ADVANCING EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING
For more than 60 years, the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History’s Museum School program has been the foundation of the Museums work in early childhood learning. Since its founding in 1949, more than 200,000 children have participated in this one-of-a-kind program, which was the first in the United States to be accredited by the National Association of the Education of Young Children.
The primary purpose of Museum School is to give very young children – ages 3 to 6 – a chance to expand their mental horizons by helping them learn from vivid first-hand experiences about the wonderful and fascinating world of science around them. The Museum School curriculum combines natural and physical sciences, history, and anthropology with art, music and literature. The unique feature of Museum School is that young students can learn from science materials and historical artifacts available in the Museum.
Beyond the classroom experience for children, Museum School also provides an important field learning experience for future schoolteachers through an ongoing relationship with Texas Christian University’s College of Education. For more than 13 years, university students studying early childhood education have participated in Museum School classrooms each semester, receiving course credit for their work.
Museum’s School’s tuition-based programs include school-year preschool classes – from September to May – and Saturday and summer sessions for pre-school through sixth grade students.
The Museum School is generously supported by:
The Arch and Stella Rowan Foundation
MUSEUM SCHOOL BACKGROUND
Preschool classes at the Museum of Science and History began in 1949 under the direction of Francis Hicks Townsend and Ann H. Webb, when the Museum was located in a house on Summit Street in Fort Worth. The program was called the “Frisky and Blossom Club” after a pet possum and a pet skunk. In the beginning classes were one hour in length and were limited to 10 children. By 1953, program enrollment had increased to 25 children each, and by 1955 had grown in size to 30 children.
Click on the links to the left for information on the different Museum School Programs available. For questions or to be added to our mailing list, call 817-255-9333.


Grades 6 through 8 (Middle School)
With sixth grade the content and quantity of subjects expand significantly to meet the needs of the preadolescent. In addition to deepening work with previously encountered material, many new subjects are introduced; all with the goal of helping the student maintain a healthy interest in the world around them. The Waldorf curriculum encourages preadolescents to direct their gaze enthusiastically and sympathetically out into the world and through this come to a deeper understanding of themselves.
The preadolescent period brings dramatic inner changes that are set in motion. Biographies of men and women who struggled with the challenges of their times provide the perspective from which history is viewed. Over the course of sixth, seventh and eighth grades, the history of European and American civilization are surveyed from ancient to modern times. In seventh grade, the students are able to see a reflection of their struggle for individual identity in Renaissance studies, from Italian artists capturing new visions to scientists and religious reformers grappling with the constriction of long held beliefs, to bold explorers venturing out into the unknown.
A new capacity for exact observation is cultivated through the physics lessons, in which students move from the mystery of phenomena to its exact measurement. Inorganic chemistry is a highlight of seventh grade as is the chemistry of foods in eighth.
The physical changes at this age lead naturally to a study of the human physiology, which is taught from the hygienic perspective of responsibility for the integrity and health of our bodies. Earth science supports the ever- expanding geographic study of Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and the planet as a whole.
Business arithmetic, algebra and geometry become formal disciplines and are studied over the course of all middle school grades. The language arts curriculum expands into the interweaving branches of literature, grammar and composition and along with mathematics, occupies both main lesson and ongoing period classes.
Sixth grade is the gateway to preadolescence and idealism. In their studies of Rome the students are grounded so that through their physical awareness they can begin to discover what “I” means for them. In the Middle Ages they begin to venture out toward the unknown to find what, in the world, they are asked to address. The stories of the Grail offer an introduction to their quest in life. In summary, this year is both an ending and a beginning.
As seventh grade students enter into puberty, they are also adventuring across a basic threshold experience on their way to selfhood. Can they enter this dark unknown territory carrying a flaming torch to allow discovery as they wander and probe? Can they spend their time productively bearing in mind others behind them also need their light? If their spirit of inquiry and creativity in a social context can be fostered in puberty, they will surely find it sweet to enter adulthood. If it isn’t fostered, they may stumble endlessly in the darkness, burdened by excess baggage of self-centeredness, criticism and chaotic emotions. To help them cross this threshold, Waldorf presents a rich curriculum designed to take them out to civilizations and people who share their mood of soul, as well as lead them to a closer look at each one’s own environment and inner being.
The task of Waldorf elementary education is to give students an understanding of humanity and the world they live in, to offer them knowledge so rich and meaningful as to engage their hearts and wills as well as their minds. Such and understanding is the basis of all real learning in later years. With the completion of the eighth grade the students should have a well-rounded, general picture of human life and the universe. This last year of elementary school should not only bring all previous experiences to a new peak, but also enable the students to enter fully and potently into the life of their own time and ready for the next phase of their journey into high school and life.


As part of the TQP curriculum reform, a series of online modules were developed. The module series was designed to teach ELEM, MIDG, SPED pre-baccalaureate pre- service candidates ten particular instructional practices found to increase student achievement. They are not the only strategies that are effective or that a prospective teacher should learn to incorporate in instruction.
The ten instructional strategies discussed in the module series constitute a starting place; over time pre-service candidates are expected to learn additional effective instructional strategies. Pre-service candidates receive instruction on those additional strategies from professors in certain courses throughout their program. It is important to note that instructional strategies are not the only means of raising student achievement. An effective teacher must have good classroom management, an effective curriculum, and appropriate professional dispositions. For now, however, the TQP curriculum reform focused primarily on effective instructional strategies.
Pre-service candidates learn about a common framework for instructional practices that highlights 10 effective evidence- based strategies for increasing student achievement. They explore the framework in introductory courses, methods courses, senior courses, and internship. Pre-service candidates have the opportunity to see it, understand it, explain it, plan it, and do it as they experience the connections with partnering school districts as their teachers incorporate the same framework. To ensure consistency of implementation in the pre-baccalaureate programs, pre-service candidates complete a series of online Instructional Strategy Lessons for Educators Series (ISLES) modules that focus on the framework at every step.
As the ISLES modules continue to be integrated into courses, iterative refinements will occur as needed. ELL will be emphasized with greater clarity. Updates will be made to the ISLES 3 templates and rubrics to reflect the revisions made in the edTPA handbooks. The ISLES Faculty Guide will be updated with additional resources provided for faculty integration of ISLES into course content. Comparative data will be analyzed linking ISLES 3 work with edTPA scores.The following materials have been developed for the reform in elementary, middle grades, and special education:
Cuthrell, K., & Fogarty, L. (2013). Rolling out edTPA: Lessons learned as theory, research, and practice intersect. Presentation.
Cuthrell, K., Stapleton, J., Bullock, A. A., Lys, D. B., Smith, J. J., and Fogarty, E. (2014). Mapping the journey of reform and assessment for an elementary education teacher preparation program. Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 8(1), 67-85. doi: 10.3776/joci.2014.v8n1p67-85.
Cuthrell, K., Steadman, S. C., Wilhite, K., Stapleton, J., and Hodge, E. (2014). Moving beyond a pilot: Expanding video grand rounds across teacher education. Presentation at AERA.
Smith, J., Stapleton, J., and Cuthrell, K. (2013). Revision teacher education with 21st century reform efforts. Presentation.


Music Education for Kids: Does Music Make Kids Smarter?
- Multicultural Education
- National Standards for Music Education for Four-year-olds
- Can Smartphones Make Kids Smarter?
- Can Video Games Make Kids Smarter?
- The Value of Music in Early Education
- Music Therapy Techniques to Try at Home
Call it the “marketing effect.” One day, researchers come out with data showing that kids who listen to Mozart perform better on tests; the next, toy companies are selling a slew of products that blast Sonata in C. Meanwhile, under pressure to trim budgets and bring up scores in math and reading, schools across the country are eliminating music classes. It’s enough to make even the most music-savvy parent feel a little tone deaf.
“It would be very easy for me to jump on the proverbial bandwagon and say, ‘music makes you smarter,’ but I think you have to read the research carefully,” says Jeffrey Bush, Music Education Professor at the Herberger College School of Music at Arizona State University. “Some studies such as the Mozart effect have been grossly over-generalized.”
The “Mozart effect,” refers to research showing that children who listened to Mozart before taking a test performed better. The catch? The effects only lasted about 20 minutes. Other research may have been skewed by socio-economic differences between kids who attend schools with music programs and kids whose schools can’t afford them.
“The key distinction if you want to see a long-term benefit to any arts activity is to learn it and acquire new skills,” says Robert Capanna, Executive Director of the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia. He uses the analogy of someone who watches a baseball game versus someone who plays in one; the child who learns to read music and play an instrument gains more than the child who simply listens to a concert. Graduates of the Music School’s Kaleidoscope Preschool go on to perform better on standardized tests than their peers and have fewer disciplinary incidents and school absences in later years, even if they discontinue their musical training.
In fact, a University of Munster, Germany study published in 1998 showed that active music lessons taken in childhood enlarge the brain, as musicians seem able to access more neurons for processing sound. The earlier participants had started taking lessons, the more pronounced the effects. An ongoing study by James Catterall, Ph.D., linked participation in musical activities like band, choir, and drama with academic success across socio-economic groups. And a paper called “Music Makes You Smarter” by Frances Rauscher at the University of Wisconsin reported that when similar-scoring three- year-olds were separated into groups, taught to use a piano keyboard or other skills, and subsequently retested, the group given formal music lessons scored better on spatial-temporal reasoning than the kids who took other lessons.
“Music is essential to life and yes, learning,” says children’s musician Jeanie B! “Does it make us smarter? Well, it enriches our lives and teaches us language and math without ever opening a textbook. Our very heart keeps time to our life.”
So, while you probably shouldn’t panic if your child listens to more sports than sonatas, there’s no downside to encouraging him to broaden his horizons. “People shouldn’t be intimidated,” says Capanna. Whether you’re a tin-eared piano dropout or a virtuoso, the key is to nurture your child’s appreciation and enjoyment of music. They may not be the next child prodigy, but they’ll carry the music with them wherever they go.


When questioned about assessment in the art room I often answer "we never stop learning. This much learning can only be assessed through continuous observation. Why don't you come by for a visit?" Like most art teachers, I display student work in the school hallways yet, the final art product is ONLY one component to art education. So many concepts are integrated into each and every learning activity, it may be hard to know where to begin with formative assessment - and honestly, I am looking for fun and creative forms of assessment! Aren't we all?
VoiceThread is an online application in which users upload visual media and collaborate with others using audio, text and video commentary. YES - Fun and interactive assessment!!! VoiceThreads are just plain cool.
VoiceThread provides a tool to facilitate student conversations using interactive Web 2.0 technology. Students can engage in dialogue about images and publish the collective work of a classroom. Students can also upload their work and leave an audio or written reflection of their processes and learning. Additionally, classrooms have the capability to create stories by adding narrative to images. Students may work alone, with the class or across the country, leaving and receiving comments for other K-12 students and teachers. VoiceThreads are also available for parental viewing. Furthermore, VoiceThread offers a secure network for K-12 educators to create, store and share collective works.
Assessment in the ART ROOM
Recently, my kindergarten and first grade students spent time learning about Faith Ringgold - her art, her life, her books. Inspired by Ringgold's story quilts and the book, Tar Beach, we created our own story quilts from paper, paint, crayons, markers & glue. We took imaginary flying trips over our own community of Atoka, TN. We wrote journal entries about what it would look and feel like to fly. We explored pattern and shape. We worked individually to create self portraits (using shape) and quilt squares incorporating pattern; we worked with partners to draw our local landscape and buildings; and we worked as a class to assemble the project into one large paper quilt. As you will see, the end product is not only beautiful; it is inspiring to hear the children talk about their learning.
I have just begun recording student responses but you will get the idea... have fun viewing and listening to the VoiceThread. Don't forget to check back once we return from spring break to hear from more of my students!
Click here for more information about VoiceThread and Engaging with Content and Building Visual Literacy.


Musical and Textual Content in Childrens Vocalizations
In this lecture-demonstration, a comparison of childrens informal and formal singing culture will be explored. While there is extensive research regarding teaching children to sing, and the developing childs voice as it relates to school and ensemble music, the field of childrens informal singing has been slowly developing.
A comprehensive review of the relevant scholarship from within the disciplines of music education, music pedagogy, ethnomusicology, communications, folklore (as well as anthropology, sociology, and psychology) in the field of childrens informal singing behaviors with attention to the nature of their songs, singing engagements, and the process of song acquisition and transmission will be discussed. Particular focus will be given to cross-cultural examination of childrens interactions with singing as it presents in several different countries.
- There are currently no refbacks.


- Submitted by: busybee67
- Views: 2096
- Category: Other
- Date Submitted: 10/21/2011 09:09 AM
- Pages: 2
Tda 311 1.1
Summarise the relevant policy and age-related expectations of learners relevant to literacy development in the setting
I work within a primary school in Year 2, which is Key Stage 1 of the National Curriculum.
During Key Stage 1, children learn how to express their ideas and experiences clearly and creatively using spoken and written forms of language. Children listen to and read stories, poems and rhymes from all over the world as well as using books to discover new information.
During Key Stage 2, children learn to listen to and discuss the ideas of others in addition to presenting their own ideas. Children read for pleasure and to discover new information as well as being able to discuss their opinions about what they have read. Children should now be able to put their thoughts into writing more easily due to increased understanding of language structure, spelling and punctuation.
During Key Stage 3, children should continue to extend the effective use of the four key English skills by speaking clearly, listening closely, reading carefully and writing fluently. These skills will help pupils to express themselves creatively and increase their confidence. Children should read classic and contemporary prose and poetry from around the world, examining how writers use language and considering the social/moral issues raised.
During Key Stage 4, pupils will learn to use language confidently, both in their academic studies and for the world beyond school. Pupils use and analyse complex features of language; they are keen readers who can read many kinds of text and make articulate and perceptive comments about them.
Literacy means the ability to read and write. The term ‘literacy’ has only recently been applied as the definitive term for reading and writing, especially since the introduction of The National Literacy Strategy in schools. In October 2006, the Primary Framework for Literacy replaced The National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching....


Students in Lisa Coughanowr’s kindergarten class at East Side Elementary in Brazil, Indiana, are already learning to write sentences.
They’re supposed to draw a picture of a classmate, and then list something they like about that person. But several students are struggling with the illustration portion of the assignment.
“The ones that aren’t quite ready, they draw arms coming out of heads,” says Coughanowr. “It’s so developmental. They just can’t get the concept that your arms come out of your body, not your head.”
This is the second year kindergarten teachers in Indiana have taught to the Common Core, a set of nationally-crafted academic standards adopted by 46 states and the District of Columbia. Under the new standards, kids are supposed to be able to compose basic, explanatory texts by the time they leave kindergarten.
Coughanowr says that in her experience, students eventually catch on. But some early education experts argue 5- and 6-year-olds are too young to master those skills.“It appears that early childhood teachers and child development experts were excluded from the K-3 standards-writing process,” write educators Edward Miller and Nancy Carlsson-Paige. From The Answer Sheet:
1. The K-3 standards will lead to long hours of direct instruction in literacy and math. This kind of “drill and grill” teaching has already pushed active, play-based learning out of many kindergartens.
2. The standards will intensify the push for more standardized testing, which is highly unreliable for children under age eight.
3. Didactic instruction and testing will crowd out other crucial areas of young children’s learning: active, hands-on exploration, and developing social, emotional, problem-solving, and self-regulation skills — all of which are difficult to standardize or measure but are the essential building blocks for academic and social accomplishment and responsible citizenship.
4. There is little evidence that standards for young children lead to later success. The research is inconclusive; many countries with top-performing high-school students provide rich play-based, nonacademic experiences — not standardized instruction — until age six or seven.
Miller and Carlsson-Paige’s critique of the Common Core, along with a New York Post piece about kindergarteners cracking under pressure, ignited a debate this week about how the new standards are shaping early education.
Audrey Fetters, a kindergarten teacher at Flint Springs Elementary in Huntington, told StateImpact she thinks kids need play and creativity if they’re going to master foundational skills. She says there’s no room in the 90-minute literacy block that’s part of the Common Core for arts and crafts.
“When else in my day am I going to do that?” Fetters says. “I hardly get the paint out anymore. I still sing all the time, but I think one of the things that really suffered was that creativity and spontaneity.”
Why Others Argue The Common Core Will Boost Reading Skills
But not all kindergarten teachers feel the same way.
“Always before we thought they couldn’t handle it. But surprisingly, they can,” says Coughanowr, adding that she had similar concerns when Indiana began transitioning to full-day kindergarten a few years ago. She thinks her students have largely risen to the new standards’ challenge.
Ed Hirsch, a former education professor and proponent of the Common Core, offered this response to challenges that the new standards are a “threat” to young students:
The reading scores of 17-year-olds on the National Assessment of Educational Progress constitute the single most accurate indicator of the effectiveness of our schooling, and as we look at the low reading scores of 17-year-olds over the past few decades of reform, we see no real movement.
Of course, much more goes into reading at age 17 than early childhood education, and there has been some recent improvement among 9-year-olds in reading, especially among our lowest-performing students. Why hasn’t this improvement carried into later grades? As I have argued many, many, many times, the fundamental problem is that American schools, including preschools, typically delay systematic efforts to build students’ vocabulary and knowledge until far too late (usually the end of elementary school or even later).
Building word and world knowledge must begin in preschool if we are to have any hope of closing the enormous language gaps identified by Betty Hart and Todd Risley, or of enabling children to listen and read with comprehension.


Inspiration Laboratories and I are very excited to bring you our latest bi-monthly challenge, and this month it’s all about WEATHER SCIENCE. We’re sharing some of our favourite ideas and would love you to either give them a go or share your own activities and experiments.
You could make a simple barometer and learn about Air Pressure.
How about making a simple rain gauge? Don’t forget to record the results and empty it every day.
If you want to get crafty how about making a pinwheel like this one from Red Ted Art? Does it spin faster on more windy days? Could you make a kite as well?
Learn about flooding in this great guest post from Domestic Goddesque.
Inspiration Laboratories makes a great hurricane.
Learn about the water cycle with this fun mini water cycle.
Find out how water evaporates in this easy activity.
Or, how about making a pinecone weather station.
Don’t forget to check out the ideas over at Inspiration Laboratories too. We’re making a slight change to Challenge and Discover this month, instead of asking you to add your post to the linky, we’d love you to share your post on:
- Science Sparks facebook page
- Inspiration Laboratories facebook page
- Science for Kids G+ page – tagging Science Sparks and Inspiration Laboratories
We can’t wait to see your ideas, and do share old and new posts.
By sharing, you are giving us permission to grab one picture and feature your projects on our blogs and social media sites. We’d love for you to grab a button and add it to your post.


Brightwell, Giles William Edward (2007) 'One equal music’: The royal college of music, its inception and the legacy of Sir George Grove 1883-1895. Doctoral thesis, Durham University.
|Full text not available from this repository.|
Author-imposed embargo until 30 August 2018.
The establishment of the Royal College of Music (RCM) in 1883 represents the denouement of an eighteenth-century movement to found a conservatoire with a national remit in Britain. Whether motivated by the desire to rival Continental conservatoires to generate and develop an environment in which a worthy successor to Purcell could be nurtured or to create an indigenous musical workforce to obtain direct control of market forces, the RCM was seen as a panacea in the light of the demise of the experimental National Training School for Music (1876-1882) and the ineffectual Royal Academy of Music founded in 1822. The NTSM's financial concerns led Sir Henry Cole to approach the Royal Commission of 1851 for aid. In return for a meagre grant, the Commission insisted the NTSM remodel its management and constitution on pain of eviction from buildings on the Kensington Estate. Cole's approach to 1851 Commissionets precipitated the involvement of the Prince of Wales and other senior members of the Court that led directly to the establishment of the RCM in 1878.Attempts to institute the RCM as a quango to regulate the music profession alongside music education both at elementary school and university level were intended to provide ideal circumstances for inducing comprehensive treasury assistance where the NTSM failed. When this proved elusive, a contingency was provided by George Grove (first RCM Director from 1882) who, at the request of the Prince of Wales, imtiated a capital fund. The introduction of fee-paying students alongside scholars provided financial security that distanced the College & insolvency. Substantial growth in numbers during the first few years forced Grove and the Council to address the issue of a new building. Grove's appointment of an unrivalled professorial staff and the development of a rigorous curriculum, whose inspiration was to be found within the Continental traditions in France and Germany, had paid dividends. By 1894, the results of RCM's pedagogical methods were respected across Europe. The appointment of Grove's neighbour, Alexander Mackenzie, as Principal of the RAM heralded an environment for mutual co-operation between two rival institutions. The institution of local examinations under the Associated Board of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music from 1889 marked the conclusion of further attempts to amalgamate the two institutions. The foundation of both the Associated Board was intended to provide a remedy to the shortage of suitably-qualified candidates entering for scholarships and to improve music tuition among school children as set out in the RCM's 1883 charter. The coalition created formidable opposition to Halle's proposal to establish a chartered Royal College of Music in Manchester (RMCM) in 1893 and Parliament's attempts to include music within the provision of the bill for the regulation and registration of teachers. The foundation of the Associated Board allowed Grove to begin implementing the RCM's remit to lead the music profession on both a national and imperial scale. The RCM's national and European reputation established by Grove was consolidated under the directorate of his successor, c. Hubert H. Parry, who confirmed the RCM's global reputation to which other, fledgling institutions, such as New York's Juilliard School of Music, came to aspke. Grove's initiatives, which began the process of emancipating composer and performer alike, went on to transform Britain's international musical reputation within a generation, the ramifications of which continue to affect us more than a century later.
|Item Type:||Thesis (Doctoral)|
|Award:||Doctor of Philosophy|
|Copyright:||Copyright of this thesis is held by the author|
|Deposited On:||09 Sep 2011 09:50|


Did you know that a baby’s rattle is helping that baby develop early literacy skills? I’m sure many of you do know this. If this sounds amazing to you, though, here is why. We are all aware of the pincer grasp in babies, that first grasp of your finger that happens when you place your finger in their hands. Well, holding a rattle helps to further develop those fine muscles used in the grasp, and those fine muscles aid in a toddler holding a crayon. Soon they also learn to control those muscles and hold the crayon or pencil “properly”. The scribbles once created on the page, which by the way are a child’s first attempt at writing words, eventually become actual letters.
Exposing your child to activities that help develop these fine motor skills are, therefore, extremely important in their literacy development. My daughter loves to pick up rocks and carry them from one place in the yard to another. I am often amazed at her tiny little fingers grabbing these pebbles (really). And stickers! What child doesn’t love a sticker! Instead of peeling the sticker off the sheet for them, allow them to try and if needed, only peel a corner and let them peel it the rest of the way.
Some other fun activities might include:
Drawing/Coloring/Writing/Painting: the more they practice, the better control they’ll gain!
Play-doh: great for all the muscles in their hands and a wonderful textural experience!
Sorting: buttons, M&M’s (also a great math activity!), beads, raw pasta
Jewelry making: using raw pasta or cereal (especially if you’re afraid your little one will try and eat the raw pasta!) and string, have them thread the food through the string and make a necklace or bracelet.
Crank Toys: from a jack-in-the-box to gears to fishing poles, anything that helps them use those muscles and build control.
For more ideas, check out some great books on why it is important and books with ideas on activities to do with them.


Schoolhouse Phonics is designed for students who learn best with lots of practice-it couples intensive, sytematic phonics with spiraling, continuous review. Features: Provides extra practice, application, and extension of vital decoding skills; Provides plenty of consonant-vowel-consonant blending practive; Gives many opportunities to practice phonics skills in sentence context; Incorporates many review and test pages to maintain and assess student skills; Integrates phonics skills into language arts activities in the Teacher's Edition. The annotated Teacher's Edition for each level includes a variety of games and activities to introduce, enrich, or extend phonics instruction. These games and activities can precede or follow work in the student book. Step-by-step instructions are offered for each individual and group activity. Many activities are presented to give you the flexibility to pick and choose from them according to your interest, experience, and the abilities of your students. You are the best judge of the phonics reinforcement your students need. Contents: The Alphabet; Consonants; Short Vowels; Long Vowels; Consonant Blends; Consonant Digraphs; Vowels with R; Diphthongs and Vowel Combinations; Consonant-Vowel Patterns and Syllables; Inflectional Endings, Suffixes, and Syllables; Prefixes and Syllables; Contractions; Synonyms, Antonyms, and Homonyms Includes reduced student workbook pages with answers in red. Tests are at the back of the book. This is a complete phonics curriculum. Pages are not reproducible.
Have a question about this product? Ask us here.


The School and Society (Google eBook)
First published in 1899,The School and Society describes John Dewey’s experiences with his own famous Laboratory School, started in 1896.
Dewey’s experiments at the Laboratory School reflected his original social and educational philosophy based on American experience and concepts of democracy, not on European education models then in vogue. This forerunner of the major works shows Dewey’s pervasive concern with the need for a rich, dynamic, and viable society.
In his introduction to this volume, Joe R. Burnett states Dewey’s theme. Industrialization, urbanization, science, and technology have created a revolution the schools cannot ignore. Dewey carries this theme through eight chapters: The School and Social Progress; The School and the Life of the Child; Waste in Education; Three Years of the University Elementary School; The Psychology of Elementary Education; Froebel’s Educational Principles; The Psychology of Occupations; and the Development of Attention.
What people are saying - Write a review


Norman Percevel Rockwell, one of the most popular American artists and illustrators of the mid-Twentieth Century, was born in New York City on 3 February 1894. Following an art education there, he achieved considerable success in the years prior to United States' entry in World War I. During that conflict, Rockwell served in the U.S. Navy, producing artwork in support of the war effort. In the post-war decades he was associated with the Saturday Evening Post and contributed more than three hundred cover illustrations to that magazine. During the Second World War Rockwell's Four Freedoms paintings further elevated the already great public enthusiasm for his work, and in the 1960s he made a number of illustrations that helped increase support for the Civil Rights movement. The artist left New York state in 1939, moving to Arlington, Vermont, and in 1953 he relocated to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which later became the site of a museum dedicated to his work. Norman Rockwell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. He died at Stockbridge on 8 November 1978.
This page provides links to photographs of artworks by Norman Rockwell.
|If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."|
|If you want higher resolution reproductions than the Online Library's digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."|
Page made 10 December 2006


Classical MPR in the Classroom is a standards-based video series to assist elementary music teachers in the classroom. The videos and curriculum are available for free on the Classical MPR YouTube channel as well as here on classicalmpr.org.
How does one teach composition — something that came so naturally to young talents such Mozart and Beethoven — to a large class of elementary students?
In the Composition video, Anoka teacher Chris Martino works with a fifth-grade class to demonstrate different strategies for creating a musical composition.
Mr. Martino applies a lexicon to patterns that we hear in music all the time, showing how these patterns can be broken down and combined in order to compose a piece of music.
Each of these note patterns are defined as strategies, and throughout the lesson the students work to identify them through what Mr. Martino calls "modalities" — different ways of experiencing music.
Students discover strategies through listening, singing, improvising and more, eventually using these patterns to create their own compositions.
This video addresses benchmarks in Music Education Standards that cover composition, improvisation, knowledge of the elements of music, singing, playing instruments, reading, and notating music.
Classical MPR thanks The Sunup Foundation for generous support of this music education initiative.


Learning music in early childhood may not make kids smarter - but it could help our aging brains, according to a recent article in National Geographic.
The piece examines research from a December 2013 study of preschoolers that found music instruction did not produce cognitive benefits for the young students used in the trials. The study was published in PLUS ONE, a peer-reviewed online journal.
The National Geographic story, written by Diane Cole, goes on to detail other studies that find learning music can have a "lasting impact on the brain."
A growing number of studies show that music lessons in childhood can do something perhaps more valuable for the brain than childhood gains: provide benefits for the long run, as we age, in the form of an added defense against memory loss, cognitive decline, and diminished ability to distinguish consonants and spoken words.
There's no age-limit for getting the benefits. Music education professor Jennifer Bugos studied the impact of piano lessons on adults between 60 and 85 years old, according to the article. Bugos found that after six months, those in the study showed marked improvements in areas like memory, verbal fluency and planning ability.
The hours spent practicing and learning the motor control techniques required to play an instrument, as well as music reading and listening skills, writes Cole, all contribute "to a brain boost that shows up late in life."


Common Core State Standards
- Foundational Skills
- Informational Text
- Text Complexity
- Close Reading
- Text-dependent Questions
- Academic Vocabulary
What Is Writing?
The common core standards focus on three writing categories:
Writing assignments are not what they used to be. Not so long ago, many teachers had students concentrate on fictional or personal narrative writing. Very little attention was paid to how they interpreted and wrote informational text.
However, key shifts in writing objectives have been made by CCSS. Students must now be able to confidently write about a text. They must be able to compose more extensive pieces where they have a chance to write it, read it, review it and revise it. Wherever possible, technology needs to be a part of the instruction as well — whether it is for the writing itself or to access multiple sources of information.
Why Is Writing Important?
Writing about texts will also bolster overall comprehension and meaning behind the text through building knowledge about a topic or reflection. This includes written responses to text-dependent questions.
For example, in grade 4 of the common core writing standards (W.4.1), students should be able to write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information. In short, it says that students must be able to do the following:
- Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer’s purpose
- Provide reasons supported by facts and details
- Link opinion and reasons using words and phrases
- Provide a concluding statement or section related to the opinion presented
How Do Learning A-Z's Resources Support The Teaching Of Writing?
Writing A–Z offers writing lessons for multiple genres and text types. Each lesson comes with associated student resource templates with a set tailored for students at four different levels of writing proficiency to help teachers differentiate their instruction. The website provides hundreds of additional tools for teaching writing.
The core process writing lessons on Writing A–Z begin with the series of emerging writer lessons. They combine drawing and writing to narrate or inform a reader on a topic. From there, text type lessons for each grade are offered. They give students experience at writing about a complete range of content, such as informational research reports, fictional and personal narratives, and opinion pieces.
The Informational Report lesson on Writing A–Z provides step-by-step instruction on creating a report that presents focused ideas, facts, and/or principles on a topic, including:
- How to narrow a topic for research
- How to develop focused questions for research
- Identifying information from sample source material that answers focused research questions
- How to create a bibliography at each of the developmental levels
Writing A–Z also offers comprehensive lessons for writing a biography. Students will also have the opportunity to write an experiment composition based on a research question, background research, and results of a process activity using the scientific method.
Start Free Trial
Reading A-Z books offer excellent models of how to organize ideas in order or to explain or persuade with one's writing.
Leveled Books from various genres or text types provide models of writing explanatory/informational, narrative, or opinion/argument texts.
- To Drill or Not to Drill? is an example of pro/con writing.
- How to Make Ice Cream is an example of a how-to book.
Wordless Books for titles from levels aa-J provide writing practice for even the youngest readers.
All Leveled Book quizzes for books level C and above feature at least one extended response question. Students must write an answer to the open-ended question using sound reasoning.
Writer's Responses for select titles from levels E-Z encourage students to reflect on the deeper meaning of each book read. Prompts support writing that applies, synthesizes, or evaluates a book's enduring understanding.
Poetry Writing Lessons include direct instruction for 11 types of poetry. Each lesson includes instruction details, and examples of each poetry type with scaffolded writing worksheets for the student.Start Free Trial
Throughout the dozens of resources in each Science A-Z unit, students are prompted to write in response to reading about science concepts. And, just like real scientists and engineers do, students also practice writing as they conduct hands-on science investigations and experiments.
As students participate in hands-on Process Activities, they record the results in data tables, and then write answers to questions that guide them to analyze their data and draw conclusions.
By using the Debates from Science A-Z, students will consider a proposal and then write their own position statements supporting or opposing the proposal.Begin Free Trial
Visit Our Product SitesOrder Now
Connect + Share
Sign up to receive our eNews, updates, and offers. You may unsubscribe at any time.


I wrote this for some friends of mine who wanted a list of my music teaching. I thought I would share it in hopes that someone else could use it.
Practical Piano Pedagogy. This is one of the most helpful practical resources about the paperwork and organisation of teaching music that I’ve come across. It includes forms and brochures as well as tips on lesson planning and invoicing students.
Music Mind Games is one that I don’t use things from directly but really helps give creativity in teaching a boost. This is helpful for both class and lesson settings. When I can’t come up with a new way to work on something, I look it up in here.
The Big Book of Music Games, Grades K – 5. This one includes lots of flashcards you can copy as well as game boards. This is a time saver, and keeping the music bingo game on hand for unplanned extra teaching time can be a life saver!
Meet the Orchestra is a great music coloring book by Dover. I use it for an activity during listening with younger children.
Meet the Orchestra is a great introduction to all the musical instruments. I use it a page at a time for a two minute spotlight for general music education.
The Magic Flute: An Opera by Mozartis a glorious picture book of the opera. I read/show the pages while playing various pieces in the background.
Specific to Violin teaching (I have a huge list… so let me know if you want more):
I Know A Fox With Dirty Sox Violin Book. This makes pre-twinkle and initial set up much more interesting. It’s also a fantastic sight reading exercise for younger students… easy rhythms with duet parts so you can have them read a line by themselves, and then make them learn chamber playing by playing with them.
Group Lessons for Suzuki: Violin and Viola
has been invaluable for my group lessons. Every time I’m not sure which step to take next this is a good one.
Fun Improvisation for…Violin, Viola, Cello, Piano is one that I have not incorporated yet, but from skimming it I think I’ll be using it a lot.
If you only buy one of these, I would buy Practical Piano Pedagogy. It’s well worth the price. It is so helpful with setting up and getting started and having a place to start from for each situation that comes up


Curriculum & Instruction
On June 2, 2010, the NC State Board of Education adopted the Common Core State Standards which will be implemented during the 2012-2013 school year. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represent K-12 learning expectations in English-Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics. The Standards reflect the knowledge and skills students need to be college and career ready by the end of high school.
North Carolina has also adopted Essential Standards in other content areas.
Orange County Schools are helping teachers transition to the new Common Core State Standards and NC Essential Standards.
Recently, OCS was asked to share our Common Core plans and ideas with other school systems at the NC Common Core State Standards Summit. Click HERE to see a letter of thanks we received from ASCD.
To learn more about the district's implementation plan, we encourage you to the visit the links in the menu on the right.
"To understand why the phrase “Common Core standards” is creeping into discussions outside the education community, it helps to appreciate what the Common Core effort could mean to your child..."
Click HERE to read the Wake Education Partnership Special Edition "IN CONTEXT" newsletter for a better understanding of Common Core Standards.
For more information on Common Core Standards in Orange County Schools, contact:
Dr. Lisa Napp, Director of Elementary Education
TBD , Director of Secondary Education


The British educational policy continued on the basis of recommendations of Macaulay till changes were made under Dalhousie. Here again Dalhousie stands at partnership with Bentinck. When Dalhousie came to India in 1848, the condition of education was little different from one existed when Bentinck arrived. The British Empire had grown to full shape. Many Indians had joined the Government services at lower grades.
Dalhousie realized that the Government had neglected the education for the masses. Vernacular education had declined and village schools (pathasalas) were not in a position to take up the responsibility of educating the mass. The teachers (abadhans) were too traditional and there were no school-houses and no printed books.
The teachers were not paid regularly. The subjects taught in those schools were old and outdated. Thus, Dalhousie thought a scheme to make arrangement for the mass education of the primary education in vernacular languages.
By that time Sir Charles Wood was the President of the Board of Control of the Company. Sir Wood prepared a scheme on education policy for India and through it recommended details to be worked out. The scheme was sent to India and was known as "Wood's Despatch" of 1854. Dalhousie implemented the scheme in the same year.
Wood's Despatch was a complete scheme with certain innovative aspects. It repudiated the "downward filtration theory" that provided education for upper classes.
In stead Wood's Despatch emphasized on the education of the masses and announced the duty and responsibility of the Government to provide education for the people of India.
Thus, the British attitude towards education as the medium for cheap supply of clerks changed and elementary education in vernacular languages was considered as a welfare scheme under the Government. Accordingly, schools were to be established by the Government and primary schools built by private efforts were to receive Government grants.
Schools receiving Government grants were to follow the rules and regulations of the Government and were to be inspected by the authorities of the concerned department.
Education Department of each province of the British Empire was put under the Director of Public Instruction (DPI). The DPI exercised overall supervisory power overall educational institutions of a province starting from primary schools to colleges.
The DPI took care of the maintenance of the standard of education. Under the DPI, school Inspector worked to control and administer of the education system. The Despatch also encouraged Indian education in Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian languages and texts of English languages were translated into Indian languages.
Government laid emphasis to make the education secular and religious teaching in schools was discouraged. Training schools were opened to train the teachers in modern knowledge and teaching methods. The Despatch also laid stress on technical and women education and made provisions for award of scholarship for proficiency in studies to encourage meritorious students.
However, there was gap between the theory and practice. Though the "downward filtration theory" was repudiated, it continued in practice and English medium of education was preferred.
The Government did little to execute the recommendations. Knowledge in English was essential for appointment in Government services and English medium schools gained popularity. Emphasis on English medium also prevented the spread of education to the masses. It was not possible to open English Medium schools in rural areas.
That created wide gap between educated persons and the masses and higher education, being costly, it remained confined to rich classes and urban areas. Though female education drew attention through the Despatch, little was done for the purpose.
The Government partly, was unwilling to hurt the orthodox Indians and partly considered female education not useful as women would not join offices. The major constraint was the unwillingness of the Government to spend for education of the people.
In spite of certain limitations, Dalhousie brought significant changes in the condition of education in India by implementing Lord's Despatch. Immediate effect was the establishment three universities in India on the pattern of University of London.
In 1857, the Universities of Calcutta (Kolkata) Bombay (Mumbai) and Madras (Chennai) were established. By 1857 three Medical Colleges were functioning in the country one each at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras.
There was only one Engineering College at Roorkee for technical education. No doubt, the education policy of the Company Government in India helped in propagating the modern ideas in India and led the country towards modernization.


Introducing your child to music education at a young age offers an incredible array of developmental benefits. more
Common fears in school children
As your child gets older, you'll find that she will grow out of many of the fears that marked her toddler years - to be replaced by a more sophisticated brand of fear. Most will be rooted in the real world - death, getting lost, divorce of her parents, burglary, house fire - but some will remain in the imaginary world - ghosts, monsters that come out in the dark.
How can I help my child overcome her fears?
- Listen to her and make sure that she knows that you are taking her fears seriously.
- Don't lie to her. If she asks you tricky questions about war, death, or divorce, give her a truthful answer - you don't need to give her more information than she needs so don't elaborate if she's satisfied with a simple answer.
- Don't indulge her fantasies by fighting with the monsters in her room - by doing this, you're actually telling her that you too believe that there are monsters in her bedroom.
- With gentle guidance, encourage her to slowly face her fear - when she does eventually overcome her fear, she will feel as though she has achieved a great deal.
- If locking the bedroom window, sleeping with a night-light, or crossing the road to avoid a dog allows her to deal with her fear, then let her make these choices.
Many children are frightened of things that we, as adults, struggle to understand. Whatever the fear - no matter how irrational - it is very real to your child so never make fun of her and don't force her to confront it if she's not ready to.
Read more about behaviour:
- Stop sibling rivalry
- Lying and how to stop it
- What to do when kids swear
- Fighting in the car
- Why kids swear
- Dealing with kids swearing
- Discipline dos and don'ts
- Practical parenting advice from Betsy Brown Braun
- Parents who yell
- Yelling at the kids
- Stopping siblings fighting
- Tantrums in primary school children
- Common fears in school children
- When your child starts school
- Is your child ready to start school
- Beat first day of school anxiety
- Making friends at school
- School and separation anxiety
- How to communicate with school when there is a problem
- Your child's school teacher
- 7 ways to prepare for parent-teacher interviews
- How to know when your child is too sick for school
- Is your difficult child gifted and talented?
- Inattention and the gifted child
- When your child is struggling at school


I remember volunteering in a first grade classroom and working once with a young boy who was having trouble with some of the phonetic building blocks of reading. Was this the most effective use of my time as a volunteer? Probably not, according to two memos from Harvard’s Lead for Literacy series that present ways to harness the interest and energy of volunteers to promote children’s development as readers. As one memo states, “Volunteers are a potentially powerful resource for supporting children’s literacy development, but in too many cases, they are underutilized and/or mismanaged.”
My experience illustrates a common pitfall cited in “Designing a Volunteer Program Focused on Literacy.” The pitfall? “Having minimally trained volunteers work with the children who have the greatest needs.” The recommendation? “Children who require individualized support need highly-skilled adults who work with them regularly.”
How, then, to design a volunteer program focused on literacy? The memo recommends using volunteers in ways that match their skills and interests. It also recommends assigning volunteers to tasks that free teachers or other trained professionals to work with struggling readers. For instance, volunteers might:
Organize or prepare lesson materials, log books taken/returned from a lending library [or] construct bulletin boards to celebrate literacy progress.
Supervise children at learning centers while trained staff work with struggling readers [or] read aloud to children as the teacher conducts assessments or provides small-group instruction.
A second memo – “Implementing a Volunteer Program Focused on Literacy” — advises casting a wide net for volunteers from all segments of the school community, planning in advance how to utilize volunteers and monitoring how volunteers impact child outcomes.
“When used wisely, volunteers can make an impact on children’s literacy skills,” the memo notes. “However, many educational settings lack attention to recruiting, managing and monitoring volunteers in a way that would create sustained and effective volunteer programs.”
The Lead for Literacy memos are an initiative of the Language Diversity and Literacy Development Research Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The research group is headed by Professor Nonie Lesaux, author of “Turning the Page: Refocusing Massachusetts for Reading Success,” which we commissioned in 2010 and which informs the memos.


If you want to become an elementary teacher, there are three major components to the courses that you must take:
- You will complete the Liberal Arts Major in Elementary Education.
- You have a choice of completing either a second major or two minors.
- You will complete your studies with a series of professional education courses, concluding with student teaching.
Choose one of the following elementary education comprehensive majors:
- Early Childhood Education (Pre-K)*
- Integrated Elementary Science
- Language Arts Group
- Mathematics for Elementary Teaching
- Social Studies Group
Or choose Elementary Education program with two minors and select two of the following minors:
- Teaching English as a Second Language Minor (TESOL)
- French Language
- German Language
- Spanish Language
|*||Requires a second semester of student teaching.|


Introducing your child to music education at a young age offers an incredible array of developmental benefits. more
Carotenemia: When kids turn orange
When we think of kid-friendly vegetables, the two vegetables that tend to top the list are carrots and pumpkin. Both sweet vegetables that are soft and easily pureed when cooked, they are usually some of the first veggies offered to babies when they begin eating solid foods.
And happily, most children continue to eat them long after they are refusing every other type of vegetable (especially the green ones!). So when there are only a small handful of vegetables that your child is willing to eat, it’s no surprise that they will eat a diet high in them - which is no problem except that the carrot and pumpkin combo can lead to your child developing carotenemia - a result of their beta-carotene rich diet.
What is carotenemia?
Carotenemia is a condition caused by eating too many foods that contain beta-carotene, with the result that the skin becomes yellow or orange. While it is a mostly harmless condition, it is important to confirm that it is carotenemia that is causing skin colour changes and not a more serious condition such as jaundice that needs aggressive medical attention.
Carotenemia can occur in adults but it is more commonly seen in children, particularly babies and toddlers, because their diet is usually limited so that more beta-carotene rich foods are eaten.
Which foods contain beta-carotene?
Fruits and vegetables that are high in beta-carotene are usually those that are yellow/orange or have dark green leafy vegetables. These include:
Egg yolks are also rich in beta-carotene but it is rare that enough egg yolk is consumed to cause carotenemia.
Breastfeeding babies can also develop the condition if their mother is eating a lot of beta-carotene rich foods.
How much beta-carotene should we eat?
Beta-carotene is known as a ‘provitamin’, which means that it is converted into a vitamin – in this case, vitamin A – by our bodies. As such, there is no recommended daily intake of beta-carotene. Vitamin A is important for maintaining healthy vision, resisting infection and the growth and development of cells of the mucous linings of the mouth, throat, stomach, intestines, lungs, uterus, vagina, bladder and other body organs.
Health authorities suggest that the recommended balanced diet that includes at least 2 serves of fruits and 5 serves of vegetables a day for adults should supply enough beta-carotene to meet our body’s needs.
Recommended daily intakes of fruit and vegetables vary for children depending on age so find out the correct intake for your child according to the food pyramid .
Treatment of carotenemia
No specific treatment of carotenemia is necessary. By simply encouraging your child to eat a wider variety of foods, the level of beta-carotene in the body will reduce and the skin discolouration will gradually fade.
Related healthy living articles
- Read more about the healthy food pyramid
- 5 healthy ways with carrots
- How to sneak in vegetables for a healthy diet
- 6 ways to eat your greens
- Nutritional deficiencies in a vegetarian diet
This article was written by Ella Walsh for Kidspot, Australia’s best family health resource.
Last revised: Wednesday, 24 November 2010
This article contains general information only and is not intended to replace advice from a qualified health professional.
- Outsmarting the super nit
- 7 ways to stay active with your kids this summer
- 7 ways to keep your kids cool this summer
- Germ busting your toddler
- How to really clean your house
- Simple stress busters for busy families
- 10 delish juices and smoothies for healthy living
- Why marriage is good for you
- Six secrets of active families
- Top tips to improve your family's health and happiness


The National Association for Music Education states in The National Standards for Arts Education, “Every course in music, including performance courses, should provide instruction in creating, performing, listening to, and analyzing music, in addition to focusing on its specific subject matter.”
The National Standards for Music Education unify us as music educators, yet many of the standards, as well as their implementation, remain highly contested by some educators. In my experience, content standard one is often left just for choirs to cover, as if instrumental music students did not benefit from the aural aptitude created by regular singing in the classroom. Content standards three and four, I believe, are the most forgotten standards for music educators. “Improvisation? Oh yeah, we do that in jazz band,” and “Composition? Yeah, students copy down a couple of measures in their Standard Of Excellence books,” just doesn’t seem to cut it in an educational era so focused on assessment. Assessment aside, however, I also believe that music lags in the content creation category versus the visual arts. Can you imagine a painting class where students learned how to use paints, brushes, and canvas, were exposed to beautiful pieces of artwork, but never got the chance to create their own artwork? I can expose my students to great wind band compositions by the likes of Frank Ticheli and Mark Camphouse, but without the chance to create their own music through composition and improvisation, students cannot fully appreciate their musical craft.
But when do we have time to do all of this? We need to make time for composition and improvisation, much like we make time for fundamentals. We all probably know a director or two that just run repertoire over and over again, without any pause for reflection or adequate time spent on fundamental-building. They choose not to make time to address tone quality and intonation, just like many of us choose not to make time for some of these under-addressed national standards.
One of the many reasons we choose not to make time for these standards is that we feel overwhelmed by the quantity of skills we need in order to be effective music educators. Becoming proficient on all of the instruments, being an effective communicator and conductor, and developing one’s own musicianship are all incredibly time-consuming skills that take years to develop. It’s no wonder that many of us don’t feel comfortable with improvisation and composition; after all, isn’t it the performance majors and composition majors that need to hone those crafts? I completely understand many of these frustrations; that’s why MusicEdForAll.com will try to provide hands-on, take-back-to-your-classroom resources to help engage students in meaningful music-making and critical thinking.
Content Standards for Music Education
1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines
5. Reading and notating music
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music
7. Evaluating music and music performances
8. Understanding the relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture
From National Standards for Arts Education. Copyright © 1994 by Music Educators National Conference (MENC). Used by permission. The complete National Arts Standards and additional materials relating to the Standards are available from MENC: The National Association for Music Education, 1806 Robert Fulton Drive, Reston, VA 20191; www.menc.org.


In the first assessment since 1997, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has released an arts report card for 2008. Providing a detailed shot in regards to performance in the areas of music and the visual arts, the NAEP's 11-year gap in information reveals that "approximately half of American students don't get a credible arts education," according to a release
on June 15.
On both report cards the average scale score was around 150.
Although the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 explicitly forbids
the establishment of a national curriculum, the restructuring of the act now known as No Child Left Behind
put in place as part of the requirements for certain funds received an arts in education
The report assessed nearly 8,000 eighth grade students in both public and private schools within the United States in either visual arts or music based upon "benchmarks" used in the NCLB policy as well as input made by representatives across the board reflected in the National Standards for Arts Education. Despite dance and theater being part of the arts as a whole, they were not used in the assessment due to financial constraints and limited availability in some schools who do not have these programs (see how to interpret the scorecard here
Although there is no statistical difference between the availability of music and visual arts instruction, the specific area of assessment provided unique results as well as some generalized disparities:
-Average responding scores were higher for White and Asian/Pacific Islander students than Black and Hispanic students. The pattern was the same for the visual arts creating task scores.
-Female students had a higher average responding score than male students. Female students had a higher average creating task score in visual arts.
-Students who were eligible for free/reduced price school lunch had a lower average responding score and a lower average creating task score in visual arts than those who were not eligible.
On average, private schools did better than public schools. Other factors affecting the scores were attributed to areas such as the type of school assessed, socioeconomic status, area where school is located, gender and ethnicity.
In the area of music, there was a decrease in the percentage of students who could correctly answer specific questions, according to the commissioner's summary results
, this drop is "not a measure of what students know and can do in responding to music because it omits all the information from the constructed-response questions in the assessment." This is mainly due to the different questions compared between the two assessments. Therefore, an average was used based upon 21 questions found on both assessments, with the total number of correct responses dropping from 53 per cent to 51 per cent.
In the visual arts, there were 12 common questions found on both assessments and a comparison of those revealed an unchanged number of correct answers at 47 per cent. Other areas assessed were the ability to draw a self-portrait where a mere 4 per cent received a rating of sufficient and 57 per cent rated minimal.
As a whole, the commissioner's summary explained disparities within socioeconomic and ethnic groups' results in art and music consistent with other areas assessed. The summary also stressed that the 2008 assessment itself was different than the previous one.
In a press release
yesterday, it was stated by the chairman of the governing board that:
“The 2008 arts assessment shows students do not seem to be missing out on
opportunities for, and access to, arts education, as many have argued in recent years,”
said Darvin M. Winick, chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, which
oversees and sets policy for NAEP. “But we do face consistent and wide racial/ethnic,
gender, and socioeconomic gaps across the subject areas.”
The National Association for Music Education and the National Art Education Association both expressed
that the "arts" should be an essential and "non-negotiable" part of the core curriculum across the nation.
In general, arts in education
provide certain benefits rather than being just "fun" things to do. They are shown to help improve overall testing scores in other areas, foster critical skills such as teamwork and communication, and teach children to be more tolerant and open-minded.
for the NAEP Music Report Card and here
for the NAEP Visual Arts Report Card.


Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública
versión impresa ISSN 1020-4989
AVILA MONTES, Gustavo Adolfo et al. A school program for dengue control in Honduras: from knowledge to action. Rev Panam Salud Publica [online]. 2012, vol.31, n.6, pp. 518-522. ISSN 1020-4989. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1020-49892012000600011.
The Environmental School Program (PEA, for its Spanish acronym), a dengue control initiative focused on primary schools that took place during 2005-2010 in several cities in Honduras, is described. The environmental health program was designed to increase knowledge and develop skills in the identification and control of Aedes aegypti breeding sites, as well as in water and solid waste management. The results, as measured by behavioral change and reduced larval indices, were satisfactory in the majority of the participating schools. The initiative involved not only children, but also their parents and teachers. In addition to reducing larval indices, PEA was successful in promoting community participation in environmental issues, particularly Aedes control. The inclusion of this educational content in the primary school curriculum in Honduras remains pending.
Palabras llave : dengue; Aedes; environmental education; health education; school health; environmental health; Honduras.


The Keystone Book Assessments were developed during an intensive three-year process in collaboration with intervention teachers, literacy coaches, and university faculty. In Years 1 and 2, the purpose was to develop a collection of leveled texts that teachers could use for assessing and monitoring studentsâ€™ progress over time and to use teacher feedback for identifying potential texts for an assessment collection. In Year 3, research was designed to test the validity of the Keystone Assessments using the Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT). The results from the validation study provided strong support for using the Keystone Book Assessment Collection to measure student gains in reading.
In Years 1 and 2, Reading Recovery teachers, teacher leaders, and literacy coaches from the UALR Center for Literacy and the University of Kentucky Collaborative Center for Literacy Development reviewed hundreds of leveled texts and created a broad collection of books suitable for students in kindergarten to second grade. This collection represented a variety of publishers, text types, layouts, authors, genre, and cultural backgrounds. Under the direction of Patsy Conner, UALR Reading Recovery Teacher Leader, and Karen Birdwhistell, UK Teacher Leader, the teachers created book introductions and directions for using the texts as a progress monitoring measure (see http://ualr.edu/literacy/keystone-book-collection/).
During fall of Year 3, reading educators from six universities engaged in a systematic process of selecting texts from the broad collection, identify gaps in text types and reviewing new texts for inclusion, creating standardized introductions and testing procedures, and contacting book publishers to create the Keystone Book Assessment Collection. The final collection included 70 books at levels A-M from 11 publishers (see http://ualr.edu/literacy/keystone-assessments/).
In spring of Year 3, Dr. Brian Doore, Researcher at the University of Maine Research and Evaluation Center, Dr. Linda Dorn, Professor and Director of the UALR Center of Literacy, and Mary Rosser, Director of the University of Maine Center for Literacy led the study for validating the Keystone Book Assessments. Four partner universities (University of Kentucky, National Louis University, University of Northern Iowa, Georgia State University) provided training and support for the participating schools in their regions. A total of 47 reading teachers from 24 schools across 9 states administered the Keystone Assessments and the Slosson Oral Reading Test to 800 K-2 children in January and in May. The correlation results from pre-and post-testing provide evidence that the Keystone texts are a valid tool for assessing and monitoring the studentsâ€™ reading gains on benchmark texts that increase in degrees of difficulty (see Table 1). The results from the study will be presented in an upcoming article by Dorn, Doore, and Roser.
Table 1 – Correlation of Keystone Assessment and Slosson Oral Reading Test


Be sure that you can identify a few musical characteristics of the music programs in the educational systems of the countries described in this chapter.
63 Argentina: Law in 1884 made music - particularly singing - mandatory subject in elementary school.
-Today - no required musical study, but singing remains a prominent goal in elementary school
64 -Growing interest in contemporary composers
Australia: Strong history of music and arts teaching
65 -Music is required through school years 7 or8
-The arts are collectively a Key Learning Area within the curriculum.
66 Brazil: not a united position on music in schools - absence of continuity
67 -Music is evident in festive celebrations and special events, but not a curricular subject
68 China: From ancient times and into the 20th century, the Chinese viewed music as a means of knowing, morality, beauty and goodness.
69 -Singing by rote is most frequent school music activity but children also learn to read both Western staff notation and jianpu, a cipher notation.
-See “Breaking Point 4.5” -- Can you read or create a notation for a simple children's song. Try “Bingo,” “Hot Cross Buns,” “Mary Had a Little Lamb” or another simple song.
-Musically talented young people receive intensive training
70 Music is proclaimed as compulsory, but is less important than math, etc.
France: Music is an important means for teaching the French culture
-Required part of curriculum - amount varies at different age levels.
72 Hungary: Zoltán Kodály
-music education begins with the singing of Hungarian folk songs, leads through ear training, and culminates in a musical independence.
-one of the most musically educated populations in the world
74 Country's national standards for education include a list of basic musical instruments and equipment for all schools.
Japan: curriculum controlled by Ministry of Education
75 -Elementary - general music classroom including Western and Japanese music
-Secondary - mostly Western music
76 South Africa: resonant choral sound
77 -inclusion of movement and dance and improvisation atop rich textures
-music in first 10 years of schooling as way of transforming South African society according to its new constitution
79 United Kingdom: compulsory study- ages 5-14 - primarily instruction in performance and composition
-music in lower grades often taught by classroom teachers
-optional for ages 15-16 - ensembles most often after-school opportunities
81 United States and Canada: Lowell Mason in Boston, 1830's - rise of singing in public schools
82 -rise in instrumental programs, about a century later - bands returning from WWI, affordable instruments, instrumental companies sponsoring festivals and competitions
-linked to the federal, state and local tax base
83 -no nationally mandated curriculum in music
Challenge: Sort these countries into three categories: Music is a. very important, b. important, c. not so important.


Families and Literacy:
Problem Areas in Literacy Development
If You Think There's a Problem
When a child is having a language or reading problem, the reason might be simple to understand and deal with or it might be complicated and require expert help. Often, children may just need more time to develop their language skills. On the other hand, some children might have trouble seeing, hearing, or speaking. Others may have a learning disability. If you think your children may have some kind of physical or learning problem, it is important to get expert help quickly.
If your children are in school and you think that they should have stronger language skills, ask for a private meeting with their teacher. (You may feel more comfortable taking a friend, relative, or someone else in your community with you.) In most cases, the teacher or perhaps the principal will be able to help you understand how your children are doing and what you might do to help them.
There is a law—the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)—that may allow you to get certain services for your child from your school district. Your children might qualify to receive help from a speech and language therapist or other specialist, or they might qualify to receive materials designed to match their needs. You can learn about your special education rights and responsibilities by requesting that the school give you—in your first language—a summary of legal rights. To find out about programs for children with disabilities that are available in your state, contact the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities.
The good news is that no matter how long it takes, most children can learn to read. Parents, teachers, and other professionals can work together to determine if a child has a learning disability or other problem, and then provide the right help as soon as possible. When children get such help, chances are very good that they will develop the skills they need to succeed in school and in life. Nothing is more important than your support for your children as they go through school. Make sure they get any extra help they need as soon as possible, and always encourage them and praise their efforts.
Watching Your Child Progress
As a parent, you can learn a lot about your children's learning and watch for signs of possible problems. Here are some things to look for and to discuss with their teacher:
- Starting at age 3 or 4: Do your children remember nursery rhymes, and can they play rhyming games?
- At about age 4: Can your children get information or directions from conversations or books that are read aloud to them?
- Kindergartners: Are your children beginning to name and write the letters and numbers that they see in books, on billboards and signs, and in other places?
- At age 5: Can your children play and enjoy simple word games in which two or more words start with the same sound? For example: "Name all the animals you can think of that start with 'D.'"
- At ages 5 and 6: Do your children show that they understand that spoken words can be broken down into smaller parts (e.g., by noticing the word big in bigger)? Do they seem to understand that you can change a small part of a word and make a different word (e.g., by changing the first sound and letter of cat, you can make hat, sat, mat, bat, rat, etc.)?
Source: U.S. Department of Education.


Sound Waves is based on the phonemic approach, which is recognised as one of the most effective ways to teach spelling and reading skills. So when you use Sound Waves, you’re employing the most powerful teaching pedagogy for literacy development.
The consistency of the Sound Waves program allows you to build your students’ success in spelling, from Foundation through to Year 6.
Sound Waves caters for different abilities and multi-age classrooms, as well as different learning styles.
Sound Waves matches all state and national curriculum documents. Based on the sounds of Australian English, and written by Australian teachers, Sound Waves caters for schools nation-wide.
Sound Waves is an explicit teaching program and is fully resourced with Teacher Books, Student Books, Sound Waves Online and digital options for non-textbook schools. You can select the combination of books and teaching resources to suit either your own classroom, or your whole school. We provide the resources, so you can focus on teaching.
Whether you are new to the Sound Waves approach or a phonemic specialist, we have a wealth of free Professional Development and support options to help you make the most of your Sound Waves program.


Welcome to Junior Kindergarten! The four-year old program places an emphasis on the students’ continued social and academic development in preparation for kindergarten. Daily themes driven by the alphabet incorporate all academic areas: literacy, mathematics, technology, science, social studies, music, movement, and art. A hands-on learning environment invites students to participate in large group, small group, and independent activities. Flexible groupings and individualized attention nurture the needs of each child.
Junior Kinder Rotational Schedule (click link at left to view)
Literacy: Children are natural communicators at work and at play. Our program strengthens students’ receptive and expressive skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
Reading: Students will master letter and sound recognition, identify sight words in pre-decodable and decodable books, listen to stories, predict, sequence, and retell stories, make connections to self, other text, and the world, explore a variety of genres, and define the elements of story: setting, characters, plot, and theme.
Writing: Students will continue to develop their fine motor skills while writing in D’Nealian, work on left to right progression, and use pictures, letters, and brave spelling to journal ideas.
Speaking: Students will take an active part in show & tell, circle time activities, and dramatic play while learning numerous seasonal skits, songs, and nursery rhymes. They will work on formulating questions, using expressive voice, making polite requests, and speaking with clarity.
Listening: Students will play with the rhyme, rhythm, and sound of words in phonemic awareness games, actively listen while others speak, and learn to be called on.
Above all, students will develop an early love of literacy set by the example and guidance of caring staff.
Mathematics: Mathematics instruction at the four-year-old level focuses on the identification and application of numbers while learning to problem solve and think logically. Concepts are incorporated into the daily themes and taught formally. Concepts include number identification 1-100, skip-counting by 5 and 10, place value: ones, tens, hundreds, calendar skills, addition and subtraction, graphs, patterns, probability, classifications, estimation, inequalities, shapes, measurement, time, and money.
Social Studies: The social studies curriculum embraces the theme of belonging to our world personally: family and friends, regionally: city, state, country, and globally: multicultural studies. An imaginary trip is taken abroad each Friday, based on the letter of the week. Cross-curricular activities: art, literature, writing, cooking, music, movement, and language give students a taste of these diverse cultures. In addition, seasonal topics cover Thanksgiving, peace, and patriotism.
Science: The science curriculum is driven by the seasons. In fall, we cover apples, acorns, leaves, and pumpkins. In winter, we cover hibernation, snow, and ice. In spring, we cover planting and weather. Alphabetical topics include air, bubbles, color mixing, dinosaurs, dental health, exercise, fossils, fire safety, healthy bodies, magnets, polar animals, rocks, solar system, universe, volcanoes, and zoo animals. Students learn to observe the world around them and become problem solvers through the scientific method of questioning, guessing, testing, checking, and concluding in mini labs such as sink or float, solution vs mixture, and solid-liquid-gas.
Specials: Outside of the classroom, students participate in PE class, computer lab, Spanish, French, and the performing arts.
A Keith education at the Junior Kinder level strives to be both enriching and engaging to our young scholars.
B.A in Elementary Education from University of Illinois
Kelly has been teaching for 16 years with past jobs in Chicago, S. Beloit and Rockford. The Chicago native has taught junior kindergarten, kindergarten, second and fourth grades as well as music for K-5. Kelly has lived in Rockford for 17 years. She and her husband have two children. They enjoy traveling, hiking, the theater and family time.


Note: To protect the privacy of our members, e-mail addresses have been removed from the archived messages. As a result, some links may be broken.
A while back you mentioned the 2 Websters' definitions of criticism.
You suggested that people too often refer to / focus on the 1st one (that
criticism is negative or unfavorable commentary) and neglect the 2nd
defintion (that crit. is analysis and evaluation of art).
I agree this 2nd defin. is overlooked and it is the most appropriate oen
for art crit. For students to really analyse and think about art and what
the artist intends; the reason/purpose behind it and the ideas in back of
it, are what's really important.
Students can then consider their own artworks in context with how they
reflect on others. Ideas can be developed for one's own art based on
reflection/understanding/analysis of others. Art production is more than
only process- the act of doing art. It needs foundation, purpose, reason,
meaning, intent, etc...
Nancy, am I on target?? Do you concur??
I'm an art education student at the Univ. of Maryland. I also teach ESL
classes in the evenings to adults and occasionally do some substitute
teaching, to pay the bills.


- Kalimikeraki, Katerina, et al.
Computers as thinking tools for the acquisition of second language
Ingår i: Educator as researcher. - 2nd Bureau of Elementary Education of East Attica, Koropi GR. - 960-631-215-1 ; s. 139-149
Bokkapitel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Many different approaches have taken place recently to facilitate second language learning in elementary schools throughout the world. Research in this area shows that teachers have to use the suitable motivators to stimulate pupils' thinking in order to achieve their educational goals. Children live in a world dominated by information technology therefore computer games may be used for educational purposes and to create a successful and pleasant learning environment. Our main hypothesis is that learning and use of Greek language demand real activities in a Greek language environment, and that systems of information technology have the ability to create such an environment that supports learning.


Last week I promised to begin addressing some of the questions that came up at the recent National Art Education Association conference in Minneapolis. One of our first questions comes from Vicky Grube, an Assistant Professor at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, who asked, “How does Art21 help teachers, especially student teachers, get beyond traditional teaching styles they’ve experienced growing up?”
Art21 provides a variety of ways for teachers to “go beyond” and take healthy risks in their teaching. At the Art21.org website, teachers can sign in and download free teaching materials, including the Learning with Art21 Guide and any of the Art21 Educator Guides for each of the first four seasons. In these guides, teachers are encouraged to use the Before and After-Viewing questions to inspire students to think critically about what they see and what they can create.
Teachers can also explore the links and huge variety of posts right here on the Art21 blog in order to share columns and guest articles with their students. For example, students can read a collection of blog posts around a single theme and develop a written or visual response to one particular piece. Teachers are encouraged to browse and share over 50 posts written for this Teaching with Contemporary Art column. They can also view a series of videos in order to analyze and compare how artists get the same message across in wildly different ways.
But perhaps I should take a step back and also consider what exactly are these “traditional” teaching styles Vicky is referring to? First of all, when I think of traditional art teachers I certainly don’t come up with exclusively negative images. I have had plenty of traditional art teachers that were absolutely phenomenal. What I think Vicky is asking about, are the teachers who rely on units and lessons, strategies and activities, that are comfortable but not always meaningful for students. Perhaps some of these teaching strategies include the drilling and killing of teaching the elements and principles of design? Perhaps other strategies include projects that mimic an artist’s style instead of learning about the artist and about the work in order to produce original ideas?
Teaching materials on Art21.org and resources right here on the blog can help teachers, especially student teachers, plan for specific ways to open up conversations in their classrooms, think about big ideas with their students, and create work that gets beyond mimicry or what’s simply become habitual.
How do you use Art21 to “go beyond” in your own teaching?


Science, technology, engineering and mathematics are the center of attention in most US public schools today. The focus on STEM fields was initiated to increase global competitiveness and the project does have its merits. However, it has left the arts languishing far off in the periphery. This is quite unfortunate, as art education is known to improve academic performance.
- On average, students who study the arts for 4 years in high school score 98 points higher on the SATs compared to those who study the same for half a year or less.
- Students who took up music appreciation scored 61 points higher on the verbal section and 42 points higher on the math section.
Of the elementary schools with arts, the most common subjects revolve around music at 94% and visual studies at 83%. Only 3% offer dance instruction while 4% provide theater arts.
Training in the arts has been shown to improve creativity and innovation. Students learn to approach issues with a critical mind and a positive attitude towards problem solving. Exposure to the arts enhances communication skills, which are essential tools for collaboration. It develops flexibility and adaptability. The government recognizes these and, indeed, 48 states have adopted standards for art instructions.
- 51% of art teachers are unhappy about what they see as the decline in art education brought about by the shift in focus. The difficulty in measuring art’s contribution to academic performance has led to its under appreciation.
To learn more about STEM vs STEAM, take a look below at the infographic below created by the University of Florida.
Add This Infographic to Your Site


Effective watershed management is dependent on the having the scientific information to guide management decisions and on the social values of the communities living within the watershed. A common barrier to sustainable watershed management is that the people living within the watershed lack an understanding of basic watershed concepts and how it relates to human and ecosystem health. A starting point for increasing awareness of watershed ecology concepts is at the elementary level (k-5), but educational materials at this level often lack instructional resources related to land use impacts on watersheds. Our objective was to develop mobile instructional resources to be used within fifth grade classrooms within the Sugar Creek watershed in northeast Ohio. This 922 km2 watershed has been identified as one of the most impaired watersheds in the state. Land use consists mostly of family farms and dairies, some of which are managed by Mennonite German or Amish farmers. Meetings with fifth grade school teachers were organized so the resources were teacher driven. We adapted existing instructional materials and developed new materials on watershed ecology topics within the context of this particular watershed. Additionally, mobile kits were developed so that the instructional materials were available to all elementary schools within the watershed.
We developed four mobile kits intended to teach the concepts of watershed hydrology, the watershed as an ecosystem, anthropogenic impacts on watershed health, and conducting ecological research within a watershed. Instructional materials included in each kit consist of a pre-assessment, a post-assessment, a five day lesson plan, and materials required for exercises that build upon each concept addressed. Additionally, the exercises involve the use of traditional and active learning teaching methods to teach watershed concepts that meet the state of Ohio academic content standards. This approach of educational outreach through elementary education fosters awareness of the Sugar Creek watershed not just with the students, but also in the teachers and the parents within the school system.


The problem is even greater for foreign learners who have difficulty with the English /r/, anyway.
6. Finally, do not be afraid to teach phonics. Many ESL students, convinced that English is totally unsystematic, will welcome the order suggested by these rules. Just a few rules which work most of the time will eliminate some of the guesswork involved in learning to read English.
What is essential to retain from these studies and pedagogical implications is that, though rather unsystematic, English pronunciation does have more order than appears at first sight-and-sound. For example, pipe is immediately recognized by a native speaker of English meeting the word for the first time as being pronounced paip, whereas pip can only be pip, the reason for the difference being that the second /p/ in pipe is immediately followed by a vowel; so would it be with bane and ban, pane and pan, die or dye and did, slime and slim, fine and fin, etc.
There are three essential steps in teaching to make sounds. Students must be able to:
2. Identify it, i.e. distinguish it from any other.
3. Produce it (Finocchiaro & Bonomo, 1973, p. 76).
Two questions arise when considering teaching phonics to EFL learners. One: Do they need it to learn to communicate efficiently and effectively in English at whatever level of interest they have? (Passing State examinations, transacting international business, doing library research, travelling as tourists, watching American sitcoms). Two: Is phonics instruction for all EFL students?
Gunderson (1991) is of the opinion that "Phonics instruction is not for all ESL students. Indeed, only those with limited fluency in English and with a history of literacy training are able to cope with training in phonics. These activities require students to operate on language in a different manner from" traditional school teaching/learning methodologies (p. 84).
English spelling is not known for its regularity. The phonics ...
PHONEME AND GRAPHEME CORRESPONDENCE. (2000, January 01). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 21:06, March 28, 2015, from http://www.collegetermpapers.com/viewpaper/1303407603.html