Our good friend Rebecca Dunn is back on the Library as Incubator Project with another great post in her popular Pages to Projects series! She shares how to incorporate elements of art education and appreciation into storytime; if you’ve been inspired by Rebecca’s projects or have used her storytime plans at your library, we’d love to hear about it! Share your experience in the comments or on social media. ~Erinn
by Rebecca Dunn
Love is in the air, and hearts are everywhere! Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, providing the perfect opportunity to talk with youngsters about shape; specifically the heart! So, whether you’re hosting a special Valentine’s Day storytime next week, a future shape-themed storytime, or just looking for an engaging, process-based craft– look no further.
My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall is a versatile story on how the emotions of the heart can feel like a few favorite well-known animals. The illustrations reveal a curious surprise: each animal depicted is playfully constructed entirely of heart shapes. Before reading this book I like to talk about what a heart looks like with my audience. I hold up a paper heart and explain that a heart shape has two bumps on the top, a point on the bottom, and we sing “This is a Heart” together. I ask them to pay extra close attention to see if they can identify any hearts in My Heart Is Like a Zoo (which of course they do!). Something else to love about this book is its ability to act as a gateway read for talking with children about feelings. Prompt kids to mimic “silly as a seal” or “angry as a bear”.
After learning and reading about hearts, it’s time for art! This Suncatcher Heart Collage promotes expression and play with our featured shape.
- Wax paper
- Tissue paper
How to make a Suncatcher Heart Collage:
- Many libraries have large windows that are at a level for storytimers to peer out of, so why not tape sheets of wax paper to them for makeshift easels? The mess will be nothing a few spritzes of Windex can’t handle when it’s time to clean up. If windows aren’t an option, tape the sheets of wax paper to a craft table.
- Precut a bunch of hearts out of various colors of tissue paper in various sizes. Hint: Stack multiple sheets together to cut out hearts. Less work and more hearts!
- Add a couple tablespoons of school glue to cups, small enough for kids to hold while painting.
- Using school glue and paintbrushes, have the kids paint glue onto the sheets of wax paper, and place the tissue paper hearts onto the wet glue. They can also use the glue to paint over the hearts so that the hearts lay flat on the wax paper.
- Remove tape once finished.
I like to remind children and caregivers that there is no right or wrong when making these suncatchers. You can cover the wax paper with hearts or only paint one on. Something else to mention is that overlapping the hearts plays with shape like the illustrations in My Heart Is Like a Zoo. It also lends for an opportunity to dabble in color theory. What happens if you place a yellow heart over a blue? A blue over a red? Or a red over a yellow?
What books or projects do you hold close to your heart?
Check out similar books about hearts and shapes:
- The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond
- Whoo? Whoo? by David A. Carter
- Valentine Surprise by Corinne Demas, illustrated by R.W. Alley
- Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert
- Perfect Square by Micahel Hall
- The Shape of My Heart by Mark Sperring
- Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh
- Don’t miss Rebecca’s previous Pages to Projects blog posts.
- For more book recommendations and crafts that introduce fine art to children, be sure to check out Rebecca’s Pages to Projects Pinterest Board!
Rebecca Zarazan Dunn is a Youth Services Librarian Assistant for the Lawrence Public Library, and was recently named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker for 2013. When she’s not at the library or running after her 3-year old daughter, she is most often found at her blog home, Sturdy for Common Things, where she writes about books, library programs, and living the simple life in Lawrence, Kansas.Pin It


Early childhood development
Early childhood, the first five years of life, is a time of rapid cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional and motor development, and the most important period of development in a child’s life.
The development of a child’s brain depends on environmental stimulation, especially on the quality of care and interaction that the child receives. A baby who is hugged, cooed to, comforted and visually stimulated has an essential advantage. Children who are nurtured and well cared for are more likely to fully develop cognitive, language, emotional and social skills; to grow up healthier; and to have higher self-esteem. Each of these areas is crucial to our well-being as adults, as our experiences in early childhood shape who we ultimately become. While home is the most important environment during early childhood, it is crucial that children are exposed to some form of quality early childhood services, such as those provided at early childhood development centres.
According to a survey on the situation of children and women in Thailand conducted by the National Statistical Office in 2012 with support from UNICEF, about 84 per cent of children aged 3-5 attended some form of organized early childhood education prorgramme. However, the rate is lower in municipal areas. In Bangkok, access to early childhood education for children aged 3-5 is just 66 per cent.
In respect to their development, 94 per cent of children aged 3-5 who attend early childhood learning programmes are developmentally on track, while only 77 per cent of the same age group who are not attending early childhood learning programmes are on track.
According to a quality assessment survey conducted by the Department of Health in 2013, only 67 per cent of some 20,000 early childhood development centres nationwide passed the quality assessment.
What we do
UNICEF is working with the MoE and the Ministry of Interior to promote access to quality early childhood development services. With UNICEF support, in 2010 Thailand adopted the use of Early Childhood Learning Development Standards (ELDS), which set measurable knowledge and activity levels for children 0-to-5 years of age. These standards are now being employed by teachers and professionals working with young children, and they will serve as the guiding framework for early childhood development for children throughout the country.
• Early childhood, the first five years of life, is the important period of development in a child’s life
• A child’s brain develops rapidly during the first five years of life
• But 84 per cent of children aged 3-5 in Thailand were attending early childhood development services
• In Bangkok, access to early childhood education for children aged 3-5 is just 66 per cent
• Of some 20,000 early childhood development centres nationwide, about 67 per cent passed quality assessement in 2013


What Training Is Needed to Become a Teacher Aide?
Teacher aides are part of the educational team in a classroom, and they work with children and young adults. Learn what kind of training is needed for this position by reading below. Schools offering Teaching Assistant degrees can also be found in these popular choices.
There are several educational paths to become a teacher aide. First, you'll need a high school diploma or general education equivalent. Then, you'll need to obtain educational experience such as a college degree or an educational certificate program that allows you to teach. A college degree is preferred.
Associate's and bachelor's degree programs for teacher aides may include majors in education, child development, elementary education, and communication. You'll learn about topics such as communication skills, child and language development, classroom management, sociology principles, psychology, and education technology. Tuition reimbursement programs may be available at some schools.
Training and Other Qualifications
On-the-job training is necessary for many teacher aides to familiarize yourself with the school system. You'll learn about the tasks you'll be performing, along with how to properly interact with faculty and students.
You'll need to know how to operate audiovisual equipment such as televisions, video recorders, and DVD players. Knowledge of computers is recommended to perform computer-based educational programs and administrative tasks.
To work with children, you'll need to complete a background check and possess a valid driver's license. Having bilingual skills, especially in Spanish, is desirable in diversified classrooms. You may be working with students from different cultures and backgrounds. You'll need patience and fairness in working with children.
As a teacher aide, also known as a teacher assistant, you'll assist teachers with educational tasks such as creating and following lesson plans or supervising a classroom. You'll perform routine tasks such as keeping classroom records, grading papers, issuing and supervising tests, overseeing recess periods, and setting up instructional equipment.
Job Outlook and Salary
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS, www.bls.gov) reported that teacher assistants are expected to see favorable job prospects in the near future. Job growth is expected to increase by nine percent from 2012 to 2022, a rate consistent with the national average predicted for all occupations. Job prospects are best for those working with students who possess disabilities or who are non-English speakers.
The BLS reported the mean annual wage for teacher assistants in May 2013 was $25,570. Teacher aides who were in the top 10% of wage estimates had yearly incomes of at least $36,770. Specialty hospitals, scientific research and development services and junior colleges were the top-paying industries for teacher aides as of 2013. The top-paying states included Alaska, Rhode Island, Nevada, Washington and Maine.
To continue researching, browse degree options below for course curriculum, prerequisites and financial aid information. Or, learn more about the subject by reading the related articles below:


Early childhood education (ECE) jobs are ideal for people who want to work with infants and young children. Most early childhood education workers have college degrees or state licenses in early childhood development. Licensure and degrees allow graduates to work in various educational settings, such as schools, daycare centers and other institutions.
Most people define early childhood education as the formal teaching and care of children before normal school age — 5-years old, in most countries. In the United States, however, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) identifies “early childhood” as children younger than 8-years old.
Early childhood educators are trained to observe and evaluate young children and to identify their special needs. This can include learning disabilities, physical disabilities and emotional or behavioral disabilities.
Early Childhood Development Education
In the United States, most ECE jobs require a college degree in early childhood development to work with children from birth to the second grade. Typical coursework includes the study of early childhood education, general psychology, child guidance, human development, parenting, family studies and speech/language development.
Many colleges and universities offer specializations related to this major. Examples include: early childhood education and teaching, preschool/kindergarten education and teaching; elementary education and teaching and Montessori teacher education.
People who pursue a career in early childhood education must like working with young children. Communication skills are essential, since early childhood educators must work with both children and their parents. Early childhood educators are caring, compassionate people, and they are good motivators, too.
Early Childhood Education Careers
Licensed early childhood educators qualify for a number of different jobs, such as child care worker, Head Start teacher, parent program coordinator, parent education specialist, curriculum specialist and public school teacher.
Some college majors are more directly related to employment than others. Employment can be difficult in this field, so ECE students should choose their career path carefully.
Child care workers, preschool and kindergarten teachers and other early childhood educators nurture, teach and care for young children. They play a crucial role in the development of children from birth through early childhood.
Workers in early childhood education introduce children to reading, writing, art, science and more. They teach through the use of games, music, books, movies, artwork, computers and other tools. Watching children learn new things and develop new skills can be very rewarding.
Early childhood educators work in private programs, daycare centers, schools and other educational settings. They tend to work in small groups or classes, and they have some control over establishing curriculum, performance standards and discipline measures.
Early childhood educators, like childcare workers and preschool teachers, often work part-time schedules, although they usually work year-round. Public and private school teachers typically work a 10-month school year, with two months off for summer vacation.
Early Childhood Educator Salaries
Salaries for early childhood educators span a wide range. The actual ECE salary depends on several different factors, such as education, experience, career path and geographic location.
According to the United States Department of Labor, the average childcare worker today earns an annual salary of $19,300. The median annual income for preschool teachers is $25,700. Education administrators, such as daycare center directors, can earn twice what most childcare workers earn, or $42,960 a year.
The ECE salary in United States public schools is much higher. The lowest salary level applies to teacher’s assistants, who earn a median annual income of $23,220. Kindergarten teachers earn significantly higher wages than teaching aides, around $48,800 annually. Elementary school teachers earn even more, with $51,660 being the median income.
Teaching at higher grade levels usually results in higher pay. Special education teachers earn the best salaries. Of all the teaching jobs in early childhood education, the highest annual income belongs to special education teachers in preschools, kindergartens and elementary schools. They earn a median annual income of $52,250.
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 19 percent increase in employment growth for early childhood education jobs through 2018. This is a faster-than-average growth rate for all occupations. The federal government expects excellent job prospects for childcare workers and preschool teachers, due to the high turnover rate in preschools and daycare centers. An increasing emphasis on ECE programs should ensure a steady increase in job growth, compared to slower growth in previous years.
On the other hand, overall enrollment in public schools is expected to rise slowly, as children of the baby-boomer generation leave the school systems. Because of this, the job outlook for public school teachers is expected to grow slower than in past years. Teachers in high-demand fields — such as math, science and bilingual education — will have the best prospects for employment in the coming years.


In Sunday's New York Times Magazine, Ann Hulbert warned against the problem with advocating for arts education by citing its ability to help kids perform well in other areas, particularly on the "testable" areas of education. A recent study released by the Dana Foundation explored the connections between arts education and coginition. Here, we've invited Mark Cooper, co-author of Making Art Together: How Collaborative Art-Making Can Transform Kids, Classrooms, and Communities, to discuss how he feels an education in the visual arts benefits students.
In my experience, arts education provides a format for students to think critically, ask questions, and ultimately, find their own answers. This is especially true for students with little or no art making background in that much of their education revolves around the acquisition of other skills, retention of facts, and meeting specific expectations. Arts education provides a different model and when it succeeds, an ability to "think outside of the box."
A principal component to succeeding in the creation of an art object is the process of developing an idea about what is desired to be communicated and how best to do so. There are generalities that often hold true; but, the minute a rule is made, someone breaks it in an interesting way. I always encourage students to look at how other artists, from the past and from their moment, problem solve and articulate their ideas. I encourage them to study history, learn from it, and expand upon it, to become "masters of their media," able to make educated decisions and trust their instincts. I help them look to the past as well as the present for ways to enter the dialogue that mirrors their own interests.
There is a large component of critical thinking involved in studying art, beginning with evaluating art made by others at different times and within different cultural frameworks, that results in the student's ability to be objective in making decisions about their own creative efforts. The process of looking and learning allows them to evaluate the success and failures of others and apply these observations to the path they may wish to pursue. The idea of objectively learning from history is obvious and overlooked in much of what we do.
Making art is about coming up with visual solutions that allow viewers the opportunity to see the world a little differently than they might have before. I have often felt that if there were only one thing I could accomplish in teaching art it would be to help the students along the path of learning how to trust themselves, their decisions, and their ability to think through problems. This involves the collaborative process of interacting with a public, real or perceived, and understanding the success and failures of their creative endeavors. With enough time spent, art education can provide students with a sense of mastery and the experience of having succeeded, both of which are highly and easily transferable to other aspects of their lives.
The process of learning about the clarity of form required to succeed through making art supports the students in understanding what is necessary to succeed in non-art related endeavors. The experience of learning about how to "frame" and present their ideas is transferable to other endeavors. Most importantly, the confidence that comes from succeeding at an activity with a history that goes back to the cave paintings is incredibly empowering. Having succeeded at their artistic endeavors and developed a sense of being a master in one pursuit is a tremendous life lesson.


Level 3: First Semester
Adventures of the Superkids
This level steps up students’ phonics instruction by teaching more complex letter-sound relationships, such as digraphs and long-vowel sounds. Instead of focusing just on individual letter-sounds, children learn to use word families and whole-word patterns to help them decode and encode. They also learn how to read and spell six new Memory Words—high-frequency or sight words—in every unit. The decodable stories children read in this level are longer and more complex than those in kindergarten. Lessons for each story help guide children’s understanding and explicitly teach comprehension skills and strategies. Lessons also teach and have children practice using fluency skills, such as reading with expression and natural phrasing. Explicit and systematic instruction in expressive writing teaches children how to write a wide variety of products and introduces them to the writing process.


It is the same with any other specialist. As specialists in education, you and I are likely to overemphasize the importance of the common school in the scheme of creation. Personally I am convinced that the work of elementary education is the most profoundly significant work in the world; and yet I can realize that I should be no fit person to make comparisons if the welfare of a number of other professions and callings were at stake. I should let an unbiased judge make the final determination.
The first question for which we should seek an answer in connection with the value of any school subject is this: How does it influence conduct? Let me insist at the outset that we cannot be definite by saying simply that we teach history in order to impart instruction. If there is one thing upon which we are all agreed to-day it is this: that it is what our pupils do that counts, not what they know. The knowledge that they may possess has value only in so far as it may directly or indirectly be turned over into action.
Let us not be mistaken upon this point. Knowledge is of the utmost importance, but it is important only as a means to an end—and the end is conduct. If my pupils act in no way more efficiently after they have received my instruction than they would have acted had they never come under my influence, then my work as a teacher is a failure. If their conduct is less efficient, then my work is not only a failure,—it is a catastrophe. The knowledge that I impart may be absolutely true; the interest that I arouse may be intense; the affection that my pupils have for me may be genuine; but all these are but means to an end, and if the end is not attained, the means have been futile.


Where are we now? Is there a problem with K-12 Earth Science?
Written by Char Bezanson, Science Teacher, Eastview High School, Apple Valley, MN and Instructor in Education, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN.
More than any other secondary school science, Earth science is contextually homeless. How and when it is taught varies significantly around the country and from school to school. Earth science is most commonly taught at the eighth or ninth grade, either as a separate course or as part of a "general science" or "integrated science" course. At the high school level, Earth science topics may be included in courses such as Environmental Science, or in electives such as Astronomy. For these reasons, data on the number of students taking Earth science and the qualifications of their teachers can be difficult to find and interpret. Although biology, chemistry, and physics education are undergoing changes, most American high schools do offer year-long courses in these three areas, and most science teachers have a major in one of these subjects. The situation is different in Earth science, where most teachers have only introductory coursework in the geosciences.
Secondary school administrators must usually hire science teachers who can teach two or more science subjects in order to balance class sizes. In 2002, (CCSSO, 2003) two-thirds of the states reported having a broad-field certification that covered teaching in biology, chemistry, physics, and "other science" subjects. One-third of all high school science teachers are broad-field certified. In many states, science teachers have a major in a specific science field, but have introductory courses in other fields that qualify them for the broad-field science certification. In some states, the broad-field certification qualifies a teacher to teach any science at the "introductory" level, usually 9th grade or lower.
At the high school level, 15% of science teachers are assigned to teach one or more sections of Earth Science, about the same percentage as physics. Of those 15% of science teachers, 72% are certified to teach Earth science, with a major or a minor concentration in the Earth sciences. This percentage declined eight-points from 1994 to 2002 (CCSSO, 2003).
At the middle school level where most Earth Science is taught, 58% of U.S. science teachers are certified to teach science (life science, physical sciences, earth science, or broad-field science), while the remaining 42% are split between teachers with elementary education certification and those with no teaching certification, who may or may not have science training. Less than 19% of those teaching middle school science have an Earth science major (NAEP, 2000, in CSSO 2001). Middle school science is hardest to staff with science specialists, so middle school teacher qualifications are a key indicator of teacher preparation and supply.
Earth science at the elementary level is highly variable. Nationally, 2-3 hours per week are devoted to science. Some schools have science specialists, but the science taught in most classrooms depends on the teacher's training and comfort level with science content and methods.
Summary and Implications
Some Earth science teachers have a college major in an Earth science area, and more would be better. Most Earth science teachers, however, have a major in another science area and are assigned to teach Earth science either full- or part-time. Introductory and "non-major's" college courses in geology, meteorology, and astronomy are critical for the Earth science literacy of K-12 students, since these are the only earth science courses that most of their science teachers take. Elementary teachers, many of whom are licensed K-8, also rely on introductory courses for their Earth science content and for the modeling of "best practice" Earth science teaching.
While most science teachers have majors in other science areas, a significant number are assigned to teach Earth Science once they get a teaching job. These teachers are often highly motivated to increase their knowledge of earth science, and need appropriate professional development opportunities such as summer institutes and graduate courses designed for teachers.
ReferencesState Indicators of Science and Mathematics Education, 2003 (more info) , R. Blank & D. Langesen, CCSSO, 2003. (PDF 2.4 Mb)
State Indicators of Science and Mathematics Education, 2001 (more info) , R. Blank & D. Langesen, CCSSO, 2001. (PDF 1.3 Mb)
National Assessment of Educational Progress (more info) , 2000.


Your major courses will make up the last chunk of credits or units to complete your degree program. Some majors require a lot of units to complete, others not as much. For example, at my school, students who choose to major in Computer Engineering are required to take 96 units from their major courses, while Studio Art majors only need 46 from theirs. So, if you were an engineering major at my school, you would graduate a few years after your art buddies, assuming you guys started college the same time and had the same number of units every semester.
Majors are also differentiated by their subcategories. Some majors like Art, give you the option of choosing which area of the subject you want to specialize in. For example, an Art major can choose to focus their program on Studio Art, Art History or Art Education. Similarly, Engineering students can focus on either, Electrical, Computer, Mechanical or Civil engineering. Having the option to specialize in different areas is one of the cooler aspects of choosing a major, as it adds flexibility for students and their interests.
Okay, here’s the confusing part. Majors have very specific requirements when choosing classes. Most of the time, the program will ask the student to fulfill a specific area of study. For example, if you’re an English Literature major, a section of the major may require you to take 9 units on literature from the eighteenth century and then another 6 units from American Literature courses.
Your school may call this a section, like Section A, B, C, etc. Another example, Biology at Stanford University requires students to take 24 electives from four different sections or areas of study; Molecular, Organismal, Cell and Ecology. There may also be another set of directions saying students can’t take more than 6 units within a section or that certain classes may be repeated for additional credit.
What’s important is to remember which class you’re taking and for which section of the major the class fulfills. You don’t want to take too many classes from the same section, and then have those extra units not count towards fulfilling any part of your major program. Pro tip: when you’re choosing classes, always choose classes listed on your major program. You don’t want to waste time taking classes that don’t count towards completing your degree, unless you just have to take that Lady Gaga class. Yes, it’s real!


I do a print making project with yarn...Have the students draw on old cardboard (I do self-portraits) then they glue the yarn over the lines...and make a print..they love it and it comes out beautiful!!!
Also I have found that my 4th and 5th graders love love love weaving! You can make simple looms out of wood and nails or even more simple, out of cardboard.
Someone had a wonderful weaving lesson here for 1st graders...I am doing that this year. Weaving is great for fine motor skill development.
Also using large woven rug canvas (I am not sure this is the right name..it is the stuff you use for rug hooking) You can have students sew...again, great for fine motor development using plastic tapestry needles or even plastic garbage bag ties as needles.
I also tried to do a knitting project with my 5th graders...we ran out of time...but I am going to try again in the fall. They were really excited about knitting...so I thought it would be a wonderful skill to teach them...also you can incorporate pattern, color theory, etc...
I too inherited tons and tons of yarn...don't throw it out...just use it and don't order any more for a really really long time!!!
Good luck....I am on my third year....I swear..it does get easier...even if only in small incriments!!!


Acquiring Literacy in English:
Crosslinguistic, Intralinguistic, and Developmental Factors
Book Task Test
Author and Date
Patton Tabors and Mariela Páez, formerly of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Center for Applied Linguistics. 2002.
The Book Task Test was designed to investigate young children’s concepts about print, listening comprehension, story retelling ability, and decoding skills. Both the English and the Spanish version of the test were developed for the research study Early Childhood Study of Language and Literacy Development of Spanish-speaking Children, subproject 1 of Acquiring Literacy in English: Crosslinguistic, Intralinguistic, and Developmental Factors.
Age or Grade of Examinees
The assessments were developed to be used with students in pre-school and kindergarten.
The Book Task Test consists of 16 questions that the researcher asks the child as the researcher reads a book to the child. The researcher reads The Carrot Seed (Ruth Krauss; originally published 1945) for the English version, and the Spanish translation La semilla de zanahoria for the Spanish version. The questions require either a verbal answer or an action from the child. For example, on the English test the first question is “Where’s the front of the book?” Question 8 says, “This says ‘A little boy planted a carrot seed.’ Show me where those words are on this page.” Question 14 asks, “What does the boy have in his wheelbarrow?” Question 15 asks the child to retell the story in his own words, and Question 16 is a paraphrase of Question 15.
The test is individually administered by a trained researcher who is a native speaker of the test language. The assessment takes approximately 15 minutes to administer. The questions are spread over four sections. Section I has seven questions. If the child answers three or more of those questions correctly, then Section II is administered; otherwise the test stops at the end of Section I. Section II also has seven questions; if the child answers four or more questions correctly, Section III is administered. Sections III and IV have one question each (the two story-retelling questions). If the child repeats the text either partially or substantially in answer to the question in Section III, then Section IV is administered.
Scoring and Interpretation
The test is scored dichotomously, “1” for a correct response and “0” for an incorrect response. It can also be scored using Partial Credit (Incorrect, Attempt at Correct Answer, Correct).
Reliability and Validity
For the English version, Rasch analysis (N=330 four year olds) conducted by CAL researchers using dichotomous scoring (with 0=Incorrect and 1=Correct) yielded a reliability coefficient of .66 for the full test.
Validation data are pending.
Krauss, R. (1996). La semilla de zanahoria. New York: Scholastic.
Krauss, R. (1945). The carrot seed. New York: HarperCollins.
The Book Task Test (Spanish and English) was based on research conducted by Snow, Tabors, and others.
Snow, C. E, & Tabors, P. O. (1993). Language skills that relate to literacy development. In Spodek, B. & Saracho, O. (Eds.), Yearbook in Early Childhood Education, 4. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Snow, C., Tabors, P., Nicholson, P., & Kurland, B. (1995). SHELL: A method for assessing oral language and early literacy skills in kindergarten and first grade children. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 10 (1), 37-48.
The Book Task Test is not available to researchers outside the Center for Applied Linguistics.


Music lessons as a child can help the brain perform many decades later when processing sound, a study has shown.
Whether or not you continue playing, those endless scales on the piano pay dividends in middle and old age by honing your hearing, say scientists.
As people age, hearing is often compromised by changes in the brain. Older adults react more slowly to fast-changing sounds, which can undermine their ability to interpret speech.
The new research suggests this effect is lessened by learning a musical instrument in childhood.
Scientists who tested 44 volunteers aged 55 to 76 found even those who had not picked up an instrument for decades responded more quickly to a speech sound than individuals with no musical training.
The more years study participants spent playing instruments, the better their brains performed.
"This study suggests the importance of music education for children today and for healthy aging decades from now," said lead researcher Dr Nina Kraus, from Northwestern University in Illinois.
"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 ageing adult."
Volunteers listened to a synthesised speech syllable - "da" - while scientists measured electrical activity in the auditory brainstem which processes sound.
None of the participants had played an instrument in nearly 40 years. Yet those who completed between four and 14 years of music lessons early in life responded fastest to the speech sound.
The effect was small - in the order of a millisecond or so quicker than people with no musical training - but large enough to have an impact on everyday life, said the researchers, whose findings appear in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Commenting on the study, Dr Michael Kilgard, an expert on sound processing in the brain from the University of Texas at Dallas, said: "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.
"These findings confirm that the investments that we make in our brains early in life continue to pay dividends years later."


THE NEW qualification is better suited to testing pupils have the skills to thrive in today’s society, says Dr Gill Stewart
FOR young people, qualifications are increasingly important. In today’s tough economic climate, there is competition everywhere – for jobs, training programmes, apprenticeships and college or university places – and it is qualifications which help young people take the next step in their lives.
Not everyone leaves school with a clutch of As at Higher; some do just that, but many others achieve different qualifications which set them on their own successful path. It is the job of the SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) to provide pathways and qualifications to recognise the achievements of all our young people and deliver the skills needed for Scotland’s economy – today and tomorrow.
This year, there is a change to what’s on offer, with the introduction of the new National qualifications for school pupils who have just entered S4. A simpler, more streamlined system will see National 1-National 5 replace a range of qualifications, including Standard Grades, which served Scotland well for more than 25 years.
The Nationals build on the success of Standard Grades. They reward a wide range of achievement and reflect work completed throughout the school year, not just in final exams. They were developed to support Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence, which aims to help all young people in Scotland fulfil their potential and take their place in a modern society and economy. Nationals are more relevant and better-suited to testing the skills required to succeed in the 21st century.
The new National Qualifications place greater emphasis on “deeper learning”; in other words, helping young people to think for themselves. They will still need to recall facts and figures, and grasp key concepts – knowledge and understanding is central to the new qualifications. However, young people will increasingly need to show they can apply and interpret that knowledge and understanding and display a wider range of skills more relevant to modern society and make connections across their learning, just as we all do in our working lives.
Let’s illustrate that with an example; the introduction of renewable energy sources. Pupils studying this topic as part of our new National 5 environmental science course could be expected to investigate their own or their school’s energy use or research the impact of renewable and non-renewable energy sources on the environment. Studying these topics will require pupils to use a range of skills across different subjects – including scientific knowledge, data collection, presentation skills, numeracy and team-working.
The example shows how numeracy skills can be applied across different curriculum areas. Responsibility for learning in literacy and numeracy lies with all teachers and is no longer solely the preserve of maths and English specialists. We need to help young people make connections across their learning. Another instance of young people developing numeracy skills could be through fundraising events, where pupils take responsibility for managing money and presenting a set of accounts.
The first three years at secondary are now described as a broad general education, with young people studying across all curriculum areas up to the end of S3. By the time they start their Nationals, they should be at a more advanced point than a student who would have previously started their Standard Grades in S3. At National 5 – equivalent to a Credit pass at Standard Grade – final exams remain an important part of the system, but in the majority of subjects, there is coursework and ongoing assessment throughout the year.
Those studying National 1-National 4 (National 4 is equivalent to a Standard Grade General pass) will not have formal exams next spring but will be assessed on an ongoing basis by their teachers.
SQA takes its responsibility to uphold the high standards of Scottish qualifications very seriously and has put quality assurance systems in place to ensure the assessment of the new qualifications is rigorous and meets national standards.
I believe we are moving in the right direction – and that over time, employers will see a positive difference in young people moving into the world of work. In all these changes, employers, teachers, lecturers and representatives from universities have been involved in the development of the new qualifications to ensure we are meeting future needs.
The wider range of skills developed and assessed under the new Nationals is supported by SQA awards – in areas like leadership, employability, and personal finance – which reward what young people are doing outside school and reflect their personal strengths.
In a year’s time, this year’s S4s will be the new S5s, taking new Highers – and the year after, the new Advanced Highers. This sensible, stepped change into new Nationals ensures stability, with the strength of the current qualifications retained.
Our qualifications must evolve and develop with one target in mind – to deliver the very best for our young people, employers, the economy and Scotland as a whole.
• Dr Gill Stewart is director of qualifications development, SQA [Scottish Qualifications Authority]


Clip Art Positives: Better education for all Students working harder Closing the achievement gap
Negatives: Teachers have to dumb down lessons Don’t get to teach what they want Have to follow certain guidelines Students aren’t able to go above and beyond on their own Teachers are limited to what they can teach which causes students to be limited to what they are learning. Clip Art
What is being done to address the issue? President Obama's support Increased budget Looking for change
High bar/high standards Reward the hard work and growth Be more flexible with how states and districts get to the high bar. Changes to be made
Many different points of view Very controversial Good changes in motion Conclusion
Works Cited: Websites & Articles Behrent, Megan. "Reclaiming Our Freedom to Teach: Education Reform in the Obama Era." Harvard Educational Review. 79.2 (2009): 240-246. Harriman, Nancy E. "Perceptions of Students and Educators on the Impact of No Child Left Behind: Some Will and Some Won't." Rural Special Education Quarterly. 24.1 (Winter 2005): 64-9. Cornish, Audie. "NPR." NPR.org. National Public Radio, 02/06/2010. Web. 24 Mar 2010. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123439504&ft=1&f=1013>. Lewis, Beth. "NCLB- No Child Left Behind." About.com:Elementary Education. About.com, n.d. Web. 24 Mar 2010. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123439504&ft=1&f=1013>.
Works Cited: Images Image: math on chalkboard Author: woodleywonderworks URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/3597213066/ Image: stack of books Author: ruminatirx URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ruminatrix/1240056572/ Image: Students Author: uncultured URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uncultured/2448846020/
Image: President Obama Author: taryn * URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/taryn/3005519620/ Image: Map of U.S. Author: Kevin Hutchinson URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hutchike/2145676/ Image: Thumbs up and thumbs down Author: Clip art Search: Positive and negative


Adaptable Utensils Details
When first-time eaters start using utensils, their motor skills are not fully developed. Benders adaptable utensils were designed to help make the transition to regular utensils a little easier. Parents can position the adjustable end to the perfect angle to accommodate the child’s grip. As motor skills develop, adjust little by little, until straightened.
- Can be adjusted to child’s motor skill development
- Helps children transition to regular utensils
- Adapts to developing grip—use a sharper angle for early stages, straight for advanced stages
- Soft, easy-grip handles
Recommended ages: 9+ months


As one of the School of Education’s Rising Scholars, Dr. Kremenitzer’s pioneering mission has been promoting the use of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in the training of pre-service and in-service teachers. Her work emphasizes the relevance of EI Practioners in early childhood education. Over the past four years, Dr. Kremenitzer’s research interest has focused on the application of emotional intelligence abilities and emotional literacy development at P.S. 043 Jonas Bronck in the South Bronx.
In collaboration with the Principal of the school, Dr. Kremenitzer co-presented the work she had done with the Jonas Bronck teachers and emphasized emotional intelligence is an “X-factor” in passionate teaching.
Her efforts at P.S. 43 where she integrated the Diary of Anne Frank as part of the emotional intelligence curriculum has led to a partnership with the Anne Frank Center USA. Most recently Dr. Kremenitzer has written several articles and book chapters on emotional intelligence as a key competency that should be considered in teaching and learning. Most recently Dr. Kremenitzer contributed to an article published in the American Educational Research Journal whose quantitative work helped to illuminate the role of knowledge and skills in managing emotions in adaptation to schooling. This article further highlights her collaboration in research with several other prominent figures, most notably Dr. Peter Salovey, a founding researcher in Emotional Intelligence and Yale’s President.
• Kremenitzer, J.P. (2012). Emotionally Intelligent Teaching: The missing link in a teacher’s education. ACEI Focus on Teacher Education, 12, 8-13.
• Lopes, P.N., Mestre, J.M., Guil, R., Kremenitzer, J.P., & Salovey, P. (2012). The Role of knowledge and skills for managing emotions in adaptation to school: Social behavior and misconduct in the classroom. American Educational Research Journal 49, 710-742.
To contact Dr. Kremenitzer:


Childhood is all about exploration. Through the interactive world of technology, our children are being shaped by their exploration of computers and the Internet. The modern computer and the Internet offer today’s children a powerful device that, if used appropriately, can enhance the development of the child’s physical, cognitive, and social skills. Children get interested because they can make things happen with the Internet. The Internet is a powerful tool that is revolutionizing our children’s learning, communication and play.
Impact on Physical Development
It may not seem to the naked eye that exposure to the Internet would have a positive effect on the physical development of children. However, knowledge of muscular development and motor control skills leads us to deduce that regular Internet usage would naturally enhance a child’s eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills due to keyboard and mouse usage. There is no known existing research on the topic of the relationship between the physical development of children and the Internet.
Impact on Cognitive Development
Children who use the Internet show gains in cognitive abilities such as memory, spatial and logical problem solving, critical thinking, concentration, abstraction and comprehension. The Internet exposes children to information to improve the quality of learning that they can transform into knowledge. Through the use of the Internet, children’s language and literacy development is often promoted, allowing for greater gains in verbal and nonverbal skills.
Impact on Social Development
The Internet cannot and should not replace human interaction or relationships, nor take the place of activities such as sharing verbal conversations with our children or reading together. However, if properly used, the Internet can serve as a medium for acceptable social interaction (Scoter & Railsback, 2001). The Internet allows children to socialize with other children through the use of email, chat rooms, and instant messaging, increasing the development of communication and social skills. As children use the Internet to connect with places around the world and exchange mail with electronic pen pals, they are able to share different cultures and traditions.
Often the use of Internet in classrooms allows the children to work together, encouraging the sharing of ideas and cooperative learning. Students that find conventional methods of learning difficult will frequently find learning via the Internet to be fun. From this positive experience these children improve their attitudes about learning while enhancing their curiosity and self-concept. Many parents whose children use the Internet in school believe that the Internet has improved their child’s overall attitude toward school. “Education is also the single most common motivation parents cite for their children to use the Internet from home” (National School Board Foundation, n.d., para 6). The Internet allows children to actively participate in an independent learning environment.
Besides being used as an educational tool, the Internet also provides entertainment. According to Tapscott (n.d.), “Children can use it to find inspiration, stimulate the imagination, explore the world, meet others and gain new experiences. The process is known as play. Play has its own pursuit of amusement, competition, and companionship - all which can be fulfilled on the Internet” (para. 1). Though it is no true replacement for physical social play, the Internet offers uniques alternatives, which are especially important for those that are physically disabled and unable to engage in physical play.
The Internet today is part of our children’s natural environment. According to Tapscott (1999, as cited in Affanso, 1999), “…when kids are online, they’re reading, thinking, analyzing, criticizing and authenticating - composing their thoughts. Kids use computers for activities that go hand-in-hand with our understanding of what constitutes a traditional childhood. They use the technology to play, learn, communicate and form relationships as children always have. Development is enhanced in an interactive world” (Conclusion section, para. 1). Truly, the Internet has become a daily part of many children’s lives. It is little wonder that it has such a pervasive effect on their social development.


weather commonly occurs in the North Texas area. Volatile
weather can exist any time of
the year, and as such, contingencies must be made
to deal with such events.
This information is provided by the Safety and Security Services Department and is intended to provide staff with a guideline for
dealing with severe weather events.
Inclement weather that may exist in this area includes:
and high winds
- Flash floods
- Heavy snow or ice storms
- Heat wave, ozone alert,
The department of Safety and Security Services will
be responsible for monitoring weather conditions
that impact the Plano area.
Members of this department will monitor weather conditions
and television sources, and keep the Superintendent
advised of any conditions that may impact school
operations/student safety. The department of Safety and Security
Services will also share information with
other PISD departments to insure that the District
is prepared to address any weather related event.
Finally, the department of Safety and Security Services
will communicate with the City of Plano to be aware
of any weather event that may require activation
of the Emergency Warning System and civil defense
All school campuses within the District are equipped
with weather alert radios and have access to internet
based weather resources sites. It is strongly recommended
that each campus individually monitor weather conditions
in their area, as well as news and alerts that may
be introduced via internet, radio, or television.
All PISD campuses have access to the Weatherbug computer
program, which provides real-time weather conditions,
alerts, and forecasts.
In the event of impending severe weather that may
impact school operations, the department of Safety and Security
Services will notify
schools and other District
departments of the possibility of a weather event.
Schools will be advised to monitor conditions and
information outlets, and to monitor their PISD Security-issued
emergency radio. In the event of a severe weather
event, these radios will be used to communicate immediate
information to the schools from central administration.
In the event of a severe weather event that impacts
school operations, the Director of Safety and Security
Services or his designee will communicate with the
office of the Superintendent, office of Communications,
department of Transportation, and any other District
department, which might have a need for information.
The Director of Safety and Security Services or his
designee will also communicate with principals, Associate Superintendent for District Services, and the Executive Directors of Secondary and Elementary Education to determine what, if any action
should be taken on the campuses to address a severe
weather event. These actions may include delaying
or expediting the release of students. The decision
to delay or expedite the release of students shall
normally be approved by the Associate Superintendent for District Services
or Director of Safety and Security Services.
- Local Plano Forecast


Wole Soyinka Biography: Profile & Life History
Updated in 2012 – Wole Soyinka Biography: Profile & Life History
Professor Wole Soyinka was the first and only Nigerian to win a Nobel Prize and the second African to achieve the same feat. This article looks at the life history of the Wole Soyinka, as well as other little known facts about him – such as his books, literary works, and quotable quotes.
Wole Soyinka Biography
Prof. Wole Soyinka, named Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka, was born on the 13th day of July, 1934 in Abeokuta, Ogun state, Nigeria (therefore Wole Soyinka age as of present is 78 and Wole Soyinka nationality, without doubt, is Nigerian).
He hails from Isara Remo in Ogun state.
He was the second of the six children born to his family. His father, Samuel Ayodele Soyinka was an Anglican minister, and his mother, Grace Eniola Soyinka, was a trader.
Wole Soyinka’s mother is a descendant of the popular Ransome-Kuti family in Abeokuta. Thus, he was a cousin to the late Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
Wole Soyinka had his elementary education at the St. Peters primary school in Abeokuta, from where he proceeded to Abeokuta Grammar School, for his secondary education. He gained admission into Federal Government College, Ibadan in 1946.
In 1952, he proceeded to the University College Ibadan, now University of Ibadan, where he studied, Western History, English literature, and Greek.
In 1954, Soyinka began work on a short radio play, “Keffi’s birthday threat”, which was broadcast by the Nigerian Broadcasting Service.
Wole Soyinka went to England in 1954 to continue his studies in literature. There, he worked with and learned from top-notch British writers. Before he defended his Bachelor of Arts degree, Soyinka worked as an editor for a satirical magazine, the Eagle.
Wole Soyinka’s early career
Wole Soyinka wrote his first major play, The Swamp Dwellers in 1958. His second, The Lion and the Jewel, came in 1959. After the publication of these two Wole Soyinka books, he was invited to the Royal Court Theatre, London, where he worked as a play reader.
Soyinka wrote his first play to be produced at the Royal Court Theatre, The Invention, in 1957.
As at 1957, some Wole Soyinka poems, such as “The immigrant” and “My Next Door Neighbour” were already published in the Nigerian magazine, The Black Orpheus.
After receiving the Rockefeller Research Fellowship grant for research on African Theatre, he returned to Nigeria. With the grant, he bought a Land Rover, with which he travelled all over the country during his research works.
It was around this time that he wrote the popular satire, The Trials of Brother Jero.
Though he had won many international awards earlier, Wole Soyinka shot to global fame when he won the Nobel Prize for peace in 1986. His acceptance speech, titled, “This Past Must Address Its Present” was dedicated to Nelson Mandela.
Later in the same year, Wole Soyinka received the Agip Prize for literature.
Wole Soyinka, in 2009, bagged the Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award.
In all, he won over twenty national and international awards and honours.
Note: as is the case with every famous individual, the autobiography of Wole Soyinka is so extensive that it could fill a whole book of several pages.


Tett, Lyn (2011) Reaching adults with low levels of literacy. In: Reaching the marginalised: Reflecting on the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2010. The UK National Commission for UNESCO in Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, pp. 21-25.
|PDF - Published Version |
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The definition of adult literacy used in Scotland acknowledges its complexity:
• To be literate and numerate is not only to have the mechanical skills
of encoding and decoding symbols but also the knowledge, skills and
understanding that enable us to do what we want to do in our private,
family, community and working lives;
• The key life areas and social contexts in which literacy and numeracy
are used are important in deciding on what is to be learned;
• Literacy and numeracy skills are almost always employed for a
purpose - such as making decisions or solving problems - and in a
particular social context (Learning Connections, 2005: 13).
|Item Type:||Book Chapter|
|Subjects:||L Education > L Education (General)|
L Education > LC Special aspects of education > LC5201 Education extension. Adult education. Continuing education
|Schools:||School of Education and Professional Development|
School of Education and Professional Development > Centre of Lifelong Learning and Social Justice
|Depositing User:||Sara Taylor|
|Date Deposited:||22 May 2012 11:58|
|Last Modified:||06 Aug 2013 12:41|
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By the 1890s, over 2,500 new school boards had been created in England and Wales under the 1870 legislation. But there were also some 14,000 committees of management for individual voluntary schools.
This dual system of elementary education was uneven in administrative terms, and voluntary schools were often at a financial disadvantage since they were funded not from the local rates but by direct government grants.
In 1902 Parliament passed a new Education Act, drafted by AJ Balfour (who became prime minister later that year) which radically reorganised the administration of education at local level. It abolished the school boards in England and Wales. All elementary schools were placed in the hands of local education authorities under the control of the county and county borough councils (which had been established in 1888).
In Scotland the school boards survived until 1918 when they were replaced by elected county authorities, and in 1929 by the county councils.
The Act also, for the first time, made significant provision for secondary and technical education. Councils were encouraged, though not compelled, to subsidise existing grammar schools and to provide free places for working-class children. More ambitiously, they could set up new secondary 'grammar' schools. The expansion of secondary education was slow to develop, however, and the schools tended to cater mainly for the middle classes.
Welfare at school
There was much concern both within and outside Parliament that there should be more measures to ensure that children were healthier. In 1906 needy schoolchildren received further assistance under the Education (Provision of Meals) Act. It allowed local authorities to provide meals free of charge when parents could not afford to pay. This power was extended by later Acts, and made compulsory by the Education Act 1944.
The Education (Administrative Provisions) Act of 1907 required education authorities to see that all schoolchildren under their care received a medical inspection.


An in-depth study of the life, subjects, and style of the "Ashcan artist of Appalachia"
A product of the industrialized New South, Eugene Healan Thomason (1895–1972) made the obligatory pilgrimage to New York to advance his art education and launch his career. Like so many other aspiring American artists, he understood that the city offered unparalleled personal and professional opportunities—prestigious schools, groundbreaking teachers, and an intoxicating cosmopolitan milieu—for a promising young painter in the early 1920s. The patronage of one of the nation's most powerful tycoons afforded him entrance to the renowned Art Students League, where he fell under the influence of the leading members of the Ashcan School, including Robert Henri, John Sloan, and George Luks. In all Thomason spent a decade in the city, adopting—and eventually adapting—the Ashcan movement's gritty realistic aesthetic into a distinctive regionalist style that used thick paint and simple subject matter.
Eugene Thomason returned to the South in the early 1930s, living first in Charlotte, North Carolina, before settling in a small Appalachian crossroads called Nebo. For the next thirty-plus years, he mined the rural landscape's rolling terrain and area residents for inspiration, finding there an abundance of colorful imagery more evocative—and more personally resonant—than the urbanism of New York. Painting at the same time as such well-known Regionalists as Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, Eugene Thomason embraced and convincingly portrayed his own region, becoming the visual spokesman for that place and its people.
Andrew Wyeth: America's Painter, Greenville County Museum of Art: The Southern Collection, and The Charleston Renaissance.
is a graduate of Wells College in Aurora, New York, and holds a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. An art historian, she has served as curator at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina, the Portland Museum of Art in Maine, and the Greenville (S.C.) County Museum of Art. She has published studies on a variety of Southern artists, including Charles Fraser, Alice Ravenel Huger Smith, William Halsey, and Mary Whyte. In addition she is the author of
is the repository of the largest single body of Eugene Thomason's work. Located in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the collection offers an extensive survey of artistic activity in the American South from the late eighteenth century to the present day. The Johnson family is committed to creating a collection that captures and illuminates the rich history and diverse cultures of the region. By making masterworks from its holdings available for critical exhibitions and academic research, the collection hopes to advance interest in the dynamic role that the art of the South plays in the larger context of American art and to contribute to the canon of art historical literature. The collection also seeks to enrich its local community by inviting the public to interact with these inspiring works of art.
"From New York to Nebo: The Artistic Journey of Eugene Thomason carefully chronicles the life of Eugene Thomason and his embrace of North Carolina. Deeply influenced by his New York City training with George Luks and the Ashcan movement, Thomason returned home to capture Nebo and the mountains of western North Carolina through vigorous landscapes and haunting portraits. Martha Severens discusses Thomason's personal and professional complexities in clear, direct prose that offers a portrait of a truly great artist."—William Ferris, author of The Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists


The Meaning Makers (2nd edition) Learning to Talk and Talking to Learn Author: Gordon Wells
- Paperback - 360 pages
- 18 Aug 2009
- Multilingual Matters
- 210 x 148 (A5)
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The Meaning Makers is about children’s language and literacy development at home and at school. Based on the Bristol Study, “Language at Home and at School,” which the author directed, it follows the development of a representative sample of children from their first words to the end of their primary schooling. It contains many examples of their experience of language in use, both spoken and written, recorded in naturally occurring settings in their homes and classrooms, and shows the active role that children play in their own development as they both make sense of the world around them and master the linguistic means for communicating about it. Additionally, this second edition also sets the findings of the original study in the context of recent research in the sociocultural tradition inspired by Vygotsky’s work and includes examples of effective teaching drawn from the author’s recent collaborative research with teachers.
In the first edition of The Meaning Makers, Gordon Wells used a wealth of observational data to demonstrate the importance of talk with adults for children’s learning and development. The book worked especially well because it included the voices of the children and adults in its many illustrative examples. This new edition not only links the original analysis to recent research and contemporary educational issues, but also provides fascinating insights into the changing perspectives of a researcher over the span of a highly productive, international career.
Neil Mercer, Professor of Education, University of Cambridge
Dr. Gordon Wells is currently Professor of Education at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he researches and teaches in the fields of: language, literacy, and learning; the analysis of classroom interaction; and sociocultural theory. As an educator, his particular interest is in fostering dialogic inquiry as an approach to learning and teaching at all levels, based on the work of Vygotsky and other sociocultural theorists. The rationale for this approach together with examples of it in practice are presented in Dialogic inquiry: Towards a Sociocultural Practice and Theory of Education (Cambridge University Press, 1999). From 1969 to 1984, he was the Director of the Bristol Study of Language Development at Home and at School, and from 1984 to 2000, he was a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, where he was involved in several collaborative action research projects with educational practitioners in Canada. Chief among these was a project entitled “Developing Inquiring Communities in Education” (DICEP), which was funded by the Spencer Foundation. Books arising from this work are Constructing Knowledge Together (Heinemann, 1992), Changing Schools from Within (OISE Press and Heinemann, 1994), and Action, Talk and Text: Learning and Teaching through Inquiry, written with his DICEP teacher colleagues, (Teachers College Press, 2001). He is also co-editor of Learning for Life in the 21st Century: Sociocultural Perspectives on the Future of Education (Blackwell, 2002).


naeyc – National Association for the Education of Young Children
Promoting Excellence in Early Childhood Education
Early childhood professional development is a continuum of learning and support opportunities designed to prepare individuals for work with as opportunities that provide ongoing experiences to enhance this work. These opportunities lead to improvements in the knowledge, skills, practices, and dispositions of early childhood professionals.
Professional development programs encompass both education and training programs:
- Education programs help learners to “…have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.” Education programs are broad based: They include experiences specific to a primary area of inquiry (e.g., child development, early childhood education, or related fields including elementary education and early childhood special education) as well as subjects of general knowledge (e.g., mathematics, history, grammar). Education programs typically lead to an associate’s, baccalaureate, or graduate degree or other credit programs provide the foundations for a lifetime of professional practice expanded upon through experience and ongoing professional development. Education programs also may include continuing education programs that lead to the aware of continuing education units (CEUs), but not college credits.
- Training programs are specific to an area of inquiry and set of skills related to an area of inquiry (e.g., a workshop series on positive discipline for preschoolers). Completion of training participation can lead to assessment for award of the Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential or another type of credential, CEUs, clock hours, or certification.
Note: In some instances participants who successfully complete a training program are awarded credits that can lead to an associate or baccalaureate degree. Also, credentialing programs can be linked to education and training, or credential can be awarded through direct assessment of knowledge and skills.
In the early childhood field there is often “crossover” regarding professional preparation – or preservice programs—and ongoing professional development- in-service programs. This field is one in which entry-level requirements differ across various sectors within the field (e.g., nursing, family support, and bookkeeping are also fields with varying entry differ across center-, home-, and school – based settings. An individual could receive professional preparation (preservice) to be a teaching staff member in a community-based organization and receive subsequent education and training as part of an ongoing professional development system (in-service). The same individual could also be pursuing a degree for a role as a teacher in a program for which licensure is required—this in-service program would be considered preservice education for the certified teaching position. Therefore, the labels preservice and in-service must b e related to the position in the field, and not based on the individual’s professional development program.
i Adapted from National Research Council. 1999. How people learn: bridging research and practice. Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice. Donovan, M.S., J.D. Bransford, & J.W. Pellegrino, eds. Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 12.


The Learner's Edge, Inc.
...making reading comprehension and math problem solving happen!
The Learner's Edge develops and publishes research-based reading comprehension and math problem-solving instructional materials and programs. These materials significantly improve student achievement in all areas of reading comprehension and math problem solving.
These instructional materials are carefully designed for efficient learning, incorporating all student learning styles (auditory, visual, kinesthetic), are user-friendly and moderately priced. They are used with success by teachers and tutors, in public schools, charter schools, and home schools, with regular-achieving students, English language learners, gifted and talented, special education, at risk-students, and in closing the achievement gap.
When the programs are used as designed, significantly improved academic performance occurs in mathematics, in reading comprehension, in study skills, in grade level vocabulary, in all content areas, and on today's standardized assessments.
The Learner's Edge format and instructional strategies make it possible to instruct a total class or individual students, of any ability, at or above grade level, in the areas of mathematical problem solving, reading comprehension, vocabulary development, writing, listening, speaking, and critical thinking.
Instructional materials and tests are available for reading comprehension, mathematics, study skills, and bilingual education.
All of the reading comprehension, critical thinking, and mathematical problems-solving programs and materials developed by The Learner's Edge, Inc. are piloted and regularly reviewed by a dedicated team of practicing teachers, administrators, students, and parents to meet the goals of high expectations and grade-level or above achievement.


Use these lesson plans, activities, and ideas to give students a wealth of words to use as they express themselves.
- Grades: PreK–K, 1–2, 3–5, 6–8, 9–12
Includes vocabulary activities for two commonly taught short stories The Gift of the Magi and The Interlopers, which can be adapted to any short story to help identify and understand irony and conflict and to use fiction for increasing student vocabulary.
An interactive whiteboard mini-lesson on vocabulary excerpted from Writing Lessons for the Interactive Whiteboard by Lola M. Schaefer.
Quick and easy ways to infuse your entire day with vocabulary instruction.
Organize your vocabulary instruction with these lesson plans and activities from professional books for teaching vocabulary.
These vocabulary activities help students to learn definitions and also to use and apply the vocabulary words in various contexts.
Vocabulary boosters for teaching Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.
Vocabulary Boosters for teaching Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliet.
List vocabulary words featured in the book A Dog's Life by Ann M. Martin. Use them for your class's weekly list, daily word study, or spelling exercises.
Vocabulary Boosters for teaching Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan.
Vocabulary builder for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg.
Vocabulary builder for The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson.
You may wish to review the following words with students before assigning the book.
Vocabulary Building Strategies
Words and their meaning are the building blocks of literacy development. Neuman offers ideas on how to create a world of words in the classroom
The top five word lists recommended by Francie Alexander, Chief Academic Officer and publisher of primary programs for Scholastic Education. Use them for vocabulary instruction in your own classroom.
If you can't tell a lame duck from a rubber chicken, here's a guide to help you understand the language of politics.


This definition appears very rarely
and is found in the following Acronym Finder categories:
See other meanings of VA
We have 67 other definitions for VA
in our Acronym Attic
Samples in periodicals archive:
This collection of activities, written by two experienced music education professionals, is filled with creative, practical ideas and reproducible visual aids and manipulatives.
All of this is followed by specific lessons outlining purposes, materials, vocabulary/concepts, instructional time and possible visual aids.
Remember that a visual aid is just a helper and not the whole enchilada.
The color-coded parts list display in the visual aids reportedly provides easy cross-referencing to the drawing in the same manner used for circuit board visual aids.
Two presentations are rarely ever the same, so you should identify the method of using the visual aid which suits your particular style.
Karen Reczuch's artwork is a perfect visual aid in caring forward the informative text, which is enhanced with the inclusion of an afterword presenting the factual basis for the picturebook story and the threats facing wild salmon today.
Results indicated that students correctly recorded more concepts and got better quiz scores during guided notes conditions than when they took their own notes, despite the fact that visual aids (i.
Each kit is a self-contained, one-year curriculum including a lesson manual, overview planner, monthly overviews, take-home sheets, lesson plans and 54 games, visual aids and additional instructional enhancements, such as color-coded flashcards and a Bingo set.


How To Build A Rich Vocabulary
Expanding students’ vocabulary is hugely important—”the key to upward mobility,” as literacy expert E.D. Hirsh has put it, because because college-entrance exams such as the ACT and the SAT and military exams such as the Armed Forces Qualification Test demand such knowledge.
Moreover, “Vocabulary is the tip of the iceberg: Words reflect concepts and content that students need to know,” says Susan B. Neuman, a professor in educational studies specializing in early-literacy development at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Sarah Sparks, a reporter at Education Week, quotes both Hirsh and Neuman in a very important article on an often-neglected topic. “Vocabulary,” Sparks writes, “is a deceptively simple literacy skill that researchers and educators agree is critical to students’ academic success, but which has proved frustratingly difficult to address”:
“In an ongoing series of studies of early-grades vocabulary instruction, Neuman analyzed how kindergarten educators choose and teach new words. She found limited vocabulary instruction across the board, but students in poverty—the ones prior research shows enter school knowing 10,000 fewer words than their peers from higher-income families—were the least likely to get instruction in academically challenging words.
Neuman found few formal, structured lessons on vocabulary during that time. Instead, most teachers defined words during ‘teachable moments’ that came up as they read stories to students or held discussions.
That informal style led to major discrepancies in both the number and difficulty of vocabulary words, with some teachers discussing only two words a day and others as many as 20.
Moreover, because most words were chosen from the stories, they had little connection to other words being taught at the same time and were rarely words that students would need to understand instructions or academic content in later grades. Prior studies have shown that students learn words better when they are grouped with related words.
Earlier studies also suggest a student needs to hear a new word 28 times on average to remember it. The more sophisticated the word, the more important it is for students to have opportunities to recall the word, use it, and understand how it relates to other, similar words, Neuman said.
She found kindergarten teachers discussed vocabulary on average eight times a day, and rarely went back to recall and expand on words they had already defined.
‘In other words, we’re not teaching very many words, and we’re not teaching in a way that children will retain the words,’ Ms. Neuman said. ‘Essentially, I’m teaching these words, hoping like hell they’ve learned it, and never checking whether the children have learned it.’” (Read more here.)
Two takeaways here: 1) Kids need to encounter words many times before they stick, so talk talk talk and read read read!
2) Words are learned better when they’re grouped with related words, or encountered in a familiar context. Among other reasons, this is because readers will be better able to get the sense of a word in context if they’re familiar with the material that surrounds it.
Have you found an effective way to acquire or impart vocabulary words?


In a message dated 11/8/00 6:19:20 AM Eastern Standard Time, Nnaell@aol.com
> How can you teach, offer one on one instruction and assess if you are
> to them? This just feeds the idea that teacher art is easy! I would NEVER
> EVER let my principal see me sitting or reading to my students while they
> were working on their lesson!!!!!
What about using reading to children while they are working to encourage
visualization, stimulate imagination, integrate material, or just relate a
topic to the art? For some lessons reading seems most appropriate. For
example, I don't think my Shel Silverstein poetry illustration lesson would
be as effective if I didn't read the poetry a few times while the kids are
creating- conjures up too many great images.
Where do you live? Is it a state where the Standards are a vital component
to Art Education? My principal would embrace my reading to the kids- part of
the Standards. I don't think integrating reading fosters the idea that
teaching art is easy.
Susan on Long Island


Reading & Literacy
Which program is right for you?
Teaching Literacy & Childhood General Education – This program is for someone new to teaching. It focuses on classroom teaching and also allows you to become a literacy specialist in your classroom in grades 1-6 or within a school. This program leads to two New York State certifications: Childhood General Education and Literacy Specialist
Teaching Literacy: Classroom – This program is for new teachers who have initial certification. It builds on your undergraduate classroom work and allows you to become a literacy specialist in your classroom in grades 1-6, or within a school.
Teaching Literacy: Clinical - This program is for teachers who have taught for at least two years. It builds on your classroom teaching and prepares you to work as literacy specialist within a school in grades 1-6.
Advanced Literacy Specialization – This program is for teachers who are already certified through a masters degree program in early childhood or elementary education. It leads to an Ed.M. and to Teaching Literacy certification. It builds on your previous masters, and prepares you to work as a literacy specialist in grades 1-6, or as a literacy coach in a school.
Reading & Literacy: Clinical Practice – This non-certification program focuses on teaching literacy in clinical settings and/or private practice. It prepares you to be a literacy specialist in an independent school, or to build a private practice doing literacy intervention.
The Reading and Literacy programs are designed to develop educators who understand that literacy is a dynamic, socio-cultural process of speaking, listening, reading, writing and viewing. These literacy processes in children are shaped by the discourse practices, values and beliefs acquired at home and learned in school.
The program faculty are committed to supporting graduate students as they integrate knowledge of current research with active inquiry into current practices of teaching. Teachers become experts in classroom literacy practices and in clinical teaching strategies while building capacity for literacy leadership in schools and clinics.


Make BigIQkids Part of Your Child’s Daily Routine
Raising and nurturing a self motivated, highly academic children can be an exciting yet daunting challenge. Unfortunately, these complicated little people do not come with instruction manuals. But thankfully, the new frontier of e-learning can provide an excellent supplemental platform to help mold and shape the disposition of your child for the better.
How to Memorize Math Facts to Mastery
Memorizing math facts is the most important step to understanding math. Math facts are the building blocks to all other math concepts and memorizing makes them readily available. Memorize math facts at appropriate grade levels to insure readiness for all math lessons. BigIQkids.com math facts program makes memorizing math facts mastery easy!
Math Programs Resource
MATH FACTS PROGRAM ... AN INTERACTIVE ONLINE MATH FACTS PROGRAM!
Created by BigIQkids.com
BigIQkids.com math facts program is an on-line learning program specifically designed to facilitate a child’s quest to attain mastery of fundamental math skills. Our state of the art, interactive application will dramatically change your child's attitude about math and provide the training they require to succeed in school. Using a "self-motivated learning" approach, this interactive program monitors the child's progress and advances the student based upon subject matter proficiency. Building upon retention, speed and accuracy, parents will love BigIQkids.com math facts program’s intuitive interface and the ability to tailor each lesson to a particular child’s needs.
BigIQkids.com is an online software program for smart kids. It provides daily lessons around children's homework to help the student master his/her subject matter. Throw away your flash cards, work books and printables! BigIQkids.com is a revolutionary approach to elementary education (k-6) that leverages interactive technologies to promote spelling efficiency, vocabulary building, math fact mastery and extensive knowledge of the 50 US States via multimedia reinforcement and independent learning.
Visit BigIQkids.com and find out what the other smart kids are using to keep the edge!
Contact us at: firstname.lastname@example.org


Piano Course for Christians
Reviewed by Marcia Washburn
As an experienced piano teacher with a master's degree in music, I confess to some skepticism about most teach-yourself-to-play-the-piano courses. As I examined this resource I found, however, that the author makes no wild claims about learning to play proficiently in “ten easy lessons.” Using a methodical approach, she teaches students to read and play music in incremental steps. Using the traditional Middle C approach to music reading, Woods also offers additional resources for those who want to play by ear or do gospel-style playing.
Her friendly way of explaining basic musical concepts makes this a series that would be useable while studying with a trained piano teacher or under the supervision of a non-pianist parent. She employs familiar songs and hymns as the basic repertoire for the series. The cassette tapes feature the author explaining the various concepts and demonstrating the skills so the student knows how the music should sound.
The levels of the books are designed to correlate with levels in standard piano education series, so a student who has completed Level 3 in another series would be ready to begin Level 4 in this series, for example. In the early levels, it is possible to use either a piano or an electronic keyboard.
The piano is considered the best instrument to use in starting a child's music education. It provides experience in melody and harmony, treble and bass clefs, and hand-eye coordination. It provides a foundation for all the other instruments. Research exploring the link between music and intelligence reports that music training—specifically piano instruction—is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children's abstract reasoning skills necessary for learning math and science. These children scored 34% higher on tests measuring spatial-temporal ability used in math, chess, science and engineering. (MTNA Newsletter, Spring/Summer 1997)
Although there is no substitute for a piano specialist teaching your child the instrument, this course offers an inexpensive alternative for homeschooling families who cannot afford or do not have access to a piano teacher. Since the materials are non-consumable, all of the children in the family can use the same books. And the teaching parent has the opportunity to learn along with the children. Additionally, the Christian content is a refreshing alternative for those wishing to avoid the pop-rock pieces increasingly found in many other series. Madonna Woods' Piano Course for Christians has a lot to offer homeschooling families who want to learn to play a keyboard instrument.
At a glance:
|Piano Course for Christians|
|Reviewed by Marcia Washburn|
|$99.00 for complete course with books and cassettes|


My College Guide has pointed out the unique trends affecting education majors before, and when we watched this education video, we knew we had to share! It’s no secret that here in the US children are lagging behind when it comes to anything STEM related (that’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
But education majors at St. Catherine’s University have a unique opportunity to regain a comfort level with math, science, etc. that, for many of them, they’ve never even had before – and afterward, they will be able to successfully pass that confidence and enthusiasm along to the children they teach in an effort to turn around the current trend.
The National Center for STEM Elementary Education at St. Kate’s is changing the way elementary teachers will teach! St. Catherine’s University is the first to create an engineering course for elementary education majors, to let any student have a STEM minor, and, of course, to require all elementary education majors to complete the three course STEM certificate!
Watch St. Catherine University’s National Center for STEM Elementary Education on YouTube or below. St. Kate’s is treating education majors a whole new way. My College Guide is excited about the prospect!
Special thanks to JCMichener on Twitter for bring this fabulous video to our attention.
Who We Are: Information you can trust. For 20 years My College Guide has produced an annual magazine chock full of free college info for high-achieving high school sophomores. Check out our participating colleges. If you’re a student, enter for a chance to win an Apple iPad or iPhone or cash!


Dartsch: Mensch, Musik und Bildung
Grundlagen einer Didaktik der Musikalischen Früherziehung
Orientation Aid for Music Instructors
Michael Dartsch offers a number of stunning perspectives on the theme of early musical training and, above all, on the concept of music education. Under the premise of education as a goal-concept, the author begins by sketching a general introduction to pedagogy. Then he focuses on the significance of music for human beings before defining the contents, methods and goals of instruction. After "Handbuch Üben," ed. by Ulrich Mahlert, and Christoph Wagner's "Hand und Instrument," "Mensch, Musik und Bildung" is a further basic music-pedagogical volume published by Breitkopf & Härtel.
*Buy as E-Book (pdf, epub) from Libreka


Responsive Classroom is a widely used, research- and evidence-based approach to elementary education that is associated with greater teacher effectiveness, higher student achievement, and improved school climate. A group of public school educators founded Center for Responsive Schools, Inc. (CRS) in 1981; CRS is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization and the developer of the Responsive Classroom approach.
The Responsive Classroom approach is based on the premise that children learn best when they have both academic and social-emotional skills. Responsive Classroom practices help teachers and schools build children's academic and social-emotional competencies and can be used along with many other programs. Our services include Responsive Classroom courses for teachers and on-site consulting for schools and districts. We also publish award-winning books, DVDs, and other products, including resources for school-based study groups.
Read answers to frequently-asked questions about Responsive Classroom.
Go to the About Responsive Classroom area for videos, handouts, independent research results, CRS's conference exhibit schedule, and more.
- Member for
- 4 years 1 day


As a motor skill is learned, behavior progresses from execution of movements that appear to be separately generated to recruitment of a single entity. Movements come to be executed more quickly, require less attention, and behavior loses flexibility. Neural activity also changes. Task-related neuron activity during a movement executed as part of a motor skill differs from that during the same movement executed alone. Also, cortical planning areas (e.g., frontal and prefrontal cortices) dominate control early in learning, while less cognitive areas (e.g., striatum) dominate later. The change in behavior and neural activity suggests that different control strategies and systems are employed as the motor skill develops.
We propose that the behavioral and neural progression is due to a transfer of control to different types of controllers: explicit planner, which selects movements by considering the goal; value-based, which selects movements based on estimated values of each choice; and static-policy, in which a sensory cue directly elicits a movement – no decision is made. Explicit planners require much computation (and thus time and attention) and pre-existing knowledge, but are able to make reasonable decisions with little experience and are flexible to changes in task and environment. Static-policy controllers require little computation and knowledge, but must be trained with experience and are inflexible. Value-based controllers have intermediate characteristics. Neural systems can implement these mechanisms: frontal cortices conduct planning, striatum and prefrontal cortex estimate values, and the static policy controller can be implemented by a direct mapping, such as thalamus (sensory) to striatum (motor). The progression of the behavior and neural systems associated with the progression of the controllers is similar to that seen in motor skill development.
We test the validity of this scheme with computational models – based on biologically plausible mechanisms and architecture – in which an agent must execute a series of actions (analogous to movements), elicited by the controllers, to solve tasks. As the succeeding controller is trained, it selects a movement faster than the preceding controller, which relinquishes control. By comparing model behavior to human and animal behavior in analogous tasks, we show that it exhibits qualities indicative of motor skill acquisition. We also investigate how task specification and environmental conditions affect motor skill development and strategy, how the presence of existing motor skills affect the agent's strategy in solving other tasks, and the parallels between resulting model behavior and human and animal behavior.
Previous models have investigated how different controllers participate in biological decision making  and motor control [2-4]. While each model has unique properties, they all show that the availability of different controllers improves learning and behavior.
Rosenstein MT, Barto AG: Supervised actor-critic reinforcement learning. In Handbook of Learning and Approximate Dynamic Programming. Edited by Si J, Barto AG, Powell WB, Wunsch D. Wiley-IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ; 2004:359-380.


Betty Shabazz, née Betty Sanders (born May 28, 1936, Detroit, Mich., U.S.—died June 23, 1997, Bronx, N.Y.), American educator and civil rights activist, who is perhaps best known as the wife of slain black nationalist leader Malcolm X.
Sanders was raised in Detroit by adoptive parents in a comfortable middle-class home and was active in a Methodist church. Upon high school graduation, she left Detroit to study elementary education at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama. There she experienced racism for the first time in her life, and after two years she left for New York City, where she became a registered nurse. In 1956 Sanders met Malcolm X at a Nation of Islam lecture in Harlem, and in 1958 she converted to Islam and married him. The assassination of her husband (who by this time had changed their last name to Shabazz) in 1965 was witnessed by Shabazz, who was pregnant with twins at the time, and their four daughters. After his death, Shabazz dedicated herself to raising her children and continuing her education, eventually receiving a Ph.D. (1975) in education administration from the University of Massachusetts. In 1976 Shabazz began working at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, first as a professor, then as the director of its department of communications and public relations. She also lectured occasionally, addressing such topics as civil rights and racial tolerance. Shabazz died from severe burns suffered in a fire set by her 12-year-old grandson.


License in elementary education
Master's degree in library science
2. Successful experience in teaching information literacy and technology desirable
Develop and implement a library media program integrated with the classroom instructional program
Performance will be evaluated by the building principal in accordance with the provisions of the master contract.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND PERFORMANCE RESPONSIBILITIES:
In the area of learning and teaching, the
1. Identify content appropriate for each grade level from the district's Information Literacy curriculum and teach to students. Instruction will be integrated with the districts K-5 technology curriculum and when appropriate and possible, with classroom activities.
2. Develop and implement the districts K-5 technology curriculum.
3. Assist with district curriculum development by participating in team planning and teaching, serving as a classroom resource person and providing instructional materials support.
4. Promote and assist staff and students in the use of a variety of resources.
5. Assist with student and staff production projects.
6. Promote and support the appropriate use of technology by students and teachers.
7. Provide reading guidance and encourage reading for both enjoyment and information.
8. Design instruction for diverse learning abilities, styles and needs and model and promote effective and creative teaching strategies.
9. Help students become independent users of information.
10. Provide inservice to teachers on emerging technologies.
11. Consult with parents on services of the library.
Ability to collaborate with a variety of people
Student-centered and caring; excited about teaching
Good communication skills
Flexible and positive
Knowledge of curriculum, information problem-solving, resource-based learning, information literacy, and general education
Knowledge of computers and other technologies
Good organizational skills
Current in children's, young adult and adult literature
Evidence of a strong academic background
In the area of program administration, the
1. Design and implement a building library program, consistent with building and district goals.
2. Coordinate daily operation of the building library.
3. Train and supervise library staff, student aides and volunteers.
4. Communicate library program goals clearly to building principal and staff.
5. Communicate with principal and/or district library coordinator regarding program development and concerns.
6. Administer the building media budget.
7. Plan and manage the distribution and storage of all library materials and equipment to provide maximum access for faculty and students.
8. Provide flexible and convenient access to the library.
9. Organize and maintain records of acquisitions, holdings, circulation, etc., for hardware and materials inventory, maintenance, and access purposes
10. Select materials (print and non-print) according to board policy and supporting regulations.
11. Ensure that equipment is maintained and repaired as needed.
12. Establish a public relations program to inform the school of library program activities.
13. Encourage use of the library and its equipment and materials by students and teachers.
14. Participate in district-level meetings, inservices, committee work and curriculum writing.
15. Remain current in the profession through professional reading, associations and conference attendance.
16. Establish a friendly, productive atmosphere in the library.
Bending, carrying, climbing, driving, lifting, pushing-pulling, reaching, sitting, standing, walking.
1. Includes extremes of temperature and humidity.
2. Hazards include stairs and communicable diseases.
TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT:
Ankeny Community School District - 2 years ago
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