No Child Left Behinds Early Reading First grant program supports preschools and early childhood education providers, especially those who serve children from low-income families, so that they can become preschool centers of educational excellence and the children they serve will arrive at kindergarten with the foundational skills necessary to become successful readers. The following are excerpts from an article on EducationNews.org highlighting the progress of a Texas preschool program that is funded by an Early Reading First grant:
"Sebastian Wren, the Program Associate for Reading at the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory in Austin, Texas, has been personally involved with INSPIRED, a very successful pre-school and day-care project in Round Rock Independent School District, Round Rock, Texas. Wren recently concluded, Although they started out with different performance levels, by the end of the year, African American students, Caucasian students, and Hispanic students were performing approximately equally. Thus, there is some evidence that the INSPIRED project is helping to level the playing field for disparate groups of students."
"Wren has summarized the project as follows: The preliminary assessments to ascertain individual reading and language skills were collected in the winter of 2003-2004. The pre-school and day-care teachers participating in the Round Rock INSPIRED project then received a substantial amount of training in instructional activities that support the development of early reading and language skills. By the end of the school year in 2004, students had made substantial gains in the various reading-related skills that were assessed. A total of 259 students were tested both in the winter and spring of the 03-04 school years in a variety of reading-related tasks, including name writing, concept of word, print knowledge, alphabet knowledge, verbal memory, rhyme awareness, and beginning sound awareness. "
"Approximately half of the students who participated in the 03-04 INSPIRED Project were Hispanic, and in the winter, Hispanic students performed more poorly than Caucasian students on most of the reading-related tasks. By spring, both Caucasian students and Hispanic students had made significant gains, but the Hispanic students had made more dramatic gains, closing the gap with the Caucasian students. The same is true of the African American students who made up 11% of the student population."
"Catherine Davis is the coordinator for INSPIRED. She participated in the following Q & A:
"Question #1: What is the background on the grant and what are the expectations from the district?
"Answer #1: Round Rock Independent School District was one of thirty grants awarded in cycle two of the Early Reading First program. As with all Early Reading First grants our goal is to provide intensive reading instruction that is grounded in scientifically based reading research as acknowledged by the National Reading Panel's report. We expect the children participating in our program will be ready to start kindergarten as well as if not better than their more economically advantaged peers. We want our children to learn to read on schedule."
About Extra Credit
NCLB Extra Credit is a regular look at the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush's landmark education reform initiative passed with bipartisan support in Congress.
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"The magnet lab exists not only to conduct groundbreaking research, but also to promote science education and to help develop the next generation of science, engineering and science education leaders."
FSU magnet lab pulling in U.S. students, teachers for summer research
by Barry Ray
Some of the world's most advanced research is taking place at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, where scientists are pushing the boundaries of human knowledge in the fields of physics, biology, bioengineering, chemistry, geochemistry, biochemistry, materials science and engineering. This summer, those same scientists are taking on another task: mentoring some of the nation's best and brightest students, as well as schoolteachers from throughout the United States—all of whom are interested in learning more about the world of science.
"The magnet lab exists not only to conduct groundbreaking research, but also to promote science education and to help develop the next generation of science, engineering and science education leaders," said Patricia Dixon, director of the laboratory's Center for Integrating Research and Learning. "As part of that mission, our summer educational programs help us reach out to educate and excite students, teachers and the general public about science, technology and the world around them."
The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Summer Internship Program matches top college students from across the United States with scientists during an eight-week research mentorship at the lab. The program, funded by the National Science Foundation, allows students to explore science at the extremes of magnetic field, pressure and temperature, alongside some of the finest scientists, magnet designers and engineers in the world. This year, 17 REU students are living in Florida State University student housing while working at the magnet lab from June 6 to July 29.
Katie Schwarz, a chemistry major entering her junior year at Washington University in St. Louis, had opportunities to participate in other highly sought internships this summer, she said, but chose the magnet lab because of her many positive experiences there in the past.
"The magnet lab has provided an outlet for my curiosity going back to middle school," said Schwarz, a Tallahassee native. A veteran of numerous internships at the magnet lab during her middle and high school years, Schwarz said she "explicitly decided to come back and work with (chemistry professor) Tim Logan and (biology professor) Piotr Fajer." She is participating in experiments that examine the activation of proteins. Not surprisingly, her main area of scientific interest is biophysical chemistry.
In addition to their work in the lab, REU participants have opportunities to explore North Florida by visiting Wakulla Springs, hiking along the Aucilla River, and taking part in social activities. At the end of the program, each student will present a report summarizing his or her research to fellow students and faculty mentors. Students then are encouraged to work toward having their work published in undergraduate science journals.
Also funded by the National Science Foundation, the six-week Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Program provides schoolteachers in grades K-12 with the opportunity to participate in real-world scientific research—and to learn how to teach the sciences. This year, 11 teachers from as far away as Hawaii are taking part in the program, which runs from June 13 to July 22.
Jonathon Hamilton, a fourth-grade teacher at Buck Lake Elementary School in Tallahassee with degrees in history and in elementary education, felt he could use some help in learning to teach science to his students.
"You end up teaching more effectively those things that you know something about," he said. While at the magnet lab, Hamilton is taking part in experiments led by scientist Johan van Tol that compare irradiated food samples with others that have been heated in a microwave oven. Both types of samples are subjected to a technique called electron spin resonance to detect and compare the amounts of free radicals—substances that can be harmful to human cells if ingested in large enough amounts. Such information ultimately could determine whether food products such as chicken, fruits, vegetables and nuts that are sometimes irradiated prior to sale are in fact completely safe.
Just learning the process that a scientist goes through has been eye-opening, Hamilton said: "It's not always a strictly scientific-method approach. It's a lot about trial and error, and trying new ideas when other ones don't pan out."
More information on these and
other educational outreach opportunities offered by the magnet
lab can be accessed on the Internet at http://education.magnet.fsu.edu/.


ERIC Number: ED494212
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2007
Reference Count: 0
Best Practices in Writing Instruction. Solving Problems in the Teaching of Literacy
Graham, Steve, Ed.; MacArthur, Charles A., Ed.; Fitzgerald, Jill, Ed.
Highly practical and accessible, this indispensable book provides clear-cut strategies for improving K-12 writing instruction. The contributors are leading authorities who demonstrate proven ways to teach different aspects of writing, with chapters on planning, revision, sentence construction, handwriting, spelling, and motivation. The use of the Internet in instruction is addressed, and exemplary approaches to teaching English-language learners and students with special needs are discussed. The book also offers best-practice guidelines for designing an effective writing program. Focusing on everyday applications of current scientific research, the book features many illustrative case examples and vignettes. This book provides an array of research-based techniques for classroom use. Case examples and vignettes demonstrate realistic applications. The book emphasizes a balanced approach to teaching. Special attention is paid to multilingual and struggling students. It presents the Introduction: Best Practices in Writing Instruction (Steve Graham, Charles A. MacArthur, and Jill Fitzgerald), and then is divided into three parts. Part I, Designing Writing Programs, contains the initial chapters: (1) Writing Instruction in Engaging and Effective Elementary Settings (Michael Pressley, Lindsey Mohan, Lauren Fingeret, Kelly Reffitt, and Lisa Raphael Bogaert); (2) Best Practices in Implementing a Process Approach to Teaching Writing (Ruie J. Pritchard and Ronald L. Honeycutt); (3) Best Narrative Writing Practices When Teaching from a Developmental Framework (Anne McKeough, Jaime Palmer, Marya Jarvey, and Stan Bird); and (4) Best Practices in Developing a Writing Across the Curriculum Program in the Secondary School (George E. Newell, Susan Koukis, and Stacy Boster). Part II, Strategies for Teaching and Learning, contains: (5) Writing Instruction for Young Children: Methods Targeting the Multiple Demands That Writers Face (David Coker); (6) Best Practices in Teaching Planning (Steve Graham and Karen R. Harris); (7) Best Practices in Teaching Evaluation and Revision (Charles A. MacArthur); (8) Improving Sentence Construction Skills through Sentence-Combining Practice (Bruce Saddler); (9) Best Practices in Spelling and Handwriting (Bob Schlagal); (10) Best Practices in Promoting Motivation for Writing (Pietro Boscolo and Carmen Gelati); (11) Best Practices in Using the Internet to Support Writing (Rachel Karchmer-Klein); (12) Best Practices in Teaching Writing to Adolescents (Dolores Perin); and (13) Best Practices in Writing Assessment (Robert C. Calfee and Roxanne Greitz Miller). Part III, Special Populations, concludes the book with the final two chapters: (14) What Is Sound Writing Instruction for Multilingual Learners? (Jill Fitzgerald and Steve Amendum); and (15) Best Practices in Teaching Writing to Students with Special Needs and Susan De La Paz).
Descriptors: Writing Instruction, Instructional Improvement, Teaching Methods, Elementary Education, Instructional Effectiveness, Process Approach (Writing), Descriptive Writing, Writing Across the Curriculum, Secondary Education, Program Development, Young Children, Beginning Writing, Instructional Development, Teacher Evaluation, Revision (Written Composition), Sentences, Transformational Generative Grammar, Spelling Instruction, Handwriting, Student Motivation, Writing (Composition), Internet, Computer Uses in Education, Adolescents, Writing Evaluation, Multilingualism, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Special Needs Students, Literacy
Guilford Press. 72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012. Tel: 800-365-7006; Tel: 212-431-9800; Fax: 212-966-6708; e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org; Web site: http://www.guilford.com
Publication Type: Books; Collected Works - General; Guides - Classroom - Teacher
Education Level: Elementary Education; Elementary Secondary Education; Secondary Education
Audience: Teachers; Practitioners
Authoring Institution: N/A


Landry: Building blocks of childhood lay a foundation for success
First years of life are key for preparing our kids for their futures
Updated 7:05 pm, Friday, August 9, 2013
Going back to school is on the minds of many at this time of year. Parents everywhere are getting in those school supply shopping trips, learning school bus routes and making sure their children have everything they need for the start of a brand new school year. It's an exciting time.
While parents prepare their youngsters for the classroom, we should not forget that the most important preparation occurs before children start kindergarten. Overwhelming evidence tells us, without question, that early childhood is the most critical period in a child's brain development. I have studied early childhood learning for more than 25 years, and although we continue to add new knowledge to this important field of study, there are some facts about early childhood everyone should understand:
Eighty percent of brain development occurs during the first five years of life. Because the brain is developing at such a rapid rate during this period, early experiences matter a great deal. The environment in which young children are raised and cared for, as well as what they are exposed to, will impact the rest of their lives.
Caregiver sensitivity matters. How adults respond to the needs of young children has everything to do with how those young children grow, develop and thrive. When we respond to children with warmth, love and sensitivity, we signal to them that the world is a safe place where they should feel free to explore, learn and grow. When we create stressful or unresponsive environments, we demonstrate that trust and safety are in short supply. Their development conforms to these models.
Young children learn through play. Young children are processing new information every single day. They pick up items and drop them over and over, not to annoy you, but because they are learning about cause and effect. They play with toys, books and the entire world. Exploration and fun are the ways they acquire knowledge and skills.
Language development is critical. There are few indicators, if any, that are more predicative of a young child's school readiness than their language and communication skills. Language is a defining characteristic of the human experience. Beginning in infancy, the young brain is programmed to rapidly acquire language skills. The more we feed it language through naming objects and actions, giving explanations and reading books, the better we support the acquisition of language skills. A groundbreaking study from 2004, titled "The Early Catastrophe," found that children living in poverty hear 30 million fewer words than their higher-income counterparts. This gap in early language explains a great deal about the achievement gaps in the United States.
Warm, responsive parents who introduce language and play early into their children's lives are preparing their children for success in school and in life. This is a message that must be more prevalent in our society, which is why I am so excited to be a part of "Little Texans. Big Futures," a statewide public awareness campaign. In partnership with Gov. Rick Perry's Texas Early Learning Council, I and fellow researchers at the UTHealth Children's Learning Institute, as well as two dozen critical stakeholders throughout Texas, created new infant, toddler and 3-year-old early learning guidelines for parents and other caregivers. We used these guidelines to inspire six television ads and other materials about the importance of responsive caregiving.
Help us spread the word about the importance of early childhood. Visit www.littletexans.org, review the content, download the guidelines, watch our videos and share these resources with expecting and new parents.
As we prepare to send children back to school, let's keep in mind the critical period of preparation occurring in the first years of life.
Landry, a nationally recognized expert in early childhood education, is founder and director of the Children’s Learning Institute at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.


“On the banks of picturesque Dal Lake in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, sits the only library in the neighborhood, run by a man who loves books but cannot read. In a single-story wooden house, carefully maintained shelves are filled with around 600 books in several languages, the prize possessions of Muhammad Latif Oata, a 44-year-old handicrafts seller who dropped out of school at age 10 to work.” (via NYTimes.com)
“We all know that the more you read the more fluent you become, which in turn leads not only to increased literacy skills but also to improved attainment in all subjects. But, it seems, proof and evidence of this impact has eluded the reading profession for many years. This may be the reason why school libraries have been on the decline, with schools favouring to focus their energies on areas that can display this elusive impact. At Monk’s Walk School, Hertfordshire, we’ve worked on this area, knowing there must be some way a library can show the impact it has on literacy development. If this value and impact can be seen, not only does this move a library alongside other departments in a school but it may also go some way to holding back the decline of this vital resource.”
USA Today – CHICAGO – On the ground floor of the city’s main library, an odd experiment is taking place, one that could determine what your neighborhood library looks like in 10 years. It goes like this: Take a very large room and fill it with the latest digital media — laptop computers, music keyboards, recording equipment, video cameras and gaming consoles. Invite teenagers. Apply a little pressure, pushing them both to consume and produce media. Watch what happens. Once a storage room at the Harold Washington Library Center, the high-ceiling, 5,500-square-foot space, dubbed “YOUmedia — a Digital Library Space for Teens,” has become a magnet for young people citywide, so popular and influential that the library plans to replicate it citywide.”
AP – “Once upon a time, there was a bookstore. One day, the bookstore went away and reopened online with a new name and a mission to combat childhood illiteracy.
The rest of the story of year-old e-tailer MonkeyReader.com is still being written but its founders hope the ending will be happy — and successful. “We’re beginning, we’re growing, we have a lot of great ideas,” co-founder David Lenett of the venture, a successor of the Discovery Bookshop, a popular Philadelphia children’s bookstore that closed in the 1990s and became an online storefront that evolved into the more interactive MonkeyReader site.”
AP – “A new Commerce Department website aims to give schools, libraries and job training centers the tools to help teach computer and Internet skills to Americans who are new to the Net.
The site, www.digitalliteracy.gov , offers links to everything from basic Web surfing tips and online banking tutorials to resume-building services and resources on combatting cyberbullying. It is part of an Obama administration push to ensure that all Americans have access to high-speed Internet connections and the skills needed to use them to compete in today’s digital economy.”


Art class taught with an emphasis on the interests of the students presented in a way that enhances their education. *Home School credit may be obtained*
In every assignment, students give personal expression to their artwork, learn to make choices, identify opportunities, and solve problems creatively.
Art refutes the idea of education as collecting and storing knowledge. Instead, the fun is creating and inventing and finding solutions.
Each class incorporates:
Introduction to Art Styles
Art Media and Techniques
Art Education Resource provides Art classes incorporating the advatages of traditional settings in a more personal environment. Educational concepts are given relevance by being tied to Art principles in these fun and informative classes. The student has the opportunity to determine which topics will be the focus of his or her own art education.
Drawing in Various Media
Foundations in Clay
Introduction to Fiber Arts
Art Education Resource also incorporates local artists and studio spaces where additional hands-on experience can be obtained.
The cost is $149 per 6 hours, with all materials included. Please call or email to set up a time and day of the week that works with your schedule.


I finally finished my first Teachers Pay Teachers packet of Kindergarten Math Problem-Solving Prompts!
If you've been reading my blog for a while now, you know that I am just a little passionate about math problem-solving. OK, so I'm a big nerd! But since I started using a problem-solving model in my classroom several years ago, I have seen amazing growth in my students' math skills. Kindergartners can do so much more than I ever imagined!
Problem-Solving is here to stay!
If you follow the Common Core, the Mathematical Practices are all about Problem-Solving!
1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
4. Model with mathematics.
5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
6. Attend to precision.
7. Look for and make use of structure.
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
And if you're in Texas, like me, the new TEKS stress the "process standards" and explicitly state that children will use a problem-solving model:
Students will use a problem-solving model that incorporates analyzing given information, formulating a plan or strategy, determining a solution, justifying the solution, and evaluating the problem-solving process and the reasonableness of the solution. Students will select appropriate tools such as real objects, manipulatives, algorithms, paper and pencil, and technology and techniques such as mental math, estimation, number sense, and generalization and abstraction to solve problems. Students will effectively communicate mathematical ideas, reasoning, and their implications using multiple representations such as symbols, diagrams, graphs, computer programs, and language. Students will use mathematical relationships to generate solutions and make connections and predictions. Students will analyze mathematical relationships to connect and communicate mathematical ideas. Students will display, explain, or justify mathematical ideas and arguments using precise mathematical language in written or oral communication.
Problem-solving isn't just solving word problems...it's so much more!
My Kindergarten Problem-Solving Prompts cover the First Nine Weeks of school. There are 45 prompts that focus on the following topics:
Basic Counting Skills and Cardinalization
- More Than/Fewer Than
- Composing and Decomposing Numbers
- Simple Addition and Subtraction
- 2-D Shapes
- Learning How to Express Mathematical Ideas
A few of the prompts have already been on my blog (especially in 2-D shapes and Learning How to Share). But they're good! And there is PLENTY of new stuff--including almost all of the counting and addition/subtraction prompts.
I also include teacher notes for each topic and questions you can ask your kids during share time to deepen their understanding and work out misconceptions.
Each prompt is provided in 2 ways--6 to a page if your kids like to cut and paste...or on mailing labels if you prefer to peel and stick. (I do a little of both.)
For my Texas peeps, I'll be uploading a Texas version this weekend (with TEKS instead of the CCSS). And I'm working hard on the sequel (for the second nine weeks) and will post it sometime in September.
In the meantime, I'm going to blog a lot about problem-solving over the next few weeks--detailing what it looks and sounds like, what kids do, what teachers do, tips for assessing and keeping data, warm-up and computational fluency ideas...please...someone stop me!
And if you buy my Problem-Solving prompts, please let me know what you think! It's your feedback that helps me create better products!
Thank-you all so much for your amazing support and encouragement over the last few years. You make blogging fun!
Have a great weekend!


If Carol Vorderman was given a 3 minute slot on BBC Breakfast this morning to talk about a piece of research she’s helped commission, and she ended up talking for 4 minutes, what percentage of her original time allocation did she over-run by? Well according to the research she was discussing, not many of us would be able to give her the right answer as it shows that up to three quarters of children who achieve a pass in GCSE maths can’t work out simple fractions or percentages.
The research was commissioned by David Cameron and Michael Gove before the general election and the results are shocking to say the least. They show that almost half of students fail maths at GCSE (don’t get a grade C or above) and that only 15% of students continue to study maths beyond GCSE compared to 100% in some industrialised nations. This obviously has serious implications for these students into their adult life and will no doubt have an effect on the economy – many jobs nowadays call for a minimum of 3 GCSE’s at grade C or above including maths and English and if Vorders is right and 24% of economically active adults are ‘functionally innumerate’ then the futures of our children really could be in trouble.
The research makes 11 recommendations which range from aiming to achieve results comparable to those in top performing countries to making maths a compulsory subject up the age of 18 in an effort to ensure the mathematical prowess of our future generations.
One of the comments Vorders made in her interview pricked up some ears over here at BDT HQ though. The research also showed that up to a quarter of all students are taught by a non-maths teacher and in some areas no students were taught by a maths teacher. There is a nationwide shortage of specialist mathematics teachers in secondary schools and those who have already fallen behind by age 11 are statistically never likely to be able to catch up again but with no specialist maths teachers their chances drop away to almost nil.
Maybe the answer isn’t to make maths a compulsory subject. There are plans to raise the age of compulsory education over the next 4 years so that by 2015 it will be up to 18 so maybe more students will pick maths if option lists are smaller. Perhaps the answer is to find a way of encouraging more of those people who did well at maths to pay it forward and become maths teachers. There has been a massive increase in the number of adults registering on numeracy and literacy courses over the past few years and whilst it’s good that these adults are keen to put right their educational ‘failings’ it’s a harsh indication of the ways in which the UK education system has let them down.
A recent TV ad campaign has made efforts to tackle this void by attempting to show that maths and science are useful and essential skills to have in a range of different jobs from being a cosmetic specialist to a video games designer, however if the specialist staff and teachers aren’t in place in the schools then no amount of enthusiasm is going to help children who are keen to learn. It’s a self-perpetuating problem though – too many children are leaving school without proper numeracy skills which leaves a smaller percentage of those who actually go into teaching with sufficient ability to properly teach maths.
So, what’s the real solution?


Hand muscle development is important for learning new skills.
Dallas, TX (PRWEB) September 15, 2013
A playful painting activity and a laundry list of fine motor skills activities have been published on Kids Activities Blog. Fine motor skill development is very important for young kids. Seasoned Moms are sharing their playful ideas that help to develop precious hand muscles.
Strengthening hand muscles is important for young children to be able to dress themselves, pick up their toys, and use utensils properly. As children get into preschool and approach kindergarten, the muscles can continue to be strengthened in order to control the pencil grip.
A playful fine motor skills tip is a painting activity with cotton balls, paint, and tongs. Simple household items can really make painting fun and unique for the child. Let the child use tongs to pick up a cotton ball and let them dip it in paint.
Let the child use a different cotton ball for each color. He or she can simply smear the paint around or experiment making different designs. Encourage them to paint with the tongs.
Other fine motor skill activities are simple and easy to set up, too. A good start is letting the little ones string cheerios or let them push pipe cleaners through colander holes. Other simple activities include letting them grab pom poms with a pair of tweezers or tongs.
Another great activity is letting them cut strands of hair for a paper doll project. Tracing letters and numbers with yarn or painting empty containers can turn into the kids favorite pastime. The activity ideas are endless.
For detailed instructions and to get additional fun activities for kids, check out Kids Activities Blog this week. Come get inspired to let the kids have a blast with fun activities that sneak in a bit of learning, too.
About Kids Activities Blog
Kids Activities Blog is a website created by two moms (who collectively have 9 children), Rachel Miller and Holly Homer from June Cleaver Nirvana. It is their daily goal to inspire parents and teachers to play with kids. This interactive website publishes simple things to do with kids twice a day. Kids Activities Blog is a great tool for moms and teachers to find kid-friendly activities that create memories and sneak learning into the fun.


Surrey teens explore ideas, issues through art
Figurative/human studies, social commentary, and symbolism are some of the ways Surrey art students explore images, ideas, and issues that are important to them in the exhibition Art by Surrey Secondary School Students, at the Surrey Art Gallery now through to April 27.
The students have selected different forms of media to best express their ideas. Visitors will see paintings, drawings, collages, and photographs accompanied by insights into the work through artist statements, and information on the goals and objectives of art education.
The showcase of artworks, by 52 Surrey and White Rock students from Grades 8 to 12 representing 11 schools, was developed jointly by the Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey School District, and Surrey Art Teachers Association to demonstrate the value of visual arts courses. Admission to the exhibition is free.
Art by Surrey Secondary School Students is a part of the annual Fine Arts Festival des Beaux-Arts organized by the Surrey School District to recognize arts programming in its schools. Surrey Art Gallery has been presenting art by Surrey school students since 1983.
The art gallery is located at 13750 88 Ave. Call 604-501-5566 or check www.surrey.ca/artgallery


All school pupils are to be given a chance to learn a musical instrument, it has been announced.
Ministers said the proposal was part of a plan to give every youngster a cultural education alongside their academic studies.
Under the national plan for music education, children will get the chance to learn an instrument for at least a term.
From next year, music lessons will be provided by local "hubs" working with councils and local music organisations such as orchestras and choirs.
The Department for Education (DfE) said these hubs will be given funding and there will be a national formula to provide funding for music per pupil. A new music teaching module will also be set up to give trainee primary teachers extra skills to teach the subject.
Education Secretary Michael Gove said: "All pupils should have the opportunity to enjoy and play music. However, for far too long music education has been patchy across the country."
The announcement comes just months after the Henley Review, commissioned by the Government, warned that music education in England is "patchy", leaving many children missing out. It called for music to be a statutory part of the National Curriculum and for the subject to be made part of the new English Baccalaureate.
To achieve the English Bacc, students must gain at least a C grade at GCSE in English, maths, science, a humanities subject and a foreign language. The review also called for all music teachers to be encouraged to sign up to a national register.


John McDowell (1751-1820),
- A.B. 1771, LL.D. (hon.) 1807
- Tutor 1769-1782
- Professor of Natural Philosophy 1806-1810
- Third Provost 1807-1810
- Private in the Revolutionary Army
- Professor and Principal of St. John's College, Annapolis
John McDowell, the third Provost of the College, was born in Peters Township, near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in 1751. He was the son of William McDowell, justice of the county, and Mary (Maxwell) McDowell, who were Scotch-Irish farmers. He lived intermittently within a stockade, for his log home was burned down twice in Indian raids during the French and Indian wars. McDowell had a good elementary education, attending John King's Latin school for three years until it was destroyed by Indians in 1763. It was King, a graduate of the College of Philadelphia, who arranged for McDowell to gain entrance to the institution in 1768.
Because he lacked funds, McDowell tutored in lieu of tuition and board, graduating from the College in 1771 after giving the English oration titled "On the Advantages of Studying History". He continued tutoring there for eleven more years.
In 1777, McDowell served as a private in the Continental Army, but resigned after only a few weeks because he was unable to stand the hardships of life there. In 1782, he moved to Cambridge, Maryland to study law, simultaneously teaching at a local school there. McDowell gained admittance to the Dorchester County bar in 1783 and conducted a lucrative law practice with many of the state's important landowners.
Through his connections, McDowell was appointed Professor of Mathematics and acting Principal at the new St. John's College at Annapolis in August of 1789. As a Federalist, he defended the college's receipt of state funds against Republican legislators who demanded that all public money for education be given to lower schools. Discouraged by the constant uncertainty about funding, he resigned in 1801. Even though the trustees persuaded him to remain, he resigned again in 1806 when the college lost all state funds.
later that year McDowell returned to Penn, now the University of Pennsylvania, as Professor of Natural Philosophy in the College. He became the third Provost in 1807, the first graduate of the College to be named to that office. These were hard years for colleges in general, and for Penn's College in particular; the College maintained a course of study of only two years, and enrollment fell in 1807 to just seventeen undergraduates. Although McDowell was a good scholar, writer and teacher, he could not improve the situation because the Trustees allowed him little more than disciplinary duties. Ill health forced him to resign in 1810. However, in recognition of his earlier work, McDowell received an honorary LL.D. from the University in 1807 and was also elected a member of the American Philosophical Society that same year.
In 1811, McDowell returned to live with relatives in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, where he again practiced law. In the following year, St. John's College once more offered him the principalship, which he declined, but finally accepted in 1815. By 1816, he regretted this decision because of the difficulties of higher education in Maryland, and left in 1817, when the board temporarily closed the college. In 1818, McDowell became ill and spent much of his last two years at Governor Charles Coldsborough's home near Cambridge, Maryland. He returned to his sister's home near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania late in 1820, where he died on December 22. Since he never married, McDowell left an estate of $40,000 to his relatives and most of his library to the University.
McDowell was sometimes described as a delicate man with a character "of an almost feminine gentleness". However, he was a dignified, kind, Christian gentleman, and was held in high esteem by planters, scholars, trustees, former classmates, and students.


Art education in the schools is more than just making some nice paintings to take home to Mom and Dad. Art teachers talk about the history of artistic expression, famous artists in history and how society affected their art, and sometimes even about science in of different mediums.
Art teachers encourage creative expression as a creative and physical outlet to the intensity of the academic day -- while recognizing how what they do actually complements the reading, writing and arithmetic. Art education is part of learning connections.
If your school district is moving to reduce or even eliminate art education in the schools (and your efforts to lobby the school committee not to do so fall on deaf ears), you can supplement your child's art education outside the school doors.
Supplementing your child's art education starts with your home arts and crafts stash. A well-stocked stash for exploration in multiple mediums will not just enhance your child's art education, but also may enhance academic subjects as well. Many kids (and adults) find that drawing out diagrams of science topics or math concepts enhances their understanding. Doing it in an artistic way, exploring different artistic mediums, is a bonus.
There are bound to be local art classes available to your child, either through community education programs or directly through artists in your regions. Whether your child wants to paint, do ceramics or try some other art form, look in the classifieds of the local paper for artists that advertise both group and private instruction.
You already know the Internet is a terrific resource for communities, shopping and research -- and that includes art research. Images from well-known classic collections can be viewed online, with detailed discussion of influences, technique and importance -- without the pricey plane ride and museum entrance fee. While seeing an object online will never be the same as seeing it in person, spending time researching artists, art history and even specific artistic technique is a valuable supplement to art education.
Whether you live near a big city or in the country, there's bound to be a museum or artist's gallery in reasonable driving distance. Viewing art and learning to appreciate art in it's own space is a different experience than making art or viewing it on the Internet. And these outings can be terrific one-on-one experiences for you and your child
If you find yourself in need of supplementing your child's art education, don't be daunted by it. It starts with what you have around the house and can evolve into terrific mentoring experiences and special time with your child. Arts isn't just bonus time in the school day, it's essential to a complete education.
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Students from the Early Childhood Learning Center enjoyed a visit to Titusville Area Hospital on Wednesday, May 29. The prekindergarten children walked with their teachers and parent volunteers from ECLC to the hospital, where they learned about choices they can make to stay healthy.
Under the guidance of Pat Brown, medical technologist, each child was able to look at germs under a microscope after a demonstration about how germs grow and spread. They were reminded about the importance of hand washing to prevent spreading illness. Janet Wright, dental hygienist, talked about how to keep our teeth and mouths healthy and, with the help of "Mr. Chompers" the dinosaur, showed the children how to correctly brush their teeth. Dr. Mary Joan Gidor, Pediatrician at Oak Street Pediatrics, engaged the students in an activity that taught them fun ways to remember how to make healthy food choices. After a healthy snack provided by the Hospital dietary department, the students headed out to Roberts Grove to tour an EmergyCare ambulance. The group enjoyed some free play time at Roberts Grove before walking back to the school. Each student received a packet, including a toothbrush, My Plate at Home poster, coloring pages, and a Healthy Smile certificate.


It’s one thing to make sure your kids maintain a healthy diet; it’s quite another to get them to appreciate exactly why they need to be eating what you put in front of them. That’s where these next five books come in. In these texts, parents will find answers they may not have even been aware of themselves, which describe the importance of a healthy diet. What kids ought to eat, and why, explained in easy-to-understand and creative style, are what these books are all about. So read on to discover five books that help kids appreciate a healthy diet.
- Good Enough to Eat: A Kid’s Guide to Food and Nutrition – by Lizzy Rockwell – Chock full of fun facts about food and nutrition, Good Enough to Eat tells the tale of healthy dietary choices in a funny, light-hearted style that’s sure to keep kids engaged. You may even find them repeating some of the fascinating details that are splashed across its pages.
- The Edible Pyramid: Good Eating Every Day – by Loreen Leedy – Written for kids ranging from pre-school to Grade 3, The Edible Pyramid is a picture book that shows eating well can be a beautiful thing, right down to the lush, colorful illustrations of healthy foodstuffs on its pages. Animal characters, served by a smartly dressed cat waiter, are led through a menu of nutritious fare, while kids learn why each item is a healthy choice.
- Food Rules! The Stuff You Munch, Its Crunch, Its Punch, and Why You Sometimes Lose Your Lunch – by Bill Haduch – Haduch’s fun-filled trip through the world of gastronomical data is loaded with fascinating food factoids that will have your kids thinking more about healthy choices. Included are recipes, jokes, and food-centric tales, as well as highly useful information, such as how to read nutrition labels on food items.
- Janice VanCleave’s Food and Nutrition for Every Kid: Easy Activities That Make Learning Science Fun – by Janice VanCleave – As a science teacher, VanCleave offers a unique perspective on nutrition for kids, and delivers it all with cold hard facts. Kids will learn the science of cooking food, how energy and food are related, the food pyramid and more. Ever wonder why an egg white turns white when cooked? Or where vitamins come from? It’s all right here, for you and your kids to discover together.
- Eat Healthy, Feel Great – by William Sears, Martha Sears, and Christie Watts Kelly –Co-written by a pediatrician, a registered nurse and an elementary education major, Eat Healthy, Feel Great is a straight-forward treatise on the subject of nutrition. It provides kids with solid, compelling reasons to make healthy food choices. Parents and children alike will come away with a stronger understanding of food, nutrients and healthy eating.
Learning why it’s so important make healthy dietary choices can help your kids be more receptive to eating well on a regular basis. These books all make the importance of eating nutritionally sound meals easy to understand, and are both an informative and fun way to learn all about the ins and outs of leading a healthy life.


Today’s post is by Kelly Brady, the Director of Mastery Education for the Idaho State Department of Education. Mastery Education, also known as competency-based education, is an approach to learning that allows to students to advance as they master course material.
Read Kelly’s second post on how Idaho is making Master Education a reality here.
Idaho students from the Boise District compete in the annual Micron Math Meet.
In my thirty years as an educator, I had the privilege of working with a wide range of learners in many different settings. I worked in public and private schools, with highly-gifted students and special education students, and in wealthy areas and areas of high-poverty. Yet in all those classrooms, one thing held universally true: kids learn best when their individual learning needs are met.
Good teachers know how to personalize instruction based on what they’ve learned about each student. The best way to motivate students is to get to know them personally by building relationships that reveal their unique learning needs. But it’s impossible to do that all the time, for every kid, in every lesson. Until now.
Thanks to advances in technology and new student-centered models of teaching and learning, we now have the tools to meet the needs of every learner! My role as Director of Mastery Education in Idaho is to get these tools into the hands of teachers and school/district leaders so they can customize learning for every student.
Why am I excited about Mastery Education?
In Idaho, we define Mastery Education as a system of personalized, differentiated learning where students progress based upon a demonstration of mastery of competencies and content, not seat time or the age or grade level of the student. Other states call this competency-based, proficiency-based or mastery-based learning.
A big part of my role is to share the potential of Mastery Education to better prepare our students for college, career and life in the 21st century with people around the state. A set of better, deeper outcomes for students is just one of the many things that has motivated our schools and districts to embrace Mastery Education, and there are several others.
When I’m out talking to schools across the state, I describe how Mastery Education:
- Allows students to have more ownership and autonomy of their learning.
- Provides flexibility in both student pace and path.
- Connects student interest and passions to their education.
- Empowers students in new and meaningful ways.
- Develops critical thinkers and problem solvers, beyond just memorizers of information.
- Allows for more personalized and differentiated learning.
- Gives teachers new roles as facilitators of learning, rather than dispensers of knowledge.
- Emphasizes social-emotional learning and growth mindsets for all students.
- Makes assessment more meaningful since it is on-going and formative in nature.
- Creates opportunities to form better relationships with students and their families.
The mastery-based approach is validated by the way parents articulate what they want for their kids. Parents want their kids to be motivated to learn and engaged in meaningful learning beyond just acquiring a set of skills. Mastery Education is a system that encourages just that!
Next week, Kelly will share how Idaho is making Master Education a reality.
Kelly Brady is the Director of Mastery Education for the Idaho State Department of Education. Brady’s mission is to support Idaho schools beginning the transition to a Mastery Education system where student progress is based upon a student’s demonstration of mastery of competencies and content, not seat time, age or grade level of the student.
Prior to joining the SDE in October, Brady spent 30 years educating in classroom with K-8 students in both private and public schools. She devoted her last thirteen years, teaching in a unique program for highly gifted students. This program allowed students to progress through curriculum at an accelerated/flexible pace in conjunction with the development of appropriate social and emotional intelligence. The school day was structured around the student’s needs, preferences, and strengths. With her vast experience, Brady believes that all students deserve the opportunity to achieve their highest potential.
Brady graduated from Boise State University, where she received a B.A. in Elementary Education and a M.A. in Curriculum and Instructions. She also has a K-12 Gifted and Talented Endorsement and PCI Parent Coach Certification®. Brady lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband Tim where they love to ride bikes and spend time with their four grandchildren.


The next time the weather has you stuck inside, your child can enjoy experimenting with all those fun kitchen tools and gadgets to see what types of prints they make! Many of those flippers, whisks, and tongs create unique graphic prints that are also fun to make. And, the only things needed are some non-toxic tempera paints and a sheet of paper for tons of fun!
What You Do:
- Help your child look through your kitchen drawers to find cooking tools that might make interesting marks and prints. Look for things with unusual shapes or textures, like slotted spoons, cookie cutters, or meat tenderizers.
- Invite your child to select his three favorite colors from the paint provided, then help him squeeze a small amount of paint on the paper plates.
- Now it’s time to get printing! Have your child select a kitchen tool to use for the first print. Help him press it into the paint, making sure it's evenly coated, and then on the paper. What type of design is left behind?
- Encourage him to experiment with creating patterns and designs on his paper, boosting his hand-eye coordination and budding math skills!
Display his finished kitchen surprise artwork in the kitchen for others to see!
Sarah Lipoff has a K-12 Art Education degree and enjoys working with kids of all ages.


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Teacher Resources by Grade
|1st - 2nd||3rd - 4th|
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|9th - 10th||11th - 12th|
Making It Visual for ELL Students: Teaching History Using Maus
|Grades||9 – 12|
|Lesson Plan Type||Unit|
|Estimated Time||Fourteen 50-minute lessons|
Los Angeles, California
This unit for secondary English-language learners (easily adaptable for reluctant readers) is designed to develop students' confidence and sense of autonomy in reading through the intellectually substantive graphic novel Maus. Maus deals with the traumatic history and enduring legacy of the Holocaust through multiple narratives of a father, mother, and son.
Ongoing lesson activities involving vocabulary study and reading strategies support students' comprehension of the novel. Since Maus is the story of a son telling his father's story, students make personal connections to the text as they interview a family member and retell a story about that person's past. Students use websites listed in the lesson resources for research into World War II, the Holocaust, and human rights. Structured discussion encourages students to relate human rights concepts to events in the novel, historical events, and events in their own experience.
Maus (Vols. I & II) by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon Books, 1986; 1991)
Chun, C.W. (2009). Critical literacies and graphic novels for ELLs: Teaching Maus. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(2), 144–153.
- Teaching graphic novels can be an alternative to traditional literacy pedagogy, which ignores the dynamic relationships of visual images to the written word.
- The multimodalities of graphic novels such as Maus and Persepolis, along with their engaging content reflecting the diverse identities present in many classrooms, work in tandem to help deepen students' reading engagement and develop their critical literacies.
- Making connections between these stories and students' own experiences, and drawing on their outside multiliteracies practices aid literacy development.
Guthrie, J.T. (2004). Teaching for literacy engagement. Journal of Literacy Research, 36(1), 1–30.
- Students' engaged reading is "often socially interactive" (p. 4). These interactions are clearly evident in the reading club, chat room, blog, and posting activities that have flourished in the wake of recent phenomenally popular books among adolescent and adult readers.
- Students' increased engagement with particular genres (in this case, graphic novels) can facilitate their entry and apprenticeship into important social networks that amplify opportunities for academic success in mainstream classes.
New London Group (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–92.
- One approach that fosters reading engagement involves a pedagogy of multiliteracies with its four dimensional instructional framework:
- Situated practice, which draws in part from students' own life experiences
- Overt instruction that introduces meta-languages to deconstruct the myriad and multimodal ways in which meaning is constructed
- Critical framing of the cultural and social context in which meaning is disseminated and understood
- Transformed practice that aims to re-situate all of these meaning-making practices to work in other cultural sites or contexts


PRIMARY ROADSHOW - free
25 Feb 2013
Activities and ideas shared will aim to enhance literacy and numeracy skills, develop transferable foreign language skills, and provide a fun yet challenging aspect to foreign language learning which will both enrich the primary curriculum and assist transition into KS3.
Themes will include cross-curricular links, International linking, ESDGC and using simple resources such as songs, storytelling and games.
To experience a range of innovative and practical ideas to enrich the primary curriculum (which can subsequently be developed in KS3);
To share good practice in primary foreign languages / transition (making explicit the skills involved in language learning of any kind);
To familiarise teachers with the KS2 non-statutory framework for MFL (which contains similar skills/range as for Welsh and English).
To make teachers aware of the support available (resources, support & training, networks)
PR03 25th February (Mon) Imperial Hotel, Llandudno
PR04 8th March (Fri) Metropole Hotel, Llandrindod Wells
Advisory support will be available from a CILT Cymru Adviser post-course.
Register here on-line or download the registration form (pdf file 423kb) with all the details.


Dolch Sight Words Flashcards for Android by TeachersParadise.com Studios.
Dolch Sight Words Flashcards for Android is intuitively designed for children learning to read. A simple and easy to use app that help teach the 315 most common English language words using visual and hearing stimulation. In 'standard mode' children will see the words and hear the words pronunciation; in 'quiz mode' the word will be seen but the sound will only play once the word on the screen is touched.
Background and importance of using the Dolch Sight Words:
The original Dolch Sight Words List is a list of frequently used words compiled by Edward William Dolch, PhD. The list was first prepared in 1936. Though Dr. Dolch compiled the list based on children's books of his era. The list contains 220 "service words" that have to be easily recognized in order to achieve reading fluency in the English language. The original word list excludes nouns, which comprise a separate 95-word noun list.
Many of the original 220 Dolch words cannot be learned by pictures or "sounded out" using common sound/letter phonics patterns and have to be learned by sight; hence the term, "sight words." The original Dolch words which compromise of 220 words and the additional 95 nouns is usually divided into grades, though for native English speakers, all the Dolch Sight Words should be learned before elementary education begins.
★ 315 words
★ Free Ad-supported version
★ Language: US English
★ Age Level: 1+
★ Title: Dolch Sight Words Flashcards
★ Copyright 2012 TeachersParadise.com, Inc.


ERIC Number: ED470260
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 2002-Mar
Reference Count: N/A
Changing Girls' Education in Guatemala.
Provasnik, Stephen; Brush, Lorie; Heyman, Cory; Fanning, Marina; Lent, Drew; De Wilde, Johan
Guatemala's school completion rates are among the lowest in Latin America and are particularly low in rural indigenous areas ravaged by 36 years of civil conflict. In 1997, USAID launched the Girls' Education Activity, known as Proyecto Global in Guatemala, to increase the percentage of girls who complete fifth grade, especially in rural areas and among indigenous (Maya) populations. For 4 years ending August 2001, the project promoted a national discourse on girls' education; developed materials crafted to promote girls' education in the Guatemalan social and cultural context; and pursued four strategies, focusing on the department of El Quiche. First, materials and teacher workshops were developed to increase teachers' sensitivity to gender stereotypes and roles and to introduce instructional methods that engage children and make them agents in their own learning. Adoption of these "interactive and dynamic" teaching methods by rural teachers has been slow. Second, community "sensitizing" workshops were held in 15 communities to raise awareness of the importance of girls' education and female literacy and to promote community involvement. Third, a national media campaign aimed to influence social attitudes impeding girls' access to education. Finally, small monthly scholarships were provided to about 50,000 girls over 3 years. Analysis of systemic changes suggests that the project made varying degrees of progress in legitimizing its goals with policy makers, creating stakeholders, and mobilizing resources in favor of girls' education. However, the constituency for girls' education in Guatemala remains limited to certain sectors of society and is robust only in pockets where community work was carried out. (SV)
Descriptors: Access to Education, American Indian Education, Bilingual Education, Community Attitudes, Community Involvement, Educational Change, Elementary Education, Foreign Countries, Inservice Teacher Education, Material Development, Maya (People), Public Relations, Rural Education, Scholarships, Sex Discrimination, Womens Education, Workshops
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers: Guatemala; International Aid; Public Information Campaigns
Note: Written in collaboration with Angela Leal, Majat Yamouri Saher, Ana Maria Robles, and Johanna Mendoza. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) (46th, Orlando, FL, March 6-9, 2002). For a related paper, see RC 023 744.


Scaffolding children’s musical creativity : a case of a kindergarten teacher in Hong Kong
Drawn from a larger mixed methods study, this case study provides an account of aspects of the music education programme that occurred with one teacher and a kindergarten class of children aged three and four years. Contrary to transmission approaches that are often used in Hong Kong, the case depicts how musical creativity was encouraged by the teacher in response to children’s participation during the time for musical free play. It shows how the teacher scaffolded the attempts of George, a child aged 3.6 years to use musical notation. The findings are instructive for kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong and suggest ways in which teachers might begin to incorporate more creative approaches to musical education. They are also applicable to other kindergarten settings where transmission approaches tend to dominate and teachers want to encourage children’s musical creativity.
Impact and interest:
Citation counts are sourced monthly from and citation databases.
These databases contain citations from different subsets of available publications and different time periods and thus the citation count from each is usually different. Some works are not in either database and no count is displayed. Scopus includes citations from articles published in 1996 onwards, and Web of Science® generally from 1980 onwards.
Citations counts from theindexing service can be viewed at the linked Google Scholar™ search.
Full-text downloads displays the total number of times this work’s files (e.g., a PDF) have been downloaded from QUT ePrints as well as the number of downloads in the previous 365 days. The count includes downloads for all files if a work has more than one.
|Item Type:||Journal Article|
|Keywords:||musical notation, music education programme|
|Subjects:||Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > EDUCATION (130000) > SPECIALIST STUDIES IN EDUCATION (130300)|
|Divisions:||Current > QUT Faculties and Divisions > Faculty of Education
Past > Institutes > Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation
Current > Schools > School of Early Childhood
|Copyright Owner:||Copyright 2010 Cambridge University Press|
|Deposited On:||05 Dec 2010 23:33|
|Last Modified:||29 Feb 2012 14:28|
Repository Staff Only: item control page


About Dance/Movement Therapy
What is Dance/Movement Therapy?
Movement is our first language. It is the dance of life. Dance and movement both express and affect how we feel. Movement has the power to open neuro-pathways to and from the brain, influencing growth and development through all stages of life. This connection of body and mind is the basis of dance/movement therapy (DMT), an innovative form of psychotherapy. Dance/movement therapy works with the whole person integrating movement, creative process, and verbal communication. It has the potential to access emotions and issues that may be inaccessible in verbal therapy. In DMT, movement is used as a vehicle for self-expression, insight, and behavioral change in an affirming, non-judgmental environment. It is an effective treatment for people with psychological, social, developmental, neurological, and physical challenges. As a vehicle for self-growth and actualization, DMT is a creative, expressive, and profound process for anyone working toward overall well-being. As a mind-body approach, dance/movement therapy can also be integrated into health and wellness education, facilitating self-care, socialization, creativity and empowerment.
Registered and Board Certified dance/movement therapists have completed a master’s degree in a program approved by the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA). This training includes the study of movement in relationship to emotional, developmental, and cognitive development, and of psychology, anatomy, kinesiology, and neurology. Board Certified dance/movement therapists (BC-DMT) must continue to meet the requirements of registry, which include training and high standards of ethical behavior set by the ADTA. The ADTA was formed in 1966 and is a member of the National Coalition of Creative Arts Therapies. Dance/movement therapists’ training provides them with the capacity and creative flexibility to work with many populations.
For over 50 years, Dance/Movement Therapists have pioneered the understanding of how body and mind interact in health and in illness. Whether the issue is the will to live, a search for meaning or motility, or the ability to feel love for life, Dance/Movement Therapists mobilize resources from that place within the self where body and mind are one.
Dance/Movement Therapy Promotes:
- A healthy relationship between body and mind
- Positive self-esteem and body awareness
- Emotional expression and stability
- Innovative problem solving, creativity and playfulness
- Enhanced communication skills and healthy relationships
- Focus and attention
- Gross and fine motor skill development


We were contacted recently for advice on the perennial problem of how to help our kids when they’re struggling with mathematics.
In my last post I came up with a list of ten useful maths apps and digital tools for students from GCSE to university level, but what about our younger kids? Finding creative ways to make maths fun is ever-popular with teachers because (let’s face it) maths has never been cool. It’s a difficult subject, and many find that learning by stealth is the way engage. With that in mind, here are a bunch of apps and tools to help along and inspire our darling young’uns into learning, and with a bit of luck enjoying maths.
TES testsheets: (Year 1) Some parents might want to assess the progress of their child at home and find their level first before moving on to apps and games – you can do this by checking out the TES website and downloading their useful resources.
OffByHeart.co.uk (ages Reception – Year 6) Heavily connected to the UK National Primary Curriculum, OffByHeart brings together some of the web’s best maths resources in one tidy place. Particularly (though not exclusively) designed to get those lagging boys excited by maths through worksheets and enjoyable online games. It’s an excellent resource for parents too – there’s a handy year-by-year guide showing breakdowns of the curriculum including what is taught, how it should be taught and where your child is expected to be by the end of the year. Very well researched.
Numerosity: Play with Math! (ages 7-10) Educational game for the iPad teaching maths, reviewing concepts and improving numeracy skills. More than 100 levels spread over 5 chapters covering addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and the order of operations. Skruff the dog will be your fun guide throughout – dishing out neat certificates at the end of each completed chapter that children can send to parents to print out and put on the wall. Hours of fun and learning.
Cut the Knot: Interactive Mathematics Miscellany: (all ages) Yep, it’s here again but it’s just such a good website! A plethora of maths based puzzles and games covering algebra, arithmetic, geometry calculus – the list goes on. And on. If you really want to drill down into your mathematics revision this site beats your battered old textbook into a cocked hat.
Native Numbers (ages 4-7, home or school) A nice looking app that helps young kids learn the concept of numbers and basic maths skills, focusing on laying down a proper foundation in Number Sense . 25 engaging activities aim to engage children directly through an individualised, intrinsically rewarding learning experience while minimising distractions – what some people call ‘hard fun’.
Numerosity: Play with Addition! (ages 6-8) iPad app that teaches addition by getting kids to play with numbers and discover the rules by themselves, at their own pace. Skruff is back on hand throughout the 20 levels to give out printable certificates for achievement, and kids can create profiles and challenge friends.
EducationCity.com (ages 6-11) Used in over 15,500 schools and countless homes across the country, this website is packed full of educational games and activities. UK curriculum-linked numeracy activities help get your children practicing core skills as the levels get progressively more difficult, yet never stray from the fun side of learning.
Pop Math (ages 5-7) Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, this cartoon-style fantasy marine app will exercise your child’s mental arithmetic with fairly simplistic, colourful game based learning.
fun4thebrain.com (ages Reception – Year 6) Website full of cool maths games, quizzes, tests and more covering addition, subtraction and division. Though this is an American website, there are links to 20 maths practice problems for all years aligned with the English, Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh curriculums.
funschool.kaboose.com (ages 5+) 33 different maths games ranging from the sublime to the bizarre. Err, that’s it – take a look!
I guess both you and your child are going to need a certain amount of tech awareness and computer skill for this list to be of any use, but I hope you find some small nugget that serves to engage or inspire your ailing angel into an understanding – better still a thirst for maths.


Interesting information about turtles and tortoises. Learn about their history,
anatomy, and more.
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Easy Science for Kids Turtles - How They Differ From Tortoises? - learn fun facts
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May 23, 2014 ... May 23 is World Turtle Day. Celebrate the ultimate slow and steady land reptile
with these fun facts about tortoises.
Interesting Sea Turtle Facts: Sea turtles are very old organisms. They live on the
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Learn about the size, diet, population, range, behavior and other fascinating facts
about sea turtles.
Did you know green sea turtles can hold their breath for hours at a time? Learn
more green sea turtle facts at Animal Fact Guide!
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(Last Updated on : 28/06/2011)
Adult education in India is the process to provide education to the adult and aged people who, somehow, had failed to receive the elementary education during their childhood. The effort of providing adult education in India has been in existence for the past several years, as it is one of the most important things in building an educated nation. Unless the adults realize the importance of education they would never understand the need to educate their progeny. Education is one of the stepping stones for building a strong nation. Hence adult education is promoted on a large scale in the Indian sub continent.
Adult education in India is mainly provided at night schools. These are situated in almost all the Indian cities
and villages. The provision for imparting education has been made at night because most of the people are engaged during the day. Apart from the night schools, the Government of India
had also set up some libraries so that the adults can study more to become educated, not just literate. Adult education is included among the most important responsibilities of the Government, as the eradication of illiteracy has been one of the major national concerns of the Government of India since independence. The government launched the programme of Social Education, under the Community Development Programme in 1952, as part of the first Five Year Plan. In the recent times, the government has launched the programme called National Literacy Mission (NLM) for spreading adult education in India.
A large number of initiatives have been taken so far for providing adult education in India. Machinery comprising male and female Social Education Organisers at grass-roots level and a Chief Social Education organiser has been created, apart from the Social Education Organizers' Training Centres (SEOTCs). The government has also established model community centres, rural libraries, Janata Colleges, youth clubs, mahila mandals and folk schools, for spreading adult education. The Council for Rural Higher Education was established and a Standing Committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) on Social Education was also constituted in 1956. The government also started a National Fundamental Education Centre for providing high-level training facilities to the adults.
: The main objects of this programme are literacy, extension, general education and social consciousness. It was in the period 1951-1956.
Gram Shikshan Mohim
: This movement was started in the year 1959 in Maharashtra
. This programme was launched on an experimental basis into 25 districts of the state. The duration of the movement was very short as there was not any systematic setting due to which there was large scale relapse of neo-literates into illiterate.
Farmer's functional literacy project
: This project was accelerated as part of the Green Revolution with the objective of making farmers functionally literate in high yielding cultivation areas.
: This programme is initiated through the Central Board of Workers' Education and its institutes. However, the steps under this scheme could not be linked to the literacy schemes/projects being funded under the departments of Education of the states or by the Govt. of India.
Non formal education for youth
: In the starting of the fifth plan an educational system for the age group of 15-25 was launched. It was a significant even in the history of Indian education.
Besides these, several other programmes were also introduced by Indian Government
Education commission was a significant event which highly prioritised the step to remove illiteracy. The functional literacy of adult women project was started in the year 1975-1976. This scheme targeted at illiterate adult women to acquire functional skills along with literacy, to promote better awareness of health, hygiene, child-care practices and to bring about attitudinal changes.
A massive programme of Adult Education called the National Adult Education Programme (NAEP) for removal of illiteracy in the 15-35 age group was introduced by the Government of India on 2nd October, 1978. The aim of this programme was to educate 100 million adults within a time frame of five years.
The states in India also took up centre based projects under the state plan funds on the lines of RFLPs.
However, apart from the Indian government, a large number of NGOs have also been working to spread adult education in India and they have indeed done a great job so far.


ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you.
Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.
Teacher Resources by Grade
|1st - 2nd||3rd - 4th|
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|9th - 10th||11th - 12th|
Authentic Writing Experiences and Math Problem-Solving Using Shopping Lists
|Grades||K – 2|
|Lesson Plan Type||Standard Lesson|
|Estimated Time||Three 50-minute sessions|
Grand Island, Nebraska
MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY
- Access to the price list for items in the store
- Ten cents per student (provided by the teacher)
- Items for sale in store, storage containers, and small bowls
- Latex gloves to wear as you serve food items
- A cash register or money box to use for collecting the money the students spend at the store
- Books with a money theme
- United States Mint H.I.P. Pocket Change™ Pals Cartoons
- Welcome to Market Student Interactive, from EconEdLink
- Decide on the items for sale in the class store. Be sure to check for food allergies and preferences and align offerings accordingly. Assemble the food items, containers in which to display them, small bowls to hold each student’s purchases, and gloves to wear as you serve the food items.
- Collect enough coins for each student to have ten cents to spend at the store. You will also need a cash register or money box to use for collecting the money the students spend at the store.
- Prepare a price list for students—a poster with pictures and prices works well.
Fish crackers = 1 cent each
Stick pretzels = 1 cent each
M&Ms = 1 cent each
Animal crackers = 2 cents each
Carrot sticks = 2 cents each
Celery sticks = 2 cents each
Sandwich cookies = 5 cents each
Boxes of raisins = 5 cents each
Apple slices = 5 cents each
- Provide forms or blank paper for students to use to create their lists.
- Make one copy per student of the reflection sheet or use one enlarged copy for students to use in discussing and reflecting on the activity.
- Assemble a collection of books with a money theme. (See the list of titles provided for examples of appropriate books.)
- Bookmark Websites.
- If possible, enlist a parent or aide to act as the store clerk while you finish conferencing with students on their lists. A third helper is an advantage for collecting money so that the clerk doesn’t have to keep taking the gloves off to collect the money at the checkout and put them back on to serve food items.
- Include a note in your class newsletter to let parents know your class has been learning about grocery lists. Encourage parents to talk to their children about their family’s grocery lists, include their children on a trip to the store to buy the items, allow the children to help find the items at the store, cross them off the list, and help pay for them at the checkout counter. Gerald Oglan’s article “Grocery Lists, Shopping, and a Child’s Writing and Spelling Development” provides strategies for helping parents understand the inventive spellings and composition strategies of emergent writers in a similar context.
- Collect grocery store ads.
- Have a board or chart tablet to record why people make lists.
- A simple version of your own grocery list


If you knew the requirements for kindergarten readiness, you could buy a phonics program, a numbers and math program, a fine motor skill development booklet, a preschool science project, an early reading program and a handwriting numbers and letters booklet. You would then have the material to be covered. But which subject do you introduce first? How do you coordinate them? Which lesson today? Which lesson tomorrow? When the booklets are filled in, you could buy more in order to have more practice sheets.
You could purchase our DVD and start with the first fun lesson and proceed at a comfortable pace to the last. You would have the peace of mind of knowing that the lessons were developed by a kindergarten teacher, that the core concepts are introduced in a logical order, that the curriculum meets or exceeds state standards and that you can print as many practice sheets as you need.
What Parents of Preschoolers May Not Know
- Today’s kindergarten is yesterday’s first grade. A child must be prepared to thrive.
- 50% of children entering kindergarten are not prepared.
- More than one-third of middle class children and more than one-quarter of upper-middle class children do not know the alphabet.
- Children who entered kindergarten proficient across all readiness skills performed significantly better than other students on standardized English and math tests in third, fourth and fifth grades.
- Many preschools do not offer a comprehensive kindergarten readiness curriculum


Joint Productive Activity
View the two Joint Productive Activity Videoclips: Goodwill Excursion and Pumpkin Soup
1. What product(s) did the teacher and children work to create in the video clip? What kind of assistance did the teacher provide to the students?
2. How, if at all, did the teacher encourage the children to collaborate?
Language and Literacy Development
1. What was the language-related goal of the activity?
2. How did the teacher assist the children in developing their language expression?
1. How was the lesson connected to what children already knew from prior home, community, culture, or school experiences?
2. How did the teacher help the children make the connection to their personal experiences?


This week’s world music entry is a bit of a history lesson – but it’s a good story, so bear with me.
Born in Newport, Quebec in 1894, Mary Rose Anna Travers seemed destined to live her life in poverty. She was only one of twelve children in a very poor family, and could not afford formal music education. Her father was Irish-Canadian, while her mother was French Canadian, so her musician father taught her both music styles. She began performing at an early age, albeit casually, playing the accordion at a logging camp where she and her father worked in 1908. That same year, she moved to Montreal to become a maid. In 1914, she married Edouard Bolduc, and they began raising their own family in the poverty to which she was accustomed.
Some of Mary’s amateur musician friends performed in a folk music troupe, and were missing a violinist for one performance. They asked her to step in, and were so impressed when she did that they asked her to become a regular. She and Edouard needed the money, so she began playing more and more, even on the radio, and was signed onto Starr Records in 1929. It was for them that she wrote her first song, “La Cuisiniere”, because she needed content to fulfill her contract. Her songs, initially unsuccessful, soon became bestsellers and Madame Bolduc or La Bolduc, as she came to be known, became a household name in the 1930s. However, her career was to be short-lived – she died of cancer in 1941.
La Bolduc had a short musical career, but she managed to rise to fame from the most adverse poverty by sheer talent. Her music, much of it upbeat and comical, but with many songs dealing with the problems of the poor, appealed to listeners during the hardships of the Great Depression, while at the same time preserving traditional folk songs and styles. Today, she is regarded by many as Quebec’s first singer-songwriter.


Music is an important component to our life. It brings joy and a feeling a peace. In young children, listening to age appropriate music helps them to learn numbers and letters. Listening to music helps to promote concentration. It may even help improve test scores. According to the Gallup Poll, American Attitudes Toward Music in 2003, “71% of Americans surveyed by the Gallup Poll believe that teenagers who play an instrument are less likely to have disciplinary problems.” It is important for children to have music education. There are many sites online both free and low cost to help teachers with lesson plans, find worksheets, discuss the history of music and to make music fun. Below you will find links to many of the aforementioned sites.


Solutions for Success: Online Resources is a collection of reading comprehension e-Lessons which feature animated, interactive lessons in an effective, exciting, and easy format. It offers ready-to-present lessons organized by various writing structures and genres. Reading comprehension strategies are designed to improve test performance and to show how well students comprehend reading selections. The strategies detailed in the e-Lessons are also available in Solutions for Success: Reading books.
If you're an individual, Click Here
to create a personal account and order online!
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to print an order form.
Each Story Consists of Three Lessons:
- Lesson 1 - Read for Understanding
- Lesson 2 - Produce a Summary
- Lesson 3 - Answer Comprehension Questions
Try them out! Sample frames. Click on one.
to see all lessons that come with purchase!
- Available in English and Spanish
- Based on best practices and leading research
- Guiding questions keep students focused
- Lessons incorporate tested vocabulary words through context
- Web-based software
- PDFs available for: Selections, selections with strategies, graphic organizers, color-coded activities, test items
- Color-coded frames.
- Test items classified by reading skills
Key Instructional Features:
- Ensures vertical alignment
- Ensures positive transfer of reading skills to all content areas
- Teaches appropriate academic language
- Strategies allow teachers to make effective instructional decisions
- Guiding questions model appropriate comprehension questions before, during, and after reading
Types of Selections Include:
- Narrative, Expository, Mixed, Paired
- Newspaper article
- Magazine article
- Internet article
- Narratives with a problem-solution plot
- Narratives linked by occasion or theme
- Journal entries
- Script writing
Online high quality reading comprehension e-lessons,
online training topics, and
released tests and test connection activities
Excellent resources in Reading, Writing, and Math in English and Spanish. View sample pages of Solution for Success Books.
View detailed information on workshops in reading, writing, and math. Workshop materials in English and Spanish.


Día Publicity Tool Kit
Día Publicity Tools
Public and school libraries will celebrate Día’s 20th Anniversary on April 30, 2016. Children's Day/Book Day, also known as El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Día), is an observance held annually April 30 and a year-round commitment to connecting children with diverse books and programming opportunities.
Día is an enhancement of Children’s Day, which began in 1925. Children’s Day was designated as a day to bring attention to the importance and well-being of children. In 1996, nationally acclaimed children’s book author Pat Mora proposed linking the celebration of childhood and children with literacy to found El día de los niños/El día de los libros.
The common goals of all Día programming are to:
- Celebrate children and connect them to the world of learning through books, stories and libraries.
- Recognize and respect culture, heritage and language as powerful tools for strengthening families and communities.
- Nurture cognitive and literacy development in ways that honor and embrace a child’s home language and culture.
- Introduce families to community resources that provide opportunities for learning through multiple literacies.
Find out about Día events happening in your community
Tell us about your Día event, or find out how others across the country are celebrating. Submitted event information will appear in ALSC's interactive map which is scanned by library professionals and press.
You can also share your information with Día friends via Facebook, or follow us on Twitter @alscblog and tweet about your programs using #díaturns20.
Free Program Resources - Book Lists, Coloring Sheets, Posters and more
Social Media Channels
Public Service Announcements (PSAs)
New video PSAs from Pat Mora
Pat Mora. An award-winning children’s author, Mora has written several books for youth, teens, and adults, including her Book Fiesta!, a bilingual celebration of El día de los niños/El día de los libros.
Association for Library Service to Children
50 E. Huron St.
Chicago, IL 60611


A respected artist associated with the Old Lyme Colony of painters, Frederick Lester Sexton produced still-lifes and landscapes as well as other subjects and developed his own, innovative style of creating his art.
As a child, Sexton was severely maimed in a fire. The injuries caused his right hand to remain permanently closed. Nevertheless, he became an accomplished artist. His style is usually described as Post-Impressionist and contains strong elements of realism.
Most of his paintings were created in the Old Lyme, Connecticut area and he was an active member of the Old Lyme colony of artists from the 1920's through the 1930's.
He pursued his art education at Yale and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1917. His art career was interrupted by World War 1 but, upon his return to the United States in 1919 he became a full-time professional painter.
Frederick Lester Sexton had a unique style of painting that oftentimes found him employing unusual means. He would sometimes use his palate knife as a painting tool, for instance. Though his right hand was completely disabled, he developed a precise technique, nonetheless. His work is among the permanent collections of several important institutions across the nation.


Global Art Creative course syllabus is considered a ‘Disciplined Based’ Art Education (DBAE). The syllabus starts by teaching children the basics of colouring and drawing things that are related to what they actually observe in their surroundings and daily life.
DBAE provides the art foundation for children to apply what they have learned directly to their school art work and assignments. Because Global Art Creative course syllabus is geared towards ‘commercial’ application, it has received the endorsement of LimKokWing University as well as IACT College (www.iact.edu.my); both institute of higher learning that specialized in creative communication.
There is a big difference between Global Art Creative programs and other art programs which has no specific syllabus but based on the personal feelings, emotions or interest of the child. One can see that the artwork of children who draw and color based on their feelings and emotions is different when compared to children who learned ‘Disciplined Based’ Art Education (DBAE) as taught by Global Art. DBAE is more grounded on art techniques like expansion of theme, composition, sizes, shapes, cropping, overlapping , shadows, depth, perspective and etc.
Global Art Creative course syllabus consists of the following :
Foundation Level 1 & 2 Art Lessons :
Drawing through dotted lines, Pencil colouring, Origami/Cut & paste
Foundation Level 3 & 4 Art Lessons:
Drawing through Dotted lines, Pencil & oil pastel colouring
Basic Level – Level 1, 2 & 3 Art Lessons:
Development of ideas, basic composition, drawing through shapes & references, oil pastels colouring
Intermediate Level – Level 4, 5 & 6 Art Lessons :
Development of ideas, intermediate composition, drawing through shapes & references, oil pastels & poster colouring
Drawing and Sketching Art Lessons :
Introduction to drawing through observation/references; basic pencil shading techniques
Painting Creative Works :
Introduction to painting & colouring knowledge/materials (Wet medias); Poster & Water colouring
Illustration Creative Works :
Introduction to development of ideas, advanced composition (creation of poster / illustration), drawing through shapes & references, poster & water colouring


Using the Best Tools Available
By Vice President for Information Technology David S. Mash '76
Our world today continues to change rapidlyso many of our daily-life routines now differ radically from what they were just a few years ago. The impact of recent technology advancements has greatly changed the way we live, work, and communicate. Over the last decade, cellular phone use in the United States has increased from 16 million subscribers to over 110 million mobile phone users today. Last year, more than 27 million portable computers were sold, and over 225 million people connected wirelessly to the Internet.
Likewise, technology has forever changed the music industry. The past 20 years of revolutionary technical advances have transformed the way music is conceived, composed, performed, produced, and distributed. Technology continues to advance at an even greater pace, affording us ever more powerful musical tools with which to express ourselves and to develop our careers.
Computing power now increases exponentially each year at equivalent or lower cost, resulting in smaller, more powerful, and affordable tools for music creation and production. There has been an explosion of software-based synthesizers and samplers, allowing a musician with a small, relatively inexpensive portable computer to produce music that would have required a great deal of expensive hardware a few years ago, and that would not even have been possible just 25 years ago.
For more than a half-century, Berklee College of Music has demonstrated its commitment to evolving with music by wholeheartedly embracing change. This year we again embrace change through our new initiative to improve the overall Berklee student experience. Beginning in the Fall of 2003, Berklee will require that every entering freshman have a wireless laptop computer outfitted with a specialized suite of software chosen to support their education and to better prepare them for a successful career.
By having their own wireless laptops, students will be more connected to their faculty, fellow students, course materials, and their own work. They'll have access to their music files which are often large and difficult to move between lab machines anytime, anywhere. Many Berklee courses already feature online web-based support materials that students can access with their laptops. For example the complete set of ear training dictation excrcises are available, providing students the means to practice and hone their skills. The required course "Introduction to Music Technology" will take advantage of the laptops by allowing every Berklee student, for the first time, to have hands-on instruction in music technology.
Faculty members will be better able to integrate computers into their teaching and homework assignments with the certainty that students have access to the appropriate hardware and software. Berklee's new portal (my.Berklee.net) provides students with e-mail, calendaring, chat rooms, discussion groups, and personalized web-based information services such as class availability, course companion websites, transcript access, and the beginnings of online registration services.
Berklee is partnering with Apple Computer and several music software developers to provide these laptop systems at the most affordable price possible. To ensure excellent student service, the college will open a new student technology support center on the lower level of the 168 Massachusetts Avenue facility, where the current computer store is now located. Here we will provide training and support for students seeking to maximize the effectiveness of their new laptops. We are expanding our campus network to provide wireless access in all public spaces. Our music technology curriculum and lab facilities already have begun to place greater emphasis on software-based music production tools. Much of what has previously taken up vast amounts of physical space now can be accomplished in the virtual space inside students' laptops.
Berklee's use of technology continues to be a strategic differentiator between Berklee and other music schools. This new initiative will capitalize upon our technological resources and know-how to provide an even more potent Berklee experience. More than a college, Berklee is the world's singular learning lab for the music of todayand tomorrow. We not only recognize the changes technology has brought to music and education, but we also embrace them. We will continue to blaze new trails in music education and to take full advantage of the best tools available as we seek to fulfill our mission to educate, train, and develop students who will excel in music careers.


Children's speaking, reading, and writing skills are closely connected, and this engaging text guides preservice and practicing teachers in choosing instructional strategies that promote the integrated development of these skills. The authors explore the foundations of language in the developing brain and show how language acquisition in early childhood influences later literacy and language use. Chapters cover phonological skills, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, comprehension, and writing, as well as instructional techniques and programs. The book examines why some students struggle with particular language and literacy tasks and how motivation and sociocultural factors affect proficiency. Rich classroom vignettes and examples of effective teaching strategies are accompanied by accessible explanations of relevant research.
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Rent Language and Literacy Development 1st edition today, or search our site for other textbooks by James P. Byrnes. Every textbook comes with a 21-day "Any Reason" guarantee. Published by Guilford Publications.
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ERIC Number: ED338734
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1991-Apr
Reference Count: 0
Evaluation of the Self-Esteem through Culture Leads to Academic Excellence (SETCLAE) Program 1989-90. Report No. 15, Vol. 25.
This paper evaluates a program for educators, youth workers, and parents in four Atlanta (Georgia) Public Schools designed to teach African American children the positive aspects of their cultural heritage and to increase their self-esteem and desire to learn. Although the Self-Esteem Through Culture Leads to Academic Excellence (SETCLAE) program has been implemented in four schools, this evaluation covers only the two elementary schools, Woodson and Toomer, which participated for a full year. The evaluation, using an experimental/control design with approximately 600 students, involves the use of two self-esteem instruments, an analysis of Iowa Tests of Basic Skills normal curve equivalent scores in reading and total mathematics, an analysis of the results of a teacher questionnaire, and an analysis of student absences. The evaluation indicates that the instructional program has been only partially implemented. SETCLAE may have a positive effect on student self-esteem, but it has not been found to significantly affect achievement or student absences, with the exception of grade 6. Teachers disagree about whether or not the program accomplishes its goals. The program has no religious aspect and is beneficial for all students regardless of ethnic background. A list of 10 references is included. A teacher questionnaire and the SETCLAE Student Profile and sample lessons are appended. (JB)
Descriptors: Black Culture, Black Students, Cultural Awareness, Cultural Education, Elementary Education, Elementary School Students, Excellence in Education, Mathematics Achievement, Program Effectiveness, Program Evaluation, Reading Achievement, Self Esteem, Urban Education, Urban Schools, Urban Youth
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Authoring Institution: Atlanta Public Schools, GA. Div. of Research, Evaluation, and Data Processing.
Identifiers: African Americans; Atlanta Public Schools GA