Design your classroom to encourage children’s learning—and discourage problems—with these three important topics: arrange the activity areas in your classroom, choose the supplies, and select what to post on your classroom walls.
DIRECTIONS: The module can be accessed on the iPD, located on the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC) website by clicking on the link posted * below.
First, make sure that you have added the module to your OCCRRA registry account.
Second, you will need to open an ECLKC account and log on to the iPD to access the module. The links below can help you with the process.
* The iPD can be accessed at: Link to iPD on ECLKC. Once you are on the iPD, search for the module by entering the title of the module in the search box.
Once you have completed the module, please allow 6 weeks for attendance verification.
For assistance with verification of the module email: DRuhland@zerotothree.org.
|Training approved for||
|Registration deadline||Jun 30, 2020|
|Number of open seats||814|
|Event Owner||ZERO TO THREE|
|Sponsor Phone||(202) 857-2995|
|Target Audience||Classroom Staff / Teacher,Staff working with children with special needs|
|Age Groups related to content||Preschoolers|
|Core Knowledge Area||N/A|
|Child Development Associate Area||To ensure a well-run, purposeful program responsive to participant needs|
|Early Learning and Development Standards||N/A|
Set up centers or interest areas in a classroom using placement, boundaries, and space.
Select classroom supplies (toys, materials, and equipment) based on the needs of the children in your class.
Post the right number of visuals that communicate to young children the daily schedule, rules, routines, and behavioral expectations.


I just returned a few days ago from attending the NSTA 2017 national conference in Los Angeles. I spent most of my time attending sessions in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) strand, given my on-going standards-based curriculum-design work with schools and districts.
During one session a presenter mentioned the Periodic Table of Elements and its organization, which got me thinking….
In 1869, Russian chemist, Dmitri Mendeleev, developed what has become known as the first periodic table. He arranged the elements according to their atomic mass and left spaces for undiscovered elements. His periodic table is a remarkable example of a scientist taking data and transforming it into usable information other scientists could then build upon, which is a hallmark of the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs).
The subject areas of science, technology, engineering, and math, commonly referred to as STEM, are embedded throughout the NGSS and ask students to apply them authentically as both scientists and engineers. The cross-over of these four fields (five, if you include Arts for STEAM-based learning) enable students, similar to Mendeleev, to approach complex problems, collect necessary data, and synthesize and interpret findings.
“The shortage of STEM workers means that the gap in earnings and unemployment between STEM and non-STEM workers will worsen, exacerbating income inequality across all demographic groups,” said Rothwell. “Strategies to help the unemployed get jobs and low-wage workers improve their earnings should include improving educational and training opportunities to acquire STEM knowledge. Increased training in STEM fields like computer science and medicine will ease hiring for employers and lead to high-paying career paths for workers.”
This is why it is critical that NGSS-based curriculum and STEM/STEAM development must begin at the onset of students’ elementary education years and continue throughout their high school education.
Developing NGSS-based curriculum is challenging, but worthwhile and needed. Likewise, integrating STEM/STEAM into an existing curriculum framework is not a simple task. With any curriculum innovation, K-12 education leaders know they must be mindful of how these curriculum decisions will:
- Affect their students’ abilities to reach determined STEM/STEAM milestones, while meeting or required NGSS 3-Dimensional education standards;
- Ensure differentiated instruction and personalized learning opportunities; and
- Provide adequate and embedded NGSS and STEM teacher training, including advancements in instructional technology.
Just like Mendeleev’s accomplishments nearly 150 years ago, we must create the best curriculum framework from what we know is in our students’ best interests today, and provide innovative opportunities for them by leaving room for future minds to improve upon it.
For expertise in how to design NGSS-based, three-dimensional curriculum and instruction, or incorporate STEM-based learning into your current curriculum development, please contact us at Curriculum Decisions.


— Jorge Heredia interviews Love Nurtured Music‘s master violin teacher, Rigo Murillo.
What is the Suzuki Method?
The Suzuki Method is one of the most prominent methods of music education, especially for young children. It is based on the way we learn to speak our native language. At the Love Nurtured Music Program, we use the Suzuki “Native Language” approach exclusively.
When we’re young, we hear a lot of language. We hear our native language and the meaning of things way before we speak depending on the environment where we grow up. Our parents speak to us and help us to learn the language in a very natural way, without taking classes. They help us pronounce the words, and even though we don’t speak perfectly then, they encourage us and praise us for our efforts.
This way, the dynamics of learning our native language in a completely natural way are also the same principles that we use in the Suzuki music learning approach.
How does the Love Nurtured Music Program work?
In the same way we learn to speak, at the Love Nurtured Music Program, we adapt these steps to learning music. The same steps that are involved in learning to speak are applied to every step we take in the teaching of music.The Suzuki Method has been adapted for violin, viola, cello, bass, piano, harp, flute, guitar and organ. It is very dynamic. We have an organizational structure, and we apply the steps to each learning stage.
Our music program is very family-oriented. The student, the parents and the teacher form a triangle. The teacher is responsible for presenting the musical concepts to the child, with lesson activities and to guide the parent on how to practice with the child at home. The parent is responsible for directing the child at home practice. And the student is responsible for practicing and focusing. This takes special effort from the parents and the teacher, presenting the information in a natural and fun way for children, because, as you know, when we are young, we just want to play. So we teach music through games and activities in which children are involved very naturally. The parent, the teacher and the child are connected by a triangle that we call the “Suzuki Triangle.”
At what age can a child start with music lessons?
The starting age of my students is three years old. It’s best to start as early as possible because at that age, they learn better and faster. At that age, children take music learning more deeply, and that’s when the brain is more malleable, improving brain connections and helping the child not only musically, but also academically. However, we accept beginners of any age. We have no age limits of admission.
In the Love Nurtured Music Program, we have students from age three to adults. I teach everyone using the same methodology, with certain adjustments according to the age and learning pace of each student.
Aren’t musical instruments expensive?
Today, instruments are very affordable and you can buy or rent. A good-quality student-level violin can be purchased starting at about $300 to $400, or, if you prefer, you can also rent one for about $25 a month. So, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to start giving your child a meaningful musical education.
Anyone can benefit from learning music. Music helps us to live a better life. Music gives us a sense of belonging, and a way to express ourselves no matter if we are three or 100 years old.
What motivates you?
When I was young, I started learning the violin because I loved the sound. I loved the sound of the violin back then, I love the sound of the violin now, and I love to give people the opportunity to love the sound of the violin. One of my passions when I am teaching is that my students make a very nice sound on the violin. That’s number one. If a child starts learning the violin and doesn’t like the way it sounds, that’s bad news. So, we try to make sure that each child makes a great sound on the violin from the very first time and we take steps to ensure that each student will love the sound they make.
After everything, the objective is music and sound. That’s what motivates me. And, of course, the love of children, seeing and hearing them play and have fun, benefitting from making music. I just love to see their faces when they’re performing. They really do a great job and when they finish their performances, they see all that they have done, their accomplishments that not everybody else has. And that is because they put the effort. That helps them enjoy the process and the music.
Do you want to give your child the gift of music?


Welcome to the GFAA Bridges Lab. This year the lab is being coordinated by Rachel Moss. This is Mrs. Moss' 6th year at GFAA and her 14th year in GPISD. She has a BS in Elementary Education from Southwestern Assemblies of God University.
The Bridges Lab is an intervention program based on the “Structure of Intellect” (SOI) model and “Integrated Practice Protocol” (IPP) which was developed by Bob and Mary Meeker. The model has been used for over 50 years in education, industry and the armed forces. The program uses a system of materials and exercises to develop students’ intellectual abilities and perceptual cognition by integrating sensory skills with cognitive abilities.
The Bridges Lab is a gym for your brain, just as a workout is for your body and muscles. Students increase their learning abilities by completing exercises that focus on visual, auditory and sensory motor activities. Focused training tasks consist of memory exercises, fine motor and perceptual activities, trampoline and balance board exercises, and book work.
In K-2, students work through exercises as a group to develop sensory integration and focusing skills. These skills relate to general learning abilities, concentration, memory, reading, math, eye-hand coordination, balance, and both fine and gross motor skills.
In grades 3-5, students work through individualized exercise programs to develop sensory integration and focusing skills. The SOI/IPP system allows us to efficiently assess, diagnose and treat learning problems. Students come away from the Bridges Lab better equipped to learn.
Below is a YouTube video from SOI systems about the program.
Degrees and Certifications:


The social functioning of babies and children with Down syndrome is relatively less delayed than other areas of development. Babies with Down syndrome look at faces and smile only a week or two later than other children and they are usually sociable infants. Infants with Down syndrome enjoy communicating and make good use of non-verbal skills including babbling and gesture in social situations.
Most children and adults with Down syndrome continue to develop good social skills and appropriate social behaviour, though a significant minority may develop difficult behaviours, particularly those with the greatest delays in speech and language development.
Friendships and Dating
Download a booklet all about friendships, dating and relationships to help teach your child or student and keep them safe.
- 20 Personal Space Activities for Kids
- Research based social skills instruction curriculums
- Teach Town provides social skills development for students with and without special needs
- The Power of Peer Mentoring
- Bullying and Harassment - the top 10 Factst prents and educators need to know.
MOTOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT
The term motor development covers a wide range of important human skills, from sitting, walking and running, to independent drinking, eating and dressing, to writing, drawing and using a keyboard, to sports and dance, and to work related skills such as operating machinery or packing. Most of us take our motor skills for granted, as most are performed easily and effectively without the need for conscious control, but, in fact, all movements require fast and complex control by the central nervous system, and motor control is still not fully understood by researchers in this field. - Sue Buckley
Read more information about motor development HERE.


Developing student writing skills
How important is spelling, grammar and punctuation when it comes to primary students’ achievement in writing composition?
A considerable chunk of lessons in the primary and secondary years involve some form of writing. It’s a key component of literacy development and a crucial skill for life beyond the classroom. Developing students’ writing skills is therefore a focus for many schools.
Academics from two Australian universities have explored the importance of three language conventions – spelling, grammar and punctuation – in relation to primary students’ achievement in writing composition. Tessa Daffern, from the University of Canberra, and Charles Sturt University’s Noella Mackenzie and Brian Hemmings, discuss the findings in the Australian Journal of Education.
Their research focused on first-draft compositional writing in the primary school years. They analysed written compositions from 819 primary school students, using 2013 data from the NAPLAN Writing Test and Language Conventions Test.
‘Across the four cohorts [Years 3, 4, 5 and 6], spelling, grammar and punctuation were found to jointly influence written composition,’ the academics report. ‘Overall … between approximately 24 per cent and 43 per cent of the variance in written composition was explained by the three language convention measures and that spelling was the main predictor of written composition for each cohort. … Across the four cohorts, spelling was a significant contributor of written composition for both males and females, with the exception of the Year 6 males.’
Breaking down the results by year level cohort, they found that about 35 per cent of the variance in written composition was accounted for by spelling, grammar and punctuation in Year 3. The figure was 42 per cent in Year 4, 39 per cent in Year 5, and 27 per cent in Year 6.
They suggest other contributing factors may include ‘vocabulary knowledge, handwriting fluency, prior general knowledge and memory functioning, along with possible behavioural factors such as motivation and self-efficacy with writing,’ and say further research is needed.
In the NAPLAN test, students need to identify and edit spelling errors and identify and label grammatical and punctuation conventions. ‘Students who were able to accurately identify and edit spelling errors were also more likely to craft a quality persuasive written text, as measured using the NAPLAN Writing Test criteria.’
They add that while punctuation is important, for some students spelling may be a more important skill to learn but stress that teachers need to find a balance between instruction in spelling, grammar and punctuation and other aspects of writing composition – such as text structure, vocabulary and handwriting.
Daffern, T., Mackenzie, N. M., & Hemmings, B. (2017). Predictors of writing success: How important are spelling, grammar and punctuation? Australian Journal of Education, 61(1), 75-87.
This is an edited version of an article that first appeared in Teacher magazine and has been reproduced with the permission of Australian Council for Educational Research. To read the full article and to read more articles like this visit www.teachermagazine.com.au


Top Six Greek Myth of the Minotaur Coloring Pages
Gr 4–12—This graphic version Greek myth of the Minotaur, a half-human, half-bull creature, is a widely appealing tale in which a heroic warrior reclaims his destiny. The Fantasy Coloring Adventure Page of Minotaur takes you on a journey through captivating and cute fairy tale scenes, pretty mermaids, an enchanting castle, from a beautiful princess in her exquisite carriage to a spooky wizard planning her next spell. Use your imagination to bring each scene to life with stunning colors. Join us on a mesmerizing Fantasy Coloring Adventure and unwind with the stunning illustrations of Minotaur.
Express your creativity with these charming drawings and patterns of Minotaur. Open these pages and wander through the Minotaur and open Pandora’s box to discover a world of heroes, goddesses, nymphs, dragons, and more just waiting to be colored to life in this visually stunning new coloring page for all ages.
Discover this Greek mythology coloring book filled with pages of Minotaur that children can start from the first page with their favorite pencils and markers and make these images on the pages look real! Coloring page of Minotaur can be a stress free activity even for children of all ages and when they are trying to learn Greek history, this coloring page can be a great addition to that.
Minotaur coloring pages help to improve motor skills in children between the ages of 2-12. The coloring of Minotaur needs to hold pen, pencil or crayon aids in the development of child’s muscles in their fingers, hands and wrist. Each Minotaur page is typically known as fine motor skill development which serves to help children write, draw and spell more skillfully as well as being able to use and play with smaller objects. Children eventually build on these skills to become better writers and they become much more adept in sporting activities. Children’s education takes place in a classroom with a fair amount of structure. Lessons coloring pages of Minotaur should be an integral part in preparing kids for the more difficult work ahead of them.
So, if you like to have these awesome graphics regarding Minotaur Coloring Pages, just click save button to save these drawing for your Mac, Notebook or PC. At last if you want to get new and newest graphic related to Minotaur Coloring Book, please follow us on google plus or save this site, we try our best to give you regular up-date with all new pictures. Coloring and sketching the coloring page of Minotaur will also provide stimulation and fun to the young minds.
These printable Minotaur Coloring Page Online are perfect for everyone who is interested in these mythological creatures. It will keep the kids busy and entertained whenever they need a fun diversion. You can create a set of your own coloring book. Do not forget to share your set of Minotaur Coloring Pages of our choice with us and all the other moms here! We hope you like our collection of unicorn clip art to color.


WEBSITES which support learning while children cannot attend school
Twinkl is normally a website which provides resources to teachers. They have opened up Free one month access to all parents.
Resources for all subjects across all class levels
Resources, worksheets, and information for all subjects within the Irish primary curriculum organised by class level.
Mathletics is a leading digital maths resource, helping children aged 5-18 to improve their numeracy skills and build confidence in maths whilst having fun. Parents can set tasks and closely monitor progress. Aligned to the Irish curriculum.
Oxford Owls eReader Books
Readers for Junior Classes - different levels
Pink similar to PM Level 1and 2 Red similar to PM 3,4,5 Yellow PM 6,7,8 Blue PM 9,10,11 Green PM 12,13,14 Orange PM 15,16 Aqua PM 17,18 Purple PM 19,20
Vooks is a resource to keep children reading at home. Free one month sign up required.
National Geographic Kids
Features different people, animals, and places each month with facts, games, activities, and related links.
This is an interactive online encyclopedia, Suitable for older classes for research and project work.
Discover Primary Science is a flagship project run by the Discover Science & Engineering (DSE) awareness programme. The programme aims to show children how important and fun science can be!
Webwise.ie educates on safer usage of the Internet. Aimed at students, teachers and parents it also promotes the positive aspects of using the Internet and informs on how to deal with the risks.
All class levels
If you are a member of the local library, you can access an App or website called BorrowBox. Free ebooks and audio books . Search the children's section.
For Junior classes search Jack Hartmann for all sorts of active reading , spelling and maths games - everything from letter sounds to rhyming words, to sight word lists to simple maths facts.
You-tube also has many e-books and stories Search storytime
Also good for learn to draw lessons Search How to draw
A database of Irish terms containing over 270,000 terms, searchable under both Irish and English versions.
Scholastic Learn at home
Day to day projects for all ages to complete at home (USA based resource)
Have fun teaching
This is a useful website that contains printable material such as worksheets, flashcards and comprehension material.
It also has a list of educational songs and videos.
Short workouts to music for kids


May 12, 2019 Avoiding summer learning loss
- Celebrations: Finding creative ways to mark milestones - May 27, 2020
- Staying social during social distancing - April 26, 2020
- Jobs for everyone in the kitchen - March 25, 2020
by Brittany Gilbert
Summer learning loss is a really big problem. Unfortunately, unless a plan is put in place, there’s not much that can be done. It’s like any muscle. If you stop exercising, you lose or greatly reduce the ability you once had. There are many ways to keep kids’ minds engaged throughout the summer or even learn new things. Part of the battle is knowing that it occurs and knowing you need to work against it.
Supplement with curriculum
Last summer, I found workbooks for math, reading and writing for our first-grader. They were in his favorite theme, Star Wars, and they kept him entertained every day. He almost didn’t realize he was doing school work.
There are so many options, and if you need help looking for something, feel free to email me. This can be a great time to even help your child advance or catch up if they experienced trouble during the school year.
Learn a musical instrument
The benefits of music education are boundless. Not only does it build stronger academic skills, it also teaches discipline and builds confidence. Picking up a musical instrument has lifelong benefits.
The summer can be a great time to take up lessons to see if it’s something your child would want to pursue. Music classes can be hard to find time for during the school year, so fitting them in your schedule may be easier to do during the summer, and you’ll be able to decide if it’s something you want to stick with for the future.
Read, read, read
We’ve probably all seen the literacy charts and statistics about the importance of kids reading at home. Reading 20 minutes a day can reap incredible benefits for a child.
Our family has seen these benefits personally. Recently, I was inspired by families with older children to continue to read aloud, even now that our oldest is reading proficiently.
Find stories or topics that interest your kids and read whatever you can get your hands on. Find books on audio through either the Audible app or Hoopla, which is available through the library, and listen when you don’t feel like reading out loud or whenever you’re in the car. We listened to an entire book in a short amount of time just by turning it on whenever we drove across town. The kids love a good British accent, and I enjoy the break from reading as well. Don’t hesitate to throw some classics or books your kids have never heard of into the mix.
These are just a few suggestions for keeping the brain working throughout the summer months. We don’t ever have to stop learning, but mixing it up a little can be good for us, too. Use the summer break to try new things and learn on the go, wherever vacation may take you. Explain to your children the importance of keeping their brain awake and try to make it fun.


Hobbies Playing Music The Best Piano Method Books for Children in 2020 Share PINTEREST Email Print Playing Music Music Education Basics Music History Music Lessons Music Theory Playing Guitar Playing Piano Home Recording By Live About Editors We’re a team of experienced writers and editors who obsessively scour the retail landscape (both online and off) to find the best products for your life. our editorial process Live About Editors Updated October 10, 2019 Our editors independently research, test, and recommend the best products; you can learn more about our review process here. We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links. Our Top Picks Alfred's Basic Piano Library - Lesson Book Level 1A at Amazon"Suited for children 7 years old and above, it features fun tunes and brings a solid foundation."Bastien Piano Basics Primer Level - Piano at Allegro Music Online"Uses a multi-key approach in teaching children to play the piano."Hal Leonard Piano Method Book 1 - Piano Lessons at Music 44"Introduces finger numbers, the white and black keys and simple rhythm patterns."Music Tree - Time to Begin at Amazon"The book has drills, music theory, games and puzzles to reinforce the lessons."Piano Adventures Lesson Book - Primer Level at Amazon"There is emphasis on musicianship by teaching the proper way to sit, correct finger placement and the use of the pedal." Alfred's Basic Piano Library - Lesson Book Level 1A Courtesy of Amazon Buy on Amazon Suited for children 7 years old and above, the lesson starts by familiarizing the students with the white and black keys of the piano. The music pieces are presented in a simple manner and would be easily understood by young piano learners. It goes on to present space and line notes on both the bass and treble clef, introduction to the flat and sharp signs, intervals and reading the grand staff. The book features such fun tunes as Old Mac Donald and Jingle Bells. A solid foundation to start with. Bastien Piano Basics Primer Level - Piano Buy on Allegromusiconline.com The Bastien Piano Method uses a multi-key approach in teaching children to play the piano. The Piano Basics Primer is suitable for kids 7 and above. Original music pieces are studied in varying music styles such as pop and classical. All the books in the Bastien Piano Basics are correlated and presents lessons in Music Theory, Technic and Performance in a logical sequence. The pages are fully illustrated and colorful that will both attract and inspire young pianists. Hal Leonard Piano Method Book 1 - Piano Lessons Buy on Music44.com The book begins by introducing finger numbers, the white and black keys and simple rhythm patterns. After finger numbers, the child goes on to note names and moves on to intervals. Piano learners are introduced to the grand staff, the bass and treble clefs and reading by interval. The pages are fully illustrated and colorful, has guide illustrations for correct finger placement and large notes for easier reading. Music Tree - Time to Begin Buy on Amazon This is the primer book for children written by Frances Clark. The book has drills, music theory, games and puzzles to reinforce the lessons. The illustrations and lesson presentation are child-friendly. Pages are colorful and notes are large for easy reading. The Music Tree books helps develop creative and independent pianists. Piano Adventures Lesson Book - Primer Level Buy on Amazon Begins by introducing the keyboard, locating the Middle C, note values, note names and the grand staff. There is emphasis on musicianship by teaching the proper way to sit, correct finger placement and the use of the pedal.The lessons are presented in a sequential manner and has reviews for skills already learned.


WHAT IS EXTENDED CARE?
Extended Care is an extension of our students’ day and consists of four main components: Literacy Development, Social-Emotional Learning, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) Activities and Physical activities (indoor and outdoor).
Literacy Development and activities are extended in to the afternoon so that students continue to have the opportunity to build their reading and comprehension skills. Social-emotional learning is offered in order to build students’ understanding of their emotions, self-awareness skills, social-awareness skills , self-management skills, responsible decision-making skills and relationship skills through student and parent groups, various programs and Out-of-School-Time curricula.
In order to keep Extended Care fun AND educational, students are exposed to various STE(A)M activities (such as Nelson-Atkins sessions, School Beats program and the V.I.P. Movement among other programs. Every student has the opportunity to participate in activities that involve physical science, incorporates technology, constructs engineering and design models, creates art and/or applies math.
Finally, students have the chance to exercise and get some fresh air. Outdoors/indoor physical activity is a way to move oxygen to the brain so that students can focus and continue learning late into the afternoon.


Born Geraldine Hamilton on December 1, 1917 in Kingston, Arkansas, renowned sculptor and painter Geraldine McCullough was raised in Chicago from the time she was three years old. McCullough received her B.A. degree in 1948 and her M.A. degree in art education in 1955 from the Art Institute of Chicago.
McCullough taught art at Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago and began exhibiting her paintings at various galleries across the country. Her husband, Lester McCullough helped her with her sculpting debut in 1963 at the Century of Negro Progress Exposition in Chicago. In 1965, she received the George D. Widener Gold Medal for Sculpture for her steel and copper structure, “Phoenix”. (Source: TheHistoryMakers.org)
Why sculptures? McCollough explains here: The History Makers


Curriculum lessons (schools)
At Sussex Music School, we believe that all children have a right to a good quality Music Education.
Sussex Music School provide National Curriculum lessons in schools. Lessons are well structured for progression but allow space and time for creativity. All
children will learn:
- Performing skills
- Music reading skills
- Listening skills including to great musicians and composers
through playing classroom percussion, their own instrument where they learn one outside the
classroom and the use of ICT. Lessons cover the National Curriculum requirements. In primary
schools, a teaching assistant is expected to be present throughout to aid the visiting teacher as
Sessions in Primary schools last ½ hour (KS1) or 45-60 minutes (KS2). A typical secondary lesson lasts 1 hour. At SMS we believe in developing our music workforce, enabling them to use up-to-date teaching methods and fully understand the needs of each learner. To this end our professional teachers receive ongoing training, monitoring and support from our senior team.
Only the best teachers in the field locally are accredited to SMS. Valuing our teachers is paramount as this will translate into the best musical experiences for our students. To view our code of practise, click here.
Schools Enquiry Form


By Teachers, For Teachers
Whether you have been teaching for decades or have only been teaching for a few years, planning out your lessons ahead of time is one of the most effective and efficient things that you can do. Mapping out your teaching strategies ahead of time allows you to be flexible and make any necessary changes that may be needed. Here are five more teaching strategies that you can use to transform your lesson plans.
While it’s important and quite essential to understand the standards and curriculum, it doesn’t mean that you have to stick to using the standard textbook when creating your lesson plans. Try going beyond the textbook to teach concepts through alternative methods that are engaging, like presentations, using technology, or group work activities. All of these things will help boost students’ learning while still following the curriculum. Here are a few more resources to consider using as an alternative or even an extension of the textbook.
Many teachers chose to use the Goldilocks rule when planning their objectives for their lesson plans. This rule means that the objective should not be too broad or too specific, but it should be just right. For example, the objective, “Identify the details in the story” would be too general of a statement, while the objective, “Identify the characters in the book “Charlotte’s Web”” would be too specific. An appropriate statement would be “Identify characters in a story.” The goal is to create a simple objective that uses student-friendly language while defining a skill.
When looking to transform your lessons, you will want to make sure that you use a few visual learning strategies to help engage your students. Research shows that visual aids help arise students’ interest, while helping teachers explain a concept more easily. Here are a few common visual learning aids that make a lesson easier for students to understand.
Effective teachers have found that student choice is a great motivator. So when planning your lessons, give students a few options. You can integrate student choice in a variety of ways: Give them a choice board where they choose a few tasks to complete out of a set of tasks, give students an assignment then give them the choice when to complete it during the week, or allow them to choose who they work with to complete a task. Implementing any of these ideas can influence students’ motivation and help them to succeed in class.
When planning your lessons, try creating your assessment first, this way you can figure out what you want students to know at the end of the lesson. Then you can create the lesson based on that information. When you take this approach, you are not teaching to the test like many teachers feel they have to do. Instead, you are creating a test based on your standards and curriculum, then creating an effective lesson plan based off of that. Planning your assessment helps you make sure that students are hitting their checkpoints and grasping each skill or concept that you are teaching them.
If your goal is to create transformational lessons, then they should focus on enriching the lives of your students. You can do this by carefully crafting your objectives so they are not too broad or too specific, but just right. In addition to that, they should be engaging and go beyond the textbook, incorporate visuals, and give students the opportunity of choice. When you do this, along with planning your assessment first, then you have ultimately transformed your lessons so that your students will be engaged and motivated to learn.
How do you transform your lessons? Do you have any specific teaching strategies that you like to do? Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below, we would love to hear what you have to say.
Janelle Cox is an education writer who uses her experience and knowledge to provide creative and original writing in the field of education. Janelle holds Masters of Science in Education from the State University of New York College at Buffalo. She is a contributing writer to TeachHUB.com, TeachHUB Magazine, and Hey Teach. She was also the Elementary Education Expert for About.com for five years. You can follow her on Twitter @Empoweringk6ed, on Facebook at Empowering K6 Educators, or contact her at Janellecox78@yahoo.com.


Children are natural scientists! Their curiosity as they discover the world around them translates naturally into thinking like a scientist. By incorporating hands-on, authentic science activities, children will problem-solve like real scientists while they build communication, collaboration, and teamwork skills…and have fun doing it!
Young children are ‘thinking like a scientist’ when they hypothesize, experiment, and observe. Here are some fun activities that will allow them to experience what it is like to be a scientist and practice these skills!
One of the basic principles of science is observation. Children love to investigate the world around them, and when they are making observations, they are learning to gather evidence, organize their ideas, and propose explanations. By challenging them to use their five senses to make observations, we are encouraging students to collect and organize information about the natural phenomena that sparks their curiosity. Using the Observing Ants activity, you can help children to observe ants in nature. Since the presence of people does not disturb ants as long as they are left alone, ants are one of the best animals for children to watch closely.
One of the basic principles of scientific investigation is hypothesizing: making predictions about what might happen based on previous knowledge or theory building. You are stating the expected outcome of an experiment or sharing an explanation about a phenomenon in the natural world. Using this Puddle Predictions activity, children will have the opportunity to predict what will happen to the ice and how specific locations can affect its melting time frame.
One of the basic principles of scientific investigation is experimentation. An experiment is a procedure that is executed to confirm or refute a hypothesis. Experimenting with imprints captured in modeling dough or clay builds a “hands-on” understanding of the processes that help scientists discover information about plants and animals that lived many years ago. Use our Fossil Finds activity to introduce fossils to students and allow them to make a hypothesis and carry out the experiment to confirm or refute their statement. They will also learn how they, as scientists, can use fossils to learn more about plants and animals. Don’t have modeling dough or clay at home? Here is a recipe from my mom that you can make at home with limited ingredients!
Mom’s Recipe for Modeling Dough
1 cup flour
½ cup salt
2 Tbsp cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 Tbsp oil
Add a few drops of food coloring to the water and mix. Add oil to the water. Mix all ingredients and cook in pot or pan on low heat until solid. Take off heat & knead. Keep in a plastic bag or container. Refrigerate. It will last up to 1 month.
Providing opportunities for children to “think like a scientist” where they are continuously experimenting, tweaking, and experimenting again gives our children the foundational skills to become the engaged citizens, thoughtful leaders, and learners of tomorrow.
For 3½ years Naomi taught middle and high school content, plus an additional year teaching elementary content. She has taught physical education, multiple levels of math, and science, and has also worked in Product Development and Curriculum writing for four years. Naomi now holds an Oregon teaching license for pre-K through grade 12 health & physical education, plus a Saskatchewan Profession “A” Teaching License. She has presented at international, national, state, and local conferences.
Read more by Naomi Hartl–>


Today we are surrounded by information. It is everywhere, and in many different forms. We use literacy skills constantly as we check our email, shop for groceries, pay our bills, read the news, and many other daily tasks. Not only must we be able to interpret the written word, we need the skills to evaluate this information. What does the food label ‘light’ really mean? When is an email from a stranger legitimate, and when is it spam? How do interest rates really affect me as a consumer? The ability to answer these questions hinges on one thing: literacy skills.
“Literacy skills impact our lives and communities in ways that might surprise you,” said Ali Wassing, CBAL (Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy) Executive Director. “Studies show a strong correlation between high literacy levels, good health and low unemployment. Ultimately, a community is more resilient when its citizens have strong literacy skills.”
Since 2003, community literacy organizations throughout B.C., such as CBAL, have had provincial support to develop community literacy planning committees. They discuss, plan and take action on literacy development for all ages and all needs.
Decoda Community Literacy Planning Guide says: “It is in communities themselves that literacy is practiced and sustained. Therefore, community engagement is essential to creating an environment in which literacy programs can be successful.”
Council of the Ministers of Education, Canada (2009) Literacy : More than Words; Progress Report on Literacy.
In 2007, the province asked boards of education to be more actively involved. They are now responsible for submitting district literacy plans to the Ministry of Education. This comprehensive, annual document combines community literacy plans into one document for each school district.
Community members representing public health, school districts, colleges, municipalities, Chambers of Commerce, Early Childhood Development teams, libraries, community services, employment agencies and many others come together as community literacy planning committees to discuss local needs.
“Interesting partnerships develop and important resources are shared at these community planning meetings,” said Betty Knight, CBAL Regional Program Manager, East Kootenay. “Everyone benefits.”
Books for Babies, Luv to Learn, Parents as Literacy Supporters, Parents Reading, Children Succeeding, One-to-One Reading, Young Parents Education Program, Seniors Computers and English Conversation groups are just a few of the programs introduced through the community planning process.
As awareness grows around health and financial literacy, and of how many aspects of daily life are impacted by literacy, the need for these community collaborations becomes more important.
This year, the community literacy planning committees are opening their doors wider, hosting open discussions about literacy service gaps, assets and possible solutions.
“We hope these meetings will draw more community members into a broader discussion of literacy and lifelong, life-wide learning,” said Desneiges Profili, CBAL Regional Program Manager, West Kootenays. “Everyone should be involved in literacy planning, because literacy affects everyone.”
If you are interested in being a part of your community literacy planning process, visit www.cbal.org and contact your community literacy co-ordinator.
Please support the Black Press and CBAL Reach-A-Reader campaign on Wednesday, October 10. The funds you donate when you buy The Valley Echo will go toward local literacy programs, and community literacy planning. Your donation will change your community!
By learning together, we will grow stronger together.


Elementary Education Excellence
North Side's elementary school program focuses on mastering the basics. Scholars learn through a variety of methods, regularly benefiting from individual and small group attention. The personalized focus is provided by dedicated classroom teachers as well as professionally trained interventionists and volunteer tutors trained by our grade level principals and teachers.
Mornings at North Side are devoted to the basics of reading, writing, and math. After lunch, social studies and science topics are explored as part of daily learning. Music, art, and physical education are taught on a rotation each week.
The foundation of North Side Community School's literacy program is intensive work on reading and writing. Our ELA program stresses the natural, creative, pleasurable, and comprehension process of reading. Our teachers take a balanced approach to literacy acquisition. We’ve recently revitalized our program to ensure our lessons align to Missouri Learning Standards and challenge students to be excited to read and reading to learn. There is a balance of direct instruction in phonics, phonemic awareness, reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Students receive small group and individual instruction in literacy daily. We regularly incorporate guest readers into our day.
Math workshop is a key part of our academic program. Our job is to prepare students to be proficient in fact fluency and understand different procedures for solving diverse math problems. Research supports the need for regular and repeated instruction and practice in basic concepts, memorization of math facts, a focus in the early grades on thinking/conceptualizing mathematically, extra attention to multiplication and division, fractions, and all functions with long numbers in the intermediate grades. At NSCS, we believe all students should carry a growth mindset into the classroom, be confident in their work, inquire, ask questions, and develop a deeper understanding of mathematics aligned to state standards.
North Side uses the mySci K-5 curriculum to explores science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through interactive experiences. Launched in 2005 with a generous grant from the Monsanto Fund, mySci was developed by Washington University's Institute for School Partnership and other local education leaders. The curriculum is comprised of 25 units arranged by grade level and core science area. The units use the 5E Learning Cycle (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate) as the instructional model. Each unit emphasizes scientific and engineering practices and focuses on a core disciplinary idea appropriate for the grade level. The learning progressions enable students to build on prior knowledge.
In pre-k and kindergarten, we teach science as part of theme-based units.
North Side aims to instill a love of music and the arts in our students. We believe music is as natural a form of human expression as speech. Through music instruction and performance, children develop language skills, the power of self-expression, the ability to discipline their senses and minds, the capacity to work together, and an appreciation of the beauty of choral and instrumental music. Students receive instruction in music every week. During the extended school day, select students in 2nd-5th grade are part of the school choir and chimes ensemble.
North Side combines freedom of artistic expression with core knowledge of art elements to create endless creativity in the art room. Our classes expand creative thinking skills, build self-discipline, and develop gross and fine motor skills. We help students discover how art impacts their everyday lives. Our primary focus is to broaden students' awareness of line, shape, form, color, value, texture, space, pattern, balance, emphasis, rhythm, proportion, and unity. Each project is developed based on one or more of these elements, helping students develop a keen awareness of the importance of each. Students are exposed to the impact of art history and develop positive critiquing skills when referencing a work of art.


Kids Will Enjoy Learning to Code, Cook, Swim, and More This Summer at Miriam CollegeThe summer programs are open to boys and girls, ages 3 to 16.SPONSORED CONTENT
Miriam College is offering fun, creative, and cool summer activities designed to keep kids and teens engaged, entertained, and productive during their vacation. And they get to do this at the school’s spacious and green campus.
Because of its strong science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) program, Miriam College has organized summer classes in iCoding and engineering—but packaged in fun way that will challenge kids’ innovation and stir their imagination. Along with these are a variety of enriching lessons in art, music, sports, and more. The summer programs will run the entire month of April and May and are open to girls and boys ages 3 to 16.
Twisted Fairy Tale Camp: Engineering for Kids
Kids will explore fairy tales from different points of view and think of solutions for each obstacle they encounter in the story. They could design a getaway vehicle for the heroine in Kate and the Beanstalk, come up with a method to help the goats of Three Billy Goats Fluff cross a bridge quietly, or even construct a reef to protect the little fish in Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark. Camp facilitators will use engineering concepts and a hands-on approach to engage children so they can better understand the engineering design process. The program is open for kids ages 4 to 7.
Intended for middle schoolers, this summer coding program aims to promote computer science to young learners and, at the same time, enhance their logical skills. Students will learn the basic concepts of coding and the Scratch programming language, which will be used to teach them to create interactive stories, animations, and games.
Discovery Learning 1 and 2
These are fun programs for tots ages 3 and up that will help them develop social, fine, and gross motor skills through games, stories, crafts, and other activities. The programs will also help develop their reading readiness and numeracy skills.
Junior Chef Summer Camp
Perfect for kids ages 8 to 11, this program will focus on the fundamental concepts of cooking and application of basic culinary skills. Children will learn how to use kitchen tools, measure and combine ingredients, and cook using basic kitchen equipment. They will also get to work in a group setting, develop a taste for new and exciting flavors, and fuel their creativity and imaginations.
3-D Art Lab for Kids
Here, kids will explore the world of three-dimensional art through lessons on fundamental art concepts. They will also learn skills in constructing and designing 3-D art projects using various materials like paper, cardboard, clay, and plaster. This program is open from April 25 to May 9, for kids ages 6 to 11.
Contemporary Acappella Group Singing
It offers contemporary a cappella and vocal training to teens 14 years old and above. Students will learn vocal technique, musicianship, and group harmony inspired by groups like ConChords, Acapellago, and Pentatonix, and by music from movies like Pitch Perfect. It will run from April 22 to May 24.
Individual Lessons in Music
Supported by the school’s Center for Applied Music, in this program, award-winning music teachers will guide your children in learning the appropriate skills and techniques in playing a musical instrument of their choice. Kids can choose among individual lessons in voice, violin, guitar, piano, drums, flute, and many more. Each lesson culminates in a recital that will showcase what they have learned. This is open to all ages from April 22 to May 24.
Tiny Tot Ballet 1 and 2
Designed for the young child who loves to move and dance to music, this will be held in the school’s very own Ballet Center. Lessons will put emphasis on motor skills development, coordination, and balance. This is open for kids ages 3 to 4. Baby Ballet is also offered for kids 5 to 6. The program is offered from April 23 to May 23.
This program aims to develop basic skills in young swimmers. It will also cultivate in them the values of courage, perseverance, discipline, and love for water in a recreational, nurturing, and fun environment. Different levels are offered for different age groups, 5 and up. It will run from April to May.
For more information on Miriam College’s summer programs, call 930-6272 loc. 5001, or check the complete list of program offerings by visiting www.mc.edu.ph/summerprograms.


Plants in Motion
Compare offerings and share your lists with others.
How do plants move? Growing from tiny seeds to giant trees, turning to face the sun, slowly reorienting in response to gravity, and rapidly ejecting spores, plants have developed diverse mechanisms for adjusting their bodies in physical space and in response to their environments. This program will explore the fascinating intersection of physics and botany by focusing on plants in motion. We will study plants in the lab and in the field to learn how the laws of physics constrain and enable their form and function and particularly their growth and motion. Topics will include plant growth and reproduction, tropism, transport, and conversion of energy from sunlight to sugar. Labs will involve both observation and experimentation, including the study of plant anatomy, photosynthesis, and water and nutrient transport.
We welcome students new to studying college level science, and will work to create a supportive learning community through hands-on, collaborative work and regular individual and community check-ins. We will pay particular attention to developing foundational skills in quantitative and scientific reasoning through interactive lectures, seminars, workshops, labs, and field trips. Regular assignments and assessments will include reading, homework sets, short papers, lab notebooks, quizzes, and exams. Students will complete a quarter long group research project related to plant physics that will culminate in a popular science and/or science education demonstration at Evergreen’s Spring 2018 Science Carnival.
Students who successfully complete this program will have covered the equivalent of one quarter of introductory botany/plant biology with lab (6 credits), topics in algebra-based physics with lab (6 credits), and and an interdisciplinary research project (4 credits) and will be prepared for further introductory programs with significant science content such as Introduction to Environmental Studies, Introduction to Natural Science, and (for students with precalculus) Matter and Motion.
This offering will prepare you for careers and advanced study in:
biology, botany, ecology, environmental science, mathematics, physics, other natural sciences, and math and science education.
Class Size: 42
50% Reserved for Freshmen
Scheduled for: Day
Located in: Olympia
|2018-03-22||This program now accepts enrollment of all class levels.|


Fun Being a Weather Forecaster Quiz – FREE Online Kids Quizzes
Enjoy this Easy Science for Kids Being a Weather Forecaster Quiz – you’ll get your quiz score after completing this FREE online interactive quiz on Being a Weather Forecaster. You need to answer all the questions to be able to get your score. You can do this fun quiz about Being a Weather Forecaster again, till you get the perfect score and become a quiz champion!
Tip: To get it right the first time, read the page with fun facts about Being a Weather Forecaster.
Being a Weather Forecaster Quiz & FREE Quizzes
Our kids quiz questions are a free online quiz resource for teachers and educators of kids in elementary school, grammar school and preschool. This fun Being a Weather Forecaster quiz helps your kids learn fun facts about Being a Weather Forecaster while enjoying this FREE online quiz for kids.
If your kid is being home-schooled, or is in a special education program, then this is a fun science activity, with reading comprehension benefits for kids in grades one to five. Kids will enjoy competing against their classmates and friends, to see who gets the best score, doing this fun online quiz on Being a Weather Forecaster.
As a reading comprehension educational activity for kids, you can set a timer to encourage kids to do the reading comprehension training in a faster way, or you can simply limit the number of times the kids can read about the Being a Weather Forecaster quiz topic, before they do the actual fun science kids quizzes we offer.
Younger kids who cannot yet read or write, such as Pre-K kids, Kindergarten kids or Preschool kids, will benefit from doing this Being a Weather Forecaster quiz and our other fun kids quizzes, as a listening comprehension activity; you read out to them about the topic and then read the free quiz questions and answers. You will select the Being a Weather Forecaster quiz answer they think is correct, and at the end you get the quiz score. Your child can try multiple times doing this fun kids quiz, till gets the perfect score faster, as your kid learns to listen more carefully and develop a better memory and attention span!
Enjoyed doing this free online quiz about Being a Weather Forecaster? Check out all our other fun Online Kids Quiz Questions and other easy facts about science for kids. Get lengthy info on Being a Weather Forecaster here
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Declan, Tobin. " Fun Being a Weather Forecaster Quiz – FREE Online Kids Quizzes - ." Easy Science for Kids, May 2020. Web. 30 May 2020. < https://easyscienceforkids.com/fun-being-a-weather-forecaster-quiz-free-online-kids-quizzes/ >.
APA Style Citation
Tobin, Declan. (2020). Fun Being a Weather Forecaster Quiz – FREE Online Kids Quizzes -. Easy Science for Kids. Retrieved from https://easyscienceforkids.com/fun-being-a-weather-forecaster-quiz-free-online-kids-quizzes/
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At the beginning of the last century, a wave of disinterest and staleness had settled over Germany’s art scene. Artists from urban, cosmopolitan areas like Berlin, Munich and Dresden had become frustrated. They felt restricted by the strict bourgeois artistic ideals and state-sponsored traditional art education that was typical of the country’s culture and expectation at the time.
By 1905, a number of painters had begun to rebel. Instead of starchy, straightforward compositions, they loaded their canvases with bright, bold, often clashing shards of colour (reminiscent of Expressionism in general) and pared-down, jarringly distorted forms. The result of their work was raw, shocking and deeply emotive.
This new group of artists became known as German Expressionists. They were the forerunners of an experimental, multifaceted movement joined together in the belief that art should exude strong emotion whilst challenging the era’s social conservatism at the same time. A particular young group based in Dresden led by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner started things off. Their compatriots in Munich, spearheaded by Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and Gabriele Münter, also came together under the name Der Blaue Reiter a few years later. Both factions created work which was deeply inspired by the subconscious and oozed with emotion. Indeed, these vibrant, distorted images that populated their paintings would go on to set the scene for mid-century abstraction later on.
In the years between the First and Second World Wars, the concept of New Objectivity grew in strength. Urban artists such as Otto Dix, Max Pechstein, and Conrad Felixmüller honed in on a political discourse often related to the misery of World War I and its psychological toll on the citizens of Germany. Despondent, gaunt, ill-looking individuals fill these works. Indeed, many pieces were rendered in stark black and white prints whose shadowy palettes and simplified forms only served to emphasise their dark, mournful subject matter.


The key to effective writing and speaking is English grammar. Whether you are just now learning the basics of grammar or if you need a refresher, this course will help you develop the foundational skills you need. In this course, you’ll explore the eight parts of speech, punctuation and mechanics, foundational sentence construction, and we’ll even get into the details of phrases, clauses, problem words, common grammar mistakes, and much more! An instructor will guide you every step of the way as you learn grammar through hands-on, practical exercises. You’ll also learn through short videos, examples, and even fun games. Take your writing and speaking to the next level of excellence!
Grammar Refresher II
Take your grammar and writing skills to the next level! In this course, you’ll review the foundational elements of grammar, including the parts of speech, and master the basics of punctuation and mechanics.
Next, you’ll explore sentence structure, nouns and pronouns, and you’ll work with the different kinds of verb tenses. You’ll also explore adjective and adverb use and be introduced to some “best practices” for using these parts of speech effectively in your writing.
Then, you’ll take a look at phrases and clauses, as well as parallelism, coordination, and subordination. You’ll see how different phrases and clauses fit together in sentences so that your writing is clear, concise, and meaningful.
Finally, you’ll put your skills to work as you explore some different kinds of business writing, paragraph writing, and even formal essay writing. By the time you’re done with the course, you’ll not only have the advanced grammar skills you need, you’ll also understand how to use those skills in practical ways.
• Internet access
• One of the following browsers:
o Mozilla Firefox
o Microsoft Internet Explorer (9.0 or above)
o Google Chrome
• Adobe PDF plug-in (a free download obtained at Adobe.com .)
Note: This course teaches American English grammar. If you're an ESL student who isn't yet fluent in written and spoken English, please consider enrolling in Grammar for ESL Students with Sabri Bebawi.


Revisiting Indigenous primary school experiencesResearch 4 Sep 2014 3 minute read
Revisiting Indigenous primary school experiences
The Longitudinal Literacy and Numeracy Study for Indigenous Students (ILLANS) tracked the development of English literacy and numeracy skills in a group of Indigenous students from the beginning of primary school until the end of Year 6.
The study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 collected data over the first three years of school from Indigenous students who commenced their primary education in the year 2000, at 13 schools across Australia. The participating schools were nominated by education systems as examples of good practice in education for Indigenous students. For Phase 2, students from 11 of the original 13 schools, as well as 14 additional schools, were followed through Years 3 to 6, from 2003 to 2006.
The study revealed that on average, in the first year of primary school Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in the study achieved similarly in literacy and numeracy. By the start of Year 3, however, there was a gap in average achievement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. While Indigenous students improved their literacy and numeracy skills over the last four years of primary school at a similar rate to their non-Indigenous peers, the gap in average achievement evident at the start of Year 3 remained until the end of primary school.
Looking beyond the averages, there was enormous variability in literacy and numeracy achievement within as well as between groups. Many Indigenous students achieved at a high level in literacy and numeracy relative to their peers and, in some schools, performed as well as, or better than, non-Indigenous students.
In order to identify the critical factors that support Indigenous students to achieve highly at school, the study collected data on student background, teacher-rated student achievement and attentiveness, and student ratings of their school’s climate and themselves as learners. A number of school- and student-level factors related to literacy and numeracy achievement emerged.
School climate was identified as an important predictor of student achievement in both literacy and numeracy. Students who provided favourable ratings of their school’s climate, such as the learning environment and student-teacher relations, recorded higher literacy and numeracy achievement.
Of the student-level factors, attentiveness, language spoken at home, absenteeism and parental occupation were associated with both literacy and numeracy achievement. Students rated as more attentive by their teachers tended to record higher literacy and numeracy achievement, while students who spoke Standard Australian English at home also tended to achieve more highly than students who spoke other languages at home. Poorer literacy achievement was more common among students who had frequent absences from school and among students whose parents were in less skilled occupational categories.
Some enabling factors identified in the study included teaching that builds on students’ strengths and adapts to their different learning styles. Having strong links between schools and Indigenous communities, promoting student attendance, and developing and maintaining a school culture in which Indigenous students feel included and supported to learn were also identified as factors enabling success.
Read the full report:
The findings of Phase 1 of ILLANS were reported in ACER Research Monograph 57, Supporting English Literacy and Numeracy Learning for Indigenous Students in the Early Years, available at <research.acer.edu.au/indigenous_education/10>.
The findings of Phase 2 of ILLANS were first presented at ACER’s Research Conference 2011, on the theme Indigenous Education: Pathways to success, and were subsequently published as ACER Research Monograph 65, Literacy and Numeracy Learning: Lessons from the Longitudinal Literacy and Numeracy Study for Indigenous Students, available at <research.acer.edu.au/acer_monographs/7>.


- What Should the Music Education Profession Expect of Philosophy?
- Rethinking Philosophy, Re-Viewing Musical-Emotional Experiences
- Voicing <i>Imbas:</i> Performing a Philosophy of Music Education
- Philosophy of Music Education as Art of Life: A Deweyan View
- Uncomfortable with Immanence: The Nature and Value of Music and Music Education as Singular or Supplemental
- Learning to Live Music: Musical Education as the Cultivation of a Relationship between Self and Sound
- The Grain of the Music: Does Music Education “Mean” Something in Japan?
- Musical Education: From Identity to Becoming
- Teaching Practices in Persian Art Music
- Understanding Music’s Therapeutic Efficacy: Implications for Music Education
- The Impossible Profession
- Education in Latin American Music Schools: A Philosophical Perspective
- Must Music Education Have an Aim?
- Cultivating Virtuous Character: The Chinese Traditional Perspective of Music Education
- Ethical Dimensions of School-Based Music Education
- Engaging Student Ownership of Musical Ideas
- Understanding Music as the Philosophical Focus of Music Education
- Musical Heuristics: Contributions to the Understanding of Musical Creative Processes
- Nurturing the Songcatchers: Philosophical Issues in the Teaching of Music Composition
- Avoiding the Dangers of Postmodern Nihilist Curricula in Music Education
- Good for What, Good for Whom?: Decolonizing Music Education Philosophies
- Place, Music Education, and the Practice and Pedagogy of Philosophy
- On Informalities in Music Education
- Music Education for “All My Relations”
- But Is It Philosophy?
Abstract and Keywords
This article discusses key aspects of ethics that merit being acknowledged if teaching music in schools is to be most fully ethical. Ethics is a complex and highly contested philosophical discipline. The article sums up three formal ethical theories—duty, consequentialist, and virtue ethics—and common grounds that have been identified between or among them which can contribute to an applied, professional ethics of school music. It analyzes certain teaching practices in connection with more than one theory, thus providing evidence that serious ethical weaknesses are involved and that those practices are especially in need of an applied ethics to help guide teachers in those situations.
Thomas A. Regelski is Distinguished Professor of music (Emeritus), SUNY Fredonia NY. He took his Masters degree in choral music education at Teachers College, Columbia University and his PhD in Comparative Arts at Ohio University.
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a) Sex and Age: This is a heterogeneous community comprising of both males and females in almost equal ratios. Majority of the members are adults and are married. b) Income levels: Most individuals in this community are in the middle class and lower class. Many live within $10 a day.c) Occupations: With a few exceptions of white collar jobs, over 60% of the working class categories do the blue collar jobs. However, most women are merely house-wives.d) Educational levels: Most adults of the age above 50 years have elementary education, especially the women. The youths are quite learned and most are in colleges.e) Ethnic identities: Ethnically, this community is fairly heterogeneous. Half of the population is composed of the Whites. The next lager ethnic is Hispanic Americans. The Asian-Americans are the least. f) Family structures: Most families are nuclear. a few are extended. However, single parent homes consisting of widows and unmarried mothers are very commong) Lifestyle behaviors that influence health status: Poor eating habits by most individuals suffering from Cystic Fibrosis have always worsened their conditions by igniting Diabetes. The youths who engage in drug and substance abuse and unprotected sex also risk serious health problems.h) Health status: The prevalence of Cystic Fibrosis has rendered most people sicki) Health concerns: It is always very hard for the lay community to identify the symptoms of CF, thus, suffer for a quite a long time before diagnosis.


By: G8 Education Team
For children, play is serious learning. Play gives children time and space to explore, experiment, and create. Through play, your child learns and practices literacy and numeracy skills, physical skills, vocabulary, and cognitive skills including concentration, memory and problem-solving.
Playing with blocks or Lego™ is a common activity for children at home and in childcare centres. While fine motor skills usually come to mind in terms of the benefits of block play, there are many other benefits for your child such as developing foundational numeracy and scientific skills, along with new vocabulary. The many benefits of block play for your child’s learning and development can be seen here:
Blocks and Lego™ are examples of open-ended materials. Children are naturally innovative and creative, and love to play with materials or items that are open to plenty of possibilities.
Cardboard boxes become planes, cars, trucks, swimming pools, spaceships, zoos, hotels and so much more. Sheets or towels become cubby houses or hammocks. Stones, leaves, sticks and other natural materials become artworks as children arrange them within a frame or out on a footpath or grass. Wool or string become a maze as children stretch and tie long pieces across the lounge room, hallway or the backyard to move over, under, through and around. Everyday activities involving play with open-ended materials provide foundational skills for later learning in a range of areas.
Your home is full of rich materials for children to explore; from pots and pans in kitchen cupboards, to small boxes your child can fill with treasures. Allow your child to lead the play and delight in their discoveries. Listen to their ideas and questions and use everyday moments to help them make connections in their learning.
It is important to slow down with young children. Listen to what your child is saying through their actions and words and consider how you might respond to support your child to extend their interest or to think deeper.
Children are always learning when they play. As an adult, you play a critical role in facilitating and building on play opportunities to help your child develop foundational skills for learning and their overall development. You are your child’s first and most important teacher. Play provides both of you with the vehicle or context through which your child learns best.


Strong home learning environment in preschool years boosts educational achievement at secondary school
8th July 2019
The positive effects of a rich home learning environment during a child’s early years continue into adolescence and help improve test scores later in life, according to a new study published in School Effectiveness and School Improvement.
This research shows pre-schoolers whose parents regularly read and talked about books with them scored better on math tests at age 12. The study, lead by Dr Simone Lehrl of the University of Bamberg, is one of the first to provide detail on the importance of early years home learning on children’s development up to early adolescence.
Researchers studied 229 German children from age three until secondary school and participants’ literacy and numeracy skills were tested annually in their three years of preschool (ages 3-5), and again when they were 12 or 13 years old.
They found that children gained from home stimulation in their preschool years in literacy, language and arithmetic skills which, in turn, led to higher outcomes in reading and mathematical skills in secondary school, regardless of the home learning environment then.
Dr Lehrl said: “Our results underline the great importance of exposing children to books for development not just in literacy but numeracy too: early language skills not only improve a child’s reading but also boost mathematical ability.
“Encouraging caregivers to engage with their children in direct literacy activities, shared book reading and advanced verbal interactions during reading, and to include language and mathematical content during these activities, should promote children’s reading and mathematical abilities in secondary school. Such experiences lay a strong foundation for later school success.”
Formal literacy activities not only boosted language skills and reading comprehension but also improved numerical skills. Book exposure and the quality of verbal interactions regarding mathematical content during shared book reading (for example, talking about numbers and counting) when children were of preschool age were also associated with better math outcomes at age 12. The effect also worked the other way with the quality of parent-child interaction regarding mathematics also improving children’s language skills.
Aspects of the children’s home learning environment – formal literacy and numeracy activities, book exposure (parents owning books and reading to the child), and the quality of verbal parent-child interactions regarding language and mathematics – were also assessed and researchers ensured they accounted for background variables, such as gender, maternal education and socio-economic status, which affect the home learning environment in the results.


Facts About Neptune for Kids Video
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Watch this fun video that shares the top 10 crazy facts about planet Neptune. In this video, you will learn about how one day in Neptune lasts for 16 hours and 6 minutes, how a year lasts for 164.79 Earth years and how a 100 pound object on the planet would weigh 115 pounds. You will also learn about how there is no surface to stand on in Neptune, how 57 Earth sized planets can fit inside Neptune, how it is the first planet discovered by using mathematics in 1864 and how according to NASA, Neptune now officially has 14 moons since 2013. Learn more fun facts about planet Neptune with this short video.
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Mayra and I are so excited to finally have this project come to fruition. We hope that with this book, you as a teacher, feel better able to provide your students with practice in areas of literacy that are essential for beginning Spanish readers.
Many people have asked what prompted us to start creating materials for bilingual/dual classrooms. For me, I can tell you that it is an embarrassing story to recount. I was hired on as a first time teacher in the mid-1990s. As a quick history lesson here, I was hired pre ESEA (Every Student Succeeds Act signed in 2015) and pre NCLB Act (No Child Left Behind Act signed in 2002). This means that accountability for the successful education of ELs (English Learners) was at a minimum and there were no standards such as WIDA (World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment) or ELPA-21 (English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st Century) which states could choose to adopt and implement.
When my district chose to implement a Transitional Bilingual Education program I did not receive any training on Spanish literacy. It was a common assumption that simply because I spoke Spanish, I would be able to teach Reading and Writing in Spanish. I tried to teach my first graders how to read using Spanish vocabulary and English Literacy pedagogy.
SPANISH VS ENGLISH LITERACY
Instead of using my student’s natural linguistics strengths in syllable formation and recall, I tried teaching my students individual letter sounds like we do in English. It wasn’t until we hired Mayra on as a bilingual teacher the following year that I learned about the differences between English and Spanish literacy development. MA ME MI MO MU! I had unknowingly done a disservice to my students and didn’t want other teachers making the same mistake. So that is when the inspiration to create READ products began!


What is the Suzuki Method?
The Suzuki method is an educational philosophy based on basic principles of language acquisition and Dr. Suzuki’s belief that “the potential of every child is unlimited”. The ideas of parent responsibility, loving encouragement, and constant repetition are some of the unique features of the Suzuki approach.
Who was Shinichi Suzuki?
Suzuki education is a teaching method based on the observations of Dr. Shinichi Suzuki (1898-1998). He observed that all Japanese children speak Japanese and that he could apply this process of language learning to music education. He recognized that talent was not inborn, but learned and a child's environment, not genetics, was key to their success.
“Musical ability is not an inborn talent, but an ability which can be developed. Any child who is properly trained can develop musical ability, just as all children develop the ability to speak their mother tongue. The potential of every child is unlimited.”
Dr. Suzuki believed that like speech development, music education begins at birth. From birth it is the parent's responsibility to enrich their child's environment with music. Suzuki Method is geared for students to begin as early as 3 years old, however it is never too late to start.
Listening is a crucial part to the Suzuki Method, much like a child will spend many years listening to their mother tongue, Suzuki students should listen daily to their repertoire. Listening aids greatly in students to learn their pieces quickly but also in unifying tempos and improving ear training.
Learning with Parents- The Suzuki Triangle
In the Suzuki Method, parents are involved in the musical learning of their child. Parents do not need to be trained musicians but learn alongside their child. They must attend private and group lessons alongside their child and serve as "home teachers" during the week. Occasionally a parent will learn before or alongside their child to understand what a child is expected to learn. The Suzuki Triangle is comprised of the student, parent and teacher, and together they work together to create an enjoyable learning environment.
Repetition & Review
Repetition is another key element to the Suzuki Method. Repetition is essential to learning to play an instrument, like vocabulary, students continue to build and expand their musical vocabulary. Students constantly review pieces by polishing and upgrading them with new knowledge. Review allows students to participate nationwide with other Suzuki students at institutes, workshops, and group classes/concerts.
A common myth with Suzuki students is that they don't learn how to read music since the method is focus on learning by ear. Much like language, Dr. Suzuki believe that reading should come second. Children learn to speak long before they learn to read, and Dr. Suzuki found children should develop basic technical competence on their instruments before being taught to read music.
Learning with Other Children
Children learn best when something is fun and they are around peers. Suzuki group classes, institutes and workshops are where students can achieve these settings. Participation in regular group lessons and performances, they learn from and are motivated by other students. I strongly encourage students to always attend group classes and recitals, as these are some of the most valuable aspects of learning to play an instrument!
Enjoying Your Child's Learning
Through your active participation in your child's lessons and home practice, you will get to enjoy alongside your child their learning and progress! A deeper bond will be formed as you conquer new challenges and meet new levels of cello playing. You will be a part of a great community of parents and children who are all working and celebrating the same goals.


Catch Up Numeracy
Catch Up Numeracy is a one-to-one mathematics intervention for pupils struggling with numeracy (with a number/maths age of 6-11). Each session includes explanation, modelling, activity, discussion, questioning and recording.The programme also includes a bank of assessments which can be used to monitor progress, set targets and identify the needs of individual pupils.
15 minute sessions delivered twice weekly by teachers, teaching assistants or mentors. A coordinator for each school.
A complete training and support package for each intervention, centred on 3 half-day training sessions for the staff who will deliver the intervention. A minimum of 2 staff are trained in addition to the coordinator, to increase flexibility.
The Education Endowment Foundation ran a project investigating the effectiveness of Catch Up Numeracy, which found that one-to-one support by teaching assistants led to a noticeable improvement in numeracy skills at primary level with a mean effect size of +0.21. There was little evidence that Catch Up Numeracy provided any additional gains in numeracy outcomes over and above those from one-to-one teaching itself.
The Education Endowment Foundation efficacy study (2013) demonstrates that one to one teaching with TAs is an effective strategy to increase numeracy skills in Year 2-6 pupils. Sub-group analysis did not identify any differential effects for pupil gender or eligibility for free school meals.
The EEF ran a further project testing whether Catch Up Numeracy has a clear impact over and above the effect of typical one-to-one support by teaching assistants. This evaluation had a low security rating and the results have not been included in the E4I rating. The following factors reduced the security of the trial: 17% of the pupils who started the trial were not included in the final analysis; there were some important differences in prior attainment between the pupils in Catch Up Numeracy schools and those in the active control group; in addition, there was evidence of a ‘floor effect’ in the tests, which made it more difficult to capture and compare achievement for lower attaining pupils (who are the target pupils for this intervention), and thus harder to accurately estimate the size of the impact of Catch Up Numeracy.


Alfred Nobel was a Swedish inventor, chemist and weapons developer. He is best known for the invention of dynamite. His complete name was Alfred Bernhard Nobel. He was born on October 21, 1833. His father Immanuel Nobel was an engineer, architect, inventor and industrialist.
He invented both the process of making plywood and the torpedo. Immanuel played a major role in influencing Alfred’s interest in science. Alfred was in his 20s at the time when he filed for his first patent. This patent was for a gas meter. He held 350 patents and established 90 armaments factories.
Fast Facts: –
- He established the five Nobel Prizes through his will on 27 November 1895.
- Alfred Nobel also has an appreciation for literature. He often wrote poetry and drafted a few novels.
- Just before his death, he also wrote a tragic play named as ‘Nemesis’.
- The synthetic element called Nobelium in the periodic table is named after him.
- In September 1864, his nitroglycerine factory blew up killing five people including his brother Emil.
- In the same year, Alfred got the blasting cap detonator patented.
- Alfred Nobel was once called the Merchant of Death by the press because he made his fortune through explosives.
- He made his last discovery in the realm of explosives in 1896. It was progressive smokeless powder.
- He suffered from chronic bad health. He died of a stroke on December 10, 1896, in San Remo, Italy.
- He left his wealth in the trust to fund the awards bearing his name.
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You may cut-and-paste the below MLA and APA citation examples:
MLA Style Citation
Declan, Tobin. " Fun Facts for Kids about Alfred Nobel ." Easy Science for Kids, Jun 2020. Web. 02 Jun 2020. < https://easyscienceforkids.com/alfred-nobel/ >.
APA Style Citation
Tobin, Declan. (2020). Fun Facts for Kids about Alfred Nobel. Easy Science for Kids. Retrieved from https://easyscienceforkids.com/alfred-nobel/
We've recently added
- How To Build a Winogradsky Column and Learn About Soil Science
- Potato Light Bulb Experiment
- How To Use Friction to Pick Up Bottle of Rice
- How To Make Popcorn Dance
- Vinegar and Baking Soda Fire Extinguisher
- Power of Bleach
- Comparing Surface Tension of Liquids with Pennies
- Ice Cream Chemistry
- Using Distillation to Purify Water
- Filter Water with Dirt
- Build a Balloon Barometer
- Build Your Very Own Seismograph
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The new inspection framework has suddenly put music back on the map in a major way, which puts me in the unusual position of feeling grateful to Ofsted! Finally primary schools are able to prioritise subjects like music which may have languished uncared for and forgotten as schools scrambled to prove their worth through English, Maths and Science.
Now that schools are able to focus on the full range of subjects, we need to be careful that we are not simply trying to tick boxes for Ofsted, otherwise we will create a whole other set of limitations that we end up having to work to. In fact, it’s important to remember that the Deep Dive process actually isn’t about the subject, it’s about using the subject as a lense through which to identify systemic successes or problems across the school. We therefore shouldn’t be worrying about ‘what Ofsted want to see in music’ but about ‘how to do music well.’
How to do music well is a context-specific consideration. ‘Good’ (in a non-Ofsted sense!) primary music provision will look different when delivered by specialists compared to non-specialists. It will look different depending on the teaching resources chosen. It will look different in urban, suburban, and rural schools. It will reflect the culture of the school community in the genres and traditions studied, and its definition of cultural capital. Above all it will meet the specific needs of the specific children that you teach, taking into account the specific skills of your staff and the specific resources that you have available.
So don’t let anyone tell you that you have to do music a certain way, not even if that person is an Ofsted inspector!
Dr Elizabeth Stafford, February 2020
Copyright © 2020 Music Education Solutions®. All Rights Reserved.
Our next public Dive Deeper into Music course takes place in London on 18th March. Click here for information and booking.
If you are based in Oldham, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Richmond, Cumbria or Oxfordshire, contact your music hub to enquire about our Dive Deeper into Music courses taking place in these areas.


Language, literacy and numeracy beyond 2012Research 23 Apr 2013 4 minute read
The Commonwealth Government in August called for feedback to support its review of elements of its Language, Literacy and Numeracy Program. ACER’s submission focused on the assessment of language, literacy and numeracy skills, as Dave Tout explains.
ACER’s submission to the Commonwealth Government’s Creating a More Flexible LLNP in 2013-16 discussion paper argues that the assessment of language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) skills is the key to effective teaching and learning in the VET sector.
There’s now a general consensus across industry, VET and governments that improving the LLN skills of Australians is vital to our economy and society. Recognition that Australia has a significant core skills gap and that core skills are directly related to workforce training and productivity has resulted in a number of key reports on the challenges, and programs and strategies to improve the LLN skills of the Australian workforce.
As the 2011 No more excuses report from the Industry Skills Councils and AgriFood Skills Australia noted, the challenges are manifold. According to the No more excuses report, we need to better identify the LLN skills of learners before they commence training, and target funding to address identified LLN skill gaps. We need to include clear advice on LLN skill requirements in Training Packages. We need a strategy to develop greater national awareness of LLN issues, including the de-stigmatisation of LLN skill development. We need to increase capacity in the VET system to support the LLN skill development needs of learners and workers. In sum, we need better-targeted solutions for building the LLN skills of learners and workers.
Research indicates that assessment plays a critical role in effective teaching and learning. ACER Chief Executive Professor Geoff Masters has described the process that teachers take in addressing the learning needs of their students as a ‘decision making loop’ in which a teacher’s understanding of a student’s current level of understanding, knowledge of how to address the situation and the resources required are translated into action, which leads to improved learning outcomes.
This approach needs to be encouraged and supported in the LLN sector within VET. Consistent and effective methods of assessing and reporting allow trainers to better understand individual learner strengths and weakness; set goals and targets for learners; direct attention, resources and expertise; and adapt teaching practice to achieve greater student success.
However, as the ACER submission noted, evidence suggests that there are low levels of knowledge of effective LLN assessment practices among the VET training workforce. This includes a lack of high-level understanding of the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF). While the ACSF is a useful and effective tool for the assessment and benchmarking of adult LLN skills, there are a number of challenges in using it for assessment, particularly given the complexity of the framework and its breadth of content and levels. Trainers require specialist LLN knowledge and experience in order to unpack and translate the ACSF into practice. As well, the ability to develop and write good assessment tasks, that are valid, reliable and fair, is not an easy task, and is one that is often undervalued. To write good assessment tasks against a sophisticated framework as the ACSF is an added challenge. Given the concerns over VET workforce capacity in LLN this is a critical issue we need to address and support.
Another critical issue that the ACER submission highlighted was the need to target numeracy explicitly. The shortage of qualified and experienced trainers with expertise in numeracy means that training providers need to carefully manage and monitor the provision of numeracy teaching and support for effective LLN service provision.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2008). Adult literacy and life skills survey, summary results. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Industry Skills Councils (Australia) & AgriFood Skills Australia. (2011). No more excuses: an industry response to the language, literacy and numeracy challenge. Industry Skills Councils, Australia.
Masters, G.N. (2008) Understanding and Leading Learning Victorian Principals’ Big Day Out. Melbourne: Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
Read the Commonwealth Government’s Creating a More Flexible LLNP in 2013-16 discussion paper.


Georgia Shape is excited to feature the first program that targets early childhood education for June’s School of the Month!
Little Cats of Dalton Public Schools is a multigenerational learning program for 3- to 4-year-old children and their parents. Little Cats was developed seven years ago after many students in the Dalton area were not able to enroll in a Pre-K program due to a limited number of slots available. Today, the program serves 50 children for two hours, two days a week for free.
Little Cats is coordinated by “family engagement coordinators” who help families prepare for their child to start kindergarten through organized activities. The classes share simple literacy and craft ideas for home. Most of the families that attend Little Cats are Hispanic, and Spanish is the primary language spoken. The program helps the families in their home language and provides children going into kindergarten with confidence, emphasizing their bilingual and bi-literate strengths.
In January, Little Cats family engagement coordinators participated in an Eat. Move. Talk! training to learn how their principles could be added to classroom activities. Eat. Move. Talk! is a program at the Georgia Department of Public Health that works with early childhood teachers to increase healthy eating, moving and talking with babies and children to support healthy body and brain development, and school readiness.
“The training was wonderful,” said Saira Laruy, a Pre-K family engagement coordinator. “It included hands-on learning materials for implementing healthy eating, moving and talking with our students, and it provided easy ideas to share with our parents.”
Overall, the Eat. Move. Talk! training helped the coordinators better understand and communicate the importance of a healthy lifestyle and how establishing healthy habits can also support language and literacy development with families.
Prior to attending the Eat. Move. Talk! training, the family engagement coordinators had healthy snack activities in the classroom where parents provided the snacks. Now they are able to integrate positive discussions with parents about the quality and healthiness of the snacks provided. They also now display posters about the importance of eating healthy, moving and talking with your child on the Little Cats classroom walls for families to see and talk about.
The Little Cats family engagement coordinators recently used lessons learned from the Eat. Move. Talk! training on Valentine’s Day. A red-themed healthy food activity was organized that included a taste test of red fruits like cherries, strawberries and watermelons. The children were asked to describe the color, texture and taste to support language development and skills.
The family engagement coordinators have also shared resources and ideas from the training with primary and secondary school teachers within Dalton Public Schools. One coordinator shared methods for exercising on a chair with the special education teachers with wheelchair-bound middle school students in order to help the students stay healthy and have fun.
To learn more about Dalton Public Schools visit their website.
To learn more about Eat. Move. Talk!, click here.