Preschool learning environments offer prime opportunities for establishing healthful attitudes and knowledge about food and nutrition. Often, however, more emphasis is placed on flavor than on the teachable attributes foods offer like colors, shapes, food origin, texture, and smell. When introducing nutrition concepts to preschoolers, it is important to build upon their pre-existing knowledge and integrate nutrition education into other activities.
Let the following ideas inspire you to incorporate nutrition education into all areas of the curriculum.
One of the basic nutrition concepts for preschoolers is identifying new foods. “Smelly Socks” is an excellent way to teach the identity of various foods. Begin by presenting five fruits: an apple, an orange, a banana, a kiwi, and a pear. Then ask the children a variety of questions, such as “What is this?”
“Did you know that fruit can grow fur?”
“What color is this?”
“What shape is this fruit?” After each item has been identified and described, proceed with “Smelly Socks” as a small group activity. Place each piece of fruit in a clean sock. Allow each child to take turns smelling, touching, and describing the contents of the sock. No peeking. See if the children can guess what’s inside the sock. This activity can also be done with carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, corn, and tomatoes.
Foods and mealtimes can also be used to reinforce colors, shapes, numbers, social skills, language, and motor skill development. A menu consisting of cheese pizza, tater tots, tossed salad, melon medley, and milk, for example, presents a number of learning opportunities. Ask the children the following questions:
“What colors do you see?”
“What is the shape of the pizza?”
“What is in the salad?”
“How many tater tots do you have?”
When these items are offered again, challenge the children to remember the shape of pizza and the colors in a salad.In addition to mealtimes, nutrition education can be expanded to other areas of the curriculum. Making fruit juice, for example, provides an opportunity to reinforce the science of nutrition. At this age, many preschoolers have not connected juices with the fruit or vegetable the juice is made from.
Allowing the children to make their own juice helps them to make the connection. To make orange juice, have each child place an orange half in a zip-topped bag. Zip the seal closed. Allow each child to squeeze the orange to produce juice. Take the orange half out. Open the seal of the bag wide enough to pass a straw through. Voila! Orange juice. This activity can also be supplemented with questions like
“Where did the juice come from?” and “What other juices do we drink?”
While children learn to identify and try new foods from the activities above, nothing is more important than sitting and enjoying meals with the children. Eating with the children gives you a chance to participate at mealtime and to explore teachable moments. A simple question such as, “What is this new green stuff on my plate?” can be expanded beyond the meal to include stories about gardening and accepting new foods (Oliver’s Vegetables by Vivian French and Growing Vegetables by Lois Ehlert are two wonderful examples).
Sharing meals with children also allows you to model behavior. If children see you eating broccoli and spinach, chances are that they will attempt to eat it, too. In addition, you might want to participate in family-style meal service. Family-style meal service promotes self-help skills, develops fine and gross motor skills, and encourages language development as the children participate in conversation and use table etiquette.Throughout the day, there are innumerable opportunities for formal and informal nutrition activities, not all of which require food. As with teaching any group of concepts, begin with the basics and advance as other developmental milestones are reached.
Keecha Harris, RD, LD, is a nutrition coordinator for JCCEO Head Start in Birmingham, AL, and a consultant for Head Start Region IV Training and Technical Assistance Service.


Education/Newsletter/June 2014/Wikipedia Primary School Project
Wikipedia Primary School Project
The Wikipedia Primary School project is an endeavor which seeks to understand whether or not Wikipedia articles meet the needs of primary school education.
This research aims to define and select relevant articles which address primary school curriculum, to facilitate the production of high quality new content which will be compatible with Wikipedia, and to assess existing articles linked to primary education, with a focus on Africa. The project will involve the Wikipedia community, partners, volunteers, scholars and experts in the field of education.
While numerous research projects have looked at Wikipedia contents and have consulted the Wikipedia community, this research utilizes methodology that involves a number of external people and entities.
The research is being conducted by two teams of researchers: one from SUPSI in Switzerland and one from the University of Cape Town. The programme partners are the Africa Centre and Wikimedia Switzerland (WMCH).
Various school systems were evaluated to understand how they work and to determine the differences between them, with the idea that what children study in African countries can be different than what children study in European countries. The point is understanding the main topics which primary schools teach in the countries that were observed.
The research team seeks to find out if content on Wikipedia answers questions that children, parents, and teachers ask in context of primary school learning. For example, Wikipedia has articles about continents and countries, but do those articles adequately cover climate, geography, biology, history such that there is sufficient information to support students in their studies?
The teams will compile a list of articles, both existing articles as well as articles that have not yet been created. Academic journals will peer review existing articles or issue calls for papers for experts to write articles in their fields and release them under a free license so that the information can later be made available for use on Wikipedia. The results of the peer review will be published in the project journal which will be linked to on the assessed articles' talk pages. The teams will not be publishing any information directly on Wikipedia, but they will notify the community of their availability, should they wish to refer to them. Documentation is available on Meta.


Improving Literacy Across the Curriculum: A Study of Instructional Development
Summary: This study investigates how the New York City Writing Project's professional development for teachers contributed to instructional practices across the curriculum and to student writing outcomes. Of special note, the study found that students who had high exposure to Writing Project teachers made significantly greater gains across writing prompt administrations than those students who had moderate or little exposure to NYCWP through their teachers.
Excerpt from Report
Teachers who had contact with the NYCWP teacher-consultant implemented NYCWP literacy practices, which include valuing students' voices, using writing-to-learn strategies, and viewing writing as a recursive process. These teachers' practices reflected the NYCWP emphasis on student-centered pedagogy as a means of developing students' reflective thinking and conceptual understanding across subject areas. In turn, students who had high exposure to NYCWP made significantly greater gains in writing prompt scores than those in the other two groups combined.
Our results not only support the conclusion that it is necessary to develop writing across the curriculum in order to obtain significant gains in students' writing scores but also demonstrate the importance of implementing consistent approaches to literacy development schoolwide, in order to support student achievement. Interviews with the school's administrators and the NYCWP teacher-consultant who worked on site suggest that there is still some distance between the NYCWP's expectations for a writing-intensive school and the school administration's goals for students' literacy development. However, by encouraging writing across the curriculum, the NYCWP has taken an important first step toward creating a writing-intensive school.


Part of a play-based learning philosophy is having materials that will invite the child to play with concepts and ideas. So, being the nut for play and learning that I am, I have shelves and drawers and pockets full of these kinds of materials. A simple material that’s been getting some increased attention from my kids lately is a container full of dice.
I came upon my preschooler playing with the dice recently and realized he had created his own game that was perfect play-based practice for numeracy skills.
Tossing the dice, he noticed a die with the numerals 1-6. If that numeral matched the number of dots on one of the traditional dice, then….. “YES!” he would shout. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! (“Counting and recognizing numerals”, I ticked off in my mental checklist of foundational math skills.)
He invited me to play and we alternated between this version and another, using only dotted dice. After a few wins with the doubles, I suggested we count “halfsies” as a win as well. I showed him that just as rolling a six and a six was doubles because they had the same number of dots, “halfsies” was when one die had half as many dots as the other — like a three and a six. It can be a complicated concept as a whole, but with dice, the way the dots are arranged make it quite simple to visually see the “halfsies” rolls, and so he jumped right in. (“A foundation for fractions and division”, I added to my checklist as we continued to play.)
For all the excitement over each win, I couldn’t tell you who won. Probably because we didn’t keep score. Tally mark score keeping would have been another great box to check on my mental list, but that wasn’t the style of his play. We were already working in some great skills — and we were having fun!
Other ways you could play with dice to build basic math skills:
Battle: Each player rolls a die. The one with the higher number wins the battle. (Counting, Greater than/Less than) *Have each player use two dice if you want to challenge kids to count higher or to build foundational addition skills.
7-11 Swap!: This may be where my son’s idea came from. Our family plays this fun dice game on New Year’s Eve. (Find the instructions in this post.) The kids always have a blast! Little do they realize they’re working on counting and addition all the while!
Board Games: Any board game using dice and squares is a great way to playfully work on one-to-one counting (one number counted aloud = one spot on the board). Play games like Chutes and Ladders or build your own game with dice, a path with spaces for counting, and whatever end goal and details you and your child want to create!
What’s your favorite way to play with dice and numeracy?


Hansel & Gretel: Learning about Opera!
Hansel and Gretel: Learning about Opera! is an online educational experience featuring Humperdinck's Opera Hansel and Gretel. Players can control interactive elements in every scene and watch the play unfold. Design your OWN opera!
Parents and children or student groups can experience and enjoy these activities together and learn about opera music and theatre. Music listening guides and music games assist with exploration of the elements of orchestral and opera music. At the end of the story, additional information and resources can be found Backstage at the Opera.
Hansel and Gretel: Learning about Opera is teacher ready! Teachers and educators can download lesson plans featuring music education information and cross-curricular activities on fairy tales.


|Sadashi Inuzuka, assistant professor of art, watches a piece of clay grow into art under the hands of Liz Erlewine, a junior in the School of Art and Design. Through his programs for visually impaired children, funded by the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program and the Center for Japanese Studies, Inuzuka has taken the art of ceramics to blind children both in the United States and in Japan. It is an ideal material for the blind or visually impaired to work with, Inuzuka says about clay. This physical connection with clay is so often why my studentsand Ihave been drawn to work with ceramics in the first place. Photo by Martin Vloet, U-M Photo Services|
Clay is perfectly suited for personal expression through touch, Inuzuka says, and it is an ideal material for the blind or visually impaired to work with. This physical connection with clay is so often why my studentsand Ihave been drawn to work with ceramics in the first place. I believe that much could be learned and gained by bringing our students together with children who are visually impaired to work with clay.
To bring about this connection of people and clay, Inuzuka has developed Many Ways of Seeing: Outreach Teaching for the Visually Impaired, a program he believes will offer U-M students opportunities to make an important difference in their communities, and give them a heightened understanding of the creative medium of clay. Many Ways of Seeing introduces undergraduate and graduate students to methods of teaching art to the blind and visually impaired, and prepares them to teach in an outreach community setting. Students learn through experience the expressive potential of art, their social responsibilities as artists, and to make connections with communities outside their own.
A pilot project funded by the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) led to a series of presentations and workshops at U-M with Hohei Nishimura, a Japanese educator who works with blind children. Since that time, under Inuzuka, the project has continued to grow. A recent grant from the U-M Center for Japanese Studies allowed Inuzuka to travel to Japan for further study in art education for the visually impaired and the special ceramic techniques used in that education.
Clay is the main medium used in Many Ways of Seeing. The project is coordinated through the ceramics area of the School of Art and Design. Students conduct workshops for children and adults at educational institutions throughout Michigan. The students are encouraged to volunteer or work in an outreach setting, such as the Michigan School for the Blind Summer Camp, and throughout the year in other local programs in libraries and schools. A School of Art and Design graduate student, herself visually impaired, assisted in one of the workshops held last spring.
I am confident students are learning a tremendous amount by working with children and adults with little or no vision, says Inuzuka. Such experiences will encourage a sensitivity toward other ways of perception and expression. This sensitivity will make them stronger artists, future educators and contributing members of society.
Many Ways of Seeing counts among its collaborators the Upshaw Institute for the Blind and is supported in part by funding from Arts of Citizenship program.


Role of Imagery in Learning (The)
Broudy, Harry S
Paperback, 56 pp, The Getty Center for Education in the Arts (1987)
ISBN 0 89236 145 X
Imagery plays a central role in children´s ability to develop concepts, values, and skills, particularly language skills. Because of this, it is imperative that art education be integrated into the general education programs of primary and secondary schools. Dr Broudy, professor emeritus of the University of Illinois, shows the role that images, both in general and in the arts, play in everyday experience and in the development of the educated mind.
Cost (including p&p): £12.95 (U.K.)


Latest Child development Stories
Playing with blocks may help preschoolers develop the kinds of skills that support later learning in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
Young children readily learn words from their parents, grandparents, and child care providers in live conversations, but learning from video has proven more difficult.
A team of researchers has shown that 8-month-old infants expect objects they identify as animals to have insides.
A new study indicates that harsh verbal discipline could aggravate problem behavior in children just as badly as physical discipline.
The ability to represent and to track the trajectory of objects, which are temporally out of sight, is highly important in many aspects but is also cognitively demanding.
Milaa upcoming event on July 13 2013 seeks to enrich children's foundation (auditory and visual memory) for language skills and capacity to sequence through interactive story theater.
Motor skill development delays are common among children; but, according to a new clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), early recognition of motor delays, such as sitting, standing and speaking, can help optimize positive outcomes.
Early mental and intellectual stimulation is important for subsequent learning.
- An imitative word; an onomatopoetic word.


Literacy at the Clerc Center
Literacy development in deaf and hard of hearing children is a top priority at the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center.
The Clerc Center offers literacy-related training opportunities and programs that support families and professionals working with deaf and hard of hearing children across the nation.
- The Shared Reading Project teaches parents and caregivers how to read to their deaf and hard of hearing children using American Sign Language.
- Literacy: It All Connects is a collection of nine practices that create a comprehensive approach to literacy learning.
- Training workshops in literacy and language development are available from the Clerc Center.


A Desert Oasis:
Unit Description before LInC
The goals and objectives of this course were met through a series of scenario/simulation activities conducted in the university classroom setting in which preservice teachers developed instructional programs for reading and literacy development based on the New Mexico state standards with benchmarks for language arts and local competencies for language arts, science, and social studies from the Gadsden Independent School District. The course was facilitated using Web-CT (Course Tools), and a number of technological tools were integrated into the course curriculum, such as Inspiration, Hyperstudio, and Powerpoint. Students maintained electronic portfolios, and CD-ROM with students' work were distributed to students at the end of each semester.
Grade Level: Preservice Teachers in their final year of coursework (juniors, seniors, & graduate students)
Subject: Reading/Literacy Curriculum & Pedagogy
Outcome 1: The preservice teacher critically reviews, selects, and adapts materials, resources, and technologies for age appropriateness, developmental level, cultural and linguistic background, exceptionalities, biases and stereotypes, connect appropriateness in regard to language arts curriculum, reading level, and relevance to students.
Outcome 2: The preservice teacher understand learning theory, subject matter, and curriculum development and uses this knowledge in planning to meet curriculum goals.
Outcome 3: The preservice teacher becomes familiar with students' families, cultures, and communities, and plans related learning activities.
Outcome 4: The preservice teacher integrates a variety of technologies into planned activities, including software, applications, and other learning tools.
Outcome 5: The preservice teacher collaborates with specialists, support personnel, parents, and administrators in an interdisciplinary manner for the success of the individual student.
Outcome 6: The preservice teacher understands children's developmental stages in learning to speak, read write, and listen effectively and models effective reading, writing, speaking, and listening, among other literacy skills, such as critical thinking and visual literacy.
Outcome 7: The preservice teacher provides opportunities for students to understand, consider, respond to, and discuss spoken and written materials.
Outcome 8: The preservice teacher is familiar with and used a variety of reading materials, including children's literature, non-fiction, stories, poems, biographies, and texts from various subject areas.
Outcome 9: The preservice teacher helps students to become aware of different purposes for reading and situations for reading, and to think critically about and respond to what they have read.
Outcome 10: The preservice teacher provides a variety of opportunities for students to demonstrate reading comprehension.
Student Task: Activities and tasks were limited to the role and responsibilities of the preservice teacher in the future. There was no opportunity for elementary education majors to partner with a class or group of grade school students.
Teacher Role: The course instructor gave lectures and workshops, assigned application questions and jigsaw activities from the textbook, facilitated the development of lesson plans, and compiled the CD-ROM at the end of semester.
Grouping: Students primarily worked individually and in small groups to complete course requirements.
Hook: The hook for the course was limited to the application of theory to practice in the future. Students were guided through scenarios in which they were required to imagine themselves in the place of the classroom teacher. To these ends, students were taught methods of curriculum development that were being used in the Gadsden Independent School District.
Student-Directed Learning: Students had few opportunities to make choices in their learning. The only option available to students was the topic for the culminating lesson plan development using backward planning, the curriculum development method implemented in the Gadsden Independent School District.
Use of Technology: Technology was used extensively in this course, and students used word processing programs, Inspiration, Hyperstudio, and PowerPoint in their projects, activities, and exams. The Internet was used in the context of locating viable online resources for use in the elementary classroom.
Assessment: Students were assessed on the basis of a journal kept throughout the semester, tests and exams, presentations of textbook chapters and lesson plans, and culminating project rubrics.
Created for the Fermilab LInC program sponsored by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Education Office and Friends of Fermilab, and funded by United States Department of Energy, Illinois State Board of Education, North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium which is operated by North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), and the National Science Foundation.
Author(s): Ellen Treadway (firstname.lastname@example.org)


Education for Sustainable Development As a Permanent Process
Development of recognition of the overburdened natural environment and the limited purifying power of ecosystems has been developed for fifty years from awareness to the listing of key guidelines that should be included into all educational programs at all levels. The concept of environmental education has expended into education for sustainable development. It now impinges on all dimensions of human life and human activities. Unfortunately, people's actual behavior does not meet expectations of the sustainable-oriented society which should be responsible to the future generations. This has been proven with the results of many research works where students of different levels of education, their knowledge and their behavior towards the environment were examined. Some suggestions for the improvement of educational practices will be explained in the paper such as experiential learning in the natural environment, cooperation of schools and local community and also project work with authentic situation as a problem solving.
Keywords: Education for Sustainable Development, Educational Practice
Dr. Nika Golob
Teaching Assistant, Department of Elementary Education


The Mughal emperors were patrons of literature and they did much to remove the barriers between Hindus and Muslims to promote a happy fusion of t..wtures. In this connection, we may mention the name ot' 'Malik Muhammad Jayasi who in his Padmavat describes the story of Padmini, and Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan whose exquisite dohas are still read and admired all over northern India. It was Akbar's patronage that gave a vigorous stimulus to literary activity. The Persian literature of his reign comprised historical works, translations and poetry. The great historical works of his reign are the Akbarnamah and Ain-i-Akbari of Abul Fazal, the Muntkhab-ul-Twarikh by Badauni and Tabaqat-i-Akbari. by Nizam-ud-din Ahmed. Akbar was a keen student of Hindu culture and so by his orders many Sanskrit works wer~ translated into Persian. Badauni translated Ramayana and Faizi the Lilavati. The Mahabharata was translated and renamed Razm-namah. The translator of the Atharva Veda was Hazi Ibrahim Sarhindi. Other works translated were Rajatarangini and Panchatantra. Among the important poets of the period were Ghizali, Faizi and Muhammad Hussain Naziri. Jahangir also had a fine taste for literature and his memoirs are second only to that of Babur. During Shah Jahan's period many historical works were composed i.e. Padshahnamah by Abdul Hamid Lahori, Shah-Jahan-namah. by Inayat Khan etc. Aurangzeb was a learned man but he disliked history and poetry. His taste was for Muslim theology and jurisprudence of which he was a critical writer. It was under him that the Fatwahi-Alamgiri was written. The most famous history of his reign, the Muntakhab-ul-Lubab of Khafi Khan, was prepared in secrecy.
This period has been described as the "Augustan Age of Hindustani Literature" as Akbar gave impetus to Hindi poetry. Persons like Birbal, Raja Man Singh, etc. were poets of no mean order. Among the most notable poet was Tulsidas who wrote the famous Ramcharitamanas. Surdas, the blind bard of Agra, wrote numerous verses in Brij Bhasa, the most important being Sur Sugar. The two famous poets of Shah Jahan's time were Sundar, the author of Sundar Srinagar, and Bihari Lal, the author of Satsai. In Bengal there developed in this period remarkable literature dealing with the life of Chaitanya Deva.
The Mughals did 'not have any systematic organisation for imparting education. Some sort of elementary education was imparted in maktabs and pathsalas. Further it was mainly confined to the upper sections of society and the clergy. Most Mughal emperors were educated and so were their ladies. Gulbadan Begum was an accomplished lady. She wrote the Humayun namah. Nur Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal, Jahanara Begum and Zeb-un-Nisa were highly educated ladies.


September 15 to October 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month
The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of Hispanic Americans who have positively influenced and enriched our nation and society.
About National Hispanic Heritage Month
Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988, on the approval of Public Law 100-402.
The day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September18, respectively. Also, Columbus Day or Día de la Raza, which is October 12, falls within this 30 day period.
Pablo Cano: The Toy Box Revival
September 28 @ 7 pm
October 13 and 14 @ 12 pm & 2 pm
November 3 @ 2 pm
MOCA will present a revival of Pablo Cano’s 2004 musical marionette production, The Toy Box with five public performances September to November. Featuring marionettes and a stage set created from found objects by Miami performance artist Pablo Cano, The Toy Box is based on Claude Debussy’s 1913 children’s ballet La Boite a Joujoux, a solo piano piece that was intended for marionettes, but never realized during the French composer’s lifetime.
Latina Women and the Body
October 3, October 10, October 17 @ 7 pm
Presented by MOCA’s Women on the Rise! program in partnership with
Florida International University’s Women Studies Center
Wednesday October @ 7 pm
Ni Pardo, Ni Prieto: Presentations of Skin Color Influencing Hispanic Women’s Self Identity
Dr. Dionne Stephens, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, Affiliated Faculty member of Women’s Studies Program and Latin America & Caribbean Studies Center, Florida International University
Wednesday October 10 @ 7 pm
Panel Discussion: Making Art Out of Excess: Exploring Latina Styles and Sexualities.
- A Chonga Manifesto: Thinking, Embodying, and Re-Imagining Latina Girlhood - Jillian Hernandez, MOCA Education Outreach Coordinator and Ph.D. Candidate in Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University
- Cuban Beauties: Assets in Excess - Crystal Pearl, Visual artist and MOCA educator
- Moderated by Anya Wallace, Ph.D. student in Women’s Studies and Art Education at Penn State and MOCA educator
Wednesday October 17 @ 7 pm
Latinas in Hollywood: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Dr. Myra Mendible, Professor in the Language and Literature department, Florida Gulf Coast University
(This lecture will be followed by a book signing with Dr. Mandible in the MOCA Shop of From Bananas to Buttocks: The Latina Body in Popular Film and Culture, University of Texas Press, 2007).
Latina Women and the Body is made possible through sponsorships from FIU’s Women’s Studies Center, Department of English, and Latin American and Caribbean Center.
MOCA by Moonlight: Arts for All: Frida Kahlo
Wednesday, October 24 @ 7 pm
Members $10, Non-members $15
Hands on art project inspired by Frida Kahlo
ART TALK: Claudia Calirman Brazilian Art under Dictatorship
Tuesday, November 2 @ 7 pm
Latin American Art historian Claudia Calirman will discuss the strategies and achievements of three Brazils most important contemporary artists—Antonio Manuel, Artur Barrio, and Cildo Meireles – who flourished in that country in the late 1960’s and 70’s by devising new and subtle modes of artistic intervention to express themselves and disguise political protest
Image: Jorge Pardo, Six Lamps (multiple), 2010-2011 , Mixed media, Various dimensions , Gift of Barbara, David and Casey Herzberg. In memory of Sophie Miller


BOSTON — Oct. 6, 2014 — In classrooms across the country, instructional focus tends to lean more towards intervention rather than prevention—with teachers spending much of their time counteracting the effects of instructional gaps that their students face. In her recently released white paper, Elizabeth Brooke, Ph.D., Vice President of Education and Research for Lexia Learning, a Rosetta Stone Inc. (NYSE:RST) company, examines best practices for monitoring students’ reading progress and targeting skill gaps in grades K–2. Titled “Three Critical Success Factors for Reading Intervention and Effective Prevention,” the white paper also reviews critical instructional strategies that accelerate literacy development for on-level and struggling students in grades K–5.
The strategies described in “Three Critical Success Factors for Reading Intervention and Effective Prevention” are:
- Establish systems to help support students before they fail
- Utilize the appropriate assessments to identify which students may need help
· Structure effective intervention to target individual student needs
Dr. Brooke explains how the application of frameworks such as Response to Intervention (RTI) and Multi-Tier Systems of Support (MTSS) can seem to put an emphasis on struggling students, while emerging skills gaps for “on-level” students go mostly unnoticed. Dr. Brooke also discusses universal screening, progress monitoring and diagnostic assessment as effective methods to identify and regularly monitor student performance. Lastly, she examines crucial aspects of intervention that affect the structure and intensity levels of educators’ targeted instruction.
“Successful prevention and intervention requires a true understanding of student progress and the skills gaps that emerge throughout the year,” said Dr. Brooke. “With this knowledge, teachers can personalize instruction and target specific needs for each student—spending instructional time achieving and maintaining grade-level proficiency—rather than playing catch-up.”
A complimentary copy of “Three Critical Success Factors for Reading Intervention and Effective Prevention” can be downloaded at http://lexialearning.com/go/whitepaper-prevention-intervention-pr
Dr. Brooke hosted a related webinar on September 18. To view the one-hour recorded session, interested educators can go to http://lexialearning.com/go/webinar-prevention-intervention-pr
About Lexia Learning
Established with a promise to improve student literacy through the use of technology, today more than 1.6 million students are improving their reading proficiency with Lexia. A Rosetta Stone company, Lexia’s programs have been nationally recognized and proven effective in six peer-reviewed, research-based outcome studies published in scientific journals such as The Journal of Reading Research and the Bilingual Research Journal. For more information, visit www.lexialearning.com or call 1-800-435-3942.
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LAWRENCE — The bookshelves in Susan Mandel Glazer’s office at Rider University are filled mostly with the tales of Clifford the Big Red Dog, Arthur the Aardvark, and Mrs. Frizzle’s magic school bus.
Mixed in with these colorful spines, though, are dozens of teacher manuals and classroom instruction guides she has amassed over five decades in elementary classrooms. Now Glazer can add her recently released book, “Beyond the Looking Glass: Self-Reflection and Evaluation = More Effective Teaching,” to the overflowing shelves.
Glazer, the director of the Center for Reading and Writing at Rider University, explores in her new book how teacher behavior and reaction affect student learning. The book is a collection of classroom scenarios, explanations and solutions that, if followed, Glazer said, create classroom environments in which students feel inspired to take charge of their own learning.
“The kinds of everyday things that we do with kids are never addressed — how you talk to kids, how you use your body language, and what you wear,” Glazer said.
The book is a compilation of the techniques Glazer has developed after coming to Rider University to teach undergraduate courses in elementary education in 1969. Soon after arriving on campus, Glazer realized that explaining her methods to her students abstractly wasn’t working.
Glazer needed a real classroom to demonstrate her ideas in action. With the support of the university, Glazer pushed an old piano into an empty room, invited faculty members with children to participate, and the Center for Reading and Writing was born.
Since then, more than 7,500 students from the community have walked through the center’s doors and the program has gained a worldwide reputation for exceptional literacy techniques.
“I truly believe that most schools are police states,” Glazer said. “They are the only paces in the world where you need a pass to pee. It’s despicable, and we don’t have those rules here. We teach like a coach: We do it, and they follow.”
“Beyond the Looking Glass” also takes on the topic of standardized testing.
“Tests teach kids facts, they don’t teach kids how to learn,” she said. “Here, we want kids to be self-sufficient learners.”
Glazer, who works with a staff of 18 graduate students, advocates for “testing students the way they learn.” Like a baseball player who demonstrates comprehension of the game through playing — not writing out the rules — Glazer’s book proposes children prepare for testing by writing their own test and constructing their own questions.
Glazer said she also finds using student’s standardized test scores to evaluate teachers — a proposal recently put forth by Gov. Chris Christie’s administration — is the incorrect gauge of a teacher’s performance. “Every teacher should be evaluated not on children’s performance but on how children like school and want to come back,” Glazer said. “I want the teachers tested to see if they understand how to teach.”
At the same time, Glazer recommends strategies for learning in the classroom that allow children to pursue their own passions.
“I don’t believe that every first-grader should learn about the stars and the planets or every second-grader about volcanoes and Brazil,” Glazer said. “I believe they need to pick their own content area and even if there is a list of requirements, children should have choices.”
“Beyond the Looking Glass” is Glazer’s 17th book.
“The book is a reflection of all of the things I’ve seen in education and it’s negative,” Glazer said. “I hesitated to write negatively because nobody wants that. But somebody had to say it. What’s going on out there is just plain awful when it comes to both teacher education and educating children.”


Use Your Full Vocabulary With Kids—They’ll Learn More That Way
Many of us with young kids consciously limit the vocabulary we use with them, wanting to make sure that they’ll understand what we’re saying without having to struggle with an unfamiliar word. But a new study suggests that using as wide and rich a variety of words as possible is actually the more helpful approach, reports Dian Schaffhauser in T.H.E. Journal:
“Exposure to word variation for early readers may boost their abilities, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Iowa to be published in the January issue of Developmental Psychology.
To test out the hypothesis, the researchers used an online program in which word tasks are frequently changed so that the student is continually exposed to new things to learn.
Researchers Keith Apfelbaum, Bob McMurray and Eliot Hazeltine worked with 224 first-grade students in the West Des Moines Community Schools system. Some students learned words organized by traditional phonics instruction, which uses similar word sets to help illustrate the rules, the idea being to simplify the school work for learners. A second group of students used the program that pulls together sets of words with variation, appearing to make the lesson more difficult.
After a few days, all of the students were tested to see if they could read words they’d never seen before, read made-up words, and apply their new skills to work they hadn’t done before.
The research team said the results surprised even them. Those students experiencing more variation in words showed better learning. More importantly, the researchers concluded, variation helped students apply their skills to new words and tasks.
‘Variability was good for the low-performing students; it was good for the high-performing students. It was good for the boys; it was good for the girls. It was good for the words; it was good for the non-words,’ said Apfelbaum.
‘In no case was similarity more helpful than variability,’ added McMurray. ‘This suggests a powerful principle of learning.’” (Read more here.)
So use as rich and complex a vocabulary as you can with children—explaining meanings in the moment when necessary. This is how vocabulary is acquired: not through memorizing lists of words, but by repeatedly encountering unfamiliar words in context. (I think I borrowed that last phrase from Robert Pondiscio—thanks, Robert!)


So You Want to Do a Project about Star Distances!
To determine the daily motion of the Big Dipper.
- drawing compass
- 12-inch (30-cm) -square piece of poster board
- paper brad
- Use the compass to draw two circles on the poster board, one with a 6-inch (15-cm) and the other with a 5-inch (12.5-cm) diameter. Cut out the circles.
- Photocopy the Star pattern shown here. Cut out the pattern and glue it to the small circle (star wheel). (The outer time wheel pattern will be used in the following experiment.)
- Use the pushpin to make a hole through the center of each circle, then assemble the two pieces by putting the star wheel on top of the larger circle (outer wheel) so that the holes in the center line up. NOTE: The North Star is in the center of the star wheel.
- Insert the paper brad through the holes to hold the wheels together.
- Holding the outer wheel, rotate the star wheel in a counterclockwise direction one full turn. Observe the movement of the Big Dipper in relation to the North Star.
The stars of the Big Dipper move counterclockwise around the North Star (Polaris).
The apparent motion of stars results from the rotation (turning) of Earth on its axis (animaginary line that passes through the center of an object and around which the object rotates). The daily circular path of stars is called their diurnal circle.
Since the stars of the Big Dipper appear to move around the North Star each day, they can be used to determine time. A project question might be, How can the movement of the Big Dipper be used to tell time?
Clues for Your Investigation
- The wheels can be used to construct a star clock.
- Prepare a time wheel by dividing half of the outer wheel into 12 equal parts. Labelthe parts from 6 P.M. to 6 A.M. as shown.
- After dark on a clear night, face north and locate the Big Dipper above the northern horizon.
- Turn the star wheel until the outline of the Big Dipper lines up with the Big Dipper's position in the sky.
- Turn the time wheel until the time lines up with the date of the observation.
- Repeat the previous steps, making observations about every hour for 3 or more hours. NOTE: Compensate for daylight saving time when it is in effect by adding 1 hour.
References and Project Books
Baker, Robert H., and Herbert Spencer Zim. Stars: A Guide to the Constellations, Sun, Moon, Planets, and Other Features of the Heavens. New York: Golden Press, 1985.
Chartrand, Mark R National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky. New York: Knopf, 1995.
Couper, Heather, and Nigel Henbest How the Universe Works. Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader's Digest, 1994.
Harrington, Philip, and Edward Pascuzzi. Astronomy for All Ages. Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, 1994.
Moche, Dinah L. Astronomy: A Self-Teaching Guide. New York: Wiley, 1996.
Moeschl, Richard. Exploring the Sky. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1993.
Pasachoff, Jay M. Peterson First Guides: Astronomy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
VanCleave, Janice. Janice Van Cleave's Astronomy for Every Kid. New York: Wiley, 1991.
_____.janice VanCleave's Constellations for Every Kid. New York: Wiley, 1997.
Wood, Robert W. Science for Kids: 39 Easy Astronomy Experiments. Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: Tab Books, 1991.
Warning is hereby given that not all Project Ideas are appropriate for all individuals or in all circumstances. Implementation of any Science Project Idea should be undertaken only in appropriate settings and with appropriate parental or other supervision. Reading and following the safety precautions of all materials used in a project is the sole responsibility of each individual. For further information, consult your state’s handbook of Science Safety.


LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., 5 March, 2010 – Computer magazine column authors Nicholas Bowen and Jim Spohrer have a question on their minds: What critical skill gaps do employers see that are caused or exacerbated by the rapid changes in information technology? And they are looking for answers in an online discussion.
In “Viewpoint: The Future of Computing Practice and Education,” Bowen, a vice president of technology for IBM Research, and Spohrer, director of services research at IBM’s Almaden Research Center, outline a changing future for computer science graduates—one in which a computer science degree will open doors to many highly skilled, high-paying job opportunities. In their Industry Perspective column, Bowen and Spohrer theorize that future computer science grads will work at modeling, analytics, and design jobs across all areas of business and society as engineers, managers, and scientists.
To view the article in its entirety, visit http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computer/computingpractice. Readers are encouraged to use the message board at http://www.computer.org/industry_perspective to post comments, offer feedback, or ask questions.
The purpose of the online discussion is to develop a point of view regarding the problems outlined in the column and to help the IEEE Computer Society develop solutions. A question that can initiate this discussion is, “What are the critical skill gaps that employers observe that the rapid changes in information technology induce or exacerbate?”
The authors envision three trends directly impacting computer science skills:
• How IT is delivered and managed: It has been debated for some time that computer science students can “move up the stack.” However, students should continue to have strong foundational skills in all elements of the technology stack.
• Computation as a basic tool for other fields: This will clearly force the computer scientist to get a broader education as there are applications in modeling, analytics, and engineering system design beyond the IT industry.
• Expanding business value in an instrumented world: This will require a skill called “systems thinking.” Many of these new applications are extremely complex business and societal systems—diverse service systems that benefit both customers and providers.
Communication skills that use advanced IT will take on even more importance as work teams become global, distributed, open, and multidisciplinary. “The nerd with the pocket protector who works alone is an image of the past,” Bowen and Spohrer write. “Today, computing professionals must work in teams and understand the big picture of their projects. In many cases, science and engineering graduates must collaborate globally across time zones, languages, and cultures with other business professionals on a seemingly never-ending stream of innovative projects. Clearly, this will require a solid foundation of communication skills and business fundamentals.”
Furthermore, the authors say that the responsibility for dealing with the required changes in computer science must be shared equally among academia, industry, and professional organizations, as well as the individuals who desire to become lifelong learners and adaptive innovators.
The Industry Perspective Column is part of an effort by the volunteer-led Industry Advisory Board to broaden Computer magazine’s coverage to include non-academic contributions. Computer magazine is the flagship publication of the IEEE Computer Society.


This innovative book helps readers develop a personal philosophy and an artful approach to teaching. This text uses the premise that teacher choices set the stage for a balanced approach to art education that considers the child, society, and the curriculum. This book provides information regarding artistic development, artistic behavior and methodology for developing curriculum across the developmental spectrum. The reader is directly addressed as each chapter presents recent research along with important concepts to understand, focuses on different aspects of art education, and outlines advantages and challenges of making the suggested choices, and also includes suggested activities so readers can act upon content. For art teachers at the elementary or secondary education level or students studying to be art teachers.
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Rent Creating Meaning Through Art 1st edition today, or search our site for Judith W. textbooks. Every textbook comes with a 21-day "Any Reason" guarantee. Published by Pearson.


Knowing how to knot between beads is foundational for gemstone protection and to prevent loss. It is also an important skill that enables the professional pearl and bead stringer to extend his or her design and manufacturing capabilities. Knowing how to knot pearls and gemstone, for example, enables the pearl and bead stringer to create strong multi-strand necklaces in a variety of different designs as well as take advantage of the plethora of colored thread available.
Just as important as knowing how to knot between beads is knowing how to use knots to secure the necklace to the clasp.
The process of securing a necklace to a clasp using knots involves taking the needle up through the last few beads, through the jump ring on the clasp and then back through those unknotted beads, however, during this second pass through, the beads are knotted.
The result is a piece of jewelry where all the elements are equally secure.
Unfortunately, pearl and bead stringers are often taught they can avoid this step, which does take practice to master, by using bead tips.
These are small findings whose appearance is somewhat like a bowl with an arm extending over it. The bowl has a hole drilled through its center. The bead stringer ties a knot larger than the hole and takes the needle through the hole and adds gemstones. The thin metal arm is then bent around the jump ring on the clasp it. This affixes the necklace to the clasp.
Knowing how to use bead tips, like crimping, is an essential skill. However, they, too, have their limitations. The thin metal arm can pull open, detaching the necklace from the clasp. This occurs when the owner pulls the clasp or when the beads are too heavy for the bead tip to support over time. And, remember that excessive manipulation of the metal can cause it to become brittle and break. (Excessive manipulation can occur if a less than skillful manufacturer opens and closes the bead tip repeatedly during manufacture and it also occurs when the bead tip pulls open and the owner or manufacturer pushes it back into place.) Bead tips used on bracelets, which often receive more wear and tear than necklaces, are often susceptible to this kind of breakage. A second type of breakage can occur if the knot pulls through the bowl of the bead tip.
So, in determining whether and when to use bead tips, the pearl and bead stringer must ask the questions: How heavy are the gemstones and will the bead tip support the gemstones over time? If you are designing the jewelry for a client, think about whether that client is rough on jewelry, that is, whether she is likely to pull at the clasp.
A final consideration is purely subjective. Bead tips are a mechanical element used to affix the necklace to the clasp. They are not decorative. This is not an issue when small, unobtrusive bead tips are used. However, I’ve seen multi-strand necklaces where multiple bead tips are used at the clasp. To my eye, these mechanical elements used in this way conflict with the design and diminish the overall appeal of the jewelry.
In all cases, manufacturing decisions must be made with the objective of delivering the strongest possible piece of jewelry to a client. When manufacturing strength is sacrificed for design or sometimes for silk’s protective properties, the decision to make that sacrifice should be informed and discussed with the client. No manufacturing decision should be made on the basis of the available skills of the pearl and bead stringer. He or she should have the foundational skills of knowing how to knot pearls and gemstones and attaching a necklace to a clasp with thread..


A Post Postmodern View of Art Education
Postmodern ideas have become the norm. We have learned to be skeptical of grand narratives. However, postmodernism is showing signs of age; it has become its own grand narrative. While learning from theory it is time to propose a new perspective in art education. I assume that education is about enabling students to answer for themselves questions concerning what matters in life and how we ought to live. I do not contend that art alone can answer these huge questions, but believe that in education some effort must be made to map out perspectives of value relative to our situation in the world.
In the paper I argue for an art education that develops basic skills in various media, includes some art history, draws upon different cultural traditions and genders, and maintains an open, experimental, confidence-building learning and teaching environment. This art education would seek to foster individual and collaborative work, voice, a sense of responsibility for community, raise perceptual and aesthetic awareness, and develop critical capacities that call for student conceptualization and construction. Not all art can be beautiful, but some art can be made aesthetically. The close sighting of a raven photographed in black and white could be quite affecting. Much can be done in art to heighten appreciation of nature and the everyday urban environment. We cannot afford to disregard the value in art of the senses, the body, and intrinsic values, even as we contest world-views and seek truth.
Art can be seen as a rich and distinctive form of understanding. Art reaches into ineffable spaces concerning the meaning of life that words and science cannot reach. Art is about seeing authentically the complexity of the world, appreciating that there are many ways to be human.
Keywords: Postmodernism, Post Postmodernism, Art Education, Voice, Critical Capacities, Collaborative Work, Beauty, Ineffable Spaces, Ways of Being Human
Dr. Stuart Richmond
Professor and Chair, Coordinator of Arts Education


Here at Children & the Arts, we’re always interested in hearing how art education around the world is making a difference to children’s lives.
So we were particularly fascinated by a new piece of US research that suggests an arts-rich curriculum can boost learning in schools. The idea is that integrating the arts into mainstream pre-school education can help young children from difficult or disadvantaged backgrounds master tricky emotions like sadness, anger and fear.
According to researchers, a heavy focus on arts activities for young pupils produced more ‘positive emotions such as interest, happiness and pride, and greater growth in emotion regulation across the school year.’
In the study, 174 students in Philadelphia’s Settlement Music School preschool were compared with 31 students who attended another preschool nearby. Ninety percent were from low-income families. The arts-enriched programme included daily music, visual arts and physical movement classes as well as standard lessons.
Research assistants observed the children at regular intervals to determine their emotional states, reporting back on whether a child was easily frustrated, displayed wide mood swings, and how they showed empathy or concern for others.
Interestingly, the two groups of children exhibited around the same level of negative emotions. But those in the arts-enriched group ‘showed more interest, happiness and pride’ than their counterparts, according to the research team. Crucially, reports indicated that the arts-group members showed greater improvement in their ability to understand and manage uncomfortable feelings.
“Experiences with the arts elicit a range of emotions,” said researchers Brown and Sax, who carried out the study. “And these may help children to understand connections between events as feelings, as well as practice appropriate strategies to regulate their emotions.”
With many arts programmes in schools being cut back – and possibly under threat altogether by the new EBacc examination which will focus on ‘core’ academic subjects – it’s arguable that any research that highlights the value of early arts education in both the short and the long term is vitally important.
Success in later life
Rather than being an optional extra, this study suggests that the arts, and integrating the arts in education, can help underprivileged children gain the emotional maturity needed for success in school, and in later life.
At Children & the Arts, we think more research into this fascinating area is needed. To that end, we have commissioned the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) to study the effectivenness of our Start programme, which enables schoolchildren to visit their local arts venue – in 2010/2011 alone, it brought together 38 arts organisations and 16,000 schoolchildren from 214 schools nationwide. If we can find out how to improve learning outcomes for young children, boosting their self-confidence and helping them to achieve their full potential, even those who are hardest to reach will be able to enjoy a better equality of opportunity.
Read our CEO Jeremy Newton’s response to the EBacc by clicking here
What are your views? We’d love to hear what you think – please leave us a message on our Facebook page
Want to join the discussion? Follow us on Twitter.


One-room schools were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Ireland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In most rural (country) and small town schools, all of the students met in a single room. There, a single teacher taught academic basics to five to eight grade levels of elementary-age boys and girls.
The quality of facilities at one-room schools varied with local economic conditions, but generally, the number of children at each grade level would vary with local populations. Most buildings were of simple frame construction, some with the school bell on a cupola. In Midwestern states, sod construction was also used, as well as stone in areas such as portions of the southwest where trees were scarce. In some locations, the schoolhouse was painted red, but most seem to have been white.
The blackboard really is a black board, made of wide boards painted black. It was not until much later that slate was used for chalkboards, although students often had individual slates for writing practice.
Teachers in one-room schools were often former students themselves. During the winter months they would get to the school early to get a fire started in the potbelly stove, so the building would be warm for the students. On many occasions they would prepare a hot, noon meal on top of the stove, usually consisting of soup or stew of some kind.
A typical school day was 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with morning and afternoon recesses of 15 minutes each and an hour period for lunch. “The older students were given the responsibility of bringing in water, carrying in coal or wood for the stove. The younger students would be given responsibilities according to their size and gender such as cleaning the black board (chalkboard), taking the erasers outside for dusting plus other duties that they were capable of doing.
Transportation for children who lived too far to walk was often provided by horse-drawn kid hack or sulky, which could only travel a limited distance in a reasonable amount of time each morning and evening, or students might ride a horse, these being put out to pasture in an adjoining paddock during the day. In more recent times, students rode bicycles.
The school house was the center and focus for thousands of rural communities, hamlets and small towns. Often, town meetings and picnics were also held there.
The vast majority of one-room schools in the United States are no longer used as schools and have either been torn down or converted for other purposes. However, in some rural communities, including among the Amish, one-room or two-room schools are still used, primarily for elementary education, with students graduating to local or regional middle and high schools.


Parents and educators are grappling all the time with how much young children should be exposed to using technology and interactive media. How appropriate is it for 4-year-olds, for example, to be using applications—even educational ones—on iPads?
Well, the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media at Saint Vincent College have jointly issued a new guidance to help early educators ensure that they use digital media and technology in ways that are developmentally appropriate for children from birth through the age of 8.
At the outset, the statement acknowledges that digital technology is ubiquitous and is only likely to become even more pervasive in children's lives. It also lays out the need to measure how much "screen time" children get on a daily basis and to ensure that time spent with screens such as those on smartphones, tablets and even digital cameras are included in that measurement. It's important, the statement says, for early childhood educators not to use technology just for the sake of technology and that using screen media as a replacement for active play, engagement with other children, and interactions with adults is inappropriate.
At the same time, the guidance explains that young children need to develop "technology-handling" skills in their early-childhood settings that are associated with early "digital literacy," especially for poor children who are less likely to have access to such technologies in their homes. Those technology-handling skills are akin to the "book-handling" skills associated with early literacy development.
The guidance also includes very specific principles for early educators to apply when making decisions about how to use technology.
And though the guide is designed for early educators, it is packed with useful information for parents who have to make similar decisions about what happens with their children at home.


Summary: Equip your students with the fundamental helping skills, and more important, the ability to transfer those skills to actual real-world situations. In DEVELOPING HELPING SKILLS: A STEP BY STEP APPROACH, the authors' unique multilayered teaching-learning system integrates reading, discussion, observation and visualization, practice, and evaluation. Students first read about professional practice and the skills required to work effectively with clients. Students then th ...show moreink and write about the ideas and concepts presented in the text by completing homework exercises following each new concept. Next, students watch and discuss the accompanying DVD that is seamlessly integrated with the text for a demonstration of how to use the skills with an individual, family, or group. Students learn how to think like professionals with the text's modified case-based method that introduces a continuing case, one section at a time, throughout the chapters. Additional cases on the text's website give you, the instructor, the flexibility to extend assignments. Finally, exercises with specific directions for role-playing the client, practitioner, and peer supervisor followed by a simple evaluation tool completed by the peer supervisor and practitioner promote practice and evaluation.
Unlike any other text in the market, the creative blend of learning methods and clear presentation of topics in the textbook and integrated DVD help even beginning students think like practitioners and appropriately apply foundational skills to generalist practice with individuals, families, and groups, including entire communities and organizations. ...show less
17 more offers below.


School music funding aims to reach less well-off
The government says funding for music in England's schools will increasingly be targeted at the less well-off in a bid to close a "musical divide between rich and poor".
Responding to a review of school music, the government announced plans to bring more music graduates into teaching.
A National Plan for Music Education has also been promised for later this year.
School music funding will remain at £82.5m for next year - the same amount as funded through councils this year.
Following this transitional year, the education department says it will work with music services "to manage future budget pressures".
The review was led by Darren Henley, managing director of Classic FM.
He was asked to look at how public funding could be used to give every child the opportunity to learn an instrument and to sing.
He was also looking at how to improve classroom teachers' skills and confidence in giving music lessons.
The Education Secretary Michael Gove had said it was a "sad fact" that many state school children did not have the chance to learn an instrument.
The government says it will keep its school music budget for 2011-2012 at the present level of £82.5m next year.
The shape of music education after this will be determined by a forthcoming National Plan for Music Education.
There have been fears about public spending cuts damaging music education.
Many schools arrange music lessons and instrument hire for children through local bodies called "music services" run by councils and some of those have said they fear cuts or even closure.
The music services are funded through local authorities, central government grants and parental contributions.
Councils in England are facing a budget cut of about 25% over the next four years.
The musicians' professional body, the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM), recently accused some councils of going 'too far, too soon" by cutting budgets for children's music lessons, before details of national funding had been revealed.
That was echoed by the the Federation of Music Services (FMS), which said a handful of councils were publicly proposing "pre-emptive cuts" as part of wider cost savings, which could "irreparably undermine" services.
On future funding, the government has said it will work with local authorities and schools inspectors Ofsted to "ensure the most disadvantaged children are targeted".
Also, it is to launch a scheme called "Music Teach First", through which it aims to recruit musicians from leading music schools to go to teach in "the nation's most challenging schools".
And it says it wants to make it easier for leading orchestras and musicians to help improve music education in schools.
Education Secretary Michael Gove said: "Music has the power to touch the soul. It is a universal language understood by people of every culture. And it gives us all the chance to be transported by beauty.
"But access to the best musical education is not universal and the opportunity to benefit from great instrumental tuition is not shared equally.
"Many disadvantaged children are denied the music education they deserve. And that's why we need to bridge this musical divide."


In this article we have tried to help the CBSE class 9 students by providing them ideas on how to write a CBSE Class 9 Social Science Project on poverty. We hope you will like it and show your support to this website of yours.
It provides me great pleasure to present this project based on poverty. In this project, you will come to know what poverty really is. It includes causes, effects and impacts of poverty and how it is a threat to nation, the solution to these problems and the way to remove poverty. I have given my best efforts to make it neat and clean and have written it in simple and understandable language.
Poverty is an economic condition in which a person lacks sufficient resources to obtain minimum levels of health services, housing, food, clothing and education which are generally recognized as necessary elements to ensure a standard of living. Poverty is of two types:
Relative poverty is the kind of poverty experienced by people whose income falls considerably below the average for their particular society.
Absolute poverty is that kind of poverty in which is experienced by those who do not have enough food to remain healthy. About forty percent of world’s population lives in poverty.
|Approximately 72% of India’s population lives in rural areas. Though living standards in many areas have improved, most people are still poor. About one third of the population lives on or below the poverty line.|
It is an imaginary line or boundary which is used as a way to measure poverty. A common method used to measure poverty is based on income or corruption levels. A person is considered poor if his or her income or consumption level falls below a given minimum level. While determining the poverty line in India, footware, clothing, fuel and light educational and medical requirements, food requirement etc, the minimum of all are determined for subsistence. In India, poverty line for rural areas was fixed at Rs. 328 for the year 2000 and Rs. 425 for urban areas per person per month. International poverty line was fixed at $1 per person per day by the World Bank. The poverty line estimation is done periodically using sample surveys every five years.
The poverty stricken population usually is a single mother with her children and that accounts for about one third of all the poor people in world. Other groups disproportionately represented below poverty line are people with disabilities and those who are dependent on them. It also includes large families and families in which the principle wage earner is either unemployed or works on very low wages. Lack of educational opportunities is another huge cause behind poverty. In the developed world, a larger percentage of black people than white people are poor. The main reason behind this is the heritage of inferior education among black people. Much of the world’s poverty can be credited to overpopulation. Due to this less number of employment opportunities gave rise to poverty in India, for instance. Poverty is also caused because of low level of economic development; developing nations like India and China where despite substantial recent industrialization, the poverty ratios have remained constant.
|Poverty Ratio||Number of Poor (in Millions)|
Just like inefficient economies and industries have negative impact on environment, so does poverty. Those who live in poverty do not have the luxury of using what resources they have to in a sustainable manner. Thus, they are usually forced to exploit the environment against the limited choice of their food and fuel. Deforestation, soil erosion and desertification can be associated with extreme poverty. Environmental degradation and poverty are strongly intertwined. This results in a vicious cycle in which environmental stress causes poverty which in turn causes environmental problems. Unequal distribution or shortage of land forces the poor to marginal environment. The pressure on land by the growing population leads to a lot of environmental problems. Extreme poverty also causes inefficient and excessive consumption of energy.
The current anti-poverty strategy of the government is based on two plans –
Following are the measures to reduce poverty –
There are multiple anti-poverty measures taken by the government. Some of them are –
Poverty is the state of being poor. Generally being poor means no access to food, clothing and shelter but today poverty also includes no access to education. People without access to health services can be considered poor as well. Poverty reduction is possible only by growth in economy, increasing stress on universal free elementary education, declining population growth, increasing empowerment of women and economically weaker sections of society. The world has the ability to end poverty and with that major threat to the well being of people will end. When the poor are given opportunities and means to come out of the vicious cycle in which poverty holds them, only then real sustainable development will become possible.


We've got all the tricks, tips, hints and shortcuts to make everyday school life so much easier. more
Science skills for kids: 9-10
This stage of development welcomes the move from a fascination with their personal world to an exploration of germs to galaxies and everything in between. Children of this age commonly develop an interest in science fiction and particularly enjoy excursions which allow them the opportunity to escape their local environment and test predictions in new settings.
Children learn at an individual pace, in their own time. At this developmental age sees a step up in scientific concepts, 9-10 year olds will be attempting to develop several skills.
Analytical thinking is developing
Children at this age still find it difficult to comprehend abstract concepts yet they have progressed from simple categorising to comparing and classifying objects. Children are able to compare by looking at more than one feature and as their confidence grows they will progress to non-living items. As their vocabulary develops their ability to analyse situations will improve. Examples of this are that children will still express confusion as to whether a seed is living or non-living or if leaves on trees are alive.
Reflect on their experiments
Now that children can follow a simple series of steps for an experiment and report on the results they need to be reminded to reflect or think back on the investigation carried out. Children at this age should be able to identify difficulties they experienced and suggest improvements for future experiments. Opportunities should be given to allow students to test revised hypothesises.
Learn about abstract concepts
Children begin to learn about concepts such as energy in this developmental period. They are asked to identify different sources such as electrical, solar, light and heat and to think about why energy can be found in different forms.
Able to apply knowledge
At this stage children not only learn scientific concepts but they begin to apply their knowledge to tasks. An example is a child who is able to use their knowledge of how animals adapt to habitats and how human needs are met on Earth, to make a prediction about life on another planet and explain what items they believe scientists would need in their space ship when exploring.
Refined observational skills
Children at this age are noticing greater details, making simple notes and interpreting increasingly complex diagrams. They are taking increasingly accurate measurements with tools. Children who have been encouraged to explain their thinking during earlier stages of development now begin to justify their thinking process using their observations.
Improved understanding of different kinds of the Earth’s materials
While children will still carry out scientific investigations with plants, children will learn that there are different areas of science. Children begin to learn about the Earth’s natural materials as it combines more abstract thought with the ability to still perform hands on experiments. Geology (the study of rocks and crystals) is appealing to children at this age and children will be able to identify different rocks and minerals as well as plan a scratch test to see which rocks are hardest.
Understand the concept of sound
Children at this age also learn about sounds and how musical instruments produce sounds. Linking scientific skills with the Creative Arts allows students to make connections with new ideas. Students are able to apply their knowledge to design new instruments as well as understand how our ear and brain process sounds. Sound is a great introduction to further scientific concepts that involve the study of processes which the child cannot see.
Now that children have learnt several scientific skills and their development has improved they are keen to try them out with a range of concepts. At this age a child’s spatial skills are improving, as are their numeracy skills and these combine to allow children to pose more complex questions, as well as support their problem solving.
Read more about science:
- Science skills for pre-kinder children
- Science skills for 5-6 year olds
- Science skills for 7-8 year olds
- Science skills for 9-10 year olds
- Science skills for 11-12 year olds


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.


A masters in elementary education is a masters degree that explores teaching further in-depth. Curriculum may include teaching techniques, administration and counseling. Many who pursue a masters in elementary education have a background in teaching and education and want to move on to become part of the school or district’s administration. For most schools, to serve as a principal or assistant principal, one must posses a masters degree. This applies to public schools, as most private schools create their own rules when it comes placement. In some states in the United States such as New York, you must have a masters degree to have a teaching license. It is common for those who want to work in education administration to go straight from undergrad to graduate school.
There are different areas of study when obtaining a masters in elementary education. Most of the time, a student focuses on one or a couple of these topics. This will become the student’s area of expertise when they enter the work force. Instruction and curriculum is an area where students learn how to apply curriculum mandated by the state or district to various teaching techniques. This involves hands-on work in classroom the majority of the time. Counseling education deals with counseling at the elementary school level. This can also include diagnosing children with learning disabilities or honing in on special needs. Those working in counseling education often have a background in psychology or developmental learning. Specializing in counseling education is a natural step for those with a psychology background who do not want to go on to earn a PhD. Licensing is required to become a counselor in the majority of school districts in the United States. Internet hours are completed under the guidance of a practicing school counselor or child mental health counselor.
A student can also focus on academic enrichment. This is more often for post-primary school levels, but in recent years has become a growing area for elementary teachers as well. Academic enrichment revolves around teachers who specialize in one department of study such as math, Spanish or writing. With many standardized tests in most states, teachers who focus on these areas are used for enrichment programs to enhance a child’s development in the respective subject. This also opens doors of opportunity for creating curriculum or textbooks for that subject at a state level.
What can I do with a masters in elementary education?
There are many career paths a person can take with a masters in elementary education. An obvious choice is to become a teacher or administrator. Having a masters in elementary education qualifies you for more teaching positions such as an enrichment teacher focusing with small groups of students to improve standardized test scores. These positions command higher than average teaching wages. The average teacher earns about $35,000 per year and teachers specializing in a certain area can earn as high as $50,000. In some areas such as Texas, New Mexico and California, there’s heavy demand for English as a Second Language (ESL) program teachers and bilingual teachers who speak Spanish.
A teaching certificate must be obtained in your state to work as a teacher regardless of whether or not you have a masters degree. At this time, teaching does not appear to have any substantial growth in the coming decade unless you are a special education or bilingual teacher. Those are the two areas that have the most job openings throughout the United States. Teaching is set to grow at about 13% through 2018, which is average for most industries. With budget cuts happening in many states, teachers and schools can expect to see stagnant wages and possible layoffs. Teachers in some states are hired on a contract basis. Some may be part of a union, but most are not.
With a masters in elementary education, you are most likely going to have a job outside of the classroom since you will be qualified for many positions. Writing curriculum for a textbook publishing company is a job path that pays well and gets you involved in what’s happening in the classroom. You may also work at the district level create curriculum that each grade will follow. This is typically conducted by a tight group of people who write the curriculum for all elementary schools in one district. Another job possibility for someone with a masters in elementary school is working as a principal, assistant principal or superintendent. In these positions you are overseeing the school or district’s development and helping students excel by mandating the proper protocol for a successful school.


Joachim, Joseph (1831-1907) Violinnist.
Generally regarded as one of the finest violinists of his generation. At thirteen he took London by storm, a city he was to visit frequently in the following years. He was later to form a particular friendship with Brahms who acted as his accompanist. The benefits were mutual, Joachim advising Brahms on violin technique when he composed his Violin Concerto. Joachim's advocacy of Beethoven's Violin Concerto was also responsible for establishing the work in the standard repertoire.
Born in the part of the world we now know as Slovakia, Joseph Joachim's immense talents as a violinist were noted at the age of six, and he made his public debut at the age of eight. That year he was sent to study in Vienna, entering the Leipzig Conservatory at the age of twelve. He was guided through a general music education by Mendelssohn, and during his first year made his Leipzig concert debut with Clara Schumann and Mendelssohn.
Reports on his playing have at times
been in conflict. In his later years he became particularly interested
in teaching, devoting much of his life from 1868 to the Hochschule in Berlin.
As a conductor he was also admired, and it was under his baton that the
First Symphony by Brahms was introduced to England. As a composer he learnt
much from Mendelssohn, though time prevented more than a modest catalogue
of works, though he added to his opus through much of his life.


Becky teaches reading, writing, science, and mathematics to her fifth graders each day. The 27 students in her class visit the other fifth grade teacher for social studies, while she teaches science to the other class. In addition to daily instruction and fifth grade behavior management, she is very involved in curriculum writing and planning within her building, grade level team, and district.
Becky teaches fifth grade math twice each day. The first math period is ability-grouped fifth graders. This group consists of the most gifted math students. Instruction is focused on a deep and conceptual understanding of the material. She challenges students to use non-traditional methods for multiplication, division, fractions, measurement, and geometry. They journal about their own thinking, a variety of problem solving strategies, and why the traditional algorithms (like long division and “drop the magic zero” multiplication) work. Becky's goal for this group is that they leave her room with a true understanding of the “why and how” of mathematics. The second math period that she teaches is with her entire class, which brings together a very diverse group of math minds! They complete concept board questions that target fifth grade math expectations (a sort of spiral review/preview), and they continuously practice a variety of “tried and true” problem solving strategies.
If you were to ask Becky's students about how their teacher uses math, they might tell you about the bulletin boards in their classroom. They have the prime numbers spilled across the top of the whiteboard, where the typical elementary teacher would put a handwriting alphabet. The word wall includes a large red heart beside the terms Distributive Property, equilateral, and isosceles. And, the cupboards are covered with a math word wall, giving student friendly definitions and examples of all fifth grade math vocabulary and problem solving strategies.
Teachers in Michigan must hold a teaching degree from a college or university and hold a teaching certificate issued by the Michigan Department of Education. Becky earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. In addition, she holds a kindergarten - 6th grade (elementary) teaching certificate and is considered “highly qualified” in the areas of mathematics and school health education, which means she is also certified to teach these content areas in 6th - 8th grade (middle school) classrooms.
During her high school and college years, Becky took advantage of a number of job and volunteer opportunities that put her in a teaching role or gave her direct contact with kids. She taught swimming lessons, privately tutored students in math, worked for an academically talented math program, and volunteered in local elementary school classrooms. Additionally, a number of her mathematics education courses in college included field experiences such as teaching single lessons, implementing short units, tutoring a child for an extended period of time, and conducting research interviews about students' mathematical thinking.
In addition to these experiences, and probably most influential when it came to securing her current position, were her student teaching experiences during her final semesters at GVSU. During the two semesters of student teaching, college students are given the responsibility of instruction and behavior management in a local classroom. Both her half-day teacher assisting placement (2nd grade, Grandville Public Schools) and her full-day student teaching placement (4th grade, Jenison Public Schools) gave her opportunities to learn from professional teachers, show her enthusiasm for education, and her true “teacher personality.
"Math majors with hopes of being an elementary teacher should focus intensely on the “why”s of elementary mathematics and make every effort to have a deep and conceptual understanding of the math content that they will be teaching. I believe it is essential for teachers to take risks and ask “why does it work that way?” questions of their students. It is equally essential for students to try to articulate their mathematical thinking in the form of journal or short-answer responses! Kids need to be taught how to talk mathematically, though, and teachers can only teach this by facilitating discussions. Leading discussions can be frightening, with 25 eyes staring at you and 25 potential explanations/answers to a question! Teachers with a conceptual understanding of the mathematics being taught will feel confident and successful in this endeavor, and their students will benefit for years to come.
"If you love math and love kids, there is no career more satisfying than math education. Knowledge of mathematics and strong problem solving skills will help those you teach find success for the rest of their lives."


Bee Aware . . . Look, Listen, Run
The Africanized honey bee (AHB) population has grown and will continue to grow in Florida due to its numerous pathways into the state and the lack of effective eradication products or techniques.
AHBs were brought to Brazil in the 1950s for testing as possible alternative pollinators and honey producers because of their reputation of being hardy in tropical environments. At the time, their defensive nature and ability to reproduce in greater numbers was not well understood. Some were accidentally released and have spread throughout South and Central America, Mexico and the southern US.
The department monitors 500 bait hives placed throughout the state, primarily in port areas, along Interstate-10 and on the Florida/Alabama border. The bait hives are checked on a three-week cycle based on the reproduction habits of the AHB.
To prevent stinging incidents, Look for bees and Listen for buzzing when working or playing outdoors and always be aware of your surroundings and potential hive locations. If attacked, Run away with your face covered get inside a car or building call a licensed pest control to remove the hive; dont attempt to remove it yourself. Seek medical attention if needed.
It is important to note, managed honey bee colonies (bee boxes often seen in agricultural fields) are an important part of Florida agriculture because they pollinate foods we eat including fruits, vegetables and nuts. For more information call the Division of Plant Industry's toll-free helpline number at 1-888-397-1517.
- Bee Nest and Swarm Removal Contact List [ ] - This list is for reference purposes only. It is an Excel file select individual county pages at bottom left.
- Africanized Bees: The Challenge - Video
- Africanized Honey Bees in Florida [ ]
- The Africanized Honey Bee Brochure [ ]
- The Africanized Honey Bee Brochure (Spanish) [ ]
- UF/IFAS African Honey Bee Extension & Education Program
- FAQs on the African Honey Bee
- Africanized Honey Bee Fact Sheet [ ]
- What's the Buzz on Bees? - Honey Bee Elementary Education Program [ ]
- Africanized Honey Bee Activity Sheet [ ] (for kids)
- NAPIS Link - African Honey Bee (AHB)
- USDA Update March 6, 2006
- FL Fire Chief Training - What Every First Responder Needs to Know About Africanized Honey Bees
- Pest Control Operator Poster
- For bee sting information, call the Florida Poison Information Center Network at 1-800-222-1222. (available 24/7)


The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) study tested basic levels of literacy and numeracy in all adults and young adults aged 16 to 24. The results highlight a disturbing trend in England with better results in literacy and numeracy for the older generation than the 16 to 24 year-old group, revealing that 8.5 million adults in England and Northern Ireland have the numeracy skills of a ten-year-old child. The United States faces an even more marked decline, the OECD warned last year that the United States faced educational "downward mobility" with the younger generation having poorer educational standards than the older generation.
Out of the 24 countries tested and with 166,000 adults in total taking these tests, across the 24 participating countries, England
came 22nd for literacy and 21st for numeracy. The United States came 20th for literacy and 24th for literacy in the 16 to 24-year-old age group and 16th for literacy and 20th for numeracy in the mixed adults group.
Matthew Hancock, the Government's Skills Minister, said:
"This shocking report shows England has some of the least literate and numerate young adults in the developed world,
"These are Labour's children, educated under a Labour government and force-fed a diet of dumbing down and low expectations."
Of course, it's unsurprising that a Conservative government minister should use these results to make political statements. What is surprising is that the younger generation of English adults tested had more qualifications and better school exam results than the older adults tested yet scored lower. It really does seem to indicate how examination results in Britain have been "dumbed down" over the past 30 years or so.
with the lowest overall scores in these tests were Italy and Spain, while Japan and Finland achieved top scores. The OECD believe high school graduates in Japan have literacy skills comparable to those of Italian university graduates.
The OECD recognized the advances made by Finland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden in increasing adult learning rates among the lowest skilled within society. This survey has confirmed previous OECD research stating high-quality early schooling is an important predictor of success in life for adults. It stated that between 7 and 27 percent of the population in the participating countries was unable to master the simplest of computer skills, such as controlling a mouse.
study concludes: "Overall, the results suggest that investments in improving adults' proficiency in literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments may have significant benefits."


Specialized Schools for Dyslexia
There are a number of excellent private schools geared to students with dyslexia — in fact, far too many to list or describe them all in this book. However, a brief profile of some of the schools will help you get a sense of what you might look for. Most schools offer remedial teaching based on traditional Orton-Gillingham principles as well as providing a full academic curriculum. Some of the schools are geared primarily to helping their students gain sufficient proficiency in reading and other academic skills to reenter mainstream schools; others are intended to provide a comprehensive and high-quality education with the expectation that they will retain students through completion of their educational program.
The Assets School in Honolulu, Hawaii, is a combined K-12 day school for gifted children and/or children with dyslexia. The curriculum is individualized and matched to meet each child's specific needs. Faculty are specially trained to provide acceleration, remediation, and enrichment. The school provides a model for providing an environment that nurtures the strengths and gifts of children with dyslexia while at the same time providing support and specialized teaching to assist them in areas of weakness.
The Lab School of Washington
The Lab School of Washington is a K-12 day school with campuses in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland, that offers innovative teaching to students with learning disabilities. The curriculum emphasizes hands-on experimental learning and the use of the arts to teach academic skills. Elementary education incorporates work with computers and storytelling as well as art, with a continual emphasis on project-based learning through junior and senior high school levels. More than 90 percent of Lab School students go on to college.
Many private schools also offer summer sessions that are open to children who are not enrolled during the school year. This may be a good alternative if you are reluctant to enroll your child in a specialized school full time. There are also many summer camp programs for children with dyslexia or related learning problems. Some focus on providing a fun environment to help build self-esteem, but others include extensive tutoring and support.
The Landmark School
Located in Massachusetts, the Landmark School offers both day and boarding programs for children in grades two to twelve. The Landmark academic program emphasizes achievement rather than grade placement levels, with a primary emphasis on development of oral and written language skills at all levels. The elementary program provides a daily one-to-one tutorial for children aged seven to nine; class size is limited to a maximum of six. Middle school children up to age fourteen continue with the daily individual tutorial and receive rigorous remediation in language and other skills in classes of six to eight students. The high school program continues with the same format, but provides a full college preparatory curriculum as well as elective courses and classes in visual and performing arts.
Boarding Schools for Boys
Two boarding schools for boys with dyslexia are the Greenwood School in Putney, Vermont, and the Gow School, located in upstate New York. Both schools offer remedial teaching based on the Orton-Gillingham model, as well as a full academic curriculum.
The Greenwood School is a prepreparatory program for boys aged nine to fifteeen who need special help mastering grade-level skills in reading, writing, spelling, or mathematics. Most Greenwood graduates go on to attend mainstream private and public high schools; only 20 percent continue their secondary studies in specialized remedial schools.
The Gow School offers a college preparatory curriculum to boys in grades seven to twelve. With a 4 to 1 faculty/student ratio, the school provides instruction in classes with three to six students, allowing individualized attention to all students.