It’s been rumored that a book could never hurt a man, but could it change a man’s future? For James Chisholm, one such book did. While in high school his mother introduced him to the book A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.
With already an infatuation of space, the newest addition to his bookshelf ignited an interest in physics for Chisholm that has led him through his doctorate degree and now tenure at Southern Utah University.
With 13 professors receiving tenure at the University this year, the Gerald R. Sherratt Library decide to put on display, Titles for Tenured T-Birds, the books that changed the professors’ lives, questioned their beliefs and evoked learning in their students, Chisholm’s books was one of them.
In his seventh year at SUU, Chisholm, associate professor of physics, says of the popular science book, “This book truly spurred my career in physics and I think it can do the same for students. If you are interested in scientific topics, Hawking’s book can feed that curiosity.”
The Titles for Tenured T-Birds display also invited recently tenured John Taylor, associate professor of biology, who chose to put on display A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck.
Initially reading the book because its author was a professor of Taylor’s during his doctorate program, but he ultimately chose the book for the Library’s display because of its “combining commonly held beliefs and tweaking them in a horrific way to make you rethink what you truly believe.”
The book dictates a religious man, who was sure he would make it to Heaven, but after dying is forced to hell. Taylor says of the short novella, “This book takes your somewhat naïve view of the eternities and will question you on what you believe. Every student should have an experience where they critically think about their beliefs, religious or not.”
Helping students realize why they believe or view the world in a certain way was a common theme and Grant Corser, associate professor of psychology, did it with the book Birth and Death of Meaning by Earnest Becker, an interdisciplinary book that explains why people act the way they do.
He says of the books impact, “It really helped me understand how much of our life is determined by the meaning we assign to things, and how important meaning is in our functioning in society and intra-personally.”
Corser went on to say that all students, no matter their discipline, should read the book to help them realize why they view the world the way they do.
Taking a more literal educational standpoint on his chosen book is Thomas Herb, associate professor of music education, who chose Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, an instructional book that greatly influenced Herb while a high school band director.
Now teaching at SUU for the past five years, he was given the great opportunity to submit a piece of instruction for the musical textbook with his analysis of Café 512. In the next edition he will be submitting two more analyses of music pieces.
“I just hope that there is a high school band director, like I was, who finds help in the pieces I have submitted, that is my goal,” says Herb of the book he submitted for the display.
Hoping to influence even more students, Wynne Summers, associate professor of English, chose Carnet de Voyage by Craig Thompson with hopes to help her creative nonfiction students navigate and explore their way through lyric narratives and interpretive media.
She says of the top-notch travel journal, “I think that any book that allows students to explore various modes of creativity and imagination are beneficial. Technology, while advantageous and necessary, can tend to inhibit the ways students express this creativity and push their imaginations beyond borders. That experience, in itself, is freeing.”
The inaugural Titles for Tenured T-Bird display has concluded and administrators with the Gerald R. Sherratt Library hope to continue this exhibit in coming years. All books selected by the most recently tenured professors can be checked out at the Library with a plaque of the professors names has been placed inside.


4 Stars — Inspiring
It may be an ironic twist of timing that the same day Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom had its premiere in London was the same day that Nelson Mandela passed away in his beloved South Africa. Mandela’s story has taken on mythical and spiritual overtones that inspire saintly admiration and respect. This docudrama brought to the screen by Justin Chadwick is a good representation of the struggle Mandela went through to achieve his ideal of equality in his country.
For anyone who has read Mandela’s autobiography by the same name, this is a much-abbreviated version of his life. It also doesn’t delve into the remarkable risks he had to take once he became South Africa’s president to move the country away from civil strife to a united people borne of the principles of nonviolence espoused by Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesus of Nazareth.
It does show, though, the personal tragedies that he endured, including the growth and eventual death of his marriage to Winnie Mandela, and the differences in conclusions that each of them came to from their experience of pain.
There isn’t anything new to learn here about Mandela unless you haven’t followed his life or read his works, including his autobiography. If you hadn’t already been familiar with his story, then this shortcut to history is well worth seeing. It would be particularly educational for the novice of South Africa’s recent history to follow up this film with the viewing of Invictus (Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon), the great story of how Mandela galvanized the nation through sports to bring black and white South African’s together to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
To the outsider, the South African struggle would seem to be exclusively a struggle for justice for black Africans. There is little doubt that the 300 years of colonial rule at the horn of Africa subjugated the Zulu people and a group of small tribal states to racial bondage. Unlike the conditions leading up to the American Civil War, in which African-Americans made up about 14 percent of the population within the United States, South Africa’s population of 51 million people was controlled by a white ruling class of about 6 million. Of the remaining 45 million people, 40 million were black and 5 million were from India and considered “colored.”
Nevertheless, South Africa's white population was in many ways subjugated by its own fear and resulting repressive leadership. It is with this recognition that Mandela’s wisdom as a leader showed its brilliance. He never denied his anger or his hurt, but he also recognized that anger and hurt was driving him and his followers to become the same evil that they were fighting against.
To create equality was going to take forgiveness; a bitter pill for many to swallow, including his wife, Winnie. America’s Constitution may have been built on Biblical principles, but Mandela built his leadership on a Gospel model of reconciliation.
One white South African who walked out of the theater near me said tearfully that Mandela had freed him, too, when he was a young man in his 20s. He said Mandela sought to build a new culture of love and respect for all people that none of his family and friends had ever experienced before. When he looked back on Mandela’s life, a story that was hidden at that time from most South Africans by a repressive political regime, he commented that he would have never believed it possible that 20 years later South Africa could have become a model of peaceful transition under the leadership of one humble and quiet black man.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is a good history lesson, a good civics lesson, and a great spiritual lesson. No matter what brings you to this classroom, you will be leaving with so much more to apply to you own life.
» Vengeance has destroyed so many lives. Why do you think so many people still surrender their own future to destruction by returning evil for evil?
» Mandela’s tribal elders and Methodist elementary education taught him the value of community. This value sustained him throughout the most difficult moments and ultimate triumphs of his life. What are your primary values by which you live your life?
» Setting free the oppressor and the oppressed is our goal if we are to move forward toward true “peace on earth.” How are you a part of this “truth and reconciliation” process in your own sphere of life?
— Cinema in Focus is a social and spiritual movie commentary. Hal Conklin is a former mayor of Santa Barbara and Denny Wayman is pastor of Free Methodist Church, 1435 Cliff Drive. For more reviews, visit www.cinemainfocus.com, or follow them on Twitter: @CinemaInFocus. The opinions expressed are their own.


ERIC Number: ED534267
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Jul
Reference Count: 0
Knowledge Development in Early Childhood: Sources of Learning and Classroom Implications
Pinkham, Ashley M., Ed.; Kaefer, Tanya, Ed.; Neuman, Susan B., Ed.
Synthesizing cutting-edge research from multiple disciplines, this book explores how young children acquire knowledge in the "real world" and describes practical applications for early childhood classrooms. The breadth and depth of a child's knowledge base are important predictors of later literacy development and academic achievement. Leading scholars describe the processes by which preschoolers and primary-grade students acquire knowledge through firsthand experiences, play, interactions with parents and teachers, storybooks, and a range of media. Chapters on exemplary instructional strategies vividly show what teachers can do to build children's content knowledge while also promoting core literacy skills. Part I, Sources of Children's Knowledge, contains: (1) What You See Is What You Get: Learning from the Ambient Environment (Tanya Kaefer); (2) Learning through Play: Procedural versus Declarative Knowledge (Jennifer Van Reet); (3) How Children Understand and Use Other People as Sources of Knowledge: Children's Selective Use of Testimony (Sherryse L. Corrow, Jason Cowell, Sabine Doebel, and Melissa A. Koenig); (4) Beyond Pedagogy: How Children's Knowledge Develops in the Context of Everyday Parent-Child Conversations (Maureen Callanan, Jennifer Rigney, Charlotte Nolan-Reyes, and Graciela Solis); (5) Drawing on the Arts: Less-Traveled Paths toward a Science of Learning (Jessa Reed, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff); (6) Learning by the Book: The Importance of Picture Books for Young Children's Knowledge Acquisition (Ashley M. Pinkham); and (7) Television and Children's Knowledge (Heather J. Lavigne and Daniel R. Anderson). Part II, Promoting Knowledge Development in the Classroom, contains: (8) Four Play Pedagogies and a Promise for Children's Learning (Kathleen Roskos and James Christie); (9) The Research-Reality Divide in Early Vocabulary Instruction (Tanya S. Wright); (10) The Contributions of Curriculum to Shifting Teachers' Practices (David K. Dickinson, Erica M. Barnes, and Jin-Sil Mock); (11) Scaffolding Preschoolers' Vocabulary Development through Purposeful Conversations: Unpacking the ExCELL Model of Language and Literacy Professional Development (Barbara A. Wasik and Annemarie H. Hindman); (12) Building Knowledge through Informational Text (Nell K. Duke, Anne-Lise Halvorsen, and Jennifer A. Knight); (13) Knowledge Acquisition in the Classroom: Literacy and Content-Area Knowledge (Carol McDonald Connor and Frederick J. Morrison); and (14) Building Literacy Skills through Multimedia (Rebecca Silverman and Sara Hines).
Descriptors: Educational Strategies, Play, Picture Books, Literacy, Vocabulary Development, Early Childhood Education, Early Experience, Learning Experience, Aptitude Treatment Interaction, Skill Development, Parent Child Relationship, Child Development, Childrens Television, Classroom Techniques, Vocabulary Skills, Educational Practices, Scaffolding (Teaching Technique), Professional Development, Multimedia Materials, Academic Achievement, Inquiry, Learning Processes, Preschool Curriculum, Preschool Education, Textbook Content, Emergent Literacy, Learning Activities, Learning Strategies
Guilford Press. 72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012. Tel: 800-365-7006; Tel: 212-431-9800; Fax: 212-966-6708; e-mail: email@example.com; Web site: http://www.guilford.com
Publication Type: Books; Collected Works - General
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Preschool Education
Authoring Institution: N/A


Play is the way in which children practice skills and make sense of ideas, concepts, and language. By interacting with others, children increase their understanding of ideas and concepts, become willing to try new experiences, as well as refine problem solving and language skills. Our program values this active exploration and learning.
Inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach
Kaleidoscope also incorporates inspirations from the Reggio Emilia approach. This approach is based on the following tenets:
- The child comes to us with ideas, abilities, strengths and capabilities.
- The environment should reflect the children who spend time in it. It should be filled with possibilities for children to wonder, explore, think, experiment, collaborate, create, and discover.
- Dialogue, collaboration, and relationships between parents and staff, staff and staff, as well as staff and children are important.
- Children's thinking can be expressed in many ways. This is often referred to as "100 Languages."
- Curriculum topics evolve as the year progresses. Themes and projects are chosen based on teacher provocations, as well as from the interests and developmental needs of the children. This allows for children's engagement in meaningful experiences which we know is crucial in learning.
- Experiences and processes are slowed down. Topics may last a day, a week, a month or reoccur throughout the school year. Children are encouraged to reflect, edit, amend ideas, decide what more they want to know, or revisit an idea.
We realize that there are foundational skills, abilities, concepts and ideas that children need as they move through the educational system. Introduction and practice in these are infused into all activities. They are used and refined as children play, interact, listen, sing, explore, and create.
Our classes include experiences which integrate concepts from the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. These concepts fit well with the active exploration we offer in our classrooms and provide a foundation for developing thinkers, planners and collaborators.
Ramp Pulley Wind Tube
This school year, our classrooms will be providing experiences around the topic of “Looking Closely”. The skill of slowing down and really taking notice is important as children experience letters, numbers, shapes, what happens, how each other feels and reacts and what we see in our everyday world.
We ask families to join us by supporting this skill at home as well.
- Take note of the experiences being offered in the classroom, revisit or expand upon them at home.
- Contribute items to the classroom that you discover of interest as you “look closely” in nature or note interesting pictures, photos, or items.
Take a peek at some of our projects so far---
Growth and Development
As a part-time program we have chosen to follow children's progress using portions of the Work Sampling System in these areas:
- Personal and Social Development
- Language and Literacy
- Mathematical Thinking
- Physical Development
Opportunities to explore in the areas of Art, Social Studies and Science are part of the children's experiences but are not followed and reported in the yearly narratives shared at the February or March conference.
As we explore all types of project topics, experiences designed to introduce, practice and master skills are included in relevant and meaningful ways. Children draw, count, weigh, graph, label, cut as they experience, create and converse.
Take a look at excerpts of our project work below. They provide a glimpse of the careful way that teachers listen and watch for skills, interests and understanding.


Keeping young kids engaged in learning music can be a struggle, for teachers and parents alike. The solution? Make music a blast by incorporating games! Here are some great tips from Dallas, TX teacher Eric C., which can be used both in the classroom and during at-home practice…
As an educator, we would like for our students to enjoy our lesson plans, even if the lessons sound dull on paper. In fact, the ideal these days is to have students believe that learning can be fun. It’s best to create an environment in which the students feel welcomed and comfortable. These strategies can be applied for both private music lessons and larger music classes.
What do students like to do for fun? Well, if you observe kids during their downtime, you can see that most children like to play games. And there are tons of great ideas for music games for kids! One easy way for young musicians to get familiar with theory (such as the names of notes, rhythms, vocabulary, etc.) is using flash cards. Divide students into teams, and have one member from each team face each other and assess their knowledge. You could also incorporate a game like darts or basketball; if a team member answers correctly, that member will have an opportunity to throw or shoot to score a point.
Another idea for students is playing hangman, use musical vocabulary. This is a great one for private music lessons (teacher vs. student) or at-home practice (parent or sibling vs. student). For even younger kids (around pre-K to 1st grade), musical chairs is also a fun activity. You can easily teach kids about different music genres this way. For example, instruct your student(s) to march around – then play a march tune (John Phillip Sousa would come to mind) as you play the game normally.
Above are some great examples that teachers have used in their classrooms and lessons that students typically enjoy. However, there are many more ideas for music games for kids that are out there. Try to create your own and see what you can come up with. Just remember, students want to have fun and they want a fun teacher to learn from!
Like this post? Don’t miss any of our tips, tricks and advice! Sign up for a free email subscription to receive our updates!
Eric C. teaches singing, music theory, percussion, songwriting, speaking voice, acting, trombone and tuba lessons to students of all ages in Dallas, TX. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Tarleton State University, and joined the TakeLessons team in January 2013. Learn more about Eric, or search for a teacher near you!
Photo by francoiskarm


Descriptor: All students have equitable access to highly effective curriculum and instruction.
- Label evidence with grade-subject-teacher-date
- Write a description of the evidence using the language of the descriptor
Teachers have cross curricular meetings which incorporate grade level teachers with special areas, ESL, resource, and RTI teachers as well. These meeting allow us to collaborate regarding the content that is being covered in reading in math for the following two weeks.
Many student's with IEP's have objectives that are written to meet the student's needs, and most objectives correlate with the common core standards. When writing an IEP objective, the regular education teacher and special education teacher collaborate to find the foundational skills within the core standards that each student needs to master. Along with each child's evaluation results and objective mastery, the core standards are used as a basis for writing IEP objectives. Also, based upon the student's special needs, proper supports are put in place to attain the curriculum.
3rd Grade - Reading - Terri Downing 3/13/13
Warren Elementary purchased the Scott Foresman Reading Street Common Core research based reading program for grades 3-5 and plans to purchase materials for K-3 sometime this year. This program is research based, is aligned with the Common Core Standards and is vertically and horizontally aligned. It also includes specific pacing recommendations. Attachments indicate alignment and pacing recommendations.
3rd Grade - Amber Priest -3/13/13
Third Grade consistently plans together and we all utilize common lesson plans. We also develop common assessments to be used in our classroom so that we may analyze our testing data to adequately plan specific instruction for our students as well as to ensure that all students have access to the curriculum and any support that they need to help them succeed.
- K-3rd grade - K. Whitney - August 2012-May 2013 - As evidenced through the school's daily schedule and common planning times for grade level teachers, teachers consistently collaborate with others on their team or grade level to plan instructional units, including common assessments and supplemental activities to ensure than each student has access to curriculum and access to supports necessary to attain curriculum.
- 3rd Grade - Amber Priest - 12/18/2012
- All students have access to computers, ipads, and ipods on a regular basis. Third Grade students consistently use laptops from the computer lab to enhance learning of the subjects we focus on. Third grade teachers also implement technology in our daily lessons plans for all subjects to assist the students in their everyday learning and make adjustments so that all needs may be met. This is evidenced by our lesson plans located on the Wiki site. Within the last two years, our school adopted a new math program, Math in Focus and we have recently purchased a new reading series, Reading Street by Scott Foresman for grades third through sixth. Both series are aligned with Common Core Standards.
- Resource--Lindsay Bragg 3-13-13
- Resource students have access to a variety of tools and materials to utilize in the classroom to support their needs. One example of this would be a communication device for a student that has a speech impairment. This device is continually revised to match the content that she is being instructed on in her classroom and in the resource room. The device allows her to press buttons to communicate her answers/responses. It also allows her to clearly communicate with her peers.
- Resource-Michelle Swetmon- 3/13/13 Kindergarten students use technology during class time as students have access to a variety of equipment and materials that are relevant and necessary to support their needs.
- Kindergarten - Lauren Daniels - 3/13/13Kindergarten teachers use varieties of technology tools to enhance student learning. We use flipcharts for students to have a hands-on, interactive approach to new material. Students use IPads and IPods in small groups for interactive games and review strategies. Students use classroom computers daily for online games and resources for reading skills and math review.


We believe the values and skills learned early on are vital building blocks for life. Because of the Y, more young people in neighborhoods around the nation are taking a greater interest in learning and making smarter life choices. At the Y, children and teens learn values and positive behaviors, and can explore their unique talents and interests, helping them realize their potential. That makes for confident kids today and contributing and engaged adults tomorrow.
Overnight, day or specialty camps at the Y share one thing: they’re about discovery. Kids have the opportunity to explore nature, find new talents, try new activities, gain independence, and make lasting friendships and memories. And, of course, it’s fun too.
With so many demands on today’s families and the increased focus on early brain development, families need all the support they can get to nurture the potential of youth. That’s why child care and early learning programs at the Y focus on holistically nurturing child development by providing a safe and healthy place to learn foundational skills, develop healthy, trusting relationships and build self-reliance through the Y values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.
Education & Leadership
All kids have great potential. At the Y, a leading nonprofit strengthening community through youth development, we work every day to help them set and achieve their personal and educational goals. As a result, millions of children and teens nationwide gain confidence as they recognize the Y as a place where they belong and can feel comfortable exploring new interests and passions. Additionally, through our leadership and academic enrichment programs such as mentoring, Youth and Government and college preparation, the Y makes sure that every child has an opportunity to envision and pursue a positive future, and to take an active role in strengthening his or her community.


The list of classical composers who have written music in the last five centuries have made an enormous impact on the music world. From Bach to Wagner, the ingenuity of these composers had a very positive impact on the role of classical music. Though many of their works are hundreds of years old, they still continue to inspire musicians and fans around the world.
Music Departments and Music Institutes
There are many universities and academies that offer classical music education. The coursework varies between instruction, composition, and application, but no matter the program, a well-rounded music education will be gained. Music professors are passionate about their work and strive to help their students achieve the same levels of success.
Joining an organization is a great way to network and connect with other classical music professionals and fans. There is an organization for just about any instrument or musical preference, and they can be a great resource.


Teach Children the Joy of Music!
Become an early childhood music educator and help children experience the joy and benefits of music and movement.
- Learn a research-based curriculum introducing you to child-tested songs, rhythmic rhymes and activities sure to delight
- Renew your energy and confidence
- Gain fresh ideas to excite your students
- Find a unique perspective on music education
- Develop skills that you can immediately use in your classroom
Opportunities as a Teacher
Aside from being the most fun you’ll ever have in a workshop, you gather a wealth of information, confidence and skill to bring into any music classroom.
- Teach for a current center director
- Bring Kids’ MusicRound to your preschool as a licensed program
- Open a licensed Kids’ MusicRound center in your community
“Thanks again for sharing with us your enthusiasm and your love for music and children! The entire weekend was so refreshing and lots of fun.”
~ Mimi P., Special Education Teacher
“Within the first 15 minutes of the workshop I learned at least five things I could take back and implement in my classroom. The songs are really enjoyable and can be easily sung with the children.”
~ Anne B., Director Education Station
“Thank you again for the wonderful workshop! It was a great experience. Since the workshop I have been more aware of movement with the music. You were all very helpful and I learned a lot.”
~ Carla S., Organist and Children’s Choir Director


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|
|5th - 6th||7th - 8th|
|9th - 10th||11th - 12th|
Phonics In Context
|Grades||K – 2|
|Lesson Plan Type||Minilesson|
|Estimated Time||One 20-minute read-aloud session|
Research abounds on the benefits of teaching phonics within the context of rich literature and immediately applying it within known contexts. In this minilesson, students become familiar with the short /u/ sound as they listen to Taro Yashima’s Caldecott Honor-winning book, Umbrella. Prereading activities build vocabulary and comprehension skills, a read-aloud introduces students to the sounds of the story, and concluding exercises allow students to apply their understanding of phonic elements in other contexts. Depending on students’ needs, this minilesson can be adapted to teach additional phonic elements using other authentic texts.
Phonemic Awareness Assessment Tools: This website features a variety of assessments that teachers can use to determine whether students are ready for phonics instruction.
Kane, S. (1999). Teaching decoding strategies without destroying story. The Reading Teacher, 52, 770–772.
- Decoding skills must and can be introduced, taught, practiced, and reinforced within contexts meaningful to students.
- Quality children's literature provides rich and varied examples of phonics elements that may easily be taught in context.
- Minilessons before, during, or after choral or shared reading can offer direct instruction that barely breaks the flow of the story.


Natural science is an area of emphasis under the Elementary Education Program. Successful completion of the natural science major along with a minor and the education coursework will qualify the student for a middle-level science endorsement (4th-9th grade). The natural science minor does not result in endorsement but is suited for a science specialist in grades kindergarten through 6th. Much of the required coursework is taught through inquiry pedagogy and spans six areas of science: astronomy, chemistry, earth science, life science, physics and space science.
Science teachers in middle school are in high demand. Consequently, students completing the natural science endorsement will have many opportunities to find employment. The natural science major or minor will also be marketable for the 4th-6th grade level.
View the desktop version of this page.


Early Childhood Curriculum
Marvelous Explorations Through Science and Stories: MESS®
Marvelous Explorations Through Science and Stories: MESS is a science-centered early childhood curriculum enhancement. The goal of MESS is to foster children's language development, literacy development, problem solving, curiosity and motivation, and general knowledge through science experiences.
MESS includes 10 month-long units that are appropriate for 3- through 5-year-old children. Each unit includes field-tested science experiences, suggestions for ways to integrate each topic across the curriculum, lists of recommended books and science materials, and ideas for involving families in children's learning at home and in other settings.
Educators' Guides & Recommended Materials
- Alachua County Library District
- Alachua County Public Schools
- Childhood Development Services, Inc.
- Marion County Public Library System
MESS® was first developed by a partnership among the Florida Museum of Natural History, Alachua County Library District/Youth Services, and Alachua County Public Schools Early Intervention Services/Prenatal to 5 Year Old Program. An Institute of Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant and a ChevronTexaco Foundation Touch Science Grant provided initial funding for MESS. Funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Administration for Children and Families is supporting the further development and expansion of MESS in Head Start classrooms in Marion County, Florida.


What does a career in elementary education look like?
By the second grade, most students are well-adjusted to the standard school routine, so you will focus much of your time on finding ways of adding your own innovative twist on teaching core subjects such as math, English, science and social studies. With new advancements in classroom technology — paired with your creative spirit and energy — you are in a position to truly inspire! Outside the classroom, elementary education professionals can find great success in settings like zoos and museums, as tutors, in a variety of camp settings and with government organizations.
- Our faculty, programs and clinical experiences all make the connection between theory, practice and research.
- Clinical faculty members in these programs are exceptional and experienced teachers who are very grounded in practice.
- Students are placed in school settings very early in their academic careers, often during their first or second semester.
- Many of our methods courses in science and math are taught on-site at partner schools.
- Many of our world-class faculty members have been recognized with awards from the National Council of Teachers of English and the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Your course work
In addition to the core curriculum that you will likely complete during your first two years, your elementary education course work will also include reading assessment and literacy instruction, nature and management of elementary classrooms, and classes specific to teaching math, science, social studies and an integrated curriculum.
Many of the elementary education methods courses are offered in a wide variety of school settings including urban, suburban and rural schools. Your experience is capped off by student teaching, where it's time to apply what you've learned! For a complete list of courses, please review the academic bulletin.


Contact: Science Press Package
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The not-so-big, bad Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus
Life cycle of the predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus (yellow). For reproduction it depends on a bacterial prey cell (blue).
Image courtesy of Stephan C. Schuster, Snjezana Rendulic and Jürgen Berger.
Click here for a high resolution photograph.
If you were a bacterium, you wouldn't want to meet Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus in a dark alley. This bacterial bug has an unusual way of preying on other bacteria -- it squeezes itself inside its prey and sucks up their guts.
Snjezana Rendulic of the Max-Planck-Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany, and her colleagues in Germany and the United Kingdom have sequenced the genome of B. bacteriovorus. Identifying the bacterium's genes and the jobs they do helped the researchers understand how the bacterium does its nasty work on its prey.
When B. bacteriovorus invades another cell, it goes through a full life-cycle. After it reproduces, the offspring burst out of the cell and set off to find more unlucky bacteria to invade.
When it finds its prey B. bacteriovorus attaches itself to the host cell wall, punctures it and works its way inside. There, it uses a variety of enzymes to break down the cell's contents and digest them, putting together its own molecules from the component parts. After B. bacteriovorus replicates, the offspring secrete more enzymes that break down the host cell wall, allowing the new bacteria to escape.
These enzymes may be useful ingredients for other types of antimicrobial substances. The authors also propose that it might even be possible to somehow use B. bacteriovorus as a sort of "living antibiotic," since it doesn't seem to harm any organisms besides other bacteria.
This study will appear in the 30 January 2004 issue of the journal Science.
Back to Science for kids
Science is published by AAAS, the non-profit science society.


“ Brand: Early Learning Centre „
Learn to tell the time in 3 levels with these colourful cards. How to play: What's the time? As a guide to teaching time, we suggest at a younger age use the green border cards and talk to your child about 'o'clock, and half past. As they get older, use the yellow border cards to teach your child about quarter to and quarter past. When your child has mastered the green and yellow cards, introduce the red border cards for the more tricky times. Learning more and more Let's look at the tricky times as we get more confident. We can talk about what we do and when, and find the card for lunchtime, playtime or bedtime. Great for: Stimulating the brain Learning to tell the time Improving numeracy skills Developing social skills and helping communication Building confidence and concentration.


Class Uses Mathematical Models
to Address Environmental Issues
Today, seated at their desks, students trace the flow of contaminated ground water in a small town. Another day, they will determine whether air pollution in a city has reached dangerous levels, or if a highway should be closed off after a tank truck has spilled hazardous materials.
These real-life scenarios are part of a new course offered for the first time this semester, which introduces students to the use of mathematical models to solve a variety of environmental issues. Open to all students, the interdisciplinary course, Math 108V, covers the physical and chemical processes as well as the legal, political and ethical implications of environmental issues, and shows how mathematical models are used naturally and routinely to help analyze them fully.
Sarah Glaz, a professor of mathematics who created the course, says it is very interactive. When the class dealt with ground water contamination, students worked out the path of the water and measured it on a map. "They measured the various distances and used formulas to calculate how fast the water was flowing, how quickly it would get to a particular building, and whether there would be enough time to clean up the contamination." Students then went to a computer lab and used an Excel spreadsheet program to keep track of data and graph their results.
In addition to using the Excel program, computers are also used to keep students 'virtually' involved in environmental issues via the Internet. The beginning of the course, for instance, coincided with the oil spill just off the Galapagos Islands. "There were all these pictures of beautiful pelicans coated with oil. The students went online and found out about it, and we discussed it in class," Glaz says. "I taught them that the spilling of oil on water uses the same kind of modeling as the dispersion of gases in air pollution." An interactive risk analysis program is also used to analyze hazardous material case scenarios.
Students taking the course come from a variety of academic backgrounds. "The class has attracted a very diverse student body," Glaz, says, "from freshman to seniors, and from people who say they hated math to math majors. They all find something interesting here."
Patel Ankur, a senior majoring in math, says he is learning a lot more about applied mathematics than he does in most of the math classes he is taking. Christina Mackey, a junior majoring in elementary education, says she will be able to use some of the concepts when she teaches younger children.
Glaz got the idea for the course when she was browsing through books at a conference. "I was at a book display when I stumbled on a book by Charles Hadlock that I'm now using as the text for the course. It was not only mathematically fascinating, but also unusually well written." Hadlock, a professor at Bentley College who recently gave a guest lecture to the class, was a mathematical consultant on environmental issues for many famous cases, including Three Mile Island, The Love Canal, and the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, India.
Glaz says the book caught her attention and inspired the course. "My research area is in pure mathematics and this took me in a completely different direction."
For a virtual taste of this course, visit its website.


Throughout the article "Development of Knowledge, and Commitments to Teach Diverse Student Populations", by Robert A. Wiggins and Eric J. Follo, researchers are reporting the results of a study on investigating the preparation and commitment of preservice teachers to teach in culturally diverse settings. Student populations have become increasingly more diverse while the teaching force remains essentially the same. For this reason, the study was done. The main topic of this article is the study performed, yet a large percentage of it also deals with "how" should we influence the attitudes of teachers set in a culturally diverse setting to teach in a culturally appropriate way? The authors also came to realization that "not feeling at home in another culture may be the biggest obstacle to successful teaching in culturally diverse classrooms".
In assessing the teacher preparation program, the conductors of the experiment asked three questions:
· Which aspect of the elementary education program has the most impact on students' preparation to teach classrooms with diverse student populations?
· Why were some aspects of the program more or less effective than others?
· What could be done to strengthen the program to better prepare students to teach in diverse classrooms?
In order to find the answers to these three questions, the experimenters used questionnaires and interviews. Students responded to thirty-four statements in the questionnaires that dealt with three broad categories: factors fostering readiness for teaching in culturally diverse settings, factors constraining readiness for teaching in culturally diverse settings, and prior experiences relative to multicultural education. The participants were asked to answer the questions on a 1-5 scale with 1 indicating strong disagreement and 5 meaning strong agreement. Through this process, they sought to determine whether or not students wanted to teach culturally


The International Reading Association (IRA) announces the release of a set of guidelines for the successful implementation of the English Language Arts (ELA) Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The guidelines white paper/statement entitled Literacy Implementation Guidance for the ELA Common Core State Standards can be downloaded for FREE at www.reading.org/ccssguidelines.
These guidelines address the need for a link between reading instruction and the ELA CCSS. They provide teachers and educational leaders with recommendations on how to integrate many of the central ideas of the standards into effective practice. They represent a consensus of the thinking of literacy leaders in the field who support thoughtful implementation of the standards for student literacy achievement.
“Reading instruction remains at the core of any successful education reform,” IRA president Carrice Cummins explains. “The Standards set a foundation for focusing curriculum and instruction, and IRA’s Reading Guidelines will serve as a lens to link them together and empower teachers to focus on what is needed to make a difference for their students.”
The guidelines capture the most pressing issues in clear language, point out their significance for those responsible for implementation, and then offer clear guidance on accomplishing the task at hand. Seven specific issues are addressed, including:
• Challenging texts
• Foundational skills
• Disciplinary literacy
• Diverse learners
The guidelines were drafted by a special IRA CCSS Committee chaired by Brenda Overturf and Timothy Shanahan. Visit the CCSS guidelines webpage to learn more about this committee.
Also on the CCSS guidelines webpage, there is an opportunity to join the IRA mailing list and receive notification of CCSS-related publications in the future.
IRA also offers a question-and-answer webpage as well as ELA CCSS resources from IRA journals, IRA books, IRA webinars, Reading Today, Members-Only, and other organization websites on a special section of our website at www.reading.org/elacommoncore.


Uncovering art education during World War II
MetadataShow full item record
This research investigated the national interests of art education in public schools during the period surrounding the Second World War (1941–1946). Art education materials written for students and teachers during these years were examined in this study and provide a look at classroom projects and educational teachings supportive of the war effort. This perspective of promoting nationalism is based on a review of printed art education journals, curriculum guides, and books related to the subject of educational themes in public schools during World War II. These published materials presented a practical way for educators, and in this research, art educators, to build a sense of nationalism throughout the country and for teachers and students to support the war effort from their classrooms.


Cri du chat syndrome
Newborns with cri du chat (cat's cry) syndrome have a characteristic mewing cry believed caused by abnormal development of the larynx (the organ containing the vocal chords). The syndrome arises from what is known as a deletion--the absence of genetic material from a missing portion of a chromosome. In cridu chat syndrome, the deletion is in chromosome 5. The disorder is also called 5p- (5 p minus) syndrome, in reference to the area where the deletion occurs. Children with this syndrome have physical abnormalities, language and motor skill difficulties, and varying degrees of mental retardation.
Although all individuals have two copies of chromosome 5, the normal chromosome does not compensate for the genetic material missing from the flawed chromosome in cri du chat syndrome. The deletion can be inherited through generations of a family or may appear at random. It is estimated that the syndrome occurs in 1 in 50,000 births. According to the 5p- Society, approximately 50-60children are born with cri du chat syndrome each year in the United States.
The deletion on chromosome 5 has several indicators. The primary sign is theunusual high-pitched mewing cry during the first weeks of life. This is accompanied by low birth weight, slow growth, and a small head (microcephaly). Muscle tone is poor (hypotonia) and possible medical problems include heart disease and scoliosis (curvature of the spine). Children with cri du chat syndrome have language difficulties, delayed motor skill development, and mental deficiencies that vary in severity. Behavioral problems, such as hyperactivity,may become apparent as the child matures.
As the child matures, the cat-like cry is lost. A definitive diagnosis is based on karyotyping--a laboratory procedure that separates chromosomes from theinfant's cells and demonstrates that genetic material is missing. Cri du chat syndrome can be detected before birth if the mother undergoes amniocentesistesting or chorionic villus sampling. Samples of cells are collected from the fluid surrounding the fetus and are analyzed for genetic defects (amniocentesis) or from the outer membrane (chorion) of the sac that holds both the fetus and the fluid (chorionic villus sampling).
Cri du chat syndrome is a very rare disorder with no cure or known prevention. Treatment consists of supportive care and developmental therapy.
The extent of mental retardation and other symptoms depends on the size of the chromosomal deletion--larger deletions generally translate into more serious symptoms. With intensive early intervention and special schooling, many cridu chat children can develop adequate social, motor, and language skills. Most individuals with cri du chat syndrome have a normal lifespan.


previous post, I talked about the importance of teaching art to children (of all ages). Now, I will talk about how you (as a parent or teacher) can help the young people in your life, learn about the arts...
Take Field Trips
Visiting a museum or art gallery is imperative when teaching about art and art history. Looking at art in a book, magazine or on the Internet is a good start, but it just isn't the same as seeing the work up close and personal. Most museums and galleries offer tours - specifically for school-aged children, especially if there is a special exhibit on display. Contact the educational department of the museum or gallery and ask if they have any resource materials you can share with your students prior to the trip. Once there, take time to look at works of art that interest all of your students.If it is impossible for you to visit a museum or gallery, do look through art books or view works online. Encourage students to pick out their favorite painting, drawings and sculptures. Discuss the materials the artist used and compare them with those your students have used in their own work.
Talk About It
When looking at art, encourage children to say what they feel about the art that they see. Remind them that there are no wrong answers. Some questions to ask might include:
- Why do you think the artist might have chosen the colors he did? Do they make sense?
- How was the paint, pencil or pastel applied? Could the artist have used a palette knife or perhaps even fingers? The texture of the paint will help you determine this.
- What kinds of lines do you see? Are they straight, or wavy? What shapes do you see?
- What parts of the work are your favorites? Why?
- Does the painting make you think of things in motion? How does the artist show movement (through line or color for example)?
Above all else, when looking at or talking about art, children should not be made to feel discouraged because they have difficulty analyzing a work. Tell them that the more they look, the more they will see.
Research suggests that early exposure to visual art, music or drama promotes activity in the brain. As you integrate art into your lessons, remember, the aim of art education is not to turn children into professional artists, but to teach them to live fuller lives. Through an appreciation of the arts, people gain a greater understanding of a variety of human experiences. They will then extract more from their own experiences -- whatever they may be.
This article first appeared in Classroom Leadership, a newsletter for K-12 Classroom Teachers, published by the American Society of Curriculum Developers.


According to an article in last month's Scientific American, a study by advocacy group Music for All found that school music programs in public schools dropped precipitously between 1999 and 2004 – by 50%. I shudder to think about how much more music programs have been shed in the six years since that report, but based on what we are learning about music's effect on the brain, we are doing our children a great disservice.
"Mozart therapy" – the idea that parents could boost their children's intelligence by exposing them to music – has turned out to be largely unsupported by further research although, as SA points out, the original researchers never claimed more than a minor and temporary effect. What can produce lasting changes in the brain, though, are music lessons. Thanks to an overlap in the parts of our brains responsible for language and music, playing an instrument (including voice) and learning to discern between subtle changes in pitch can help us to learn new languages by helping us identify subtle variances in pronunciation. It can improve our ability to focus on tasks or hear targeted sounds in a loud environment, like studying for a test at a crowded restaurant or paying attention to a conversation with a friend in a noisy club. There's evidence that music training may even help stroke victims learn to speak more quickly, and help dyslexic students overcome their disability by improving their ability to focus during class. [more]
I'm a personal trainer and a musician, so I'm utterly dismayed at the decline in physical education and music education in our classrooms. We already know that child obesity is at an all-time high, and that the consequences of unhealthy habits on children's ability to learn are dire. Like physical education, music education is being hastily shoved to the backburner as students in the U.S. continually fall behind other nations in science, math and language. And while I think science, math and language are undoubtedly vital, we are inadvertently impeding their ability to absorb such subjects when we fail to give them a well-rounded education.


During WWII, regular misapplication of the nickname, “G.I. Joe,” would prove to be a recurring point of contention for many in the military. Over 60 years later, new information has been discovered revealing how the name, now hugely popular with fans and collectors of the famous action figure toy, was previously one of regular frustration and controversy.
Originally, the abbreviation “G.I.” stood for “General Issue,” a shorthand term referring to basic equipment and enlisted personnel in the U.S. Army. During the war, the extended moniker “G.I. Joe” became common parlance when referring to any and all servicemen in the military. Used by reporters in their stories as a sort of “catch-all” nickname, “G.I. Joe” was unfortunately, often inappropriately applied, aggravating many troops and even the famed editorial cartoonist, Bill Mauldin.
At the time, Mauldin was serving in the 45th Infantry Division. With an art education from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, he had been assigned to its company newspaper (and to Stars and Stripes) as sort of a “roving cartoonist.” Mauldin would drive up to the front lines everyday and document the lives of the ordinary, Army infantrymen he met there. His “Willie and Joe” cartoons quickly became hugely popular with the troops, who felt they provided an honest voice for their frustrations.
However, much to Mauldin’s chagrin, his famous creations were regularly misidentified as “G.I. Joe” in various newspapers and magazines, creating a growing resentment within the cartoonist towards the use (and misuse) of the name. Soldiers too, began to feel that the press was too loose with their use of the term, and often voiced their objections in letters to the editor.
Over the years after the war however, with the rise of Hasbro’s popular toy line of the same name, previous disdain for the “G.I. Joe” name by Mauldin and other U.S. troops has been largely forgotten. But today, some 60 years later, The Joe Report’s ace field reporter, James Long, has uncovered new evidence in the form of newspaper clippings from WWII that provide clear evidence of troop resentment toward the “G.I. Joe” name. Here are Long’s comments regarding these new discoveries…
“This short article (shown above) was written by Bill Mauldin, the artist behind the ‘Up Front’ comics featuring Willie and Joe that appeared in Stars and Stripes (and other publications) during World War II. The article originally appeared in the Mediterranean edition of Stars and Stripes on January 11, 1945, and the clipping was reprinted in the 2-book set ‘Willie and Joe, the WWII Years’ (Fantagraphics Books, March, 2008).
As you can see when you read the article, it appears your average combat soldier wasn’t fond of being called a “G.I. Joe.” And it also appears that Mr. Mauldin wasn’t happy when his Joe character became associated with the “G.I. Joe” nickname.
Also, as if in proof of his point about his characters becoming associated with the “G.I. Joe” name, a letter in the Mediterranean edition of Stars and Stripes on May 24, 1945, makes exactly that mistake by referring to one of his characters as “GI Joe.”
Making matters worse, the comic the author of the article is referring to (From the May 12, 1945 Mediterranean edition of Stars and Stripes) features Willie—not Joe!
I thought it was an interesting bit of trivia. It may be related to GIjOE (the toy) by the name only, but I thought it might make for something fun for use in The Joe Report.” —James Long
Editor’s Note: Fun indeed! Thanks so much for your help in preparing this article, James. You’ve definitely earned your (unofficial) GIjOE “Eagle Eye” Cub Reporter Badge for this one!


Posted by admin | Posted in Character Education, Foreign Language, Geography, Interactive Whiteboard, Knowledge (remember), Language Arts, Math, Middle/High School, Primary Elementary, Science, Secondary Elementary, Spelling, Teacher Resources, Web2.0, Websites | Posted on 01-02-2013
What it is: Holy cow, I am SO excited! Today registration is open for World Education Games!! If your students have never participated with World Education Games (like World Math Day), this is the year. They will thank you for including them in this fun world wide contest. February 1st, that’s today, registration is open and the official warm-up training period for students begins. On March 5h students can participate in World Literacy Day, March 6 is World Math Day, and March 7 is World Science Day. March 22nd Global award presentations begin with the Official World Education Games Awards. The World Education Games is an annual global online olympics to get students from age 4 to 18 excited about learning. The fun comes in the friendly competition between countries as students compete to represent their country in the games. There are 3 days of games focused on literacy, math and science. The games are a great way to help students in speed, accuracy and general fluency in core computation, number and spelling skills. World Science Day has been designed to encourage curiosity and excitement in science while helping them answer knowledge, application and reasoning questions. Each game (a competition against other students from around the world) lasts just 1 minute. Students can go head to head as often as they would like, but only the first 50 games are counted toward the competition point tally. World Math Day was launched in 2007 and my students have taken part in this fun competition each year. Since then, Literacy and Science day has been added to the games. SO much fun!
How to integrate World Education Games into the classroom: World Education Games are such a fantastic way to encourage students to practice foundational skills. In the past, I have hosted an “opening ceremonies” at my school and done it up like the Olympics with flags, songs, etc. We go over what the World Education Games are and then make a big deal about the handing out of usernames/passwords (like lighting the torch) and then we kick off our training portion. Students get excited about participating in this fun day and we get lots of “training” in before the big day. On the actual day, we wear red, white and blue and play against kids from around the world. This is great fun in a one-to-one setting or a computer lab where all students can participate simultaneously. Don’t have that option? Because the games are 1 minute long, students can play 5 games each on classroom computers in a rotation.
Since your students are competing against students from around the world, why not use the competition to practice using a map and identifying countries? Since we have a one to one iPad program, we do this digitally with a Google Map. Each time a student competed against a country, they would come up to the board and put a “pin” in the map. Don’t have devices for each student? Use an interactive whiteboard or the paper map and actual pins on a class bulletin board, these options are just as fun!
Don’t forget closing ceremonies at the end of World Education Games. Make up fun medals and give them out to top performers, hardest trainers, etc. Think outside the box on these. Not all kids are speedy in their fact recall…find a way to honor their participation and hard work…did they see huge improvement or growth? Honor those achievements!
The World Education Games are available for free on any internet-connected computer and as a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 app.
Check out the Resource page for teacher and student guide, a world map, a poster, and for School-in-a-box information.
Tips: Schools participating in the World Education Games can also work toward giving other children the opportunity to start school. World Education Games has partnered with UNICEF to make this happen. During the games, host a fundraiser to purchase “School-in-a-Box” Each $236 donation is enough to send 80 kids to school! What a great way to help kids understand what a privilege education is and model compassion and empathy for others.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using World Education Games in your classroom.


Arts education in American schools has become a hot topic of discussion that has reached even the doors of the White House. What are the reasons for such discussion? Many other schools around the world are surpassing American education on several subjects, including arts education.
According to the National Endowment for the Arts’ Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, most American schools taught some type of arts education to children — up to the age of 18 — from 1930 to 1970. These forms of art education included:
- creative writing
- visual arts
But after 1985, arts education declined in schools, specifically music and visual arts. By 2008, most children did not receive any arts education when reaching the age of 18. This also becomes most prevalent based on ethnic backgrounds with African American and Hispanic children receiving the least amount of arts education, close to 49 percent and 40 percent respectively.
The basic reason for the decline of art education classes involves school budget cuts. When schools receive less funding, classes seen as extracurricular or not being an important part of a child’s educational future to pursue a professional business career become cut out of the basic curriculum.
Why Arts Education is Important
Even government officials and the president in the White House agree that arts education is important to the American youth. Students who have some type of arts education enjoy their classes as they become more engaged in lessons, will have better test scores, and are less likely to drop out of school, according to The White House Blog.
Research performed by the President’s Committee of the Arts and the Humanities has shown that arts education stimulates creativity and innovation, allowing students to develop critical thinking skills that will help them achieve life goals. While arts education should be an important part of the curriculum, it falls upon the teachers and schools to decide how they will teach America’s youth about the arts so that the students will take away valuable lessons that will be useful in their lives.
How Arts Education Should Be Taught
Teachers will always fight an uphill battle in teaching the arts to their classes. Each student comes from a culturally and economically diverse situation, knowing different skill levels and learning styles. So the teacher must become culturally diverse to recognize and acknowledge the differences inside each student while providing instruction that further develops the student’s skills, according to the Annenberg Learner.
While teachers learn and adapt their lesson plans to educate the most students concerning arts education, it also has to be decided on what they should teach and how to integrate arts education with other school subjects during an overly busy school day. Many people would argue that the historical core of the arts should be taught, since students are virtually devoid in knowing the many famous artists and musicians who influenced the American arts culture, according to Quincy Jones on The Huffington Post.
Other educators, such as Dean Richard Kessler from Mannes College, the New School of Music, wonder how to integrate types of art education into the curriculum for schools focused on teaching quality education. On his blog, Kessler asks how can teachers in the K-12 grades focus on rigorous arts education without shortchanging other school subjects or even on specialized art instruction that emphasizes practical art or music training?
As it becomes debated on what types of arts education to provide, everyone agrees that some form is needed in the classroom. This means that schools should not be so quick as to cut out the arts from classes when funding is reduced. Instead, they should encourage students to take part in after-school programs and extra-curricular activities to receive quality arts education.


Classroom Activities to Develop
and the Alphabetic Principle
In this chapter we continue to describe instructional activities that help children develop print processing skills, including phonological awareness, the alphabetic principle, and sound–letter correspondences. We address the role of phonological awareness in children's literacy development and draw implications from research for instruction for 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. Finally, we discuss helping children discover the alphabetic principle and extending their knowledge of sound–letter correspondences. This chapter, along with Chapters 5, 6, and 7, provides information about instruction included in a well-balanced literacy program focusing on all critical areas of literacy development.
Phonological awareness is highly complex and requires children to attend consciously to the sounds in words rather than to their meanings. It is one of the necessary ingredients, along with alphabet letter recognition, that children must grasp in order to discover the alphabetic principle. Phonemic awareness is at the highest level of phonological awareness and involves the ability to detect each phoneme in a spoken word, to blend phonemes into words, and to segment words into phonemes. While we know that children acquire some level of phonological awareness before learning to read and write in a conventional sense, the exact level that any one child must achieve before beginning to read is not known. Still, research is clear that children need to begin learning about phonemes and other sound units before reading instruction begins. We know further that a few children as young as 3 years old have begun to acquire the ability to detect rhyme and alliteration.


Traditional methods of tutoring are often ineffective for students who are struggling in more than one or two subjects.
About Tutoring at CHC
Educational specialists at Children’s Health Council provide specialized tutoring that:
- Helps non-traditional learners amplify strengths and mitigate weaknesses.
- Increases a student’s confidence and joy for learning.
- Builds core academic and learning skills.
- Develops resiliency, strong self-esteem, self-awareness and self-advocacy skills.
- Integrates assistive technology solutions to help students mitigate weaknesses.
- Addresses learning needs for students with special needs such as Autism Spectrum Disorders.
- Takes into account and works with a student’s underlying learning processes including:
- Attention, awareness and concentration
- Working memory
- Executive functioning (organization and planning)
- Organization of language
- Critical thinking and problem solving
Educational specialists also understand the way in which anxiety, depression, ADHD and social skill deficits impact a student’s ability to learn. They coordinate and integrate the skills and strategies students are learning from other specialists into their tutoring sessions. Read more about Our Approach to integrated care.
Tutoring sessions include:
Tutoring in Core Academic Skills
When students have difficulty learning, they’re often missing foundational skills in the 3 Rs, reading, writing and arithmetic. At first their lack of skills may cause discouragement, but as missed learning opportunities accumulate and academic expectations increase, insufficient competence in one of the 3 Rs can become crippling to academic success in every subject. Through evidence-based practices, our educational specialists revisit concepts that your student did not master to create a solid foundation of proficiency in core academic skills.
Coaching in Executive Functioning Skills and Learning Skills and Strategies
Students who struggle in school are often missing the skills and strategies to learn, plan, organize, take notes and analyze. Our educational specialists offer explicit instruction and coaching to develop these skills. Our occupational therapists further work with students to help them turn these skills and strategies into daily routine habits.
Students who face difficulty with learning are prone to feeling they aren’t as smart or as capable as their peers. Consequently, they are vulnerable to giving up in the face of constant setbacks and feeling embarrassed or ashamed.
In addition to mastering core academics skills and strategies for learning, non-traditional learners need to believe in themselves, understand what they need, know how to ask for it and be resilient when they face setbacks. Educational specialists at Children’s Health Council are sensitive to these needs and experienced with explicitly teaching the skills to be resilient.


Family programmes aim to encourage family members to learn together. They should provide inter-generational learning to both adults and children and provide progression for the adult to other learning. The term ‘adult’ assumes that this includes mothers, fathers, carers, grandparents – whoever has a caring role for the child. The programmes have two main aims:
- To develop the skills or knowledge of the adult and the child
- To help adults to be more active in supporting their children’s learning and development with greater confidence and to understand why that is important.
These are used as an opportunity to engage families by providing a positive shared learning experience and are used as the opportunity to initially engage parents with low literacy or numeracy skills. Programmes can focus on a particular theme or activity such as arts and crafts, healthy eating or messy play and should be designed to give the adults the skills and confidence to support their children. These may initially be a short workshop leading onto a longer 10 hour programme.
Family English, Maths and Language (FEML)
These programmes aim to help parents and carers understand how English and Maths are taught so that they can support their children’s learning. The programmes vary according to the age of the children.
The adults’ prime motivation for coming on these courses is their children. Two trigger points for parents are, firstly, when their children begin to develop language and secondly, when they move into formal education. At both of these times parents may realise that they do not have the right set of skills to give their children the full support they would like to provide.
Typically FEML programmes are divided into sessions where parents learn with their children, and sessions where the adults and their children learn separately. These courses are taught by specialist Skills For Life tutors who work with the adults, alongside specialist teachers who support the children’s learning. All adults on these courses have the opportunity to take national qualifications and, as their English and Maths skills improve, they may move on to further learning and into employment.
- Family English, Maths and Language programmes must be delivered by qualified adult learning tutors with English and Maths or early years specialisms and should only be delivered to parents who have not achieved a full English or Maths qualification at level 2.
- Family Language is used to describe the programmes for families where English is not the primary language at home. They include a broad coverage of skills including family English, Maths and ICT courses.
For further information about family programmes please contact
Family Programmes Manager


Rural educators from several elementary schools in southwest Jamaica completed pre- and post-literacy surveys. Professional training was developed and provided in response to the pre-assessment results. Literacy training combined two essential skills: (a) ongoing assessment of literacy achievement and (b) evidenced-based intervention strategies. Pre- and post-assessment results revealed that the phonics approach was the most frequently used literacy strategy. The least used method of literacy instruction was the use of ongoing or informal literacy assessments. Although the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills was modeled as an example of an ongoing assessment, post-assessment results revealed that educators did not frequently use this assessment. The most utilized literacy intervention strategies were teacher-directed activities implemented at the class-wide level.
Keywords: professional development, literacy, intervention strategies, rural Jamaican education
Nations worldwide are working to ensure that their youth and young adults are proficient in every core academic area. It has long been recognized that countries must produce citizens who are competent in reading, writing, and mathematics to remain competitive in world markets (Brown-Chidsey & Steege, 2005; Daly, Chafouleas, & Skinner, 2005; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000; National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008). Developing Caribbean Commonwealth (CC) countries (e.g., Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago) are a subset of those nations who understand the relationship between education and sustaining a country's identity, competitiveness, and longevity. While these countries have long understood the importance of graduating citizens who are highly capable, they also recognized that incorporating reforms to their educational system will be necessary to ensure that their citizens are well-prepared to make contributions that will advance their countries economically, politically, and socially. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has identified several areas in education in need of immediate attention:
The improvement of literacy and numeracy, the development of multhingual skills, using student-centered teaching approaches, teaching low achievers with special references to male underachievement, the provision of universal quality secondary education by the year 2000, and the application of technology as an aid to teaching and learning. (Jennings, 2001, p. 107)
The island of Jamaica, a CARICOM member, is faced with these concerns as specifically cited in the government's 2004 educational report (Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture, 2004). However, its educational system continues to be fraught with challenges that prevent the successful implementation of many improvement programs. Some of these challenges are full access to secondary education, equal access to quality education, the underperformance of large groups of students, the performance disparity between males and females with females outperforming males, and the role and training of teachers in the system (Davis, 2004).
Notably, the Jamaican government has identified literacy enhancement as an area of intense need. Although 87% of Jamaican adults (UNICEF, 2006), and 94.1% of Jamaican youths are literate (UNESCO, 2008), the private sector continues to be faced with illiterate adults who cannot compete in the market place. Due to this deficiency, the country has instituted several early literacy policies, including new assessment procedures for tracking literacy development. One of these newer procedures has been the mandated fourth grade literacy test designed to identify students who are not progressing satisfactorily in the area of reading and to encourage educators to provide appropriate remediation when deficits in ability are determined. Since it has been instituted, an increase in literacy rates from 43% in 2001 to 75% in 2006 has been observed (Jamaica Gleaner, 2008). …


This Christmas have your child (yes, even toddler) make some of these Super Simple Christmas Cards
(M was 2 here. See the Handy Tips at the bottom for ideas to Simplify or Extend to meet your childs needs)
Materials: Cardboard (for cards), green paper, sequins, glue
Cut triangles (or have your child do it, M cut these ones) of green paper and then let them stick them onto the cardboard cards and then embellish with different sized, shaped and coloured sequins.
Picking up those slippery little sequins is great practice for their Fine Motor Skills and choosing and placing their sequins is great to develop their creativity and to talk about Colours, Shapes and Sizes.
They were incredibly simple yet came up looking great. I loved the different colours and designs she chose.
To learn more about the benefits of working on the inside of the card together, see here
- Simplify this activity by pre folding/cutting the cardboard cards and green triangles. Provide together with the sequins and allow your child to paste and place them. Encourage them to think about who each card might be for first so that they can consider and choose colours and designs with the person in mind.
- Extend this activity by having your child work on the folding and cutting of the cards and triangle trees themselves. Add extra craft materials that they can get creative with.
- Use this opportunity to talk with your child about Shapes, Patterns, Colours, Sizes and other topics that may come up in the course of the experience
- Add numeracy skills by challenging your child to use a different amount of sequins on each design. This will encourage counting and concepts of more and less.
- Write the inside of the cards together. Even if your child is pre-writing, involve them in the process and discuss the types of things included in Christmas cards together.
- We share more ideas and tips about making greeting cards with kids here
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With roots in Chinese calligraphy dating back thousands of years, Japanese calligraphy is truly an ancient art. Unlike English, Japanese writing is a complex system made up of several components, including kanji (Chinese characters that stand for whole words), hiragana, and katakana. Japanese is written vertically from right to left.
Jump into Japanese culture with your child by making your own Japanese-style calligraphy scroll. She'll try her hand at painting kanji characters on paper just like Japanese calligraphers and Zen masters of old! A great way to spark her interest in world cultures and art forms, this craft is sure to be a hit.
What You Do:
- Take a look at Japanese calligraphy online with your child. Print out some examples of characters for her to refer to while she creates her scroll. This is a great opportunity to talk about how written languages look different all around the world!
- Before starting on the scroll, encourage her to practice writing some words in English and then writing them in Japanese characters.
- To make the paper part of the scroll, ask her to tape one end of the drawing paper to the toilet paper tube.
- Now it's time for calligraphy! Invite her to practice Japanese calligraphy on the scroll by dipping a paintbrush into the diluted black tempera paint and drawing characters on the paper starting at the top of the scroll and working to the bottom.
- Set the scroll aside to dry.
- Once the paint is dry, encourage her to write what the Japanese characters mean in English at the bottom of the scroll.
- To finish the scroll, have her thread the red string through the toilet paper tube and tie a knot. Hang it in a special place for all to see!
Did You Know?
Calligraphy is an elementary school subject for children in Japan, and is also offered in high school alongside music and painting as an art elective.
Sarah Lipoff has a K-12 Art Education degree and enjoys working with kids of all ages.


The purpose of this research is to add to the theory on lesson planning in mathematics by describing the affordances, constraints, and meditational aspects of how teachers plan elementary mathematics lessons and how lesson plans actualize during the teaching process. Case studies (Yin, 2009) of four fourth grade elementary school teachers were conducted and data were collected through written documents, interviews, videotapes of teaching, and photographs of artifacts used during teaching. The data were analyzed and coded using a grounded theory approach (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Results indicated that standardized testing influenced the lesson planning process by mediating curricula use, teacher collaboration, and other lesson planning elements. This resulted in a focus on skills and algorithms, as opposed to teaching for conceptual understanding. Analysis of lesson plan actualization indicated teachers were following their lesson plans as they taught, with only minor adjustments. Therefore, teacher support personnel should provide professional development opportunities to assist teachers to plan conceptually based lessons with elements of effective teaching to improve student understanding, which would help students perform well on examinations. Similarly, teacher education programs should prepare pre-service teachers to write lesson plans that include elements of effective teaching and help pre-service teachers understand the affordances and constraints that exist in educational contexts.
|School||UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO|
|Subjects||Mathematics education; Elementary education|
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PreKindergarten Program (4-5 years olds)
Welcome to PreKindergarten! We hope you enjoy your time in our Kindergarten Readiness Classroom. We are so proud of our PreK program and the success it has offered to our families and their future Kindergartners.
Our PreKindergarten Program offers a balanced approach to academic instruction; play based learning and free exploration. Our daily schedule includes a circle time, an am and pm meeting time, outside time, academic centers (i.e. language arts, mathematics, writing, art, science) as well as open centers (i.e. library, dramatic play, blocks). All units of instruction are presented in many ways, both whole group and small group, to accommodate the many different learning styles and levels of our children. Our teachers create lesson plans from our core curriculum to include a variety of concepts, strategies and materials beyond the expectations of the basic curriculum. Music, movement, art, literature, cultural awareness are emphasized daily. This is a Kindergarten Readiness classroom and all systems, strategies and schedules were created to mimic the typical day in our own Private Kindergarten Program.
Curriculum – Our daily schedule provides a balance of activities, indoors and outdoors, with alternating periods for both quiet and active play. Teachers provide a variety of developmentally appropriate activities and materials that are selected to emphasize concrete experiential learning.
The goals of our PreKindergarten rooms are:
- Foster positive identity and sense of emotional well-being
- Develop social skills
- Encourage children to think, reason, question and experiment
- Encourage language and literacy development
- Encourage development of number sense, estimation, and mathematic concepts
- Encourage development of a base knowledge for the world, people and communities
- Enhance physical development and skills
- Encourage and demonstrate sensible health, safety, and nutritional practices
- Encourage creative expression, representation, and appreciation of the arts
- Respect cultural diversity
Our core curriculum consists of hands on learning in both phonics based language and every day math activities. Our PreKindergarten program uses Houghton Mifflin PreKindergarten. This is a complete, program based on strategies and basic kindergarten preparation concepts. It provides a wonderful framework for the teachers to implement the necessary skills an strategies needed for success in Kindergarten and life. Houghton Mifflin uses critical thinking skills, dialogue based analysis as well as hands on techniques for language arts, writing, math, social studies, dramatic play and most importantly, social awareness and skill sets.
Extensions – In addition to the core curriculum, we also provide instruction in Spanish, American Sign Language, Art, Music, Physical Education and Computers. We also supplement with AIMS (Activities Integrating Math and Science), Math Their Way, and the Kindness Curriculum.
Classroom Environment – Come in and visit our PreKindergarten Room and you will see:
Children involved in a fun, intensive, interactive circle times. Centers which involve Language Arts, Mathematics/ Science, Art, Dramatic Play / Construction, Teachers and children interacting, discussing, pretending, reading and sharing. Children practicing reading skills, doing simple math projects, problem solving, being kind and considerate, sharing, interacting with their peers, expressing a sense of humor, taking the initiative, and problem solving. You will see teachers interacting with children, reassuring, praising, laughing, hugging, teaching self-discipline, developing the learning environment, fostering independence, and observing each child for assessments.
Kinder Camp – allow your child more time to make this significant change without rushing into a new environment unprepared academically and emotionally. We will give your child every opportunity to experience a Kindergarten class through a slow paced, fun and exciting program.


Tone deaf people often fail to hear emotional messages such as sadness or annoyance in speech, relying instead on facial cues or body language, a new study has found.
The findings suggest music and language, usually thought to be controlled by two different parts of the brain, may in fact be more closely related.
“Music and language were thought to be completely separate but it turns out that they may share neural resources related to emotional communication, possibly because they have a shared evolutionary history,” said lead author Bill Thompson, a music and brain expert from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders at Macquarie University.
The study, published today in the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences, involved playing recorded phrases to a control group of 12 and another group of 12 people with congenital amusia or tone deafness.
The recorded phrases were neutral in content – such as “the boy and the girl went to the store to fetch the milk for lunch” – but read in a variety of different vocal tones to hint at annoyance, sadness, tenderness or other emotional states.
The tone deaf participants were significantly worse at detecting the emotional subtext in the spoken phrases.
In a separate questionnaire, the tone deaf subjects said that they struggled with this problem in their daily lives, reporting that facial cues, body language and the pace of speech were more useful in determining hidden meaning in speech.
“We all know people who don’t get our jokes because they don’t pick up on irony or sarcasm,” said Dr Thompson.
The study’s findings may go against mainstream beliefs that music and language are separate but hark back to a theory proposed by Charles Darwin that “language and music evolved from an earlier precursor or ‘musical protolanguage’ that was used in courtship and territoriality and in the expression of emotion”, the study said.
Nicholas Bannan, Professor in Music Education at the University of Western Australia said the findings were exciting.
“This is entirely compatible with what Darwin predicted,” he said.
“The authors are moving toward a view that in human evolution, song must have existed before language. There’s a lot of contention about this.”
Alan Harvey, Winthrop Professor of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology at the University of Western Australia, said the study showed tone deafness may be especially problematic in tonal languages like Mandarin or some African languages.
“If this is an issue for people with tone deafness, think how poor our communication can be when we send text messages to each other,” he said.
“Email and text is eliminating 90% of the methods of communication we use, so imagine how bad it is then.”


Adventures in Early Childhood: Tools for supporting literacy development
From Erin Carlson
We have all heard about the importance of reading in the development of children. How serious are we taking it, though? How can we support language and literacy development in this fast-paced digital world we live in? Print is all around us, and we can use various types of print to support literacy development in children.
There are many ways that we as teachers, families and caregivers can support language and literacy development in the young lives we impact. Take dramatic play, for example. If you observe young children during play, you will notice that pretend play comprises a large portion of their play time. Children enjoy using their rapidly developing imaginations during play concepts such as playing house, doctor, store, veterinarian, restaurant, post office, and so on. Any experience or interaction a child has in his or her everyday life potentially plays a role in the learning process of how our big world turns. Children can use dramatic play as an outlet in understanding how things work, and we can support them by giving them the materials and guidance they need.
We, as the adults in their lives, can use many tools to support learning and development during play. Not only can we use open-ended questions to encourage thinking and language, but there are many physical props we can introduce into children’s play scenarios that can aide language and literacy development. Children’s play areas should always contain writing materials for children to explore and use while they play. Paper and crayons can be used to create signs of all kinds. Other printed materials such as mailing supplies, restaurant order slips, take-out menus, maps, catalogs, newspapers, coupon books, cookbooks, or other such materials that could encourage print-supported dramatic play in children, should be available. Introduce new materials often to encourage children to use different kinds of materials during play. Allow children to write and create their own printed props. Even illegible scribbles are a positive part of developing writing skills and literacy. It’s all part of the active learning process!
I increasingly worry about losing our letter-writing abilities. Email and texting have taken over our world of personal communication and this generation of children is growing up oblivious to “old fashioned” letter- writing. Our preschool classes recently wrote letters to children in another class as part of a literacy project. It was fun to share stories with others and it was such a thrill to receive a real letter from someone! Maybe your child can send a letter to a friend or loved one this weekend.
We should read often to our children and let them explore a variety of books. Children who are read to regularly gain an early love and appreciation for books that is likely to stay with them into adolescence and adulthood. Bring your children to the library and allow them to browse the selection of children’s books. Read to your children every day and have conversations with them about the stories you read. We are constant models to our children, so allow your children to see you read as well. If our children see us love and appreciate books, chances are they will, too.
Erin Carlson is a licensed early childhood educator at Silver Creek Early Learning Center, a nature-based preschool program on Hwy. 61 outside of Two Harbors.


Fine motor skills are skills completed using the small muscles of the body. This includes those in the hand, mouth, and eyes. Most often, fine motor skills refer to those activities completed with hands and fingers, such as stringing beads, buttoning, holding a pencil, and tying shoes. Fine motor skill development begins at an early age. As a child develops strength and body awareness, the fine motor control becomes more refined. A child must have good strength and stability in his postural muscles and shoulder muscles in order to have mature, refined fine motor control. Additionally, for good fine motor control, a child must have efficient sensory processing in the proprioceptive and tactile sensory systems. These systems enable a child to use his muscles efficiently to complete fine motor tasks.
A child must know how and when to move his muscles in order to complete tasks. He also must have good awareness of touch in his hands to manipulate small objects. To create a similar experience to that of a child lacking fine motor skills, try to button small buttons while wearing gloves. Wearing gloves decreases your tactile awareness, which is needed for good fine motor control. This will decrease your ability to perform this basic task.
At Leaps and Bounds, when children exhibit poor fine motor skills, therapists assess the child to determine which foundational skills need support. It may be core/postural muscle strength, shoulder stability, finger and hand strength, tactile processing, or proprioceptive processing. Most often, there are several foundational skills that need to be addressed to improve fine motor skill development.


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


Here’s a fun science activity for kids using common household items. Grab some string and a hanger and explore sound!
*This science activity correlates with Next Generation Science Standard (NGSS) 1-PS4-1.
Are you following our Science for Kids Pinterest board?
Welcome to another Science Invitation Saturday where we explore science for kids! Last week we discovered what was inside a seed. This week we are doing an experiment with sound. (This post contains affiliate links.)
Materials for Sound Experiment
- wire hanger
Procedure for Sound Experiment
- Tie the hook of a wire hanger to the center of a large piece of string. (About 3 feet long)
- Wrap the ends of the string around your index fingers.
- Now put your hands over the openings of your ears while holding the string.
- Lean over and swing the hanger so that it taps against a table or door. What do you hear?
Lucy’s Observations & Comments: “It sounds like a bell!” “The hanger got the noise and it went through the hanger and through the string to my ears.”
Question to Spark More Curiosity & Critical Thinking:
How did it sound? Does banging the hanger against the table sound different if you don’t put the string to your ears? How? How do you think the sound gets to your ears?
What’s Going On:
Sound waves are created by the vibration of an object (the wire hanger and string). When vibrations hit your ear drum, your brain interprets the vibrations as sound. The sound waves can travel through air, liquids and solids. When we listen to the hanger hit the table with the string to our ears, the sound waves are traveling through the solid string and hanger. Since sound waves travel more quickly through solids, we hear the sound more clearly. When we bang the hanger without putting the string to our ears, the sound waves are traveling through air to get to our ears making the sound more quiet.
Check out this awesome video showing how sound travels!
Want to go even further?
Even more activities to inspire creativity and critical thinking for various ages:
- Try varying the length of the string. Does it affect the sound you hear?
- Try attaching other objects to the string and testing them out.
- Make your own wind chime to hang outside!
- Make some homemade musical instruments.