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...

Classical music label PENTATONE releases children’s audiobooks 11:39, 9th December 2020 In connection with World Children’s Day on 20 November, classical music label PENTATONE has released three of its most important classical music children’s albums as audiobooks As well as telling the classic tales, the audiobooks help children understand how music can bring a story to life and explain which instrument is playing each character (in  Peter and the Wolf , for example). Prokofiev’s  Peter and the Wolf  has been released in English and Spanish versions, narrated respectively by actors Sophia Loren and Antonio Banderas. The English version can be found  here .   Cornelia Funke and Luna Pearl Woolf:  Angel Heart , an original tale by best-selling children’s fantasy author Cornelia Funke woven with an evocative original score, is available in English and German. Narrated by actor Jeremy Irons, the English version can be accessed  here . The German vers...

  Free livestreamed music lessons for UK primary schools from Rocksteady 1:22, 8th December 2020 From 8 January 2021 and throughout the Spring term, Rocksteady Music School is inviting all Primary schools to  Feel Good Friday  – the school’s free livestreamed music lessons for KS1 and KS2 pupils. Created by music teacher and Rocksteady founder Mark Robinson,  Feel Good Friday  takes the form of a 30-minute interactive online music lesson taught by professional musicians, covering curriculum topics such as pulse, texture, instrumentation and more. The livestreams focus on popular chart songs and require no preparation time for teachers nor any instruments. More than one class per school can watch at once, either live or on catch up at a time to suit their timetable during the Spring term. At the start of the academic year, Rocksteady wanted to help support the schools where they teach band lessons.  As a recent ISM report  has shown, many students are m...

  Win £1,000 of Faber-Castell colour pencils Enter our prize draw for the chance to win a set of Faber-Castell’s Polychromos artists’ colour pencils worth up to £475 Shorter days and gloomier weather may be fast-approaching, but there is a way to inject some much-longed for colour and vibrancy into even the darkest depths of winter – with Faber-Castell’s Polychromos range of vivid colour pencils. This month,  Artists & Illustrators  has teamed up with the renowned German art materials manufacturer to give away three complete sets of 120 Polychromos artists’ colour pencils – including a first prize set that comes in a professional, two-layered, lockable wooden case. From light cadmium yellow and deep scarlet red to sky blue and grass green to cinnamon and walnut brown, the scores of beautiful hues satisfy even the greatest colour fanatic. Not only are Polychromos artists’ colour pencils renowned for their high-quality pigments and unsurpassed lightfastness, but their s...

  The Viking Cruises BRITISH ART PRIZE 2021 Enter Now!! ENTER THIS MAJOR NEW OPEN ART COMPETITION WITH PRIZES WORTH MORE THAN £10,000 Prizes First prize The overall winner of The Viking Cruises British Art Prize 2021 will receive a £2,000 cash prize, a feature in  Artists & Illustrators , a solo exhibition with  Panter & Hall , and a  Viking river cruise  worth £7,000, which visits Lyon, Provence and Arles, following in the footsteps of Van Gogh. Second prize A £500 cash prize and £250 voucher from  Rosemary & Co . Third prize A £250 voucher from  Rosemary & Co . The People’s Choice Award A £1,000 art materials voucher from  Zieler .

  Win a signed copy of Portraits for NHS Heroes and a £100 Jackson's voucher To celebrate the release of Portraits for NHS Heroes we've teamed up with Bloomsbury Publishing to give you the chance to win a signed copy of the book alongside a Jackson’s gift voucher worth £100 When the UK went into lockdown in March 2020 to to contain the spread of Covid 19, artist Tom Croft offered to paint an NHS key worker's portrait for free. Unsure how to help and offer his support, he wanted to capture and record the bravery and heroism of frontline workers who were risking their physical and mental health for our wellbeing. Tom suggested that other artists might want to do the same. He made his offer via video message on Instagram and was immediately contacted by Harriet Durkin, a nurse at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, who had contracted Covid-19 and, now recovered, was about to return to the frontline. Tom's portrait of Harriet, wearing PPE, was the first in what became a global ...

  INSPIRATIONAL Be Gentle With Yourself Because You Are Already Healed & You Will ALWAYS Be A Work In Progress Published   on   December 8, 2020 ez SHARE TWEET As a platform founded on the principle of educating yourself to create change in the world, it is essential to speak on a topic that has grown in popularity over the past years. The self-help and improvement world can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it serves as a useful tool in overcoming limiting beliefs and reaching your highest potential. On the other, it can manifest into a crutch that leads to more harm than good. Wherever you find yourself in the mix, remember you are a work in progress, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t already whole. As individuals, we each come with a unique backstory and set of experiences that have helped shape us into who we are. Some of these experiences have served as the fuel to our fires while others have left negative imprints on our psyche. The power in healing comes...