At North Fitzroy Primary School we take seriously the challenge of educating students for a digital world. Developing high level skills in using Information and Communication Technologies will allow them to participate effectively in the economic, social, political, artistic and social world of the new millennium.
In Prep, our students are using ipod touches to make movies about people in their neighbourhood, to film the city that they live in, and to record comments on the blogs of other people through their teacher controlled classroom blogs. In the MacLab they use laptops in literacy groups, read Dr Suess and other stories on ipods and ipads, and teach each other to write and spell using a range of “apps” like photo babble. Turning on, logging in/out, sitting properly and internet safety are also skills taught in relation to using computers.
In Grades One and Two there is a continued focus on class blogging, and students modelling various “apps” on ipads/ipods. After participating in the school concert, students devise their own concert, using ipods to film and reflect on their work. Students create their own music score using GarageBand, and use imovie to make their own trailers, advertising, and action movies. They also learn to add microphones to the ipods. They continue to use ipods and ipads to develop literacy and numeracy skills.
One of our expert ICT teachers also runs a blog which is updated regularly with reviews on different iPad apps that can be used to assist children with their learning. It is a great blog and resource if you would like to support and extend your child at home.
Grades Three and Four build on the work in the earlier grades and in addition are using ICT to communicate a message to the community (about waste management), incorporating social media, videos, an exhibition on the class blog, project management tools, and Well Wisher. They also begin their own personal blog to upload their work in various subject areas for their parents to view.
Grades Five and Six continue their own blogs on an area of personal expertise. They make greater use of project management tools as they develop transdisciplinary projects (Rich Learning Projects) alongside focussed studies in Maths, English, The Arts, Sport & PE and Italian. They also use a variety of different reflection and sharing tools, for example using ipods to act as roving reporters concerning matters of personal interest. At this level, students are also introduced to serious online gaming, for example using CIV IV to learn History, Strategic Thinking and Politics, and Sim City to Learn Economics, Maths and Town Planning.


Why learn piano and why start young?
Recognized benefits for children from learning piano:
Children gain a solid musical foundation for learning any instrument as they:
Here Hanhan, Alisa and Milana are 3 years old
And here, at age 4, they perform in a recital
3 tutor books – recommended order of study:
After finishing material in Nursery Rhyme Blank and Book 2 Blank child is ready to prepare for prep tests for any of the major exam boards (for example ABRSM Prep Test or Trinity Initial Exam)
The "Dogs and Birds" approach has been developed over the last fourteen years by Elza Lusher. As a native Hungarian, her music education was based on the Kodály principles from the start. She was trained as a piano teacher at the Liszt Academy in Hungary.
However, it was only through her piano teaching experience (both in Hungary and in England) that she came to appreciate fully the importance of singing and the inner ear.
In Hungary all students study solfege for at least a year before starting to learn an instrument, therefore all instrumental teachers assume a basic level of musicianship.
During her teaching in England Elza discovered that it was necessary to build basic musicianship into her piano lessons. The result of this is the "Dogs and Birds" method.
Elza has been living in England since 1991 and she has been teaching the piano for over thirty years. She has a wide range of teaching experience, from very young children to diploma level, and has also was the tutor for piano teachers on the Kodály Institute of Britain's teachers' course.
In addition to giving one-to-one piano lesson to children as young as two and a half, during the development of “Dogs and Birds” Elza taught groups in a Montessori nursery school, getting excellent results. Here children as young as three years old learnt to sing the notes and understand the music using the "Dogs and Birds" approach. She also taught "Dogs and Birds" in a local infant school, to groups of ten children using five keyboards.
Elza has produced three volumes of pieces using this method together with her husband Chris. The books contain delightful full colour illustrations, by the award-winning illustrator, Mark Chambers, which really capture the child's imagination and enhance the learning experience.
The tutor books are supplemented with other resources – a guide to Book 1 for parents and teachers, and a set of small animal tiles and coloured staves (to help visualize the notes) which significantly speed up learning notation. There is also a sol-fa book, written from a pianistic point of view, which helps students to progress from singing animal names to singing sol-fa.


I have talked about the course I teach for elementary education majors before (videos for education majors, Spring Course reflections). Anyway, the nature of the course is that students collect evidence and build models using the excellent Physics and Everyday Thinking curriculum. But I can’t help myself. Sometimes I just have to do some demos.
For this particular case, the students had already explored models of magnetism (what is the difference between an unmagnetized nail and a magnetized nail) as well as basics of electric circuits. I like to take these two topics a little bit further. Sure, maybe everyone doesn’t fully understand the demos but at least they have fun.
After the demos, the students asked if this was already online. Surprisingly, it wasn’t. So, here it is in video form (well most of the demos I do). Also, since youtube just upgraded my account to allow videos longer than 10 minutes, this one is about 10 minutes and 30 seconds. Really, I didn’t mean for it to be this long. After the video, I will give a brief description of the demos I did (in case you don’t want to watch).
Electric current creates a magnetic field
At this point, students had already explored both current and magnetic fields. So, this is just a simple connection. Many of them had already known about electromagnets, but it was new to some of them.
Simple Electric Motor
Here I basically describe a simple motor and emphasize that this is something they could make themselves. The key is that the coil of wire must be magnet wire. Magnet wire has an enamel coating on it that can be scraped off. If you don’t scrap it off, there will be no connection with the battery. You have to scrap off the enamel on just one half of the coil wire so that it will just get a “push” from the magnet and keep spinning.
After emphasizing that a motor is just a coil of wire and a magnet, I show this other coil of wire and a magnet. Again, this is something a student could easily build on his/her own. Everyone has a spare earphone cable somewhere. Although I didn’t show it, this can also be used as a microphone if you plug it into the audio input jack. Not all microphones work this way, but every earphone I have seen does work this way. If you plug your earphones into an audio input, you should be able to record some sound.
A motor is a generator
Since a speaker is a microphone and both are just a wire and magnet, what about the motor? It is also a wire and a magnet. If you use a motor in the “backwards” way, it is a generator. Unfortunately, this is not easy to see unless you have one of these hand crank generators. You would have to get your simple motor-coil spinning pretty fast to see an effect.
Motor as a Speaker
I love this one. If you connect an electric motor up to an audio signal, it should act like a speaker. Well, you can’t hear unless you do something. I like to use these popsicle sticks (or tongue depressors). Have the student bite the stick with the back teeth and hold his/her ears closed. Touch the shaft of the motor on the stick and they should be able to hear the music. Everyone loves this one.
So there you go. I usually do some more stuff – like showing that the coil of wire hooked to an audio source can ‘send’ a signal to a magnetic tape player. Play the tape player without a tape in it and hold the coil of wire near the tape head reader. BOOM. Music.
I sometimes also have some other demos that show the relationship between changing magnetic and electric fields. However, I will save those for a later date.Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.


Computer coding has seldom been more trendy. Governments throughout the western world are flocking to re-introduce coding into school curricula. Computer science will become an official part of the primary school curriculum in the UK this September. Israel was an early adopter, with a modern syllabus introduced a decade ago. Other countries are rapidly following suit, with the likes of New Zealand, Germany, Australia and Denmark all having either beefed up their curriculum, or about to do so.
Such enthusiasm is not, of course, limited to official channels. Hello Ruby is a new book aimed for 4-7 year old girls that aims to help them understand the Ruby on Rails programming language. The book follows the story of Ruby, who meets penguin, snow leopards and green robots as she creates her own adventures.
Without doubt the biggest success story however has been Code Academy. Code Academy is an online school offering classes and tuition in any programming language you care to mention. Whether you want to learn Java or Python, C++ or PHP, there will be something there for you. With an estimated 24 million users, the site offers lessons in much more than just programming however.
With so many users undertaking tuition via the site, it is akin to a giant petri dish in online education, and it is on this topic that a recent blog post by Code Academy’s Leng Lee recently focused. In it, Lee outlines three lessons that Code Academy have learnt from the huge numbers of students studying programming via the site.
- Relevance is key – The most common form of feedback given by users that they wanted to be working on real world problems. Abstract assignments or gimmicky projects weren’t what was wanted. They wanted learning they could instantly apply to real world challenges.
- Students want a clear journey – Alongside this desire for relevance was a need to understand the learning journey they are on. Students want to know where they’re going, what stage they’re currently at, and how all of the pieces fit together.
- Repetition is good – Because of the differing pace that everyone learns at, students expressed a desire for tuition to be both highly interactive, and in a format that suits repetition.
Suffice to say, Code Academy are incorporating many of these findings into new project based learning that includes clear pathways that contain a larger number of shorter modules. The aim is to allow students to practice as much as they need to, without doing the same tasks over and over again.
All of these are lessons that are as applicable to MOOCs as they are to Code Academy. It’s hard to shift the sense that thus far, most MOOC courses have simply taken the same format as a traditional university course, and placed it online. The lessons from Code Academy suggest that an altogether better approach is required, although this will involve a degree of tailoring courses accordingly.
Whilst there are initial signs that the MOOC sector are beginning to shift away from the chalk and talk model, the Code Academy show just how much further they still have to go.


The Art of Teaching Music takes up important aspects of the art of music teaching ranging from organization to serving as conductor to dealing with the disconnect between the ideal of university teaching and the reality in the classroom. Writing for both established teachers and instructors on the rise, Estelle R. Jorgensen opens a conversation about the life and work of the music teacher. The author regards music teaching as interrelated with the rest of lived life, and her themes encompass pedagogical skills as well as matters of character, disposition, value, personality, and musicality. She reflects on musicianship and practical aspects of teaching while drawing on a broad base of theory, research, and personal experience. Although grounded in the practical realities of music teaching, Jorgensen urges music teachers to think and act artfully, imaginatively, hopefully, and courageously toward creating a better world.
|"The particular strength of the volume is its usefulness across all levels of music education. Jorgensen offers not only artistic fundamentals unique to those involved in music but also material that will cause readers to reflect on personal characteristics. Detailed notes and references add to the book's value as a study tool. . . . Recommended." —Choice
"The beauty of this book lies in its embrace and discourse of the ways in which people become music educators, develop their craft over the course of their lives, and influence those around them." —Music Educators Journal
". . . offers sound advice for the new teacher or the student who is about to become an in-service teacher. However, the veteran music teacher will also find 'The Art of Teaching Music' to be refreshing, in that it affirms and validates much of what good music teachers know through experience and have been doing by connecting to philosophers and pedagogues inside and outside of music education." —Frank Abrahams, Westminister Choir College, Rider University, Princeton, NJ
". . . foremost a book about wisdom: a direct albeit thoughtful attempt to capture the profession for those who, by virtue of time or the nature of their work, may not have a full sense of the music education field. Jorgensen presents us Music Education." —Patrick Schmidt, Westminister Choir College, Rider University
"I have had the pleasure of reading the book manuscript, 'The Art of Teaching Music,' by Estelle Jorgensen. The content explores a variety of ideas that are covered in the myriad of courses experienced by undergraduate students and introduces new ones that are critical to the development of musicians and prospective teachers. Some of these ideas might be alluded to or briefly discussed in methods classes, but not at the level of thoughtful detail as they are entertained and examined in the book. This level of depth would require students and teachers to discuss, dialogue, debate, and reflect over time within and across semesters and courses." —BETTY ANNE YOUNKER, University of Michigan, Philosophy of Music Education Review
"The Art of Teaching Music is a meditation on a lifetime of experience in teaching. What makes it special for music educators is its resonance with idealism and experience." —The British Journal of Music Education , Volume 27/1 - 2010
"As an experienced teacher and teacher educator myself much of this book came as a
welcome refresher, with new insights along the way to allow for more reflection on my own practice. For every beginning music teacher this should be compulsory reading, going a long way beyond advice for a particular sector, and presenting a picture of music teaching that can be adapted to suit any situation." —Diana Harris, Music Education Research
"Few books about teaching manage to fill the reader with the sense of things being possible, but Jorgensen eloquently achieves this in prose that is clean, clear, concise and coherent such that it culminates in a manifesto that attempts to 'open wide the conversation on teaching that is waiting to happen'. In that, and in much more, The Art of Teaching Music succeeds and can be warmly and enthusiastically recommended for the novice, the veteran, and the yet undecided music teacher in waiting." —Music Teacher
"Attempting to understand Jorgensen's words and work, as well as the paradigmatic
notions that envelop them, has been a learning experience. . . Hopefully, this has resulted in a critique centred not upon the discrepancies of our worldviews, but on the challenges of viewing the world through someone else’s lenses. Jorgensen's are bright and hopeful, care-full and caring, demanding and plural. One will discover much about music education by reading The Art of Teaching Music." —Patrick Schmidt, Music Education Research
"This book will turn heads and quite likely deepen the thoughts of working musicians who teach. I do not doubt that it will, as Jorgensen declares, open wide the conversation on teaching that is waiting to happen." —Patricia Campbell, University of Washington
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Table of Contents


Kodály was one of the first people to undertake the serious study of folk song. Around 1906 he and fellow composer Béla Bartók published several collections of folk music together, and they both show the influence of folk music in their own compositions.
Kodály later studied with Charles Widor in Paris. There he absorbed influences of the music of Claude Debussy. In 1907 he moved back to Budapest, and gained a professorship at the Academy of Music there. He continued his folk music-collecting expeditions through World War I without interruption.
Kodály had no major success until 1923, when his Psalmus Hungaricus received its premiere at a concert to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the union of Buda and Pest (Bartók’s Dance Suite had its premiere on the same occasion.) Following this success, Kodály travelled throughout Europe to conduct his music.
Kodály subsequently became very interested in the problems of music education, and wrote a good deal of educational music for schools, as well as books on the subject. Some commentators refer to his ideas as the “Kodály Method”, although this seems something of a misnomer, as he did not actually work out a comprehensive method, rather laying down a set of principles to follow in music education.
He continued to compose for professional ensembles also, with the Dances of Marosszék (1930, in versions for solo piano and for full orchestra), the Dances of Galánta (1933, for orchestra), Variations on “The Peacock” (1939, commissioned by the Concertgebouw Orchestra to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary) and the Missa Brevis (1944, for soloists, chorus, orchestra, and organ) among his better known works. The suite from his opera Háry János (1926) also became well known, though few productions of the opera itself take place.
Kodály remained in Budapest through World War II, retiring from teaching in 1942. He died in Budapest in 1967, one of the most respected and well known figures in the Hungarian arts.
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We absolutely love science experiments and projects here! They are such a great way to build on children’s natural curiosity and encourage critical thinking. This dancing raisins science experiment was one of Lucy and Theo’s favorites!
Are you following our Science for Kids Pinterest board?
Dancing Raisins Science Experiment
Materials for Dancing Raisins Science Activity
- 2 clear glasses
- carbonated water and regular tap water
Procedure for Dancing Raisins Science Activity
- Pour some carbonated water into a clear glass.
- Add some raisins and watch what happens.
The raisins begin rising up to the top of the glass and then going back down again. The kids were mesmerized!
Questions to Spark More Curiosity & Critical Thinking
What do you see? What do you think makes the raisins go up? And why do you think they go back down again?
Some observations and questions Lucy came up with as she was experimenting~
“I wonder what will happen if I push the raisin down with my finger. Will it come back up?”
“I think the bubbles lift the raisins up and down.”
“I wonder what would happen if I put this cap in the water.”
Then we also got out a glass of regular, non-carbonated water to see what would happen and make comparisons.
“The raisins sink in the regular water.”
“The cap floats in the regular water. I think it will sink in the bubble water. Nope.”
“Lets see what these beads do in the water.”
“I wonder why the raisins are not going up and down anymore. Maybe we should take them out and then put them back in.”
Want to go even further?
Even more activities to inspire creativity and critical thinking for various ages.
- Think of a way to record what you observed.
- What other materials might ‘dance’ in the bubbly water? Why?
- Try this experiment, but instead of using carbonated water, use a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. What happened?
- Time how long it takes one raisin to rise after being dropped in the water. Does the time increase, decrease or stay the same over time? Why?
- Related book (affiliate link)~ The Magic School Bus Ups And Downs: A Book About Floating And Sinking
Explanation: The tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide stick to the raisins at the bottom of the glass and carry them up to the surface. Once enough of the bubbles pop, the raisins sink down again, and then begin collecting more bubbles.
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According to Piaget, a striking difference between infant and preschooler cognition is the ability to use symbolic thinking, which involves the use of words, gestures, pictures, or actions to represent ideas, things, or behaviors. Similar to motor skill development, the ability to symbolize occurs in gradual steps and is dependent on interactions with other persons and objects in the environment. As monumental as symbolic thought might be, Piaget referred to the cognitive development between ages 2 and 6 as preoperational thought. Due to the constraints of preoperational thought, preschoolers' first symbolic concepts are not as complete or as logical as are those of older children and adults; thus they are referred to as preconcepts. An illustration of a preconcept used by preschoolers is overgeneralization. Young children know, for example, that whoever walks on two legs, is tall (according to the standards of young children), and speaks in a deep voice belongs to a particular class of persons (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969). The English word they learn for this class of persons is usually Daddy; the Hindu term is Bapu, and the Xhosa (South African) word is Tata. So when young children use the terms Daddy Papal Bapul Tata, or other linguistic variations to refer to all men, they are demonstrating the ability to use preconcepts. The same classification ability is demonstrated when English-speaking preschoolers call dogs, cows, and horses, doggies. Besides calling all men by the term their culture uses for father and using one term to distinguish all large, four-legged animals, young children have difficulty in distinguishing specific members of a species from each other. This inability is evident in a young child who has seen a kitten down the street thinking another kitten seen in another place is the same one (Elkind, 1976).
It is the nature of young children to be egocentric in their thinking. To say that preschoolers' thinking is egocentric simply means that young children have an excessive reliance on their own point of view, coupled with a corresponding inability to be objective. By and large, young children tend to focus on one feature or perspective at a time. Their tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation to the exclusion of all others is called centration. Preschooler egocentrism shows up in young children's inability to share their toys, a fact that parents often fail to understand. Because parents frequently do not comprehend the limitations of young children's logic, they tend to scold them when they refuse to share their toys. The inability to consider two perspectives at once, however, means that very young children are unable to comprehend the concept of sharing. According to Piaget, the reluctance to share does not mean that young children are necessarily selfish. On the contrary, they frequently attempt to comfort others in distress. Their attempts to comfort another child or an adult, however, are likely to come in a distinctly egocentric form such as offering a toy or lollipop. These examples reflect the preschooler's lack of understanding about what might soothe another person as well their egocentric view that what is important to them is also valuable to others. The inability of preschoolers to consider two perspectives simultaneously can also be seen in their failure to conserve matter and volume. The inability to understand that the quantity of matter (such as clay) does not change when the shape changes, or that the volume of water remains the same if it is poured from a short squat glass to a tall narrow glass, is reflected in preschoolers' judgment (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969). Where that lack of understanding is likely to show up is if young children are given drinks in different-size containers. The young child is likely to complain that another child has more juice if the other child's glass is taller, even if the amount of juice is the same in both glasses.
What This Means for Professionals
Rather than expressing impatience with preschoolers when they do not share, parents might take their young children's perspective in the matter. Parents can be certain that each child has an identical toy or when noticing that two children are insisting on having the same toy might distract one of the children by offering that child an equally attractive toy. Because preschoolers lack the ability to conserve matter and liquid, parents need to be patient with them when they complain that they have less lemonade than the other children whose glasses are taller (even though they are narrower). Instead of providing a logical explanation to the prelogical preschooler regarding how the width of one glass compensates for the height of the other glass, it is better to take care that glasses chosen for their liquid refreshments are all the same height and width.
© ______ 2009, Merrill, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The reproduction, duplication, or distribution of this material by any means including but not limited to email and blogs is strictly prohibited without the explicit permission of the publisher.


(Kathleen - just letting you know I am passing this on)
Greetings Art Educators,
Kathleen - a new art teacher- shared an idea with Art Education list that I
thought I would pass on.
Maybe some of you have lesson ideas to add for Art about Peace?
From Kathleen Arola
Historical Collage Peace Symbols
I've done this one for fifth grade social studies for a couple of
years, but it could be modified for various age levels.
Start with a large photocopy of a peace symbol. It should be drawn
in thick (1/2" or 1") black marker so it'll stand out. Then I had
some discarded social studies books (5th grade social studies is US
history). Students collaged various elements from the books inside
of their peace symbols. They cut out photographs, artwork, maps,
headlines, text, charts, artifacts, musical notes and lyrics,
timelines and whatever else they liked.
A variation would be to cut large peace symbol shapes out of
construction paper, then place them over the collages to have neat
edges. I also had students fill in white spaces with red and blue
colored areas or patterns to complete the look. Then we cut out the
peace symbols and mounted them on red and blue construction paper
and laminated the entire projects. Some students even did fancy
backgrounds for mounting, such as a construction paper flag with the
peace symbol placed in the middle of the stripes.
Two teaching aspects to be aware of -
1. Students need to be reminded which direction the peace symbol
goes (and do they want their collage to be oriented in that
direction, or images pasted in all directions).
2. Students need to know that it's okay to cut images to fit the
peace symbol spaces, and that most likely they won't find images
that fit exactly, so to work on collage techniques.
Eventually - I will get this idea added to an Art about Peace section -- for
A variation of this would be one large group project for your classroom - a
huge Peace sign.... with images "What Peace Means to Me" filling in the


Spring/Summer 2011 DOE Literacy Training
Summer 2011 Literacy Redelivery Training
L3 Session Resources
“Living the Life of a Reader and Writer” (teacher’s name is Jennifer Myers and it’s through the Carnegie Foundation)
Home page- Annenberg Learning - Teacher professional development and classroom resources across the curriculum
Teacher Literacy Resource Page
Georgia DOE Literacy Online Training
- Creating Contexts for Learning
How can classroom organization and daily routines help students become better readers and writers? In this session, literacy expert Jeanne Paratore outlines strategies teachers can use to enhance literacy skills. You will learn how classroom organization, everyday routines, and grouping practices affect literacy skills in the middle grades. You will explore research-based strategies that help students learn, and see examples from actual classrooms.
- Fluency and Word Study
Students in the intermediate grades continue to develop as fluent readers, using specific strategies for reading and understanding new words. How can teachers support their students' development of fluency, vocabulary, and decoding strategies? What instructional practices promote fluency and word study? In this session, literacy expert Richard Allington discusses the importance of fluent reading, vocabulary knowledge, and word analysis skills in effective, interactive, and engaged reading.
- Building Comprehension
How can teachers advance students' comprehension before, during, and after reading? In this session, literacy expert Nell Duke defines comprehension and reviews the multiple strategies proficient readers use. You will learn how to use explicit instruction that promotes active, thoughtful learning.
How do students become effective writers? What challenges do they face in writing across the curriculum? In this session, literacy expert Nadeen Ruiz provides a structure for planning and implementing a writing program in the intermediate grades. You will learn how to connect specific teaching and assessment strategies to students' personal experiences and writing goals.
- Teaching Reading 3-5 New Literacies of the Internet
How has the Internet changed traditional views of literacy instruction? What reading strategies are necessary to comprehend text on the Internet? What challenges do teachers face in providing instruction in the new literacies in grades 3-5? In this session, literacy expert Donald Leu addresses the reading and writing strategies required for using the Internet and how these new literacies are changing the way we teach. You will learn how to integrate technology into your literacy curriculum and enhance literacy learning in your classroom.
- Teaching English Language Learners
What strengths and challenges do English language learners bring to the classroom? In this session, literacy and bilingual education expert Robert Jiménez examines the teaching strategies that best support the literacy development of students who are learning English as a second language. You will learn how to build on students' first language and background experiences, and how to create a classroom environment that promotes meaningful literacy learning.
- Teaching Diverse Learners
One challenge teachers face is how to work with a broad range of cultural, linguistic, and intellectual differences among their students. How can teachers address the varied needs of all their students? What must teachers consider when planning and implementing literacy instruction? In this session, literacy expert Dorothy Strickland discusses key elements of effective instruction that build on student diversity and promote effective learning. You will learn strategies for differentiating instruction to maximize learning for all of your students.
- Assessment and Accountability
How can assessment improve students' reading and writing? How do teachers assess student performance as they teach? In this session, literacy expert Kathryn Au discusses the importance of integrating assessment practices with classroom instruction on a daily basis. You will learn how to use assessment results to plan instruction, improve students' reading and writing, and prepare students for high-stakes testing.
Teaching Reading K-2 Workshop
The Literacy Web at University of Connecticut
Research Based Teaching Practices ( Great reasons for using )
On-line Reading degrees/endorsements from Georgia Universities


The second edition of this book is a comprehensive resource for preservice and in service teachers. The book will help you recognize and assess reading and writing problems and provide effective interventions to help every child succeed. It focuses on the major areas of literacy: phonemic awareness, phonics, word identification, comprehension of both narrative and expository text, vocabulary, fluency, and writing, including spelling. The author thoroughly explores each area, providing an overview of pertinent research, suggested methods and tools for diagnosis and assessment, intervention strategies and activities, and technology applications. The new edition offers increased focus on understanding the stages of literacy development of all English learners and helping them to become literate in English. Detailed information on designing checklists and rubrics based on state standards is included, sample checklists are provided throughout the relevant chapters, and Appendix C includes more than 50 additional assessment tools. Many of intervention activities are designed to be used with children s literature. Tools and visuals for creating and implementing many of the book s more than 150 intervention strategies and activities are included in Appendix D, and two additional appendices provide helpful resources, book lists, pronunciation guides, common word families, and frequently used suffixes and prefixes.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
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Making Math and Science FUN and Meaningful
by Sherial McKinney, Anna Owen, and Connie Shugart
Spoon River College Community Outreach Center, MidAmerica National Bank Conference Hall
April 18, 2013
Reg. 8:30 AM, 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM (Central Time)
2500 East Jackson Street, Macomb, Illinois
Description:Early childhood professionals and parents of children ages 3-5 years old will participate in hands-on mathematic and science activities. The
first portion of this workshop will focus on incorporating math concepts such as geometry, numbers, and measurement into your daily experiences. The
second portion of this workshop will explore ways to use scientific processes, skills, and concepts with young children. Ideas presented are based on the
Illinois Early Learning Standards and current research. The engaging activities in this workshop will make exploring math and science fun, easy, and
Presenter Bios:Sherial McKinney is a part-time Early Childhood Resource Specialist with STARNET Regions I & III and has taught and worked in the field
of early childhood education for over 35 years. She has taught Early Childhood Special Education in a self-contained setting and in a blended program with
Pre-K At Risk students as well as teaching Kindergarten and Title I Reading and Math for grades K-8. She worked in a federally funded child care program
as a teacher and as the director. She has also taught as an adjunct faculty at the junior college and university levels. She has presented at numerous local,
state, and national conferences on various topics. She has a B.S. in Elementary Education with a minor in Early Childhood Education and a Master's Degree
in Early Childhood Education.
Connie Shugart, Project Coordinator for STARNET Regions I & III, has close to 30 years of experience working in the field of early childhood education.
Her experiences include teaching and/or training of early childhood and early intervention professionals and families. She has done presentations at many
regional, state and national conferences. A few of her topics include curriculum, assessment, standards, environments, child development, and play. Connie
is also one of the Executive Producers and hosts of Apples Magazine training videos. Her passions include educating professionals and families on play and
the impact that the early childhood environment has on teaching and learning.
Anna Owen is an Early Childhood Resource Specialist with STARNET Regions I & III. Anna has been involved in the field of early childhood since 2003.
She began her career as a Regional Training Coordinator for Child Care Resource and Referral. In that position, she coordinated and oversaw professional
development opportunities for child care providers within 24 counties. Anna has also worked as a Parent Educator, providing home visits to families with
children ages 0-5 years old, offering support and information about child development. In addition, she coordinated family education nights and parent/child
activities for six preschool classrooms while spending time in each classroom weekly. After participating in a Graduate program through Western Illinois
University, Anna received her Type 04 teaching certificate and began teaching for an Illinois state-funded preschool program in 2008. Anna has been with
STARNET Regions I and III since November 2009. In her role as an Early Childhood Resource Specialist, she provides technical assistance and training to
early childhood professionals and families. Throughout the years, she has served on several conference planning committees and has presented workshops
on topics such as: Math, Science, Literacy, Social/Emotional Development, Conflict Resolution, Praise vs. Encouragement, Healthy Habits for Preschoolers,
Transitioning Throughout the Day, Response to Intervention (RtI), Creative Curriculum and more.
This training will provide 5 contact hours for the following:
- CPDUs (Continuing Professional Development Units) for teacher certification
- CDA (Child Development Associate) credit in area(s) #2, #8
- CE credit for SLP, SW, LCPC, PT, and OT professionals
- Gateways to Opportunity credit in area(s) D
Full attendance is required to receive a certificate.
Registration form for this workshop.


What kinds of writing assignments can I expect in upper-division music courses?
Currently music students may fulfill their DSW requirements by successfully completing the writing-intensive History of Music in the Western World and World Music sequence. As part of these courses students engage in formal and informal writing assignments, in and out of class, such as the following:
- essay exams (short and long)
- reflective essays
- reviews of musical performances and recordings
- program notes
- music analytical essays
- music critical essays
- historical contextualization essays
- performance practice essays
- research proposals
- sentence outlines
- original, thesis-driven research papers
In addition to the sample writing assignments above, assignments in other music courses may include, among a wide variety of other assignments, the following:
- teaching philosophies
- professional development proposals
- curriculum development
- lesson plans
- music pedagogical essays
How is my writing evaluated?
Your professors may weigh criteria differently depending on the nature of the assignment. In general, assessment of your writing assignments may take the following into account:
- clear presentation of the topic or question at stake
- clear organization, with beginning, middle, and end
- significance of ideas and examples that clarify and support the main point(s) of your paper
- critical response to primary and secondary sources
- use of correct grammar
- maturity of writing style, starting with control of standard written English
- appropriate and correct citations of references
Why write about music?
We write about music to help ourselves and others better understand music: its histories and contexts, its styles and forms, its composers and performers, its practices and meanings. In writing about music we explore musical coherences and express, refine, and support the musical judgments that we make.
As many have noted, writing about music can be challenging. Music is sometimes thought to bypass human linguistic processes and interact directly with the emotions; many have espoused music's ability to "say" what words cannot not say. Even when music accompanies a text, it can be difficult to convey exactly what the music adds. And, most of us have little experience writing about music. As Robert Wingell points out, "our culture thinks of music as comforting background noise, an atmosphere one creates for oneself, a sort of sonic wallpaper….In this atmosphere, it is difficult to argue logically and convincingly about issues of musical style or quality" (Writing about Music, 3). Through writing about music, we might help others heard music as more than sonic wallpaper, indeed, as a subject of critical inquiry, as are the other arts, humanities, and sciences.
General tips for writing about music
- Carefully consider the nature of the assignment: respond to the question posed; engage in the purpose set forth; choose research questions that can be addressed given the scope of the project
- In general, mere description is not enough; attempt to connect your musical observations to interpretations. Avoid "play-by-play" commentary.
- Make significant value judgments worth justifying. Avoid clichés such as "the piece was beautiful": instead, convey to your reader what made the piece beautiful and what sort of beauty it was.
- Be savvy in drawing connections between a composer's presumed intentions and his or her musical compositions: how might you ascertain a composer's feelings? how might music be expressive of certain ideas?
- Avoid frequent shifts in verb tense. In general, we write about the history of music in past tense and music itself in present (but occasionally past) tense. Aim for a flowing style.
- Use active voice constructions: straightforward prose is stronger prose.
- Revise, revise, revise: prepare a paper as you would prepare a recital performance.
- Do your own work. Do not plagiarize. Cite material you use even if you paraphrased (APA for music education; Chicago/Turabin for music analysis, history, and performance).


The oldest known inhabitant of the Philippines was the Callao Man dating back 65,000 years ago. The second oldest was the Tabon Man of Palawan, whose skeletons were carbon-dated to over 24,000 years ago. The first know migrants are known to be that of the Austronesians that came from Taiwan in 4000 BCE.
From 1521 until 1821, the Philippines was a territory of Spain. During the span of over 300 years, the country was opened to international trade. First was the trade route to Acapulco, which brought fruits and crops from the Americas to the Philippines. By the 19th century, the country was open to world trade, bringing with it shifts in society, creating incredibly rich Spaniards and mestizos and further divided the social classes.
During the Spanish reign, schools and universities were built, as well as hospitals and many infrastructure. Roman Catholicism was also spread throughout the country, converting majority of the Philippines to Christianity. In 1898, the country was sold to the United States for an amount of $20 million, in accordance to the Treaty of Paris. On the same year on June 12, the Philippines had also declared independence from Spain, which the US did not recognize, leading to the Philippine-American war.
By 1935, the US had granted Commonwealth status to the country but plans on developing the nation were halted by the Japanese invasion during World War II. When Allied Troops defeated the Japanese, the country was then given full independence from the US on July 4, 1946. However, the Philippine government regards June 12, 1898 as its official independence date.
The Philippines is an archipelago located on the farthest Western part of the Pacific, and also the farthest eastern country in Asia. It is an archipelago made of 7,107 islands, with 3 main islands called Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The islands are located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, which means it is susceptible to earthquakes and its proximity to the equator exposes the country to a number of tornadoes each year. But despite these plausible natural calamities, the country is also endowed with abundant natural resources.
The highest peak is Mt. Apo, found on the island of Mindanao, which is at 9,692 feet above sea level while the deepest point is the Philippine Trench, which is the 3rd deepest point in the world.
The country is made of 17 regions, 81 provinces, 144 cities, 1,491 municipalities, and 42,028 barangays or small communities. The head of the state is the president, elected by popular vote through national elections. The government is democratic, and governed through a constitution. The president, who stays in office for 6 years on a single term, appoints his own cabinet and also holds the position of commander-in-chief of the army. The Senate is the upper house of the government while the lower house is the House of Representatives. The judicial system is governed by the Supreme Court, with the Chief Justice its presiding officer.
Thousands of tropical islands make the Philippines a tropical paradise. Aside from its spectacular beaches and natural wonders, the country is also filled with historical monuments and buildings.
The most popular island in the country is Boracay - a small island of white sand beaches and crystal blue waters. Its bustling nightlife is legendary, making it the perfect party paradise for locals and tourists. The Chocolate Hills on the island of Bohol consists of over 1,000 small hills that look like chocolates during dry season. Its origin has never been explained and remains as one of the country's most visited places. The San Agustin Church in Manila is the oldest stone church in the country and boasts of the best example of Mexican-influenced interiors in the Philippines. And lastly, the Banaue Rice Terraces is a prehistoric engineering marvel that is a must-see. Carved mountain ranges are used for rice planting, which was created over 2000 years ago. The site is still being used for planting rice until today.
There are over 600 public schools in the country, with over 1000 private institutions. Elementary education is compulsory and free public elementary and high school are provided. The nation's university is the University of the Philippines, which is the nation's top ranking school. The oldest is the University of Sto. Tomas, which is also the oldest university charter in Asia, having been built in 1611. According to the QS University Rankings, the University of the Philippines is currently ranked as the 67th best university in Asia.
The people of the Philippines make up the largest diaspora in the world, with over 12 million Filipinos spread all around the cities of the world. The country is the text capital of the world, with an average of 450 million text messages sent every day. It is also the only Christian country in Asia.
Last Updated : June 26, 2015


Kacey Harper is a Third Grade Teacher at Webb Elementary School. She knows the importance of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Initiative—or STEM—but said a missing letter is equally as important: “R.”
“If you can't read, then, I mean, they won't know what's going on in the world, or how to get anywhere. It's just very crucial. It's very important,” said Harper.
However, when the Annie P. Casey Foundation found a large number of 4th graders in Alabama are not reading on grade level, department heads became concerned.
“We want our kids on grade level by the third grade,” said Anthony Stewart, Elementary Curriculum Supervisor of Houston County Schools.
Stewart said their reading rates are above that study simply because cognitive reading goes beyond the classroom.
“We do a lot of group work. We pull kids back into small groups. We also challenge those kids that are already there. As parents, we want to know that our kids are being challenged,” explained Stewart.
Houston County’s School System uses a program called DIBELS—a series of short tests that keep track of a child's reading comprehension.
Stewart said, “If they don't have the reading, they're not going to get the math, they're not going to get the science, not going to get the social studies. So, it's no doubt the most important goal that we have in elementary education.”
For Harper, the proof is in the performance.
“In the beginning of the year, I had to do a lot of modeling. Now, when I give the students a question, they know what to do.”


A New Duet: Emerging Tech Syncs with Tradition to Convert Aspiring Music Makers Into Musicians
—A new Harris Interactive survey commissioned by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) found that technology such as YouTube videos, online lessons and music apps are inspiring more than one in four young people ages 8 to 21 (27 percent) to learn to play a musical instrument, compared to 16 percent of respondents of all ages. Specifically, 17 percent of people 8 to 21 years old say they would never have tried to learn to play without technology.
The nationwide survey found that affordability and convenience of online educational tools is encouraging 16 percent of all Americans ages 8 and older to play a musical instrument because they connect the desire to learn with easy access to instruction.
By turning dreams into reality, tech teaching tools are helping erase a longstanding source of regret: According to an earlier Gallup poll, 85 percent of Americans who do not play a musical instrument wish that they did.
While tech alone isn’t turning beginners into masters, survey results indicate that it’s helping ignite and sustain interest among youth. One in three (33 percent) 8 to 21-year-old music students also take in-person lessons with a teacher or in a group, a finding that illustrates how technology is coexisting with tradition.
The survey found a robust interest in learning to play a musical instrument. In the past year, 30 percent of the population ages 8 and older made an attempt to learn how to play or better play a musical instrument, especially 8 to 21 year olds (55 percent), with guitar, piano and keyboard players especially keen on using tech methods.
The survey findings are significant as the music retail industry seeks to broaden access to music education and open the doors to the joy and wellness benefits of playing an instrument to all people of all ages.
“Since the harnessing of electricity and the birth of the electric guitar we have seen technology’s sweeping impact on music making,” said Joe Lamond, NAMM president and CEO. “Technology is making it easier to play, record and teach music, expanding the number of music makers and helping more people experience the joy of making music.”
Indeed, nearly nine out of 10 (86 percent) Americans agree that using technology to learn how to play a musical instrument is a good thing because it allows easy and affordable access to more people than ever.
NAMM and music educators are supporting the use of supplemental teaching methods to help motivate, track and reinforce music students of all ages.
“When people use technology to enhance their opportunities, it is very positive,” said Menzie Pittman, owner and director of education at Virginia’s Contemporary Music Centers. Teachers at his music stores use technology in lessons to reinforce rhythm for drummers, provide references for music history and demonstrate applications of lessons’ subject matter. Still, technology can take a student only so far.
“When people substitute tech gadgetry in place of the true understanding of the instrument, the result is limited at best,” said Pittman. “Technique is technique, and that will always be the case.”
Several new or emerging tech learning platforms that supplement traditional teaching, such as:
- Chromatik: An education app that allows teachers and students to record, annotate and share lessons
- Jammit: A music platform that allows the user to isolate selected instrument tracks from the original artist recording to help them learn how to play along
- Atlas Apps, LLC: This app publisher offers a range of interactive lessons, such as Uke Lessons for iPad, Guitar Lessons for iPhone and Rock School guitar, bass and drum lessons
The findings are the result of a nationally representative online survey of 3,245 U.S. residents ages 8+, living in the United States, conducted by Harris Interactive, October 17-24, 2012, on behalf of NAMM. Data was weighted where necessary to align with actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for adult (age 18+) respondents’ propensity to be online.
Director of Public Relations & Social Media | Phone: 760.438.8007


Batas Pambansa Blg. 232 (Education of 1982)
Educational System in Formal Education;
Section 20. Definition - "Formal Educational" refers to the hierarchically structured and chronologically graded learning organized and provided by the formal school system and for which certification is required in order for the learner to progress through the grades or move to higher levels. Formal education shall correspond to the following levels:
1. Elementary Education. - the first stage of compulsory, formal education primarily concerned with providing basic education and usually corresponding to six or seven grades, including pre-school programs.
2. Secondary Education. - the state of formal education following the elementary level concerned primarily with continuing basic education and expanding it to include the learning of employable gainful skills, usually corresponding to four years of high school.


What is the study of Geography—Elementary?
This program is designed to provide necessary depth as well as breadth to teaching majors who wish to specialize in geography in the public school system.
This major satisfies the academic major requirement for teacher certification with an endorsement in elementary education and must be accompanied by the professional preparation program in elementary education. See the Elementary Education section of this catalog for program admission, completion, and teacher certification requirements. This program is designed to provide necessary depth as well as breadth to teaching majors who wish to specialize in geography in the public school system.
Students wishing to complete a Geography Elementary Education major should complete the general chemistry series during their freshman year and the general biology series during their sophomore year. Prospective environmental science majors are strongly advised to take additional preparatory course work that provides a strong background in chemistry, biology and mathematics. The preparatory courses may be used to fulfill both Huxley College and GUR requirements.
Why Should I Consider this Major?
This major prepares students for a concentration in Geography to accompany their courses in Elementary Education.
- Elementary School Teacher


Includes bibliographical references (pages 132-138) and index.
Time, theory, and Javon
time and change
Students, reading, and books
Teaching and time
Parents' voices: memories and making sense
Thinking about the future, drawing upon the past, and living in the present
Time and literacy practices: becoming a reader over time
Conclusion: reading time.
Catherine Compton-Lilly examines the literacy practices and school trajectories of eight middle school students and their families. Through a unique longitudinal lens--the author has studied these same students from first grade--we see how students from a low-income, inner-city community grow and develop academically, revealing critical insights for teachers about literacy development, identity construction, and school achievement. --from publisher description


The ten chosen works will introduce children to classical music and encourage creativity
The BBC has launched Ten Pieces, a new initiative to familiarise more children with classical music and to inspire creativity. Ten works will be introduced to primary school classes through a range of online resources, events and collaborations. Several ambassadors have been recruited for the project, including violinist Nicola Benedetti (pictured).
Led by BBC Learning, the BBC Orchestras and the BBC Singers, the programme will begin in October with a week of special school cinema screenings of a new film introducing the ten pieces of classical music with the aid of live action and animation. Directed by Nick Wickham, the film features performances by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
During the autumn term, children will be asked to respond creatively to the music through their own compositions, dance, digital art or animation. The BBC orchestras and BBC Singers will also run a series of Orchestra Take Over days and interactive concerts in schools around the UK.
The ten pieces are:
John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Beethoven: Symphony no.5 (1st movement)
Britten: ‘Storm’ Interlude from Peter Grimes
Grieg: ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ from Peer Gynt
Handel: Zadok the Priest
Holst: ‘Mars’ from The Planets
Anna Meredith: Connect It
Mozart: Horn Concerto no.4 (3rd movement)
Mussorgsky: A Night on the Bare Mountain
Stravinsky: The Firebird – suite (1911) (Finale)
‘Ten Pieces marks the biggest commitment the BBC has ever made to music education in the country and it’s a great example of the kind of ground-breaking initiative we can achieve through harnessing the knowledge and passion of the musicians, learning teams and classical music experts across the BBC,’ said BBC Radio 3 controller Roger Wright. ‘We hope that the project will inspire a generation of children to learn more about classical music.’
Photo: Decca/Simon Fowler


The Survey said, over 2,80,000 new school buildings have been constructed and over 12,46,000 teachers have been appointed under the scheme in that time.
Speaking about the mid-day scheme, the report said about 105 million children had benefited from the programme during 2011-12.
What is RTE Act provides?
- Right of children to free and compulsory education till completion of elementary education in a neighborhood school.
- It clarifies that ‘compulsory education' means obligation of the appropriate government to provide free elementary education and ensure compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education to every child in the six to fourteen age group. ‘Free' means that no child shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education.
- It makes provisions for a non-admitted child to be admitted to an age appropriate class.
- It specifies the duties and responsibilities of appropriate Governments, local authority and parents in providing free and compulsory education, and sharing of financial and other responsibilities between the Central and State Governments.
- It lays down the norms and standards relating inter alia to Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs), buildings and infrastructure, school-working days, teacher-working hours.
- It provides for rational deployment of teachers by ensuring that the specified pupil teacher ratio is maintained for each school, rather than just as an average for the State or District or Block, thus ensuring that there is no urban-rural imbalance in teacher postings. It also provides for prohibition of deployment of teachers for non-educational work, other than decennial census, elections to local authority, state legislatures and parliament, and disaster relief.
- It provides for appointment of appropriately trained teachers, i.e. teachers with the requisite entry and academic qualifications.
- It prohibits (a) physical punishment and mental harassment; (b) screening procedures for admission of children; (c) capitation fee; (d) private tuition by teachers and (e) running of schools without recognition.
- It provides for development of curriculum in consonance with the values enshrined in the Constitution, and which would ensure the all-round development of the child, building on the child's knowledge, potentiality and talent and making the child free of fear, trauma and anxiety through a system of child friendly and child centred learning.


With the support of a school district committed to music education, Chris Lee uses technology to teach students traditional lessons about music theory and composition.
Lee has just completed his third year using a 15-station computer lab to teach five elective courses at Newtown High School in Connecticut. His position in the school is unique because as one of four music teachers, he is free to dedicate himself solely to theory and composition.
When Lee, fresh out of Yale with a master’s degree in music, applied for this position, he knew he wanted to teach in a public school but didn’t want to run a band. “Often, music teachers spread themselves thin by doing both band and theory,” Lee said.
Lee’s courses attract both traditional music students and those he refers to as “garage-banders.”
“These students may not have a traditional musical background playing in the school band, but they play guitar or drums in a band outside of school and wish to pursue a better understanding of music theory,” Lee explained.
The diverse musical background of non-performers and traditional students in the same classroom creates a unique and valuable learning environment for students, Lee said. A student who has played piano for ten years, for example, may be able to help another student in the class who can’t read music. The student who can’t read music may be able to offer the piano player a different perspective on a concept.
Not only does Lee teach the next generation of composers, he is himself a composer who recently created a hymn for the anniversary of a Lutheran Church in New Haven to which he belongs.
“When you’re a composer, composing is something that you always have to do,” said Lee, who is the son of URI Music Department Chair Ron Lee. “I always love to do it, but the interaction teaching provides is special, too. I love doing both.”
—James Acone ’08


Art therapy is also called expressive therapy. This creative therapy improves every individual’s physical, emotional and mental well-being. It involves various art materials in which a person can explore and express his or her feelings and thoughts through the guidance of an art therapist. The art therapists provide a supportive, contained and safe environment for expressing one’s feelings by means of art. They also believe that art is not only intended to benefit the young, adults can also perform art therapy with beneficial results.
Art therapy enables people to express their creative talents and artistry. There is a theory that if a person is not able to express their feelings and their ideas through verbal communication, they do it in a form of art. Also, it is designed for the therapist to easily understand adults and it serves as a medium of analysis and discussion.
Art therapy ideas for adults are proven helpful for adults to express creatively what they feel and things they want to address. It is usually used in order to improve a person’s mental and emotional well-being and it’s also a way to relieve tension, stress and it can also be used for self-discovery. Art therapy can be classified into two types; it can be creative or expressive art therapy. Expressive art therapy makes use of different art materials like chalk, markers and paints. It combines the traditional psychotherapeutic techniques and theories. Creative art therapy is also designed to increase awareness for other and for self. This helps in promoting personal development, improve cognitive function and increases coping skills. Creative art therapy is based on human development, art education, personality theories and psychology.
Art therapy can be appropriate for individuals who have depression, anxiety, autism, emotional and behavioural problems, ADHD, learning difficulties and so on. They are facilitated by professional and qualified art therapists. They provide workshops for these individuals and they have the ability to understand these individuals.
The implementation of art therapy ideas for adults is a great help not only for the process of improving their hidden talents but a great help for them to overcome and express what they truly feel. It gives them the opportunity to improve their conscious and unconscious minds. They are able to express their insights and emotional state despite their ages. Art therapy improves creativity, self-awareness, personal development, self-reflection amongst other benefits.


science education, mathematics education, graphing, data analysis, elementary education, protocol analysis, student cognition
This study examined how intermediate elementary students' mathematics and science background knowledge affected their interpretation of line graphs and how their interpretations were affected by graph question levels. A purposive sample of 14 6th-grade students engaged in think aloud interviews (Ericsson & Simon, 1993) while completing an excerpted Test of Graphing in Science (TOGS) (McKenzie & Padilla, 1986). Hand gestures were video recorded. Student performance on the TOGS was assessed using an assessment rubric created from previously cited factors affecting students' graphing ability. Factors were categorized using Bertin's (1983) three graph question levels. The assessment rubric was validated by Padilla and a veteran mathematics and science teacher. Observational notes were also collected. Data were analyzed using Roth and Bowen's semiotic process of reading graphs (2001). Key findings from this analysis included differences in the use of heuristics, self-generated questions, science knowledge, and self-motivation. Students with higher prior achievement used a greater number and variety of heuristics and more often chose appropriate heuristics. They also monitored their understanding of the question and the adequacy of their strategy and answer by asking themselves questions. Most used their science knowledge spontaneously to check their understanding of the question and the adequacy of their answers. Students with lower and moderate prior achievement favored one heuristic even when it was not useful for answering the question and rarely asked their own questions. In some cases, if students with lower prior achievement had thought about their answers in the context of their science knowledge, they would have been able to recognize their errors. One student with lower prior achievement motivated herself when she thought the questions were too difficult. In addition, students answered the TOGS in one of three ways: as if they were mathematics word problems, science data to be analyzed, or they were confused and had to guess. A second set of findings corroborated how science background knowledge affected graph interpretation: correct science knowledge supported students' reasoning, but it was not necessary to answer any question correctly; correct science knowledge could not compensate for incomplete mathematics knowledge; and incorrect science knowledge often distracted students when they tried to use it while answering a question. Finally, using Roth and Bowen's (2001) two-stage semiotic model of reading graphs, representative vignettes showed emerging patterns from the study. This study added to our understanding of the role of science content knowledge during line graph interpretation, highlighted the importance of heuristics and mathematics procedural knowledge, and documented the importance of perception attentions, motivation, and students' self-generated questions. Recommendations were made for future research in line graph interpretation in mathematics and science education and for improving instruction in this area.
If this is your thesis or dissertation, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
College of Education
Curriculum and Instruction
Length of Campus-only Access
Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)
Keller, Stacy, "Levels Of Line Graph Question Interpretation With Intermediate Elementary Students Of Varying Scientific And Mathematical Knowle" (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3534.


Governor Development Service
Becoming a School Governor - Guidance for Prospective Governors
Being a school governor is both a rewarding and challenging experience. Governors provide strategic leadership and work in partnership with the headteacher and senior leaders in schools to ensure that every child gets the best possible education.
The demands on governors and governing bodies have changed dramatically in recent years and this guidance has been written to help aspiring governors understand the expectations and demands of the role.
This guidance is for those who are thinking of becoming a governor. Hopefully it will provide you with a good overview, the commitment required and the expectations of the role.
The Role of the Governing Body
The governing body is responsible for the conduct of the school and must promote high standards of educational achievement at the school. In all types of schools, governing bodies should have a strong focus on three core strategic functions:
- Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;
- Holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of staff; and
- Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.
In order to do this, governors need to gain knowledge of how their school operates through attending meetings, reading school documentation, analysing data and engaging in regular visits to the school.
The role of the governing body is one of oversight and it is not involved in the day to day management of the school. The headteacher role includes the educational performance of the school and operational responsibility lies with them.
How the Governing Body Works
Different governing bodies operate in different ways, but governors will be expected to do far more than merely attend meetings. Effective governors attend the school regularly to see and understand how the school operates. They undertake governor visits for a particular purpose and produce reports for their governor colleagues. Governors will be expected to receive and understand reports from the headteacher and senior leaders so that they can question, challenge and support, thereby improving the quality of the whole educational provision.
The governing body operates a code of conduct which sets an ethos of professionalism and high expectations of governors. Once appointed as a governor, you will be provided with this as part of your induction into the school and will be expected to work within it, since a governing body operates as a corporate entity with corporate responsibility.
Skills and Experience
Governing bodies rely on a range of skills and experiences. You will need a strong commitment to the role, the inquisitiveness to question and analyse, and the willingness to learn. Good inter-personal skills, a basic level of literacy in English and sufficient numeracy skills to understand basic data are essential.
In addition to the skills outlined above governing bodies may be looking for governors with specific skills such as analysing data, financial management, human resources, school improvement, etc.
What is equally important to us is that you have a willingness to learn and undertake whatever training or development activity is needed to fill any gaps in the skills you have to contribute to effective governance.
Training and Support
The governing body is committed to developing the skills and experience of governors to promote success in the role. As a new governor you will attend induction training and a programme of further training to help you fulfil the role. The governing body of the school you are appointed to may offer additional support to new governors in the form of a mentor, tour of school, induction pack, or anything else specific to the school.
If you are interested in a particular school, contact the headteacher. Your interest will be welcomed. Alternatively, you can apply to become a governor by completing the online recruitment form. Please ensure you read the eligibility criteria to ensure you are not disqualified from serving as a governor.
Page Last Updated: 11 June 2015


Thursday, Dec. 12
4-5 p.m. ET
In this program, you’ll learn about both classroom and individualized strategies to support using writing to build language and communication skills in students with a wide range of abilities and challenges.. The speakers will discuss how basic components of a classroom writing program—such as group and personal mini-lessons, author’s chair, peer conferencing, and intervention scaffolding can be used in special education or general education classrooms. Their examples will encompass techniques for addressing multiple language levels and communication contexts.
After completing this program, you will be able to:
- Describe how to use the basic components of a classroom writing program to promote language and communication abilities for students with a wide range of disabilities
- Compare and contrast uses of writing activities to promote spoken and written language and social communication in varied intervention contexts.
Janet Sturm is a professor in the department of Communication Disorders at Central Michigan University. Dr. Sturm's research and clinical interests include developing writing instruction for students with developmental disabilities, computer-supported literacy, tying together literacy assessments and instructional strategies, and classroom communication.
Nickola Wolf Nelson
is a professor in Speech Pathology and Audiology and Director of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences PhD program at Western Michigan University. Dr. Nelson conducts research in language-literacy development and disorders. She is Editor of Topics in Language Disorders
, an ASHA Fellow, and recipient of the Kleffner Clinical Career Award and Honors of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.


Monday, December 13, 2010
Dyscalculia is a specific learning disability involving difficulty in acquiring numeracy skills. The book The dyscalculia assessment can help investigate maths difficulties in children and provides advice for implementing the findings into teaching plans. Get help pinpointing a child's difficulties with numeracy and using that information to help the child progress. This book is ideal for use with primary school children, but can easily be adapted for older or younger students and is invaluable for SENCOs, TAs, educational psychologists and teachers.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
"This valuable how-to book is a critical tool for all instructional designers and faculty who teach online. Coombs' many years as a pioneer of online teaching show in his deep knowledge of the principles that can allow the reader to apply these lessons to any learning management system (LMS)."
—Sally M. Johnstone, provost and vice president academic affairs, Winona State University, Minnesota; former executive director of WCET at WICHE
"As more and more of our social and professional lives come to be mediated by technology, online accessibility is a fundamental right, not a luxury. This book is a must-read for anyone concerned with maximizing access to learning."
—Richard N. Katz, former vice president and founding director, EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research
"This valuable book reflects Coombs' unique experience and commitment to the best teaching, learning, and accessibility options for all kinds of students and teachers."
—Steven W. Gilbert, founder and president, The TLT Group-Teaching, Learning, and Technology Group
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
On Wednesday, February 10th, About Special Kids will host a workshop for parents and professionals. This training, combining the Article 7 and IEP training, is an all day training that offers basic information about special education laws and regulations for Indiana children ages 3-21. In addition, this training provides information on how to prepare for a case conference and write an IEP. This training is a great opportunity for family members and professionals who advocate for children with a disability or serious chronic illness.
Monday, December 6, 2010
This webinar session will cover the Topic Guide 3: Eligibility for ADA Paratransit. The session will first address the categories and types of eligibility, including conditional eligibility. Important best-practice do's and don'ts will also be discussed, including basing decisions on the most limiting condition, using a comprehensive task/skill list, applying the reasonable person test, identifying specific abilities and/or limitations, basing decisions on a case-by-case analysis of each applicant, and interpreting safety issues properly. Additionally, this will address the eligibility determination process, including the 21-day process, functional assessments, the appeal process for eligibility denials, and visitors. There will be time for participant questions.
To Register visit http://www.adaconferences.org/Transportation and click on the “Registration” web link on the right side navigation list.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
12:00-1:00 p.m. (CTS)
Cost: Free for Lekotek Affiliates
$30 General Public
$200 for groups over 10 people
Monday, November 29, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Having a child of any age move away from home can be emotionally difficult, to say the least. But when that child has a disability, it can be even more so. The film, Letting go: When your child leaves home, shows four parents come to terms with the emotions involved with having a child with a disability move away from home. The parents talk about their decisions to place their child in a residential facility. This film is aimed at helping parents and professional direct-care staff understand the deep grieving the parents go through before and a long time after the placement is made.


Music Education - Articles and Research Reports
1. Dreaming or awake - Composition in the classroom
by Professor George Odam & David Walters
A major three year music education research project funded by Yamaha and led by Professor George Odam in association with the Music Research Institute, QCA and NCET sought to find evidence of good practice in Composing in the Classroom with a particular focus on the use of keyboards.
2. Swiss Investigation
Worldwide research aiming to prove the intellectual and social benefits of providing more music education has been steadily increasing. At a time when music in UK schools is taking a hammering in local authority and school budget decisions, it's the turn of Switzerland to add further weight to the debate with a superb example of the effects of giving more music lessons at the expense of other subjects.
3. Presenting The Case For Music
Whilst music is under pressure both in state and private education, contemporary science is increasingly discovering the vital educational importance of music in lifelong learning. Here Professor Paul Robertson provides an overview of current research and offers compelling arguments for an increase in music making in the classroom.


First up today: Roundtable Review
Tell the group a little about the song and why you like it.
Give a dang pitch OR sing first phrase. Take a breath!
Show tempo by swaying, patting, or snapping, etc.
Hand on your chest for you to sing alone. Point to group when they sing.
Methods for Teaching a Song by Rote:
Echo. I sing a phrase and they then sing it.
Motions first. Teach motions to song as they learn to sing it.
The Eclectic Curriculum… READ “Folk Song in Pedagogy” by Zoltán Kodály 75-77, Take notes. Relate to what you already know and think about music education. What would you like to ask Zoltán Kodály about his approach? We will discuss on Friday.
BlackBoard: You MUST complete your Policy Agreement!


Making Sense of Children's Drawings
By John Willats
Psychology Press – 2005 – 274 pages
The message of this book is a simple one: children learn to draw by acquiring increasingly complex and effective drawing rules. In this regard, learning to draw is like learning a language, and as with language children use these rules creatively, making infinite use of finite means. Learning to draw is thus, like learning a language, one of the major achievements of the human mind.
Theories of perception developed in the second half of the 20th century enable us to construct a new theory of children's drawings that can account for their many strange features. Earlier accounts contained valuable insights, but recent advances in the fields of language, vision, philosophy, and artificial intelligence now make it possible to resolve the many contradictions and confusions inherent in these early writings.
John Willats has written a book that is accessible to psychologists, artists, primary and junior schoolteachers, and parents of both gifted and normal children.
"This new, pioneering book addresses the typical questions about this complex research area, but does it in a way that feels more convincing than most other writings on the subject. It is an especially rigorous look, which takes nothing for granted and does not hesitate to doubt even the most sacred assumptions about children's drawings."
—Leonardo Digital Reviews
Contents: Preface. Introduction. Part I: Studying Children's Drawings. Contradictions and Confusions. In the Beginning. The Early Years. Where Do We Go From Here? Regions. Lines, Line Junctions, and Perspective. Part II: Mental Processes. "Seeing in" and the Mechanism of Development. The Drawing Process. Part III: Child Art. Children as Artists. Art Education. Summing Up. Appendix.


Scientists have discovered that music training has significant influences on the brain development of young children leading to improved memory over the course of a year. The fact that musical training changes the way the brain reacts to music might not be very surprising, but researchers also found that the musically trained children performed better in a memory test that is correlated with other skills such as literacy, verbal memory, visiospatial processing, mathematics and intelligence.
The team led by Dr Laurel Trainor, professor of psychology, neuroscience and behavior at McMaster University, Canada, and Director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, have measured over the course of one year the changes in brain responses to sounds in children aged between four and six.
"This is the first study to show that brain responses in young, musically trained and untrained children change differently over the course of a year," said Trainor. "These changes are likely to be related to the cognitive benefit that is seen with musical training."
Other studies have shown that older children taking music lessons show greater improvements in IQ scores than children taking drama lessons.
"Previous work has shown assignment to musical training is associated with improvements in IQ in school-aged children," said co-author Dr Takako Fujioka from Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute. "Our work explores how musical training affects the way in which the brain develops. It is clear that music is good for children's cognitive development and that music should be part of the pre-school and primary school curriculum."
When the study began, six of the children (five boys, one girl) had just started to attend a Suzuki music school while the other six children (four boys, two girls) had no music lessons outside school. Researchers choose children trained by the Suzuki method because it ensured they were all trained in the same way. Other musical schools train the children either according to their initial musical talent or to their families' wishes. Moreover, as the children were just starting their musical training, the Suzuki method provided a good model of how training in auditory, sensory and motor activities induces changes in the cortex of the brain.
The research team investigated how auditory responses in children matured over the period of a year, whether responses to meaningful sounds, such as musical tones, matured differently than responses to noises, and how musical training affected normal brain development in young children. They monitored the brain activity while the children listened to two types of sounds: a violin tone and a white noise burst.
Researchers used non-invasive brain scanning technology called magnetoencephalography (MEG) which measures the small magnetic fields outside the head. The ionic currents of individual neurons are much too small to produce measurable magnetic fields, but when the neurons fire in groups, synchronized to each other, they do produce a small measurable magnetic field. Approximately 50,000 active neurons are needed for a detectable magnetic signal (the brain has around 100 billion neurons).
The main advantage of the MEG technique is its speed: it offers the possibility of measuring the brain activity almost in real time, millisecond-by-millisecond. This allowed the scientists to observe how the brain works as the auditory information gets from ears to different parts of the brain in a series of stages.
The team monitored the children four times during the year. During the first and fourth session, the children completed a music test (in which they were asked to discriminate between same and different harmonies, rhythms and melodies) and a digit span memory test (in which they had to listen to a series of numbers, remember them and repeat them back to the experimenter).
The MEG showed that all children had larger responses to violin tones than to noises and that over the course of the year, the time needed for the response to appear had decreased - as they matured, their brains got better at processing meaningful sounds. However, the tests showed that the Suzuki children experienced a greater change.
What's interesting is that this change was not strictly restricted to musical abilities, such as harmony and rhythm processing, but also affected the memory in general. The children who studied music scored better at the general memory tests.
"That the children studying music for a year improved in musical listening skills more than children not studying music is perhaps not very surprising," Prof Trainor said. "On the other hand, it is very interesting that the children taking music lessons improved more over the year on general memory skills that are correlated with non-musical abilities such as literacy, verbal memory, visiospatial processing, mathematics and IQ than did the children not taking lessons. The finding of very rapid maturation of the N250m component to violin sounds in children taking music lessons fits with their large improvement on the memory test. It suggests that musical training is having an effect on how the brain gets wired for general cognitive functioning related to memory and attention."
The team now plans to study whether musical training benefits older adults as well.


While researching, I stumbled across this little gem, published in The Etude magazine in 1929, but still applicable today.
I admit, I had never heard of the author, even though a “well-known expert in music education,” but the essay rings true and fits well with Charlotte Mason’s writings about music. It is a call for “living, not merely existing.”
Schools seem to be in a constant state of crisis these days. Programs, labeled extraneous, are being cut, and sports, music and art are among them. More and more time must be devoted to “serious” study, so that our students can keep up with the rest of the world in mathematics and science.
…but is this the right way to go?
Not according to this author. (Or Charlotte Mason, for that matter, who was intent on exposing children to great thoughts, works of art, music, and literature, whether they were slated to become factory workers or doctors.) Come to think of it, hasn’t research shown that music and math are connected in the brain, and that learning music helps in other areas of academics? I can’t cite a study at the moment, but I know I’ve read about this in the past.
I guess I need to do more research!
This article is a good starting place for our consideration. It presents an impassioned defense of music education for all children.
Secular educators should resonate with the idea that “the birthright of the child is the means of developing developing all his faculties normally and naturally. Society owes him his opportunity for an education.” Meanwhile, those who are educating within a Biblical framework will appreciate this definition of education, as quoted by the author: “The true purpose of education is to cherish and unfold the seed of immortality already sown within us, to develop to the fullest extent the capacities of every kind with which the God who made us has endowed us.”
The author gives a rationale for music instruction and follows with some practical considerations. The child, ideally, is exposed to well-crafted music from its earliest days, learns music first by hearing, then by repetition, finally by expression, while learning to delight in sound, rhythm, and harmony. The author goes on to say,
Now that he has been given a big experience of the best of music and led to sense rhythm and its beauty, teach him that it is as readable and writeable as the language which he speaks. Lead him from the known into the unknown. Create within him the desire to read and write the lovely songs he can sing. Go one step further and help him set his own little original songs to melodies. For children live in a world of imagery and make-believe. Who knows where these dreams may lead, if rightly directed?
While I’d place much less emphasis on a knowledge of psychology than the author did, I appreciate much of what she had to say about the necessity of music (and I would go further, and add other fine arts to the equation) to the development of a well-rounded, fully functional person.
Falling notes graphic from http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/music/notes.shtml
Rainbow graphic from http://www.free-pictures-photos.com/clouds/


This from the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education newsletter (via email):
Robert Putnam's seminal 2000 book, Bowling Alone, documented the growing fragmentation of American society, and the dangers to a democracy when its residents no longer interact regularly with people who have different political, economic, and cultural perspectives. Fifteen years later, Putnam’s warnings have come home to roost, as he writes in Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis:
It’s the American dream: get a good education, work hard, buy a house, and achieve prosperity and success. This is the America we believe in—a nation of opportunity, constrained only by ability and effort. But during the last twenty-five years we have seen a disturbing “opportunity gap” emerge. Americans have always believed in equality of opportunity, the idea that all kids, regardless of their family background, should have a decent chance to improve their lot in life. Now, this central tenet of the American dream seems no longer true or at the least, much less true than it was.
A recent commentary for Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity shows that the US stands out not only for high rates of general and child poverty. We are also an outlier in how narrowly we define poverty. A “consensual” measure of poverty pioneered in Britain in 1983 and now employed across a range of nations – from wealthy Japan to Bangladesh – “measures poverty using the public’s views on what is an acceptable standard of living in contemporary society.” Based on the majority’s views of life necessities, poverty is defined as the point at which adults lack three or more necessities and children lack two or more, “a level of deprivation at which households are much more likely to experience a range of other significant disadvantages including poor health and serious financial difficulties.” The authors note that, while that standard “has support from all social groups, across classes, gender, age and, importantly, political affiliation,” the US stubbornly clings to an outdated definition laden with value judgments.
So while “the public endorses the idea that in a wealthy country such as Britain, no child should have to do without a decent minimum of essential clothing, or be prevented from going on a school trip because their parents can’t afford it,” a growing share of children in our even wealthier country grow up in exactly those deprived circumstances. Moreover, many politicians suggest that there is nothing we should do about it.
Indeed, music education, which many of us take for granted, isn’t a given among poor students, since “Music classes are usually cut first when schools reevaluate their budget.” This is especially upsetting given a new study showing that music classes enabled low-income students who would otherwise lose ground in reading to maintain their skill level. As the study protocol illustrates, children in low-income communities must rely on private organizations to fill that critical gap: “Forty-two children between the ages 6 and 9 were recruited from the wait list of the Harmony Project, an organization that offers free music education to children from low-income communities. Children were then randomly placed in a music place or not, with none of the children having previously received music education.”
Last month, the Annie E. Casey Foundation looked back on its 25 years of investments in documenting what it means to be a poor child in America. In 2003, Casey popularized the term “the high cost of being poor,” spurring a host of federal, state, and local policies to address problems from predatory lending to food deserts. Perhaps most critical, the Foundation has provided advocates and policymakers with detailed state-by-state information to advance policies that help families avoid and stay out of poverty. Indeed, Casey President and CEO Patrick McCarthy joined The Hill to “explore policy ideas aimed at expanding opportunity for low-income children and their families -- from early childhood education and children's healthcare, to expanding the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, to strengthening food assistance programs.” Check out the April 29 event summary here.
Finally, educators have weighed in on what education policy would look like if we were to take seriously the need to address these aspects of poverty and their impacts on students and schools. The Education Opportunity Network touts the California Build-and-Support model, and the Opportunity Dashboard advanced by Linda Darling-Hammond, over what it terms our current “test-and-punish” model. Targeted support for teachers is critical if school improvements are to succeed, given the difficult conditions teachers face every day in high-poverty schools, and the resulting low morale and high rates of turnover. In her recent YEP-DC Recess blog, a DCPS elementary school teacher agrees, pointing out Congress’ failure to include teachers in requests for “expert” input, and resulting wrongheaded policy choices.