Children need to be actively engaged with reading, because being passively read to just won’t work.
New York City, NY (PRWEB) October 17, 2012
In light of this new study conducted by the Society for Research in Child Development, what preschool teachers have been doing is no longer regarded as being the most effective technique to promote reading skills. Shane Piasta and Laura Justice, along with the other researchers behind these new findings, state that minor adjustments to current preschool reading methods can substantially improve children’s literacy development. According to the study, when researchers analyzed students and teachers taking part in the STAR Project (Sit Together And Read), those children that got a high exposure to the copy being read, as opposed to the images and pictures only, were able to develop their literacy skills much more quickly and easily than those on the regular reading program.
Commenting on these promising research findings, Marc Slater, director of Ultimate Vocabulary, said, “We now know that effective literacy is only possible through an interactive learning process focused on the words while associating them with images, rather than allowing children to merely listening to the words being read while viewing the pictures. Children need to be actively engaged with reading, because being passively read to just won’t work.”
This study shows that verbal and nonverbal cues given by the teachers or parents reading, who point at the material being read, significantly enhances a child’s successful literacy development. Highlighting the significance of the findings, Marc Slater remarked, “This seemingly trivial act of drawing children’s attention to printed material significantly elevates their literacy capabilities, from reading comprehension to actual word usage. Hopefully it won’t be long before schools integrate this print-referencing technique into their reading sessions.”
The study confirms that children’s contact with print helps in learning vocabulary and spelling. “When it comes to word power, focusing on the actual printed copy is key. This intervention of making children aware of the verbal and visible aspect of words proves to be beneficial for children’s subsequent literacy development,” Slater concluded.
For more information on the features of the Ultimate Vocabulary software, please visit: http://www.ultimatevocabulary.com/
About Ultimate Vocabulary™
Ultimate Vocabulary provides a proven and powerful platform, built to improve anyone’s vocabulary.
The interactive self-improvement system provides more learning tools than any other program on the market, as well as more information on words.
The Ultimate Vocabulary software provides each and every user with a personal computer tutor. Providing a step-by-step guide to learning a powerful vocabulary, Ultimate Vocabulary is the learning tool everyone can benefit from.
Of course, the software is also backed by eReflect’s iron-clad money back guarantee.


goodEar Intervals - Ear Training
iOS Universal Music
>>>>> EAR TRAINING FOR BEGINNERS TO PROS <<<<<
Professional musicians know, that having a good trained ear is one of the most important skills, a musician should have. goodEar was made to increase those skills and bring you on a new musical level!
It is made for all musicians, whether you are beginner or professional.
• Choose from all intervals between 2 octaves
• Play them ascending, descending, or simultaneously
• Activate "backing chord" to hear the interval in harmonic context
• Create your own exercises, depending on your personal approach. (No annoying wizards)!
• Play the exercises on piano or give the answer with multiple-choice
• Watch your progress in statistics
• Make highscores, and try to challenge yourself
goodEar was made with the knowledge of various professional musicians and teachers, for giving you high quality music education on the iPad.
- The answer buttons will now ONLY reorder, when there are more than 8 answers.
- Many fixes


When most tourists visit island nations in the Caribbean, they pack swimsuits, sunscreen and perhaps a good book. But when Frances “Cookie” Harris went to Haiti in December, she carried a duffel bag jam-packed with 60 pounds of books.
The eight-day visit was the San Antonio native’s second trip to Haiti. It was also the beginning of what the University of Mississippi graduate student hopes will be meaningful education initiatives at two organizations striving to improve the lives of children living in extreme poverty.
With support from UM faculty, Harris has helped teachers at the Haiti Children’s Rescue Ministry, an orphanage and school in the city of Gressier, as well as Respire Haiti, a nonprofit community center and school for more than 500 children, enhance their educational programs. Primarily, she has donated books and classroom materials to both organizations from the UM School of Education’s teaching resource library.
“These books were being phased out and they were just going to be thrown away otherwise,” Harris said. “I thought, ‘What if I could take these books and start an education program at the orphanage?’ There are children there who love to be read to and want to learn, but don’t have the resources.”
In Haiti, only 50 percent of primary school-aged children are enrolled in classes and 60 percent abandon formal education before the sixth grade. Also, nearly 40 percent of adults struggle with literacy, according to data from UNICEF.
Haitians, who speak Creole, learn to read and speak English in schools, many of which struggle with teaching materials and other basic necessities.
“I’m so happy to know we are able to be part of what Cookie is doing in Haiti,” said Sydney Rowland, associate professor of curriculum and instruction and the faculty member who help Harris acquire the materials. “These books are no longer being used by our students because teachers are changing their materials because of Common Core. But they’re books that can mean a lot to people with so little.”
With more than 200 texts and complementary learning materials for students ranging from preschool to eighth grade, Harris delivered organized plans for volunteer teachers who work with children at Haiti Children’s Rescue Ministry to encourage children to learn to read and speak English as a second language.
“Once I had the books and resources, I was able to build lesson plans,” she said. “In schools, the children are taught to speak English, so you have to know a bit of Creole to follow the lessons. You have to connect phrases and words to the pictures. But it’s amazing how well and fast the children learn.”
In previous years, Harris also served on similar missions focused on education in countries in Africa and South America. She recalled the impact of her first visit to Haiti in summer 2013, during a mission trip coordinated through St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in San Antonio.
“That summer completely changed my view of the world and poverty,” Harris said. “Children are living with virtually nothing. Many are sold into slavery. Girls become prostitutes because there is no other option. How can things get better if we don’t start with education?”
For Harris, Haiti has become more than mission work. In May she plans to return as an ESL teacher at Respire after she completes her master’s degree in elementary education.
“No one should grow up without a voice or someone to love them or the opportunity for an education,” she said. “It’s easy to say, ‘Oh, they will figure it out eventually,’ but this is my passion, this is my dream. That’s why I’ve got to go.”


music education resources
Check out our You-Tube clips for early stage
Thank You - to all of our regular visitors... and welcome to those browsing here for the first time.
The exercises below are provided in .pdf (Acrobat format) for both PC & Mac users.
For a guide to what is
included in each section, click on the
red links provided above each table.
These groupings correspond to no particular established system - it's just a way to help visitors find their way around. The terms, 'Single' and 'Grand' refer to the staves offered. Single stave examples could also be used for string and wind instruments or even for singing at sight. Grand Stave is a term often used to describe piano music laid out on two connected staves. Examples marked (LS) are printed in Landscape.
|First Steps (click HERE for details)||Early Stages (click HERE for details)|
|Sheet No.||Staves||Sheet No.||Staves||Sheet No.||Staves||Sheet No.||Staves|
|FS 1||FS 11||Ely 1||Ely 11|
|FS 2||FS 12||Ely 2||Ely 12|
|FS 3||FS 13||Ely 3||Ely 13|
|FS 4||FS 14||Ely 4||Ely 14|
|FS 5||FS 15||Ely 5||Ely 15|
|FS 6||FS 16||Ely 6||Ely 16|
|FS 7||FS 17||Ely 7||Ely 17|
|FS 8||FS 18||Ely 8||Ely 18|
|FS 9||FS 19||Ely 9||Ely 19|
|FS10||FS 20||Ely 10||Ely 20|
|Intermediate (click HERE for details)||Advanced (click HERE for details)|
|Sheet No.||Exercises||Sheet No.||Exercises||Sheet No.||Exercises||Sheet No.||Exercises|
|Int 1||Int 7||Adv 1|
|Int 2||Int 8||Adv 2|
|Int 3||Int 9||Adv 3|
|Int 4||Int 10||Adv 4|
|Int 5||Int 11||Adv 5|
|Int 6||Int 12||Adv 6|
|Advanced +||Bach Chorales|
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The Democratic Transition
October 31, 2011
Over the last two centuries, many countries underwent a democratic transition, moving from autocratic regimes with low popular participation in political decision-making and weak constraints on the exercise of executive power, to more democratic regimes with broader political participation and greater limits on the exercise of political power. While democratization happened in ﬁts and starts, and did not happen everywhere, there is a general upward trend: the democratic transition. Recognizing that this transition took place in tandem with substantial socioeconomic changes, it becomes useful and enlightening to identify those factors that lay the foundation for democratic principles to take hold. In a new study, researchers Fabrice Murtin and Romain Wacziarg examine the effect that increases in elementary education and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in 74 countries between 1870 and 2000 have had in this regard.
The theory behind the ability of each of these two factors to encourage democratic transition seems well founded.
- In education, intellectuals as far back as Aristotle recognized its powerful effect in reining in the excesses of tyranny.
- They promulgated the idea that increases in education would allow citizens to become more self-aware and to question the status quo with greater frequency and vigor.
- Arguments that economic development stimulates democratic growth have also been made frequently in history, with advocates suggesting that when people are more comfortable and spend less time scraping together a living, they are more capable of civic engagement.
While researchers have obtained mixed results in investigating each of these factors, this study finds that the proliferation of elementary education is a strong indicator of imminent democratic gains. Using historical data collected by previous researchers regarding schooling rates and GDP per capita, and comparing these rates with figures from the Polity Index (a comprehensive indicator of overall degree of democracy), it establishes that despite disparities between continents in education levels, education tracks democratic change very well. Surprisingly, economic development tracked on the Polity Index did not yield statistically significant results.
However, Murtin and Wacziarg find little evidence of causality running the other way, from democracy to income or education.
Source: Fabrice Murtin and Romain Wacziarg, "The Democratic Transition," National Bureau of Economic Research, September 2011.
Browse more articles on Government Issues


Rwanda has made great strides in expanding access to education. Enrollment is up, repetition and dropout rates are down, and more children are finishing primary school.
Thanks to Rwanda's award-winning Nine Year Basic Education program, six years of primary and three years of secondary education are free and compulsory for all Rwandans. What’s more, in January 2014, UNESCO placed Rwanda in the top three countries for reducing out-of-school youth.
Despite this accomplishment, absenteeism for girls remains a challenge.
"On average, a girl would come to school for two weeks in a month," said Xavier Mbonigaba, the head teacher of Gihinga School in Rwanda's Bugesera district. "This was greatly affecting their performance."
According to school officials and parents, girls' menstrual periods are a main cause. "[They] dropped out of school because they lacked sanitary pads and, more so, privacy," said Agnes Twagiramariya, a Gihinga School parent and vice president of the school's parent-teacher committee.
After attending training by USAID, 283 parent-teacher committees made action plans including initiatives to help girls stay in school. Gihinga's committee assigned female teachers to be in charge of girls' welfare and planned for the construction of a separate girls' washroom and the provision of sanitary pads and other items.
Teachers Leonice Nyirabaruma and Agathe Nyirasafari also hold regular "girls' evenings"—a time to discuss reproductive health and other pressing issues that affect girls.
"[Girls] are now aware of what they can do in times of trouble and whom to talk to without being afraid," said Nyirabaruma. "Girls are now confident at school."
At Rugando Primary School, parents volunteered to construct a washroom for girls, while the school organized the provision of items such as sanitary pads, water, soap, basins and towels.
"The number of girls regularly attending school has increased," said Joseph Sibomana, who is in charge of academics at the school.
As more parent-teacher committees roll out across the country and learn from schools like Rugando, more girls will benefit from similar initiatives.
Support for parent-teacher committees is part of USAID's five-year Literacy, Language, and Learning (L3) Initiative implemented by the Education Development Center, which began in 2011. The initiative’s consortium member, Concern Worldwide-Rwanda, trains committees as part of L3's overall effort to improve early-grade literacy and numeracy skills of Rwandan children.
Last updated: December 08, 2014


Active Kids Do Better: A Win-Win for All
Shellie Y. Pfohl, Executive Director
As the buzzer sounds on another sizzling summer, kids across America are getting back in the game and gearing up for another school year. Now, instead of days filled with swimming, biking, climbing trees and playing, most kids will spend six to seven hours each day within school walls.
The primary focus of schools is to help students learn and develop foundational skills and knowledge to succeed in life. But with the increasing demands and pressures of improving standardized test scores and grade point averages are we defeating these goals by eliminating or significantly restricting the time students are physically active throughout the school day?
When it comes to the school environment, the latest research shows that increased physical activity and improved academic outcomes don’t have to be an either-or-proposition. In fact, physical activity and academic success go hand and hand – a true win-win for all.
Physical activity not only helps kids stay healthy, it can also lead to higher test scores, improved attendance, better behavior in class and lower rates of childhood obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), school-aged youth should participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day to reap these benefits.
That’s why the President’s Council is proud to serve as the federal lead for Let’s Move! Active Schools – a comprehensive school-based physical activity program that will help make physical activity the new norm for schools. Let’s Move! Active Schools encourages schools to develop a culture in which physical activity and physical education are foundational to academic success.
Powered by a national collaboration of leading health and education organizations, Let’s Move! Active Schools streamlines the selection of programs, resources, professional development and funding opportunities, and delivers a customized action plan – making it simple for teachers and administrators to implement!
Across the nation, we are starting to see positive changes take hold. Bower Hill Elementary School in Venetia, Pennsylvania is a powerful example. Recently, the school started a walking program that quickly grew into a marathon challenge, where teachers and their students attempted to walk a marathon over the course of the year, leading up to participation in the final mile at the Pittsburgh Kids Marathon.
To learn how you, too, can be a “game-changer” for your school, sign up to be a champion for Active Schools at www.letsmoveschools.org. For more information about the learning connection between regular physical activity and academic performance, visit http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/health_and_academics/.


Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence places responsibility for promoting the development of numeracy skills on all classroom teachers, rather than leaving such nefarious wizardry solely to the maths department. This is an admirable aim but at first glance causes mild panic for us artsy fartsy teachers of English.
I've heard some say that numeracy skills can be boosted in the English classroom simply by directing pupils towards a particular page number in a novel, but I can't say I agree. Certainly, there seem to be fewer opportunities to build numeracy skills in English than in, say, science or computing classes. Nevertheless we can surely go beyond the basic task of finding a page number.
One answer lies in the French literary movement known as Oulipo (its full title is ouvroir de littérature potentielle, which translates roughly as 'workshop of potential literature'). Founded in France in the 1960s, it seeks to unite poetry with maths to create constrained pieces of writing defined by set structures and patterns. Most famous examples of the form are the lipogram, a piece of writing entirely devoid of a particular letter, normally a vowel and palindrome stories, both of which present testing challenges for experienced writers.
There are a few exercises which can be used successfully in schools, however. Pupils tend to be intrigued and challenged by Oulipo activities when they learn about its history. It creates a sense of purpose in lessons. Capable pupils find the challenge stimulating and usually respond with creativity and imagination, while less able pupils seem to find the restraints and patterns imposed on them beneficial, they no longer have to worry about crafting a whole story with a beginning, middle and end, a character who overcomes an obstacle, realistic dialogue, and all the rest of it. Instead, they can concentrate solely on achieving the next sequence, and the one after that.
A good exercise to introduce pupils to Oulipo is the prose snowball. Starting with a one word sentence, the story builds up sequentially with each sentence containing one word more than the last. Clear explanation and ample modelling is required when for Oulipo, and I always give this simple example, which I wrote myself:
My breath freezes.
Can't feel my toes.
I have sent for help.
Please God, when will it come?
I have done nothing to deserve this.
Stuck out here in the wind and snow.
Once pupils crack the first sentence or two, they will build up impressive snowballs, and learn to play with the rhythms created by the ever-lengthening sentences. This task also lends itself well to the more competitive pupils. You can set a competition to see who can write the biggest snowball in the room and offer a Kit-Kat, or something, as a prize.
Another Oulipo exercise, which has the potential to produce particularly exciting pieces of work, is the sestina. Traditionally a poetic form, sestinas can be written as prose to create striking, patterned pieces of writing. Pupils start by choosing six words for themselves (or for a partner, as this task is well suited to paired work). The words they choose should preferably have a number of different meanings, words like 'hand' or 'trip' or 'crack'. These words are then labelled from A – F and must appear in a story in the following order:
• ECA or ACE
The goal is for pupils to write stories of seven paragraphs with their chosen words appearing in these given sequences. Again, pupils will benefit from seeing an exemplar of this in action, and there is a particularly striking one available to read by Kirsty Logan on wigleaf.com. Pupils can read this story as a class and try to figure out which words Logan started out with, to see if they can spot the pattern in her story. Pupils' sestinas often seem to turn out slightly surreal and highly original, with the repeated words forming a kind of beat to the narrative.
The purpose of Oulipo exercises is not to produce classical, traditional short stories. The combination of maths and writing forces pupils to think about the craft in different ways, to abandon their comfort zones and embrace new and experimental techniques. Even if the completed stories are entirely unusual or unorthodox, there will often be a section, or a character, even a sentence, of quality material which could be extracted from the original and developed separately on its own.
Embedding numeracy in the English classroom is not an obviously natural fit, but by combining creative writing with mathematical sequences we can bring a little of that French imagination to our pupils' work.
Download Alan's Oulipo resource here.


« Back to Raising the Image
Get Outside Book Club for Preschoolers and their families
Dayton Metro LibraryGo to Website
Kathleen Moore, Early Literacy Specialist, firstname.lastname@example.org
This innovation addresses two important issues: 1.) Children are spending too many hours a week engaged in electronic entertainment and not going outside. The Public Health Department of-Dayton & Montgomery County reports that two-thirds of county adult residents are overweight or obese, while more than 500,000 children in the State of Ohio are currently overweight or obese. Studies show outdoor time helps children grow lean and strong, enhances their imaginations and attention spans, decreases aggression, and boosts classroom performance. 2.) Experiences and learning about the real world is an important aspect of literacy development. When children have limited experience with nature, imaginative outside play, and hands-on activities with real things, their listening and reading comprehension is adversely affected. Community awareness and parent education about this aspect of reading development is needed.
The Dayton area Five Rivers MetroParks and Dayton Metro Library offers a six week program in late summer/early fall for families of preschoolers or classrooms of preschoolers. It’s called The Get Outside Bookclub. Participants read six picture books about being outside to spark child interest and imagination. After reading each book, adults and children go outside and do an activity together related to the content of the book. Titles owned by the library are suggested and activities in the parks are promoted. The Early Literacy blog of the library features books to read with suggested activities. Both the parks and the library promote the bookclub. Special library storytimes follow the outdoor theme and special events are held in the parks. At the end of the bookclub preschoolers receive a small nature related prize.
Dayton Metro Library and Five Rivers MetroParks are positioned as collaborators providing opportunities to build literacy skills, knowledge of the world, stay healthy and develop stewards of the environment. Expenses incurred are shared by both agencies. During the first year 208 families finished the bookclub. Last year 254 families finished. Several events drew crowds of over one hundred people. Families tell us they love the program and look for it to continue.


Activities / Lesson Plans
Lomax: The Hound of Music: Educational Philosophy
The award-winning creators of Between the Lions and renowned music educator John Feierabend, Ph.D., Director of Music Education at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford, have joined forces to create a highly interactive television series, called Lomax: The Hound of Music that provides scientifically-based music education to children aged three to seven.
Interactive is the key word. Children on the show and at home are encouraged to take an active part in every aspect of the show, joining in with their voices, bodies, and brains.
The show is saturated with sound-with an emphasis on folk songs representing America's stunning diversity.
Developing Musical Intelligence
Using a research-based, highly successful curriculum developed by Dr. Feierabend, Lomax: The Hound of Music gives children (many of whom may have limited opportunities to explore music, in or out of school) a chance to develop musical intelligence at a time when they are neurologically primed for this kind of learning-pulling them into the experience with fun and fantasy.
By musical intelligence, we mean the kinds of skills that help children become more tuneful, beatful, and artful. That is, they become better able to hold tunes in their heads and repeat them; better able to feel and sustain a beat; and more receptive to the ideas and feelings expressed in music.
- Lomax: The Hound of Music engages children in songs and rhythmic games that let them explore all of the core musical elements-pitch, rhythm, and timbre-with their voices, bodies, and minds.
- It poses interesting problems, challenging children not only to repeat song fragments and refrains, but also to "think" and improvise their own songs.
- It makes full use of folk music's wonderful tactile component-the clapping, snapping, stamping, and moving that reinforce and deepen children's musical experience.
- It introduces appealing puppets and props to bring alive the narrative and poetic devices, such as metaphor and alliteration, that are woven so richly into the fabric of traditional music.
- Finally, it helps children develop greater sensitivity to the expressiveness in music as they listen to classic American folk songs.
Lomax: The Hound of Music rests on a solid research base that demonstrates how these activities contribute not only to children's musical intelligence, but to their overall cognitive and emotional development as well.
A New Generation of Music Makers & Sharers
As they watch and participate in the show, children hear songs from every corner of our diverse nation, performed by celebrities and non-celebrities, sometimes on location, as well as by the actors, kids, and puppets on the set. What's more, they learn to sing the songs themselves. They are transformed from passive listeners to makers and sharers of music.
Sharing the music is a crucial part of Lomax: The Hound of Music. For so many children today, music is something produced by the radio or TV-an audible backdrop for life's "more important" activities. Lomax restores music to its traditional place in American families and communities, as a living, moving force that gives voice to feelings and ideas, expresses our nation's rich diversity, and pulls people together in good times and bad.


'ukiyo-e" - the japanese word for 18th- and 19th-century woodblock prints made for the amusement of ordinary people - have long been recognized as art. But these old prints were actually commercial ventures aimed at wide circulation, rather than fine-art artifacts for wealthy patrons. The rise of printing enabled this production of inexpensive images. In their depictions of everyday life ("ukiyo-e" meaning "images from the floating world"), they were a sort of "pop art" of their day.
Most books and exhibitions of ukiyo-e suggest that the world they depicted was entirely adult: images of beautiful women, of kabuki actors, of wrestlers, and of landscapes populated by travelers, shellfish gatherers, peasants, rice-farmers. Rarely does one see a mother with a baby or a woman catching fireflies with her son.
This evident lack of children depicted in ukiyo-e may be misleading, resulting from the selective interests of collectors. A revision is called for by a traveling exhibition organized by the Japan Foundation and the Kumon Institute of Education in Osaka. "Children Represented in Ukiyo-e: Japanese Children in the 18th-19th Centuries " is now at the Maison de la Culture du Japon a Paris (through March 13). It moves to Edinburgh April 3 to May 16. The show's 164 prints open your eyes not only to the interest of Edo artists in children, but also to the child culture of the period.
Children are shown as infant objects of affection and celebration (they were "one of the gods until the age of 7"); as the protagonists in games and play; as the customers of one kind of printed art, the "toy pictures" or "omocha-e," which they could cut out and paste; and as schoolchildren.
The print shown here amusingly depicts children being taught calligraphy (with varying degrees of success). Reading, writing, and arithmetic were the rudiments of the elementary education available to children of all classes, though not yet compulsory.


Recent conflicts such as those in Bosnia and Rwanda, where sexual violence against women was used as an instrument of warfare, have raised public awareness of the complex war-time interactions between local women and foreign soldiers. While the topic has only recently surfaced as an area of political interest, the phenomenon is not new.
Every war sees children born as a result of contact between local women and ‘foreign’ soldiers. The soldier might be seen as an enemy or ally. Often, children fathered by foreign or enemy soldiers become victims of social harassment (e.g. children of German fathers in occupied France). Often they fail to receive the social benefits available for other children of single parents (such as the children of American soldiers in occupied Germany). They are often socially stigmatized (e.g. children of Russian soldiers in East Germany or children of German soldiers in Norway) and denied most elementary education and social security (e.g. children of American soldiers in Vietnam). More fundamentally, they often suffer from identity crises, as many do not know their fathers and, in some cases, not even their mothers. Children have been born as a result of relationships ranging from mutual consent to organised rape.
Many recent studies of conflicts such as the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, the wars in Rwanda, Bangladesh, Congo and elsewhere have focused on the traumatization of women and children. They have also attempted to gain some understanding of the economic consequences of sexual violence against women. In the course of this research it has become evident that there is little historical appreciation of wartime violence against women and, similarly, ofchildren born of war and occupation.
The Birmingham-based international and interdisciplinary project on Children Born of World War II aims to fill one of the gaps in our historical understanding of the phenomenon of ‘children born of war’ by investigating a specific and very substantial subgroup of children, namely children born of ‘foreign’ fathers and local mothers during the occupations associated with the Second World War. These include the German occupation in parts of Europe during the war and Allied post-war occupation of Germany. It is envisaged to study the military policies and practices of different parties to war and occupation with regard to soldiers’ conduct on the ground and its consequences. Furthermore, it is hoped that the situation of children born of war and occupation between 1939 and 1955 can be investigated using an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, which among others utilises empirical social science methodology as well as historical methods and which will cover as full a range of geographical locations as possible.
By analysing the policies of the different military and civilian authorities vis-à-vis these children and their mothers and fathers, by collecting and studying data about the war-time and post-war short- and medium term effects of the specific circumstances of children born of war and their mothers, we hope to gain a better understanding of the social, psychological, economic and political impact of children born of the Second World War on post-war European developments.


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


Training programmes for Early Years practitioners
We now offer a training programme which is specifically geared to support Early Years practitioners in their music-making activities. This echoes the methodology taught in our in-school programmes but takes into account the different approaches needed when working with babies and pre-school age children.
The programme comprises a series of training sessions, led by specially trained Music Tutors with extensive Early Years experience, and designed to equip practitioners from all types of EY settings with extended skills, repertoire and ideas for making music.
In addition, we aim to leave a sustainable legacy by selecting and training suitable Music Leaders from those who have attended sessions, so that they can in turn train and support other EY practitioners in a variety of settings.
By using our methodology, practitioners can help children to achieve the 6-point target in 2 dimensions of the Foundation Stage Profile:
Communication, language and literacy
- Speech and language - singing is an ideal language development medium
- Memory - through repetition of songs and rhymes, which are more easily remembered than words of speech
- Communication - call and response and actions during activity-based and group songs/games help develop awareness of others and encourage friendship and social interaction
Personal, social and emotional development
- Self-esteem and confidence - simple songs and rhymes are easy to learn, and
can increase confidence dramatically as children learn to sing alone as well as in a group
- Self-control - singing games can help children to follow a leader, be a leader, and wait their turn
- Cooperation and listening skills - songs and rhymes involve listening and responding to instructions
- Involving families - parents and carers can be involved directly in the setting, or at home where children will inevitably repeat songs and games they have learned
The programme structure is flexible and can be adapted according to your needs; for more information, please complete our enquiry form and we'll contact you to discuss your requirements.
Complementing this training strand is our exciting, brand new Inside Music Early Years book, packed full of songs and rhymes plus related ideas and activities... all designed to inspire and encourage EYFS practitioners in their music-making sessions with very young children.
This must-buy book is the initial, stand-alone phase of Inside Music - a comprehensive music education programme for children from birth to age 13, which we are currently developing.
For further details, click here to download a flyer and order form (PDF).


It’s no secret why the United States is facing an obesity epidemic—poor diet and exercise habits—but UNC researcher Peggy Bentley says childhood obesity can sometimes take root in infancy, long before kids eat junk food or play their first video game.
In 2003, her team of UNC researchers began studying what happens in the lives of children before they become overweight. They recruited 217 low-income mothers between 18 and 35 to study how they fed and cared for their babies through the first 18 months of life. Turns out, about half of the mothers fed their babies in front of the television, something pediatricians caution against.
“It’s easier to miss an infant’s cues when a baby or mother is watching television,” says UNC anthropologist Amanda Thompson, who is part of Bentley’s team.
When babies are distracted by TV, they sometimes push away food, clamp down their mouths, or squirm to get away from the food—typical things babies do to tell parents they’re not hungry, Thompson says. And television isn’t limited to mealtime. Thompson also found that:
• Infants as young as three months were exposed to an average of 2.6 hours of television or videos a day.
• 40 percent of one-year-olds were exposed to more than three hours of television a day.
• At 3 months, 14 percent of babies had televisions in their rooms. By 18 months, it’s 30 percent.
• Fussier or more agitated babies were more likely to watch at least an hour of TV a day.
The upshot, Thompson says, is that many parents are using television to distract or calm their babies. But the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV for kids under two years old. Pediatricians and researchers suggest that parents allow babies and toddlers to explore their environment, play with age-appropriate toys, and read books with caregivers.
Early exposure to television might set kids up for a more sedentary life or delay motor skill development, but it’s just one precursor to childhood obesity that Bentley’s team has studied. Diet is another; its effect on weight is likely much more direct than television’s.
Maternal health experts recommend that babies don’t eat or drink anything other than breast milk for at least their first six months of life.
That’s no longer a common practice in the United States. Using the same data from surveys and observations of 217 mothers, Bentley’s team found that 75 percent of three-month-olds were fed complementary foods along with breast milk or formula. Twenty-five percent were fed juice, which is full of empty calories. Just 6 percent were fed breast milk exclusively.
Also, Bentley’s team found that mothers who thought their infants were fussy or agitated were much more likely to feed their babies food and juice at three months old.
The findings suggest that babies are getting too many calories at a young age, which likely plays a role in childhood obesity.
Bentley’s team is now studying how to reverse these trends. Her team is recruiting hundreds of expectant mothers, caregivers, and family members to provide guidance on the benefits of breastfeeding, proper diet, and engaged play with babies and toddlers, as well as on the potential detriment of watching too much television. Mothers in the control group, meanwhile, will receive interventions about child safety.
“We think these are important teachable moments,” Bentley says. “Moms want their babies to be healthy and on track to reach developmental milestones.” And they want to soothe their babies. But some mothers don’t know the best strategies to calm an infant down. So during the study, Bentley’s team will help mothers develop more parenting skills.
“There are ways to soothe a baby without using food or television,” she says. It’s just easier to distract a baby with a bottle or television.
But Bentley’s team has shown that the easier parenting methods can lead to some hard consequences. They found one more thing: overweight infants face a higher risk of delayed motor skill development, which can lead to reduced physical activity.
Childhood obesity, turns out, can be a vicious cycle that begins shortly after baby’s first breath.


There are many reading comprehension strategies that excellent readers can do to make reading successful. The more reading strategies that are in place, the better the reader will do at reading. There is so much research on reading comprehension strategies, many can be successfully implemented, but one of my favorite resources for reading success ideas are from my own classroom of 6th grade students.
My 6th graders came up with the best ideas for reading comprehension strategies to use when we were brainstorming and documenting ideas on chart paper to display in the classroom.
Here you will find the top 10 reading comprehension strategies that my classroom students picked as the most important:
Make Time to Read Often
The old adage still holds true that the more you read, the better you will get. Taking the time to just sit down and read is one of the most important ways to build strong reading comprehension strategies.
Going back and rereading the text is a great reading comprehension strategy to implement in case the reader missed something in the first reading and needs to gain a better understanding of the text.
Visualizing the story in your mind while reading is an excellent way to take the meaning of the text to a deeper comprehension level.
When you make connections from your own life to the text, it helps to gain a better understanding of the message that the writer is trying to convey.
Predicting what will happen next in the story can help the reader to make the story even more exciting and also help the reader to want to read more.
Drawing a conclusion upon reading a specific amount of text will aid the reader in thinking more intently about the story and also gain a deeper understanding of the text.
Using post-its or lined paper to jot down thoughts and ideas while reading is an excellent way to document thinking and the reader can also always go back and look at their notes for a refresher on what the text was about.
Find Your Appropriate Reading Level
Reading a book that is not too easy or too hard and is just right is an excellent way to get the most out of your reading experience.
Recommending good books and taking suggestions for good books helps to make the excitement for reading increase. Sharing suggestions for good books is an excellent reading strategy to keep readers engaged and planning for future readings.
Read a Variety of Genres
Experiencing a variety of genres gives the reader a more in depth look at a range of writings. A reader can get stuck in one genre and could be missing out on a plethora of outstanding books.
Becoming an excellent reader entails the use of a range of reading comprehension strategies, but practice does make perfect so continual reading is imperative for reading success!


Florence Nightingale Levy
Florence Nightingale Levy’s most significant achievement was the founding of the American Art Annual in 1898. A comprehensive directory of the American art world, the Annual catalogued schools, associations, exhibitions, and artists nationwide. Levy went on to perform invaluable editing, organizing, and educational roles in the American art world for the next fifty years.
An only child, Florence Levy was born on August 13, 1870, in New York City, to Joseph Arthur and Pauline (Goodheim) Levy. She studied art at the National Academy of Design, but turned to art history and criticism. She went on to further study at the Louvre in Paris under curator Gaston Lafenestre (1894–1895), at Columbia University, with leading American artists (including John La Farge), and with art historian John C. Van Dyke.
Known as “Florence the Clipper” for her habit of clipping articles from newspapers, Levy turned her clipping collection into the first volume of the American Art Annual in 1898. For the next twenty-one years, she edited the Annual. In December 1901, she also began publishing the weekly New York Art Bulletin. In six years, it grew to twenty-four pages, became a national newssheet, and was eventually sold to Art News. Her other major publication, Art in New York, a guide to the New York art scene, went through six editions between 1916 and 1939.
Levy’s knowledge of the New York and national art communities led her to art education, museums, and an exploration of the relationship between art and industry. She began teaching private art history classes in 1901. In 1908, she helped edit a guide called Art Education in the Public Schools of the United States; other guides followed, including Professional Art Schools in the United States (1914) and Art Education in New York City for Artists and Artisans (1916). In 1909, Levy was a cofounder of the School Art League of New York, an organization that brought art into public schools. In that same year, she also helped to create the American Federation of Arts, dedicated to promoting art through means such as traveling exhibitions.
Levy worked on the staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1909–1917), and later became director of the newly founded Baltimore Museum (1922–1926). During the hiatus between museum positions, she began her involvement with art and industry and with vocational guidance, areas that would shape the rest of her career. From 1917 to 1919, she ran the Art Alliance of America, which urged industrial use of American arts and design during World War I. In 1922, she published a survey of the silver industry in Art in Industry. From 1927 to 1932, she was director of the Arts Council of New York City (renamed the New York Regional Art Council in 1929). The council was affiliated with the National Alliance of Art and Industry, for which Levy served as the supervisor of vocational service (1932–1934). In 1934, she became director of the Federated Council on Art Education (later renamed the Art Education Council), where she focused on vocational guidance and edited Occupations Requiring a Knowledge of Art.
Levy was a member of Congregation Shaarei Tefila. She died in New York on November 15, 1947. Known for her dedication, efficiency, and ability, she left a major legacy of national and New York–based arts advocacy and organizing.
AJYB 6 (1904–1905): 138, 24:171, 50:519; BEOAJ; Howes, Durwood, ed. American Women, 1935–1940: A Composite Dictionary. Vol. 1 (1981): 524; Leonard, John William, Woman’s Who’s Who of America, 1914–1915 (1914); Levy, Florence Nightingale. Papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and Florence Nightingale Levy Collection. New-York Historical Society, NYC; National Cyclopaedia of American Biography; NAW; Obituary. NYTimes, November 17, 1947, 22:2; “Preface.” American Art Annual. Vol. 1 (1899); UJE; Who’s Who in American Art. Vol. 4 (1940–1947): 284; WWIAJ (1926, 1928, 1938).
How to cite this page
Swinth, Kirsten. "Florence Nightingale Levy." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on July 2, 2016) <http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/levy-florence-nightingale>.


Dr Suelette Dreyfus is an expert on whistleblowing and technology, data retention, privacy and national security.
The $60,000 initiative, jointly funded by the Australian High Commission Papua New Guinea’s Direct Aid Program and the University of Melbourne’s, was carried out with consideration for the unique challenges faced by the remote Suanum community on the northern coastline of PNG. This includes clean running water, a sanitary neonatal centre that sleeps up to four women, and an innovative composting toilet system.
The project team, led by Dr David O’Brien from the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, collaborated with the community to design and build sanitary facilities that are vital for improving health outcomes.
“This was a unique opportunity for the Master of Architecture students to enhance their design and consultation skills. The Suanum community of almost 100 people has no health facilities available to them within a three-hour radius.
“Like all coastal communities, Suanum is also at risk from rising sea levels. The traditional pit toilets flood during high tides, spreading human waste throughout the community,” Dr O’Brien said.
In Papua New Guinea prenatal complications are the leading form of death. Less than half of women give birth at a health facility or hospital, leading to one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world, where prenatal complications are responsible for one out of every ten deaths. Infant mortality rates are more than ten times higher than Australia, with 47 infant deaths per 1000 live births in PNG, compared to three infant deaths per 1000 live births in Australia.
“Safe and clean facilities reduce the physical and mental risks for the mother and child in the first month after birth. The facilities we have designed will improve health outcomes, while also respecting the community’s strong cultural traditions,” Dr O’Brien said.
Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, Ms Deborah Stokes, congratulated the architecture students on the success of the project.
Ms Stokes said facilities for skilled supervised births such as the Suanum neonatal centre are vital in saving the lives of mothers and their children during childbirth. The project supported Australia’s broader commitment to providing increased midwifery education and facilities in PNG.
Since 2008, the Bower Studio has brought together University architecture students and researchers to work with Indigenous groups in remote locations in Australia, Thailand and Papua New Guinea. The project teams have helped to design and build facilities that improve the community environments, including sanitary facilities, houses, computer labs and early childhood learning centres.
You can see an example of previous Bower Studio work below:


ECERS-R, ECERS-E and ITERS-R
The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale – Revised (ECERS-R) is designed to evaluate quality of provision for children aged 2½ to 5 years in centre-based settings.
The Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scale – Revised (ITERS-R) is the partner scale for the 0-2½ age range. Both the ECERS-R and ITERS-R contain a wide range of statements or ‘indicators’ with which to evaluate the quality of the early years environment in its broadest sense. These indicators 'stack up' like building blocks to celebrate strengths and provide signposts to improvement. They also provide a rigorous means of measuring quality - and improvement in quality - over time.The ECERS-R and ITERS-R evaluate seven broad dimensions of quality:
• Space and furnishings (e.g. room layout, accessibility of resources, display)
• Personal care routines (e.g. welfare requirements such as health & safety and provision for sleeping)
• Language and reasoning (e.g. supporting children’s communication, language and literacy development; critical thinking)
• Activities (e.g. provision of an exciting and accessible learning environment, resources to support specific types of play)
• Interaction (e.g. supervision, support for social interactions)
• Programme structure (e.g. opportunities for children to access their own curriculum, planning schedules/routines to meet children’s needs)
• Provision for parents and staff (e.g. partnership with parents, staff training and development)
Both the ECERS-R and ITERS-R were developed by Thelma Harms, Richard Clifford and Debby Cryer at the University of North Carolina.
An extension to the ECERS-R (the ECERS-E) was designed by Professor Kathy Sylva, Professor Iram Siraj-Blatchford and Brenda Taggart as part of the EPPE Project. It provides greater depth and additional items in four educational aspects of provision:
• Literacy (e.g. opportunities for emergent writing, letters and sounds)
• Mathematics (e.g. number, reasoning)
• Science and Environment (e.g. supporting children’s creative and critical thinking and understanding of the natural and physical world)
• Diversity (e.g. planning for children’s individual learning needs, valuing and respecting other cultures, gender diversity).


Teachers and students will love the way Gamester makes learning the letters of the alphabet fun and easy for even the youngest of learners.
Provo, Utah (PRWEB) September 29, 2011
To help parents and teachers provide engaging educational activities for children of the digital age, Imagine Learning, developer of the award-winning children’s language and literacy software program Imagine Learning English, has released its second mobile learning application, Gamester. The app, which is compatible with iOS devices, is now available as a free download in the iTunes store.
Gamester features three interactive kids’ games designed to help young learners master the letters of the alphabet:
- In “Free the Aliens,” players race against the clock to identify letters and free aliens trapped in a crater.
- In “Build a Monster,” kids create their very own monster or robot by choosing the correct letter of the alphabet.
- In “Letter Shapes & Sounds,” young readers learn the shapes and sounds of new letters.
Gamester is designed for both home and school use. “This would be an excellent addition to any early literacy curriculum,” said Clydie Wakefield, executive director of curriculum development at Imagine Learning. “Teachers and students will love the way Gamester makes learning the letters of the alphabet fun and easy for even the youngest of learners.”
While Imagine Learning is best known as the company behind Imagine Learning English, an engaging language and literacy software program that helps students read at grade level, the company has also produced successful mobile apps. Bookster, the read-along storytelling app from Imagine Learning, was recently updated with new books and features. The company sees mobile apps as another way to deliver effective reading instruction to children.
“Kids growing up in the digital age need educational activities that are also engaging and interactive,” said Susan Preator, president and CEO of Imagine Learning. “With Gamester, children can have fun learning critical early reading skills anytime, anywhere.”
Additional games for the app are in development. The company appreciates feedback from parents, educators and kids who use the app. Consumers are encouraged to download Gamester and submit reviews to the iTunes App Store or to apps(at)imaginelearning(dot)com.
About Imagine Learning
Imagine Learning is the company behind Imagine Learning English, an innovative language and literacy software program designed to meet the needs of four key student populations: English learners, struggling readers, students with disabilities and early childhood education students. With first-language support and continual assessment, Imagine Learning English gives students one-on-one instruction and scaffolded support while keeping teachers abreast of student progress through real-time reports.
Visit http://www.imaginelearning.com to find out how Imagine Learning English gives students, parents and teachers essential tools for language and literacy development.


The Kodály Method
The Kodály method is a complete program of music education that contributes to the emotional, intellectual, aesthetic and physical development of the child, providing the child with tools to help him/her achieve a fuller life.
This method is a structured and sequenced approach to music education that is related to the child’s own development, physically and intellectually.
The principal objectives of Kodály musical training are:
- To develop to the fullest extent possible the innate musicality present in all children.
To make the language of music known to children and to help them become musically literate (able to read, write and create music, to “sing what they see and see what they sing”).
- To make the music of a child’s own culture known to him through the folk songs of his/her language and culture.
- To make the great art music of the world available to a child through performing, studying and analyzing music while developing a love and appreciation for all types of music.


A community-wide book drive will be held during 2013 to collect approximately 10, 000 new and gently used books to distribute to ten Vancouver elementary schools identified by the Atlas of Child Development as being vulnerable in the area of Language and Cognitive Development.
“Reading is the only way to regain the faculty of imagination.” Read the article
Read the full article here.
Massachusetts article stresses the power of shared family reading in building literacy. Here are a few tips from the article:
Parents can play specific roles in children’s literacy development:
· Creating a literacy-rich environment
· Sharing reading and writing activities
· Acting as reading models
· Demonstrating attitudes toward education
· Set time aside for reading
· Make reading special
· Use your local library
· Limit television time
Critical thinking and reading are discussed in an article on a Brooklyn, NY, science class. Read the article here.


Details about Primary Mathematics and the Developing Professional:
Abstract. This introduction sets the scene for the remainder of the book by considering first the international context of widespread concern about the improvement of numeracy skills. This is related to reform movements in the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries aimed at modernising primary (elementary) school mathematics curricula. A detailed account is given of the National Numeracy Strategy in England, a systemic government-imposed response to concern about standards implemented in 1999/2000. This includes a discussion of the alternative meanings of numeracy. An earlier initiative sponsored by a United Kingdom charitable trust reacting to concern about primary numeracy was the Leverhulme Numeracy Research Programme. This large-scale longitudinal study and linked set of case-study projects, focusing on reasons for low attainment, took place during 1997-2002. This book, and each other in the same series, is based on results of that research. The timescale fortuitously enabled the research team to also report on some effects of the systemic reform in the National Numeracy Strategy. 1. THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT In many countries, there are recurring periods of national concern about the low standards of calculation skills shown by children in primary (elementary) schools. Recently, these concerns have become more urgent and more political with the publication of international comparisons of mathematical achievement, first at secondary and more recently at primary level (e. g. Lapointe, Mead, & Askew 1992; Mullis et al., 1997).
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Developing Readers and Writers in the Content Areas K-12:
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This practical, engaging text introduces prospective and practicing teachers to K-12 content reading instruction. #xA0; Unlike any other text in the market, the content progresses from general practices, cycles, and settings of instruction, to units of instruction and specific lesson planning. Well-respected authors Dave Moore, Pat Cunningham, Sharon Moore, Patricia M. Cunningham, and Jim Cunningham speak to educators new to the idea of content area literacy instruction and focus on instruction that is aligned with state standards and tests, yet promote literacy that goes beyond that which is tested. #xA0; The sixth edition of Developing Readers and Writers in the Content Areas#xA0;places even more emphasis than in the past on (a) new digital literacies, (b) disciplinary literacies, and (c) English learners and special needs students. Chapters describe instruction appropriate for a comprehensive content-area literacy program (literature, comprehension, vocabulary, writing, study, inquiry, and differentiation), and include end-of-chapter applications that show how the practices apply to specific content areas such as science and mathematics. This text contains accessible language, concrete examples, and adjunct learning aids to help new learners access it.
David W. Moore is as a Professor of Education at Arizona State University where he teaches secondary school teacher education courses and advises doctoral students. His vita shows a thirty year publication record that balances research reports, professional articles, and books. He is active in many professional organizations and consulting.
Sharon Arthur Moore retired after serving four decades as an educator including classroom teacher, Title I teacher, university faculty member, literacy coach, and literacy director in two school districts. She currently provides staff development for school districts and is writing fiction. Her vita includes research reports, professional articles, and books.
Patricia Cunningham grew up in Rhode Island. For seven years, after graduating from The University of Rhode Island, she taught a variety of elementary grades in Florida and Indiana. She received her Ph. D in Reading Education from the University Of Georgia in 1974. After teaching at Ohio University and serving as Director of Reading for Alamance Co., North Carolina Schools, she came to Wake Forest University to direct the Elementary Education program in 1978. Pat’s particular interest has always been in finding alternative ways to teach children for whom learning to read is difficult. Reading and Writing in Elementary Classrooms, first published in 1978, is currently in its fourth edition. In 1991, She published Phonics they Use: Words for Reading and Writing, which is currently available in its fourth edition. Along with Richard Allington, She published Classrooms that Work and Schools that Work. Along with Dorothy Hall, she developed the Four Blocks Literacy framework, which is currently used as the balanced literacy framework in thousand of classrooms throughout the country. She and Dorothy Hall are co-directors of the Four Blocks Literacy Center, which is housed at Wake Forest University.
James W. Cunningham has over 100 professional publications in reading and writing education such as college textbooks, book chapters including major research reviews, and original research published in major research journals. He has been a professor of education at UNC-Chapel Hill and an elementary classroom teacher.


Master Marketer: Thomas Chambers
At the request of reader Therese, today's "Feel Art Again" post features Thomas Chambers (1808-1866). The British-American painter's specialties were landscapes and maritime paintings, both of which often featured dramatic skies. Since this week is also "Sky Awareness Week," Chambers was a logical choice.
1. As far as scholars know, Thomas Chambers received no formal art education. They speculate he learned to paint from his older brother, George, himself a self-taught artist. George started out "painting trunks and buckets" and eventually became prominent enough that he was painting for King William IV and exhibiting in the Royal Academy.
2. Chambers produced approximately 10 to 12 paintings of the view of West Point from the river. In each, the U.S. Military Academy buildings are small but detailed. The scene was one of his most popular views.
3. Considered a "master marketer," Chambers knew how to respond to the public's interests and desires. Chambers would play to the public's interest by painting battle scenes from famous novels and popular news stories. Scholars believe Chambers was more inclined to meet the public's demands because he depended on the income from his paintings to survive.
4. Chambers never exhibited at any official art exhibitions during his time, which actually may have been to his benefit. As one scholar remarked, "the critics of the 1840s and "˜50s would have been horrified by his art: It was too bright and flat, it wasn't fully furnished, it was reproachfully dependent on printed sources and therefore insufficiently original."
5. Although Chambers' works were popular with the public, he eventually fell out of favor. When he died in England in 1869, Chambers was disabled and penniless, living in the poorhouse.
A larger version of "Boston Harbor" (shown above) is available here.
Fans should check out the Chambers collections at the National Library of Australia (2), University of Rochester (2), Addison Gallery of American Art (2), The Athenaeum (3), and the National Gallery of Art (10).


Statistical Linkages between State Education Assessments and the National Assessment of Educational Progress.Arenson, Ethan A.
Abstract: The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) measures the educational achievement of nationally representative samples of students in grades 4, 8, and 12. Local educational agencies tend to view the NAEP as a benchmark to which the educational achievement of their students can be compared. In particular, state departments of education wish to compare their assessments to the NAEP. The complex design of the NAEP renders simple comparisons problematic at best. A linear projection-plus-variation method is used to translate student state assessment scores onto the NAEP scale. The accuracy of this method is estimated through repeated half- sampling. A brief description of the 1998 NAEP reading assessment for grades 4 and 8 is discussed. Results from one of the six states in the current linkage study and recommendations for establishing a successful linkage are also presented. (Contains 2 tables and 12 references.) (Author/SLD)
Title: Statistical Linkages between State Education Assessments and the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Author: Arenson, Ethan A.
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Sacramento Statistical Association (Sacramento, CA, March 31, 1999).
Publication Year: March 31, 1999
Document Type: Reports--research (143); Speeches/meeting Papers (150)
Target Audience: Administrators and Practitioners and Teachers
ERIC Identifier: ED432609
Clearinghouse Identifier: TM029992
Available from: EDRS Price MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.
You may be able to order this document.
Descriptors: * Academic Achievement; Elementary Education; Grade 4; Grade 8; National Competency Tests; Reading Tests; Sampling; Standardized Tests; * State Programs; * Statistical Analysis; * Test Results; * Testing Programs
Identifiers: *Linkage; *National Assessment of Educational Progress; State Reading Assessments


Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The 3 Rs of Poetry
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
Poetry scares me.
How about you?
Poetry is language organized by rhythm. Reading and reciting poems with your child can be a very beneficial activity when it comes to building early literacy skills.
Many people think children will dislike poetry,
but that`s far from the truth...Children get a
real kick out of the bounce and wackiness of
poetry, and poems can often be paths to
literacy for children who have previously
found reading difficult.
- Mem Fox, Reading Magic, p. 88
Rhythm and Rhyme
Poems with good rhythm, the way the words bounce off the tongue, are especially appealing to young children who are mastering language and reading. The best ones should almost seem like you`re singing them.
Being able to rhyme is a very important milestone in early literacy development. Rhyme helps children understand that words that share common sounds often share common letter sequences. Rhyme also helps children break words into smaller parts and recognize smaller parts in words.
Nursery rhymes are a great way to introduce rhyme. They can be spoken, sung or read aloud. Not only are nursery rhymes a pleasure to hear and to share, they provide a building block toward literacy.
Books with Rhythm
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom? by Bill Martin Jr.
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess
I Went Walking by Sue Williams
Books with Rhyme
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle
Down by the Bay by Raffi
Silly Sally by Audrey Wood
Repetition helps children make good guesses about what words will come next when you are reading with them or to them. Notice how your child’s reading confidence builds when the same great line keeps coming around again. This will help your child see himself as a reader.
Repetition helps information “stick” in your child’s memory. Your child will remember what they read long after they have read it.
Repetition makes poems memorable for your child and helps them understand what they are reading (the storyline).
Books with Repetition
The Napping House by Audrey Wood
Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too? by Eric Carle
Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino
What Else Does Poetry Help With?
vocabulary knowing the names of things
assonance the repetition of vowel sounds that are close together. Example: I made my way to the lake.
consonance the repetition of consonant sounds that are close together. Example: Brown bear, brown bear
syllable counting chunks of sounds in words
patterning word order and sentence structure
learning and remembering
Do not to squirt glue all over the paper :
"A drop, a drop, a drop will do
Any more is too much glue."
"A straight line down makes a one
Writing numbers can be fun!"
pretend play using imagination to make mental images
alliteration two or more words begin with the same letter or sound.
Example: Miss Mary Mack
Favourite Poets for younger children:
Does anyone have any other suggestions for books with great rhythm, rhyme or repetition? How about great poetry books for young children?
What are some creative ways to use poetry with young children?


Mary Joan Deutschbein Copyright © 1999
A first time visitor to an exhibition of the work of Waldorf pupils is usually particularly struck by the paintings. They make an unusual impression. The first perception is of strong, shining primary or mixed colors that are fundamentally translucent. These pictures have various different color moods. The colors appear to be hovering, they are not dense like colors that are attached to physical objects. The surfaces of color are not confined within contours, there are no outlines. The colors can move about unhindered and blend or become consolidated at will. They do not seem to be fixed to the surface, but seem to come to meet us or draw away from us...
(excerpt from "Drawing & Painting in Waldorf Schools")
Watercolor painting, form drawing with block or thin beeswax crayons, beeswax modeling: These may be considered by some to be art education. Indeed, I have heard grumbling by some of the students that these activities do not allow them enough realism for their art. While I cannot pose to be any sort of expert on Waldorf methods or Rudolf Steiner's philosophy, I'd like to take a stab at explaining why the above activities are not meant to be art at all, but are another vehicle for our children's growth and spiritual integration.
Central to Waldorf principles is the need to surround children with beauty. Watercolors and beeswax crayons (when used with teacher guidance and purpose) naturally create very beautiful works without technical talent. You will notice that the teachers use care not to allow the children to muddle their colors into a brown mess. At home our children may find joy creating many shades of brown and black in their artistic pursuits, but at the Waldorf school there is a grander purpose than just learning that mixing all of the colors makes mud.
Watercolor paints remind me of the silk scarves Waldorf parents are encouraged to use as drapes over their babies' cradles. When children are small, their perception of the physical world is still veiled. Most young children are not able to perceive strict realism. They are still emerging from their spiritual womb. This emergence will continue until the child is well into adulthood. As a matter of fact, Waldorf philosophy is quite emphatic that to push a child into realism (through premature reading or denial of fantasy play) can cripple their spiritual development.
Working with beeswax is a very sensual experience. The smell of the wax, the feel of it softening in the hand, the shimmering color all create a pleasurable atmosphere for the exploration of three dimensional creation. The children listen to their teacher's story and manifest an element from the story with their own hands. Watercolor paints and beeswax crayons allow the child to create without literalism. They are continually pushed away from the inside of arbitrary boundaries to the radiating form. In this way children are taught that they do not need to confine themselves, their thoughts or the others around themselves into a preconceived box or how things/people are supposed to be configured.
As with the stories being told to the children, the forms they are being taught have nothing to do with literal representation. The forms are meant to resonate with the child's state of development, to assist with the brain's integration of the surrounding world. The forms, the paintings, the beeswax sculptures all assist in the maturation of the spirit/emotion/body. The fact that the results are beautiful objects or pictures is a lovely by-product, NOT the primary goal.
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Music Training Helps Your Learning and Memory
Music training is good for the brain. Nina Kraus, a prominent brain researcher at Northwestern University, says that “music training leads to changes throughout the auditory system that prime musicians for listening challenges beyond music processing.” The research in her laboratory and that from other labs suggests music training does for brain what exercise does for body fitness. She says “music is a resource that tones the brain for auditory fitness.”
Musicians are commonly studied models for neural plasticity, which refers to the ability of learning experiences to change the brain chemically and physically. Musicians have more brain grey matter volume in areas that are important for playing an instrument and in the auditory cortex, which processes all kinds of sound. Of course, the effects of music training are most robust for processing of music. But benefit transfers to speech, language, emotion, and general auditory processing.
In general, auditory learning requires formation of efficient sound-to-meaning relationships, which in turn require attending to sensory details—fine-grained properties of sound such as pitch, timing and timbre—but also thinking skills related to integrating sensory input and operating on it in working memory.
Music training confers ability to assess the relevance and predictability of information-bearing elements in an auditory signal. So, even in non-musical contexts, such as listening to a speech, lecture or soundtrack in a movie, musicians should learn and remember more of the content than non-musicians. Musicians also have an advantage when it comes to learning the sounds of a new language.
Music training imposes a high working memory load. That can be a good thing in that it helps you expand your working memory capacity, and thus reduces the impairing effects on memory of working memory overload. Increasing working memory capacity also improves the ability to think, as manifested in IQ scores. Since musicians usually have greater working memory capacity, it doesn’t mean they are smarter than anybody else. But, it probably does mean they are smarter than they would be if they were not musicians.
Music training also helps improve certain memory capabilities outside of music. For example, musicians show improvements inauditory verbal memory and auditory attention, but not in visual memory or visual attention. This brings up the matter of learning styles: auditory, visual or kinesthetic learning. Most people are visual learners, but to the best possible learners they need to develop all three styles. Music training should help their auditory learning style, especially under conditions where the sounds to be learned are embedded in conflicting sound stimuli, such as noisy rooms or learning a new language.
This is all fine and good, but how does this apply to the masses who are not musicians? Would listening to a lot of music help the brain? I doubt it, for listening does not make rigorous task demands on the brain. Would music training for non-musicians help the brain? Maybe, especially if training occurred at a young age when the brain is maturing.
One study of children showed that fifteen months of intense music training induced structural changes in the primary auditory and primary motor areas. These structural changes were associated with improved auditory and motor skills, respectively. Other studies show children who are musically trained, compared with non-trained children, have a better vocabulary in their native language and a greater reading ability. Presumably, they would be better at learning other languages.
When and how much music training should be provided to children? Formal studies suggest that greatest benefit occurs if training begins before age seven. The benefits also correlate with the amount of music practice. However, much remains to be learned about effects of age and duration and nature of the music training.
Nina argues for more and better music education in the early grades of schools. She believes music training may benefit academic achievement by improving learning skills and listening ability; especially in challenging listening environments, which are all too common in classrooms that are usually very noisy, despite research proving that classroom noise impairs learning. Noise not only creates problems of discerning salient sounds embedded in the overall noise, but also creates a major distraction that impairs focused attention, information registration and memory consolidation.
Earlier research shows IQ in children improves when they are taught to have larger working memory capacity. Since working memory is apparently increased by music training, and music training also enhances auditory learning, it seems like a no-brainer to suggest that more music training needs to occur in elementary school.
1. Kraus, N. and Chandrasekaran, B. 2010. Music training for the development of auditory skills. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience. 11: 500-505.
For more info, contact Page Stegner, Certified Simply Music Teacher at (530) 414-4464, or visit online at www.tahoepianolessons.com.


ERIC Number: ED377465
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1995
Reference Count: 0
Parents and Teachers: Helping Children Learn To Read and Write.
Rasinski, Timothy V., Ed.
Intended to provide practical amd proven ideas to help children develop as literate persons, this book presents 24 essays on diverse topics to help teachers and parents realize the potential they have for improving children's literacy development. The ideas presented in the book are based on sound research, theory, and actual practice. After an introduction ("Teacher-Parent Partnerships" by Timothy Rasinski), chapters in the book are: (1) "Seven Steps to Creating a Literate Home Environment" (Mary Steele Mastain); (2) "About Play, Literacy, and Growing Up" (Kathy Roskos); (3) "Storytelling Connections: Ways to Catch Children's Imaginations and Excite Them about Learning" (Olga Nelson); (4) "Children Never Outgrow 'Read Me another...'" (Karla Hawkins Wendelin); (5) "It's Not Just What You Do but How You Do It That Counts" (David F. Lancy); (6) "Hundreds of Books, Thousands of Books...Finding Good Books for Eager Readers" (Barbara Peterson); (7) "Linking Children to the Past through Historical Fiction" (Susan S. Lehr); (8) "Paired Reading: A Positive Approach to Parent-Child Reading Time" (Louisa Kozey); (9) "Reading Aloud to Older, Independent Readers" (Daniel Woolsey); (10) "Becoming Readers and Writers Together" (JoBeth Allen); (11) "Demystify the Written Word and Make Writing a Lifelong Adventure" (Sally Hudson-Ross); (12) "The Role of Lists in Family Literacy" (Nancy Padak and Timothy Rasinski); (13) "Helping Develop Competent Spellers: Parents and Children Working Together" (Jerry Zutell); (14) "Using Computers to Promote Literacy" (Linda DeGroff); (15)"Television and Literacy" (David Reinking and Douglas Pardon); (16) "Understanding Changes in Beginning Reading (and Writing) Instruction" (Susan Carey Biggam); (17) "Nurturing Children's Literacy Development through Parent-Teacher Conferences" (Anthony D. Fredericks); (18) "Literacy Is for All Languages: Building Literacy in Nonnative English-Speaking Homes" (Sally Nathenson-Mejia); (19) "Reading, Writing, and Giftedness" (Beverly Shaklee); (20) "Parent Volunteers: Partners in Literacy" (Elizabeth Gibbons Pryor); (21) "The Problems and Promises of Dealing with Principals" (Fredrick R. Burton); (22) "Reading Instruction in the Intermediate Grades: Preferred Practices" (Karen D. Wood and Robert J. Rickelman); (23) "Parental Roles in Reading and Writing Evaluation" (Jan Turbill and JoBeth Allen); and (24) "Parents and Schools Assessing Literacy Growth Together" (J. Michael Ritty). (RS)
Descriptors: Beginning Reading, Elementary Education, Family Environment, Family Literacy, Gifted, Parent Child Relationship, Parent Participation, Parent Teacher Conferences, Parent Teacher Cooperation, Reading Aloud to Others, Reading Habits, Reading Instruction, Story Telling, Student Evaluation, Television Viewing, Writing Instruction
Harcourt Brace and Co., 6277 Sea Harbor Dr., Orlando, FL 32887-6777 ($24).
Publication Type: Guides - Classroom - Teacher; Collected Works - General; Books
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Parents; Practitioners; Teachers
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers: Historical Fiction


ERIC Number: ED240706
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1983
Reference Count: 0
Introduction to Computers in Education for Elementary and Middle School Teachers.
Designed to help elementary and middle school teachers increase their level of computer-education literacy, this book discusses the capabilities, limitations, applications, and possible impact of computers in education. Chapter 1 briefly defines what a computer is and explains the book's goals and applications. Chapter 2 provides a technical overview of microcomputers and computer software and hardware, an appendix on calculators, and discussions of computer output devices, the computer's central processing unit, computer memory, and videodisks. Following chapter 3's demonstrations of how computers can provide "automatic flashcards" for students, chapter 4 describes a variety of educational computer games. In chapter 5, the author reviews the histroy of automated symbol manipulation and the development of computer languages such as FORTRAN and BASIC. Chapter 6 focuses on the use of computers for problem solving and outlines several possible applications. Chapter 7's discussion of computer and information science includes attention to modeling and simulation, information retrieval, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and computer science's educational implications. Chapter 8 is devoted to the future of computers in business, industry, and education. The book concludes with an appendix on precollege computer literacy. (JBM)
Descriptors: Autoinstructional Aids, Calculators, Computer Assisted Instruction, Computer Literacy, Computer Managed Instruction, Computer Oriented Programs, Computer Programs, Computer Science, Computers, Educational Technology, Elementary Education, Guides, Input Output Devices, Inservice Teacher Education, Introductory Courses, Microcomputers, Middle Schools, Problem Solving, Teachers
Publications, International Council for Computers in Education, 1787 Agate Street, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403 ($7.00 prepaid; quantity discounts; on non-prepaid orders, add $2.50 postage and handling).
Publication Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Teachers; Practitioners
Authoring Institution: International Council for Computers in Education, Eugene, OR.


Like many higher education establishments, the University of Liberia holds an annual entrance exam. This year the results came as a bit of a shock – the pass rate was precisely zero. Out of 25,000 people who sat the exam not one made the grade.
For most media outlets around the world this was a perfect ‘and finally...’ news item – but, writing for Businessweek, Charles Kenny gets to the real story, which is the enormous learning gap between the developed and developing world:
- “Analysis by Harvard’s Lant Pritchett suggests that the average eighth-grader in Ghana has test scores on math and science that would place her in the bottom one-five-hundredth of U.S. students. Even richer and more successful countries such as Argentina or Indonesia see scores on international math and science tests that would rank the average test-taker in the bottom 10 percent of the student population of a country like Denmark.”
You might think that students in less developed countries do much worse because they don’t get much schooling. But, in fact, the last few decades have seen rapid progress on access to formal education:
- “Of the world’s population, about 7 out of 10 live in a country where pretty much every child completes primary school. The proportion of secondary-school-aged kids who are in classes has climbed from about half to two-thirds over the past 15 years...
- “The learning gap helps to explain how developing countries can be so poor despite high educational attainment. In 2010 the average Kenyan adult had spent more years in school than the average French adult had as recently as 1985. Sadly, that didn’t convert into a Kenyan income per capita equal to France’s two decades ago—in fact, the gross domestic product per head in Kenya in 2010 was only 7 percent of France’s in 1985.”
Obviously a school in a remote part of Africa or India will only have a fraction of the resources available to a school in the developed world – and yet that doesn’t appear to be the key factor:
- “From 2007 to 2011, India increased its per-student expenditure on elementary education by 80 percent while student learning outcomes were declining.”
Health outcomes are also improving across much of the developing world, with progress on indicators like child mortality out-stripping economic growth.
Charles Kenny argues that the major problem with schooling in poorer countries (including those that aren’t much poorer than the West) is simply the quality of the education provided. While children are spending more time in school they’re not necessarily learning much while they’re there.
Fortunately, experience shows that there's an affordable way of lifting standards:
- “Testing is cheap—reviews of experience across countries suggests that an assessment system rarely costs more than 0.3 percent of the education budget. And countries that have introduced testing as part of a school reform effort have shown real results. Brazil and Chile have both introduced all-student testing regimes alongside accountability and autonomy reforms over the past few years, and both have seen better performance in international student assessments—Chile improved student learning at the fastest rate worldwide from 1995 to 2011.”
In this country we’ve become increasingly sceptical about the imposition of onerous reporting requirements on schools and other frontline public services. To a large extent, we’re right to be so. However, the lesson from elsewhere in the world is that an objective and transparent measure of performance can still make all the difference.
And there’s another lesson we should learn before it’s too late. The under-performance of schools in the developing world shows just how much untapped potential these countries possess. Sooner or later that potential will be released into economies that are already growing fast. We’d better be ready for the competition.


Many people may think that art is the easiest subject to include in your homeschool curriculum. However, I’ve heard on several occasions how families feel intimidated by the prospect of “teaching” art. They often express that they’re not artists themselves and that they have little knowledge about techniques and the process.
I love art. While I occasionally create artwork, I’m by no means an expert but I feel that this is what makes homeschooling art so much fun. I get to learn side-by-side with my children. For me, that’s exciting!
I started this last year with my daughter. I bought her an art journal and encouraged her to draw in it every day. On some days she draws something inspired by our studies and on other days she draws whatever inspires her. I always record the date and a “title” for her drawings in her art journal.
I love using books to introduce concepts to my children. There are some amazing books available which provide art education and inspiration. Here are a couple of my favourites:
Artist studies are a wonderful way to teach children about art. You don’t need to know a lot about the artist… use this opportunity to explore together! My daughter and I have done artist studies on Paul Klee and Maud Lewis. You can investigate our artist studies or feel free to create your own!
Another resource is the Teachers Pay Teachers website. There are amazing curriculum packages and artist-specific ideas which can be purchased for a few dollars each!
If you’re wanting to explore art techniques with your child, there are many books and videos available which teach different artistic processes.
Local libraries and art galleries may also offer free or inexpensive lessons as well.
Exploring art mediums
It’s important to note that art doesn’t simply mean drawing and painting. There are many mediums of art to explore. Here are some of our favourites.
* 3D art (with random recycled materials)
* acrylic paints on canvas
* water colours on paper
Last year I discovered the process of notebooking. Here’s how I use notebooking in our homeschool lessons:
* I use the notebooking site to construct a set of lessons or a study.
* With many of the pages, I set up lines for my daughter to write on and I include a box for her to draw in.
* I incorporate notebooking mostly into science because it’s a lovely way to document learning.
Field trips are a wonderful way to learn about art and provide plenty of inspiration. Field trip ideas include:
* art gallery
* art shop
* art festivals
* monuments or pieces of art in your community (sculptures, murals, etc.)
Art doesn’t have to be overwhelming or intimidating. There are many opportunities to learn about and explore art with your child. You don’t have to be an expert!


Rhyming words are fun for kids of all ages but especially little kids who are just learning about the sounds of words. Grab a picture book and your little one and have fun exploring words. Kids Activities Blog hopes you and your little one enjoy this fun rhyming game.
Children, some from their very earliest days, are immersed into the world of rhymes. Nursery rhymes are synonymous with childhood. All of us know a few, if not many, nursery rhymes. Some are entertaining, others a tad confusing, but most are very easy to remember.
While an infant is nursing or being rocked to sleep, rhymes are there. Rhymes are sung at home. Rhymes can also be heard in early childhood learning environments like day care centres and preschools. Rhymes carry over into the early years of schooling too.
Why are rhymes so pervasive in childhood? Rhyming is a skill that helps children read and write. How fantastic that it’s fun and enjoyable too.
Rhyming is an important phonological awareness skill; it helps children hear the larger units of spoken language as well as the smaller parts. When rhyming, children see the relationship between letter clusters that represent the same sounds in different words. E.g. hose, nose, pose, rose.
Cover the Rhyme is a simple game that you can play with your child using any picture book you have readily on hand.
Looking at the pictures in the book, ask the child to place a counter on the part of the picture that rhymes with a given word. Or they could also simply point to the part of the picture that rhymes with a given word.
For example, in these pages, (from Greetings from Sandy Beach by Bob Graham), ask the child to place a counter on the part of the picture that rhymes with the following:
- Hose – nose
- Flies – eyes
- Mat – hat
- Fox – box
- Band – sand, hand
- Made – spade
- Bat – hat
- Hurt – shirt
- Dear – ear
- Dance – pants
- Far – car
As an extension, can the child think of any other rhymes in the pictures?
More Kids Activities
Rhyming words just sing along together beautifully. Which picture books can you use with your child to play this fun rhyming game? There are more fun rhyming kids activities here:


SENCER E-Newsletter, December 2005, Volume 5, Issue 4
Mercer Education and Science Majors Connect During National Chemistry Week
Laura Blinderman and Helen Tanzini, Mercer County Community College, New Jersey
A group of 8 faculty from Mercer County Community College attended the 2005 SENCER Institute. The inclusion of the Education department chair in our group of math, technology, and science faculty led to a number of brainstorming sessions on strengthening interdisciplinary connections. The beautiful weather and stimulating intellectual environment combined to open our minds to new ideas and collaborations. One idea was put into action during National Chemistry Week (October 16 – 22). Mercer County Community College education, chemistry, and biology majors teamed up to bring interactive chemistry experiments to elementary schools in Mercer County. Our students led a series of 45
minute events with faculty present for support. Mercer students engaged children in grades 2- 5 in combining polyacrylate and water to make artificial snow, the science behind long chain molecules affectionately called "bouncy balls" (cornstarch, glue and borax), examining the ability of crushed Tums antacid and vinegar to inflate a balloon, and making glitter slime from polyvinyl alcohol. Over 750 children in 5 schools were guided by 32 Mercer students and faculty.
Making artificial snow is not the type of unsolved public issue that SENCER activities usually address. For a 3rd grader, the "aha" moment of realizing that the snow in movies is not real snow, but something produced by chemistry opens a new way of thinking about science and the power of chemistry to address problems. The young children who participated in the event were stimulated to think about chemistry. We know this from the questions they asked which included:
Can the inflated balloon make the flask underneath float?
Could enough vinegar and Tums make a human float?
Can the snow be blown around by a fan to create a snowstorm?
Can you come back every day with a new experiment?
The Mercer students handed out age-appropriate chemistry newsletters and complementary moles and quickly realized something important about teaching; that to describe how the furry animal is a symbol of amount of a substance containing the same number of chemical units as there are atoms in 12 grams of carbon-12 (6.023 X 1023) is beyond the limitations of a 45 minute interactive presentation in an elementary school!
Aspects of SENCER addressed by Chemistry Week activities include; promoting civic engagement in our students, allowing students to apply course work to real world situations, developing interconnectedness between the classroom and the local community, and connecting education and science majors in a joint project.
The integration of education majors with advanced Science majors is interesting to us, because these are two groups of students who would not normally mix in their science courses. Most education majors take the SENCER course, Biological Science Concepts, while science majors take the 4 credit comprehensive biology and chemistry courses. Scientific literacy is a prominent component of our newly revised general education policy. It is particularly important for elementary education majors to have positive science experiences because they are the science teachers in K – 6. They play a direct role in stimulating the scientists of the future and also in insuring that children who pursue non-science disciplines have positive science experiences. National Chemistry Week activities also give science majors a sneak peak at what it's like to teach. Some students find that they excel at bringing science to the lay community. It is our hope that some of our science majors will consider teaching as a profession as a result of their experiences in the classroom.
The Mercer event was spearheaded by SENCER alum Helen Tanzini (chemistry), and participated in by alumni Laura Blinderman (biology), Marianne Reynolds (education), and Bruce Chorba (Biology). National Chemistry week is sponsored by the Trenton Section of the American Chemical Society (Chemistry.org and American Chemical Society - Trenton Section )
Marianne Reynolds, Chair of the Education Department summarized the event by saying, "In the classrooms, the enthusiastic reaction of the children and my students' experience with lesson planning and teaching techniques produced a successful result. Not only were the children turned on to chemistry, but my future teachers now look forward to teaching science in their elementary classrooms, too."