Education Post

  New York choir teacher uses technology to outwit Covid and cuts Bronx teacher D Travis Washington, who teaches choir and the Young Vocal Scholars Programme in a school in New York, says seeking ways around lockdown learning has opened up new concepts in music education using  Soundtrap  technology. ‘When Covid hit and we couldn’t continue with the traditional choir program, my school looked for remote solutions,’ he wrote in  an article for edCircuit . ‘Soundtrap was exactly what we needed. We began conducting Young Vocal Scholars choir sessions remotely through Soundtrap and filled our extra Soundtrap seats with students from the District 8 Choir who weren’t being served music at all, doing similar projects that we had been creating previously in my classes. It was incredible to suddenly recognise that there were far more students interested in music who could connect via their laptops and tablets at home.’ According to Washington, the online environment allowed m...

  Government backtracks on slashing of laptops for schools The UK  Department for Education  (DfE) has restored laptop allocations for Covid-isolated students following an outcry from teachers,  as reported in MUSIC:ED in October . The 80% cuts to device allocations were said to be due to the fall in Covid-19 infections in schools over the summer and because of global demand for digital devices exceeding supply. But the cuts were announced hours after schools closed for half term and just one day after the department placed a legal duty on schools to provide remote education to all students missing school as a result of Covid-19. This left many schools unable to meet their legal obligations, despite having previously received assurances their orders would be met. DfE spokespeople claimed the department had changed its approach so that ‘allocations are more effectively targeted to the children, schools and areas of the country that have the greatest need.’ Schools arg...

  Online learning, also known as distance education, is a great way to experience the U.S. education system without leaving home. U.S. institutions offer a variety of full-time degree programs at undergraduate and graduate levels as well as individual courses. Classes are facilitated through a variety of methods, including websites, mobile apps, email, telephones, and more. To receive credit from a U.S. institution for distance learning, the student usually pays a tuition fee.  There are options now available for online learning such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that are usually tuition-free, but in most cases do not offer credit.  The U.S. Department of State also facilitates a free in-person  MOOC Camp program  in many countries. In addition to full-time degree programs or individual courses, some U.S. institutions of higher education offer p...

Why I Gave My Son Permission to Drop Out of High School We see a child in a maple tree We’re watching him climb, You and I. You say, “Come down, You’ll hurt yourself!” I say, “Go up You’re touching the sky!” – “Seeing Things” by John Kander and Fred Ebb Those who’ve been reading me regularly might remember that my middle child has been begging to drop out of school since he was in  third grade . Because my husband and I believed that a nine-year-old wasn’t the best judge of what he did and did not need academically—and because, in all honesty, we thought that learning to do things you didn’t necessarily want to do in the short run so that you might reap benefits in the long run was a critical life skill—we negotiated the following deal: He would stay at his extremely rigorous current school until eighth grade, and then he could skip high school and go straight to college. Our son kept his part of the bargain. He grudgingly swallowed his displeasure and got grades and test scores hi...

  Merge Brings Hands-on Digital Teaching Aids to Instagram with Merge Cube Get started Open in app Responses To respond to this story, get the free Medium app. Berge Cube Experience using Instagram Camera Merge, the leader in AR for K-12 education, announced today they have expanded their AR solution to  Facebook’s Spark AR platform . Merge Cube will now be available within Instagram camera. Starting today, content creators and educators are able to bring touchable digital objects into Reels, Stories and Instagram instantly. “Our international community of educators on Instagram and Facebook now have a new resource available to their students and audiences,” said Franklin Lyons, Founder at Merge. “Using the  Merge Cube  within Instagram unlocks amazing potential for engagement, learning and discovery.” As part of  t he launch, Merge has released four bespoke experiences that are available today on  Instagram . These experiences contain hands-on digital teac...

Concert Artists Guild winners cover Winter Wonderland Concert Artists Guild winners cover Winter Wonderland This   arrangement of Winter Wonderland by Brandon Ilaw features the winners of the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh competition. The performers include Geneva Lewis (violin/vocals), Ariel Horowitz (violin), Gabriel Martins (cello), Britton-René Collins (percussion), Ken Kubota (cello), Mitch Lyon (cello) and Brandon Ilaw (percussion/vocals.) Already registered? Please  sign in You have reached your free article limit – register to read more We’re delighted that you are enjoying our website. For a limited period, you can try an online subscription to The Strad completely free of charge. Free 7-day trialUnlimited access to all online  premium content , including the digital edition and online archive,  usually only available exclusively to subscribers . FREE TRIAL No strings attached – we won’t ask for your card details Register – it’s free!Don’t want access...