Arts Alive and Costumes

The National Arts Centre in Ottawa sponsors an arts page (here) for teachers and students focusing on music, dance, English and French theatre.  It features biographies of dancers and choreographers, theatre lore, hear classical music, read descriptions about musical instruments of the orchestra, interviews and music of the NAC Orchestra, and lots more.  It is appropriate for elementary and secondary students.

The web page also includes a special feature titled The Secret Life of Costumes, that explores the world of costume design.   Related to costuming, TDSB secondary students have access to an e-book titled Fashion, Costume and Culture through their school library web page . Ask your teacher librarian for more information. These are great for both theatre and family studies progams.

Rowan

 

Working Memory

Recently my son, who has made it to grade 10, has been diagnosed with a poor working memory which would explain why he still can’t rhyme off the months of the year nor do his times tables.  Working memory is that place where one temporarily stores information to process, manipulate, make associations etc.  His is about the size of a pea.  Try and help a grade 10 boy learn – do you think he wants to take advice or show his work to his parents, or spend even more time reviewing and relearning beyond the classroom and his tutoring sessions?  Not! Who can blame him but on the other he is old enough to know that there is no magic switch to fix the problem and he is the one who has to take responsibility for his success.

Tracy Alloway (University of Durham) and Susan Gathercole (University of York) in the UK have a web page called Understanding Working Memory that describes working memory and provides classroom supports for elementary students.  Here is an article you can read on this topic titled How does Working Memory Work in the Classroom? Finally, they have written a book on this topic that the Library has ordered .  I’ll let you know when it arrives.

It would be nice to find supports for lately diagnosed secondary students.

Rowan

 

 

Three web pages

Here are three web pages that caught my attention this week during my reference travels.

For the history teacher, Canada in the Making is an excellent resource currently based on three themes: Constitutional History, Aboriginals-Treaties and Relations, and Pioneers and Immigrants. It includes pictures, maps and images, lesson plans, links to other online sites like the Canadian Encyclopedia, and and many primary source materials. You may need a password to access some the primary source materials, it was a tad confusing, but they indicate that it is free for schools.

For science teachers, The Why Files explores the science, math and technology behind the news of the day. I was cruising the net for an article about the the human body as a colony for cells and microbes and got a hit to one about “bugs in your guts”.  The Why files include teacher activities linked to the US science standards, it has images and interactive materials for grades 5-8 and 9-12.

Last and not least, for middle and secondary Teacher Librarians and language arts teachers, try AdLit.org. This web page discusses adolescent literacy, various reading issues, book recommendations, an alphabet of  topics, classroom strategies and a section titled  Ask the Expert, in which teachers can ask for ideas and strategies. In the multimedia section you can see video demonstrations and teacher interviews on different topics, for example word walls.

Rowan