Seed jar science experiment - little bins for little hands, Seed jar science experiment for kids. seed jar science experiment. i first saw this awesome seed germination activity done by how wee learn and realized i had
1000+ images about preschool plants and gardens on, Ideas for the plants and gardens theme in your preschool: art, science, snacks and more. | see more about seeds, plants and gardening.
Cip descriptionsclose this window to return, 010000 agriculture, general a program that focuses on the general principles and practice of agricultural research and production and that may prepare individuals to
Mrs. drakes room -science - hummingbird educational resources, Candy cane science experiment we talked about how candy starts out as a liquid which is poured into a mold and when it cools off it is in the candy cane shape and now
Planting seeds theme for preschool, Planting seeds theme art ideas. holding seeds art. materials needed: paper, crayon, scissors, tissue paper or seeds, glue the children trace their hands and cut out.
Science for kids: growing plants experiment - pre-k pages, Now that spring is here, it’s time to think about starting a garden! growing a garden is a wonderful experience for preschoolers. before starting a garden, it’s
Spring sensory tub - by no time for flash cards, Spring is finally here! i love spring and everything it brings from baby birds, to flowers and especially easter candy. this sensory tub was a huge hit with my son
how to Seeds In The Window Soil In The Sensory Table Science tutorial


Playing music is creative, artful, helping us express emotions and communicate deeply, it sharpens the mind, improves our focus, our attention span, and our memory;
Studying and playing music helps us learn better, improves our health, refreshes us, reduces stress, relaxes and energizes us.
Best of all, playing music with others, your family, friends, in worship, in groups, bands or ensembles is fun and makes you feel great!
Pretty cool isn’t it? Try it. It’s never too late.
One-on-one music instruction in Cypress, Texas that is enjoyable and effective. Music lessons for children and adults. I can help you gain the musical knowledge and confidence to play music by yourself, with your family, friends, with others or in worship. Music lessons are designed to meet your music goals (playing for pleasure/health or to prepare for some type of performance) and your individual learning style (focus/attention, learning, reading challenges, performance anxiety). Whether an adult or a child, my students learn to play their instrument correctly, with expression, to enjoy what they do and how to teach themselves.
- Trumpet / Cornet
- French Horn
- Euphonium / Baritone
- Guitar – with or without reading music, finger style, simple chords, TABS
- Song Writing
- Reading TABS or Music
- Music Theory
- Audition preparation – High School Area, All State, College auditions, Junior High District & Region
- All ages, including adults
- Beginners to advanced and come back players
- Lessons are taught in the afternoons or evenings, and in the summers
- Half hour or One hour lessons
- Larry Shudra, a music educator teaching music in Cypress, Texas publicly and privately since 1982
- Spring Branch ISD, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, Hempstead ISD
- K-5 Elementary Music Specialist
- Middle and High School Band
- BME Baylor University, Instrumental Music Education, Trumpet Major
- Experience teaching all band instruments, specializing in trumpet and all brass instruments, guitar and drums
In-Home Academic Tutoring:
Kathy Shudra, offers academic tutoring in the afternoons and evenings in the Fairfield / Cypress areas. She conveniently comes to your home to teach your child. She is an excellent teacher who prepares lessons designed specifically to help your child with reading and math issues. Doing more than than helping with homework Kathy works to discover why your child is having difficulties and then helps them. Count on Kathy to help your child with reading, math, and writing. More…
- Education degree from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois.
- Texas Teaching Certificate, is also certified in Special Education.
- Taught in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, and Memorial Hall School, Houston, Texas.
- Many years of successful tutoring and choosing and implementing curriculum.
For more information about music lessons or in home tutoring, please use this convenient form:
Trumpet Lessons Cypress, Trumpet Lessons Houston, Guitar Lessons Cypress, Music Lessons Cypress, Music Lessons Houston, Music Education, Elementary Music, Free Music Teaching Materials, Trombone lessons, French Horn Lessons, Home School music, Orff, Kodaly, Adult Music Lessons


Elementary Education: What Really Matters
Student Researcher: Emily Gag, WS'11
Community Partner and Faculty Advisor: Professor Jackie Augustine
Education reform is an important issue in public policy in the United States today in large part because we haven't ever been able to get it quite right. While most solutions propose increased spending and increased budgets, there is increasing research that focuses on non-fiscal resources and solutions. This study researched already existing literature on this topic and used econometric methods of analysis to examine how educational inputs effect standardized test scores of elementary schools across New York state, including those here in Geneva.
- Database Development for the Ovid Food Pantry
- Elementary Education: What Really Matters
- Beyond Sport—Sportsmanship: A Story of Community, Companionship and Charity
- Cultivating the Revitalization of Downtown Geneva
- Juveniles and Justice in Geneva
- Empowerment and Promotion, Documenting the Geneva Boys & Girls Club
- Feasibility Study for an Egg Cooperative in Geneva
- Social Media, HWS students, and Boost!
- Are HWS Students Prepared for a Life of Engaged Citizenship?
- What is a Walking School Bus?
- Recycling in Seneca County
- Success for Geneva’s Children – 2011 Data Report
- After-School Programs: an Analysis of Best Practices and Program Recommendations
- Family Engagement and High Sbchool Graduation Rates
- Swimming on Seneca Lake – Where’s the Beach?
- Building Upon Best Practices of Upstate New York Literacy Coalitions for the Benefit of Geneva Reads
- Geneva Girls on the Go - Beth O'Connor '12, Lauren Morosky '12, Jessica Cook '10
- Lyons Community Center Programming Research - Francesca Antonucci '10
- Building Bridges in Geneva - Hillary Anderson '10
- Satisfaction of Subsidized Housing - Molly Lieberman
- The Economic and Civic Impact of Hobart and William Smith Colleges on Geneva - Ross Hicks '11
- Consulting for R.E.A.L Using sociology to enhance the Yates County Family Planning Services Program - Fredrick Turney '10
- Gender, Socialization, and Service Patterns in College Students - Kathyrn Giese
- Local Produce Food Co-op - Alex Hallowell '10
- Cecilia Teye-Ampomah - Campus Child Care Initiative
- Leslie Hopke - Phelps Community Center Senior Citizen Program Study
- Christina Kinnevey - Success for Geneva's Children 2009 Data Booklet
- Emma Daley - Success for Geneva's Children 2009 Data Booklet
- Jacquelyn Sands - American Cancer Society: Daffodil Days Program


Stressless Tests© focuses on two key elements of learning that are overlooked in typical classrooms.
First is learning style, the way individual students actually process information. Once students understand how they learn best as individuals and how to study productively for their learning style, their learning improves dramatically and they move forward with a new sense of confidence.
Second is the foundational skills of learning how to learn. Strangely, the first time study skills are systematically presented is at the college level. A small investment in teaching students such simple skills as how to take notes, manage their procrastination, study efficiently and effectively, get organized in a way that works for them and deal with their motivation has a huge return.
Identify their dominant, brain-determined, learning style
Discover how their learning style affects test-taking, focusing,
subject-matter challenges, procrastination, organization, and more
Learn proven techniques and strategies to enhance learning style,
engage more of their brain’s capabilities, build confidence, and improve performance
Incorporate new concrete behavior and skills into their everyday work, taking action to boost their academic standing
The High School Study Skills Course helps students increase their understanding of how they learn best and develop time-tested skills to improve academic performance. Many students do well in class but lack this systematic approach that helps them develop self-confidence and testing skills.
For students who suffer from Test Anxiety, (i.e. they know the material but freeze when it comes to tests), this course has proven extremely effective.
This course helps all High School students, from entering ninth graders adapting to the increased rigors of high school, to tenth through twelth graders preparing for both classroom studies and the many forms of standardized testing. Students will learn to reduce their stress, improve their self-confidence, and improve their classroom performance. This skills-based approach helps students move to the next level of competency, whether they are struggling or are taking advanced level classes.
Instructor: Betty Caldwell M.A.
For all payments over $99, take up to 6 months to pay at no additional cost. Check out with PayPal to choose this option. This option is always available, and is not subject to promotional dates.
• The same great classes that have helped thousand of students for over 11 years
• Held in the familiar HIgh School classroom setting in Howard County Maryland
• Meets for four Wednesday evenings from 6:30 - 8:30 pm
• Plenty of time for Q and A in the class and afterwards with the instructor
Now available for instant download to Kindles, Nooks and other eBook Readers, Smart Phones, and iPads. Parents can now have their own copy of this popular book, and students will have the convenience of accessing such items as the Relaxation Breathing exercise when needed before exams. Students will continue to receive the hard copy as part of their registration to use as a text and workbook in class.
Whenever HCPSS closes schools due to weather conditions, they also routinely cancel all evening community events, including Stressless Tests© classes. All who have registered for a class will receive an email for the make-up date.
The course fee applies only to cases in which the student takes the entire course as originally scheduled. For any changes in course dates, or for registration to make up classes missed (or that students expect to miss) there is a $20 fee. Students registered for a class must attend the first class or re-register for another date. Click here to pay course change fee.
All requests for a refund must be made in writing and received at least 48 hours before the class. All refunds are subject to a $25 processing fee. Any credit extended for make up classes must be used before the end of the semester in which the student was originally enrolled. Note that no refunds will be made in cases in which students are asked to leave the class.
“For me this class was wonderful. I learned so much new information and used it toward every day things in school. I am performing and understanding better and getting better grades. This class was really a life saver for me.”
Sign up to receive future course announcements and our newsletter


1A boy attending school.
- A group of young American schoolboys from a military academy are stranded on a tropical island after a plane the boys were traveling in crashed into the sea.
- By contrast, the judges and commissioners now being appointed to police MPs are empowered to exercise unquestioned authority from the moral high ground, like a headmaster disciplining squabbling schoolboys.
- Following the establishment of compulsory elementary education in 1872, a growing number of children attended classes, but schoolgirls remained fewer in number than schoolboys.
1.1 [as modifier] Characteristic of or associated with schoolboys, especially in being immature: schoolboy humor
More example sentences
- The Brits, with their propensity for schoolboy humour and scatology, deal with the subject by uproarious laughter.
- Although it won't be the last time he tours in Ireland, don't miss this extra chance to check out his hilarious, acutely observed anecdotes and cheeky schoolboy humour.
- My sense is that Orwell had a head full of poems, most of them accumulated in schoolboy days and soon afterwards when he must have done prodigious reading.
For editors and proofreaders
Definition of schoolboy in:
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed.


This project proposes to research and develop a game-based learning platform to engage children ages 7-14 in online art education to support the Barnes Foundation family program, ArtSee Artists. The digital game-based learning (DGBL) system will utilize works of art from the ensembles in the Barnes Foundation based on John Dewey’s art and educational philosophies.
The learning objectives of this digital-game based learning system are to help museum visitors 1) learn the aesthetic principles of art and design, 2) increase their creative self-efficacy and 3) develop personally relevant artistic experiences. In doing so, the researchers will design a platform around the natural curiosities of people for inquiry, communication, construction, and expression through play, curricular activities, reflection and discussion–the Game Network Analysis for designers (GaNA).
The complete project will last for one-year using a design-based research approach involving the design, development, and assessment of a mobile system. Development will proceed iteratively with alpha testing providing feedback in the development phase and assessment of users art education, creativity, and appreciation of the platform in the final month.
The research and development of the system will have a broader impact on museum education for learners aged 7–14 and the design of game-based learning environments to facilitate creativity and transformative learning experiences using systematic models. Because this innovative, cutting-edge project is digital and will engage users on a mobile platform, it holds the potential to reach learners from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Ultimately, the DGBL system will help to broaden participation in the museum experience and can be integrated into the onsite family program curriculum of the Barnes Foundation, as well as K-12 schools serving Philadelphia, and beyond.


(Last Updated on : 09/04/2013)
Education of Uttarakhand
shows 72.28% total literacy, where the percentage of male literacy is 84.01% and female is 60.26%. The Uttarkand board of school educations and exams are working under the umbrella of Directorate of School Education. In Uttarakhand, the department of education has an amalgamated structure which has under it the basic education, secondary education, state council of education research and training. A scheme for universalizing elementary education, SSA and literacy mission are under Uttarakhand Sabhi Ke Liye Shiksha Parishad. School education is the biggest department in Uttarakhand with around one lakhs of employees.
The educational institutions of Uttarakhand are an asset to India and the world. One of the oldest engineering colleges of the country, the Indian Institute of Technology at Roorkee, is at G.B.Pant University, Uttarakhand. Other universities of prime importance are the G. B. Pant University in Pantnagar, Kumaun University
, and the H.N.B. Garhwal University in Srinagar.
The literacy rate of Uttarakhand is higher than the national literacy rate. The government of Uttarakhand is trying to explore every opportunity to extend education to every nook and corner of the state. Providing Computer Education to the secondary schools and midday meal schemes to the primary school is one of the schemes run by state School Education Department. The schools are providing midday meals in order to attract more and more students to school as a result there won't be any drop outs from schools. The schools not only give importance in imparting curricular education but also in providing co-curricular education, as education is the all round development of an individual.
Uttarakhand State has introduced free and quality education for the talented students in the rural areas, who can not afford to study, through the Rajiv Gandhi
Navodaya Vidyalaya residential schools. There are seven Rajiv Gandhi Navodaya Vidyalayas, started in the seven districts of Uttarakhand.
This article is a stub. You can enrich by adding more information to it. Send your Write Up to email@example.com


Little Numbers Add Up to Big Differences in High School Math Tests
High school students who struggle on college-readiness tests solve the simplest arithmetic problems as quickly as higher-achieving students, but they use very different brain processes to do so, according to new research.
In "Why Mental Arithmetic Counts: Brain Activation during
Single-Digit Arithmetic Predicts High School Math Scores, math disability and anxiety researchers Daniel Ansari and Gavin Price of the Numerical Cognition Laboratory at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, and Michèle M. M. Mazzocco, the director of the Math Skills Development Project at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, analyzed the links between students' math achievement and the way their brains processed the most basic problems. Their study was published this month in the Journal of Neuroscience.
The researchers asked 43 high school seniors to perform single-digit arithmetic while their brains were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging, which can measure the activity in different areas in real time. The students previously had been identified as showing consistently high, average, or low math achievement from kindergarten through 9th grade. The students' results were then compared to their achievement on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test, a college-readiness assessment typically given in 10th grade.
Students who performed well on the math section of the PSAT had higher activity in the left supramarginal gyrus and bilateral anterior cingulate cortex, both areas that have been linked to memory of math facts. By contrast, those who had worse math PSAT scores had lower brain activity in those areas, and more activity in areas associated with processing number quantities, such as the right intraparietal sulcus. The findings suggested that high-achieving students knew these answers by rote memory, while lower-performing students were still mentally calculating even low-level problems.
"The degree to which they engage these slightly different brain processes relates to how they do," Ansari said.
Both groups solved the problems equally quickly, but Ansari noted that the difference in how students process the problems could add time and effort as students attempt more and more complex equations.
"Perhaps the building of those networks early in development go on to facilitate high-level learning, which in turn allows you to free up working memory. It speaks to this raging debate in math education on procedural versus concept learning," Ansari said. "People err too strongly on one side of the debate. I have a feeling there is a message here for elementary education in not to go to either of the two extremes but to look at the interactions between the two."
The researchers plan next to track students taught in different ways in the early grades to determine whether differences in teaching styles might contribute to differences in mental computation styles years later.


Weave a Paper Basket Activity
Your child can hone his weaving skills by making this fun paper basket! Woven baskets have been created since the beginning of time - made for carrying and holding items. Your child can use colorful construction paper to make an easy paper basket to hold some of his special things!
What You Need:
- 2 sheets of construction paper
What You Do:
- Start by taking a look at woven baskets online or at your local library. Woven baskets have been made for years, with artisans using materials such as reeds, twigs, bark and even paper!
- Invite your child to select two colors of construction paper to use for creating his woven paper basket. He can use one as the main color for the base of his basket and the other for making strips for weaving.
- Now your child can fold the base color of construction in half vertically and use the ruler to create several lines, about an inch apart, that go from the fold to just about an inch from the edge of the open edge of the paper - and are an inch from the outside edges of the paper.
- Invite your child to use his scissors to cut along the lines, which will become the loom for his woven paper basket. Not only is he honing his cutting skills, he’s encouraging his hand-eye coordination!
- Now your child can use the ruler to create several lines on his other sheet of paper, about an inch apart, creating long strips to use for weaving into his basket. He can also use one for making his handle!
- Invite your child to begin weaving his basket using the basic over-under technique. Once one strip has been woven, he can add another, making sure he starts opposite from his last length. If his last strip ended over, the next strip should be under!
- Encourage your child to continue weaving strips until his sheet has been filled with strips.
- Now he can use a small amount of glue to secure each one in place and the scissors to trim any paper strips that are too long.
- Now your child can fold his paper in half and glue the outside edges together, leaving an opening at the top.
- Once the glue has dried, your child can attach the paper strip handle for his woven paper basket using a couple of drops of glue! Now your child can use his paper basket to collect items he finds around the house!
Sarah Lipoff has a K-12 Art Education degree and enjoys working with kids of all ages.


George Bancroft, (born October 3, 1800, Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.—died January 17, 1891, Washington, D.C.) American historian whose comprehensive 10-volume study of the origins and development of the United States caused him to be referred to as the “father of American history.”
Bancroft’s life presented a curious blend of scholarship and politics. Although he was educated at Harvard and several German universities, he initially eschewed an academic career for an eight-year experiment in elementary education at Round Hill, his private school for boys at Northampton, Massachusetts (1823–31). He then turned to anti-Masonic and Democratic politics in Massachusetts. He received his first patronage post as collector of the Port of Boston (1838) and became U.S. secretary of the navy (1845–46) and minister to England (1846–49). Though not an abolitionist, Bancroft broke with the Democrats over the slavery issue in the 1850s and shifted his support to the Republican Party. As a result, he served as minister to Prussia (1867–71) and to the German Empire (1871–74). While in Germany he became closely identified with the German intellectual community.
Throughout his lifetime he fitted his research and writing around his political requirements, so that the compilation of his 10-volume History of the United States extended over a period of 40 years (1834–74). With a few exceptions, earlier American historians had been collectors or annalists, concerned chiefly with state or Revolutionary War histories. Bancroft was the first scholar to plan a comprehensive study of the nation’s past, from its colonial foundations through the end of its struggle for independence. Influenced by the nationalistic German school of historians, he approached his subject philosophically, molding it to fit his preconceived thesis that the American political and social system represented the highest point yet reached in humanity’s quest for the perfect state. He placed great emphasis on the use of original sources, building a vast collection of documents and hiring copyists to translate materials from European archives.
Many critics thought that, in the first three volumes (1834–40), the writer was too strongly influenced by the political attitudes of President Andrew Jackson. Nevertheless, Bancroft’s reputation as the country’s leading historian was firmly established by 1850. Seven succeeding volumes were published between 1852 and 1874. A revised centenary edition (1876) reduced the number of volumes to six, but the author’s basic approach to American history remained unchanged. A still later edition (1885) included a two-volume study, The History of the Formation of the Federal Constitution (1882).
Although Bancroft neglected economic and social forces and wrote what are essentially political and military narratives, he was nevertheless the first to recognize the importance of the colonial period, foreign relations, and the frontier as forces in the history of the United States.


The legislative process.
The books of the Bible.
It's no secret that putting information to music helps people remember it. So it shouldn't be much of a surprise that Soldotna Elementary School music teacher Erin Southwick is finding success in using music to teach early reading skills.
Nonetheless, Southwick's combination of reading and music lessons is a fairly new and innovative program at the school.
"It was born out of a need in the kindergarten classes," Southwick explained. Kindergarten through second-grade students are given DIBELS tests a few times each year to measure their reading, or prereading, skills. Prereading skills, tested in kindergarten, include recognizing letters by sight and identifying letter sounds, while older students are tested on the number of words they can read per minute. Two years ago, Soldotna Elementary School teachers recognized that kindergartners were not meeting the expectations for their prereading skills.
Southwick submitted a proposal to the school administration to double up as a music and reading intervention teacher. She is working toward her master's degree in music education and thought she would try out some practical application of several field studies on the link between music and reading for her thesis.
"There are a lot of studies, but we didn't really know of it would work," she said.
However, she said, she thought the link probably would reach students.
"When you put a tune to anything, it's not only easier, but a lot more fun," she said. "Think of the ABC song: You remember it a lot better with music."
Southwick used the popular Zoophonics program, which assigns body motions and animal identities to each letter of the alphabet (Allie Alligator, Bubba Bear, etc.), as well as some of her own ideas.
"I use songs I find in regular music (education programs)," she said. "There's a lot of rhyming in music."
She also puts stories to her lessons made especially easy by the Zoophonics program to help students remember the "rules" of reading.
For example, she reviewed with students last week, Ellie Elephant (the letter "e") is bossy and makes vowels (or "hardest workers") say their own name when at the end of a word. Writing on a handheld white board, she gave students samples by writing words like "cap" and transforming it into "cape" with bossy Ellie.
She also reviewed double letter sounds, like "ch."
"When Catina Cat and Honey Horse get together to play, they make the 'ch' sound," Southwick reminded students.
In between such spoken and written lessons, Southwick led students in simple songs to reinforce the lessons. Some, using the same tune over and over again, simply repeat the double-letter sounds. Others, such as "I'm a little teapot," help students practice rhyming words.
Southwick said there are a number of academic reasons why the music-reading program works. First, she said, music helps students learn independently.
"They go home and sing and without realizing it, they're reinforcing the concepts," Southwick explained.
They may drive their parents crazy by repeating the same tunes, she joked, but they also are re-learning their school lessons at home.
Plus, the program also reaches all different kinds of learners. Southwick explained that some kids learn well by seeing a lesson, others by hearing and yet others by doing. The songs, body motions and white-board lessons combined target all three kinds of learners, she said.
Southwick works exclusively with one kindergarten class at the school. That class has music class with her every day, and two days a week are set aside for combined music and reading lessons.
The preliminary results, she said, have been phenomenal.
Though this year's end-of-the-year DIBELS scores are not yet available, the school does have statistics from last year the program's first and the year before the program started.
During the 2002-03 school year, prior to the implementation of Southwick's program, the kindergarten class at Soldotna Elementary School started the school year recognizing an average of 10 letters (lower- and upper-case) per minute on the DIBELS test. At the end of the year, that same class recognized 19 letters per minute.
Last year, during the first year of Southwick's program, the class came into school knowing an average of nine letters per minute and left at a rate of 36 letters per minute.
"It increased significantly, exponentially," Southwick said. "It actually blew me away. I had no idea."
Peninsula Clarion © 2016. All Rights Reserved. | Contact Us


Until August 25, 2013, Brazosport College will continue to use the COMPASS Placement System, created by ACT. On August 26, 2013, Brazosport College will use Accuplacer, as required by the State of Texas. These tests are designed to help students select the correct starting point in mathematics and English. Most students are required to take the math, reading, and/or writing portion of the COMPASS before enrolling in their first semester.
Preparing for the COMPASS test is critical to ensure that you are accurately placed. If you are placed too high, you may enroll in a course you are not prepared for. If you are placed too low, you will waste time and money on a course you do not need. To help you prepare, this page contains general information about the COMPASS test, practice tests provided by ACT, and links to online resources to help dust off any cobwebs that have accumulated on your past knowledge and skills.
Is the COMPASS test required?
The COMPASS test is required for any student enrolled in an academic course of study, unless a student is exempt based on defined criteria. Your counselor will help you determine if you are exempt or if you need to take the placement tests. Students entering Brazosport College to earn a certificate in a skill or trade (i.e. Automotive Technology) are not required to take the placement tests.
How Math COMPASS Placement Scores are Used
The COMPASS math placement test will start with questions from beginning algebra. If you do well on this portion of the test, COMPASS will increase the level and difficulty of the questions until the test “finds” your skill level. Once this happens, COMPASS will generate your Algebra placement score. If you struggle with beginning algebra questions, COMPASS will switch you to the Numerical Skills test. If this happens, COMPASS will generate two placement scores, Algebra and Numerical Skills. Your counselor will help you interpret scores and place you in the correct course.
ACT COMPASS Information
ACT has published several resources for you to review before taking the COMPASS test, include sample test questions. Read through each of the following links before you take the COMPASS test. Note that some links will require Adobe Acrobat review to view.
Reviewing for the Math Placement Test
Algebra Learning Modules: These modules address all the major foundational skills taught in Prealgebra, Beginning Algebra, and Intermediate Algebra. Each module, organized by course and topic, contains a short video and a handful of practice problems (solutions included). To prepare for the COMPASS placement test, it is recommended that you work through the modules in order. If you reach material that you have never seen before, you should stop. You are welcome to discuss your work with any BC tutor or faculty member.
When you take the COMPASS test, you will have access to an on-screen scientific calculator. If you prefer a hand held calculator, the testing staff will provide you with one. Please DO NOT bring your own calculator to the COMPASS test.
COMPASS Testing Schedule, Fees, and Registration
For the most up to date schedule of testing dates available, visit the Counseling and Testing Website. You must register in person at the front desk of the college prior to the testing day. The fee for COMPASS testing is $29.00.


Technology in Kindergarten
Every early childhood teacher extols the value of creative experiences that allow young children the opportunity to explore and manipulate a variety of materials. Physical interaction with the world and the involvement of all five senses—taste, touch, smell, hearing, seeing—is the way young children learn. We can begin to know what they understand and how they perceive their world through their constructions and we use that understanding to design a program that will build their skills. For the young child, the concrete and visible is real. Being able to hold and direct a pencil or paintbrush is not just about being able to form specific shapes that can then be turned into particular letters, but it’s also about gaining control of one’s own movements and making connections to others. It’s also a starting place for literacy and for the knowledge that speech and words are tools for mastering our reality.
It's not clear how manipulation of strokes on a keyboard to produce letters, lines, and graphic images connect to the child's manipulation of real objects. Do children at this concrete stage of development even understand how they can create and participate in a "virtual" world? Or, perhaps the printed paper and screen image is real enough for them. After all, young children are very comfortable with the reality of television and the printed images around them. For this reason, among others, it's important for teachers of young children to ask: What role can technology play in the development of young children’s literacy? Where can computers and other technological devices fit into a kindergarten writing program?
In this collection we feature two stories of good early childhood classroom practice. In one of them, the teacher starts with her own inquiry question about creating digital stories in a kindergarten classroom. The focus is on using technology and learning how it can enhance literacy development. In the second story, the teacher explores using inquiry as a teaching strategy for her kindergartners. For her, technology is an add on.
The first teacher, like other teachers in research cited below, explored computer use with children who are already familiar with computers and technology from experiences in the home. We don't know whether the children in the second story have similar home experiences with technology. We assume that children from low-income families do not have the same exposure to technology. And, thus, we are concerned about using time to teach keyboarding skills or operating basics that would take away from actually using the tools to create, learn, communicate and produce. An important reason for introducing technology at this stage is to begin to even the playing field for all children. If we don’t want to add to the digital gap, we should consider incorporating exposure to technology and basic tech skills at the earliest stages of education.
There are resources that can help us do that. One is The Early Connections website that offers guidelines for using a range of technology in the earliest years. Another is the NAEYC's statement on technology and early childhood. The outlined pointers can serve as useful guidelines for incorporating technology into your instructional program.
However, using computers in kindergarten is not a new issue. Teachers have been asking questions about what this means ever since computers were introduced to the early childhood classroom in the late 1970s. (Shilling 1997). For a look at how a few teachers are exploring the use of technology, particularly computers, with our youngest learners and finding where technology matches up with emerging literacy practices, check out these links to studies carried out with kindergarten students as well as a link to one teacher's experience:
Other print references on using technology in kindergarten include:
Shilling, Wynne. 1997. "Young Children Using Computers to Make Discoveries About Written Language." Early Childhood Education Journal, 24 (4): 253-259.
Young, Dianne and Lynn Behounek. March, 2006. Kindergartners Use PowerPoint to Lead Their Own Parent-Teacher Conferences, Young Children, 61 (2): 24-26.


There are a couple of schools of thought when it comes to what books boys (or children in general) should read. Some folks say that books like the Goosebumps series or other similarly "yucky" books are inappropriate and should not be encouraged. Others say if boys are reading...let them read WHATEVER will interest them.
My personal opinion is that the answer lies somewhere in the middle. If you have a reluctant reader and he will not read anything other than these types of books, I say some reading is better than NO reading at all. But I think parents should read the books that they are giving to their children so that they can have discussions about the content. If the book has all of the makings of a good literacy experience, then it's probably worth reading.
As teachers however, we have to have a standard that is acceptable to all parents and some books that parents might choose to read at home, are not necessarily appropriate for school. Generally we early childhood educators have it easier than our elementary school counterparts. In preschool and kindergarten, most young boys haven't yet developed the gross sense of humor that will make moms and teachers cringe :). But for older boys, if they are reading books about slimy monsters AND they are learning to comprehend, decipher new words, spell, process information, imagine the unthinkable, and learn to differentiate between reality and fantasy, then it's fine with me! Now, certainly if that's all a boy wants to read, it's our job as adults to make an effort to find other subjects that will peek his interest. But again I say, some reading is better than NO reading!
On a side note, I think it's important that we not ASSUME that because a child is a BOY then he will automatically like these types of books. My only point here is if you have a boy who is drawn to these types of books, I don't think it's the end of the world :).
Here are two links that present differing points of view:
- Getting Boys to Read: Boys and Gross Humor
- How to Raise Boys Who Read; Hint: Not with gross-out books and video-game bribes
What do you think about the yuck factor? Yes or No?
- Six Not-So-Secret Tips for Encouraging Literacy Development in Boys
- Teacher Tip Tuesday: Tip #4: Boys and Books in the Classroom
- Beyond Reading: 15 Literacy Activities for Parents with Boys
- 25 Books Boys (and girls) Might Enjoy (coming soon)
- Literacy Challenges for “at-risk” families (coming soon)


Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies
Albertans have scored the highest in Canada in an international survey of literacy, numeracy and problem solving skills.
The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) was released Oct. 8, 2013 by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
PIAAC assessed adult competencies for people aged 16-65 in 33 countries. PIAAC tests literacy, numeracy, and the ability to problem solve in a technology-rich environment. It measures the key cognitive and workplace skills needed for individuals to participate in society and for economies to prosper.
All Albertans from childhood through adult life need strong literacy and numeracy skills to effectively and efficiently learn new skills, adopt and adapt advanced information and communication technologies, optimize their lifelong learning potential, and become active, participating members of their community and society.
To address this the Government of Alberta launched Living Literacy: A Framework for Alberta’s Next
Generation Economy in 2009 to respond to the need for greater awareness and coordinated actions to ensure that:
• Albertans have the literacy competencies to participate fully and successfully in living, learning and work
• Alberta has a knowledgeable and innovative population able to thrive and contribute to the next generation
PIAAC Alberta results
According to the results of the PIAAC survey, Alberta ranks highest in Canada and above or at the OECD average in the following domains:
Problem Solving in Technology Rich Environments PS-TRE (computer/technology literacy and skills)
Other Alberta results include:
83% of Alberta respondents are able to complete the computer-based assessment (above the OECD average of 74%).
- Alberta scores above the Canadian and OECD average in literacy, and above the Canadian average and at the OECD in numeracy above both the Canadian and OECD average in PS-TRE.
Alberta is the only jurisdiction in Canada with more people at the highest levels of proficiency in literacy, numeracy and computer literacy skills compared to the OECD average.
Alberta's proportion of the population at the lowest proficiency levels is at the OECD average in all three domains.
Alberta has 19% of respondents who completed the PIAAC assessment not in their native language, which is 9% above the OECD average, but 4% below the Canadian average.
The mean score for Alberta’s youth aged 16 to 24 is at the OECD average in literacy and numeracy. The 49% of Alberta’s population aged 16 to 24 performing at middle-range (Levels 2 or 3) in PS-TRE is at the OECD average.
Literacy scores of Albertans aged 16 to 65 who have a bachelor's degree or higher are at the OECD average.
Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC)
CMEC provides leadership in education at the pan-Canadian and international levels and contributes to the exercise of the exclusive jurisdiction of provinces and territories over education.
Albertans have resources to help them improve their own literacy and essential skills. If you are interested in trying to improve your own literacy skills find help with any of the services below.
Adult Literacy and Learning programs
Alberta Advanced Education supports learning opportunities for adults across Alberta. Presently, 124 organizations in 83 communities receive funding through the ministry's Community Adult Learning Program.
Living Literacy: A Literacy Framework for Alberta’s Next Generation Economy provides a framework for action that coordinates the efforts of the Government of Alberta and our many partners to improve literacy levels for Albertans so they can improve their quality of life and achieve their full potential.
Literacy in school
Alberta Education has developed Literacy First: A Plan for Action. This Kindergarten to Grade 12 action plan supports the vision, values and goals of the provincial literacy framework. Literacy, numeracy, and competencies such as problem solving and critical thinking are also at the heart of Curriculum Redesign.
The purpose of Work Foundations, run by Human Services, is to provide full-time and part-time basic skills training and academic upgrading to enable clients to pursue further job-related training and/or to find a job and substantially improve their situation.
Workplace Essential Skills Training Program
The Workplace Essential Skills Training Program, run by Human Services, supports workplace essential skills training through the development of partnerships designed to foster a confident, innovative and highly literate workforce. These partnerships will assist employed Albertans gain the essential skills necessary to fully participate at work and contribute to a highly productive workplace.


Earth Science for Elementary Educators II
For Dr. Petcovic's reflections on the course and its design, see Earth Science for Elementary Educators II: Role in the program.
This entry-level physical and historical geology course is designed specifically for pre-service elementary (K-8) teachers. The course integrates laboratory activities and discussions in two, 2-hour and 20-minute weekly sessions. Homework and a semester project supplement the in-class learning. Enrollment is limited to 24 students.
This course is part of a six-course sequence for pre-service elementary teachers offered by the Mallinson Institute for Science Education at WMU, with two courses each in the areas of life, physical, and earth science. All elementary education majors are required to take this course, or the companion course in physical geography (Earth Science for Elementary Educators I). All students pursuing certification in elementary integrated science are required to take both earth science courses.
- Understand why it is important for children to learn earth science;
- Learn key concepts of earth science through the process of inquiry;
- Be able to reflect upon the nature and practice of earth science as a process rather than a body of disconnected facts to be memorized;
- Be better able to make decisions concerning what concepts in earth science are the most important for children to learn; and,
- Reflect upon how they themselves learn earth science and the implications of these reflections for how it should be taught.
COURSE OUTCOMESBy the end of this course, students will:
- Be familiar with the Michigan Benchmarks for Science Literacy in the context of the Earth Science Strand V: Geosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, and Solar System and Universe (Goal 1);
- Be able to relate the study of earth science to contemporary, historical, technological, and societal issues (Goal 1);
- Be familiar with key concepts, developments, and reasoning strategies used in earth science such that they are able to solve problems in open-ended, inquiry environments using materials, maps, data collection tools, models and computer simulations, other class activities and discussions, and background readings (Goals 2 and 3);
- Be able to describe fundamental aspects of the nature of science and scientific inquiry within the discipline of earth science (e.g. role of observation and inference, empirical basis, role of creativity, validity of claims, multiple methods, among others) (Goal 3);
- Be able to locate and evaluate lesson plans and other curricular materials in the earth sciences using both traditional (i.e., books, journal articles) and web-based resources (Goal 4).
- Become familiar with common misconceptions both adults and children have in the earth sciences through a research investigation and interviews with children (Goals 4 and 5).
- Administration of a content-oriented pre-test with identical questions embedded in exams (Course goal 2)
- Administration of a pre- and post- instruction earth science attitude and teaching efficacy survey (Course goal 1)
- Graded questions associated with each in-class laboratory activity (Course goals 2, 3, 4, and 5)
- Online graded homework assignments associated with each activity (Course goals 2 and 4)
- Content and process skill exams (Course goals 2 and 3)
- Semester project in which students investigate children's ideas in earth science and design a lesson plan that draws out their prior knowledge, introduces new concepts, and assesses the effectiveness of teaching (Course goals 1, 4, and 5)


In Preschool: As Essential As Food, An Effectiveness Review of the Saskatoon Preschool Foundation Tuition Subsidy Program, A.J. (Jim) Propp explores the value of both preschool as preparation for children's entry into the school system and a Saskatoon Preschool Foundation (SPF) program that assists families with preschool tuition. Through conversations with twelve parents/guardians, Propp assesses the experiences and opinions of those who have benefited from the tuition subsidy. On the whole, the participants in Propp's study were quite pleased with the program and regarded the preschool experience as vital to their child's education, urging that government should provide funding so that more children can receive the intellectual, social, emotional and behavioral benefits of preschool.
An increasing body of neuroscientific research emphasizes that the first six years of a child's life sets the foundation for lifelong competencies and skills that affect learning, behaviour, and health. Brain development is especially critical during these early years, influencing a person's ability to learn. Accordingly, these researchers argue for increased attention to positive stimulation for children, such as that which preschool programs provide. Similarly, for the past decade the Saskatoon Preschool Foundation has advocated for early childhood learning, the importance of the early years to children's development, and addressing the needs of families of preschool children. Families who are experiencing financial difficulty can apply for a subsidy that pays either the full or partial cost of preschool tuition for one or more children.
Throughout the discussions, participants were unanimous in their belief that the SPF tuition subsidy provided an "ducational advantage" to their children's early learning. What constituted an educational advantage included making new friends and social, emotional, interpersonal, communication, and literacy skills development. Participants further argued that preschool provides children with a solid base that allows them to maximize the school experience in terms of its structures, routines, and expectations. Parents/guardians also believed that enrollment in preschool increased their own interest and involvement in their children's education/school, and in some cases their community.
In terms of their relationship with the SPF, participants' comments were mostly quite positive. Participants felt that the SPF always held their child's best interests at the fore and that they, the parents, feel like partners with the SPF rather than clients. The subsidy itself was regarded as a means of leveling the playing field between those who can afford preschool and those who cannot. Despite the financial assistance that SPF provides, however, participants were adamant that they were not abdicating any responsibility for their children's education.
Concluding the report, Propp suggests that: (1) the tuition subsidy program continue unchanged; (2) a public awareness campaign of the tuition subsidy program be conducted to expand its profile in the community; and (3) influential community members be contacted about the importance of preschool and improving funding for early learning.


Older adults who took music lessons as children but haven't actively played an instrument in decades have a faster brain response to a speech sound than individuals who never played an instrument, according to a study appearing November 6 in The Journal of Neuroscience. The finding suggests early musical training has a lasting, positive effect on how the brain processes sound.
As people grow older, they often experience changes in the brain that compromise hearing. For instance, the brains of older adults show a slower response to fast-changing sounds, which is important for interpreting speech. However, previous studies show such age-related declines are not inevitable: recent studies of musicians suggest lifelong musical training may offset these and other cognitive declines.
In the current study, Nina Kraus, PhD, and others at Northwestern University explored whether limited musical training early in life is associated with changes in the way the brain responds to sound decades later. They found that the more years study participants spent playing instruments as youth, the faster their brains responded to a speech sound.
"This study suggests the importance of music education for children today and for healthy aging decades from now," Kraus said. "The fact that musical training in childhood affected the timing of the response to speech in older adults in our study is especially telling because neural timing is the first to go in the aging adult," she added.
For the study, 44 healthy adults, ages 55-76, listened to a synthesized speech syllable ("da") while researchers measured electrical activity in the auditory brainstem. This region of the brain processes sound and is a hub for cognitive, sensory, and reward information. The researchers discovered that, despite none of the study participants having played an instrument in nearly 40 years, the participants who completed 4-14 years of music training early in life had the fastest response to the speech sound (on the order of a millisecond faster than those without music training).
"Being a millisecond faster may not seem like much, but the brain is very sensitive to timing and a millisecond compounded over millions of neurons can make a real difference in the lives of older adults," explained Michael Kilgard, PhD, who studies how the brain processes sound at the University of Texas at Dallas and was not involved in this study. "These findings confirm that the investments that we make in our brains early in life continue to pay dividends years later," he added.
Cite This Page:


Kids Growing, our elementary school program, operates during the school day and uses gardening and food activities to support learning objectives. From planting a tiny seed to making fresh pesto, children’s exploration of nature and healthy food is at the heart of this program. The gardens are dynamic classrooms for vibrant hands-on learning in many subject areas. Volunteers and staff ensure that outdoor programs are accessible and safe for teachers to bring their classes, and help teachers learn more about school gardening.Details & Participating Sites
Urban Roots Youth
Urban Roots Youth, our after-school and summer youth program, teaches youth the techniques of growing food in small spaces. The youth help maintain the school gardens, compost and rainwater catchment systems, and sell produce at a local market. In summer, they provide recreational programs for young children in the gardens. They have opportunities for paid work through student summer jobs and in our social enterprise gardening on private lands.Learn more
Grownups Gardening is our community engagement program, engaging parents in our partner schools and other community members. They join as members and volunteers, and may attend free monthly skills-building workshops, take plants and food home, earn certificates and honoraria. Our volunteers are key to high-quality Kids Growing programs, as they increase the adult-child ratio and allow each child to get hands-on experience. Volunteers are offered free membership.
Our social enterprise will garden at your home or workplace. Our expertise is in permaculture design, organic edible and native ornamental gardening, and we’ll teach you how to maintain your own garden & compost.Learn more
Workshops & Consultations
Learn how to start and maintain your own school garden. We run workshops in conjunction with teachers’ organizations and teacher education programs, and cover varied subject matter including integration of art, language, math and technology into garden programs.Learn more
Imagine a Garden In Every School
Green Thumbs is at the forefront of garden-based elementary education in Ontario, and helps teachers and families to start food gardens in their schools. Across the province people are doing great work to create school food gardens and connect children and youth to food and their environment. The goal of the “Imagine a Garden In Every School” campaign is to link us together, to share resources, ideas and experience, and to make it easier for people across Ontario to start and maintain school food gardens.Visit Website
Summer programs are critically important in the school garden since summer maintenance is often a barrier to success. Active programming with a focus on play, nutrition, and games turns the garden into a summer camp destination, providing healthy outdoor activities for low or no cost.
The goal of the summer programs are a) getting the harvested food in the hands and mouths of those who need it, and b) providing employment to youth with a long-term goal of fostering good green jobs for youth.
Here’s a lovely booklet put together by Anna from Summer 2012 staff.


I have read several articles in which critics argue that it is not beneficial for very young children (3-5 years) to be taught literacy and numeracy skills. Protesters suggest that the Early Years Foundation Stage is wrong to provide a framework of achievement to carers of very young children, because early learning will put too much pressure on children to succeed, reducing their amount of play time and limiting their interest in learning for life (links to further articles from WordPress can be found here ).
Yet I do not think that early years learning requires excessive pressure to be placed on young children, since learning can use children’s existing interest in their environment as the basis for education. I am not proposing that very young children should be given formal lessons in literacy and numeracy. Instead, skills should be built upon by asking children questions about their interests to allow them to gradually increase their knowledge. Siraj-Blatchford and Silva (2003) suggest that the questioning technique is most effective when questions lead to sustained and shared thinking and are based on a balance of activities that are both adult and child-initiated. I believe this is successful since adult engagement in the child’s natural interest is likely to be reinforcing and encourage them to pursue further interests, thus promoting learning for life. The positive attention given to children when adults engage in their interest is also likely to reduce issues of misbehaviour, since they are being socially rewarded for desirable behaviour.
I also believe that learning literacy and numeracy can be made enjoyable for young children when learning is incorporated into their natural play. Consequently, early years education can proceed without impacting the amount of play time allocated to very young children. Evangelou, Sylva, Kyriacou, Wild and Glenny (2009) compiled a meta-analysis of research to propose ways in which very young children can be taught literacy and numeracy skills through play. The authors suggest that early years literacy is facilitated using children’s interest in books: reading, encouraging children to predict the sequence of events, using puppets to tell stories and role play, while relating events that happen in the story to events in the child’s life. Similarly, numeracy skills are promoted by encouraging children to count toys that they are playing with, facilitating the matching of equivalent numbered toys (for example, one cup to one saucer) and by being responsive to children’s mathematical utterances and building upon them by asking questions. I think that by encouraging literacy and numeracy skills using objects that interest the child, a great amount of transference of the skills will occur, since the child will naturally use the skills in different contexts and with different objects.
In my opinion, encouraging early years learning benefits children for life, as it provides them with a strong start in literacy and numeracy that can be maintained throughout primary and secondary school. Goodman and Sianesi (2005) suggest that this is the case, with children undertaking pre-compulsory schooling obtaining better test scores at 7, 11 and 16 years than general pre-school peers.
Overall I am not suggesting that very young children (3-5 years) should be given formal literacy and numeracy lessons. Instead, their natural interest in their environment should form a basis for the learning of literacy and numeracy skills, with adults facilitating this learning rather than directing it.


Is there a difference in how much a child understands and retains a story depending on the format of the book they share? You may be surprised by recent findings, or maybe not. [CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE]
Researchers at the A Cooney Center [ CLICK TO LINK],QuickReport by Cynthia Chiong, Jinny Ree, Lori Takeuchi, and Ingrid Erickson have completed a study to find out using "three book formats: print books, basic e-books, and enhanced e-books." investigating three issues:
1. Parent-Child Conversation
2. Story Comprehension and
FINDINGS: CLICK THIS LINK TO OPEN Report
1. The enhanced e-book was less effective than the print and basic e-book in supporting the benefits of co-reading because it prompted more non-content related interactions. When adults prompt children with questions pertaining to the text, label objects, and encourage them to discuss the book contents in terms of their own experiences and curiosities, this elicits increased verbalization by the child and can lead to improved vocabulary and overall language development.
2. Features of the enhanced e-book may have affected children’s story recall because both parents and children focused their attention on non-content, more than story-related, issues.
3. The print books were more advantageous for literacy building co-reading, (BUT)...the e-books, particularly the enhanced e-book, were more advantageous for engaging children and prompting physical interaction.
The study leads to recommendations:
1. For designers: Exercise caution when adding features to enhanced e-books, especially when those features do not directly relate to the story. E-book enhancements should also be designed in a way that allows parents to access and control settings to customize the co-reading experience with their children.
2. For parents and educators: Parents and preschool teachers should choose print or basic e-books to read with children if they want to prioritize literacy-building experiences over ones intended “just for fun.” Some of the extra features of enhanced e-books may distract adults and children alike from the story, affecting the nature of conversation and the amount of detail children recall. However, given that appeal is an essential building block for early literacy development, enhanced e-books may be valued for their ability to prompt less motivated young readers toward engagement when they might otherwise avoid text altogether.


Reflecting on Your Viewing Experience
Review your notes on Thalia's progress throughout the year. Consider the following questions for discussion:
- In what ways does Thalia develop as a reader and a writer over the year? What would you tell Thalia's first-grade teacher about her abilities at the end of kindergarten?
- What classroom practices and home experiences contributed to her progress in literacy? What goals does Mr. St. Clair set for Thalia during the year? How does he support Thalia in her reading and writing? How did his instruction influence her ability to focus on "the details"?
- What other classroom practices would you plan for her? What questions do you still have about Thalia's knowledge and use of reading and writing?
- How does the instruction Thalia receives in Spanish support her language and literacy development in English, and vice versa?
- How has this video influenced your teaching practices? What segments affirmed what you already knew and had been doing? What will you do differently as a result of watching this video?


Chemistry & Materials Classroom Resources
This collection of lessons and web resources is aimed at classroom teachers, their students, and students' families. Most of these resources come from the National Science Digital Library (NSDL). NSDL is the National Science Foundation's online library of resources for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. See www.nsdl.org
Resource: Educator and Students (middle-high school)
This website hosts a video series exploring the chemistry of common objects in our world and the changes they undergo. NBC Learn, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and NSF joined forces to create the series in celebration of the International Year of Chemistry. To delve deeper into the world of chemistry, there are: additional videos, including current and archival news stories related to chemistry, and lesson plans from NSTA for middle- and high-school students.
Teachers' Domain: Matter
Resource: Educator (grades K-12)
This Web site provides a multitude of information on physical matter including lesson plans for teachers.
ChemEd DL: Chemistry Education Pathway
Resource: Educator (high school) and Information Research (high school and above)
The chemistry education Pathway of NSDL, ChemEd DL provides exemplary digital resources, tools, and online services to aid teaching and learning in chemistry based on "Observe", "Explore" and "Explain". ChemEd DL provides a destination for all those interested in chemistry to share what they know so that others may learn.
Science for Kids
Resource: Educator (grades K-8) and Parents
The American Chemical Society's Science Web site contains a wealth of information for teachers and students of all ages. As part of their Education Web page, the Kids Web site contains teacher resources for students in grades K-6, which are easily adapted to the middle school level. Find activities, games, puzzles and articles that cover a variety of chemistry topics to share with students.
Today's Science for Tomorrow's Scientists
Resource: Educator (grades 5-12)
The purpose of this Web site is to introduce current research in the areas of science and engineering into middle school and high school classrooms. Activities are for grades 5-12 and are interactive and fun with definitions of challenging new words embedded. Puzzle tests at the end of every unit give students and teachers a chance to identify gains in knowledge from the tutorial.
National Science Digital Library
Resource: All Audiences
This collection of lessons and web resources is aimed at classroom teachers, their students, and students' families. Most of these resources come from the National Science Digital Library (NSDL). NSDL is the National Science Foundation's online library of resources for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.
WWW Chemistry Guide
Resource: Educator and Information Research (high school and above)
A collection of more than 250 links aimed primarily at chemists and researchers but also useful to teachers, organized by categories. A great resource for educators because sites have been reviewed for their excellence and this eliminates searching through "junk".
Resource: Educator (grades 5-8) and Parents
The Strange Matter traveling exhibit that teaches kids about the amazing world of modern materials and materials science. The exhibition's Web site includes a teaching guide and activities for teachers to use, and activities, games, experiments, videos and more for kids. And there's fun stuff for families to do also!
Resource: Students (middle-high school)
Chem4Kids is a Web site for students learning the basics of chemistry. The site provides explanations, acitivties and other resources to aid students while learning about chemistry.
Resource: Educator and Students (high school-college)
Maintained by David Wilner, this website provides basic chemistry help for students in grades 9 through postsecondary. The site is organized by subject matter and is strictly a supplemental tutoring resource.
The Open Door Web Site
Resource: Educator and Students (ages 9-12)
The Open Door Web Site is created and maintained by multi-national teachers as a reference source for both students and teachers. The contents of this site are designed for use by students between the ages of 9 and 17 on topics in biology, chemistry, physics, history and technology. The site provides information, student study guides, quizes and the abililty to search the site for answers.
Chemistry & Materials Research Overview
Resource: All Audiences
This web page located on the National Science Foundation's web site will interest everyone in its discussion of "stuff." Despite this endless variety of particular interests and specialized subdisciplines, the sciences of stuff do have a fundamental unity. They are tied together by the common goal of understanding and controlling everything about molecules and materials, from the making and breaking of chemical bonds on timescales of less than a nanosecond, to the aging and corrosion of steel bridge supports on timescales of more than a decade.


September 2010. The world is shrinking as globalization brings us closer to people around the world. We want to widen the focus of this call to include the following: What kinds of literacy projects are happening in countries around the world? What aspects of literacy are currently drawing attention in your country? What can we learn from your best literacy practices? How do literacy practices compare across different countries?
We also invite articles from American teachers and researchers that address the following questions: What literacy projects have you and your students engaged in that involve other countries? How has current technology opened the door to international literacy practices? What projects have your students been involved in that support the literacy development of students in underdeveloped countries? Are you involved in other international literacy practices, projects, initiatives, and issues that would be of interest to VM readers? Deadline: September 1, 2009.
Talking about Talk
December 2010. As educators of young adolescents, we understand the importance of the social nature of literacy and the role of talk in the classroom. In recent years, our understanding of talk has deepened, and we have worked consciously to provide our students with opportunities to share their ideas with others. As students explore new ideas, participation in discussion enriches, deepens, and expands their understandings. What do students talk about in your classroom? What does talk look like and sound like? How does observing and reflecting on this talk inform your teaching? How do you facilitate rich and meaningful talk? How do you invite all students into the conversation? How does talk inform student learning in the classroom? Deadline: December 1, 2009.
Honoring Student Voices


History and Background
Established by Dr Neville Alexander in 1992, PRAESA emerged from the struggle against apartheid education, intending to document alternatives that had been tried out that could inform the new education process. Circumstances since 1995 focused the project’s work on language policy in education – especially the key area of language-in-education policy implementation. Focal areas of work until 2011 included language planning and policy formulation at national and provincial government levels, in-service teacher education, developmental research into multilingual classrooms, early literacy teaching and learning, promoting a culture of reading, facilitating storybook and other reading materials for use in multilingual settings, dual-medium primary schooling, language surveys.
Since 2006, a particular concentration has been on reading promotion through the establishment of community based reading clubs. In particular, the Vulindlela Reading Club in Langa, has become a model for other reading clubs in the Western Cape and beyond. Neville Alexander retired from PRAESA in at the end of 2011 and in 2012, PRAESA begins a new phase, with a biliteracy development focus by initiating a national reading-for-enjoyment campaign called Nal’ibali, in partnership with Times Media, and supported by the DG Murray Trust.
The South African Context
Because South Africa, like the rest of Africa, is multilingual, any serious thinking about and action for literacy development and supporting reading and writing habits, has to take place from within a multilingual frame of reference. We know that most South Africans want (and perhaps need) to be proficient in English because of the immediate and obvious economic and social benefits of English. But this does not mean that children have to leave their ‘mother tongue/s’ at home either in grade 1 or at the end of grade 3. A well run mother tongue based bilingual system provides the best of both worlds for all children, where teachers and children communicate in a language they command and understand, thereby offering the potential for an emotionally and intellectually satisfying connection to learning.
Literacy learning can take place in any language and it is the democratic right of all South African children to use their mother tongues not only to learn the formal school curriculum, but to also access the wonders, mysteries and satisfaction of stories – told and read. PRAESA strives to help enable conditions for learning, inside and outside of school, which motivate children and adults to want to read and write – and enable them to actually do so – in African languages and in English.
To this end, we concentrate on:
- research and development programmes about bilingualism and biliteracy in early childhood education
- raising the status of the (official) African languages for oral and written language functions in society
- mentoring adults to deepen understandings and appreciation of the value of becoming reading and writing role models for children of all ages and supporting their growing understandings and strategies for achieving this
- initiating the development of materials for use with babies and children in multilingual situations, through original writing and translation.


Literacy refers to the ability to read and write effectively, fluently, and with understanding. Reading comprehension worksheets
are essential tools which help students master the literacy skills necessary to become competent readers and writers.
When used as part of a balanced literacy program there are many student benefits to using worksheets in the classroom. They can be used to reinforce previously taught concepts and provide instant remediation when a student is struggling with a specific skill. Worksheets can also be used to compliment lessons targeting specific reading comprehension strategies. After a whole group lesson a reading comprehension worksheet can be used as a quick assessment to see which students have not grasped the concept presented and need more practice. They can also be used during small group time to extend the day’s lesson. The condensed nature of the passages in reading comprehension worksheets allows English language learners and struggling readers to realize success. The Content areas like Science and Social Studies can also be presented in a bite sized manner using worksheets to compliment key information students are learning in the textbooks and reinforce content area vocabulary. Besides valuable practice their format prepares students for standardized testing.
Reading comprehension worksheets are also an excellent communication link between home and school as they provide parents with the opportunity to work with their children to further what they are learning in the classroom or to remediate their child at home. When used as homework teachers can assign one sheet to each student or differentiate based on individual student need and reading level.
Creating worksheets can be quite time consuming. Thankfully, the Internet provides a multitude of free reading comprehension worksheet resources for the busy teacher or parent. Many educational websites allow the user to search based on student grade level and target skill. There are also many unit focused reading comprehension worksheets based around specific themes, picture books and chapter books.
When the reading comprehension worksheets must be teacher created it is best to choose a specific focus skill or reading strategy before writing the passages. The passage is then written around the skill or strategy. A balanced reading comprehension worksheet will include multiple choice, short answer, and extended response questions. Questions should focus on the areas of vocabulary instruction and text comprehension. Older students will benefit from vocabulary questions requiring them to use context clues. Primary students need phonics and word work practice as well to help them obtain their desired literacy objectives. Questions should be carefully scaffolded using key words selected from each of the following Bloom’s Taxonomy categories: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. It is important to remember reading comprehension worksheets are most effective when they complement whole group instruction and objectives.


Why Is Learning Music So Important?
TEN FACTS ABOUT SCHOOL MUSIC
1. Music makes a contribution to kids' development that no other subject can match.
Music education uniquely contributes to the emotional, physical, social and cognitive growth of all students. National Review of School Music Education, Australia, 2005
2. Music students are more likely to be good citizens
A 10-year US study called Champions of Change found that high school students who participate in arts programs, including in school bands, are less likely to be involved with drugs, crime or have behavioural problems.
3. Learning music helps under-performing students improve
US researchers found that young children aged 5-7 who had been lagging behind at school had caught up with their peers in reading and were ahead in maths after seven months of music lessons. The childrens classroom attitudes and behaviour improved too.
4. Musical training can enhance brain function
Brain imaging techniques (MRI) reveal that musical tasks such as sight-reading musical scores and playing music activate regions in all four lobes of the brain and parts of the cerebellum. Music is one of the few activities which engage the entire brain.
5. Incorporating music learning into other curriculum areas helps kids learn
A US study of fifth-grade students found that their attitudes to reading (and to music!) improved when music was incorporated into reading instruction. Other studies show that music students are better equipped to grasp maths and science concepts.
6. Playing music improves concentration, memory and ability to express feelings
A 2001 study in Switzerland involving more than 1200 children found that, when 3 other curriculum classes were replaced with music classes, young children made more rapid developments in speech and learned to read easier. They also learned to like each other more, were less stressed and enjoyed school more.
7. Australian parents want their kids to learn music at school
Household surveys by the Australian Music Association show that nearly 90% of respondents believe music education should be mandatory in Australian schools. More people made submissions to the National Review of School Music Education than to any other Commonwealth Government enquiry.
8. Most kids miss out on effective music education while at school
Music Council of Australia research shows that as few as 2 out of 10 State schools are able to offer their students an effective music education. What does effective mean? The National Review of School Music Education says it is where the learning is continuous, sequential and developmental. That is, it starts early in a childs life, keeps going as the child progresses through school and is in step with the childs capabilities. Almost 9 out of 10 independent schools offer this kind of program. It should be available to ALL students in EVERY school!
9. Learning music is good for Australias social and economic growth
The Australian business community wants kids to learn music at school. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) last year delivered its Skills for a Nation: A Blueprint for Improving Training and Education Policy 2007 2017. Among its fifteen recommendations for improving childrens education in the primary years was: There should be an opportunity for all students to learn a musical instrument in primary school.
10. Australia lags behind other countries in the provision of music in school
The worlds top academic countries such as Hungary, Netherlands and Japan have strong commitments to music in their schools from the early primary years. In Britain, where the problems in school music provision mirror those of Australia, the government has recently decided to fix the situation. Recognising the huge benefits to kids, it has announced its commitment backed up by more than £300 million - to make every British primary school a musical school.


MSIs May Be Called on to Produce Degree-Holding Head Start Teachers: New Legislation to Increase Education Level of Preschool Teachers
Dervarics, Charles, Diverse Issues in Higher Education
One of the nation's premier early childhood programs is likely to build new partnerships with minority-serving colleges and universities under legislation just approved by Congress.
The House- and Senate-approved bill for Head Start contains new accountability provisions to increase the education level of teachers in the federally funded preschool program. Within six years, at least half of all teachers in the program must have bachelor's degrees, and the bill envisions a role for Black and Hispanic-serving institutions in that process.
"We will reinvigorate Head Start and help more children arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed," said Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., a Congressional Black Caucus member.
Under a career ladder program created through the bill, Head Start agencies can partner with historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions and tribal colleges and universities to increase the number of Head Start staff earning associate and bachelor's degrees. Colleges are to work with agencies that enroll a large number of Black, Hispanic or American Indian children.
Created in 1965, Head Start provides education, social, health and support services to preschool youngsters and their families. In recent years, the national trend to emphasize standards in elementary education has filtered down to the preschool level, with policymakers seeking early childhood programs that can help prepare at-risk youth for kindergarten and beyond.
For staff, many of them former Head Start parents, professional development and training are increasingly important issues. Prior to approval of this new bill, more program staff were required to have at least associate degrees, which prompted new partnerships between Head Start agencies and two-year colleges.
Head Start also will have more funding available to help staff pursue the educational opportunities outlined in the new bill. Formally called the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act, the measure would increase funding from $7.3 billion to $7.6 billion in 2009 and $8 billion in 2010.
Extra funding could go toward increasing teacher salaries and professional development, among other uses, the legislation states. …


John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. was born at Epworth, Lincolnshire. England, June 17, 1703 (0. S.). His father, Samuel Wesley. rector of Epworth, belonged to an ancient family of high respectability. His mother was the daughter of Dr. Anuesley, a man nobly connected, and the possessor of a very exalted character. To this remarkably endowed lady Wesley was chiefly indebted for his admirable early training and his elementary education. His uncommonly fine traits of character, and his narrow, not to say marvellous, escape from the burning rectory when he was six years old, gave birth in her mind to an impression that this child was destined to an extraordinary career. She therefore consecrated him to God with special solemnity, resolving "to be more particularly careful ... to instil into his mind the principles of religion and virtue." The fruit of her fidelity to this high purpose was the grand and beautiful life of her consecrated boy.
I. School and College Life
When Wesley was in his eleventh year, the patronage of the duke of Buckingham secured his admission to the Charterhouse School, London, of which Dr. Thomas Walker was then master. and the Rev. Andrew Tooke, author of the Pantheon, usher. To such a grave and gentle-mannered boy as was this poor son of a village rector, his removal from the peaceful rectory and the companionship of his firm but loving mother to the cloisters of a large "foundation" school, and to forced association with numerous rude boys, whose cruelty to their juniors was equal to their thoughtlessness, must have been a very sore trial: but he stood it bravely, and soon won a very high reputation for good behavior, devotion to study, and superior scholarship.
Three nineteenth-century images of Christ Church College, Oxford. Not in M'Clintock
and Strong. [Click on thumbnails for larger images and additional information.]
When sixteen years old he was elected to Christ Church College, Oxford. Here he pursued his studies with the same exemplary diligence as at the Charterhouse. So highly were his classical attainments esteemed by the heads of the university that, he was elected fellow of Lincoln College, March 17, 1726. He was then but twenty-three years of age, yet such was his reputation as a classical scholar, a thoughtful and polished writer, and a skilful logician that he was chosen Greek lecturer and moderator of the classes only eight months after his election to a fellowship, and before he had proceeded master of arts. to which academic honor lie was admitted in February, 1727.
Last modified 30 April 2010


Library Open Repository
Inventing songs, inventing worlds: the 'genesis' of creative thought and activity in young children's lives
Barrett, MS (2006) Inventing songs, inventing worlds: the 'genesis' of creative thought and activity in young children's lives. International Journal of Early Years Education, 14 (3). pp. 201-220. ISSN 0966-9760
CIEY_A_187919_O...pdf | Request a copy
Full text restricted
Available under University of Tasmania Standard License.
This article draws on systems views of creativity and their application in music education, to argue that young children's independent invented song making evolves from their early musico-communicative interaction with others, is evidential of their capacity for elaboration, and is foundational in the development of creative thought and activity in music. The argument is explored through the analysis of data generated in a longitudinal study of young children's (aged four to six years) early music making as composers, song makers, and notators. Focusing specifically on children's invented song, the article provides case study analysis of the song making of a four-year-old girl that explores the musical and lyric content, and the environmental features (context) that support and shape her song making (process) and invented songs (product). The implications of such a view for early childhood theory and practice are discussed.
|Journal or Publication Title:||International Journal of Early Years Education|
|Page Range:||pp. 201-220|
|Identification Number - DOI:||10.1080/09669760600879920|
|Date Deposited:||27 Sep 2007|
|Last Modified:||18 Nov 2014 03:22|
|Item Statistics:||View statistics for this item|
Actions (login required)
|Item Control Page|


NEW DELHI — India’s six-week-long election, in which about 537 million out of 814 million eligible voters went to the polls, is finally over with the election of a new government led by Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
While the hopes of all voters are for a future of opportunity and progress, the politicians all too often campaigned along retrograde lines, perpetuating divides on the basis of caste, religion, or ethnicity. Overcoming those enduring obstacles to social development is particularly important for the millions of children from poor and marginalized communities—Muslims, tribal groups, and Dalits—who are being denied a basic education.
India produces well-trained professionals who excel in the world economy; so much so that in the United States, there is a growing concern that the US education system is unable to keep up with India and China. Yet, India’s public education system, especially at the elementary levels, is excluding children because of bias.
As economists Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze have pointed out, “The steep educational hierarchy that has come to be tolerated in India is not only terribly unjust, but also extraordinarily inefficient in generating the basis of a dynamic economy and progressive society.”
Discrimination against children from vulnerable and marginalized communities by teachers and other school staff leads to greater truancy and, over time, they stop going to school. Once these children drop out, they often end up as child workers or child brides.
In 2009, the Indian government enacted an ambitious law, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, guaranteeing free schooling for all children between age 6 and 14. Four years later, nearly every child has enrolled in school, but nearly half are likely to drop out before finishing eighth grade.
These children are often the first generation in their families to go to school. In the absence of support from teachers, they are confronting ugly long-standing discrimination in the classroom.
Weak monitoring by Indian state governments fails to check mistreatment by teachers or to track children who have dropped out or are at risk of doing so. Inaccurate data — including miscalculations by different government departments, or inflated attendance records — often understate the problem and prevent prompt intervention by the education authorities to ensure children remain in schools until they graduate.
More from GlobalPost: The Saffron Election
In their campaign promises, the two main national parties — Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party — acknowledged the critical role education plays in alleviating poverty and improving development. Both pledged to put education at the top of their development agenda and to strengthen the implementation of the Right to Education Act.
So far, all political parties have focused on building more schools and ensuring every child is enrolled in school.
There is an increasing realization in recent years that the quality of education needs to have a greater focus. Unfortunately, equality is still a distant dream for many of India’s marginalized children.
That goal should be zero discrimination in schools, which can be achieved by training teachers in inclusive practices and laying out disciplinary measures for authorities and school staff who discriminate or allow discrimination of any kind.
Political leaders, having checked the box for universal elementary education, are pledging to shift their energies and resources toward universalizing secondary education – an important goal but of little help for those that do not get through primary school.
To be sure, India’s recent education law has helped to build more schools and give greater access to children in rural India from the poorest and most socially marginalized communities. If the authorities fail to implement the law to keep these children in the schools and provide them with a child-friendly and equal environment, an ambitious and welcome initiative is at risk of failing.
Merely ensuring every child is enrolled in school is not enough. The new government must ensure these children actually attend and graduate from elementary schools with a good education.
That can only happen if India’s leaders press for zero discrimination in schools, emphasizing teacher training in inclusivity and firm enforcement of discipline for authorities and school staff who discriminate or tolerate discrimination.
Jayshree Bajoria is a researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report, “They Say We’re Dirty”: Denying an Education to India’s Marginalized. Follow her on Twitter at @jayshreebajoria


- Infinite Place: The Ceramic Art of Wayne Higby showcased the work of one of the most important artists of the post-World War II American ceramic studio movement.
- The Human Touch was an exhibition for paintings, drawings, photographs, and prints that provide an accessible and thought-provoking look at the human form.
- The number of students in public elementary school outreach was tripled by offering art education to elementary students from City of Rochester Schools 23, 29, and 45 every week, for more than two months.
- The museum hosted 9,500 students from our region and provided educational tours.
- Modern and contemporary galleries were reinstalled to feature artists such as Harlem Renaissance painter Beauford Delaney and Chinese-American history painter Hung Liu.
Bullet points highlight impact made in 2015


National Standards in Education
A little history . . . Bear with me, now! It's helpful to know how we get ourselves into the pickle in the first place.
On August 26, 1981, the U.S. Secretary of Education, T. H. Bell, created the National Commission on Excellence in Education, directed to research and report on American education. In 1983, the resulting report was entitled, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. This report revealed many deficiencies in the American system of education. The Goals 2000 Act, initiated in 1989, was enacted to address these challenges, calling for national standards in English, history, civics and government, foreign languages, geography, economics, and the arts. The objective was to coordinate state and federal resources in order to improve academic standards. In other words, individual states were given some flexibility with which to implement established National Education Goals.
In 1994, the National Standards for the Arts, as recommended by the Consortium of National Arts Education Associations, were signed into federal law by President Bill Clinton. The National Standards for Arts Education outline "what every student should know and be able to do in the arts" (MENC). Included in this document, published by the National Association for Music Education, were nine voluntary content standards for music education.
The standards specified results or outcomes, but not curriculum, method, or philosophy, in an attempt to allow flexibility for a wide-range of local circumstances and resources. Ultimately, some states instituted these standards as law and some retained voluntary status. Most states have their own version of the Standards, based upon the national document. The Content Standards for the National Standards for the Arts in Music are as follows:
1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
2. Performing on instruments, along and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
7. Evaluating music and musical performances.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
Each of the standards is assigned Achievement Standards that specify the prescribed outcomes for the content standard. These are listed for each of three tiers: grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-12, and include basic, proficient, and advanced proficiency levels. These prescribed achievement standards are the goals associated with students in grades 4, 8, and 12, and strategies for assessment of these levels are also provided by MENC.
Here are a few more assumptions (are you guilty of any of these?)
"I can't possibly cover all of these standards. I teach elementary music and there is barely enough time to learn a few songs."
"I'm not expected to cover them all. This is band. # 2, #5, and maybe #7. That's what they hired me for."
"When I introduced the piece, I told them who wrote it, when, and where he was from. That's enough of that."
"I don't even know how to improvise and compose. It would be ridiculous to spend time on that."
question all assumptions
If you learn nothing else in this course, I hope you learn that.