The Sustain the Future School is designed as a prototype elementary school to be built in a village on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The idea behind the school is twofold: to create a model community school for much needed elementary education facilities in the region, and as the nucleus for a future sustainable community, of which the school could become a focal element (see Sustain the Future Community page).
After the 2010 earthquakes, many of Haiti’s school buildings were destroyed or damaged. This prototype school is designed to be built in phases as construction costs become available and can be built using materials that are durable and readily sourced in Haiti. The one level floor plan could be constructed without complicated technology, and the design is such that each school could be adapted to a variety of sloped sites available in the area. The school is also designed to be expandable, so as the community grows, so can the school. The age range could be all elementary grades, or the school could focus on early childhood education.


Students, Computers and Learning. Making the Connection
Work data:ISBN: 978-92-64-23955-5
Type of work: Report
Categories:e-Learning and Instructional Technology | Education
Are there computers in the classroom? Does it matter? Students, Computers and Learning: Making the Connection examines how students’ access to and use of information and communication technology (ICT) devices has evolved in recent years, and explores how education systems and schools are integrating ICT into students’ learning experiences. Based on results from PISA 2012, the report discusses differences in access to and use of ICT – what are collectively known as the "digital divide" – that are related to students’ socio-economic status, gender, geographic location, and the school a child attends. The report highlights the importance of bolstering students’ ability to navigate through digital texts. It also examines the relationship among computer access in schools, computer use in classrooms, and performance in the PISA assessment. As the report makes clear, all students first need to be equipped with basic literacy and numeracy skills so that they can participate fully in the hyper-connected, digitised societies of the 21st century.
From the executive summary:
- The foundation skills required in a digital environment can and should be taught.
- Improve equity in education first.
- Teachers, parents and students should be alerted to the possible harmful aspects of Internet use.
- To improve the effectiveness of investments in technology, learn from experience.


Supporting Maths at Home
Learning in numeracy takes place all around us, not just in the classroom! Here are just some ideas how parents and families can help support and develop numeracy skills:
- Cooking or baking: How will we measure how much? Can you read the numbers? Can you help me count the spoons? How many cupcake cases will we need? How long will it take to cook? What time will it be ready? What it we double or halve the recipe? How many will we make? How many cakes will we get each in our family? How many chocolate buttons will we need if we put three on each cake?
- Shopping: How many will we need? How much? Will we have enough from this amount? What shape is this? Which is more or less? Which is bigger? How do we work out 20% off? What will it cost if we buy ten? Which is better value?
- Watching or playing sports – what’s the score now? What if they get two more goals? How much is the black worth? What is treble twenty? How much better have they done than last week? What do these statistics mean? How long is the game? What time will it be at half-time?
- Recycling – how will we sort these? How many? What shape is this? Which is the longest? Can you find me a cylinder?
- Walking or driving to school – How long does it take? How many steps? How many number fours can you spot on the way? What number patterns can we spot? Are these numbers odd or even? What shapes can you spot? What directions are we taking? What would be the time difference if we walked or cycled?


When most people think about Educational Therapists, they often think of someone who tutors children towards academic success. Whilst it is true that Educational Therapists do help with improving overall academic results, our scope of practice at Psych Connect is much broader.
Adapting to the unique needs of the learner, educational therapy sessions is a wholesome intervention programme that is equipped to help children and adolescents with learning differences reach their maximum potentials. Educational Therapy attends to the underlying learning skills that affect academics.
Our Educational Therapists specialize in providing group and individualized interventions, for children 4 years old and older, to narrow the attainment gaps for academic and social emotional growth.
At Psych Connect, Educational Therapists aim at:
- Addressing the underlying issues that affect one’s ability to perform academically and socially.
- Providing intensive educational intervention beyond what the school and tutors can provide.
- Applying different approaches and activities to strengthen core learning skills such as visual and auditory processing, attention, focusing, and memory which are important for day to day functioning in school.
- Supporting parents and key stake holders with educational and transition planning.
We offer Educational Therapy for individuals who:
- Find it significantly more difficult to learn than most children of the same age.
- Struggle in reading, spelling, writing, comprehension and numeracy skills.
- Have difficulties with memory and retaining learning.
- Have slow processing of information.
- Have a short attention span.
- Are disorganized, unable to plan and follow through due to poor executive functioning.
- Have poor critical thinking skills.
- Are transitioning from an Early Intervention Program to mainstream kindergarten or primary/elementary school.
- Struggle to fulfil the school’s expectations of behavior and performance on a daily basis.
- Have trouble with social skills including difficulty understanding non-verbal communication.
- Have a recognised disorder such as:
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Social Communication Disorder
- Specific Learning Disorder (e.g. Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia and/or Nonverbal Learning Disorder)
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Global Developmental Delay
- Intellectual Impairment
- Down Syndrome


Supporting Early Literacy at Home: A Parents’ Guide is an online resource designed to provide information for parents and caregivers so that they can support their children’s early literacy development. Research shows that parent/caregiver involvement is the number one predictor of early literacy success as well as future academic success. The guide provides information and strategies that will equip parents and caregivers with tools to support children from birth through the beginning years of school. Each module includes a video introduction, resources to view, resources to read, and a place to reflect and respond.
StoryPlace is a website that provides preschool children with the virtual experience of going to a real library. The site includes early literacy information for parents and caregivers.
This literacy website streams videos that feature famous actors and actresses reading children's books. Each book contains supplemental activities that can help strengthen comprehension and vocabulary.
Children can listen to short stories read aloud to them as they follow along with highlighted text. ABCya! also has a variety of free educational games, activities, and resources.


To prepare 2 to 4-year old* children for future success within CIS our new ECE program addresses children’s academic, social and emotional well-being and development in a multi-cultural, English immersion environment. Our learning centers are at the core of the program which expands intelligence, stimulates the imagination, encourages creative problem solving and helps develop confidence, self-esteem and a positive attitude toward learning.
At a glance, the program covers:
- Language and Literacy Development
- Social and Emotional Development
- Physical Development and Wellness
- Cognitive Development
- Creative Expression
- Citizenship and Community Awareness
Our Pre-Kindergarten program focuses on Play-based Learning, where the students’ interests guide our daily learning activities. We also use the Kindergarten Program of Studies as a guideline for planning developmentally appropriate activities that will help prepare the students in their future learning journeys.
This program will focus on fostering a fun and enriching learning environment, where students will learn through play while developing their social, fine motor, gross motor and language skills.
The students will also have an opportunity to participate in activities such as Physical Education, Mandarin language and Music classes throughout the week.
*Age definition: Student will be enrolled based on their age as of September 1st.


The Problem with Problem Solving
Making Math Count in WHPS
Students usually struggle with problem solving because they don't understand the problem. Let's explore strategies to take the problems out of problem solving.
So how do we get students to slow down and move from "answer getting" to real problem solving? We need to improve reading comprehension in math. Here are some ideas from Math in Practice: A Guide for Teachers by Susan O'Connell.
Understand the Problem
We want to know that when children read the words, they understand the words. For many years we have asked students to underline the question, but underlining the question doesn't mean students understand what is happening in the problem. After reading the problem, students retell or restate the problem in their own words. A graphic organizer used in retelling a story, can help with retelling a math problem. Students tell what they know at the beginning of the problem, what action happened during the problem, and how the problem ends. This sounds a lot like reading comprehension strategies.
Visualizing the problem may help students understand it. Students can act out what is happening, use objects to show the problem, or use a math tool like a part-part-whole mat to represent the problem. Sometimes, gathering data into a chart or table or using a number line, will help students visualize what is happening in the story.
Multiple reads will allow students to process what they are reading in order to better understand the problem. One strategy is called Three Reads. First, students read for the gist of the story. They can paraphrase without numbers and explain the story. As students show understanding of the story, add the question and the numbers to complete the story. The second read is to understand what the problem is. In this read students are identifying what they need to solve. The third reading is for gathering the details needed to solve the problem. In this read students identify information needed to solve the problem.
Focusing on reading the story without numbers will help students view problems in a different way. They are seeking understanding of the situation and the problem. Students should be thinking about how the information they have can help solve the problem. The focus shifts from right answers to solving problems.
Identify Necessary Information
Sometimes students need to find conditions in the problem. A condition is data that doesn't appear with the other data, but affects the outcome of the problem. Consider this problem:
Molly's Pastry Shop baked these tasty treats:
120 candy cane cookies
125 gingerbread men
55 apple pies
65 pumpkin pies
Molly rolled out the crusts for the pies. The apple pies each needed 2 crusts. The pumpkin pies only needed 1 crust. How many crusts did she need to roll?
The number of crusts needed for each pie is a condition that affects the solution.
Identifying missing data is also critical to identifying necessary information. Sometimes the important data is not in the problem, but can be found from the information provided in the problem. This leads to a two-step problem. Students need to think about what information will help them find the missing data, and what data is unnecessary to solve the problem.
Develop a Plan
- What is a good plan for solving this problem?
- Should I add, subtract, multiply, or divide?
- Should I make a table to help me see patterns or relationships?
- Would a picture or diagram help me simplify the problem?
- Could working backward help me find the solution?
- Would organizing the data in a systemic way help?
- What other strategies might help me solve this problem?
Try the Plan
Check for Reasonableness
- teacher moves
How does this lesson support differentiation in the classroom?
What instructional challenges does the teacher face and overcome in the lesson?
Can this instructional approach be taken in other grade levels in a similar way?


We have high expectations of academic achievement. Children are expected to work hard and recognise that each day at school provides the opportunity to gain new experiences, knowledge, understanding and skills. Children do better when parents/carers work closely with the school and we encourage parents/carers to take a keen interest in their children’s education, making learning a part of everyday life.
It is our responsibility to ensure that pupils become confident and competent users of the English Language. Our fundamental task is to teach your child to speak, read and write English effectively. Great emphasis is placed upon phonics-based literacy from the outset. Each day, for one hour, children in Foundation Two (Reception) are taught intensively, but appropriately, in groups of about six to eight children. This early emphasis on literacy development has proved to be successful in helping children to achieve very high standards.
In Maths children are taught key skills rigorously and robustly. Skills are taught consistently from year to year to build confidence and mastery. Children are clear that Maths does not begin and end in the Maths lesson but applies continuously across the curriculum. All staff actively promote the value of essential Maths skills for life and give children ample opportunity to practice and consolidate their understanding in a wide variety of contexts. Staff actively seek out opportunities to include mathematical knowledge and understanding across the wider curriculum in an engaging and thought-provoking way.
The computing curriculum is fully cross-curricular and discreet sessions are taught weekly from a robust and progressive scheme of work. The school offers many opportunities for pupils to apply their ICT knowledge and skills across the curriculum using a range of hand held classroom resources including individual laptops. Our assessment system for computing takes into account learning and application across the curriculum.
The National Curriculum
All children study the National Curriculum (NC). In the Foundation Stage, children experience the six areas of learning required as part of the Foundation Stage Curriculum which is delivered nationally. In Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, children are taught the ‘core’ subjects of English, mathematics and science and the ‘foundation’ subjects of history, geography, music, art, physical education (PE), design technology and religious education (RE).
A cross-curricular approach is used to teach the ‘core’ and ‘foundation’ subjects. A theme is selected and applied across all classes and ability groups, adding extra dimensions to learning and to cultivating lateral thinking. This skills-based approach has proved to be highly effective and inspires learning and high achievement.


Would you like too see your colours bubble?
Well, then here we are with a new kitchen science activity.
Let us see how can we make it.
Things you need
- 4 table spoons of baking soda
- A cup of vinegar (white)
- Four different food colours of you’re choice
- A muffin tin
How to do it?
- Firstly it is suggested that you carry out this activity in your backyard or in a open space. It is because this experiment may spill over. keep things ready on a table.
- Fill muffin cups half with vinegar. Now, add the colours in those cups. Add a teaspoon of baking soda, and step behind. You can see that your colours will start too fizz.
Why does it happen?
- This happens due to acidic reactions. Vinegar has acetic acid which reacts with the sodium bicarbonate of the baking soda to form carbonic acid.
- Baking soda contains sodium bicarbonate
- Vinegar contains acetic acid.
- Carbonic acid becomes unstable and immediately splits into two components; Carbon dioxide and water.
- Vinegar + baking soda = Carbonic acid = Carbon dioxide + water.
- The carbon dioxide bubbles up but as it is heavier than air, it starts to flow like water over the edge of the muffin tin.
- Enjoy the bubbly colours coming out from the muffin caps!
For more such science experiments and articles, visit Science for Kids.


“Music is important for pleasure and enjoyment. It generates positive emotions. It has its own significance for balanced personal development of children. It plays a major role in psychological and social development of a child and integration of school children,” said Prof Gerald Wirth, a renowed Austrian musician and composer and two-time winner of the prestigious Grammy Award, in the course of an interview with The Statesman here on Tuesday.
On how music could be used to tackle growing tensions in all age-groups, Prof Wirth said, “I think in many ways music can be used to fight growing tensions in society. It helps in improving self-esteem. People feel good about themselves. Music helps in handling difficult situations in life. It teaches us to listen to and respect each other even if the people concerned are not at the same level.”
The music maestro went on to say, “When we sing in a group, we respond to each other, listen to each other. Music teaches a lot of skills without having to talk about them. By learning singing, we can handle our problems in a different way rather than intellectual one. It also teaches us self-discipline.”
Prof Wirth is also the president and artistic director of the Vienna Boys’ Choir and founder of the Wirth Music Academy.
To the question what could be the best way for learning music, he said, “Music can be learnt in the best way in a group. If a person wants to learn music, he should start singing, experience music while making movements.”
Prof Wirth has developed a new methodology of teaching music. “My new methodology of teaching music is based on teaching practical music with the theory of music,” he pointed out.
“The basic pillars of my method of general music education involve sound development and, of course, instrumental education that also includes technical aspects to the instrument always, with emphasis on the quality of sound. It is a method of drawing the attention of children and making learning as interesting as possible,” he elaborated.
Replying to a question on how music could be a bridge to improve relations between two countries, Prof Wirth said, “We can collaborate in productions and send music artists from one country to another country.”
On being asked what should be done to popularise music in India, he said, “To popularise music in India, we should ensure daily music teaching in schools. It should be part of curriculum in India. Music teachers should be trained in a proper way.”
According to the co-founders of the Music Institute of Chromatics, Mohit Rathore and Bharat Khurana, the Wirth method of teaching music is a creative way of teaching students to hone their artistic talents and skills.


Houghton Mifflin PRE-K Is a hands-on, minds-on curriculum that is based on scientific research. Aligned with key Pre-K learning goals, it provides children with the foundational skills they need to succeed as lifeling learners.
Houghton Mifflin is based on sound research and is aligned with key critial Pre-K learning goals, including those defined by Early Reading First, Head Start, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and several state frameworks. In addition, the following research was used for program development:
Eager to Learn: Education our Preschoolers National Research Council
Preventing Reading Difficulties In Young Children
From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science Of Early Childhood Development
Learning To Read And Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children
Handbook Of Early Literacy Research
Effective Early Childhood Programs
Alpha Friends are a fun way to learn our alphabet and beginning sounds!
We will be working with new letters each month!
We will do fun activities to help learn to write
and pronounce each letter.
For More Information on the
Houghton Mifflin Curriculum that we use,
Go to their website @


Call Number: MT1. N48
Featuring chapters by the world's foremost scholars in music education and cognition, this handbook is a convenient collection of current research on music teaching and learning. This comprehensive work includes sections on arts advocacy, music and medicine, teacher education, and studio instruction, among other subjects, making it an essential reference for music education programs. The original Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning, published in 1992 with the sponsorship of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC), was hailed as "a welcome addition to the literature on music education because it serves to provide definition and unity to a broad and complex field" (Choice). This new companion volume, again with the sponsorship of MENC, explores the significant changes in music and arts education that have taken place in the last decade. Notably, several chapters now incorporate insights from other fields to shed light on multi-cultural music education, gender issues in music education, and non-musical outcomes of music education. Other chapters offer practical information on maintaining musicians' health, training music teachers, and evaluating music education programs. Philosophical issues, such as musical cognition, the philosophy of research theory, curriculum, and educating musically, are also explored in relationship to policy issues. In addition to surveying the literature, each chapter considers the significance of the research and provides suggestions for future study. Covering a broad range of topics and addressing the issues of music education at all age levels, from early childhood to motivation and self-regulation, this handbook is an invaluable resource for music teachers, researchers, and scholars.


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Come the 2016-2017 school year, the music and arts budget in the Los Angeles Unified School District will reach its highest point in a dozen years. While that's great news for students, it also illustrates the sad fact that arts and music programs have taken a considerable hit in recent decades, when arts education fell victim to budget cuts.
The benefits of music education extend far beyond getting kids to tap their toes. The National Association for Music Education lists the following benefits among the many reasons to support music education in schools.
• Music training helps develop language skills. Studies have shown that music training contributes to the physical development of the part of the left side of the brain associated with processing language. A 2005 study from researchers at Stanford University found that mastering a musical instrument may also improve reading skills, which can benefit students both inside and outside the classroom.
• Music training can improve hand-eye coordination. Studies have linked long-term music training to improved hand-eye coordination. That is likely connected to the motor skills children develop when playing musical instruments. Without those instruments, those motor skills may not develop as strongly.
• Music improves concentration. Even students who cannot play a musical instrument can still benefit academically from simply listening to music. In 2007, a research team from the Stanford University School of Medicine found that music engages the areas of the brain involved with paying attention. Today's students deal with numerous distractions, from smartphones to tablets to social media, but those who routinely listen to certain types of music might find it easier to block out those distractions and focus on their work.
• Music can help students' emotional development. A 2003 study commissioned by Chorus America found musicians are more likely than the average person to be involved in charity work as volunteers and donors. The NAfME also notes that music students may be more likely to exhibit empathy toward other cultures.
• Music can improve self-esteem. In a study examining 117 fourth grade students attending public school in Montreal, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin found that children who received piano lessons weekly for three years had higher self-esteem than children who were not given piano lessons during the same period. Neither group had participated in formal music instruction before the study, and students in both groups reported similar levels of self-esteem prior to participating in the study.
Music education can enrich the lives of young students in a myriad of ways, potentially contributing to happier, more fulfilling lives.


History education researchers encourage teachers to intentionally integrate content, methods, and assessment in discipline-specific and age-appropriate ways. State and national initiatives prescribe such integration across curricula and within all areas of the social studies from early elementary through high school. The stipulation, however, does not provide a map for interested yet overwhelmed educators. This is especially true for elementary and middle level teachers as the majority of historical thinking research and methodological guides targets older students. To address this concern, we propose teachers fuse the content, methods, and assessment with specific historical thinking skills, or heuristics. We model our theoretical approach with concrete examples. We target middle level educators in an effort to facilitate historical thinking for this oft-neglected age group.
Bickford, John H. III and Rich, Cynthia
"Historical Thinking and Common Core: Facilitating Adolescents’ Scrutiny of the Credibility of Slave Narratives,"
The Councilor: A Journal of the Social Studies: Vol. 75
, Article 1.
Available at: https://thekeep.eiu.edu/the_councilor/vol75/iss1/1
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Elementary Education Commons, Elementary Education and Teaching Commons, Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching Commons, Pre-Elementary, Early Childhood, Kindergarten Teacher Education Commons


Monday, 9th March - Friday, 13th March
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Home » Prep (3-11) » Beyond the Classroom » Music
In this section
The Yarm Preparatory School Music Department seeks to give all children the opportunity to take part in music making and achieve high standards of musical performance. Above all, we seek to instil a love and enjoyment of music.
We teach pupils key musical concepts through hands-on experience in lessons, as well as break time and after school activities. For the budding musicians, there are year-group concerts throughout the year that they can get involved in. However, our policy of ‘music for all’ means we encourage every child to become the best musician they can be, whatever level they are.
Concerts are an essential part of childrens’ musical development. We ensure that there are numerous opportunities for the children to showcase their talents and progress throughout the year. We also host regular music assemblies, informal concerts, year group productions and formal concerts in our Prep Hall and the stunning 750-seat Princess Alexandra Auditorium.
We believe music education is extremely important for children of all ages. In addition, it introduces children to skills and behaviours that are essential as they progress to Senior School and beyond.
As well as teaching the principles of time management and improving their ability to remember key information, music provides children with a platform to express themselves and an opportunity to share unique experiences with other pupils.
It also has strong links to areas of our core curriculum, including maths, English, science and history and is used to support and complement other lessons in school.
Our music lessons vary. Children explore how to move to sounds, practice singing, learn about musical instruments and listen to a variety of genres. By offering a range of learning methods, children can further build their knowledge and confidence in music whilst honing their skills in different ways.
Year 3-6 have an exciting music curriculum which focuses on the key areas of listening, performing and composing. We strike a balance between structured, formal projects and more creative activities, whilst focusing on the main elements of pitch, rhythm, dynamics, structure, texture tempo and timbre. This provides every child with a grasp of basic musical notation as well as helping them to explore the potential of different sound worlds.
Pupils who wish to pursue individual study benefit from instrumental or vocal tuition with a specialist teacher. Children are also entered for ABRSM, Trinity and Rock School examinations as appropriate.
Our selection of musical instruments includes the core orchestral instruments, a drum kit, piano and saxophone. Singing is also a central musical skill here at Yarm Preparatory School.
We have a wide array of ensembles and music clubs for the children to get involved in, including:
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Art at Westminster
Lead: Emma Sharp
Art and Design is an important part of the curriculum as it stimulates the imagination, encourages children’s natural creativity and provides the skills to enable them to become confident and enthusiastic artists and designers. Art education gives children the opportunities to develop intellectually, emotionally, physically and socially and it enables them to respond to the world around them in a unique way. At Westminster Primary Academy, children are given opportunities to appreciate, discuss and respond to a variety of art, craft and design forms from different times and cultures. This is achieved through designated Art lessons and, wherever appropriate, is linked to the wider curriculum, enhancing topics and bringing them to life. In KS2, Children use their sketchbooks to record experiences, develop their ideas and show progression in their artistic ability.


Is a degree in Elementary Education right for you?
In some regions, elementary schools encompass grades 1-8. In others, elementary school extends only through the fifth grade and grades 6-8 are considered middle-level. Most elementary school teachers teach a specific grade level and work with one class of students in a hands-on environment teaching mathematics, science, social studies, language arts, music, art and reading. The goal of elementary school is to help build the student's foundation of a well-rounded education, overseen by teachers who closely follow them through their development.
Getting your degree in Elementary Education
Elementary Education degrees provide educators with the pedagogical knowledge to teach grades 1-8. Courses of study focus on philosophies of education, psychologies of learning, methodology and technology used in the classroom.
Is a degree required?
Elementary school teachers are generally required to have at least a bachelor's degree. Some states require elementary school teachers to major in a content area, such as math or science. Some states also require kindergarten and elementary school teachers to earn a master’s degree after receiving their teaching certification, and teachers with a master's degree often have a greater chance at promotions and increases in salary.
Teachers in private schools do not need to meet state requirements; however, private elementary schools typically seek teachers who have a bachelor’s degree in elementary education.
Where do elementary educators work?
Elementary educators teach in public schools, including magnet and charter elementary schools, as well as private elementary schools. Employment for teachers is expected to grow by 13 percent between 2008 and 2018.
Elementary school teachers made an average of $51,660 per year in 2010. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $34,390, and the top 10 percent earned more than $80,140. Pay varies by state, education level, and experience.
Advancement opportunities in Elementary Education
Experienced elementary teachers can advance to become mentors or lead teachers. These elementary teachers work with less-experienced educators to help them improve their teaching skills.
With additional education or certification, elementary teachers may become school counselors, school librarians, instructional coordinators, or school principals. To become a school principal, a master's or doctoral degree in educational administration or leadership is generally required.


Training starts with Recreational Supervised Diver or Recreational Diver 1 to give students the foundational skills they need to be comfortable and confident underwater.
Students amass diving experiences and, when ready, they proceed to the next course level to strengthen those diving skills as well as to add new ones, making their underwater experiences even more enjoyable and efficient.
If you are not sure that you will like diving as an activity, or the way GUE develops divers, try the GUE Discover Diving program to test if this activity is for you and if GUE will fulfill your expectations as your training agency.
RECREATIONAL DIVER 1
BUT CAN I SCUBA DIVE?
Everyone can scuba dive. Well, almost everyone. To truly enjoy the underwater world, you should be able to swim, feel somewhat comfortable in and around water, be ready to take on a new experience, and commit some time to learning a new activity.
There is a minimum age limit. For GUE training, that limit is 14 years, since there is simply not enough scientific data to establish how scuba diving may affect the physiology of children younger than 14. Diving also requires the maturity to make decisions while under stress, as well as stamina, and strength for handling scuba equipment. There is no upper age limit, though; it all depends on your health, fitness and motivation.
Diving is often perceived as not being physically demanding, but diving does require a certain level of fitness in order to be performed safely. It is important to understand the level of effort expected of a diver when participating in scuba diving.
The dive equipment can be quite heavy – a basic scuba diving unit may weigh around 20–25 kg/45–50 lb, so some basic strength and fitness are necessary in order for you to be comfortable carrying and wearing it.
The evaluation of fitness to dive should include two parts. First, divers should evaluate if they are fit enough to tolerate the general effort required by this activity: carrying equipment, swimming against currents/waves, and responding to unexpected situations. Second, the fitness to dive includes evaluating specific medical conditions that could influence or contraindicate diving activity.
There are a few diseases or conditions that are partially or completely incompatible with scuba diving. The World Recreational Scuba Training Council (WRSTC) has developed a medical self-evaluation form where divers can report their medical conditions, which is a good starting point. According to the diving community and hyperbaric medical standards, divers who answer “yes” to any of the questions on the list need a medical evaluation by a diving/hyperbaric doctor. But even if divers answer “no” to the questions, it is always prudent to undergo an assessment by a diving/hyperbaric doctor, as there could be conditions unknown to the divers that could put them at risk during diving.
In some areas, a “Fit to Dive” certificate is required by local legal regulations. Consult your instructor and ask if you will be required to present such a document before you start the training.
Find out more about conditions that require a mandatory medical evaluation before diving.
ADVANCED RECREATIONAL COURSES
You can add more adventure to your dives and head deeper into the aquatic world by advancing your diving skills with the Recreational advanced courses - Recreational Diver 2 and Recreational Diver 3.


I am a strong advocate for using student test scores to assess teacher quality and the most effective means to accomplish this are value added measures (VAM scores), designed to assess students’ academic growth in a teacher’s class compared to their peers.
VAM is an important tool for all who wish to strengthen American education and seek to ensure that all our students have excellent teachers.
But there are challenges in VAM use.
After linking VAM to teacher evaluations, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, New York and others are now looking to drop VAM from evaluations, as states like Tennessee are fighting for the ability to continue to consider VAM scores.
And as Education Week reported, even early VAM adopters like Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee are now seeing that, despite the best of intentions, linking teacher preparation to VAM is a challenging task requiring them to explore reducing VAM’s impact on evaluating teacher performance.
The Woodrow Wilson Foundation has faced similar challenges. Since our first Teaching Fellows finished their preparation for teaching in 2010, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation sought to measure fellows’ classroom effectiveness. To evaluate these educators, the foundation uses state data to determine VAM scores.
So far, three of our five partner states are able to provide the test data necessary to calculate VAM scores. In those states, even when student achievement data is available, VAM measures and related sampling issues make VAM problematic in practice.
These are problems that all those using current VAM models face.
Few states test students, particularly those in middle or high school, in the academic subjects we need data for.
Despite the growing focus on STEM instruction in the United States, student achievement data is still not available in a number of science-related subjects. Thus, it is not possible to assess the performance of teachers in many of the courses we expect high school students to take.
- In small classes—generally fewer than seven students, depending on the VAM method—obtaining meaningful scores has been impossible. This is a serious problem in rural and some urban schools, where enrollments in many classes are low.
To be statistically significant, VAM requires relatively large numbers of teachers to be teaching in the same tested subjects, grades, schools and districts.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the reality that many teachers, particularly those in high-need schools, experience. In one state where our Teaching Fellows are working, fellows were teaching 66 different subjects in one academic year, and the number teaching any particular course was relatively small. This made most assessments statistically insignificant.
Practically, this means VAM scores, as well as other types of teacher performance measures, cannot be used to gauge the effectiveness of teacher education programs at specific universities in fields that produce small numbers of graduates, like the STEM subjects, as well as other high-need fields like special education and English language learning.
The contribution of educators who replaced the original teacher of record—which happens often, particularly in high-need schools—becomes difficult to determine.
In many of these schools, the current teacher of record is the second or third teacher in the classroom in a given academic year. These educators do not work in isolation and benefit from working with colleagues and contributing to the school environment, components not accounted for under the current VAM model. This is one more challenge in obtaining meaningful data on teacher effectiveness.
The Future of VAM
While the idea and intent of VAM scores remains excellent, in current practice they have proven inadequate to measure teacher effectiveness.
VAM 1.0 may be sufficient to measure results in teacher education programs that produce large numbers of graduates (such as elementary education) and in high-enrollment, required secondary subjects such as social studies and English. But the future of VAM requires a model that excels in measuring all teacher education programs, regardless of size or content area.
Yes, we will continue to collect VAM data on our fellows, just as states will continue to collect data on their teachers, but we have also begun to explore other assessments and measures that will produce more practical and useful results. First-generation VAM has taught us a lot, including what more we must learn about our teachers and their classroom experiences.
There is a pressing need to do more in assessment if the nation is to move to an education system more concerned with what students have learned than what their teachers have taught.
In order to determine teacher effectiveness in the years ahead, we need to supplement VAM scores with other measures of student growth, further develop state data systems on student achievement, and create more advanced and sensitive 2.0 versions of VAM assessment.
We need to apply what has been learned and develop a next-generation VAM that will help strengthen teaching and learning for the nation’s children.


Blended Learning in K-12
Publisher: Wikibooks 2010
This book is an overview of the concept of Blended Learning and how it relates to the integration of technologies in the K-12 environment. By way of explanation to non-Americans, K-12 means all primary and secondary schooling.
Home page url
Download or read it online for free here:
by W. M. Evers, H. J. Walberg - Hoover Institution Press
This book takes a hard look at the professional, technical, and public policy issues surrounding student achievement and teacher effectiveness -- and shows how testing and accountability can play a vital role in improving American schools.
The objective of this book is to lift the fog of the various misunderstandings of college: credits, courses, assignments, studying, etc. It is somewhat slanted toward US students; however, many of the things can be applied to different colleges.
by Kristen A. Munger, et al. - Open SUNY Textbooks
Introduces instructional strategies linked to the most current research-supported practices in the field of literacy. The book includes chapters related to scientifically-based literacy research, early literacy development, literacy assessment, etc.
by Michelle Commeyras, et al. - The Global Text Project
The book for those teachers who want to be readers and teachers. It will inspire you to explore ways of bringing your reading self to teaching reading and language arts. We want to encourage those who already share their reading life with students.


Why is my child having trouble with writing skills?
When looking at our child’s skills, we will commonly be puzzled to why they are having so much trouble completing a task that we take for granted. The role of a speech pathologist is to break down the smaller steps that are required for your child to be successful in completing a skill such as spelling and writing.
Writing is actually really complicated and requires a huge number of smaller skills to be developed first. These skills include (but are not limited to):
- Phonological Awareness Skills (refer to our post here)
- Sequencing (knowing what is the beginning, middle, and end)
- Letter-sound knowledge
- Understanding of word spelling rules (e.g. bossy ‘e’ rule)
- Understanding of word and sentence structures (e.g. grammar)
- Punctuation (e.g. full stops, commas, capital letters, etc.)
Is there anything I can do at home to support?
Practise sequencing – Following patterns can support your child’s development in learning that words are made up of different patterns. Making patterns with coloured buttons or beads can help support your child’s understanding of order of letters in words.
Engage in alphabet learning – to help develop your child’s letter-sound knowledge (e.g. ‘g’ – name is “gee” and sound is “guh” with visual support of letter). You can sing the alphabet song, add actions to letter sounds to help the child remember it, have the child trace the letter with a pencil or check out Jolly Phonics for interactive videos to help support with alphabet development at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhZHxhVhqFQ
Positive reinforcement – Writing can be a tricky task that children might not want to engage in. Try to create a positive atmosphere when practising writing skills and provide ample praise when your child works hard to finish a task. Don’t forget to praise your child when they try spelling a new word they weren’t sure of too! This can help support development of resilience to attempt challenging tasks at home, school, and community.
Talk about and trace words and letters – You can support your child’s early literacy development by looking at words everywhere and talking about them and tracing letters with their fingers. Count the letters in words and talk about long and short words. Cut letters out of magazines and paste them. Make your own alphabet book. Find the letter your child’s name starts with anywhere you can. Look at common words and see if you can find them on the pages of a book. Show your child that a word such as “the” has the same letters each time you find it and look for it in different places.
Encourage proof-reading and checking of own written work – It’s important for your child to develop independence in their writing skills just like if they were sharing information verbally. You can give verbal prompts (e.g. “did you underline words you’re not sure of?” “do you need to add capital letters?” etc.) or use visual supports to ensure that the child remembers the necessary steps in writing sentences and texts.
How can a speech pathologist support these skills?
It is common that families and teachers will identify concerns with specific skills such as early literacy development. Speech pathologists are trained to analyse your child’s current skills and difficulties to identify smaller goals your child will need to achieve as stepping stones towards achieving a larger goal, such as reading and spelling. As every child is different, the skills that one child needs support in, is likely to be different to another child. Hence a thorough assessment is always the place to start. Supports for working towards developing early literacy skills may include, but are not limited to:
- Identifying if any of the above skills are lacking through the assessment process
- Identifying if writing difficulties are linked to underlying overall language difficulties
- Developing skills through fun and creative play-based activities
- Supporting parents to develop their child’s skills at home, at school and in the community
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Boston Schools Benefit from the ReadBoston Program
Literacy is a problem across the nation; and with the influx of many poorly educated immigrants, the problem is only getting worse. The city of Boston has done something about it, and partners with the Boston schools for one phase of its implementation. In 1995, Mayor Thomas M. Menino founded the ReadBoston project to address the low literacy levels of the city’s youth. The project’s goal is to have all children in Boston schools reading on grade level by the completion of third grade. ReadBoston targets children both before they enter Boston schools kindergarten and throughout elementary school.
After school programs and summer activities extend the campaign to ensure Boston’s youth can read. Preschool Years Before entering the Boston schools, ReadBoston partners with childcare centers, providing materials and training to help the centers establish and encourage home reading programs for the children who attend the centers. They also work with daycare teachers to improve their literacy teaching skills. ReadBoston has two main programs under the early years literacy campaign — Early Literacy Links and The Reading Trail. Early Literacy Links reinforces ReadBoston’s focus on the importance of early literacy by promoting more effective reading instruction through teacher training.
Three literacy specialists and one resource librarian focus their efforts in a small number of childcare centers to help train teachers and daycare providers. Their focus is how to best prepare young children to become able readers. The Reading Trail promotes family involvement in the literacy development of their children. Home lending libraries are established and maintained in childcare centers across the city to encourage children to read, to have a family member read to them, to visit the library, and to use individual “trail guides” to record the books they read. As the children reach milestones along the “trail”, they are given books and other reading incentives. Additionally, centers participating in The Reading Trail receive books to establish libraries and training on how to integrate family reading activities into their current curriculum. Boston Schools Once children reach the elementary level within the Boston schools, ReadBoston is there to welcome them and assist the Boston schools to foster literacy home-school connections. Within the Boston schools, ReadBoston breaks into four separate yet cohesive programs — the Family Literacy Project, Reading Is Fundamental, the After-School Project, and the Families And Books program. Family Literacy Project: • Encourages family involvement in children’s literacy; • Sets up home lending libraries and provide the books in Boston schools elementary classrooms to take books home to read with their families; • Promotes twice yearly parent-teacher conferences with an emphasis on literacy; and • Provides teacher training and support to help each of the Boston schools incorporate the program into their existing curriculum. There are currently 21 elementary level Boston schools participating in the ReadBoston program.
They hope to eventually expand to every elementary school in the city. Reading Is Fundamental (RIF): • Provides three free books each year to participating students to create a home library of their own; and • Develops fun activities to encourage reading as a worthy pastime for the children. Each year ReadBoston gives three books to over 15,000 students within the Boston schools through the RIF program. The After-School Project integrates literacy into the Boston schools’ after-school programs. Literacy specialists promote literacy instruction by providing literacy training, advice and books to increase literacy instruction and reading within the after-school arena. Families And Books reach children during the off-school summer months, using two Storymobiles that visit 40 neighborhood sites each week during July and August. Each Storymobile provide fun storytellings for children, who also can take books to read at home. The two Storymobiles together carry over 10,000 books that may be checked out by the children. In addition to the involvement of the Boston schools, a wide array of community members have joined the ReadBoston campaign — foundations, corporations, community groups, and individuals. They provide both funding and volunteerism.
The community-sponsored book drives have garnered over 500,000 new books for the ReadBoston program, and over 1,700 tutors volunteer each week to help children learn to read — working in the childcare centers, the Boston schools classrooms, and the after-school programs. Boston and its community are serious about literacy for the city’s children.
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Enjoy this Easy Science for Kids Earthquakes Quiz – you’ll get your quiz score after completing this FREE online interactive quiz on Earthquakes. You need to answer all the questions to be able to get your score. You can do this fun quiz about earthquakes again, till you get the perfect score and become a quiz champion!
Tip: To get it right the first time, read the page with fun facts about earthquakes.
The Earthquakes Quiz & FREE Online Quizzes
Our easy science general knowledge quizzes are a free online interactive quiz resource for teachers and educators of kids in elementary school, grammar school and preschool. This fun Earthquakes quiz helps your kids learn fun facts about earthquakes while enjoying this FREE general knowledge quiz.
If your kid is enjoying home-schooling, or is in a special education program, then this is a fun yet educational activity, with reading comprehension benefits for grade one to grade five kids. Kids will enjoy competing against their classmates and friends, to see who scores the best, doing this fun science quiz for kids on earthquakes.
As a reading comprehension fun activity for your kids, you can set a timer to encourage kids to do the reading comprehension activity better, while paying better attention to text they read, or you can limit the number of times the kids can read about the Earthquakes quiz topic, before they do the actual interactive general knowledge quiz with answers.
Younger kids who cannot yet read or write, such as Pre-K kids, Kindergarten kids or Preschool kids, will benefit from doing this and our other easy science quizzes, as a listening comprehension activity; you read out to them about the topic and then read the quiz question and answers. You will select the Earthquakes quiz answer they think is correct, and at the end you get the Earthquakes quiz score. Your child can try doing the quiz again, till gets the perfect score faster, as your kids learn to listen more carefully and develop a better memory and attention span!
Enjoyed doing this fun interactive quiz with answers about Earthquakes? Check out all our other fun science quiz questions at our best science kids website. Visit our Natural Science for Kids website all about Earthquakes. Get lengthy info here.


Competency 6: Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
Negotiation is a cooperative process where participants try to find a solution that meets the
legitimate interests of involved parties; it is a discussion intended to produce an agreement.
Conflict resolution is the process of resolving or managing a dispute by sharing each party’s points
of view and adequately addressing their interests so that they are satisfied with the outcome.
Leadership in a health environment requires knowledge and skills in negotiation and conflict
resolution to address differences among: stakeholders over community health issues; health
care providers about appropriateness and quality of care; managers in regard to financial and
administrative issues; providers and families related to access and services; and larger systems
over policy, funding, and quality of care. 2
MCH professionals approach negotiations and conflict with objectivity and are open to new
information but aware of long-term desired outcomes that include relationship-building and
development of trust. They recognize when compromise is appropriate to overcome an impasse
and when persistence toward a different solution is warranted.
MCH leaders will demonstrate a working knowledge of:
- Characteristics of conflict and how conflict is manifested in organizational contexts.
- Sources of potential conflict in an interdisciplinary setting. These could include
differences in terminology and norms among disciplines and the relationships between
mentors and students.
- The theories pertaining to conflict management and negotiation among groups with
- The strategies and techniques
useful for successful
negotiation with various
- The potentially positive/catalyst
role of conflict in the change
Foundational. At a foundational level, MCH leaders will:
- Understand their own points of view and negotiation/
conflict-handling styles, and possess emotional self-awareness and self-regulation.
- Understand others’ points of view, how various styles can influence negotiation and
conflict resolution, and how to adapt to others’ styles to resolve differences.
- Apply strategies and techniques of effective negotiation and evaluate the impact of
personal communication and negotiation style on outcomes.
Advanced. Building on the foundational skills, MCH leaders will:
- Demonstrate the ability to manage conflict in a constructive manner.
- Navigate and address the ways culture, power, socioeconomic status, and inequities
shape conflict and the ability to come to resolution.
- Use consensus building to achieve common understanding, goals, and activities to
(2) Adapted from Harvard’s School of Public Health Program on Health Care Negotiation and Conflict Resolution. Available at www.hsph.harvard.edu/hcncr
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Art Education - Undergraduate
The art education program at Indiana State University prepares students for certification to teach art in grades pre-kindergarten-12. Course work in the program includes three components. The productive component, or studio area, teaches students basic concepts and skills and technical proficiencies. The appreciative component- including aesthetics, art history, and art criticism- gives students philosophical, historical, and critical bases for viewing art of the past and present. The professional component gives students knowledge and abilities related to education in general and art education in particular. This is done through classroom laboratory and clinical experience in creative abilities in the classroom. It also cultivates confidence in students as educators who can effectively teach a comprehensive art curriculum.


In the past many people have thought that having children learn music is good for their emotional development. However, in recent years, researchers have said that music also effects children’s language development and coordination.
Let’s explore, what benefits music has on children together.
When one begins learning music, they pay attention to the musical notes and sounds they make. They listen to the sounds they make, their teacher makes and their peers make.
The sounds that make up music are very diverse. Melody and rhythm are created from chords, as a result, learning music improves listening skills.
After attending music lessons and hearing various sounds, students are able to differentiate between similar sounds. Learning music from a young age enables children to have perfect pitch.
Having good listening skills also helps with foreign language learning.
Research shows that children who have studied piano for more than 3 years have a more extensive vocabulary than children who have not studied piano.
We know that children who have studied music are able to distinguish between similar sounds and the relationship between music and language development.
Many parents may ask themselves the following questions.
[My child is learning music but I don’t see any improvement in their development.
Does music really have an effect?]
[I studied music but did it really have an effect on me?]
However, based on research done in Canada, people who learned music from an early age were more coordinated than those who didn’t.
People who started learning music early where able to gain physical skills during the short lesson period.
This is because, when playing an instrument one needs to [read the music notes], [listen to the sounds] and [move one’s hands] all at the same time.
Learning how to play an instrument at a young age will help your child learn how to smoothly link movement and sensory perception.
Looking at a brain scan of someone who started playing an instrument early, we can see that the section that connects the right brain and left brain is large and the connections in the brain are smooth.
It has been confirmed that studying music effects other areas of development as well.
It has been found that studying music improves one’s HQ (Human Quality), the basic skills needed for life.
After performing an IQ test on children who studied music from a young age, researchers found that the effects of the early music study lasted until they were college students.
Within music education, studying the piano has the largest effect on improving one’s HQ. When playing the piano, musicians are required to use difficult movements, such as using ones fingers to hit the keys while reading the musical notes on the page.
Performing various tasks at once helps improve general human performance.
Research shows that starting to study music before the age of 7 is the most effective.
Even if your child does not have the ability to become a professional musician, studying music from a young age helps expand one’s total capability and will benefit them throughout their lives.
Let’s give our children the opportunity to study music when they are young.


by Theodora Xenogiani
Senior Policy Analyst, OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
Why is it that highly educated migrants to OECD countries are less likely to be employed than native-born adults who are similarly educated, even if they have lived in their host country for several years? The OECD’s Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) provides some answers. Based on results from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), a new Adult Skills in Focus shows that immigrants tend to have lower proficiency in the language of their new country than native-born residents. On average, the difference amounts to about 3.5 years of schooling and a difference is observed even when comparing immigrant and native adults with the same level of education.
Migrants in the various countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) differ in their reasons for migration, their country of origin, the time they have already spent in the host country, and the age at which they arrived. For instance, the literacy gap is much wider for immigrants in Sweden than for immigrants in other countries. This could reflect the fact that a large share of Sweden’s migrants came to the country for humanitarian reasons. It could also be because relatively few people outside of Sweden speak Swedish, so migrants are less likely to be already familiar with the language.
In contrast, the small differences in literacy proficiency between immigrants and natives in Australia and New Zealand could be explained by these countries’ selective immigration policies, leading to a large share of highly educated migrants with good knowledge of the English language.
Migrants’ language skills should be taken into account when interpreting their literacy proficiency. Two-thirds of the migrants assessed by the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) were not taking the test in their native language. The literacy and numeracy proficiency measured in the survey thus does not just reflect migrants’ cognitive skills, but also – possibly to a large degree – their familiarity with and fluency in the test language. That means we have to distinguish between language skills and purely cognitive skills. For instance, we could take into account the country where migrants earned their qualifications, or the languages they speak at home or have learned in their lives.
A report by the OECD and the European Union shows that around one-third of the gap in literacy proficiency between immigrant and native-born adults can be explained by whether immigrants speak the host-country language at home or had learned it as a child. In Finland and Norway, countries with complex and less widely spoken languages, this factor can account for at least half of the gap in proficiency between migrants and natives.
The good news is that migrants’ literacy and numeracy skills improve with time, especially in countries where the gap is large and the language issue is important. In most countries, immigrants who arrived as young children and completed their education in their host country do just as well as their native-born peers.
If countries are to make the most of immigration and ensure the successful integration of migrants into their labour market and their society, they need the right policies to tackle these issues. However, the lack of detailed data up to now has made it hard to provide the analysis needed to create effective policies.
The Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) opens a new world of information to policy makers. Not only does it assess the skills of both migrants and natives, but it also includes detailed information about immigrants, their country of origin, their migration experience and their outcomes since arriving. It is possibly the first data source that allows us to draw a detailed picture of migrants’ skills and how those skills are used in the labour market. It provides a solid basis from which we can design policies to help migrants integrate more quickly and successfully into their new communities.


Planning for the holidays and Christmas isn’t any fun unless you add some science into the mix. It is pretty evident that we love science around here and we love making it more about the end result than just the demonstration. That’s why I’ve gathered up our all-time favorite christmas science experiments for kids. I am pretty sure you will have a blast too!
Must Try Christmas Science Experiments for Kids
Science experiments for kids can be found almost anywhere. In fact, I just put together a list of gift ideas for kids who love science experiments just the other day. There are so many classic experiments that you can find to do that take almost no time or prep at all. The ones I truly love to do with my kids are the ones that require them to think outside the box just a tad and look for answers on their own.
Christmas Physics for Kids
Christmas Chemistry for Kids
Christmas Life Science for Kids
Christmas Earth Science for Kids
Christmas Science Gifts for Kids
So now its your turn to tell me what your favorite Christmas Science Experiment is! What do you love trying this time of year and what is on your wish list to try next? I can’t wait to hear all about it!
More Christmas Science Experiments or Kids
- Sick Science Slick Tricks
- Price: $15.99
- Sick Science Water Vanish
- Price: $10.99
- Sick Science Color Chem
- Price: $19.99
- My First Super Science Kit
- Price: $39.99
- Big Bag of Science
- Price: $39.99
- Brain Tickling Science
- Price: $23.99
- It's Snowing Science Kit
- Price: $34.99
- Spangler Science Club Subscription
- Price: $29.99
For More Christmas and Holiday Tips and Ideas
I’ve joined several of my favorite people to bring you our monthly Top Ten lists! This month, everyone is sharing a Top Ten list for anything and everything Christmas and Holiday. There are more than 150 ideas represented here! How cool is that!
Top 10 MUST DO Christmas Crafts from Powerful Mothering
Top 10 Christmas Wreaths for Kids to Make from Craftulate
Top 10 Christmas Themed Story Activities from Adventures of Adam
Top 10 Christmas Games to Play from Play & Learn Everyday
Top 10 Creative Footprint Christmas Crafts from Fun Handprint Art
Top 10 Festive Ways for a Christmas Countdown from Witty Hoots
Top 10 Nativity Crafts for Kids from Something 2 Offer
Top 10 Christmas Cards for Kids from Crafty Kids at Home
Top 10 Christmas Printables for Your Home & Family from Sunny Day Family
Top 10 DIY Christmas Crafts for Kids to Make from Peakle Pie
Looking for more STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) projects and inspiration?
Check out my new book STEAM Kids Christmas and get a FREE STEAM Kids Coloring book if you buy during launch week! You can get both books (eBook PDF format) for only $9.99! But the sale and bonus book offer ends November 21, so grab your copy now and don’t miss out!
You can also get a bundle with our best selling STEAM Kids book, STEAM Christmas and STEAM Kids Coloring book for one low price: Click here to get your bundle today!
Not quite ready to jump in, don’t worry… you can hop over and grab a FREE Preview which includes 2 sample activities, 6 sample challenge cards, and the table of contents of the book!


Academics are sure to have different ideas in the areas of classroom management, educating kinds, motivation, and many others. Murphy, M. (ed.), 2006, The History and Philosophy of Training: Voices of Instructional Pioneers, New Jersey: Pearson. Underneath the phrases of the licence settlement, an individual consumer could print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Handbooks Online for private use (for particulars see Privateness Coverage ).
Al-Syaibany: Philosophy of Training is an everyday activity of the thoughts that makes philosophy as a strategy to set up, align, and combine the tutorial course of. Kohli, W. (ed.), 1995, Vital Conversations in Philosophy of Training, New York: Routledge.
Progressivism, social reconstructionism, and existentialism place the learner at the heart of the educational course of: College students and teachers work together on figuring out what must be learned and how finest to learn it. Plato’s writings include some of the following ideas: Elementary education could be confined to the guardian class until the age of 18, followed by two years of obligatory navy training and then by higher schooling for those who qualified.
To aim complete coverage of how philosophers of education have been working inside this thicket can be a quixotic activity for a large single volume and is out of the question for a solitary encyclopedia entry. Although there’s overlap, philosophy of training should not be conflated with instructional idea , which is not defined specifically by the appliance of philosophy to questions in schooling.
The Spencer Basis supplies funding for investigations that promise to yield new information about education in the United States or overseas. Topics he explicitly mentions as being vital included reading, writing and mathematics; music; bodily training; literature and historical past; and a variety of sciences.


Wordplay is a blog project featuring posts from students enrolled in ENG 320 Grammar and Linguistics (Fall 2019)
Normal Abbreviations or Texting Abbreviations: What’s the Big Deal?
In today’s society it seems like all the children I see have a phone in their hands, and these children are interacting with others in some form of texting communication. This makes me wonder if their texting lingo will appear in their academic writings. I remember sitting in my junior English class and having my teacher, Mrs. Hansen, tell us that our texting language was not allowed or appropriate in our research papers. When she referred to texting language, she was talking about our texting abbreviations such as; LOL, LUV, LMAO, OML, GTG, BRB, etc. Many years after I graduated high school, I came to the realization that we can use normal abbreviations but not texting abbreviations. When writing a paper I was always told the first time you use an abbreviation to write the full meaning of it, then throughout the rest of the paper you are allowed to only write the abbreviation without the meaning, because it was already stated earlier in the paper. So my question is why are we not able to do the same thing with texting abbreviations?
One of the most commonly used texting abbreviations is “OMG” (Oh My Goodness), this abbreviation was not first used by teens in the 21st Century but in 1917 by British Admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher to Winston Churchill! In the letter to Churchill, Fischer wrote, “I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis–O.M.G. (Oh! My God!)–Shower it on the Admiralty!!”. (dictionary.com). This is one huge example that shows that even in professional correspondence that texting abbreviations can be used to get the same point across to the reader.
Many teachers and professors do not want their students to use texting abbreviations because it is “unprofessional” and makes their papers less credible, but the first cited use of OMG was used in a professional letter by diplomats! This is a prime example to show that if students use these types of abbreviations sparingly in their papers that it can make a big impact on their writing! Every teacher will have a different viewpoint on this topic, but sooner or later this new type of language will slowly creep into writing; that is, if it is not already there.
I hope that this blog made you start thinking about how texting abbreviations can be used just like normal abbreviations in the formal writing setting!
Is Text Messaging Ruining English? (2019, October 29). Retrieved from
Katie Strohschein is a junior at CSC studying Elementary Education. She attended Eastern Wyoming College in Torrington, Wyoming for three years and transferred to Chadron State College this semester to finish up her degree. She plans to students teach in South Dakota a graduate in May 2020. She hopes to teach second grade back home in Wright, Wyoming.


Resources › For Educators Supports for Special Education Students Services and strategies your student may deserve Share Flipboard Email Print Katrina Wittkamp / Getty Images For Educators Special Education Applied Behavior Analysis Behavior Management Lesson Plans Math Strategies Reading & Writing Social Skills Inclusion Strategies Individual Education Plans Becoming A Teacher Assessments & Tests Elementary Education Secondary Education Teaching Homeschooling By Sue Watson Education Expert Sue Watson is a developmental support counselor who has worked in public education since 1991, specializing in developmental services, behavioral work, and special education. our editorial process Sue Watson Updated October 28, 2019 Most parents of special education students remember when their child first came under the radar of her teachers and school administrators. After that initial call home, the jargon began to land fast and furious. IEPs, NPEs, ICT... and that was just the acronyms. Having a child with special needs requires that parents become advocates, and to learn all the options available to your child could (and does) fill a seminar. Perhaps the fundamental unit of special ed options is the support. What Are Special Ed Supports? Supports are any services, strategies or situations that may benefit your child in school. When your child's IEP (Individualized Education Plan) team meets—that's you, your child's teacher, and school personnel that may include the psychologist, counselor, and others—most of the discussion will be about the kinds of supports that can help the student. Kinds of Special Ed Supports Some special education supports are fundamental. Your child may need transportation to and from school. She may be unable to function in a large classroom and need one with fewer pupils. He may benefit from being in a team-taught or ICT class. These kinds of supports will change the situation of your child in school and may require changing his classroom and teacher. Services are another typically prescribed support. Services range from therapeutic consultations with a counselor to sessions with occupational or physical therapists. These kinds of supports rely on providers who may not be part of the school and may be contracted by the school or your town's department of education. For some severely disabled children or those whose disability is the result of an accident or other physical trauma, supports may take the shape of medical interventions. Your child may need help eating lunch or using the bathroom. Often these supports fall beyond the capacity of a public school and an alternative setting is recommended. Examples of Supports and Services The following is a list provides you with some samples of special education support modifications, adjustments, strategies, and services that may be provided to meet the needs of various exceptional students. This list is also helpful to assist you to determine which strategies would best suit your child. The list of examples will vary depending upon the actual level of support determined by the placement of the student. Alternate curriculumSpecific reading materialsAnger and/or stress managementSpecial education teacher for resource or withdrawal supportTest and exam supportAttendance monitoringBehavior managementClassroom modifications: alternate seating arrangementsCurriculum modifications and adjustmentsLearning strategiesEducational assistant support (paraprofessional)Peer teachingSelf-contained classTechnology supportFacility modifications or adjustmentsPartial school dayToileting, feedingTimeout and/or physical restraintsVolunteer assistanceSmall group instructionWithdrawal supportCommunity work experienceSocial integrationSupervision for non-instructional timeSmaller class sizeSpecial timetable These are just some of the supports that parents should be aware of. As your child's advocate, ask questions and raise possibilities. Everyone on your child's IEP team wants her to succeed, so don't be afraid to lead the conversation.


The Ivory Coast – also known as Cote d’Ivoire – was a French Colony until 1960. After it gained independence, it fell into civil war in 2002. After its independence from France in 1960, the Ivory Coast was peaceful and prosperous for more than 30 years. The agreement between the government and the rebels brought back peace to the country.
The Ivory Coast, in West Africa, is known for its chocolate. The country produces more cocoa than any other place in the world. In addition to chocolate, the Ivory Coast produces bananas, pineapples, fish, coffee, lumber, cotton, palm oil and petroleum.
Fun Facts About Ivory Coast for Kids
- The capital city of Ivory Coast is Yamoussoukro.
- Abidjan is currently the largest city in Ivory Coast. It used to be the country’s capital city.
- 24.29 million people live in the Ivory Coast.
- The country has 124,502 square miles of land.
- The President of the Ivory Coast is Alassane Ouattara (data March 2019).
- The official language of Ivory Coast is French but many of their local languages are still used like Dioula, Baoule, Dan and Anyin.
- Most people are Christian, Muslim, or follow a native religion.
- The life expectancy is 57 years.
- 48 percent of adults can read.
- The currency used in the Ivory Coast is called “West African CFA franc.
Ivory Coast Vocabulary
- Cocoa: the raw material from which chocolate is made
- Civil war: a war within a country
- Prosperous: having resources, such as food, water, jobs and homes
All About Ivory Coast Video for Kids
Here’s a great video for kids on Ivory Coast:
Ivory Coast Q&A
Question: Where is the Ivory Coast located?
Map of Ivory Coast
Here’s a map of the country of Ivory Coast and all its cities and villages. Zoom in to get into street level or zoom out to see other countries around Ivory Coast! You can see the terrain, but also see the roads, images of the buildings and even take a 3D tour through the streets of the cities of Ivory Coast, as though you are actually there!
Enjoyed the Easy Geography for Kids all about Ivory Coast info? Take the FREE & fun all about Ivory Coast quiz and download FREE all about Ivory Coast worksheet for kids. For lengthy info click here.
Cite This Page
You may cut-and-paste the below MLA and APA citation examples:
MLA Style Citation
Declan, Tobin. " Ivory Coast Facts for Kids ." Easy Science for Kids, Feb 2020. Web. 25 Feb 2020. < https://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-ivory-coast/ >.
APA Style Citation
Tobin, Declan. (2020). Ivory Coast Facts for Kids. Easy Science for Kids. Retrieved from https://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-ivory-coast/
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Most children begin learning phonics by sounding out letters and learning what items represent that sound and that letter, i.e. A is for apple; A sounds like “aaaaaaaaaaaaaa”. Children begin learning phonics from parents, siblings, videos, and music at a very early age (2-4 years old) even before entering school.
Phonics and phonemic awareness are comingled when teaching children in this manner. Phonics involves the relationship between sounds and written symbols, whereas phonemic awareness involves sounds in spoken words. Therefore, phonics instruction focuses on teaching sound-spelling relationships and is associated with print. Most phonemic awareness tasks are oral.
Even though parents are the initial teachers, it will take a professional to instill all of the rules of phonics and to teach students decoding skills as they begin to read. Hiring a tutor with experience teaching early learners will ensure a student’s success as they begin elementary school. A professional tutor can also reinforce phonics for those students that were taught the Whole Language approach to reading and are still struggling in 2nd and 3rd grades. Hiring an Advanced Learners tutor is a guarantee that you will receive a professional tutor that can make a difference in a child’s ability to read.
High School Tutors
Preparing for your student’s college future? Whether you start planning in 8th grade or 11th grade, it is never too late to get extra help. Whether your high school student needs a tutor in a specific subject or class, or they need study skills and organizational skills, or they need the gamut…we can help you get the help your high school student needs. We provide experienced and educated tutors that you can speak to. You choose the one that is best suited to your needs. Contact us today.
Our Tutoring Service
Every Advanced Learners tutor is a highly qualified, college-degreed, experienced, and fully approved educator. You can feel secure knowing that each tutor has been thoroughly pre-screened and approved. We have stringent requirements for all of our tutors. We require a national background check, a personal interview, and both personal and professional references of each applicant. We select only the very best tutors for our clients to choose from. Your personalized list of matched tutors will include professionals specifically suited to your child’s current academic needs. The backgrounds of our tutors are varied and their experience diverse, but the common factor is the passion for learning and education that they all share. As our client, you have the opportunity to review and speak with as many tutors as you wish until you find the right match for your student.


By Teachers, For Teachers
There is no denying that we now live in a digital world, and unfortunately there are still some students who lack access to technology outside of the classroom. In fact, many teachers cite lack of digital access as a minor to major issue in their classroom. This problem is more common then you may think. Research has found that one prevalent problem in some of today’s schools is some students not having home access to high-speed Internet. Some are even calling it the great “Digital divide” among low-income and medium- to high-income families. So, what teaching strategies can you use to minimize the effects of unequal home access to technology, while still maximizing the classroom use of it? Here are five teaching strategies to help you provide equal learning in a digital world.
Don’t assume that all of your students have access to digital technology or high-speed Internet. If you plan on using an app to connect with students and parents, or want your students to complete assignments solely online, then you need to take a few things into account. First, some families may only have a monthly data plan, which means if they use up all of their data in the beginning of the month, then they do not have digital access at the end of the month. Second, students with less-educated parents tend to not get involved in their child’s education, or they help them out less in school. It’s wise to take a student survey in the beginning of the school to year to find out what each students’ digital availability is, and how much their families are involved in their education. This way you can plan your lessons and activities accordingly.
Once you have your student survey results back, then you will have a better idea of your students’ access to technology at home. Now you can find a consistent time to allow students digital access both before and after school. You can also find other ways that students can access technology outside of the classroom, such as the public library, community center, or even a bookstore. Provide students (and their parents) with this useful information, so they are aware of the public locations to Internet access.
Teachers spend much of their time differentiating their lessons to ensure that they are reaching all of the learners in their classroom. Now, when wanting to provide equal learning in a digital world, we need to start thinking about differentiating based on digital access at home. Before you assign your students an online lesson, you must be mindful of how you will accommodate for the students without home access to technology. Think about how important the piece of technology is to your lesson and how much class time you will need to give students to complete the assignment.
One may think that just because a student is able to post a photo on Instagram or create a 20-second Snapchat video, that he will be able to navigate his way through a PowerPoint presentation without a problem. Not every student is familiar with the basics of digital literacy, so you will have to teach him. Start with the basics like web browsing, then move toward the more difficult tasks like PowerPoint presentations and word processing. Make sure that you spend the time teaching him all aspects of the Internet to ensure that all students will be on the same page regardless of the access they have at home to technology.
One potential answer to the great digital divide may be in seeking out more digital resources. Get the ball rolling by starting a conversation in your school district as well as within your local community. Go online to Donorschoose.org and ask for donations. Many teachers have found that seeking out digital donations can be an effective method to providing equal learning to all students. The more resources they have in the classroom, the more opportunities their students will have to use them outside of the classroom.
Unfortunately, students who lack the means of digital access are usually the ones who need it the most. All that we can do as teachers is to try our best to create an equal digital learning environment. By being aware of our students’ digital availability, providing plenty of extra time with technology, and teaching our students the basic of digital literacy, we can help to eliminate the great digital divide.
How do you use teaching strategies to provide equal learning to your students in this world of unequal digital access? Please share your thoughts and comments below. We would love to hear your thoughts on the topic.
Janelle Cox is an education writer who uses her experience and knowledge to provide creative and original writing in the field of education. Janelle holds Masters of Science in Education from the State University of New York College at Buffalo. She is a contributing writer to TeachHUB.com, TeachHUB Magazine, and Hey Teach. She was also the Elementary Education Expert for About.com for five years. You can follow her on Twitter @Empoweringk6ed, on Facebook at Empowering K6 Educators, or contact her at Janellecox78@yahoo.com.


The mission of the elementary music education is to engage the student in active learning while exploring movement and sound through excellent folk and composed materials.
In the Clark County School District, elementary music is taught by specialists. The program began in 1975 and is now in its 32nd year. The goals, concepts, and skills in the curriculum are aligned with the Nevada Arts Standards for Music. The curriculum has been presented at national music conferences and has been shared with hundreds of school districts and teachers across the United States and foreign countries.
Children in Kindergarten through Grade Five experience a variety of learning activities in moving, speaking, singing, listening, playing, reading, creating/improvising, and evaluating. This is an active, music-making curriculum that enables all children to experience success in creating and performing music in all strands of the curriculum:
- Rhythm - beat and rhythmic patterns
- Melody - singing songs and reading melodies
- Harmony - playing instruments and performing more than one part at a time
- Form - studying phrases and the parts of music
- Expressive Qualities - creating movement, studying instrument families, and listening to various styles of music
For further information regarding the Elementary Music Program, contact the Elementary Fine Arts Office at Curriculum and Professional Development. Phone: 799-8467
Elementary Visual Art
The mission of elementary visual art education is to engage the student in active learning while exploring student understanding and appreciation of art.
In the Clark County School District, elementary art is taught by specialists. The program began in 1986 and is now in its 20th year. The goals, concepts, and skills in the curriculum are aligned with the Nevada Content Standards for Visual Arts. In 1992 the Clark County School Districtâ€™s elementary visual arts program was featured as an educational model in the awards publication of the Getty Center for Education in the Arts and the National Association of School Boards.
Since the programâ€™s inception, the district has implemented a Discipline-based Art curriculum. Understanding and appreciating art is achieved through four visual art disciplines:
- Aesthetics - making inquiries into the nature of art
- Art Criticism - interpreting meaning and making judgments concerning the quality of works of art
- Art History - studying the culture and history of works of art
- Art Production - creating imaginative, personal works of art using a wide range of materials and techniques.
For further information regarding the Elementary Art Program, contact the Elementary Fine Arts Office at Curriculum and Professional Development.


Parents' Observations of their Young Child's Music Behaviors
With the intent of understanding perceptions of early childhood music development, the purpose of this research is to examine parents’ observations of their young children’s music behaviors. The study is guided by the following research question: How do knowledge of Children’s Music Behavior Inventory (CMBI) (Valerio & Reynolds, 2015) and viewing informal music class video recordings influence parents’ perceptions and understanding of their three-year-old children’s music behaviors and development during a two-month period? Early childhood music development researchers and specialists theorized that parents may naturally begin to guide their child’s music development. They have also theorized that parents may not have an understanding of early childhood music development and therefore, may not have awareness of early music responses in young children. If parents have awareness of and knowledge of music responses demonstrated by very young children, they may be guided to understand how to encourage and foster their child’s music development and learning. By examining parents’ observations of their young children’s music behaviors in video recorded informal music classes with regard to Children’s Music Behavior Inventory (CMBI) we may develop a deeper knowledge of how parents observe, interpret, document, and support their young children’s early childhood music development and learning. Each week, I provide both unstructured and structured music guidance to children at a children’s development center (Gordon, 2013). During an eight-week period I will use multiple data sources including parent CMBI completion (three times at one-month intervals), parent think-aloud interviews of video-recorded music engagements, and an exit questionnaire. I will transcribe and code all data. Then, using epoche, I will examine all data for patterns and themes, and I will provide discussion and implications for this research and future research.
Julia C. Beck is a music development specialist in the field of early childhood and elementary music education. She received her B.M.E degree from Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio and her M.M.E degree from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. Beck has taught elementary music, early childhood music, early childhood community music classes, and college courses on early childhood music development. Beck is a member of National Association for Music in Education, Gordon Institute for Music Education, and American Orff-Schulwerk Association. She has completed professional training in Music Learning Theory and Orff-Schulwerk.


Interactive Notebooks serve many purposes in the classroom. The notebooks become an “anchor” for the standards taught, as well, as a reference that your students can use throughout the year. I have found that my students are SO proud of the finished product. They love seeing all of the reading skills they have learned in one place.
This notebook covers all of the 5th grade Reading Standards (including Literature, Informational, and Foundational Skills).
In this product you will find:
A cover for the notebook
An “I can statement” for each standard to glue at the top of the notebook page
Printables to create each page
Dividers for each Reading strands
Photos of each page of the notebook put together so you have an idea of how the materials can be used
Each student will need:
A composition notebook
Crayons, markers, and/or colored pencils
Copies of the materials for each standard
You will find that I have included several of the same images on each page to reduce copying. Also, I have included both boy and girl images when the clipart option was available. You can either choose to provide both options for your students or just copy one or the other.
I hope that you find this instruction tool to be beneficial for your students. I feel confident that your students will love creating these as a way to reinforce the reading standards.
Figurative Language- similes and metaphors
Poetry and how stanzas fit together
Prose and how chapters fit together
Drama and how scenes fit together
Point of View (how the narrator's point of view influences the story)
Text and Visuals
Compare and Contrast Stories (same genre)
Comprehension Strategies: make connections and visualization
Main Idea and Supporting Details
Relationships between two events, ideas, or concepts
Determine the Meaning of Words or Phrases
Text Structures and Comparing/Contrasting Structures
Analyzing Multiple Accounts
Print and Digital Sources
Reason and Evidence to Support Points in Text
Comprehension Strategies- determining importance and synthesizing
Word Analysis (using letter-sound relationships, syllabication, and roots and affixes) to read unfamiliar words
Check out the preview for a closer look.
Thanks for checking out my product!
If you teach multiple grade levels, I would suggest just purchasing one grade level and make modifications as necessary. If you have already purchased a notebook and have switched grade levels, I would advise buyers to try to make modifications versus purchasing another grade level due to the commonalities in the notebooks and standards.
If you still have questions about my notebooks, please check my FAQs on my blog. I have addressed many questions you may have.
Answers to Questions About My Interactive Notebooks
If you are interested in the Language Standards, I have a notebook for those as well.
5th Grade Language Interactive Notebook
Check out my notebooks for other grade levels:
2nd Grade Reading Interactive Notebook
3rd Grade Reading Interactive Notebook
3rd Grade Language Interactive Notebook
4th Grade Reading Interactive Notebook
4th Grade Language Interactive Notebook
The Common Core Standards were developed and written by the NGA.
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