID IL IN KS KY LA MA … Wikipedia
Music of New Zealand — [v · d · e] Indigenous Māori music … Wikipedia
Music of Indonesia — Gongs from Java Timeline • Samples Genres Classical … Wikipedia
Music education — is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It touches on all domains of learning, including the psychomotor domain (the development of skills), the cognitive domain (the acquisition of knowledge), and, in particular… … Wikipedia
Music from Songwriter — Soundtrack album by Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson Released October 1984 … Wikipedia
Music of Tonga — Contents 1 History 2 Surviving traditional music 3 Church music 4 Secular music 5 See also … Wikipedia
Music of Samoa — Lali, Samoan wooden log drums,each 2m long used to beat out sound and signal times in villages. These are still in use at Piula Theological College on Upolu island. The music of Samoa is integral to life in the country. The most important and… … Wikipedia
Music of the Cook Islands — The music of the Cook Islands is diverse. Christian music is extremely popular. Imene tuki is a form of unaccompanied vocal music known for a uniquely Polynesian drop in pitch at the end of the phrases, as well as staccato rhythmic outbursts of… … Wikipedia


The thinking and conceptualisation of music education is undergoing considerable change. More recently, the formalist and canonical notions of \"aesthetic education\" have been critiqued and challenged in music education literature. The articulation of the music education process is a burgeoning field, and this article seeks to further this endeavour by drawing on the ideas of Deleuze and Lyotard to expand the notion and importance of the musical moment in music practice and education. The temporal spoken statement provides a helpful analogy for music in action and the notion of \"little narratives\" help draw out the interactive richness in contemporary live music making. Music educators are encouraged to explore the richness of the \"first musical space\" in their work and thus begin to bring students to a more critical understanding of music in action within cultural contexts.


"Encourage one another and build each other up." (Thessalonians 5.11)
“The new national curriculum for computing has been developed to equip young people in England with the foundational skills, knowledge and understanding of computing they will need for the rest of their lives. Through the new programme of study for computing, they will learn how computers and computer systems work; they will design and build programs, develop their ideas using technology and create a range of content.” (NAACE – ‘Computing in the National Curriculum’)
The Computing curriculum has changed significantly from the old ‘ICT’ curriculum – at Kilham CE Primary we have created specific long term plans for Computing, interpreting the programme of study and devising a range of activities under the headings of ‘coding’, ‘communicating’, ‘collecting’ and ‘connecting’, using a range of software and equipment. They also include specific E-Safety activities. These plans are available via the school website and are updates each September after evaluating their success.
We use a variety of hardware, software and digital learning resources at Kilham CE Primary to provide a broad computing curriculum.
If you require further information, please ask.


Here are a few “back to the basics” Montessori Easter activities. We love to do thematic Montessori activities as you saw with our St. Patrick’s Day and Valentine activities posts. With their lovely colors and texture, we used jelly beans as our base material with which to work, which, in all honesty was a little challenging given their sweet goodness. Keep an almost 3 year old from popping a few in his mouth and I will send you a medal! Of course, you can substitute in gems, pom poms, buttons, or a variety of other small objects for the jellybeans.
Montessori Easter Activities
I purchased these sweet little pots in the dollar section at Target. So I grabbed a tray, a pair of small tongs (or tweezers would work really well) and a bag of jelly beans. Voila. Great for fine motor skill development.
This one is a very simple pattern recognition, an important developmental skill for preschoolers, exercise. I grabbed a piece of yellow card stock and markers to match the jelly bean colors.
I first showed my son and then worked with him on creating and recognizing the patterns.
Simple color sorting exercise using the jelly beans and an egg carton.
A simple counting exercise.
The jelly beans made it a bit tricky because they liked to roll. I suggest using contact paper or a tray with indents for the beans.
Of course many jelly beans after being “tonged”, sorted, counted and poured ended up on our work blanket.
What I noticed with this organic twist in the exercise is how great the act of picking up the beans, one by one, is for the pincer grip.
Thanks for stopping by my sweet, little blog! I hope we inspired you today! Happy Easter!
If you enjoyed these ideas, check out my downloadable Montessori printables!
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Transparent Reporting on Government's Progress
Target: The target for the Grade 7 Assessment in Numeracy is at or above 75 per cent by 2024
The Grade 7 Assessment in Number Sense and Number Skills is trending very slightly upward as we continue to move towards the target.
The Grade 7 Assessment in Numeracy indicates the percentage of students meeting expectations in at least four of the five sub-competencies in the Grade 7 Assessment in Number Sense and Number Skills (i.e., ordering fractions, ordering decimals, representing numbers, patterns, and mental math). The measure indicates students’ algebraic reasoning skills and number sense.
2017/18: 49.3 percent
2018/19: 50.4 percent
Numeracy skills are essential foundations towards better educational outcomes, economic well-being, and social inclusion. Monitoring this indicator is essential to ensure that government’s educational programs for children are working effectively in improving their foundational skills.
Established in January 2019, the independent K-12 Education Commission will provide recommendations to improve the K-12 education system in Manitoba. The commission’s report is expected to be released publicly in March 2020.
Learn more about how your government is tracking against its priorities.


Did you Know?
Play stimulates development of the cerebellum, which coordinates movement, and the frontal lobe, which regulates decision-making and impulse control. This is essential to the growing brain.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) states as its basic principles that children are born with the same fundamental set of rights as all humans, with a number of additional rights due to their vulnerability.
This document contains a total of 54 articles which were formally adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989.
Article 31 of the UNCRC formally enshrines the child’s right to PLAY and the right to engage in other recreational activities including participation in Cultural activities and the Arts.
How well have you defended the rights of the child in your care?
Developmental milestones are typical changes that occur for children as they grow from birth throughout childhood. These milestones are reached at different times for different children and may be impacted by developmental disabilities. Research has helped shed light on the developmental milestones that occur for most children within all of the major domains of development, including physical, cognitive, emotional/social, and language/literacy development.
At Treasure Box Early Years Learning Center, we encourage each child to move according to his/her developmental milestone. This process is called Scalffolding.


IInspired by the water theme of the Springs Eternal exhibition and the participating artists who explore environmental issues from various perspectives, TCNJ pre-service art educators enrolled in Curriculum in Art Education with Dr. Carolina Blatt-Gross created issue-based lesson plans for K-12 art classrooms. These lessons are driven by “Big Ideas”– broad, meaningful concepts that cross disciplines and resonate with people of all ages. Using artmaking to explore big ideas enables teachers to help students make connections globally, locally and personally. This approach embeds new knowledge in significant contexts and facilitates transfer to other disciplines as well as application to real-world scenarios. As part of their lesson plans, these future art educators also partnered with graphic design students to generate instructional, developmentally-appropriate games that complement the content of the exhibition and support their learning objectives.
While designed specifically to complement the content of Springs Eternal exhibition, these plans can easily be adapted to address any number of environmental issues, suggesting ways in which the ideas of conservation, pollution, and our relationship to water could be incorporated into the classroom. One-page summaries of the water-themed lessons are available using the following links. We invite educators to use these plans to integrate authentic, inquiry-driven art-making into their classes.
The use of these lesson plan summaries were also part of a larger collaboration with Dr. Belinda Haikes’ Graphic Design students and Springs Eternal, becoming an integral part of their Game Night hosted in the Gallery alongside ReCreate Your Night activities.


Target 1 – Student-Centered Learning. FWSU students will engage in personalized learning.
Action Step – Engage all staff and students in creating personalized learning networks (PLNs) that contribute to learning and instructional practice.
Indicator of Success – Students and staff will create personalized learning networks to communicate and collaborate with others.
On Wednesday, sci-fi fans celebrated the future. Or the present. It depends on your perspective. Regardless, when Back to the Future II film writers Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis penned the second in a trilogy of adventure-comedy hits that grossed millions, the technology of time travel was all just a dream.
In the 1989 film, the zany Doc Brown and his accident-prone sidekick, Marty McFly, travel to the year 2015 to prevent McFly’s son from almost certain imprisonment. They arrived on October 21st, and audiences could only fantasize about the technological possibilities of time travel.
But, 1989 was, in fact, life-changing “for real,” as our students might say. Swiss software engineer Tim Berners-Lee realized the potential of interconnected computers and his ideas gave birth to the first royalty-free World Wide Web. Also in 1989, the first GPS satellite was launched, the first high-definition television broadcast was completed and Taylor Swift was born. You pick which one is least important.
While 1989 brought with it a combination of high-tech dreams and discoveries, it would take more than ten years and a technological metamorphosis for Apple’s iPad to be released on April 3, 2010. What once may have sounded outlandish almost overnight became the Swiss Army Knife of computers.
This year, the Fletcher School expanded it’s one-to-one iPad program to all third through sixth grade students, with additional carts of iPads available for pK-2 classes and some devices permanently placed in primary grade classrooms. This fall, Fletcher has begun using an innovative online progress monitoring app called STAR 360 for pK-6 students on the iPads. Sounds very futuristic, doesn’t it? It is.
STAR 360 begins as an individualized screening tool. Students each use their own iPad to answer questions about reading and math. The app is computer-adaptive, which means that as students provide responses to questions, the program adjusts the next questions to precisely gather information about their strengths and areas where teachers can provide more individualized and personalized instruction.
In reading, STAR 360 provides specific feedback aligned with the Common Core Standards in the areas of foundational skills, literature and informational text. Additionally, language is addressed in the early grades. In math, students and teachers receive feedback in the areas of algebra, measurement and data, geometry and numbers and operations.
The information gained from STAR 360 is formative in nature, meaning that teachers and students will use it to set goals and guide instruction. Reports generated include specific skills that need work as well as demonstrating student strengths. Teachers can view individual student results or class trends. They can also create custom assessments to keep tabs in student progress in identified areas.
“This is about planning for immediate instruction and setting targeted skill goals that we can measure,” Literacy Teacher Leader Julie Steves said. “In the past it has been our tendency to focus on students that are at or below the standards. This is our opportunity to focus on all students to meet everyone’s instructional needs in a personalized way.”
Students will use their own STAR 360 data to set personalized goals. For example, in fifth and sixth grade, students will think about questions like: What does the data say about my reading level and performance? What can I do to develop my reading skills? How will I measure my growth? What do I need to meet my goal? Their responses will begin the creation of a personalized learning plan for each student.
“STAR 360 helps us monitor individual student progress and personalize learning,” STEM Teacher Leader Denette Locke said. “It’s about making instruction meaningful by meeting students where they are at and moving forward from there.”


Stegman, Sandra Frey
About the author: Dr. Stegman is Associate professor of Music at Northern Illinois University. Her experience includes teaching choral methods and conducting, supervising student teachers, and conducting various university and regional ensembles. She received her PhD in music education from the University of Michigan.1999 0-7734-7926-0
A guide to educating those who teach choral music in the classroom, this text provides a comprehensive review and analysis of the relevant literature, drawing on qualitative methodologies to collect and interpret primary source data. Student-teacher portraits are provided as examples. The author presents a convincing argument for assigning a special role to the development of reflective capacities and to image construction in the process of becoming a teacher, and her recommendations for music teacher education and research are thorough and developed.


New findings suggest that 65 per cent of the current population of elementary school students will be employed in careers that don’t yet exist! That means schools must embrace the challenge of providing students with the skills that will help them excel in an exciting, unknown future.
The federal government intends to grow “the number of Canadians equipped with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) coding and digital skills,” with plans to fund $50 million for digital skills training for students and $10.8 million to support STEM learning activities.
Science and tech programming can help students develop the foundational skills that tomorrow’s young leaders will require, and schools are revamping their programs to include these initiatives in ways that excite and engage students.
Some of the more cutting-edge programming is already in Toronto’s private schools, with innovative programs and activities, and the integration of new technologies. This new approach, coupled with a classic education, students can become big thinkers and creative problem solvers.
Here are just a few of the schools advancing these programs.
TanenbaumCHAT has launched an Engineering Academy, a program that provides an understanding of engineering fundamentals, hands-on learning, coding and complex problem solving. Enrolment doubled after its first year, and principal Renee Cohen says, “Students are excited to come to school each and every day to create, innovate and build.”
UTS (University of Toronto Schools) has invested in state-of-the-art 3D printers and interactive touch screen monitors to facilitate tech-forward learning. STEM initiatives include a 3D design club, developing apps, building robots and tackling complex topics with some game-based learning.
The York School opened the Schad Art and Design Lab, a space that integrates STEM disciplines. Students test their skills in engineering challenges like Bridge Busters and the Pinewood Derby, requiring them to understand the principles of design.
innovate and build.”
Crescent School boys engage with robotics in science courses and participate in competitive teams. It’s not just about the ’bots, though.
“The lessons learned … go beyond the mechanics and coding skills,” says Don Morrison, director of robotics. “The boys learn the value of collaboration, complex problem solving, critical thinking and communication.”
Don’t forget the girls! There is a dearth of females in university science and engineering programs, as women comprise only about 20 per cent of undergrad enrolment in those areas. More girls’ schools are hoping to change that.
At Linden School, lessons in coding, engineering, robotics, electronics and science are taught in the new CERES lab. Events like the Social Justice Data Fair showcase projects centred on math and data while also exploring issues that synthesize some of the social sciences. Curriculum leader Beth Alexander says her goal is for girls to discover they are creators of technology, not just the users of it, and to develop skills so they can consider the opportunities in these under-representated fields.
Havergal College has also committed to science and math initiatives, breaking ground on a building for STEM applications, ready in 2019. Students have taken field trips to Google Canada, tested airfoil prototypes in the school’s wind tunnel and participated in coding hackathons. Clubs include Lego engineering, crafty science, mind benders and science design.
If your child isn’t considering a career in the sciences, STEM programming is still beneficial.
It can open the minds of students, allowing them to brainstorm creative ways to approach a problem. It encourages them to experiment, learn from mistakes and work with peers to find solutions: all skills essential to any career.


Developing language literacy and communication skills is part of the Ministry of Education’s overall efforts to improve quality of education in the country. Following the comprehensive educational transformation in 2003, various activities including promotion of mother tongue as a medium of elementary education were carried out. Native languages are used as medium of instruction at elementary level and Arabic is a compulsory subject for all Eritrean school children in Grades 1-12. However, the teaching and learning of Arabic as a secondary language could not progress as desired for various reasons. Taking this set back into consideration, the Ministry of Education is conducting a workshop under the theme: “Language: Asset of Centuries, Medium of Communication”so as to map out the best plans and strategies for teaching and learning of Arabic language. The two-day workshop was opened today and would continue until tomorrow at the Asmara Palace Hotel. Shabait conducted an interview with the Minister of Education, Mr. Semere Russom regarding the workshop, excerpts follow:
What is the main objective of this workshop?
This workshop is aimed at conducting a situational assessment of Arabic language teaching and learning in Eritrean education system and identify the main problems that are hindering effective teaching and learning of the language in the school system. Moreover, we hope to outline relevant pedagogic approaches on second language teaching particularly on Arabic language and enhance awareness of the vitality of the language.
Could you give us a general picture of what the workshop will include?
About 11 study papers are expected to be presented by teachers, educational officers, policy makers and scholars. These papers will focus on historical background of the Arabic language in Eritrea, situational assessment of teaching-learning process of Arabic language in Eritrean schools, the experience of some countries that teach Arabic as a second language, challenges of teacher requirements and possible solutions, experiences of the Asmara Teacher’s Training Institute on Arabic program, the role of Arabic language in the daily life of Eritrean society, the role of mass media, the importance of the Arabic language as a means of communication in the region, and other related topics. Around 250 participants including interested scholars, teachers, educational officers and policy makers from 6 regions are expected to take part in the workshop.
Arabic language has so far been taught in elementary and junior levels. But the outcome wasn’t encouraging until now due to several reasons. In this workshop we are hoping to come up with workable plan and strategies to facilitate teaching and learning process of Arabic language. The ministry’s plan is to enable junior students to master Arabic language.
What is the importance of conducting this workshop and what can we expect from it?
As we know, medium of instruction in elementary schools is the mother tongue. The Ministry continuously conducts workshops to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process of all languages. This workshop is also part and parcel of the assessment of the Ministry of Education.
This workshop is expected to create conducive ground to enhance awareness and motivate all concerned individuals and institutions to achieve the desired objective. We would devise means and strategies to enhance the teaching and learning of the language, which we hope will enable students to master the Arabic language and improve their competence.


The Giddens School prekindergarten program helps 4 year olds develop the skills of our 3 pillars (academic excellence and learning, social and emotional development, social justice and equity) in ways that are developmentally appropriate. Our program provides a rich foundation for future schooling, while emphasizing the importance of learning through play. Children of this age often begin to see themselves as learners, coming to school full of purpose and intention. Teachers work to respond to each child, observing and inquiring to adapt a program that will be responsive to the child’s innate curiosity while assuring they have the foundational skills to support their success in kindergarten. This includes social and emotional learning, as well as academic growth. In prekindergarten, learning opportunities are provided in community contexts, including small group instruction. This helps children learn from one another and apply their knowledge to a variety of scenarios.


In an effort to provide access to educational materials amid school closures, TVO announced they have launched a new learning initiative.
Launched as part of the Ontario Ministry of Education’s Learn at Home program, the initiative provides online, easy access to learning tools for students from K-12.
Through direct online links, students will be able to engage a host of learning tools on demand, free of charge and barrier free.
TVO Mathify offers free one-on-one online math tutoring with Ontario Certified Teachers for students in Grades 6-10. During the school closures, tutors are available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and Sunday 3:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. for students wishing to build their math understanding and confidence with a personalized math coach.
TVO mPower offers more than 65 free online games that help students master tough-to-learn K-6 math, STEM and social science concepts. All games are Ontario curriculum-based and designed to bolster foundational skills and inspire a love of math.
As part of the Learn at Home initiative, TVOkids has added The Power Hour of Learning to its broadcast schedule every day from 9:30-10:30 a.m., providing school aged kids with stimulating curated educational content each morning.
In addition to the popular TVOkids YouTube channel, three new subject-specific channels have been launched:
- Mathematics– A YouTube channel carefully curated with content to support JK-Grade 3 core math curriculum. Visit the TVOkids Mathematics channel.· Science and Technology – A YouTube channel supporting JK-Grade 3 core science curriculum where kids can learn from fun science experiments – and even try some of them at home. Visit the TVOkids Science and Technology channel.
· Language – A YouTube Channel where kids join an imaginative world where learning language is paramount. These videos are designed to promote the growth of language skills and a love of reading. Visit the TVOkids Language channel.
Beginning Monday, March 23, TVO ILC also invites students to join a free online TVO ILC Open House, where they can keep up with their studies or deepen their understanding through an open preview of all 144 Grade 9 to 12 courses.
“The COVID-19 emergency has changed how Ontarians live, work and play in a matter of weeks, and TVO services are evolving along with the needs of the people we serve,” said Chris Day, TVO’s Board Chair in a press release. “Making digital learning products more widely available will hopefully be welcome news to learners and their families, and our current affairs programming will continue to keep Ontarians informed.”
Where to find TVO
Rogers Cable HD 2 & HD 580
Bell TV 265
Bell Fibe TV HD 1209 & SD 209
Shaw Direct HD 155


The 2012 Annual Conference of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA) will be held in Chiayi, Taiwan. Subjects he explicitly mentions as getting critical included reading, writing and mathematics music physical education literature and history and a wide range of sciences. Without having the consideration of philosophy of education, a textbook is a pack of details which has no social worth. No secular society will advocate revelation in place of explanation and sensations as a supply of understanding. Aristotle regarded human nature, habit and purpose to be equally crucial forces to be cultivated in education.
When the social wants modify it leads to the adjustments in the objectives of education. To be a profitable teacher it is for him to know the philosophy of education and its related components. Even though elementary education produced the soul responsive to the environment, larger education helped the soul to search for truth which illuminated it. Both boys and girls acquire the identical kind of education. We thus know of his philosophy of education mainly via short passages in other performs.
Different educationists and philosophers have prescribed various strategies of teaching according to their scheme of education. He is a co-worker with god in perfecting man naturalism regards teacher as the stage manager who has to offer educational atmosphere. This is the function of philosophy of education to decide the sources of understanding in the light of national values and traditions and absorb them into the program of education.
Philosophy is a systematic and thorough try to relate the universe and human life to every single other in a meaningful way. According to John Dewey education is a method of improvement of all these capacities in the person which enables to control his environment and fulfill his possibilities. Philosophy and aims of education: education becoming a planned and purposeful activity has manifold aims. Philosophy of education refers to interpretation of those findings Which influence the educative procedure. We currently know that aims of education seek guidance from the philosophy of education.
Therefore, some understanding of philosophy is basic not only to an understanding of education as a entire but also to have a clear grasp of the actual methods of teaching and their successful uses. By implies of effective teaching, the curricular content material may possibly be transmitted to the student and thereby make certain the acquisition of the objectives of education. According to Aristotle , Education is the creation of a sound thoughts in a sound body…….It develops a humans’ faculty specifically the mind so that it could be capable to get pleasure from the contemplation of supreme truth , goodness and beauty of which prefect happiness primarily consists.…


The Italian system of Higher Education consists of University education, Higher Level Arts and Music Education (AFAM) and Higher Technical Education (ITS). To enter any tertiary-level pathway it is necessary to hold a Diploma of upper secondary education.
ITS pathways represent the non-academic tertiary education and training segment, featuring curricula based on a set of National Standard concerning:
- Linguistic, communication and relational skills, scientific and technological sciences, economics, organizational and managerial multilevel competences common to all the professional roles related to the higher technical education courses;
- technical and professional skills specific to each nationally-defined professional role of Higher Technician.
As a result ITS training courses represent an high qualifying offer to gain new and innovative technical competences in order to foster innovation and technological transfer.
Courses are managed by ITS Foundations, the key factor of a new strategy that link companies, universities/R&D bodies, institutions, instruction and vocational training systems altogether.
Six technological areas, one for each Foundation, identify specific scopes and National Reference Profiles so that the training offer matches with the production chain present in each territory:
- Energy Efficiency
- Sustainable mobility
- New technologies in life
- New Technologies for Made in Italy (ITS Tech & Food Foundation)
- Innovative technologies for cultural goods and activities -Tourism
- Information and communication technologies
ITS system, by the means of training courses and of the related activities, aims at:
- preparing higher technicians to meet the training and occupational needs of the related sector’s companies.
- Contributing to the region’s economic development (SMEs in primis).
- Foster technological culture thanks to post school orientation and coaching events, by adopting a training approach founded on action that aspires to educate in both the classroom and the workplace.
ITS courses’ components
- Courses are open to young people and adults with a secondary school diploma, provided that they pass the entry exam. English and basic IT skills are required.
- More than 40% of the activities is spent in a company internship. Students are also given the possibility of carrying out a partial or full internship in companies located abroad.
- Courses are taught by experts working in the field (at least 50%), at universities and in research.
- Training activities will take place abroad with the purpose to enable students a direct experience with companies, research bodies and institutions.
- Work experience within a company can also be carried out under apprenticeship, ensuring greater integration between training and work.
Higher Technician Diploma
At the end of the course, provided that the student passes the final exam, they will be awarded the Higher Technician Diploma, which is valid throughout Italy and the European Union (Level 5 of the European Qualifications Framework). Those holding the diploma are eligible to apply for open public positions and are also issued with a EUROPASS certificate in Italian and English.


Today's post is, by no means, a comprehensive guide about teaching morphology. There is a lot more to share! My hope in this post was to show you that teaching grammar does not have to be a decontextualised, worksheet based activity where children learn random bits of information and don't really know how to apply it.
Making the move from three cueing to reading instructed grounded in the science of reading is about way more than simply what we say to children when they get ‘stuck’ on a word. It requires a significant shift in reading practice.
Explicitly teaching students how to segment and linking this to phonics instruction will help your students get the most of their efforts during your literacy sessions.
Spending lots of time on blending and enabling your children to work on skills until they have mastered them will really set them up for future literacy success.
Holding off on teaching letter names will disadvantage nobody. Teaching them early will certainly disadvantage some. Equitable teaching means that we teach in a way that reaches all children and sets each of them up for success. Teaching 'sounds' before letter names is one small thing we can do to contribute to a child's future reading success.
While the act of putting things up on the walls is unlikely to cause children any damage, it’s the way that these displays are used that makes all the difference. We all want our classrooms to look nice, but this drive for Pinterest Perfect classrooms can lead to us leaving the most important part of the picture out – the kids!
My observations are that the children who are able to produce rhyme in preschool and early stages of foundation are those who go on to develop reading without too many troubles, while those who don’t, require a much more systematic and structured approach to reading.
Teaching systematic synthetic phonics and then giving children leveled texts to read is like eating vegetables for dinner and then five chocolate bars for dessert. In Part 3 of this series, learn about why we should not be giving children material to read that they do not yet know the sounds for.
Using a sequence of steps that gradually build on the one before significantly reduces the risk of cognitive overload. A sequence of teaching also allows for cumulative learning. “You are now going to deal with the material you already know, plus a little bit more”.
"For me, explicit instruction gives children confidence and helps them feel supported. I hate not having a GPS or some kind of map when I'm on a journey. Kids are no different. "


Day One (PM): What Makes Us Amazing?
Essential Questions: What is Amazing? What is a Robot? What is Friendship?
For teachers to experience and understand how. . .
Social interaction contributes to literacy learning - how interpretation is developed and refined through collaborative experiences around text.
multisensory learning strategies support literacy development
how chapter books can move beyond read-alouds to hands-on print experiences
the goal of rubrics is to offer a set of vocabulary for students to create and assess high quality work
multiple iterations of student work—with rubrics in place—levels up the quality of student work.
curricula can be shaped around essential questions and big ideas
Kurt Wootton, author of A Reason to Read: Linking the Arts and LIteracy and Director of Habla Institute of Language and Culture, kicks off Summer 2019: Applied Literacy 201
Robot Circle Cross
Community and trust are built simultaneously during the Robot Circle Cross. This new spin on Circle Cross connects to the content by inviting one person to close their eyes and move like a robot while a partner guides them as across the circle.
The Amazing, All-Knowing Robot
In groups of 6, participants created and named a robot character. They then became this character, a single voice with six heads, and answered any and all questions the other groups asked.
Participants used the Story Nugget strategy to act out text from The Wild Robot. Story Nuggets refer to phrases or chunks of a text. These are acted out by students as a pre-reading strategy to peak interest and inquiry about the text.
Criteria for Excellence
What makes an excellent performance?
Participants grappled with this question and created their own set of criteria for excellence. Using the criteria they created, they performed Story Arcs from The Wild Robot. This strategy is a way to take Story Nuggets to a more advanced level. They performed sections of text that emphasized the journey of two characters in the story and their friendship. In this way, they are able to enter key ideas in a chapter book and also apply their criteria for excellence to create a strong performance.
Lists: What is amazing in your life?
Participants read the last chapter of the book and made connections to the essential question: what makes an amazing life? Using the handout Roz's Box, they generated a list of what makes their own life amazing.
Reflection and Transfer
The day wrapped up with reflection and discussion of how educators could transfer what they learned into their own context.


The First-Year Writing Curriculum at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte is inquiry-driven, process-based, and grounded in the understanding that writing is always socially situated (and writers are, too). This means that writing doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The way we write is influenced by context and purpose. Therefore, we recognize that there is no universal context for writing, academic or otherwise. What constitutes “good” writing in one situation or discipline is different from another one. We know that writing is not a basic skill independent of content or context. Similarly, literacy development does not begin or end with the completion of first-year writing, but is spiral and on-going. The FYW curriculum also recognizes the broad array of composing that 21st century students are required to practice, especially digital and multimodal work that pays attention to audiences that reach far beyond the classroom.
Because we know the impossibility of preparing students for every possible writing task they may encounter in their educational careers, the FYW curriculum strives to help students become adaptive writers, ones who know the questions that effective writers ask each time they compose and ones who can draw on what they already know about composing in order to complete the task:
- What is the purpose of this composition?
- What is the larger context?
- Who is my audience, and what are their needs and expectations?
- What kind of language is appropriate for the work this composition must do?
- What type of documentation style is expected?
- What do I already know, what do I still need to know, and where can I find useful resources?
All fIrst-year writing courses culminate in the creation of a Digital Portfolio. The purpose of the portfolio is to provide a place for students to curate selected coursework that demonstrates engaged inquiry, rhetorical flexibility, rigorous reflection, and awareness of visual design and digital composition. Students analyze their reading and writing processes, reflect upon their learning from the course, and articulate their understanding and application of the department's first-year writing student learning outcomes.


Grades K-5 consist of exciting learning communities that emphasize student choice and individualized instruction while maintaining some of the best features of a traditional approach to education. We are proud of the program we’ve put together and think you’ll like it too!
Our literacy program features the Reading and Writing Workshop, a system of instruction that is highly engaging with the goal of creating lifelong readers and writers. Our teachers share a minilesson with skills that all students need then send the students off to read and write books and papers of their choosing. It is during this time that students practice the skills of the minilesson and receive individual and group feedback from the teacher and their peers. MCA Junior Lions grow in their love of literacy as they explore our robust classroom libraries and enthusiastically share their writing pieces throughout the year. With grammar and spelling instruction throughout as well as phonics instruction in the early grades, we ensure that our students have a strong foundation that utilizes a balanced literacy approach.
We adopted Singapore Math during the 2014-2015 school year with great results. During the 2015-2016 school year, our fourth and fifth grade students took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the ACSI Regional Math Olympics in the area of mathematical reasoning and we’ve seen tremendous growth overall under the program. Using a hands-on approach when needed and innovative methods of tackling word problems and other difficult elementary math concepts, we strive to reach students with multiple learning styles and needs through our math program. Taking the best of modern methods of teaching math and pairing them with the tried and true ways of the past has proven to be effective in helping our students think like mathematicians. We’re excited to see how this foundation carries over to the high school years!
Science and social studies instruction covers a broad range of topics and incorporates book learning with hands on experiences and projects that deepen students’ understanding. Our core academic program also incorporates Bible class wherein students are exposed to an overview of the Bible that emphasizes a personal relationship with Jesus and the basic tenets of our faith. Through biblical integration in all of the subjects, intentional Bible teaching and memorization, and a once a week chapel experience, our students learn to see the world through a Christian worldview. In literacy we learn how to see people as Jesus does and how to write and speak effectively to express ourselves. In the other disciplines we learn about the world God created- his order and patterns, the history of what he’s done and is doing in the world, and the many marvels of his creation.
In addition to these “core” academic subjects, students enjoy Spanish, P.E., computer, art, music, chorus, and band (gr. 4 & 5 elective) with “specials” teachers each week. All subjects are taught by certified, Christian teachers who are responsible for integrating faith and learning.


Internet access to YouTube
Computer with projector (for students to view YouTube videos)
Speakers (for students to hear the YouTube videos)
– Watch the video lesson linked above. During the video, students will participate in speaking and singing activities for a given excerpt of the Star-Spangled Banner.
– This video also features information on the Maryland Historical Society and SSB primary sources
– By the end of the lesson series, students will have rehearsed and performed the entire first verse of the Star-Spangled Banner.
– Applicable online resources and activities are provided at the end of this page to supplement the video lesson (optional).
Standards – National Association for Music Education
PreK – Eighth Grade
MU: Pr6. 1.– a – Perform with expression…
MU: Pr6. 1.– b – Perform appropriately for the audience…
MU: Cn11. 0.– a – Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts…
Ninth Grade – Twelfth Grade
MU: Pr6. 1. E. 5a – demonstrate attention to technical accuracy and expressive qualities in prepared and improvised performances…
MU: Pr6. 1. E. 5b – Demonstrate an awareness of the context of the music…
Visit the Maryland Historical Society’s website
– View digitalized primary sources
– Worksheets and other classroom resources from the website
– Standards-based lesson plans and online resources


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Curriculum Standards Module
The EBSCOhost Curriculum Standards module, powered by Academic Benchmarks, has been updated. It contains over 1,050 standards aligned to the curriculum for specific U.S. states, U.S. Common Core and Canadian provinces.
This update includes:
- The addition of Common Core for mathematics and language arts
- The addition of Canadian standards
- The addition of new updated standards from U.S. states
- Update to preferred search strings associated at the Benchmark level
Databases with Common Core Standards
This resource contains more than 20,000 critical essays from over 500 literary journals and 2,300 scholarly and critical books, including 700 titles published by Bloom's Literary Criticism and Facts On File. Also included in the database are more than 13,000 biographies, 45,000 character entries, 5,000 synopses of literary works and hundreds of images and videos. (Infobase)
Creates animated and curriculum based content that engages students and educators. Homework help, quizzes, games, and activities. (Grades K-3)
Access to two homepages: Britannica Kids for children and young adults, and Britannica Reference Center for older students and adults.
Periodical articles display Lexile reading levels.
Cultural reports on the countries of the world, US states and Canadian provences. Supporting materials include a photo gallery, recipes, and biographies. You can view flags, maps, slideshows, national anthems, and video clips. (Grades 4-12.) (ProQuest)
Explora for Elementary Schools
Search engine designed for elementary students and teachers. Provides access to magazines, newspapers, books, biographies, country reports, primary sources, video, and more. Teachers can find Curriculum Standards and Lesson Plans. (Ebsco)
Explora for High Schools
A search engine designed for secondary school students and teachers. Includes magazines, newspapers, biographies, country reports, film, and video. Teachers can find Curriculum Standards and Lesson Plans. (Ebsco)
Explora for Middle Schools
A search engine designed for middle school students and teachers. Teachers can find Curriculum Standards and Lesson Plans.(Ebsco)
Literary Reference Center
A comprehensive database that provides more than 35,000 plot summaries, synopses, and work overviews. Also provides nearly 100,000 articles/essays of literary criticism. (Ebsco)
NoveList K-8 Plus
A great online resource for helping teachers, school librarians, and kids find the next great fiction read. Also provides access to information on over 30,500 nonfiction titles. (K-8) (Ebsco)
Another database designed to help users find the next great read. Contains information on over 260,000 fiction and nonfiction titles. (Ebsco)
Opposing Viewpoints in Context allows you to find articles and supporting information on...both sides of today’s hottest social issues - from Terrorism to Endangered Species, from Stem Cell Research to Gun Control.
Points of View Reference Center
A full text database designed to provide a series of essays that present multiple sides of a current social issue. The database has more than 290 topics, each with an overview, point, counterpoint, and critical thinking guide. (Grades 6-12) (Ebsco)
Science Reference Center
A comprehensive research database that provides easy access to a multitude of full text science related content. Contains full text for hundreds of science encyclopedias, reference books, periodicals and other sources, as well as almost 300,000 images. (Ebsco)
Visual Arts standards
National Coalition for Core Arts Standards
The development of the next generation of voluntary National Visual Arts Standards will be complete in June 2014. NAEA is among a number of governing organizations of the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) and leads the development of the visual arts standards through the visual arts writing team. Preview the Standards and learn more with these resources. Look for the final version of the National Visual Arts Standards as a poster in Art Education Journal and on this site.
Common Core Alignment
The New Standards have Arrived!
Please join us at www.nationalartsstandards.org


As of late, many parents have contacted me about starting their toddlers and preschoolers (think 18 months to four years) in some kind of music class. As formal lessons may be much for a very young child to take on, group classes and a consistent exposure to music and music education in the home will spark the interest of the child in music. Check out my recommendations below to make music an everyday part of your child’s education.
Active versus Passive Music Listening. Passive listening includes having background music on during playtime or listening to the radio while in the car. This type of musical exposure is nice, but is not creating lasting neural connections in your young child’s brain. By incorporating movement: clapping, dancing, singing along, marching, or something similar, your child is remembering not just the fun they had while actively listening to music, but also the way music made them feel. They can replicate those feelings again when given the chance to express themselves through music.
Daily Activities Sing-Alongs. There is a reason why we have an Alphabet Song, Old MacDonald, and B-I-N-G-O. By learning how to spell, count, and make animal sounds through music, there is a higher chance that the young child will remember these concepts. The Alphabet Song in particular is set to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, another important children’s song that incorporates hand motions. As a parent of a toddler, I try to sing to my child at regular times throughout the day. At morning wake up, I sing, “It’s a Beautiful Day,” a simple tune I made up to prepare him for the day. But after singing it nearly every day for the last 18 months of his life, he has started to sing with me!
Movement and Music. Research has proven that incorporating movement into music for young children is remarkable for literacy, learning, and language skills. One of the leading providers of early childhood music education is Kindermusik, a tried and true method to begin a child’s music education. Their curriculum is developmentally-based, and each age from young infant to preschool is sure to enjoy the active and fun learning atmosphere that Kindermusik provides. Find the location nearest you here.
Parent and Child Parallel Learning. It is not unheard of for a parent to enroll in music lessons, just to give their very young child the exposure to music on a daily basis. For those parents who have pianos or guitars already in the home, consider enrolling in lessons, and make time to practice in front of your child. Sit them at the piano with you while you are playing, and explain simple concepts to them, like forte and piano, or high notes versus low notes. These concepts will be forged into their developing brains, so when it is time to enroll them into formal lessons around age 5, they will be ahead of the curve.
Sound Off: How did early exposure cultivate a love of music for you? What is your earliest musical memory?


Advocate of outdoor nature education Wendy Pirie says there are many developmental benefits for children running around outside and exploring their environment.
She is the founder of an early learning centre in Taradale, Hawkes Bay, where children have 2 acres of natural play space.
The play space called, The Den, rests on key developmental pillars, she tells Kathryn Ryan.
“Those four things are well-being, belonging, discovery and education, movement and nature.”
Children learn through doing, she says, but the modern world constrains them.
“It’s a sequential journey that children go through without us being aware, but what we are seeing more and more for different reasons is that children are in positions that they cannot naturally get themselves in or out of.
“There’s health and safety so we’re in car seats and different things like that and our bodies aren’t able to be in those positions independently.”
Children would once have played outdoors for four hours a day, she says, which engages all the senses. Not just the five common senses but also things like balance.
“For example, the most advanced form of balance is the ability to be still.
“Being still is an advanced developmental journey so how we develop that is through our vestibular system which is taking our body out from the upright position to is things like rolling, running around and hanging upside down which we used to see all the time which was how young children were playing.”
Children today are more and more in the upright position, she says.
Independent or free skipping is a sign a child is developing well, she says.
“If I’m working alongside children that always makes my heart sing when I see a child that’s skipping along and singing to themselves.
“That gives me an indication is that they are physically organised, they have gone through a developmental journey.
“Once children are able to independently sing and skip at the same time, they are able to access the executive functioning part of their brain, because the movement part of their brain is automated they are able to so movement without thinking about it.”
“What an independent skipping singing child suggests to me is that they have crossed their mid line … which is how dominance emerges, left or right handed, that is a developmental journey
Before they can skip independently they need to develop foundational skills, she says, from traditional play such as rolling, spinning and being upside down.
“That leads to a sequential journey of stand on one foot, jump with two feet together being able to hop on one foot and putting it all together and being able to skip.”
Her top tip for parents wishing to encourage a love of play and movement in a child is to engage their inner child.
“For young children music is a wonderful medium, breaking out into song and bringing back your inner child is a wonderful place to start.
“Find your inner child and just be present and have the time and space together.”


History of Directive Principles
History of Directive Principles -
The Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles (DP / DPSP) have a common origin. The Nehru Report of 1928 (All Parties Conference Committee Report, 1928. It was chaired by Motilal Nehru. Hence is popularly known as Nehru Committee Report) which contained a Swaraj Constitution of India incorporated some fundamental rights. These included such rights as the right of elementary education. The Sapru Report of 1945 (Constitutional proposals of Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru Committee, 1945) clearly divided the fundamental rights into two categories - justiciable and non-justiciable. Sir B. N. Rau, Constitutional Adviser to the Constituent Assembly advised that the individual rights should be divided into two categories. Those which can be enforeced by a court and those which are not so enforceable. The latter he thought are moral precepts for the authorities of the State. His suggestion was accepted by the Drafting Committee. As a result we have Fundamental Rights which are justiciable in Part III and DPs which are non-justiciable in Part IV.
The objective of both is securing social, economic and political justice and dignity and welfare of the individual.
Our Constitution makers followed the model of the Constitution of Eire / Ireland which sets forth certain principles of social policy for the guidance of the State but which are not cognizable by any court.


The Broadway musical West Side Story is as timeless in our Age of Covid-19, George Floyd, and social, racial, economic, and political unrest as it was in its 1961 premier. Composer Leonard Bernstein’s sensitivity to the ambiguity and tensions is pertinent to the psychosocial themes of oppression and intolerance. I will explain how the music of West Side Story explores an intersection of music theory and theories of mind as the music itself emphasizes intrapsychic, interpersonal, and social dramas that unfold within and between two gangs, the Puerto Rican Sharks and the Caucasian Jets. Emphasizing the ostensibly comic – but tragic – song “Gee! Officer Krupke”, implications will be suggested for clinical practice, as well as transporting psychoanalytic concepts from the couch, to the Broadway stage, and into the community to address the complexities of love, hate, aggression, prejudice, intolerance, and violence.
Participants will be able to:
1- Describe underlying psychodynamic issues and affects that give rise to oppression, intolerance, and injustice.
2- Explain how social and interpersonal events ignite powerful affects which can turn into violent action.
3- Articulate the relevance of music in mental life and ways to use it to address racism and prejudice.
Julie Jaffee Nagel, Ph.D., holds the BM and MS degrees in piano from Juilliard, the MSW, MA, and PhD. in psychology and social work from the University of Michigan, and is a graduate of the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute. She presents to psychoanalytic, music, and lay organizations on the topics of Stage Fright, COVID-19 and Trauma, Music and Emotion, #Me Too and Music Education, and is the author of scientific articles in major psychoanalytic journals, blogs on her website www.julienagel.net, as well as her books “Melodies of the Mind” and “Managing Stage Fright.” Her theater piece, “A Conversation Between Freud and Mozart’” recently was performed at Steinway Hall in New York City. Dr. Nagel is in private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan.


Hip Hopping Raisins
Raisins are dried grapes. Wouldn’t it be hilarious to make tiny raisins swing and dance to rap music?
What You Need
- Transparent glasses
- Clear soft drinks like Sprite
What To Do
- Take two clear glasses. Fill one with plain water and one with clear soda like Sprite. Grab some of those raisins and drop them into each glass. Plop! The raisins fall flat at the bottom. Now look closely at the glass filled with carbonated drink.
- What do you see? The raisins are slowly rising up and are now doing cha cha cha. They swoop up gracefully and dive down, and keep repeating this process. It is completely mesmerising. You are a good dance teacher who has taught those heavy raisins to lift up their spirits and dance gracefully.
Why do the Raisins Dance?
- The dented surfaces of the raisins are filled with little air pockets. They lure the carbon dioxide bubbles towards them, thus creating magical bubbles on the face of the raisins. These bubbles also increase the volume (surface area) of the raisins without raising the mass (weight) of the raisins much.
- So, they lower the density (tight compactness) of the raisins. Archimedes’ principle states that when an object has lesser density than a fluid, the object will rise up. The bubbles disappear once they meet air.
- Once the bubbles subside, the raisins sink down and again carbon dioxide causes bubbles to form. This simple scientific process generates a fascinating display.
- However, the raisins in the plain water will stubbornly sit at the bottom of the glass.
For more such science experiments and articles, visit Science for Kids.


Scientific literacy enables students to gain an understanding of the natural world, investigate and solve problems - essential skills for the 21st century learner. Students are offered a broad range of theory and practical work with an emphasis on engaging real-world activities, including laboratory-based experiments, field studies and ICT based activities. The faculty has an extensive range of scientific equipment that is used by students in practical sessions and for teacher demonstrations, including a brand new state of the art photographic microscope, a range of optical telescopes, wireless dataloggers, a full aquaponics system and much more.
All students in every year group receive an interactive electronic text that they can access on their devices at anytime. Students also access a range of digital resources and interactive tools delivered through our Learning Management System, Schoology.
For many students the Year 7 course is their first introduction to working in a science laboratory. The course develops a foundation in scientific safety, literacy and numeracy skills to ensure students can meet the expectations and demands of later years. As students progress in developing their scientific literacy, we cover a broad range of topics from the Australian curriculum each year, covering a unit from each of Physics, Chemistry, Earth Sciences and Biology. In our Lex@s classes students take on extension materials and projects, such as the year 10 students who complete a university based online Astronomy course.


Date of Graduation
Master of Arts in International and Multicultural Education (IME)
School of Education
International and Multicultural Education (IME)
There are many constructs that can hinder the ability of students of color to succeed in a classroom environment. Factors such as the construct of whiteness, microaggressions, the banking method, as well as cuts in arts based classes create a learning environment where oppression occurs on multiple levels. The construct of whiteness creates an environment in which only the ideas, values, lived experiences, and knowledge of whites are considered valid. Microaggressions uphold the construct of whiteness by insulting and invalidating any ideas, values, lived experiences, languages, and knowledge that are outside the construct of whiteness. The constructs of whiteness as well as microaggressions create a social and cultural hierarchy. Students of color may detach from their cultural heritage to avoid harassment. The use of the banking method creates an intellectual hierarchy by creating a space in which knowledge is derived from one source. Teachers control what is learned in the classroom and students are expected to remember the information that is being “taught”. In this situation it is uncertain if students are really understanding the material that is being taught or they are just regurgitating information. Lastly cuts in arts based classes create an inequitable learning environment because students are stripped of the opportunity to engage in multimodal learning space. These factors create an inequitable learning environment for students of color. The aim of this project is to provide educators with a curriculum that creates a culturally relevant arts based education through the use of photography and storytelling. This curriculum is based on the ideas of critical pedagogy, community cultural wealth, culturally relevant education, arts based education, photography, storytelling, as well as collaborative education. Together these concepts reconstruct a different type of learning space; one that is calls upon, utilizes, and driven by the lived experiences, values, knowledge, and ideas of students of color. Students of color will be able to identify and analyze various topic such as identity, community, culture, power, love, and inspiration/ aspiration. The use of photography and storytelling will allow students of color to artistically portray their ideas while engaging in a collaborative learning space. The main objective of this project is to provide students of color an opportunity to appreciate and value their culture while being able to express themselves artistically.
Tran, William, ""Let Me Tell You What I See" Creating a Culturally Relevant Arts Based Education Through the use of Photography and Storytelling" (2016). Master's Projects and Capstones. 282.
Art Education Commons, Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Commons


Special Educational Needs and disability
Do you think your child might need additional support in school? Relocating to Cambridge with children who have SEND?
What are special educational needs?
Children learn at different speeds and in different ways. Children and Young People with a special educational need and or a disability (SEN or SEND) have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn than most children of the same age. They may have difficulties with:
Reading, writing, literacy and numeracy skills including number work or understanding information
Understanding what is being said to them
Understanding rules and routines
Following rules and routines
Making friends or playing with friends (social skills)
A medical condition
Sight or hearing
Before an EHCP can be applied for information needs to be collated from professionals, this could be:
Rate of progress
Nature of the SEN
Additional support that has been given that is being given which is more than their peers
Action of the evidence already collected (following the assess, plan, do review process which has been completed for three cycles)
Evidence of the child or young person's physical, emotional, social development or health needs
Evidence from clinicians and health professionals and what has been done by the agencies to support the child or young person
This evidence is collated in a number of different formats: IEPs, Individual Education Care Plans, Behaviour plans, Student mentoring or support, reduced timetable, exclusions, reduced timetables, alternative provisions or half days for some of the week day.
Within a school setting there are several staff you might be working with, the SENDCO or SENCO, Assistant or Deputy Head, Head of year or a named member of staff who is responsible for the welfare or pastoral care of your child.
This person should be collating the information and compiling a report which should have an assess, plan, do review format. This evidence needs to be collated by them along with any health care or medical professionals (GP, nurse, EP, educational psychologist, physiotherapist, counselor, ADHD nurse, ASD, ASC, Autism or Autistic support). Your child could be getting support for their social and emotional mental health (SEMH) or behaviour, education and social support (BESM). This should be collated and shared in meetings which you could be attending. This is not a full list of needs for your child and the following needs should also be considered:
Sensory and/or physical need
Social, emotional and mental health (SEMH)
Cognition and learning


Art education is same as the education other subjects like science, history, geography, language etc. It should never be ignored in any case. There are many schools that really support art education and art is treated just like a normal subject.
There are many institutes and tutor who also give art classes separately so that your child and his art are polished by the best teachers. They really help your child to improve his skills. Art is not restricted to painting or sketching or drawing different things. Art is a vast subject and has many types. There are many institutes who offer different kinds of art courses in Dubai and they polish their students in the best way. Art is a good way to express your feelings and thoughts. You just have to take a pencil or a paint brush in your hand and a paper to pour out all the thoughts that are accumulating the spaces in your minds and hearts. This is a good way to relax your mind as well. It is said that art speaks and this is hundred percent true because there are a lot of meanings hidden in all the art pieces of the world.
Art teaches a lot of things to the person who is learning it. It helps in keeping faith in you and builds self confidence in a person and people start to love themselves. It helps in the process of decision making; you basically learn how to make choices with its aid. Arts require a lot of focus and this is how you learn to focus on your career and different things of your life. Focus in life is really important and it is easily taught if you have arts in your life.
Personal development training courses are also offered in institutes all over the world but arts on its own develop the personality of a person in a lot of ways. Arts teach how to interact to people and it develops a person socially, mentally, physically and emotionally. It is really important for the progress and development of a person. So every single person needs to understand this that they should take some time out of their schedules and give some time to arts so they also develop in different fields of life.


Morphology, also known as oral grammar, refers to the use of words and their parts or ‘morphemes’ (the smallest meaningful units of language). Grammatical morphemes apply meaning (and sometimes tense) to nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
Letters added to the front of words to change the meaning. For example:
Letters added to the end of words to change the meaning. For example:
Using morphemes to change the tense of words. For example:
Strong morphology skills are important for later literacy development, especially reading and spelling. A child with Morphology difficulties may have trouble using morphemes orally or in their written work (e.g. may say/write ‘horse’ for ‘horses’), which may make it difficult for others to understand them.
There are many things you can do to help your child increase their expressive language skills, including:
There are a number of activities that you can do to increase a child’s morphology skills. They’re probably things you’re already doing but they can be expanded without much effort.
Talk about what is happening in the story or the pictures of the book (e.g. ‘Look! The chicken in running away from the wolf and the cow is chasing the wolf’). This is a great activity for focusing on verb tenses, plurals, etc.
Describe what you see and focus on the morphemes in the sentences you produce (e.g. ‘I see a woman dancing’) encourage your child to use the correct the correct morphology during their turn by modelling the correct response or repeating back their sentence with correct morphology (e.g. ‘yes, there are three goats’).
Sing a song
It could be a nursery rhyme or a popular song your child likes, placing emphasis on the morphemes in the song. Repeated exposure of correct morphology will make it easier for your child to understand when to use of the morpheme in their own language.
Play a memory game
This can be done with simple pictures or a memory game you may already have at home. Memory games can be great for eliciting the correct morphology of words, for example, you could play memory and focus on using plurals ‘s’ when the child gets a pair of identical animal cards (‘you got a pair! You have two cows! Let’s see if you can find another pair’).
If your child has trouble with morphology, oral grammar or other language difficulties you can always contact Learning Links for help. We have a range of specialised tutoring, speech pathology services and social skills programs. Get in touch or give us a call on 1300 003 900.
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Is your child struggling to keep up with handwriting demands?
Is he or she smart but can’t seem to get ideas down on paper?
Are you concerned about pencil grip, legibility and speed of writing?
It can be so frustrating when kids struggle with handwriting. The refusal to do work, the giving up easily, writing only the bare minimum that is hardly readable and the homework battles.
As a parent or teacher, you often know that the kids know more than they show. But somehow, they can’t get it down on paper.
You know that handwriting is complex skill with many components, but often don’t know where to start to help kids overcome their writing blocks.
We are here to help!
This 1.5 hour workshop gives a basic understanding of:
The complex foundations that can make handwriting hard for kids
How to tell what’s going wrong (handwriting issues are only, usually, the tip of the iceberg!)
What are the foundational skills needed for handwriting
You also get:
Strategies to help children achieve fluent and legible handwriting
Tips to help kids who are reluctant hand writers
Encouraging stories of how others have overcome challenges through Occupational Therapy
Come and see…
This seminar not for you? Please share it with a friend.
Spaces are limited so get in early.
We don’t currently have a date planned for the next seminar.
Please feel free to express your interest by calling 07 3392 6133 or emailing [email protected]


The alphabet sounds and objects kit includes beginning sound activities for all beginning sounds. This kit includes the following items: a comprehensive and easy to understand illustrated lesson plan with words to say during your lesson or presentation of the material to your child or student, 26 lower case (wood burned or 3D tactile) alphabet letters; “Dr. Seuss’s ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!” storybook, and 18 language follow up (master copy, you are welcome to copy for your use) worksheets that complement the various lessons. Sounds are sorted into 6 bags and lessons to match beginning sounds of objects to letters. The lessons and follow up activity worksheets come in a folder for easy storage. The materials come in fabric bags and a labeled box that is easy to store on a work shelf for your child or student. At an additional price, you can purchase a flash drive with a copy of the lesson plan and follow up worksheets. I am available via email at email@example.com for any questions. Please read the lesson plan when it arrives before presenting materials to your child/student so you are prepared.
This educational kit was made with love by a certified Montessori teacher of 18 years. I am certified in Early Childhood Education (preschool and Kindergarten), Elementary Education I (grades 1st to 3rd), and Elementary Education II (grades 4th to 6th). I have worked as a lead teacher in all the above grades, Montessori teacher trainer, dance director, and Parent Education director. I hope you enjoy this kit as much as I enjoyed making it. I created the ABC Crate LLC so that I could share the joys of Montessori lessons and philosophies with all who seek wonderful lessons for their little ones. I have many more kits to come ranging from preschool to middle school. Feel free to drop a note about which lessons you would like sooner. ABC Crates are great for Home School programs, parents seeking support material for the home, and for teachers to use in their classroom.


"Dreams of Our Children" Mural
Officially displayed in its final form in 2018, "Dreams of Our Children" is a mural on the building at the intersection of Jersey Avenue and French Street, across from both the Walgreen shopping center and the War Memorial Park in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The mural displays a mother standing with her arm around her daughter’s shoulder, along with a father watching over his son in a toy car. It celebrates the vibrancy and resilience of Latino immigrant families, particularly through the lens of Oaxacan Mexican culture. The two-story high mural is painted brightly with colors of yellow, red, and blue, with the intent to further beautify the area, by representing the numerous colors of the culture. The tenacity of the Latino population that migrated to the area in the 1990s, is honored through this visual representation.
Backstory and Context
As of the NJSDC 2000 Census Publication, the population of Latinos has increased by 377,330 in New Jersey. Formerly representing 739,861 in 1990 to 1,117,191 in 2000, the substantial increase in the Latino population accounts for approximately 55% of New Jersey’s total population growth. It is important to note the demographics for which populations have settled down in order to fully grasp the dynamism of how, and where, their struggles and endeavors were formed. For instance, New Jersey had the 7th largest Hispanic population in the nation in 2000, next only to California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois and Arizona (NJSDC 2000 CENSUS PUBLICATION). This reflects the state’s popularity as a destination for foreign immigrants. The notable migration of the Latino population to the New Brunswick, NJ area is important to signify as it allows us to better understand the hardships and events the community had gone through at the time. Although more recognition is deserved, with such a large Latino population encompassing the New Brunswick area, it is nice that the reliance of the community it further acclaimed by looking at the mural painted on a local street in the area.
By promoting local talent and engaging the public, murals build a sense of community and create lasting effects on local neighborhoods. Murals are a platform for artists to exhibit their talents, while depicting stories and narratives of different lives and events. Programs that fund the creation of these murals connect the process of muralism with art education, restorative justice, and behavioral health programs. These programs serve as a creative outlet for inmates at area prisons and detention centers, and those suffering from trauma, mental illness, and addiction. Murals create a prolific channel for individuals to freely express themselves as well as a community and what they have gone through.
The ‘Dreams of Our Children’ mural itself aims to represent the stories of the Latino community living in the Esperanza Neighborhood in New Brunswick. After gaining the approval of the building owner to use the side of the building, a graduate of Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts, Lenny Correa, drew this mural from inspiration after speaking with residents in the Esperanza Neighborhood. He, and the Ezperanza residents, came up with stories of great determination and perseverance. The mural, also known as "Una Gota Rompe La Piedra" or "A Drop Breaks the Stone,” depicts bright costumes which are popular in the heritage of the migrant community as residents spoke of the ties to their families and parents expressed that their dreams "are the dreams of our kids." The agency who funded this project wished to depict the inner beauty the area and project the colorful culture of the neighborhood onto a physical representation of a vibrant Latino communal district. The mural highlights the nice commercial area and attracts people to come and enjoy the restaurants and stores.
- Parolek, Dan. “The Power of Public Art: How Murals Beautify Cities and Build Communities.” Opticos Design, December 12, 2017. https://opticosdesign.com/blog/the-power-of-public-art-murals/.
- Haydon, Tom. “City Mural Tells Residents Struggles, 'Dreams of Our Children'.” TAPinto. New Brunswick Tomorrow, August 18, 2018. https://www.tapinto.net/towns/new-brunswick/articles/city-mural-tells-residents-struggles-dreams-of.
- NJSDC. "NJSDC 2000 CENSUS PUBLICATION - Population by Race and Hispanic or Latino Origin New Jersey, Counties, and Selected Municipalities:1980, 1990 AND 2000." New Jersey Department of Labor. June 2001. https://www.state.nj.us/labor/lpa/census/2kpub/njsdcp2.pdf