Female elementary school teachers may project a fear of math onto their female students, causing them to do poorly in the subject, according to a new study, "Female Teachers' Math Anxiety Impacts Girls' Math Achievement," published by the University of Chicago in January.
With over 90 percent of elementary school teachers being female, this finding has brought attention to gender roles within elementary education. Sian Beilock, associate professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, conducted this study in a Midwestern school district and surveyed teachers and students in first- and second-grade classrooms over the course of one year.
A series of tests revealed all the teachers involved had a significant level of anxiety while doing math, and as a result, while teaching it in the classroom. "We need to make sure we're preparing our teachers to effectively teach and portray positive attitudes in the classroom," Beilock says.


National Standards: Raising the Bar for Global Opportunity
Should the United States adopt a set of national education standards? What would they require? Who would set them? Most importantly, are standards the best method to effectively educate all students? These questions and others were addressed at a March 2 panel discussion hosted by the Program on America and the Global Economy (PAGE) with six Einstein Fellows. Kent Hughes, the Director of PAGE and moderator of the event, introduced the panelists and began by praising the breadth of their collective experience.
Arundhati Jayarao, a middle and high school chemistry and physics teacher from Virginia and fellow in the Office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was first to speak. Jayarao started off by asserting that "there should be no zip code attached to the education a student receives." While acknowledging that national standards can help ensure exposure and consistency in curricula, Jayarao emphasized the importance of standards primarily in elementary education. Jayaroa explained that by harnessing a child's natural curiosity early, students would continue to feel enthused about learning as they age. While Jayarao suggested that standards could help ameliorate an ever-widening achievement gap, she also expressed concern that the highest achieving students may not be sufficiently challenged by standardized education.
Echoing the potential of properly implemented national standards was Indiana high school biology and environmental science teacher, Kirk Janowiak. Janowiak, who is a fellow at the Department of Energy, also cautioned that national standards could limit curriculum innovation. Given that achievement comes more from accurate assessments than from standardized curricula, Janowiak argued that system-wide assessments tied with standards would provide better results. However, Janowiak explained that national standards still would not reach every student, and thus emphasized the importance of individual relationships among all the relevant actors and greater access to educational opportunities.
Ben Van Dusen, a high school physics teacher from Oregon then suggested that national standards would be extremely helpful for more accurate state-to-state comparison. While noting that standards would improve assessment and comparison efforts, Van Dusen, who is completing his fellowship at the National Science Foundation (NSF), also proposed that standards would benefit students by setting a core curriculum. Though Van Dusen questioned the feasibility of bringing an effective agenda, such as the International Baccalaureate program, to scale on a national level, he recommended considering it as a possible model for educational standards.
Highlighting a more technical and skills-based perspective, John Moore, a high school environmental science teacher from New Jersey, emphasized the need to always keep in mind the main purpose of educational advancement, which is to prepare our students for the workforce. Moore, also a fellow at NSF, argued that any standards should be tied to developing a skilled workforce. He argued that educators should focus on system-wide and results-driven reforms while always keeping in mind this need to adequately prepare our students for our increasingly globalized and competitive economy.
Mark Greenman, a high school physics teacher from Massachusetts and NSF fellow, thought that that the United States should begin to study and consider other educational models and standards in earnest. Coming from a district with recently implemented academic standards, Greenman thought the remarkable improvement in students' scores he had witnessed could be attributed to the framework the new standards offered. Instead of the previously scattered curriculum, Greenman's school district had a unified plan, which benefitted the students immensely. Greenman argued that standards are necessary because of the number of students who are achieving at below basic levels who could be helped by widely implemented standards.
Sarah Yue, a high school chemistry teacher from California and NSF fellow, emphasized the advantages of uniformed curriculum pacing. Noting high student mobility, Yue reasoned that by using uniformed pacing, the difficulty of transitioning between schools could be alleviated. However, she also explained that by setting a uniform pace, time for valuable geographically focused issues, such as geo-science research in California schools on earthquakes, might be lost. Yue acknowledged the limits to implementing national standards and argued that they should be used to set a floor for student achievement, but not a ceiling.
While the issue of national education standards continues to be a controversial issue, the six Einstein Fellows offered practical applications and critiques of standards. Though the panelists expressed differing opinions, they all agreed that standards would not be a panacea, but could serve as a valuable baseline for systemic educational improvement.
By Shelley Harriman
Kent Hughes, Director, Program on America and the Global Economy


Research and PublicationsNOTE: Projects, initiatives, and publications that have become dated will be removed from this page. They will be archived here.
Alberta Education conducts research into emerging technologies and best practices in classroom technology use. Its research findings are shared within the department and with school authorities, allowing for better decisions to be made on technology implementation and teaching practices.
Currently School Technology Branch is working on a Baseline Technology Assessment for all public, separate, Francophone and charter school authorities.
Past research projects that Alberta Education was involved in include:
- Promising Practices in Rural Elementary Education: Alberta Education worked with researchers and four school authorities to examine promising practices in rural schools, focusing on such topics as integration of technology to expand opportunities; inclusion of diverse learners; student, parent and community engagement; and instructional, professional and leadership practices.
Alberta Education publishes a wide range of technology-related publications for jurisdiction technologists, school administrators, educators and parents. The most recent publications are listed first.
This is a monthly e-mail newsletter for education stakeholders produced by Alberta Education's School Technology Branch (STB). It is available for anyone interested in the use of technology in schools. Click here to view the current Tech.News edition.
Technology Briefings for School Authority Senior Leadership
Alberta Education, in consultation with the College of Alberta School Superintendents (CASS), is developing a series of Technology Briefings to help school authority leadership become familiar with emerging technology trends. To date, the following technology briefings have been released:
Digital Citizenship Policy Development Guide (August 2012)
This guide is intended to help school authorities develop their own unique digital citizenship policy, based on the needs of their students and schools. The guide follows the framework set out by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), that advocates educating students about appropriate online behaviour.
The online Digital Citizenship Needs Assessment Tool is also available here.
Bring Your Own Device: A Guide for Schools (June 2012)
A province-wide community of practice developed this guide which examines the use of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) models in schools. It looks at the potential opportunities and benefits, as well as the considerations, risks and implications that arise when schools allow students and staff to use personally owned devices.
iPads: What are we learning? (March 2012) )
In Fall 2011, Alberta Education hosted the one-day iPads – What are we learning? event for school authorities exploring the use of iPads in schools. This report summarizes the findings of the day and how Alberta schools are using iPads for learning.
Technology and High School Success (THSS) Final Report (2012)
This document details the research results following the implementation of this initiative. The goal of the project was to examine the use of technology to improve student engagement and success in high school.
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Best Practices Guide (2011)
This guide is for IT directors and network personnel who are responsible for deploying and managing wireless related infrastructure and supporting laptops and mobile devices in the classroom. It is focused on WLANs and associated wireless technology. All levels of IT staff at both the district and local school level can benefit from information included in this guide. The guide has been updated to reflect technological updates in wireless networks.
Wireless Networks and Safety (October 2010)
This information was prepared in October 2010 to help school authorities develop their own policies on wireless network saftety.
Emerge One-to-One Laptop Learning Final Report (2010)
The final report, following the third year of implementation, contains findings and recommendations by the researchers.


Monday, July 29, 2013
No Law Student Left Behind by Deanell Tacha.
Abstract: Dean Tacha examines legal education through the lens of the "no child left behind" discourse. Inspired by the controversy generated by this federal legislation focusing on elementary education standards, Dean Tacha evaluates legal education borrowing themes from the debate. She begins her analysis by acknowledging the critical role that lawyers play in modern society. Lawyers preserve the legacy of freedom and justice for all. A good legal education is an important component of protecting the rule of law for generations to come. Dean Tacha challenges legal professionals to come together in common cause to address the current models of legal education to better serve the profession, the nation, and the world for the future. As part of her analysis, Dean Tacha assesses the economic value of a legal education, the "teaching to the test" aspect of legal education, the need for legal education to prepare new lawyers for a rapidly changing legal environment while also instilling some of the age-old skills of the generalist lawyer, the role of the legal profession in shaping legal education, the role of lawyers in our nation and in the world, and how legal education can and should evolve to meet these challenges.


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Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.
Teacher Resources by Grade
|1st - 2nd||3rd - 4th|
|5th - 6th||7th - 8th|
|9th - 10th||11th - 12th|
Generating Rhymes: Developing Phonemic Awareness
|Grades||K – 2|
|Lesson Plan Type||Standard Lesson|
|Estimated Time||Two 30-minute sessions|
Grades K – 2 | Lesson Plan | Recurring Lesson
Students improve phonemic awareness through games and chants that help them isolate beginning and ending sounds and connect them with their written symbols (graphemes).
Grades K – 2 | Professional Library | Journal
Support literacy development through playful and appealing activities that focus on the sound structure of language.


Preparing kids for learning adventures
As a new school year approaches, many parents ask themselves if they have adequately prepared their children for the learning adventures ahead. Meanwhile, families want to be able to enjoy the time they have left together before the kids hustle off to the classroom.
Here are some back-to-school survival tips from www.smarterkids.com that will enable you and your children to make a smooth transition to the new school year:
Bedtime regime. Parenting experts agree consistency is a fundamental key in a child's routine. Prepare them several weeks before the school year begins by establishing a set bedtime. Ten to 12 hours of sleep is a good guideline for a well-rested child.
Time on your side technology. Take advantage of the ease and convenience of Internet shopping. With the case of technology, gearing up with school clothes and supplies is just a click away.
Reading is rudimentary. Make it a family event by incorporating reading or story telling during evening meals. Preschoolers can present drawings or paintings; older children can incorporate poems or lyrics with their daily events. Many public libraries promote summer reading incentive programs.
Physical activity. Get the blood pumping and encourage gross motor skill development and family time by taking early morning or evening walks, riding bikes or skating. Outdoor games can include baseball, basketball, football, soccer, tennis, street hockey, volleyball, golf, Frisbee or tetherball. Create your own obstacle course by including hoops, cones, ropes, buckets, and balls.
Learning with language. Take the opportunity on road trips to practice letter recognition by playing alphabet license plate or billboard games.
Motivating with math. Take advantage of such activities as gardening and getaways to graph, count, and measure. Routine outings such as grocery shopping abound with math opportunities. Allow younger children to count the number of fruits and vegetables put into the cart. Older children can offer their skills to calculate a running total of the items in the cart, teaching them the valuable skills of addition and finance.
Sensory science. Provide stimulating science explorations with "magic bottles" made with recycled water or soda bottles and filled with corn syrup.
Allow children to add in shells, plastic beads or glitter, and food coloring or liquid watercolor for a special touch. Make magnificent bubbles with alternative objects such as fly swatters and coffee cans.


The Nature of Geoscience
One of the foundational papers in the nature of geoscience was written in 1890 by Thomas Chamberlin, founder of the Journal of Geology, entitled "The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses" (Chamberlin, 1890 ). Chamberlin writes, "The effort is to bring up into view every rational explanation of new phenomena, and to develop every tenable hypothesis respecting their cause and history," and describes how this approach is particularly amenable to the nature of questions and observations of Earth, which have complex causes.
In 1963, the Geological Society of America published a collection of essays entitled The Fabric of Geology ; this collection covers many aspects of the philosophy of geoscience and is an excellent resource for learning more about the philosophical underpinnings.
More recently, philosophers of science and geoscientists have focused on the nature of geological reasoning and geology as an interpretive and historical science. These include:
- Carol Cleland, a philosopher of science, focuses on the nature of geoscience, debunking the myth that descriptive sciences aren't falsifiable in her talk entitled Common Cause Explanation and the Search for the "Smoking Gun".
- Kip Ault, a professor in teacher education, focuses on the importance of time as a unifying concept for understanding the nature of geoscience in his talk Teaching the Geosciences as a Subversive Activity: It's About Time.
- Robert Frodeman, a philosopher and geoscientist, describes the nature of geological reasoning in his paper 'Geological reasoning: Geology as an interpretive and historical science' (Frodeman, 1995 ).
Resources for teaching about the nature of geoscience
- Barry Bickmore describes how he approaches teaching the nature of science and geoscience to elementary education majors in his Earth Stories course at Brigham Young University.
- Jeff Thomas teaches a History and Nature of Science course for secondary science teaching majors that includes a component of the history and nature of geoscience.
- Exploring the nature of geoscience describes an interactive activity in which students must develop an explanation from an incomplete dataset, allowing for explicit discussion of many aspects of the nature of knowledge in the geosciences.
- The Cube Exercise and the Methods of Science compares and contrasts the descriptive and experimental methods and can launch a discussion about the unique aspects of the nature of geoscience.


Experimental Drawing TechniquesPaperback
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- Publisher: Watson-Guptill Publications Inc.,U.S.
- Format: Paperback | 192 pages
- Dimensions: 208mm x 274mm x 15mm | 612g
- Publication date: 1 August 1992
- Publication City/Country: New York
- ISBN 10: 0823016226
- ISBN 13: 9780823016228
- Edition: 30
- Edition statement: 30th
- Illustrations note: 200 b&w illustrations
- Sales rank: 29,600
Stimulating exercises to help beginner to advanced students push the boundaries of traditional drawing. As with most art forms, it's best to comprehend traditional drawing techniques before you break the rules. But once you've mastered the basics, you may find that you gravitate to more abstract ways of rendering everything from still lifes to figures. However, this book is not only about avant-garde style; it is experimental in that it forces the artist out of his or her comfort zone, whatever that might be. In this book, renowned New York University professor, Robert Kaupelis, shares the tutorials that he used with his students, offering illustrations of drawings and paintings from old masters to contemporary artists (and even some outstanding works from his students) to explain techniques. Covering everything from creating form through contour drawings to drawing with new technology, "Experimental Drawing" helps you zero in on concepts and form ideas that may take your work to a new and more intriguing level. Some of the innovative exercises you'll find here include: - Drawing models while blindfolded - Engaging in group drawing sessions popularized during the Dada era - Utilizing different drawing materials like glass, plastic, feathers, string, sponges, metal dust, and more - Reducing a post's brushstroke from six to one - Using cross-contour lines for a more abstract still life - Integrating a grid system on a carefully rendered scene to create an illusion of distorted space and movement - And much more... This classic volume's inventive and stimulating projects will help serious artists develop their own vision and their own way to draw. Includes more than 200 spectacular drawings by old and modern masters from Michelangelo to Jasper Johns.
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Robert Kaupelis (1928-2009) was a Professor of Art and Art Education at NYU for nearly three decades. He was cited by Herbert Livesey in "The Professors" as one of the outstanding teachers of art in the nation; an entire chapter in the book was devoted to his career.
Table of contents
Table of Contents: • Chapter One: A Few Words • Chapter Two: Some Basics—Contour, Gesture, and Modeled Drawing • Chapter Three: Organization/Structure—Making Things "Work Together" • Chapter Four: Using Light and Dark • Chapter Five: Photographs, Grids, and Projected Images • Chapter Six: Probing a Single Form-Idea • Chapter Seven: Old and Modern Masters—Appreciated and Exploited • Chapter Eight: Drawing Extended • Chapter Nine: Now to Begin...


Most children's financial habits are formed by the age of seven, it was claimed today by the government-backed Money Advice Service (MAS), as it urged parents not to "underestimate the effect their own good (and bad) money habits will have on their children".
The organisation pointed to a Cambridge University study that suggested that most young children had grasped all the main aspects of how money works and formed "core behaviours which they will take into adulthood and which will affect financial decisions they make during the rest of their lives".
Caroline Rookes, chief executive of the Money Advice Service, said: “This study really demonstrates the power of parental influences, and illustrates how much of what you learn and absorb when you are young, both consciously and subconsciously, affects the choices you make throughout the rest of your life."
The MAS said it would establish a forum to create "world-class parenting and teaching resources" and has called for money education to be included in the primary school curriculum in England.
Michael Gove, Education Secretary, announced plans earlier this year to put personal finance education on the curriculum for secondary school pupils.
The MAS, which is funded by levies on financial companies, some of which is ultimately passed on to customers, said the study results showed most children of seven knew how to recognise the value of money and to count it out, understand that money can be exchanged for goods, as well as what it meant to earn money and have an income.
They could also plan ahead with money and delay a decision until later, and they understand that some choices are irreversible. But it was also suggested that children under eight years old had not developed an understanding of the difference between "luxuries" and "necessities".
David Whitebread of Cambridge University, a co-author of the study, said: "The 'habits of mind' which influence the ways children approach complex problems and decisions, including financial ones, are largely determined in the first few years of life. Simply imparting information is now recognised as being ineffective in this area.
"By contrast, early experiences provided by parents, caregivers and teachers which support children in learning how to plan ahead, in being reflective in their thinking and in being able to regulate their emotions, can make a huge difference in promoting beneficial financial behaviour.”
Tracey Bleakley, chief executive of the Personal Finance Education Group, said: “This useful research underlines how crucial it is that financial education starts from a young age, which is why we need to see it taught in all primary schools as well as at secondary level. Parents have a key role to play in reinforcing this by talking to their children about money and helping to pass on good financial habits.
"After our recent victory in securing a place for financial education in the secondary national curriculum, now is the perfect opportunity to build on this success. We are looking forward to working with the Money Advice Service and others to make this happen.”


In this oncology lesson plan, which is adaptable for grades 6-12, students use a free online game to play the role of an oncologist who must identify and treat cancerous tumors in patients. In addition to to furthering science and health understandings (including key vocabulary terms related to cancer and oncology), students will practice finding the main idea of a conversation and develop critical thinking skills. The Oncology Game is from our partners at Games Learning Society.
- Compare and contrast normal human cells with cancerous cells.
- Identify the main idea of a conversation between doctor and patient during online simulations.
- Apply understandings of cancer growths to identify and treat cancer through online game play.
- Computer and internet access for BrainPOP
- Interactive whiteboard (or just an LCD projector)
- Class set of copies of the Graphic Organizer (or allow students to access it on computers and type directly into the online form)
Preparation:This game uses a free online game called Oncology. In the game, students participate in a simulation in which they play the role of a newly hired cancer specialist at a radiation therapy clinic who must identify and treat patients' cancerous tumors. Players meet with several patients, listening to their symptoms and offering responses based on notes and medical histories. For each patient, players are led to a CT scanner where they can analyze cross-sections of the body using real-life scans. They'll learn to denote areas of cancerous tissue with a marker. After marking or "contouring" treatable areas, players are then given control of multiple radiotherapy beams. They take on the task of positioning these beams in the best possible way in order to blast the cancer while avoiding healthy tissue. The Oncology game introduces students to some of the leading ways in which doctors pinpoint and treat tumors. It also provides practice in searching for the main idea of a conversation and gives players a chance to critically analyze some technical information.
Due to the sensitive nature of some of the patient outcomes, we recommend playing the game in its entirety before introducing Oncology to your students, and determine that it's appropriate for their needs. We also recommend impressing upon students the serious nature of a cancer diagnosis, and the need for doctors to communicate with patients in a compassionate, helpful manner.
Though the lesson plan below utilizes only the Cancer movie, you might also find that the Body Scans, Radioactivity, and Smoking movie topics are helpful in building students' background knowledge and helping them understand the situations they will encounter during game play.
- Conduct the Experiment as part of a quick demonstration, and review what students already know about cells.
- How are cancer cells different from normal cells? Pass out the Graphic Organizer or allow students to access it on computers. Provide approximately five minutes for students to compare and contrast normal body cells and cancer cells with a partner, and record their thinking on the graphic organizer. You may want to project the Vocabulary tab while students work to encourage them to use key terms.
- Play the Cancer movie for students. Provide time for students to edit and update their graphic organizers based on what they learned in the movie.
- Tell students they will have the opportunity to play a game that allows them to play the role of an oncologist. They will be responsible for identifying the cause of patients' ailments, as well as identifying cancer in the body and removing it via surgery. You can project the Oncology game for the class to see and go through the intro together, allowing students to skip the intro when they play on their own. Remind students to use reading comprehension strategies to determine the main idea of the conversation between doctor and patient, and demonstrate through an initial round of game play if needed.
- Allow approximately 20 minutes for students to play the game either independently or in pairs.
- Provide time for students to revisit their graphic organizers one final time and add any information they learned through game play.
- Conclude with a whole class discussion about the game. Talk about the differences between the cells. How could students tell which were cancerous? What strategies did they use to remove the cancer? How is the game similar to real life situations in hospitals, and how is it different? Spark a discussion about the way the doctor in the game spoke to his patients. What does it mean to have an appropriate bedside manner? If you were a doctor, how would you break the news to patients that they had cancer?
- Encourage students to extend what they learned about oncology. You may want to have students brainstorm questions for an oncologist, and invite a doctor to Skype with your students in order to answer the questions.


Cumulus clouds are clouds that are piled up on top of each other. "Cumulus" means a pile in Latin, as in our word "accumulate" meaning to pile up. They are puffy clouds. Sometimes cumulus clouds are white and there are only a few of them in the sky; other times they can be heavy and gray.
Usually you get cumulus clouds when warm air rises from the ground carrying water vapor with it by evaporation. When the warm wet air rises up and meets some cold air, the water vapor gets colder and condenses into drops of water, making a cloud.
More cumulus clouds
When cumulus clouds are white and puffy, that usually means it's not going to rain right away. But if they grow into big gray clouds, you can expect rain.
To find out more about the atmosphere, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Learn by Doing - Clouds
More about clouds
More about Thunderstorms
More about Weather
Science for Kids home page
History for Kids home page


Lately, the question of whether handwriting should be taught in schools has become a topic of much debate — especially in Tennessee. In March, a bill requiring Tennessee schools to teach cursive handwriting received overwhelming bipartisan support in the state House.
As a former director of literacy for Memphis City Schools with more than 30 years’ experience as an educator, I am hopeful that the Senate also will pass the bill and that the governor will sign it into law. I can confidently state that handwriting should be viewed as a skill that complements reading, spelling, writing and math.
In fact, handwriting is one of the foundations upon which these other skills are built.
In the 1980s, when I was a kindergarten and grade 1 teacher, handwriting was taught every day because it was seen as an important part of literacy development.
Since then, handwriting has been progressively edged out of the curriculum. In the ’90s, the federal Reading First initiative placed a heavy emphasis on reading fluency, so teachers spent more time teaching reading and less time teaching handwriting. Today, educators’ focus has shifted to meeting the Common Core State Standards — which include only a brief mention of handwriting.
With so much time devoted to the skills covered in the Common Core standards, and with our rapidly advancing technology, some educators believe that handwriting isn’t a necessary skill for 21st century success. But the reality is that the majority of today’s schoolwork is handwritten, so it’s important to teach this skill for the purpose of legibility (even if all the other benefits of handwriting aren’t taken into account).
Very little time — in fact, less than 15 minutes per day — is required to teach handwriting. After working with students for three decades, I can tell you that it’s time well spent. I’ve seen how handwriting boosts students’ skills in:
-- Reading. When students learn manuscript (print) handwriting, it becomes easier for them to recognize letters. This helps them build a connection to the same letters they find in books and other media. When students progress from learning manuscript to cursive, they quickly begin to read in cursive, which is important for comprehension of most historical documents.
-- Spelling. Handwriting involves mental processes that help students link letters to sound when spelling.
-- Writing. When students have learned handwriting, they have more mental energy to form the thoughts they need to be good writers. When handwriting is automatic, they’re better at expressing themselves creatively because they aren’t focused on how to form letters.
-- Math. Handwriting enables students to form and align their numbers properly — and this helps them to calculate the correct answers.
Research also shows how learning handwriting positively impacts students. Laura Dinehart conducted a study of more than 3,000 4-year-olds which showed that those who received better grades on fine motor skill tasks, such as handwriting, also scored higher on reading and math tests taken later. Also, research presented at a 2012 National Handwriting Summit showed that this skill impacts brain activity, strengthens fine motor processes and helps students better understand what they read in texts and hear in lectures.
As word has spread about the benefits of handwriting instruction, several states (in addition to Tennessee) have taken a renewed interest in the importance of this skill.
Massachusetts, California, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Idaho now require handwriting instruction. Utah and Kansas also have added handwriting into their state standards. The Indiana Senate voted to advance a “cursive bill” requiring schools to teach cursive writing (reversing an earlier decision by the state Board of Education that made teaching cursive optional). A bill requiring South Carolina students to learn cursive by fifth grade has advanced in the House and has been sent to the full Education Committee.
My experience as an educator — and the research data — show that the positive impact of handwriting is not a myth. Our students deserve to learn this skill that is critical for their success both inside and outside of the classroom.
Brenda Harris is a retired educator who previously worked as a kindergarten and first-grade teacher and, most recently, as director of literacy for Memphis City Schools.
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Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
A 13-year-old girl interviewed me last week about my job, through which I communicate with journalists around the world about climate change and other environmental issues. She is part of the generation that worries about such things, according to a new poll. It’s the generation from which real leadership on climate change will emerge.
The UNICEF poll found that three-quarters of British 11- to 16-year-olds were concerned about how global warming will change the world. Two-thirds of them also worried about how climate change would affect other children in other parts of the world.
The poll said these concerned children want their government to act on climate change, but they may need to do that themselves. They will need to be teachers too. This is because the British government had decided to remove climate change from the national curriculum for children under 14. It’s a move that scientists, business leaders and others have criticised as “unfathomable and unacceptable”.
It is more than this. Under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change — which was agreed in 1992 and entered into force in 1994 — nearly 200 governments agreed to promote actions to develop and implement “educational and public awareness programmes on climate change and its effects”.
Their track record so far has been pitiful. By 2010, only Belgium (on behalf of the European Union), Colombia and the Dominican Republic had submitted reports on their activities. When I wrote about this on Under the Banyan in 2011, most of the readers from around the world who commented said their governments did little or nothing to educate their population on climate change.
More recently, some countries have begun to act. Last year, the government of El Salvador made it mandatory for all educational institutions to incorporate climate risks into their teaching materials. In March this year, the Dominican Republic launched a national teacher training programme on climate change. In the United States, new science teaching standards will include extensive lessons on human-made climate change. Suddenly it looks like British children are being left behind.
Kenya’s new national climate change action plan – unveiled in March 2013 — called for climate change and its impacts to be on the primary school curriculum. It says students at secondary schools also need “to be equipped with skills to support a future climate resilient economy” and that “at university level, climate change should be infused into the various professions.”
It says: ”Civil engineers, for example, need to learn how to design and develop structures that can withstand climate shocks. Doctors need to be aware of the effects of climate change on human health, while architects should have the skills and training to design houses that are climate-proofed and energy efficient. Teachers ought to be equipped with knowledge about climate change in order for them to be suited to teach a curriculum that integrates climate change across all subjects taught at schools in Kenya. Whereas it is already the case that climate change as a subject is now being taught at Kenyan universities, there will be a need for institutions of higher learning to develop policies to ensure that all students educated there are familiar with climate change, its impact and strategies for adaptation and mitigation.”
These are all initiatives to applaud. But given that governments took nearly 20 years to act upon pledges to educate their people on climate change, it seems clear that the people will also need to teach themselves.
While parents have a role to play in climate change education, they find it hard to be truthful about climate change without scaring their children. The Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media published a long essay on this topic. But where governments fail and parents feel unsure, young people can talk with confidence to their peers.
They include Esther Agbarakwe, the 19-year old Nigerian who each Wednesday uses Twitter to coordinate a live conversation between climate experts and anyone worldwide who is interested (see #climatewednesday). Or 18-year old Merna Ghaly from Egypt, a leading member of the Arab Youth Climate Movement. This month Newsweek Magazine, in the United States, named her one of the top ‘125 Women of Impact’, alongside heads of state and business leaders. Or Esha Marwaha, the 15-year old student and member of the UK Youth Climate Coalition who organised a campaign that called on the UK Department for Education to reinstate climate change into the school curriculum.
These three young women are just some of the members of new band of passionate communicators who are not waiting for teachers or parents or politicians to lead the way. They are growing in number and are increasingly connected. They cooperate internationally in ways that nations will need to if they are to tackle climate change. They are the future and they are here today. More power to them.


Ensemble Pedagogy (MUED3604)
UNIT OF STUDY
Choral and/or instrumental ensemble programs are a significant component of school music education and commonly involve the music teacher in various musical roles in addition to those of co-ordinator and/or administrator. This Unit of Study is creative and practical in nature and provides students with both a general understanding of the fundamental components of school choral and instrumental work and a more detailed understanding of how to establish, maintain and sustain successful school choral and instrumental music programs. Key pedagogical issues are considered and relevant skills are practised, including creating scores and leading and conducting rehearsals.
Our courses that offer this unit of study
Further unit of study information
Three 2-hr workshops per week for 6 weeks
Submission of an arrangement/composition in short score of two pieces of music, for choral and for mixed instrumental ensemble; submission of original composition or arrangement in detailed full score using notation software; planning and conducting of rehearsal session; submission of written rehearsal plan and written self-evaluation based on video of session (100%).
Faculty/department permission required?
Study this unit outside a degree
If you wish to undertake one or more units of study (subjects) for your own interest but not towards a degree, you may enrol in single units as a non-award student.
If you are from another Australian tertiary institution you may be permitted to underake cross-institutional study in one or more units of study at the University of Sydney.


Educational reform in occupied Japan
||This article is incomplete. (November 2013)|
During World War II, many Japanese students were enlisted to actively help in the war effort, effectively turning schools into factories. Bombings destroyed many schools. After the war, this left a lot for the occupation forces to help rebuild.
The occupation team addressed the educational system. The Japanese methods were nearly opposite to that of the United States: control of schools was highly centralized, rote memorization of verbatim book knowledge without much interaction described the standard student-teacher relationship and the study texts were described as boring. The ratio of school years was made to resemble that of the United States' which was 6 years Elementary education : 3 years Lower Secondary education : 3 years Upper Secondary education : 4 years Higher Education. Over the period of occupation, these and many other trends were changed. A less centralized hierarchy of school administrators was introduced; totally unprecedented, parents were allowed to vote for school boards. A new textbook industry was created.
However, after the end of occupation, much of Japan's educational system reverted to the older system.
- Kenneth B. Pyle The Making of Modern Japan 1996


Magazines for Kids - Trying to encourage your kids to read?
Magazines for kids encourage children to read. Children are attracted to the colorful layouts and large images that magazines provide.
Children's magazines help build a lifelong love of books and give children opportunities to listen to short stories for 5 to 10 minutes, to solve problems, to follow directions, to attempt to read or recognize letters and words.
Encourage reading with these children's magazines...
Ladybugmagazine helps children from ages three to six learn to read. Each 40-page issue has stories and poems to read aloud that are written by some of the world's best children's authors and illustrated by award-winning artists.
The magazine has activities, games, songs, and recurring appearances by characters. Every page of Ladybug magazine is beautiful, colorful and a delight to read. Each issue is filled with charming characters, games, songs, poems and stories.
Babybug magazine begins a lifelong love of books for infants and toddlers. It is filled with colorful pictures and simple rhymes and stories that babies and parents will delight in reading together.
Highlights For Children has puzzles, science projects, jokes and riddles that challenge young minds, and also includes regular features like Hidden Pictures, The Timbertoes, and Goofus and Gallant. Highlights for Children magazine is recommended for kids ages 6 to 12.
Highlights High Five magazine promotes reasoning, problem solving and creative self-expression. Each issue features activities, puzzles and simple non-fiction for preschoolers. Highlights High Five is recommended for kids ages 3-5.
Humpty Dumpty Magazine
Humpty and his crew of schoolyard chums are the stars of this magazine. Kids, ages 5-7, explore their very own magazine, complete with games, puzzles, activities, rebus stories and more. Plenty to do and plenty to share with Mom and Dad.
Award-winning Jack & Jill(ages 6-10) keeps kids entertained with engaging stories, challenging games, colorful comics, kid-centered interviews, recipes and crafts. Readers are also encouraged to share their creativity by submitting their own stories, poems, articles, jokes and drawings for publication.
Why purchase magazines for kids?
- They are age specific
- They cover many subject areas
- The stories are short, great for short attention spans
- Magazines are current as they have a shorter publication time than a book
- Magazines are often theme oriented
- Many allow children to submit material
- Magazines for kids contain non-fiction articles as well as fiction
- Many magazines have web sites with further activities for children
- Children's magazines encourage a love of reading and problem solving
Looking for science magazines for kids? Check them out here...
Art education magazines for kids...
Canadian shoppers visit Amazon.ca for lower shipping rates.


Uses of Author Interviews for Art Educators & Students
Show professional illustrators demonstrating art techniques and mediums,
for example …
Watch professional illustrators teach the book-making process,
for example …
What is an Author Interview?
- Author Interviews are interviews with authors and illustrators in video, audio, and written formats.
- Meet-the-Author Programs are filmed by TeachingBooks.net in the homes and studios of award-winning authors and illustrators to enable readers to connect with the author the moment they are studying a book.
Authors talk about:
- Working with ideas
- Doing research
- Bringing history to life
- Being a professional author
- Diverse art techniques
- Approaches to book design
- Illustrating fiction and nonfiction
- Being a professional illustrator
Share how you use Author Interviews as an art educator.*
Here are some curricular uses submitted by educators…
- "I share Author Interviews because they give physical descriptions on how the art was used."
- "I use the Author Interviews to have the author explaining, in their own words, how a technique is used—or how the process of creating an illustrated book is done."
- "I use Author Interviews to show art techniques to students, as well as expose them to professions in art education. This brings art and literacy together."
- "After watching an Author Interview, break students break into teams of 4 to come up with some specific questions they would like to ask the illustrator if he or she were a guest in the classroom.
Also, use Author interviews to inspire students and help them to become more excited about making their own work—especially when creating 'minibooks' in the art room."
- "I use Author Interviews to share with the students information that brings history to life, tips on doing research, and ways to approach writing/illustrating."
- "These author/illustrator programs are inspirational for me, exposing me to different techniques that I might use with the class. I also show the videos to my students to inspire them to 'think outside the box.' In particular, I liked Denise Fleming's reinforcement that the use of 'sound words' such as "Crunch, Munch" are particularly effective in story writing."


The organization is responsible for making elementary education stronger by improving education standard in elementary schools. Encouraging school age children to join school and preventing dropouts from school is also its responsibility.The council has District Offices in 37 districts of Bihar. The main office is located in Patna.
Towards a Rights-based Framework The role of Universal Elementary Education (UEE) for strengthening the social fabric of democracy through provision of equal opportunities to all has been accepted since the inception of our Republic. The original Article 45 in the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Constitution mandated the State to endeavour to provide free and compulsory education to all children up to age fourteen in a period of ten years
Background Universal access to elementaryeducation requires schooling facilities within reasonable reach of all children. If schools are not located in or near the habitations where children reside, children are unlikely to complete schooling, even if they are formally enrolled in schools.
Vision of a Classroom (My Vision) is of an active classroom, where students do not merely sit passively taking notes or listening to lectures. My vision is of a classroom with a buzz of activity. Children are working and involved, alone or in teams, some supported by peers and some supported by the teacher. The classroom is full of colour. It is open and inviting, the atmosphere is charged with energy and enthusiasm; children can be heard laughing, discussing, debating and arguing.


District OKs arts curriculum
The West Linn-Wilsonville School District will use state-of-the-art technology to enhance its arts curriculum.
The school board Monday night unanimously adopted an arts curriculum for the next six years.
The K-12 curriculum focuses on two basic disciplines, music and visual arts, but also there is some emphasis on movement, dance and theater arts.
While the younger students gain a basic foundation in music and the visual arts, said Assistant Superintendent Jane Stickney, older students will get involved with more integrative forms of the arts such as video and music production.
But all ages of children will be using up-to-date technology in their exploration of the arts, she said.
'The technologies are creating a strong need to know the principles of design, color, line, form and music,' Stickney said, 'as students attempt to represent learning in powerful digital formats.'
Stickney said efforts to support the arts in schools should pay off in improved academic learning because the two are closely connected.
'The arts provide an important support for academic learning,' she said, 'because in the arts, students learn that there is not just one right answer or one way to solve a problem. They learn to exercise judgment, and they learn to connect ideas with purpose.'
Teams of art teachers assembled the curriculum over months, working outside of the regular school day and during the summer.
'The teams of arts teachers and administrators who are making the recommendations,' Stickney said, 'have reviewed the disciplines within the arts, connected with state and national standards and reviewed best practices for each major area of the arts.'
Besides the technology, supporting materials include textbooks and digital resources that provide access to many museum collections, music libraries and other tools for composition and presentation.
Stickney emphasized the significance of students becoming actively involved in learning through the arts. The key word, she said, is 'interactive.'
'The importance of interactive resources - hands-on experience with musical instruments and varied art media - is essential to our program,' Stickney told the board.
Significant time is planned, Stickney said, to review and re-educate art teachers in the new technologies as well as in team learning techniques and discipline based art education.
It has been seven years (1999) since the school board last reviewed and adopted the arts curriculum, but Stickney said at that time it wasn't changed from the way it had been adopted seven years earlier (1992).
So her use of the word 'exploding' may be appropriate considering the variety of changes in the techniques and innovative resources available today to apply arts to learning.
'Our students' abilities to use technologies,' she said, 'is exploding the learning in all areas of the arts.'


By 1900, as Fenway Court slowly emerged along the Emerald Necklace, Isabella Gardner obtained a charter to form a museum corporation “for the purpose of art education, especially by the public exhibition of works of art.” She thought carefully about the placement of her collection from the very beginning of the construction process, marking the galleries on the architectural plans with the names of paintings and specific architectural elements. Arrangement of the galleries had to include a suitable backdrop on which to display her works of art and Gardner had very specific ideas for wall color. In March 1900 she wrote to art dealer Bernard Berenson, asking “…will you please some day, get on a piece of paper the blue colour that Bardini has on his walls. I want the exact tint. Perhaps some little person can paint it on a piece of paper.”
Stefano Bardini was a popular 19th century art dealer based in Florence, Italy, offering furniture, paintings and sculpture to buyers such as architect Stanford White and the Louvre Museum. Gardner purchased objects and furniture from Bardini and seems to have admired his own particular approach for displaying his collection which included sculptures by the della Robbia brothers and 15th century polychrome stuccoes. Bardini chose several shades of blue for his rooms, which inspired visitors to call his house – now a museum – the “Blue Museum.”*
Gardner wrote again to Berenson later in the year, “…When you get there (you are there) please do get me a piece of paper painted with the blue of Bardini’s walls. You know you promised me before. I am working hard over my new house.” Berenson writes back right away:
“I was most sincerely pleased to hear from you , after so long a silence – even tho’ you mildly scolded me for not having gotten you a sample of Bardini’s blue. The truth is that when you wrote about it last year, I saw Bardini about it directly. He solemnly assured me he would send it [to] you in a day or two….This time I went down and approached him. He was profuse in apologies, and to make sure that now you really got it, I told him to give it to me. I enclose it, the sample, and with it, the receipt for preparing it…” Here you see the original recipe and paint sample received by Gardner.
She was unrelenting in her pursuit of the right color, wondering if the paint chip was the correct color. “Did you compare them [the paint chip and wall]? In case you have not, will you kindly do so. I enclose a piece. The important [thing] is to get the tint exactly…”
Berenson assured Gardner that the color was the exact shade on Bardini’s walls and, to this day, the museum has continued to follow a similar formula (with the help of Benjamin Moore), in keeping with Gardner’s intent. Take a look at the wall treatments as you pass through the galleries…how do they suit the works of art displayed within each room?
*The Bardini Museum will reopen in March after being closed for a decade.


Details about A Handbook for Literacy Instructional and Assessment Strategies, K-8:
A Handbook for Literacy Instructional and Assessment Strategies is the ideal resource for current and future teachers seeking a flexible, step-by-step approach to research-based assessment instruction. This easy-to-read handbook includes the most powerful instructional strategies organized around critical areas of literacy development, providing an invaluable resource for both pre-service and busy K-8 classroom teachers for literacy instruction. Attending to the significance of monitoring students’ literacy development and providing documentation for reporting the results of their performances in an evidence-based education context where teachers must show that they “can teach so that students learn,”this handbook gives a prominent role to classroom assessment tools within each strategy. In addition to the step-by-step format, each instructional strategy is aligned to an assessment tool that faciliates the teachers’ assessing and documenting students’ progress using classroom performances that are part of the literacy program. To simplify the use of the handbook, each strategy is organized in a similar way to include the following: (a) the instructional context, (b) the framework or background information, (c) the learner outcomes, (d) the instructional procedure, (e) an application of the instructional procedure, (f) the assessment procedure, and (g) professional readings and references.


Gold jewelry shaped like bees,
from Bronze Age Greece
Gold is a much heavier atom than iron, with 79 protons and 79 electrons in each atom. Gold is too heavy for even red giant stars to make through nuclear fusion. The only way to make gold is when a red giant star explodes in a supernova. When that happens, the tremendously high temperatures of the explosion itself - hundreds of millions of degrees - force the star's atoms to mix together and make gold (and other heavy atoms like uranium).
All of the gold in the universe was made during these supernova explosions. Because it's so hard to make, there's much less gold in the universe than there are lighter atoms like hydrogen or carbon or silica. Since gold also happens to be pretty, we think of it as valuable.
To find out more about atoms, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Science for Kids home page
Kidipede home page


January 14, 2011
Carter says those looking to change their habits must accept the change willingly.
With statistics showing that somewhere around 30 percent of people who make New Year's resolutions will ditch them by the end of January, it may seem the odds are against long-term behavior change. But common sense and the concept of social validity dictate that the process for change must be one the participant accepts willingly and that the procedure for behavior change be simple, said a Texas Tech education professor.
Stacy Carter, an assistant professor in the College of Education's Special Education Program, is the author of several research articles on social validity and a recently published a book, The Social Validity Manual. This is the only book ever published on the topic of social validity, which has relevance for several fields of study including psychology, education, social work and health services.
"The traditional way of looking at a behavior change is seeing how effective a treatment is," Carter said. "Researchers spend a lot of time looking at statistical validity and reliability of the treatments they develop. Social validity is a much more practical look that researchers sometimes ignore."
Carter said researchers may develop a treatment that has very high statistical validity and is very reliable, but if it is too difficult or time consuming, then consumers won't use it or practitioners won't use it in their everyday practice. If it's something that is going to cause them a lot of effort, or is difficult to implement, then they probably are not going to use it for long.
To measure social validity, the behavior must be observable and measurable.
"The goal is to make people happier with the treatments they are receiving," Carter said. "If you're happier with what you're doing and it's effective in all these different ways, then you're more likely to use it and everyone's going to be happier – the person who has to implement it, the practitioner, the person receiving the treatment."
Carter offered this example. "What you see a lot in school settings would be off-task behavior – students not working on what they're supposed to be working on. A typical intervention for that might be something like a token economy – where they get rewards or points for staying on task. That would be something that a teacher could do very easily. They could keep track or even have the student learn to keep track themselves. Also to have their peers monitor them as well." For the arrangement to work, the teacher, student and student's peers would all have to have buy-in to the system.
Carter also is working as a consultant with a group of researchers from three German universities. Researchers from Goethe University, the German Institute for International Research and the Sigmund Freud Institute provided support for Carter to travel to Frankfurt in November. He made a presentation and collaborated with researchers who wish to incorporate his "Distributive Model of Social Validity" into their research studies. These German researchers focus on longitudinal research projects within educational settings and hope to improve their social validation procedures.
The Social Validity Manualhas been awarded the College of Education Faculty Book Award and currently is nominated for the President's Faculty Book Award university-wide.
The College of Education at Texas Tech University offers a full range of programs, including eight doctoral degrees, 12 master's degrees and two bachelor's degrees with numerous specializations leading to careers in public or private education as teachers, professors, administrators, counselors and diagnosticians.
Programs in the college are housed in two departments. The Department of Curriculum and Instruction offers undergraduate programs leading to initial teaching certificates and graduate programs in bilingual education, curriculum and instruction, elementary education, language literacy and secondary education.
The Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership offers graduate programs in counselor education, educational leadership, educational psychology, higher education, instructional technology and special education.


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BEHIND THE STORY | How do you quantify arts education?
Recently on TC Daily Planet, I wrote about the disheartening phenomenon of music being dropped from the school-day curriculum at EXPO elementary. Unfortunately, it’s not surprising that this is happening and it’s not entirely new. Arts education historically has been underfunded and valued, particularly in the 13 years since No Child Left Behind, where testing of reading and math have drawn focus away from other subjects.
Perhaps as a way to combat the trend, arts educators have come up with their own assessment models and ways of measuring the value of arts education through various means. The Perpich Center for Arts Education (PCAE) has been leading this charge, particularly in the realm of arts integration, where academic achievement is bolstered by art-making. For example, visual arts might be used as a way to understand geometry, or dance might be used as a way to understand molecular biology.
Metrics are one way to show the value of art in the classroom. You can look at various studies that show direct correlations between, say, music education and academic achievement. Even more directly, when you break art education down into rubrics, the value becomes evident. In a theater class, a young person learns skills that aid them in public speaking, confidence and collaboration. An art class teaches self-expression and communication, not to mention coordination skills. Whatever the arts activity, you can pick out skills that a student gathers along the way, whether its critical thinking, emotional intelligence, abstract thought or physical fitness.
I do believe these measurable skills can all be attributed to arts education, but for me, there’s something missing when you break it down so much. There’s something inherently unquantifiable about art. There’s magic to it, something that you feel physically when you experience it, that you sense in your stomach and at the back of your neck.
About a year ago, this viral video summed up for me what it’s like to experience art. It’s a little baby listening to her mother sing “My Heart Can’t Tell You No.” Throughout the course of the two-minute video, you see the little one go through every emotion imaginable: delight, serenity, love, sadness, despair and redemption. It’s remarkable because of course, a really moving performance of a great song, like a dance or a poem- does bring you along for an emotional ride- and while adults maybe better at keeping those emotions less visible, we do experience them.
I struggle with the question of quantifying art in my writing as well. How do you break down the experience of watching a dance performance, or a piece of sculpture? It’s an impossible task really, and writing about art draws on the skills of a writer which are equally abstract at times as writers try to portray the experience through the altogether unscientific means of words on a page.
Art’s intangible qualities don’t diminish its value, however. Its value indeed lies in its mystery. How you explain that to the gatekeepers of funding in the world and those that dictate what we teach young people in school is another question. Perhaps we just ask the naysayers to simply experience great art themselves every once in a while. Once they have that experience for themselves, perhaps they’ll come to the right side of thinking.
© 2014 Sheila Regan


Season of Giving Book List for Children
Sharing quality literature is a wonderful way to introduce new ideas and start conversation with children. The following books feature stories of kindness and empathy. Incorporate these books into story time all year round to reinforce the valuable lessons highlighted during the Season of Giving. With the help of our friends at Sprout, we have included some great learning opportunities to add in with each reading!
The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco
Learning opportunity: Ask your child about his favorite blanket or stuffed animal. Encourage him to draw a picture of it and to write how it became his favorite.
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Learning opportunity: Ask questions! What did your child like and dislike about this story? How did he feel about the way the story ended? Invite him to act out the story, first as the tree and then as the boy.
A Chair for My Mother by Vera Williams
Learning opportunity: When you are reading this book, keep count of and discuss all the ways that people are generous to each other in this story.
Under the Lemon Moon by Edith Hope Fine
Learning opportunity: Explore how it feels to get gifts — and to give them. Invite your child to help you list the different acts of kindness demonstrated throughout the story. Who showed “empathy?” How do you know?
My Friend Is Sad by Mo Willems
Learning opportunity: After reading this book, make a list of ways your child thinks he can help people who are sad.
Meet Aunt Panda by Nancy Baku
Learning opportunity: Promote generosity, creativity, respect for nature and the value of family. Play music and invite your child to paint with his fingers his favorite place to play outside. Encourage him to name his artwork and help him to write the title.
Giving by Shirley Hughes
Learning opportunity: Introduce the meaning of the word “give,” and the concept that everyone has something to give. Create a set of feelings flashcards by cutting out pictures of people from magazines that represent the emotions you want your child to learn. Glue the emotion pictures on the front of index cards and write the name of the emotion on the back. Have your child guess the emotion and try to replicate it.
For further language and literacy development try highlighting the new vocabulary words in each story. Talk about what “empathy” means (compassion, the ability to understand another’s emotions and situations) and use examples from the books to teach the children about it as you are reading. Discuss how one character helped another in the story. Ask questions about what other signs of kindness the children heard in each story you share.
Do have a book about kindness and giving you would recommend to other parents? Tell us your suggestion in a comment below.


Course Content and Outcome Guide for WLD 236A
- Course Number:
- WLD 236A
- Course Title:
- Intermediate Wire Welding
- Credit Hours:
- Lecture Hours:
- Lecture/Lab Hours:
- Lab Hours:
- Special Fee:
Course DescriptionIntroduces welding in the 3F and 3G positions and weld quality as it applies to industry standards in the wire welding process. Develops foundational skills required for advancement in future coursework. Third class in a four course sequence. Audit available.
Addendum to Course Description
At the beginning of the course, the course syllabus will identify the methods used to evaluate student progress and the criteria for assigning a course grade. The student will be evaluated on his/her ability to demonstrate the development of course outcomes. The methods of evaluation may include one or more of the following: oral or written examinations, quizzes, written assignments, welding tests, safe work habits, task performance, and work relations.
Intended Outcomes for the course
• Function safely in a welding shop environment.
• Operate oxyacetylene portable and track cutting systems in accordance with industry standards.
• Weld common weld joints in the 3F and the 3G positions.
• Use heat and puddle control to make out of position welds.
• Interpret blueprints and shop drawings to produce proper weld sizes and profiles.
Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)
SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS COMPETENCIES
Student will understand and practice personal safety
- Understand the importance of personal health and fitness
- Use proper protective gear
- Understand situation awareness
- Use correct manual lifting techniques
Student will understand and practice tool safety
- Use hand tool safely
- Use power tool safely
Student will understand and practice equipment safety
- Demonstrate safety procedures required in the use of a welding machines and cutting systems.
Student will understand and maintain a safe work area.
- Maintain a clean and clutter free floor
- Understand the importance of adequate lighting
- Recognize objects that might fall
- Recognize and report dangerous electrical and air/gas hose connections
- Understand the importance of space management in regards to safety
- Understand and practice fire prevention
Student will understand aspects of the welding industry that effect the environment (environmental awareness)
- Identify hazardous materials
- Identify the purpose of a Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) and where MSDS sheets are kept.
- Understand the effects of hazardous materials and welding fumes on the atmosphere
- Understand correct procedures when working in or around containers or vessels
WIRE WELDING COMPETENCIES
Develop knowledge and skills in the Wire Welding
- Processes with the following electrode(s) and shielding gas(es).
- The instructor and the student will determine the course competencies at the first class session.


Reading goes back to building blocks
Children are set to learn reading in the same way their parents did as part of a Federal Government push for back-to-basics teaching in classrooms.
The head of a national literacy inquiry, Ken Rowe, said nearly one in three children were not learning to read properly because they lacked the building blocks provided by phonics, the system of sounding out letters and syllables.
"There does seem to be a tail of underachievement, and the major concern is boys," Dr Rowe said. "You'll find roughly 30 per cent of year 9 students have functional literacy problems. The only way we can really address this is with a nationwide solution."
His report is due within weeks. The federal Minister for Education, Brendan Nelson, says he will withhold funding from states that resist the recommendations. In phonics teaching, emphasis is on the relationship between letters, or syllables, and their sounds. They are sounded one at a time (such as c-a-t) through repetitive exercises that begin with easy words and move on to more difficult ones. It was generally replaced in classrooms in the 1980s by the whole language method of immersing children in print and allowing them to absorb words.
In recent years schools have adopted a blend of the two. But Dr Rowe, a research director with the Australian Council for Educational Research, said whole language teaching had acquired "too great an emphasis in some schools". He is expected to recommend a national scheme for the systematic teaching of phonics.
Dr Nelson, who commissioned the inquiry, said: "I suspect there's a lot of teachers who simply do not know how to teach phonics, or they're working in educational bureaucracies that frown on the use of phonics."
He said he would "mandate" to ensure the states implemented Dr Rowe's proposals. And he would withhold funding if they resisted. "If they don't [agree], that then leaves us with the only language they seem to understand, and that's money."
Dr Rowe said: "The constructivist way [of whole language teaching], for 70 per cent of kids that may be appropriate, but then you have to take into account the 30 per cent for whom it doesn't work. They need direct instruction, or what you might call systematic phonics.
"But there is no dichotomy all evidence-based research shows both ways of teaching are valuable depending on the development learning needs of the child. We just need to be sure that one isn't downplayed."
The most recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development literacy review found 15-year-old students in NSW performed second only to those from Finland.
Dr Rowe said Australia was among the top countries such as Finland, New Zealand and Canada, and performed better than Britain and the US. But the latest national literacy results show about one in 10 year 5 and year 7 students cannot meet their reading benchmarks.
Maureen Walsh, an education lecturer at the Australian Catholic University, said phonics was taught in schools among "a rich blend of principles".
"It's silly to say we need more phonics," she said. "We give all our teaching students at ACU a lot of phonics instruction. And anyway, we moved on from the phonics and whole language debate 10 years ago - we now have a model that draws from both and also takes in social context and new technology."
Dr Rowe and his committee of academics, teachers and parents have read 400 submissions since October. And they have examined the findings of a British parliamentary committee that completed a similar inquiry into literacy four months ago. Its report noted the success of early phonics programs in some British schools and recommended a review of British teaching strategy, which treats phonics as just one of many learning tools.
Dr Walsh suggested the push for "the explicit teaching of phonics is not a bad thing in itself but it would be very damaging if it is at the expense of losing many newer, excellent approaches".


PHYSICS FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS (GL)
This course is a one-semester introduction to physics with curriculum and instruction designed as an activity-based hands-on course for K-8 elementary education students and open to all education majors. The course emphasizes a student-oriented pedagogy in order to develop various physics concepts and the nature of science. Topics covered include motion, forces, energy, light, heat, electricity, and magnetism.
Other Requirements: PREREQ: MATH 141 AND RESTRICTED TO STUDENTS WITH BSE PROGRAM
There are no sections offered for this course and term that meet your criteria.


Coffee Expansion and Its Benefits
All of Costa Rica's coffee exports in the 1830's were shipped to Chile where they were packaged and mixed with the Chilean bean before heading to Europe for sale. This extra stop resulted in a smaller profit for the Costa Rican growers. A huge change came in 1844 when the English merchant William Le Lacheur sailed into San Jose on The Monarch and established a direct shipping route to London. This was a huge boost to the Costa Rican market and economy. In the 1840's Costa Rica became the first Latin American country to establish regular coffee exports and the first Central American country to establish a coffee industry and witness benefits progressively.
Before the growth of the coffee industry, the infrastructure in Costa Rica was very poor, composed mainly or dirt roads that were especially tedious during the rainy season from September to December. In 1843 a group of the largest coffee producers formed the Socidead Economica Itineraria and worked for the promotion of road development. As a result:
-the roads in San Jose and Cartago were paved
-the Atlantic Railroad opened a new door to Costa Rica in a project that lasted from 1871-1890
-a secondary road system was built in 1844 connecting a pre-existing road between San Jose and
Puntarenas to Atenas, San Ramon, Palmeres and Naranjo
The children of coffee growers benefited from the expansion of the coffee market and were able to study in Europe. Bringing home their education they established their countries first national university, the University of Santo Tomas. Continuing the trend, in 1869 the constitution proclaimed elementary education obligatory and free to both sexes. The coffee elite voted for a tax on coffee exports to help finance a new theater and on October 12, 1897 The National Theater was opened with the help of the French Opera Company.
Only a short time after the start of coffee production the first national currency was introduced. 1821 marked the coming of the first silver and gold coins after the Monte de Aguacate gold mine was discovered and exploited in 1820. The mint (la casa de moneda) was established in 1828. The public treasury's annual income jumped from 24,000 pesos in 1826 to 120,000 in 1849. Trade increased in leaps and bounds bringing in new tools and technology to further promote work and agriculture in Costa Rica.
Costs Rican farmers
implementing new technology


Introducing your child to music education at a young age offers an incredible array of developmental benefits. more
Your child will be working on and mastering the pronunciation of different sounds and sound combinations until 8 years of age. Beginning with the vowel sounds and the easy consonants - b,d t,m - in her first year (it's no coincidence that 'mamma' and 'dadda' are often the first words you'll hear!) over the following years, s/he'll slowly acquire all the sounds s/he needs to make herself understood. S/he'll be at school before s/he masters some of the most difficult sound combinations - sh, th, y (as in yellow), soft g (as in George).
Learning new words
Your child's acquisition of new words will far outstrip the ability to pronounce them correctly and so, in the early days, you'll constantly be required to 'translate' when s/he speaks to those unaccustomed to talking with your child - and help with the difficulty in making themself understood, as it can be a source of great frustration.
By modelling correct patterns of speech - using verbs, tenses and pronouns correctly - you will teach him or her, seemingly overnight, how to construct grammatically correct sentences. Your toddler will constantly amaze you with the ability to permanently self-correct an error of speech and after the age of 18 months, s/he will begin to experiment with phrases and sentences although most will be missing the linking words.
Last revised: Wednesday, 18 June 2008
This article contains general information only and is not intended to replace advice from a qualified health professional.


Angeles-Bautista, Fenny delos (ed.), 1994. The multigrade teacher's handbook. BEE/DECS/UNICEF: Philippines.
Bacharach N., Hasslen R. C., Anderson J.,1995. Learning together: A manual for multiage grouping. Corwin Press Inc, Thousand Oaks, California.
Basic Primary Education Project, 2000. Multigrade teacher training manual (for teachers). Primary Teacher Training Unit, Sanothimi, Nepal. Bureau of Elementary Education, Department of Education Culture and Sports (1994) The multigrade teacher's handbook. Department of Education Culture and Sports/UNICEF Philippines
CERID 1988. Multigrade teaching in primary schools of Nepal (parts1-3). Research Centre for Educational Innovation and Development, Kathmandu.
CERID 1989. Multigrade teaching in primary schools. Research Centre for Educational Innovation and Development, Kathmandu.
Collingwood, I., 1991. Multiclass teaching in primary schools: a handbook for teachers in the Pacific. UNESCO Office for the Pacific States: Apia, Western Samoa.
Commonwealth Secretariat, 1997. Teacher education modules for multi-grade teaching modules 1-9 (DRAFT). Commonwealth Secretariat: London.GOI/UN, 1999. Workshop on teacher development in multigrade context. Janshala 2 (3). Available from
Janshala Gritzman, N, 1998. Teaching in the Multigrade Classroom. A Pack of Materials to Support Teachers in Multigrade Classrooms in Stann Creek District, Belize. Belize Teacher's Training College, Belize
Juarez and Associates, 1992. Multigrade schools: An information packet. US Agency for International Development Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, Office of Development Resources, Education and Human Resources Division. Report Number: (Contract) LAC 0032 C 00 9036 00
Kich Pham Vu et al, 1995. Teacher Training Modules on methods and techniques of multigrade teaching and learning (Module 4, module 5, module 6). UNICEF: Hanoi
Miller, Bruce A., 1989. The multigrade classroom: a resource handbook for small rural schools Regional Educational Laboratory: Oregon, USA.
Philippon, A, 1986. Guide pour classes à plusieurs niveaux (Guide for multigrade classes), Pédagogie pratique à l’école, Hachette Education, Paris.
Sinha, S, 1998. Vidhi mein nidhi (A trainer's handbook on multigrade teaching). National Council of Educational Research and Training: Bihar, India
Son, V., Pridmore P., Nga, B.. My D., and Kick P., 2002. Renovating the teaching of health in multigrade primary schools: A teacher's guide to health in natural and social sciences (Grades 1,2,3) and Science (grade 5). British Council /National Institute of Educational Sciences: Hanoi, Vietnam. full text (pdf file)
Vithanapathirana, M., 2006. Training Modules on Multigrade Teaching for Multigrade Teachers in Sri Lanka.
Thomas, C. & Shaw, C., 1992. Issues in the development of multigrade schools. World Bank Technical Paper 172: Washington
UNESCO, 2001. A handbook for teachers of multigrade classes (volume 1). UNESCO: France.
UNESCO, 2001. A handbook for teachers of multigrade classes (volume 2). UNESCO: France.
UNESCO/APEID, 1988. Multiple class teaching in primary schools: a methodological guide. UNESCO Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific: Bangkok
UNICEF Vietnam/Ministry of Education and Training, 1998. Multigrade and bilingual education classes in primary school in Vietnam. UNICEF/MoET: Hanoi, Vietnam. Link to extracts: Teacher Training Modules
World Bank/UNICEF, 1996. Towards a new school for the 21st century: Teacher's learning guides for the organisation of primary education in multigrade schools. Initiation Workshop, UNICEF Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean.


New Literacies — the challenge
Young people are using the New Literacies in droves – things like SMS, Google, Instant Messenging, MySpace, and blogs. Broader concepts like ‘visual literacy’ are said to be part of the way that young people communicate.
Our aim of incorporating them into classroom practice is to create a bridge into more formal literacy and numeracy skills, and to develop the students as critical thinkers, rather than mere consumers of these innovations.
Our project is particularly focused on early school-leavers and youth at risk, but we hope it may also be of use in mainstream schooling.
Teachers, researchers and students who are interested in New Literacies are welcome to use the resources.
The 4 Resources Model
The Four Resources Model by Luke & Freebody (1999) has been used as the basis for our approach. The Model proposes that effective literacy draws on four "practices" that are necessary but not sufficient on their own. A contemporary sociocultural perspective of literacy underpins the model. More…
New London Group
In 1996, the New London Group argued that the multiplicity of communications channels and increasing cultural diversity in the world today called for a much broader view of literacy than portrayed by traditional language-based approaches. More…


Are poop jokes over-used? Does the word “DNA” need to be defined? Is particle physics just too hard to explain? These are the kinds of questions that come up when writing about science for kids.
Panelists Emily Krieger, Beth Geiger, Eric Chudler and David George Gordon discussed the rewards and challenges of translating complex technical concepts into stories that the under-age set can understand at NSWA’s monthly meeting on Feb. 12 at University House.
- Emily Krieger is a Seattle-based freelance editor, writer, and fact-checker. She’s helped edit Science News for Students (formerly Science News for Kids) since 2011, working on both features and news stories and writing companion questions for teachers. She’s also the author of the National Geographic children’s book series Myths Busted!, in which she upends scientific, historical, and pop culture myths. She occasionally fact-checks feature articles for National Geographic magazine, typically science pieces, and fact-checked David Quammen’s award-winning book about zoonoses, Spillover.
- Beth Geiger was the recipient of the 2006 AAAS Science Journalist Award for excellence in Science Reporting for Children. She lives in Seattle, Washington.
- Eric Chudler is a Research Associate Professor in the UW Departments of Bioengineering and Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine and Executive Director of the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering. He received his B.S. degree in Psychobiology from UCLA and his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Washington.
- David George Gordon is the author of nineteen books on subjects ranging from gray whales and cockroaches to Bigfoot and bald eagles. He’s appeared on Conan O’Brien and in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and has been featured in the New York Times crossword puzzle.


Make It Pop!
Activities and Adventures in Pop Art
Jeanne M. Lesinski
Pop art is loud, colorful, and visually exciting—just like this book. Painter and sculptor Joyce Raimondo provides an introduction to this style of art through the works of its major creators: Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, and George Segal. These artists of the 1950s and 1960s were inspired by popular culture—advertising, newspapers, recycled consumer products—and created eye-catching works, often on a large scale. For example, “Jasper Johns changed a map of the United States of America into a wild wonderful work of art.” After introducing each artist, Raimondo provides step-by-step directions for readers to create a piece of artwork in the style of the featured artist. She also gives less-detailed suggestions for further activities related to the main project, such as a Rauschenberg-inspired sculpture made of “old plastic toys, stuffed animals, broken jewelry, or anything else.”
Director of the Imagine That! Art Education program, Raimondo created the multi-volume series “Art Explorers,” which includes Make It Pop! Other titles in the series are Imagine That!: Activities and Adventures in Surrealism, Picture This!: Activities and Adventures in Impressionism, and Express Yourself!: Activities and Adventures in Expressionism. For eight years Raimondo directed the family programs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Her work there included creating the Art Safari series of children’s books, kits, and online program.
In this well-designed book, many color photographs accompany the clear project instructions and lists of supplies needed. While the bold typeface in the directions is helpful, it is distracting in other parts of the book. The included photographs of artwork created by children in Raimondo’s workshops will inspire readers and demonstrate that the projects in Make It Pop! are age appropriate. If this title is any indication of the merits of the “Art Explorers” books, art teachers, elementary teachers, and librarians will want to add the entire series to their collections.


Alfred Jazz for Young People Curriculum Complete KitProduct #473237 Alfred 473237 JTH History & Composers Education for Children https://www.esnapw.com/rses/ESnapServlet?MerchantNumberSent=63655
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Jazz for Young People Curriculum
Kit Contents and Full Description
Written and narrated by Wynton Marsalis. Jazz for Young People appreciation curriculum is based on Jazz at Lincoln Centers popular Jazz for Young People concert series, is designed primarily for upper elementary and middle school students. The curriculum explores core concepts -- including improvisation, form, style, and swing -- and major figures in jazz through accessible, interactive lessons which demonstrate the exuberance, rich cultural heritage and humor inherent in jazz. Included in this complete kit *A 10-CD set (including one CD-ROM) of newly recorded music performed by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and special guests, with narration by Wynton Marsalis, that explores topics like "What is Bebop", "Who is Louis Armstrong" and "What is the Blues" *An in-depth Teacher Guide that leads educators step-by-step through each lesson - explaining jazz styles, musical concepts, historical information, and key jazz figures suggesting participatory activities and cross-curricular links providing additional resources and integrating the National Standards for Music Education. *A Set of 30 Student Books that include focused listening guides, fun activities that reinforce musical concepts, and historical summaries, biographies, and photographs that broaden the understanding and appreciation of jazz. *A behind-the scenes video of the curriculum recording session that provides a performance element to further enhance the classroom experience. The curriculum, developed in collaboration with Scholastic Inc. and Sandy Feldstein, PlayinTime Productions, is distributed by Warner Bros. Publications. Except for the student magazines, components are not sold separately at this time. The student magazines may be purchased separately or in packs of 30.


Glen Whitney wants to change that. Whitney is the founder and executive director of New York City’s Museum of Mathematics, or MoMath. His goal? Create a museum that presents math as more than just numbers and arithmetic.
“The way math is taught today is like teaching music education by forcing students to learn musical notation, without letting them listen to anything,” Whitney says. “There are beautiful mysteries in mathematics that are waiting to be explored.”
You won’t find a copy of Fermat’s Last Theorem enshrined behind glass at MoMath. It’s a children’s museum, where “look, don’t touch” is tossed out the window. Younger kids can play with the Marble Multiplier (see below), a device that looks like a gigantic game of Perfection to visualize what multiplication means. Older kids (and adults) can learn why circles, ellipses and hyperbolas are referred to as conic sections by using a laser to slice cones at different angles.
Many politicians, including President Obama, have pledged to make STEM education a priority. Books like Steven Strogatz’s Joy of X show that math can be both accessible and interesting. Lawrence believes that both education and entertainment should work together to improve STEM education in the U.S. The museum, for its part, is crafting lesson plans for teachers to use in tandem with the exhibits. “Kids start out interested, but that interest wanes in middle school,” Lawrence says. “We hope this museum keeps that interest alive.”
The Museum of Mathematics is located at 11 East 26th Street in Manhattan. It opens to the public on December 15th, 2012.


Technology has always provided a faster and more efficient way to teach children new skills.
With the growing interest in tablets, educators and parents everywhere are excited to see just how to use this device in an educational capacity.
One company, Motion Math, is excited by the tactile and visual ways that iPads can help conceptualize abstract mathematical concepts for kids for four-12 years old.
The two-year old company, founded by Gabriel Adauto and Jacob Klein as a master’s project at Stanford, uses the touch screen and accelerometer to help children get more hands-on feel to the often dreaded math topics.
I caught up with Klein to see just what areas of math the tablet lends itself to and what his company could add on to further its elementary education subjects.
“There has always been a great need for better education tools,” Klein explained. “And when we saw parts of the iPad that we could use, such as the accelerometer (which knows when you move the device side to side or front to back), touch screen, camera and compass, we started playing with elements kids have a hard time grasping – like fractions and the number line.”
Motion Math is currently aiming on helping younger children with beginner math skills, but have some levels of the fractions and multiplication games that could challenge the average adult so there is room for co-play.
The company is using a freemium model where the apps are free to use and then you can buy additional packages to increase the difficulty as children improve.
“We want to give kids a better number sense,” Klein stated. “ So we will mature with our base and add more mathematical levels and then start on a suite for science skills.”
With more than 600,000 downloads and more than 50% of them returning as monthly active users, Motion Math is getting great feedback from its consumers to build off of.
Recently, a USC Professor, Michelle Riconscente studied whether students were actually absorbing the lessons via iPad and found that 5th graders’ fractions test scores improved 15% after playing Motion Math, for 20 minutes over 5 days. This was a significant increase compared to the control group.
Students' also reported an improved attitude and confidence towards an average of 10%.
“The hardware is very exciting since keyboard and mouse was challenging with the younger kids to play with,” Klein said. “And while there are some concerns that there is a monetary barrier to get these tablets, we think that the driving success of these devices as tools will force the industry to make them more attainable for parents and schools.”


The growth of image collections in U.S. educational and cultural institutions has evolved since the early days of photography and the image collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art is no exception. Images have played a critical role in the educational and research functions of the museum. In its earliest days, lantern slides played a significant role in the history of the museum. As early as July 1914 Cleveland Museum of Art director, Frederic Whiting, used lantern slides to illustrate his talks on American Museums in order to publicize the new Cleveland Museum. "The Director is prepared to talk before clubs and other organizations on the need of an Art Museum in the Community, either with or without stereopticon slides."1 It was the first time images could be seen by an entire audience.
In 1920 the Cleveland Museum of Art's Lantern Slide Department officially opened with 7,500 photographs, 1,500 lantern slides and around 300 etchings and engravings all donated by various individuals. The goal of the Lantern Slide Department was to provide the museum staff and the Cleveland community with an educational resource for classroom support and lectures for various clubs and organizations. The lantern slides were lent at no cost for no longer than three days.
For the 20th Anniversary Exhibition which opened June 26, 1936, the lantern slides were used for two lecture series in the Museum Auditorium given by Mr. Dudley Crafts Watson. The first ran August 14–16, 1936 and the second ran October 2–4, 1936. Mr. Watson used a portion of the library's Lantern Slide Collection and inadvertently returned to Chicago with four of the slides. He returned the lantern slides with a letter praising the staff of the Lantern Slide Department.
Because lantern slides were considered a necessary educational and research tool, the museum expanded its collection in order to support the mission of continued art education and awareness. In a report to the Board of Trustees, museum Director, William M. Milliken, presented statistics of the Lantern Slide Department, showing that as of June 1, 1939, approximately 2,134,640 slides had been loaned since the Slide Department opened in 1920, a remarkable record of service to the community.2
The early collection's strength "…is especially to be looked to for Oriental scenes. It is weak in paintings. We need especially slides, as we do photographs, showing works of painters of whom we have examples in the galleries"3
The Lantern Slide Department evolved further with the development of 35mm slides. This advancement in film made images more convenient and desirable. In 1956, in a new and larger facility, the Lantern Slide Department began to acquire 35mm slides. Due to their smaller size there was more space to grow the collection. At the same time, the usage of lantern slides slowly declined.
When the Lantern Slide Department moved in 1984, it was renamed the Slide Library and focused exclusively on the 35mm slide collection. Slides were circulated to the museum staff, faculty and students in the CMA/CWRU Joint Program in Art History and Museum Studies, researchers, area educators and any member of the public giving a presentation for educational purposes.
By the time digital technology began to impact the Slide Library in the late 1990's the collection included approximately 500,000 slides representing a comprehensive treatment of the world's artistic and architectural history. In 2000 a project to digitize the 35mm slides began. The current building project dictated that the entire slide collection be digitized in order to provide space for other library needs and services and in 2005 the museum was awarded a U.S. Department of Education grant to fund the digitization of 86,000 slides by an outside vendor. Remaining slides were digitized on-site.
When the Ingalls Library moved to its current location in September 2006, the Slide Library once again changed its name to the Image Services Department.
Currently, the Image Services Department serves all museum staff and CWRU faculty and students in the CMA/CWRU Joint Program in Art History and Museum Studies. The Image Services staff also fills image requests compliant with copyright restrictions for outside researchers.
The Image Services department provides the following services:
- Scanning 35mm slides
- Digitally photographing or scanning images from books
- Scanning transparencies, negatives, and film prints
- Converting, resizing, and cleaning digital images
- Transfer requested images to CD
- Creating PowerPoint presentations of images requested
The library's ability to provide needed images for education and research has continued despite changes in name and changes in technology.
1. The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art, July 1914.
2. Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Trustees, June 30, 1939.
3. The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, September-October, 1917, p. 124