And really, even if every college-prep high school student could mentally multiply 4 times 25 or 10 times 10, would that really bring us closer to reducing the alarming innumeracy rate in America? Not by much.
Taken from a random website:
Functional illiteracy refers to the inability of an individual to use reading, speaking, writing and computational skills in everyday life situations. For example, a functionally illiterate adult is unable to fill out an employment application, follow written instructions, or read a newspaper. In short, when confronted with printed materials, adults without basic literacy skills cannot function effectively.
Tweaking a bit:
Functional innumeracy refers to the inability of an individual to use mathematical applications, mathematical terms, ciphering, and computational skills in everyday life situations. For example, a functionally innumerate adult is unable to do simple mental arithmetic, solve a simple word problem, or apply mathematics to real-life situations. In short, when confronted with numbers, adults without basic numeracy skills cannot function effectively.
I think innumeracy is a real problem in our nation, and sadly unrecognized as such by most. Numeracy is not the same thing as plugging-and-chugging one's way through the typical public school mathematics course. Mathematics is about problem-solving, not just rotely repeating steps, just as reading is not just about sounding out syllables. Reading begins with phonics (which is sorely missing from today's classrooms, mind you), but should move on to incorporate synthesizing, reasoning, and applying. The same goes for mathematics, and unfortunately what is disguised as mathematics in our nation is barely the phonics of mathematics.
Our high school math textbooks are still teaching Dick and Jane, and most students will never get the opportunity to read Jane Austen, George Elliot, Charles Dickens, or C.S. Lewis. I would hate reading too if I was still reading Dick and Jane, so it's no wonder mathematics is so vehemently hated by so many. Convincing most students that math is fun is like trying to convince someone that cherries taste good, if all the person has ever had is cherry cough syrup. It's a bitter imitation!
As a high school math tutor, I submit that what most high school students need is not a regular math tutor to reteach them what they were not able to learn or refused to learn from their teacher. What they need is not so much to learn how to solve by factoring, or how to graph an ellipse, or how to calculate the probability of drawing a green marble from a given bag. They need to learn how to learn.
Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life. I would add, show a man the beauty of fishing, and you've hooked him for a lifetime.


Title: Full STEAM Ahead with Tree SmART
Date: Saturday, March 16, 2013
Time: 10am – 1pm
Cost: $35 (3 professional development hours w/ certificate)
Instructor: June Julian
Refreshments will be provided
Description: Art teachers have challenged the recent STEM initiative that emphasizes Science, Technology, Engineering and Math in the K-12 classroom, to also include Art. The Tree SmART workshop will provide experiences in ways that teachers can incorporate these new STEAM principles into the art classroom using trees as a theme. They will complete two SmART tree projects that integrate technology, science and math that they can take back and use in their classroom.
Activities: Participants will be introduced to various Internet resources including the STEAM Web site, the Tree Ring Institute, and the New Jersey Big Tree Program. They will engage in hands-on activities that may be adapted for all grade levels to incorporate design thinking and problem solving. Viewing tree cross- sections as source material, they will assess annual rings for type, age, environmental factors and visual patterns. They will create radial composition drawings that may be further developed later in other media. Small groups will work collaboratively using the steps in the Engineering Design Process to plan and test their prototype for a walking labyrinth inspired by their selected tree ring configuration. They will understand the mathematical methods used by the New Jersey Tree Program to nominate state champions, and using the Big Tree Guide, will research ones that are near their homes and schools.
Bio: June Julian, Ed.D., is an exhibiting visual artist and art educator. With extensive teaching experience in both the K-12 classroom and in the graduate Art & Design Education program at The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Dr. Julian has widely championed her commitment to the integration of Internet technologies in Ecology Art Education. She has presented her work at numerous professional conferences and workshops, and has published her research in Art Education. Her paintings, lithographs and fiber pieces address various ecology themes including vanishing corals, rising tides, and deforestation. http://www.inliquid.com
Space is limited. Please click here to register online now.


The Library, College Square, Bristol BS1 5TS
0117 353 2052
RECEPTION - Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum
The Foundation Stage is for three-five year-olds. The curriculum is organised into seven areas of learning.
The PRIME areas are:
Communication and language development involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situations.
Physical development involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive, and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food.
Personal, social and emotional development involves helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour in groups; and to have confidence in their own abilities.
The SPECIFIC areas are:
Literacy development involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children must be given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interest.
Mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers and in calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces, and measures.
Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.
Expressive arts and design involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities.
KEY STAGE 1 CURRICULUM
Here are the links to our Year 1 and Year 2 Curriculum Maps. Please click on the links below to view or download.
KEY STAGE 2 CURRICULUM
Here are the links to our Year 3 Curriculum Map. Please click on the links below to view or download.


SUSAN CAMPBELL MA BEd PGDip(Dyslexia) AMBDA PATOSS APC
6 Hampton Court Ave
Phone: 0208 398 5900
CHILDREN 6-18 UNIVERSITY ADULTS
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT considers:
Intellectual abilities, verbal, visual, and visual-spatial cognitive reasoning skills
Attainment in reading, spelling, writing, number and language development skills
Auditory and visual working memory, and speed of processing information skills
DIAGNOSTIC - identifying dyslexia, a specific learning difficulty.
SCHOOL / COLLEGE - Examination Access Arrangements
UNIVERSITY - Assessment for DSA (Disabled Students Allowance)
It has a neurological basis and is characterised by delays in literacy development that are often unexpected in relation to age and other cognitive and academic abilities, and have been resistant to appropriate educational opportunities.
Underlying factors include weaknesses in working memory, difficulties with phonological processing (mapping sound patterns onto letters) and speed of processing information, which create barriers to learning. Dyslexia is a condition that can affect people of all ages and abilities.
Characteristics commonly associated with dyslexia:
► Unexplained difficulties with literacy
Standard of reading and writing falls below that expected for ability
► Difficulty remembering instructions, lists, telephone numbers
► Inconsistent spelling - spell the same word in a variety of ways
► Able to answer questions orally but unable to write them down
► Difficulty organising written work – stories, essays, reports
Difficulty telling right from left or reading maps
► Disorganised - lose possessions, forget appointments
► Lack confidence in own abilities – poor self esteem and motivation


MENZA Waiata – 'Hutia' by Hirini Melbourne.
Listen to our Waiata / Welcome Song “Hutia” by Hirini Melbourne
Hutia te rito
Hutia te rito o te harakeke
Kei hea te kōmako e kō?
Kī mai ki ahau
He aha te mea nui?
He at ate mea nui o te ao?
Māku e kī atu
He tangata! He tangata! He tangata, hī!
Pull out the shoot,
Pull out the shoot of the flax bush
Where will the bellbird sing?
Say to me
What is the greatest thing?
What is the greatest thing in this world?
I will say
The people! The people! The people
‘This traditional waiata, which originates from northern tribes, is often used today. It is the music education subject association’s (MENZA) waiata. It can be sung, like “Haere Mai”, as a waiata kīnaki or waiata of support, complementing what has been said by the first speaker at a gathering.
The slow reflective speed similar to that of a mōteatea (a lament), is used on this CD maintaining the original lament base for this waiata. Its meaning relates to nurturing the young. The pūharakeke metaphor refers to the wider community of families and social groups.’ Hirini Melbourne talks about the significance of the flax plant in Kiwi Kidsongs 6:
“The flax is a symbol of family unity and the maintenance of close family connections, both between generations and among relations. The family of leaves remain within their cluster, just as people remain within their particular hapu or iwi.
The flax plan grows from the centre. The first shoot divides into the father and the mother, and between them a child shoots up. As this continues to happen, the original parents become grandparents and so on, and you can have many generations in the same plant. The new shoot always grows in the middle.
When you cut a leaf from the flax, always cut it from the outside, because if you take the centre it destroys the whole plant”.
Another song of Hirini’s, Te Rito o te Harakeke can be found in Kiwi Kidsongs 4, (1994), p. 6, and can be accompanied by a percussion instrument made out of flax. The solid end is split to form a “clapper”. Experiment with the playing of flax as an accompaniment to Hutia.
In Hutia, listen to the kōauau and pūmotumotu.
Students could make a pūmotumotu out of PVC pipe or use the following articles to make other Māori instruments to play.School Journal, Part 1, Number 1, 2001, pp11-13 Make a Pūrerehua
School Journal, Part 4, Number 2, 1997, pp11-14 Make your own Kōauau
The Winds of Tawhirimatea, Connected 1 2004, pp26-32, and the accompanying Teachers’ notes, provide extensive information on traditional Maori instruments, as does the website, http://whakaahua.maori.org.nz
Notes collated by Catherine Short, ALE Department, FEDU. University of Waikato, 2013, from Ministry of Education (2006). Kiwi Kidsongs, Waiata 15. Wellington: Learning Media.


with a sample word list!
- 2nd-3rdCompound Words
- 4th-5thUS States/Colonies
- 6th-8th'dis-' Prefix Words
- 9th-12th"The Tragedy of Macbeth"
Note: Although this activity is designed for the grade levels above, it can also be used as a remediation or enrichment activity at any grade level with an appropriate word list.
- Foundational Skills
What? In order for students to learn and keep spelling patterns in long-term memory to further reading and writing development, they need to use words in different ways. When students have an opportunity to recognize and manipulate spelling patterns, they can use this knowledge to learn new, unfamiliar words.
When? Once students are explicitly taught a spelling pattern, they should have the opportunity to play with the words in ways that will help them recognize it and other spelling patterns in other words. This will help students see the relationship between the spelling of the word and other words that form in similar ways.
The more patterns students know, the more words they can make by changing the order of the letters in a word to create a new word. Letting students unscramble words helps them recall spelling patterns and construct meaning.
If students get stuck, they can ask for a hint, which comes in the form of either a definition or a contextually rich sentence, minus the word. Once students have found enough words to advance, they can move forward to the next word. High scores are saved so students can compete with one another. However, they can continue finding more words to boost their score.
Teaching Tip: WordFind is a fun way to study spelling and vocabulary words while using critical thinking skills to create new words with the letters provided. The more words students find, and the faster they find them, the higher their score will be! Students enjoy seeing their rank on the high score table!


Chapter IV Psychology
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Infants ______ weight by 3 months and _____ weight by 1 year
Describe the process of synaptic development in the first 2 years of life
- Synaptogenesis occurs in excess
- followed by synaptic pruning to increase efficiency
Describe the process of myelination in the first 2 years
- Occurs in the head area first
- the reticular formation is slowly myelinated from birth until the 20's
What is the reticular formation responsible for?
The newborn is born with a rich set of reflexes, __________ responses that are triggered by specific stimuli
Describe the Babinski reflex
sole of the foot is stroked and toes fan out and up
Describe the MORO reflex
sudden noise = arch back and throw arms and legs out
Describe the plantar reflex
curl toes under when an object is pressed under them
Describe the rooting reflex
soft touch on the cheek = baby turns head toward tough
a word used to describe the different states of sleep and wakefulness in babies
states of consciousness
Neonates sleep ____ of the time
What age presents evidence of circadian rhythms?
8 weeks when the baby begins to sleep at night
by ____ months the babies are sleeping for 14 hours a day
3 types of normal crying
- Basic cry: rhythmic and signals for hunger
- Angry cry : loud and intense
- Pain Cry: very abrupt onset
Abnormal crying in some babies; an intense bout of crying for no apparent reason
The process of cartilage hardening into bones
What type of development is responsible for the improvements in co-ordinational movements?
changes in the number and density of bones
2 pathways that ossification proceeds
Describe the a baby's ratio of water to muscle
high ration of water
describe the changes in fat content to the age of 1
fat levels decline to near levels of an adult by the age of 1
Describe the growth process of the heart and the lungs in infants
- grow quickly
- become more efficient by the age of 2
3 groups of motor skills achieved in infancy
- Locomotor skills: crawling
- Nonlocomotor skills: head movements
- Fine motor skills: use of the hands
Describe the visual acuity of a baby less than a year old
- poor visual acuity.
- Baby can see at 20m what adults can see at 400m
Describe the development of colour vision at one month of age
all 3 visual cones are present at one month of age
Describe the auditory acuity for a newborn
- babies can hear long before they are born
- nearly as intricate as adult hearing
- cam locate directions of sounds at birth
The most developed sense of all
touch and motion
How can parents reduce the likelihood of crying in a baby
prompt attention to crying in the first thee months leads to less crying later on
"children develop motor skills in different sequences"
- virtually all children follow the same sequence
Describe gender difference in motor skill development
- boys face developmental delays, and have higher mortality rates
- boys are more active
- girls are ahead in infancy
in terms of smelling, infants prefer both ______&______ odour
their own and mothers
3 techniques to study perceptual development
- Preference technique
- Operant conditioning
Describe the critical period related to development of sight
- early visual stimulation
- a specific quality of visual stimulation is needed to develop normal visual perception
How would a nativist explain perceptual development?
theorists who claim perceptual abilities are inborn
How would a empiricist explain perceptual development?
argue perceptual abilities are learned
At what age does depth perception begin to develop?
In how do 6 week olds evaluate depth perception?
they use emotional indicators
How do 5 month olds evaluate depth perception?
use motion and interposition
Describe how 1 month olds discriminate between speech sounds
discriminate between single syllables
Describe how 6 month olds discriminate between speech sounds
- distinguish sound contrasts in any language (fades by 1 year)
- discriminate between 2 syllable words
Describe how 3 month olds discriminate between speech sounds
recognize the sound despite who says it (male/female, young/old)
Newborns have the ability to discriminate between mothers voice and another female. What about father's voice?
cannot discriminate between males
combining information from 2 or more senses
The transfer or information from one sense to another
What would you like to do?
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Our aim in Reception is to ensure that the children have a happy and positive start to life at Raunds Park Infant School.
We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and plan across all areas of the curriculum, both inside and outside the classroom.
There are three prime areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage and four specific areas, all of which are interrelated and equally important.
Prime Areas of Learning
Communication and Language
This prime area involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situations.
Physical development involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their co-ordination control, and movement. Children must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Personal, social and emotional development involves helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour in groups; and to have confidence in their own abilities.
Literacy development involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and begin to read and write. Children must be given access to a wide range of reading materials to ignite their interest.
Mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces and measures.
Understanding the World
This area of learning involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.
Expressive Arts and Design
This involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play and design and technology.


Research in the Child Language and Literacy Lab (CHILLL) http://chilll.asu.edu focuses on early literacy development and assessment and treatment of language disorders in preschool and school age children. One line of research is investigating lexical acquisition deficits in preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLI), dyslexia, and children learning English as a second language. Our program of research is designed to develop methods for identifying the individual working memory and word-learning deficits of these children and to evaluate prescriptive treatments targeting those deficits. A second line of research is investigating how best to improve listening and reading comprehension in preschool and primary elementary grades by studying children’s longitudinal growth in these areas and by developing and evaluating new interventions. A third line of research is to evaluate the efficacy of an early childhood language and literacy curriculum.


1S – Ms. Saliken
Welcome to 1S
Wow! Time flies when you’re having fun! And we have been having our share of fun while we settle into the routines of our new grade one classroom!
What a delightful class we have! We have been spending time getting to know each other and our names by adding them to our word wall. Students are already excited to read them and other familiar words in our classroom as we celebrate that we are ALL readers!
We’ve also been super excited to begin writing in our journals and put our letter sound skills to work as we try to sound out our words in our writing.
Here are some of our learning targets for our literacy development:
- I can put proper spacing between my words.
- I can print letters properly form left to right.
- I can use all the letter sounds to help me sound out and write new words.
In math we have been reviewing our number recognition from 1-10 and practicing how to represent those numbers.
We are now excited to work on patterns! Everyone loves to make and find patterns!
- Roy the Zebra
- Story Time (includes stories that read themselves aloud to the children and highlight the word being read as the story continues)
- Picture Book Maker
- Fun Brain
- Book Flix
- Read with National Geographic


360 degrees with the Second Grade
Its Math/Art Mashup time in the art room. All grades are getting a little dose of “Whaaaa that’s math?!? This is art class!!!”
Pow! Second graders learned about compasses today! And how many degrees were in a circle!
They used the compasses to make different sized circles but were limited to using complementary colors.
Pretty good for their first attempts with compasses!
Posted in 2-4 Art Lessons, Color Theory, Math Art
Tags: Art education, Art Room, Art Teacher, color theory, Complementary Colors, Elementary Art, elementary art education, math art, Visual Arts
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the SPORE Project is a worldwide effort developed to promote awareness for the support for art education and creativity in day-to-day life. the project illustrates the importance of self expression, resourcefulness and creativity – specifically, how to look at one thing (a simple paper bag) and see what it can be instead of merely what it is. the project was created to build awareness, specifically to let people know the importance of art.
art is essential: it promotes intelligence and creativity, and it’s a great expressive outlet that inspires people toward new perspectives on life, which we all need and need frequently. creativity is needed in every aspect of life. it teaches us to think differently and allows us to consider other options.
the idea behind the paper bag mushroom grew innocently out of lunch in high school. while sitting around waiting for the meal break to end, i squished my lunch bag into a mushroom and gave it to my friend. this became a daily routine. years later i figured out a way to stick them in the ground. i then began placing them in my friends’ lawns while they were at work. it was meant as a joke, but other people loved them and asked me to cover their yards with mushrooms as well. i began making hundreds, then thousands. i did them for festivals, art shows, parties and just for fun. i began getting calls from teachers asking if i could come show their classrooms the art of making paper bag mushrooms. even companies and corporations began to get involved. this is where the SPORE Project began.
i developed the SPORE Project to build awareness, specifically to let people know the importance of creativity. creativity is essential: it promotes intelligence and growth, and it’s a great expressive outlet that inspires people toward new perspectives on life, which we all need and need frequently.
• about the SPORE Project
• see the mushrooms
• world wide map of mushrooms
• how to make a mushroom
• now what?
• more about the SPORE Project
• in the news…
• the SPORE store
• other doug stuff…
follow me at : http://twitter.com/dougrhodehamel


All About Force: Push and Pull
You can’t see them, but forces make the world go round. Friction happens when two things rub against each other. Friction makes things slow down. It can also warm them up. Try rubbing your hands together. Are your hands warmer? Gravity is a natural force. It pulls everything down towards the earth.
When you push a friend on a swing, you are using another force. Pushing moves something in the direction of the push. The harder the push, the further the item goes. Pulling something has a similar action. The harder you pull, the faster something moves along. Pressure is another force. Pressure is force applied by weight. For example, if you press down on a grape, the pressure squishes it. Walk in snow and the pressure of your feet leaves footprints.
Fun Facts about Forces for Kids
- Any kind of force is really just a push or a pull.
- Magnetism is a type of force. A magnet might pull an object toward it or push it away.
- Inertia is not a force. Anything with mass – or anything that has weight – automatically slows down because of that weight. This is inertia. The larger something is, the more inertia it has and the more force you need to make it move. An elephant has more inertia than a caterpillar, for instance.
- Sir Isaac Newton was one of the first scientists to study gravity and force. Scientists still use his three laws today. The first one says that a body in motion is likely to stay in motion, while a body at rest will stay at rest. A kid playing soccer will probably keep playing. A kid watching movies will probably keep watching movies. The second law says that if a force acts upon a body, it will change the body’s speed or direction. If you kick a soccer ball, it’s going to change direction and speed. Finally, the third law says that for every force and action, there is an equal reaction. If you give that soccer ball a soft kick, it won’t go very far or fast. A big kick sends the soccer ball flying across the field.
- Springs and elastic are also types of force. Push against them and they resist. They spring back with the same force you gave them.
- Force: energy that moves something
- Gravity: a force that pulls us down to earth
- Mass: weight, bulk
- Motion: movement
Learn More All About Force: Push and Pull
Watch this video about push and pull:
A video excerpt of the forces, push and pull.
Question: What is velocity?
Answer: Velocity is the speed of an object as it moves in one direction. If it changes directions, its velocity changes too.
Useful Websites :
Science for Kids – More information about Push and Pull
Cite This Page
You may cut-and-paste the below MLA and APA citation examples:
MLA Style Citation
Declan, Tobin. " Facts About Force: Push and Pull - Easy Science For Kids ." Easy Science for Kids, Jul 2017. Web. 25 Jul 2017. < http://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-force-push-and-pull/ >.
APA Style Citation
Tobin, Declan. (2017). Facts About Force: Push and Pull - Easy Science For Kids. Easy Science for Kids. Retrieved from http://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-force-push-and-pull/
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University of Wyoming
This session presents the results of a study that examined the development of children?s self-efficacy in technology and computational thinking (CT) during summer camps and whether equitable computer science (CS) practices were used during instruction. Equitable CS practices disrupt ?inequities that occur at the level of classroom interaction? (Shah, Lewis, Caires, Khan, Qureshi, Ehsanipour, & Gupta, 2015, p. 263) by promoting access to rich content, high-quality instruction, collaborative peer relationships, and CS identities. The study took place over two consecutive summers. Twenty-eight children participated in a summer camp in Wyoming in August 2015. Thirty-five children participated at a summer camp in a large city in Pennsylvania in June 2016. Students in both groups learned to construct and program robots and followed protocols to develop computer games. Robotics tasks including basic programming, loops and switches, sensors, and so forth. Learning progressions (i.e., sequencing, proportional reasoning, causal inference, conditional reasoning, and systems thinking) were used to assess students? CT (Sullivan & Heffernan, 2016). Data analyses revealed CT was dependent on the robotics task. Examples of lessons will be shared and discussed with the audience. Children?s game designs were assessed for CT using a three-point rubric based on the ISTE definition of CT. Ratings tended to vary by the type of game designed (Leonard et al., 2016). Examples will be presented and followed by a discussion. Results of three separate ANCOVAs revealed no significant differences on the SETS subscales by group, gender, or race, which indicate equitable computer science practices (Mouza, Marzocchi, Pan, & Pollock, 2016). The session will conclude with a discussion about how teachers might engage underrepresented students in equitable STEM practices in formal classrooms.
Dr. Jacqueline Leonard began her career as a public school teacher. She taught early childhood, elementary and middle school in Texas, Maryland, and Missouri, for total of 16 years. After receiving her doctorate degree from the University of Maryland in 1997, she began a career in higher education. She was tenured in 2003 and promoted to Professor in the College of Education at Temple University in July 2010. One year later, she relocated to Colorado and was tenured and promoted to Professor in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado Denver in April 2011. In August 2012, Dr. Leonard was appointed as the first African American Director of the Science and Math Teaching Center at the University of Wyoming. She began this position with tenure and professor rank in the Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education.
Dr. Leonard?s awards include: Inspirational Instruction Award (University of Wyoming, 2015); Leading African American Woman in Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania Commission for Women for Outstanding Service, 2005); Outstanding New Scholar Award (University of Maryland at College Park, 2004); Summer Research Fellow (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1997); and Patricia Roberts Harris Fellow (University of Maryland at College Park, 1994). Finally, Dr. Leonard is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She earned her degree in theological studies from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, in 1994. She has served as a minister at Shorter AME Community Church in Denver, Colorado, for five years and as associate pastor at Allen Chapel AME in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for two years. She has two daughters, Victoria Cloud and Dr. Cara Djonko-Moore, and two grandchildren, Christopher and Quiana Cloud.


20 Jan Thomas Edison Was Not Dyslexic
Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman who developed many important devices. Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors of his time, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. He was, apparently, also dyslexic.
Edison was often ill as a child and therefore started school later than he otherwise would have. Although he did have problems when he finally went to school, these problems were a result of his social behavior, not his mental abilities. One problem was that Tom became annoyed with having to share the text with other children. Tom, “a rapid reader, had no patience with his classmates.”
Tom’s overworked and short-tempered teacher finally lost his patience with the child’s persistent questioning and seemingly self-centered behavior. Noting that Tom’s forehead was unusually broad and his head was considerably larger than average, he made no secret of his belief that the youngster’s brains were “addled” or scrambled.
His mother promptly withdrew Tom from school and began to “home-teach” him. Not surprisingly, she was convinced her son’s slightly unusual demeanor and physical appearance were merely outward signs of his remarkable intelligence.
Before Thomas Edison was ten, he had already read History of England, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, History of the World, and The Age of Reason.
Edublox Reading Tutor offers multisensory cognitive training, aimed at developing and automatizing the foundational skills of reading and spelling, as well as application in the form of reading and spelling exercises. Edublox programs are effective for a variety of learning difficulties including dyslexia. Watch our demo video below.


Since 2005, on the first Monday in May, hundreds of thousands of young people in schools and communities across Canada sing and play the same song, at the same time, to celebrate the importance of school music programs.
This network for students in music programs enables the sharing of ideas, resources and successes for how to develop leadership skills and ensure sustainable music programs. By working together with our schools and communities, youth can have a greater impact to effect real change.
WISE VOICES FOR MUSIC
Through grassroots events held in communities across the country, music advocates of all ages are invited to share ideas and strategies for how best to support school music programs.
CHAMPIONS FOR MUSIC EDUCATION
Champions for Music Education are people from all walks of life who are ready and willing to testify to the power of music and the joy it can give to everyone.


As you go to vote at the polls on Tuesday you will see students wearing a tee shirt that states, “THE MOST IMPORTANT 20 MINUTES OF THE DAY IS READING WITH YOUR CHILD”. These students, as part of a civic engaging program, will be assisting poll workers in the voting process. In addition, at the door of the polls, students in the afternoon will be holding a sign with the same message and will be giving out kindergarten and grade one books to the first 20 voters who would like a book.
This partnership on Election Day is one that I initiated with Worcester Public Schools Superintendent Maureen Binienda, the election commission office headed by Niko Vangjeli, Assistant City Clerk, Worcester Reads, and my group Worcester: the City that Reads.
Its purpose is to alert the public about the importance of reading within the home and the community. Literacy is at the root of a person’s ability to succeed and the family is at the heart. Study after study shows that family, home and community are major drivers of a child’s education. As research points out:
- Children’s reading scores improve dramatically when their parents are involved in helping them learn to read.
- Low family income and a mother’s lack of education are the two biggest risk factors that hamper a child’s early learning and development.
- Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read.
- One in six children who are not reading proficiently in third grade do not graduate from high school on time, a rate four times greater than that for proficient readers.
This continuous reading awareness campaign by many organizations in our city must continue and thanks to many schools on Election Day the word will get out. The students from Worcester Technical High School under the direction of teacher Jennie Caplan, Doherty High, under the direction of teacher Carolyn Waters and Burncoat High, under the direction of Jane Dowd are volunteering through their respective National Honor Societies and they, as mentioned, will hold signs and give out books after the individuals have voted.
The student workers inside the polls all day are students in a special program that is sponsored by the City Clerk’s office and Worcester State University in partnership with the Worcester Public Schools. The program entitled, “Worcester Rising” was started in 2008 as part of a movement to engage young adults in civic responsibility. This Civic Academy now has fifty seniors and those same students in their junior year attended a program at Worcester State University during their April school vacation. They participated in a variety of workshops including disciplines in the justice system, law, higher education and media. The students were coached in coordinating a voter registration session at their schools and will be working at the Worcester polls on Election Day gaining invaluable experience in the collective process of voting.
I am thrilled that they will also be via their tee shirts, thanks to our Superintendent, getting an important message out to the voters. We all know that reading serves as the major foundational skill for all school. As a former principal I have continued to recommend the emphasis be placed on early childhood literacy from birth to age eight. These are critical years for literacy development in linking a child’s success in learning to read. Children’s author Emilie Buchward said it best, “Parents play a vital role in this undertaking for children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” Parents have the power to boost children’s learning potential simply by making books an integral part of their lives.
As a community let’s all do what we can to make reading a top priority and take the time this Tuesday to thank the high school students for their community service in getting the word out about reading!
The Most Important 20 Minutes of Your Day....Read With Your Child.


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art appreciation midterm
The belief that the existence of souls and the conviction that nonhuman things can be endowed with a soul.
An art that stresses the psychological and emotional content of the work.
Neive or folk artist
refers to the work done by an artist who was not trained in an academy or other traditional manner of art education
the literal, visible image in a work of art, as distinguished from its content, which includes the connotative, symbolic, and suggestive aspects of the image.
A composition consisting of three panels side by sides. Generally hinged in such away that the outer two panels can close like shutters over the central one.
the rendering of images and objects in a simplified way so though they remain unrecognized their formal and expressive elements remain the same.
Nonrepresentational or nonobjective art
Art that make no references to the natural world and that explores the inherent expressive as aesthetic potential of the formal element.
The study or description of image and symbols.
is a symbolic gesture made with the hand or fingers
The branch of philosophy concerned with the feelings aroused in us by sensory experiences such as seeing and hearing. they examine the nature of art and the nature f beauty.
A form of art that not only includes physical space but also the human activities that goes on with it.
A mark left from a moving point. actual or implied, and varying in direction, thickness and density .
The edge of a shape or figure depicted by an actual line drawn or pointed on a surface.
The perceived line that makes the border of object in space.
Cross Contour line
Lines that delineate major areas within an object.
the use of fine parallel lines drawn closely together, often rapidly drawn to create an illusion of shape or texture.
Layers of hatching placed at angle usually the first layer is horizontal and the second is vertical the closer the lines the less white paper shows.
Hatching placed at a slight angle, that can allow objects to appear more 3D.
often called the Brillo pad technique. uses layers scribbled marks to build up texture and value.
Layers of short straight mark various textures result depending on whether short hatching are applied vertically, at right angles, following a contour or random angles.
Using dots to create value, the closer the darker larger dots creates density.
Line made by some material.
Lines that do not actually exist, but seem real to the viewer.
A line created to convey feelings or intention.
Art created according to the belief that the essence of the art resides in a motivation idea. and that nay physical realization or recording of this idea is secondary.
captures an immensity so large that it could hardly be comprehended by the imagination.
is a brand of representation in which the artist retains apparently realistic elements.
the overall structure of a work of art.
is what the work of art expresses or mean.
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Lesson: Interdisciplinary Connections based on the work of Elizabeth Murray
This unit will be designed for a curriculum design course (or workshop) for art education students at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The course typically has undergraduate students and a few post-bac students needing to fulfill licensure requirements. The students will create collaborative lessons/unit plans that are inspired by the work of Elizabeth Murray while making interdisciplinary connections.
Lesson: Module 5 ‐ Brainstorm of Possible Connections to Teaching Practice for Hector Elizondo, Theatre
Lesson: Module 7 – Creative Content Rationale
Assignment by Shannon Rose
For this assignment, I have based my creative and academic content around the Joy2Learn module entitled At the Piano, featuring Alan Gampel. I intend to design a Primary 3 (grade 3) unit on instrumental music, using the Joy2Learn videos about the piano as an introduction. The overarching goal of the unit is for students to engage in the creative process through exploration, design and construction. Students will create their own instrument (string, percussion or wind), and then use it to improvise or perform original compositions.


Future Manned Missions to Mars
Why would anyone want to live on Mars? Presently Mars does not seem to be a very attractive place. The reason is not far to seek. The Red Planet, as Mars is called, has virtually none of the comforts to which we are accustomed on earth.
Hence a trip to Mars does not seem to be very attractive to tourists. However, the human being is curious by nature. Since the dawn of mankind, we have been discovering new horizons and expanding our territory to the point that there is almost no place on Earth not inhabited by mankind.
This leads to a situation where it can be safely assumed that humanity would seek to inhabit other planets. Among all the possible options, one of the closest planets is Mars.
Space exploration has advanced greatly over the years but we are still at an early stage. Though the current Sciene & technology makes it possible to carry out manned interplanetary travel and dream of the colonization of Mars, there are also a lot of risks. We know that the journey to Mars is possible. NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover, designed to assess the planet’s habitability, is providing useful inputs. However, it is one thing to place a rover and quite another to colonize a planet. The challenge is so great that despite great advancements made in the space technology, no organization has dared to attempt a manned trip to Mars.
Manned missions to Mars
There are several manned missions to Mars set to be conducted in not so distant future. Look at the ongoing projects that are working to achieve this ambitious goal in the coming decades.
NASA plans to put a man on Mars between 2030 and 2040. The agency intends to send astronauts and keep a permanent base where astronauts can go and come back to Earth. All these efforts are aligned with the NASA’s goal of search for life on other planets.
NASA has already placed orbiters circling Mars, and also has several rovers on the planet’s surface (Opportunity, Spirit and Curiosity).
The agency has been working on the Orion spacecraft, which was launched on December 5, 2014 and landed 4.5 hours later in the Pacific Ocean. Orion was designed as a multi-purpose vehicle to carry astronauts to an asteroid and is an important step for NASA’s aim to develop spacecraft that will carry man to Mars.
Mars One Project
This private spaceflight project aims to colonize Mars by sending astronauts to Mars. However it will be a one-way trip. The crew would not be able to return to Earth and Mars will become their new permanent home.
The project aims to send the first manned mission in 2025. The process of recruiting and selecting those willing to live on Mars is on. This mission has not been criticized by the scientific community, which believes that the project is not viable. An investigation by a group of MIT students revels that the mission is technically not viable.
It is a nonprofit organization that seeks to send a manned spacecraft to send a manned mission to Mars while using a minimum of fuel. The crew of this 501-day free return mission will consist of 2 persons, a man and a woman.
The launch date depends on when the entire technology life support for the crew is ready.
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Hopefully your child will begin a musical instrument through their school music program. If so, when they bring home their instrument for the first time, it is more than just an exciting day…
...It is an opportunity...
…Perhaps one of the greatest opportunities in your child’s life thus far.
If you are like me, you want your kid(s) to complete their K-12 education with far more than factual knowledge and an ability to score well on tests. You don’t believe that your child’s success in life depends primarily on cognitive skills — the type of intelligence that is measured on IQ tests and such. You don’t believe that school should be primarily focused on stuffing kids’ brains with as much factual knowledge as possible, but instead is focused on growing skills and mindsets that will last a lifetime. Psychological traits that include
- The patience to persist at a tough (and perhaps boring) task;
- The ability to delay gratification;
- The curiosity and grit to problem solve;
…just to name just a few.
And the musical instrument in your child’s hand could be the key to learning those skills.
You see, your child didn’t receive an instrument with the expectation that they would become a professional musician, just as they did not receive a math book with the expectation of them becoming a mathematician. But, unlike any other subject, your child has the opportunity to develop some of the most important life skills through learning to play an instrument, and you need to let them know this is the case.
Here are three things parents need to know and be able to express to their child as soon as they begin learning to play a musical instrument:
“You are allowed to fail, and you will become better because of your failures.”
There are no red pen marks for missed notes in music the way there are on tests — there is nothing to feel bad about when you play something “wrong” in music. To become skilled at a musical instrument — and to become great at anything — one needs to struggle a little. In your child’s case, they need to sound bad before they sound good; they need to work on things just beyond what they are capable of in order to get better and smarter, and that means they need to make mistakes. There is a small gap between what we all are able to do and where we want to be, and focusing on that gap makes us better learners and better people. Learning a musical instrument allows us to grow from our mistakes.
“Hard work trumps talent every single time.”
Practicing a skill over and over, the right way, fires circuits in our brains that solidify that skill. Sure, some people find some skills easier at first than others, but the people who practice that skill daily in order to “burn it” into their brain will always far surpass people who don’t practice enough. Practicing a musical instrument helps children learn the universal truth that hard work trumps talent.
“This is a long-term commitment, and we are going to stick with it.”
Studies have shown that students who identified that they would play their instrument for longer than one year outperformed students who only committed to one year of playing by up to 400% — practicing the same amount of time if not less! The ideas and mindsets students bring to their musical instrument study have a direct effect on their success, and it’s the parents’ role to set the tone on the first day by not giving their child an “easy out” to quit. Make the decision to invest in your child’s music education for at least a few years of their schooling and you will see results.
There are not many subjects taught in school that have the potential to give our children the life skills they need to be successful beyond their school lives. Our children can learn how to have grit, motivation, problem-solving skills, flexibility, and character during and after their K-12 schooling — and music is the vehicle to teach these skills.
What if we as parents treated music like any other core subject and expected our children to study it for at least 4 or 5 years? What does “success in school” mean to you and your child?


Every year, the National Center for Education Statistics releases a report card detailing how well America’s students do in math, reading and science. But every once in a while the survey also looks at how well students are doing when it comes to visual arts and music education. LA Johnson at NPR reports that in a recently release report, students aren’t doing too hot.
According to the report card, which has been issued twice before in 1997 and 2008, student knowledge about and skill in the arts has remained flat for the past eight years. According to Johnson, the survey was given to 8,800 eighth graders from 280 schools. They were asked questions like "Identify a correct time signature for a piece of printed music" and "Identify the style of an artwork as surrealism."
In the 2008 music test, students averaged 150 on a 300 point scale. In 2016, they averaged 147. In visual arts, the average was also 150 in 2008 and was 149 last year.
While holding steady may not seem too horrible, digging into the data shows both good and bad trends.
-According to the data, boys are falling behind girls when it comes to music. While the music score for girls did not change between 2008 and 2016, staying steady at 155, the average score for boys fell from 145 to 140.
-Students are not participating in music and arts activities as much outside of school. According to the data, about 35 percent of students said that they played a musical instrument outside of school and only 13 percent reported taking art classes outside of school. Less than half of students in the survey, only 42 percent, took an art class in school. “The Nation's Report Card paints a picture that shows eighth-graders continuing to take arts classes at the same rates and performing at the same levels as eight years ago," Peggy Carr, the acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics says in a press release. “We are noticing, however, that students are less likely to participate in activities such as taking art classes or playing a musical instrument outside of school.”
-In visual arts, the score gap between white and Hispanic students decreased from 26 points in 2008 to 19 points in 2016. In music the difference changed from 32 points in 2008 to 23 points in 2016. The performance of students identified as Asian and Pacific Islanders surpassed white students for the first time, with scores averaging four points higher in music and eight points higher in visual arts. Scores in both categories remain almost unchanged for black students.
-While the four major regions of the United States—the Northeast, Midwest, South and West—all saw at least small ticks downward, in music, the Midwest saw a six point drop. In visual arts, the West saw an increase of five points while the Midwest saw a seven point drop. The south and Northeast stayed virtually the same, with the Northeast boasting the highest averages in both music and visual arts. They also reported taking more art classes outside of school. Jeff Poulin, the program director for arts education at Americans for the Arts,
tells Jackie Zubrzycki at Education Week that the regional data isn't surprising and “speaks to the importance of state education policy for arts education.”
-Lower income students who qualified for free or subsidized lunches did significantly worse than their better off peers, scoring 24 points lower in music and 22 points lower in art. “[T]oo often in America, zip code is destiny,” Michael Blakeslee, the executive director of the National Association for Music Education, tells Zubrzycki. “We'd love to see a more equitable access to the arts and to the results arts can bring.”


Children’s Literacy Workshop (for Writers)
The Children’s Literacy Workshop (for Writers) is a new 6 lesson email course
for writers who want to write easy-to-read books.
I will send you a new lesson each Wednesday.
You have 2 weeks to complete each lesson, so the workshop lasts 8 weeks.
Easy-to-read books have many names. These books with simple words and short sentences for children who are learning to read are also called beginning readers, leveled readers and easy readers. While picture books are read to a child by an adult, easy readers are meant to be read by the child himself. (You’ll know you’ve found an easy reader when you see the words “read,” “reader,” or “reading” on the cover.)
Learning to read takes place on a continuum, and the books reflect that. Easy readers range from 8 page books with a single word or a simple phrase on each page to 64 page books divided into chapters.
As you study 5 easy readers per lesson you will explore 3 of the 5 literacy development phases that children experience as they learn to read. You will also learn three literacy strategies that writers use in books for beginning readers.
The first session of this NEW online workshop begins on Wednesday, February 1st.
The February workshop dates are February 1-March 14, 2012.
Picture Book of the Day
Diego Rivera: His World and Ours
by Duncan Tonatiuh (Author, Illustrator)
Booktalk: See and hear the story of Diego as a young, mischievous boy who demonstrated a clear passion for art and then went on to become one of the most famous painters in the world.
Snippet: Diego Rivera was born in Mexico in a city called Guanajuato, which means the “land of frogs.” As a boy, Diego enjoyed playing with his trains, but more than anything, he liked to draw.
Chapter Book of the Day
Black and White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene “Bull” Connor
by Larry Dane Brimner (Author)
Booktalk: With careful attention to history, Larry Dane Brimner relies on oral histories, FBI files, court records, archived newpapers, and other primary source documents to capture the clash between conviction and courage, on one hand, and tradition and hate on the other in this unforgettable story of Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and his stand against Eugene “Bull” Connor.
Snippet: The first time the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) tried to kill Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth was Christmas 1956. The KKK was a group that believed white people were superior to Negroes. Its members intimidated blacks–and whites who supoorted the Negro quest for equality and justice–through threats and violence.
BONUS! Hear the author talk about winning the Sibert Honor!
Supreme Court Upholds Law Restoring Copyright to Some Public-Domain Works
Publishers Show Less Enthusiasm About eReaders Increasing Reading (via eBookNewser)
My NEW chapter book is Save the Best for Last, Abby (All-Star Cheerleaders)
Copyright © 2012 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.


Cultural institutions related to music (e.g., opera houses, conservatories, specialized collections, etc.) can greatly benefit from the digitization of the materials that they often retain in huge “traditional” archives.
Technology can be applied not only to conservation, but also to exploitation and revivification of music and music-related content.
This keynote speech will describe and discuss the experiences of Teatro alla Scala and Ricordi Historical Archive , in order to show the new possibilities emerging from the adoption of computer-based technologies and approaches.
Finally, the potential of multi-layer digital formats for the description of music information will be investigated, ranging from the exploitation of musical cultural heritage to the implications of new multimedia products for music education and fruition.


Bounce and Sing 1 Toddler Music Program
It’s hard to keep your toddlers engaged at music time and to keep coming up with the right songs and practical down-to-earth activities – but Bounce and Sing 1 Toddler Music Program has been fully prepared to give you a set of easy to use lesson plans complete with all the music you need. No matter how much experience you have with toddler music, simply download and start using this program today!
What you’ll gain by using this teaching resource
- Happy and responsive toddlers aged 1-3 who develop their cognitive skills by playfully solving musical problems such as making sound from instruments; keeping up with the beat; and responding to cues to “start and stop” moving, singing and playing.
- A wonderful, flexible series of music sessions specifically designed for mobile toddlers aged 1-3; lessons that are action-packed with movement and music as the main ingredients.
- A delightful way to monitor and assess children’s physical development over 10 or more weeks as they handle the instruments, move their small muscles to the beat and move their whole body through space in time with the music.
- Friendly toddlers who will have a growing sense of how to regulate their social-emotional expression – so important for self-understanding, sharing and getting along with others.
- Enormous benefits in language development from listening to and learning the songs; the children become better listeners because they regularly tune in to the rhythm of the highly repetitive words in the new songs, learn new vocabulary and experiment with new speech patterns.
- You feel confident teaching your group because the program is well-designed by a music education expert; the lessons are prepared for you so that you are able to successfully lead the children and if something does go wrong, you have other activities and lessons ready so you can engage the toddlers in completely new fun things to do, week after week.
- You save hundreds of hours of weekend and evening program-planning time – you won’t have to figure out the learning opportunities, look up new songs, find the music, think up activities appropriate for the age, work out a topic that brings everything together – it’s all done for you covering 10 or more weeks in one whole program.
What you get in your purchase
An instantly downloadable zip file containing 2 pdfs and multiple mp3s
- A complete Educator’s Book (pdf 84 pages) and a complete set of lyric charts (pdf 59 pages) ready to read on screen or to print (Biddiss, Carol. 2008 Bounce and Sing 1: Bouncing All Day Long Educator’s Book, Musical Child: Adelaide.) The book gives you valuable information about how to set up and run your own music program that satisfies international curriculum frameworks. It also gives you an easy, one-glance Lesson Overview to the five fully prepared lesson plans – Part 1. We Play Music; Part 2. Sun Moon Star; Part 3. Up High in the Sky; Part 4. In My Boat; and Part 5. Hot Cross Buns. You also get an index of first lines so you can quickly look up any song. And you get a list of references and a glossary of musical terms.
- 5 digital music albums with numbered sets of mp3s so you can always find the songs you need quickly – ready to sync to your tablet (Part 1. We Play Music; Part 2. Sun Moon Star; Part 3. Up High in the Sky; Part 4. In My Boat; and Part 5. Hot Cross Buns) You get 50 karaoke tracks to back you up singing “live” and you also get all the matching vocal tracks so you can learn the song just the way you like you learn – by ear. You can use these vocal tracks if you ever experience any difficulty singing. You also get all the lyrics on charts (pdf 59 pages) ready to read on screen or to print. Display in your room so that any adults can sing along with you – or if parents visit your classroom, they can see what the toddlers have been learning.
- In each lesson’s learning outcomes, you can see the benefits of early learning through music and there’s a specific section telling you what new learning the children might achieve in their language and speech. Across the series of lessons you see the musical concepts learned, simple scores with chords and suggestions for Classical music to play for cultural enrichment.
- The whole Bounce and Sing 1 Toddler Music Program will last for a half a semester because each lesson plan gives you enough material for 2-3 weeks – there’s so much variety and change of pace that this program can work in many ways. And when you know the songs you can sing them whenever you like throughout the year!
Hear some of the music from Bounce and Sing 1 Toddler Music Program
Download and start using this program today. Click “Add to Cart”


Music education has been included in many curricula in different nations around the globe. However, since not all students are musically-inclined, not all of them are motivated to learn music. As a result, they are no longer excited to experience formal music schooling inside their classrooms. With this conflict of interests, music teachers are then challenged or pressured on how they could make their students learn and love music at the same time.
To basically adhere to the problem, they are determined to research the latest music teachers’ resources. Since both teaching and learning are two dynamic processes, music teachers and their students should meet half way – adjusting to the kind of individuals they are.
And because they are up to music education, these music teachers need to update their lists and records with the most modern trends and techniques, which are believed to be very effective and influential with the kind of students they have right now. From time to time, there could have been new music teachers’ resources that could improve their teaching strategies as well as their way of relating to their dear students.
Today, music educators incorporate theories and application to give a well-rounded musical experience and to teach music in various perspectives intended for international understanding. To meet many demands and expectations of their students, music teachers keep on upgrading their available music teachers’ resources by doing some researches over the Internet. In just a matter of few clicks, they would be aware of what is really the latest in the music academe as well as the newest style and approach in teaching that they can utilize in their everyday instruction.
The perceived effort to enhance music teachers’ resources also results in a greater number of students, who are now more motivated and determined to learn and love music. When their music teachers use some personal touches as part of their resources – sharing their own insights, thoughts and experiences on a particular topic, the learners become more eager to attend to their music classes and listen to their classroom discussions. This happens simply because they feel that they have something to relate to and such experience could also happen to them in time.
Indeed, teaching and learning music can be both fun and enjoyable. Just like in real life and in our daily activities, when we integrate music into anything that we do, it amazingly turns out to be more special and a lot of fun. After all, music gives most of us such inspiration and motivation to look forward to something better and brighter. Love music and enjoy tomorrow.
This music education website offers many useful music teachers resources and tips. Visit it now.


Your class will learn and discover how to write original songs with the support of music technology tools in this up-to-the-minute workshop led by the Songschool musicians Peter Baxter, Kevin Carrick and Liz Seaver.
Starting with fun music warm-ups, the group will then be guided in creating lyrics and music for a new anthem for their class. If there’s time we may write more songs on other themes too. In the process your class will get to explore song structure, composing, arranging and performance. Music technology will be used to help support the songwriting process including Garage Band and Music Memos.
Peter is an accomplished songwriter as well as an Apple Distinguished Educator and founder/director of the music education company Songschool. These workshops are based on songwriting (words & music) and will include performance and music technology elements. There is a strong focus on collaboration, creativity, confidence building and self-expression with the students. The ability to play an instrument is not necessary just the willingness to join in and give it a try.
We will also record a live demo audio recording of the song at the end of the workshop which will help you remember the song afterwards and you can share it if you wish using SoundCloud.
There will also be a chance for classes to enjoy our Interactive Installations: Music, Movement & Light.
Curricular Links... Back to Top
This workshop is an ideal opportunity to explore all three strands of the music curriculum with a particular emphasis on Composing and Performing through the embedded improvisation, creation and participation approach of the workshop. The children will also engage in listening and responding to each other’s ideas throughout the composing and performance process and will be invited to reflect onand discuss the songs created. In addition children and teachers will get the opportunity to see how accessible new music technology apps can enhance and support music-making for all levels of ability. The visit to the music installation will offer a further exploration of sounds which will enhance the music learning in the workshop.


Starting today, I’ll be sharing activities that will improve fine motor skills. Remember the importance of working on foundational skills before you start working on fine motor activities. For example, you’ll want to make sure that your child has good postural control, and is skilled with large and medium motor tasks before moving on to fine motor skills. Control and stability are important prerequisite skills for fine motor activities such as writing and cutting!
Hand Separation: The hand can be divided into 2 separate sides. The pinky and ring finger side is for stability. The thumb, index and middle finger perform manipulation skills. It is important to be able to separate the two sides of the hand when it comes to fine motor skills. As you can see in the photo above, I am stabilizing two coins using my pinky and ring fingers, yet I am still able to hold and manipulate a quarter using my thumb, index and middle finger. In the video below, I am performing translation skills. When I pick up the buttons and bring them into my palm, this is called finger-to-palm translation. As I bring one button out to my fingertips at a time, while stabilizing the others in my palm, this is called palm-to-finger translation with stabilization. This is a great exercise for working on hand separation! A similar activity is to have your child put coins into a piggy bank.
Resource: Exner, C.E. (1997). Clinical interpretation of “In-hand manipulation in children: translation movements, American Journal of Occupational Therapy, (9), 729-32.


The table below provides some detail as to the level diversity of the interviewed parents. It is important to note that the focus of the study was to explore and understand the decision architecture of how parents choose a school for their children. Consequently, a degree of priority was given to finding parents who had switched schools from public to private (independent/Catholic) or from private to public in the transition from primary to secondary schooling.
Non-Catholic private schools in Australia are called ‘independent schools’ because these schools (particularly the elite schools) govern, manage, resource and finance themselves independently of any broader religious or philanthropic affiliation.
In contrast, Catholic schools are managed, financed and resourced centrally in a manner broadly similar to government run public schools but with higher levels of community involvement and direct fee payment associated with the choice of school. While there has been a trend for Independent secondary schools to move from single sex to co-educational, Catholic secondary schools in the metropolitan cities by and large are single sex schools.
Choice of government public school is directly related to where you live with ‘selection’ defined by ‘catchment zones’. Consequently as parents compete for residential homes within the catchment zones of public schools with superior academic outcomes, the price of homes closer to ‘higher quality’ schools increase relative homes in the zones of ‘lesser quality’ schools. ‘Quality’ tends to be equated with completion rates, acceptance to university and nationwide testing such as NAPLAN in Australia. The relationship between residential house prices and the quality of neighbouring schools has been well researched, starting with Black’s seminal 1999 paper “Do better schools matter? Parental valuation of elementary education“. A similar study by Davidoff & Leigh (2008) found that house prices in Canberra increased by 3.5% for each 5% increase in a neighbouring school’s average test scores. This paper also has a very useful table summarising previous literature and the test measures used to define ‘quality’. However in contrast to the USA, Australian schools are universally funded by the federal government on a per student basis (-/+ equity adjustments) and not as a result of local taxes (such as property taxes).
Selective Public schools are government operated schools with selective criteria other than place of residence. Selection criteria maybe academic, sporting, artistic, technical or musical. In Australia, academically selective government public schools perform materially & consistently better on final year secondary university entrance scores than their elite private school colleagues. The elite private schools in turn perform materially & consistently better than non-selective government public schools.
Black, S. E. (1999). Do better schools matter? Parental valuation of elementary education. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(2), 577-599.
Davidoff, I., & Leigh, A. (2008). How Much do Public Schools Really Cost? Estimating the Relationship between House Prices and School Quality*. Economic Record, 84(265), 193-206.


Children's Storybooks Online not only offers stories for children, we're interested in helping them learn to read those stories. We believe phonics is the best method to teach reading so we have developed a web site specifically for that.
Here are some of the best phonics links to other great sites with useful phonics games, information and materials:
- ABC Fast Phonics - our free sister site introduces phonics to beginning readers of any age in a fun and easy way. Over 100 pages of audio lessons with 400 cartoons and clickable words.
- Garfield's Fishing with Phonics - a beginning and ending consonants game from www.professorgarfield.org.
- Starfall's Letter and Word Games - from www.starfall.com.
- Phonics Endings Game - a three-level game where you match words with similar endings to the object in a picture. Level 2, Level 3, Matching Worksheets (at bottom of page). From www.dositey.com.
- Digby the Mole - find words that (1) begin with, (2) end with, or (3) sound like (rhyme with) a given letter, blend sound, or word. From The Little Animals Activity Centre at the BBC Schools section (www.bbc.co.uk/schools) of the BBC's web site.
- Picture Match - Match pictures to their beginning letter sounds, or short and long vowel sounds by sorting them into the correct letter box. Other good information here including lesson plans and web resources from www.readwritethink.org.
- Construct a Word - Build a word list from letters and letter groups by matching up word beginnings to word endings to create complete words. Also from www.readwritethink.com.
- Clifford the Big Red Dog Sound Match Game - Find pictures of words that begin with the same sound as the picture name at the top and drag them into a box. From www.scholastic.com.
- Match Letters Game - Four games where you match sets of letters or blends, turned over two at a time. Has a timer that can be used for competition or tracking personal best, but does not time out. Separate games for Consonants b-n, Consonants m-z, Vowels, and Blends. From www.genkienglish.net.
- Whole Word versus Phonics - a refreshingly personal and perhaps controversial comparison and discussion of the topic. A mountain of analysis and opinion on education related topics by Bruce Price at www.improve-education.org.
- Rayment's Learn to Read Method - a method of reading to children from www.indepthinfo.com.
- The National Right to Read Foundation - comprehensive site with extensive material on the definition of phonics, implicit vs. explicit teaching methods, testing, research, history, plus a resource section that includes a large list of available phonics teaching programs for both home and school. Plus phonics links and much more at www.nrrf.org.
- A Gold Mine of Worksheets - phonics and phonemic awareness worksheets from www.tampareads.com.
- School Express Worksheets - create your own worksheets including quizzes, spelling practice worksheets, word walls/flash cards and more at www.schoolexpress.com.
- Target the Problem! - good in-depth material and a tool to help parents and teachers understand the specific problems a child may have with reading, and what can be done to help them overcome those difficulties. This and more at www.readingrockets.org.
- Phonics, Syllable and Accent Rules - from the Glendale College English Lab at english.glendale.cc.ca.us.
- Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read - an article about the best ways to teach phonics from the National Institute for Literacy. Page 1 includes the Introduction and Phonemic Awareness Instruction, page 2 covers Phonics Instruction, with pages 3, 4 and 5 continuing on with Fluency, Vocabulary and Text Comprehension. Lots of other good stuff on this web site at www.nifl.gov.


Family Involvement in Early Childhood Education: Research into Practice
This text describes the current and ongoing research related to the important benefits of parent and family involvement to student achievement and provides practical ideas and specific activities for preservice and inservice teachers to assist them in getting families involved in their children's education. Designed for familes and teachers of infants, toddlers, and school age children, the text includes ideas and specific activities for instant use by classroom teachers. Special features of the text include plans for implementing a family involvement program; sample ideas and activities for involving fathers; and sample newsletters and activities for at-home involvement. The review questions, highlighted key terminology, and chapter exercises encourage meaningful reflection and reinforce key concepts.
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Benefits of Family Involvement in the Early Years
Diverse Families Then Now Tomorrow
Challenges to Effective Partnerships in the Early Years
Involving Fathers and Male Role Models
Creating Partnerships at School in the Early Years
Family Involvement at Home during the Early Years
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|CLASS CODE:||GEOL 110||CREDITS: 3|
|DIVISION:||PHYSICAL SCIENCE & ENGINEERING|
|GENERAL EDUCATION:||This course fulfills a General Education - Physical Science requirement.|
|CATALOG DESCRIPTION:||This course is designed to enhance the student's understanding of their natural environment and how to relate it to their lives. It will cover basic concepts and methods used in geology, astronomy and meteorology. It helps prepare Education majors with the knowledge necessary to teach these concepts in the classroom.|
|DESCRIPTION:||This course is designed to enhance the studentís understanding of their natural environment and how to relate it in their life. It will cover basic concepts and methods used in geology, astronomy, and meteorology. It helps prepare education majors with knowledge necessary to teach these concepts in the classroom.
This class will fill the Physical Science GE requirement.
|TOPICS:|| 1. Minerals
2. Igneous Rocks - Intrusions
3. Igneous Activity
4. Sedimentary Rocks
5. Metamorphic Rocks
6. Rock Cycle
7. Resources from Rocks and Minerals
8. Weathering and Soils
9. Mass Wasting
10. Running Water-Streams & River Systems
13. Deserts and Wind
14. Oceans and Shorelines
15. Earthquakes and the Earth's Interior
16. Plate Tectonics
17. Mountain Building and Deformation
18. Geologic Time - Relative Dating
19. Radiometric Dating
20. Geologic Time Scale and Life of the Past
21. Atmospheric, Composition, Structure, and Temperature
22. Atmospheric Moisture
23. Atmospheric Pressure and Wind
24. Weather Patterns & Severe Storms
26. The Solar System
27. Light and its Observation; and the Sun
28. The Stars
29. Interstellar Matter and Galaxies
|OBJECTIVES:|| 1. To prepare the Elementary Education major to teach earth science in the classroom.
2. To introduce General Education students to the basic principles of geology, meteorology, and astronomy.
3. To help students experience science as it relates to their surrounds.
4. To get students excited about teaching science and creating interest in grade school students to learn about the science of the earth.
|REQUIREMENTS:||Required Lab: Take Geology 102. Field trip attendance is required.|
|EFFECTIVE DATE:||August 1995|


In the state of Wisconsin, the average age for receiving an autism spectrum diagnosis is 4-1/2 years old (CDC, 2012). By this time, while most parents report that their child later diagnosed with ASD exhibited symptoms before seeking a medical diagnosis, children should already have been receiving services through Birth to 3. That being the case, many of these children transition into their school district's Early Childhood program (age 3-5, or kindergarten), where, hopefully, they have access to typically-developing peers.
In the case of my now adolescent children with autism, we are fortunate enough to live in a resource-rich area where my intentions to maximize their social and educational experiences were realized without extraordinary effort. Sure, I had to serve as my daughter's "educational assistant" in a private day care when she was 3 years old because she wasn't yet toilet trained and required additional social support, but it provided opportunities for me as a mother to recognize what developmental areas required extra attention and focus on those in- and outside the day care setting.
One of those areas for both of my children was their relationship development. When I was asked by neuropsychologists during their diagnostic interviews how many "friends" my children had, I guess I wasn't so sure of the definition. It was loosely described to me during the evaluation process as particular same-aged peers whose company they sought out or enjoyed. Having no "normal" baseline before I observed my children with their classmates, I assumed the parallel play my 4-year-olds engaged in was age-appropriate. But by the definition of friendship in a recent textbook I was reviewing in preparation for a guest lecture, my children with ASD had no friends.
However, I think we need to measure and define friendship a little differently for our students with ASD. If we can base friendships on shared interests, mutual admiration, and general good will (versus willingness to share, the ability to enter play situations, and solve conflicts, for example), then it will be easier to pair typically-developing students with their classmates with autism. Students with ASD may be unskilled at initiating social interactions, but that proclivity my 3-year-old daughter had to pet her classmate's long, silky hair both satisfied a sensory input desire and served as a greeting. My 4-year-old son's proximal babbling with eye contact demonstrated to his classmate that he wanted to communicate with him. These, in my opinion, are the seeds of relationships and should be celebrated as such.
So the next time you see a 3- to 5-year-old with autism in the vicinity of neurotypical peers, encourage the budding healthy interactions without concern about the quality or duration. Keep rewarding efforts to engage peers while teaching social understanding and motivating students with ASD. The baby steps you take in these early years are the training exercises for the races they'll run as they get into intermediate elementary education and beyond.
What precious "friendship skills" have you noticed in your young students with autism?


The Five Key Points of Active Learning are:
- Active Participation
- Repetition of Opportunities
- Developmentally Appropriate
- Reinforcing to the Individual
- Limit Distractions
Listen to Patty Obrzut, Assistant Director at Penrickton Center for Blind Children talk about the Five Key points of Active Learning.
What is Active Learning? 5 Key Points
Description: Patty Obrzut, Assistant Director of Penrickton Center for Blind Children describes the five key points of Active Learning.
|Downloads:||Transcript (txt)||Audio (mp3)|
Active Participation: The individual initiates some actions without prompting (verbal or physical) from the adult. By self-initiated activity the learner is developing neural connections and memories that may not be established by having an adult manipulate his/her body. Let the learner determine when and how to act on an object or make contact and engage with the adult. In whatever ways possible allow the learner to be an active participant in the world around him/her.
Repetition of Opportunities: Practice makes perfect! This is critical to learning for anyone. Provide plenty opportunities (thousands and thousands) for the learner to practice a skill so that it becomes part of the individual's personality. The more "automatic" a skill becomes the less energy it takes for the learner to use that skill and the more likely he/she will use it in many different situations and environments.
Developmentally Appropriate: Skills develop in a fairly predictable order. For example, you can't throw a ball until you have the ability to pick it up. You can't pick it up until you can coordinate the movement of your fingers. In Active Learning it is important to understand the developmental sequence of skills and provide activities that require skills the learner has. This way the individual will feel success and use that skill to learn something new. Higher level skills will develop naturally as foundational skills solidify.
Reinforcing to the Individual: None of us will do things that we do not feel benefit us in some way. In other words, we need motiviation. This is true for any individual. Our role as the adults working with the learner is to figure out what is motivating for the individual. For the sensorimotor learner, we need to determine which of the learning pathways (vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell, or movement) provide the most usable information for the learner. We also need to make learning fun and interesting!
Limit Distractions: When anyone is trying to learn something new, distractions work against the process. For example, have you ever tried to learn a new computer program and people won't stop talking or asking you questions? If you are like most people, you probably had a hard time learning what you needed to until they left you alone. If we interrupt a learner's exploration and experimentation by telling the individual he/she is doing a good job or trying to show the individual what he/she can do, we interrupt the learning. We need to minimize distractions as much as possible for all learners. This includes making sure a learner is not hungry, tired, or wet. That the room is not too hot, too cold, too overstimulating, too understimulting. We must limit our comments to times when a learner takes a little break from what he/she is doing any is paying attention to us. Then make comments pertinent to the learner's activities and keep the language simple.


At just the mention of the word “library,” you might hear a “Shhhhhh!” rushing from the mouth of an unseen adult. Maybe you see intimidating stacks filled with book spines, or breathe in that musty smell of shadowed aisles—nothing but a tomb for old books.
Or perhaps “library” floods you with memories of paradise, a bank vault of treasured books—all just for you. To you, the library was not a maze of shadowed aisles, but a territory you navigated with the ease of a long-time resident.
Either way, chances are “library” doesn’t evoke memories of a dedicated space in your childhood classroom. Most of us didn’t have a classroom library—a space in the room with a collection tailored to the interests and abilities of students. That has changed, and classroom libraries have become an essential component of daily life in school. A classroom library can become a treasured respite for your students, the go-to spot for information, recreation, escape, and exploration.
Is It Really Worth It?
No doubt, setting up a classroom library takes work, but there is general agreement in professional literature that a classroom library is a key component in the development of reading and writing, and, more importantly, in fostering a love of reading. A classroom library must receive top priority if you expect your students to become thriving and engaged readers (Routman, 2003).
Classroom libraries create an accessible and familiar space where books are readily available. Familiarity and accessibility naturally increases the amount of time children spend with books, and ample research supports the notion that the more time children spend reading, the better readers they become (Neuman, 1999; Routman, 2003).
Time with books fosters a familiarity with all aspects of a book, from awareness of genre, format, and structure, to even general book-handling knowledge. The more your students read, the more confidence they gain to establish their reading preferences, and grow to become stronger readers—and therefore stronger writers.
If you still need convincing, see what happens when books are in close proximity to classroom activity:
- time spent reading increased by 60%
- literacy-related activities more than doubled
- letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, concepts of print and writing, and narrative competence increased by 20% (Neuman,1999).
We’ve Convinced You—Now What?
To really reap the benefits, your classroom library must be attractive, well-organized, and accessible. For it to become the place where children gravitate when there is a free moment, the library needs to be filled with resources that capture the interests and fit the abilities of your students.
In addition, if the classroom library is going to become the go-to spot, then the collection must include material students can read accurately and fluently. This, of course, suggests the need for having many of the books in your collection leveled. Access to books that have you can read increases fluency, which is linked to successful comprehension (Allington, 2000).
The most significant growth occurs when students increase both volume of reading (the number of books read) and their reading stamina (the amount of time spent reading) (Allignton, 2000). Therefore, the collection must not only be something students are drawn to, but it must also be filled with quality texts, writing that is engaging and interesting, and materials that are visually appealing.
The research is clear: time spent reading is a key component in the overall development of positive attitudes about reading, increased reading achievement, and improved comprehension. Access to texts and increased time spent reading are essential to reading success (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998; Routman, 2003).
So let’s agree that an accessible classroom library has a dramatic effect on literacy development!
This post was adapted from The Classroom Library Book, written by Lester Laminack and Reba Wasdworth. Copyright © 2012.
See more blog posts on Classroom Libraries.


Feminist art began to grow in the 1960s and '70s, when women started creating artwork that expressed their femininity, political views and personal accomplishments. Discover the work of famous feminist artists, such as Judy Chicago, Cheri Gaulke and Faith Ringgold, with information from an art historian, critic and curator in this free video on art.
Hi, I'm Dr. Betty Brown, and I want to talk to you about the history of Feminist Art, a topic which is really dear to my heart. There have always been important women, who have contributed significantly to world culture, and there have always been women who have made art, but it wasn't until the 1960's and 70's, that in Western Culture at least, women began to acknowledge they needed to change, the cultural context of art production, and reevaluate it, and make a more assertive contribution to it. Some of the important feminist writers, people like Betty Friedan, instigated this, as well as important women politicians, but among the artists, perhaps the best known is the iconic figure, Judy Chicago. Judy was born in 1939, and went through an entire art education, without studying about the accomplishments or contributions of any women artists, and when she came to teaching herself, she started being a professor at Cal State Fresno, many years ago. She looked out into her classroom, and realized that most of her students were women, and here they were studying about a culture produced, at least apparently, only by men, so she began to evaluate the contributions that women had made, and why they had been erased from history. I'm sure you've heard about her iconic dinner party, a multimedia installation artwork, that honors over a thousand women, and their contributions to world culture. Judy collaborated on this with hundreds of women from all over the country, indeed, all over the world, and created a large room sized environment based on a triangular table, with thirty nine place settings, and it is now finally on permanent installation, permanent view, in New York, where everybody can see, and I'm sure be moved. Other important feminist artists are for example, Cheri Gaulke, a performance artist based here in Los Angeles. That's where I'm speaking from, who has done important work about her role as a woman, and a lesbian, and somebody growing up in the Christian church. Another important feminist artist is Faith Ringgold, who happens to be African American, and has employed African American narratives, with the American tradition of quilting, to create powerful feminist artworks. One of my favorite feminist artists is a woman named Betye Saar, who has not only done important artworks herself, but also given birth to two fabulous feminist artists, Alison and Leslie Saar, as well.


By Ted Waddell
LIBERTY November 13, 2001 Music is the only language that spans the entire universe of learning, said Gary E. Siegel, director of music at Liberty Central School District (K-12) and director of the Liberty Middle School Band.
On Wednesday night, Siegel and the 90-member Middle School Band presented a 60-minute clinic to introduce parents to the varied academic demands of playing a musical instrument. In addition, Siegel used a Powerpoint slide show to explain the hows and whys of music education.
Playing a musical instrument requires a complex combination of intellectual, visual, physical and auditory control coupled with high-level thinking and problem-solving skills, added Siegel.
The audience had a unique perspective during the clinic, as they were seated around the band members, not in front of them as in a traditional concert setting. In the clinic, everyone faced the director.
This behind-the-scenes view of what happens in learning the language of music is a productive and effective way to communicate just how complex, intense and beautiful music really is, said Siegel.
During the Language of Music clinic, Siegel directed the band through several practice sessions section by section: flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto sax, tenor sax, baritone sax, French horn, trumpet, trombone, baritone horn and percussion.
This is not an unusual event for a district which prides itself on top-notch musical education. Numerous Liberty graduates have gone on to become professional musicians, music educators, music therapists and recording engineers.
Other grads continue to use their skills through participation in amateur community groups such as the Callicoon Center Band, the Delaware Valley Opera or the Sullivan County Community Chorus.
Siegel said the study of music is interdisciplinary, as it involves the language arts, reading, history, art, mathematics, physical education, science and writing.
Libertys director of music said the benefits of learning music include enhancing higher brain function, raising IQ scores (the Mozart Effect), providing important experiences, increasing SAT scores, teaching the habit of excellence, developing quick and decisive thinking, enhancing cooperation and preparing children for the future.
According to Siegel, he started the Language of Music program about six years ago as a way of introducing all the stakeholders to what goes on in a middle school music class.
Its not just going to a concert and seeing a wonderful performance, he said. The nuts and bolts of music education is what this clinic is all about. . . . It shows how the students use their problem-solving skills and thought processes.
Gary Siegels mother Marjorie attended the clinic and afterwards gave her son a pat on the shoulder for a job well done.
I sit through all the concerts, and I love every one of them, she said. The kids make a sound thats out of this world. Youd never think they were that young.
Marjorie Siegel said her son started playing the piano when he was about four or five years old and picked up a trumpet a couple of years later.
You never had to tell him to practice he just did, she recalled.
Gary Siegel graduated from Livingston Manor Central School in 1976. Jim Newton, his former high school music teacher, now directs the famed Callicoon Center Band.
The younger you start music education, the more you can develop your skills, said Siegel. The joy of music comes from watching kids work at developing the skills, feeling proud and building their self-esteem.


Shape Your Child’s Future With Music
Make screentime educational and fun
Give your child the tools & confidence to excel in life
Just as you would with sheet music, simply place your iPad on an acoustic piano or keyboard. Combining game-like features with music education methodologies and real-time feedback, practice time will feel like playtime, ultimately increasing the amount of practice ensuring your child's success.
The benefits of learning a musical instrument
Sight reading musical scores and playing music activates regions in all four of the cortex's lobes
Learning to play a musical instrument helps children give and receive constructive criticism
Learning a musical instrument can increase IQ by 7 points
The cerebal cortex of a concert pianist is enlarged by 30%
Music ignites all areas of child development: intellectual, emotional, motor, language, and overall literacy. It helps the body and the mind work together to make your child brighter.
Young people who are involved in making music in their teenage years score 100 points higher on the SATs than those who don't play music
After 8 months of keyboard lessons, preschoolers have a 46% boost in spatial reasoning IQ
75% of Silicon Valley CEO's had instrumental music education as a child
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