Education : International Music Day 2015

https://twitter.com/IMC_Network/

Oh! What a special day! Today, October 1 is International Music Day!

As my usual readers know, I love music, I have a master degree in Music/Piano. I have been a piano teacher for years. It would be impossible not to write about Music Day. 

"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy."

Ludwig Von Beethoven

On October 1st, the world celebrates International Music Day. This year, 2015, for the 40th time since it was declared in 1975 by the General Assembly in Lausanne and signed by the IMC President at that time, Yehudi Menuhin.

The International Music Council (IMC), founded in 1949 by UNESCO, is the world's largest network of organizations and  institutions working in the field of music. 

Art is a language that all people speak and that cuts across cultural, social, and economic barriers and enhances cultural appreciation and awareness.

Art provides opportunities for self-expression, bringing the inner world into the outer world of concrete reality. 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right "to enjoy the arts", as they constitute an important vehicle for individuals and communities to develop and express their humanity. 

The vitality of artistic creativity is also necessary for the development of vibrant cultures, for the protection and promotion of cultural diversity across the world and for the smooth functioning of democratic societies.

credits: DigiCake/Shutterstock

http://a2.files.psmag.com/

The Five Music Rights of IMC make important declarations about artistic rights and values in respect of music. In particular, the first three Rights articulate much of what is expressed above:

• 1st IMC Music Right: 'For all children and adults to express themselves musically in all freedom'

• 2nd IMC Music Right: 'For all children and adults to learn musical languages and skills'

• 3rdIMC Music Right: 'For all children and adults to have access to musical involvement through participation, listening, creation and information'

Read the entire Statement here

credits : Make Music Alliance | USA

http://i0.wp.com/luminarydaily.com/

I will be focused on these three IMC Music Rights as a teacher who believes and pledge for the integration of Music at all schools. 

Along the years I wrote often about Music as a fundamental subject at school. Music, a practical and active subject, must be taught as part of the curriculum in all year groups. 

"No truly cultural pursuit, involving the intellect and the emotions, is complete unless it can be regarded as both an end and a means."

Georges Duhamel, Académie Française

School Primary School | UK

http://www.elloughtonprimaryschool.co.uk/

Education:

"Music has the potential to achieve social and psychological transformation of children and young people. Their sensibility will be accurate. We must never waste such an opportunity as teachers! Captivating the major interests of our students about Music."

GSouto

Many studies have emerged in recent years describing the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral benefits of music education for children. But given the tight budgets and questionable priorities of so many schools, a lot of kids don't begin formal music training until they enter high school and (only 2 years) or decide to join a band or chorus.

Orquestra Geração | Portugal

https://www.facebook.com/Orquestra-Geracao/

Children and young adults from all backgrounds should have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, to make music with others, to learn to sing or to dance,  to have the opportunity to progress to the next level of excellence.

The aim is not to form not only professional musicians, but to develop the appreciation, taste and critical judgment of the listener from his earliest youth, so as to train him and enable him to appreciate the beauty and wealth of music.

As a good pedagogical example Orquestra Geração offers children from underprivileged suburbs of Portugal (Lisbon and other cities), the opportunity to practice music.

Instruments and music courses are available to them free of charge. It's a musical project for inclusion of the young Portuguese who live innderprivileged suburbs.

No matter the holistic immersive approach of Music :

classical, electronic, pop, rock, hip hop; jazz 

And the engagement of important and experienced musicians is central to achieving significant transformation, particularly to the lives of the most vulnerable children.

" I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosion expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music. "

Billy Joel, musician

GSouto

01.10.2015

Copyright © 2015G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Education : International Music Day 2015 by GinaSouto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Education: Time for Vitamin 'N'

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/

"Every child needs nature. Not just the ones with parents who appreciate nature. Not only those of a certain economic class or culture or gender or sexual identity or set of abilities. Every child."

Richard Louv

Time for holiday. Time for vitamin 'N' of 'Nature' ! Beach, camping, cycling, walking and playing outdoor. 

It's not the first time I write about the importance of Nature in Education. Children's Day: let's go outdoor; Environmental Education and outdoor; World Environmental Day in School Education; Iberian wolf as environmental education; are some other posts on my blog. My usual readers know  it well.

http://richardlouv.com/

So The Nature Principle and Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv might be interesting teachers and parents, of course, if these books are new for you.

I am a 'N' teacher! I hope you are as well. There are some lessons that will be fantastic and successful when done outdoors the classroom.

Recent studies show that over the last few decades the area in which children are free to play and roam has shrunk dramatically by almost 90%. 

"Children are generally spending far less time outdoors than any previous generation, trapped by the barriers of irrational ‘stranger danger’, very rational traffic danger, crazy health and safety fears, their increasingly structured and organised lives, their decreasing access to green space; and, of course, lured by the rise of indoor entertainment."

Consequences? In an increasingly urbanised, electronic-based, risk-adverse world, the adults of the future are displaying the symptoms of "nature-deficit disorder".

http://richardlouv.com/

May be a good reading for your season break, if you are preparing to get back in school (new school year begins in August in some countries). It can be useful.

In "Last Child in the Woods", child advocacy expert Richard Louv links the lack of nature in the lives of today's "wired generation" - he calls it 'nature-deficit-to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as the rises in obesity, attention disorders, and depression'. 

Last Child in the Woods was the first book to bring together a new and growing work of research indicating that direct exposure to Nature is essential for healthy childhood development and for the physical and emotional health of children and adults. 

This new edition reflects the enormous changes that have taken place since the book was originally published. It includes:

• 100 actions you can take to create change in your community, school, and family.
• 35 discussion points to inspire people of all ages to talk about the importance of nature in their lives.
• A new progress report by the author about the growing Leave No Child Inside movement.
• New and updated research confirming that direct exposure to nature is essential for the physical and emotional health of children and adults.

And in The Nature Principle, Richard Louv delivers another powerful call to action, this time for adults.

"Our society has developed such an outsized faith in technology that we have yet to fully realize or even adequately study how human capacities are enhanced through the power of nature."

Richard Louv

Those books kicked off national and international dialogue among educators, health professionals, parents, developers and conservationists. And of course, educators will be happy introducing Nature activities in School curriculum.

Education:

Research suggests that exposure to the natural world – including nearby nature in cities – helps improve human health, well-being, and intellectual capacity in ways that science is only recently beginning to understand.

What do we know about how human beings, particularly children and young people are affected by the absence of nature’s intrinsic benefits? 

And teachers! Believe it! Nature is very good for stimulate creativity. Research shows that children play more creatively in free outside space and will be more creative in school activities.

Some Activities: In your classroom  

• Display posters about Nature;

• Invite students to create Nature brochures; 

• Discuss the health benefits of playing outdoor;

• Provide information, brochures, places, parks, outdoors museums, where parents, grandparents students can get outdoors;

• Indicate website addresses about Nature and ask students to do some research about outside beneficits and the great risks of a sedentary lifestyle;

• Encourage students with their families to create natural play-spaces in their own yards and neighborhoods (urban, suburban and rural).

http://www.projectwildthing.com/

Some Resources for Teachers :

20 Ways To Create Naturally Restorative Home and Gardens: read here

Natural Leaders Network 2013 Curriculum Guide: download here

Wild Time project is a movement to get kids playing outside more, roaming freely and re-connecting with the natural world on our doorsteps. Join here

Teachers, students and parents can download the Wild Time app for free on iTunes.

Some thoughts:

I love technology in school curriculum but there are amazing connections to find in Nature. 

Children can learn so much from direct contact with nature: about nature itself (those ants!), about life (just watch a spider rebuild its web…) and potentially about any subject.

There’s a growing movement within education that recognises that children learn differently and better when outside, experiencing the world directly.

For students with special needs, Nature can be an a strategy to reduce ADHD symptoms. 

Some researchers suggest nature time as an alternative therapy for some children diagnosed with ADHD and other similar conditions. 

Nature can help other children without attention difficulties do better in school. 

And finally, Nature is good for the future of nature itself!  As naturalists and BBC presenter David Attenborough have pointed out, where will the nature lovers of tomorrow come from if children are no longer allowed to roam, seek, observe, discover and collect?

So, since the first Earth Day, my students collaborated developing outdoors activities and actions at school. You will find some posts about Earth Day on my blog or my students' blogs here and here.

I always include Nature in Humanities curriculum. Going for a lesson outside at a park, or museum gardens, even at the outdoor space at the school, we developed several projects and creative activities about Nature & Literature in School education.

Literature and nature, a good experience to explore.

“The future will belong to the nature-smart—those individuals, families, businesses, and political leaders who develop a deeper understanding of the transformative power of the natural world and who balance the virtual with the real. The more high-tech we become, the more nature we need.”

Richard Louv

G-Souto

07.08.2013
Copyright © 2013G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®


Education: Time for Vitamin 'N' by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

June roundown of the most-read posts

 Atlantic Ocean Porto (Portugal)

photo: unknown

www.google.com

July! After a chilly Spring, Summer came suddenly. And temperature hits 37-39º degrees in the city bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. 

The beach all around the city was the most interesting destiny. Sun and sea do miracles to work stress. Last week was almost impossible to do regular activities.

I' not on holiday. So, I went on the beach during weekend time to feel free and fresh.

Monday is time to  intellectual stimulation charges again. So here the rundown of the most-read post of June. And June rundown shows the diversity of subjects, some of my pedagogical values and summarize the most-read topics in a collection of five posts:

I believe and practice the differentiation as a value too by focusing on individual identity of my students. They are free to be creative by discovering 'by  themselves' with my guidance, just the sufficient to let them more comfortable in their learning. I wrote about it on the differentt posts of my blog.

Screenshot| Europeana app

http://a5.mzstatic.com/

Europeana: free app for Education is the most read post. Europeana is the European digital library, museum and archive. Europeana enables people to explore the digital resources of Europe's galleries, museums, libraries, archives and audiovisual collection. It is always open to new interactive resources-tools.

In June, Europeana launched the first free iPad app, 'Europeana Open Culture'  introducing us to hand-picked and beautiful collections from some of Europe’s top institutions, and allows us to explore, share and comment on them.

Screenshot| Europeana app

http://a5.mzstatic.com/

Education:

Exploring Europe’s culture on our iPad! Or students' iPad!

Europeana enables students and teachers to explore the digital resources of Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. 

But let's continue to present the ne app for iPad! This version allows students to search in selected image collections of Europeana, Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage portal. The images included are available for free re-use and cover five themes: Maps and Plans, Art, Photography, Treasures of the Past, and Treasures of Nature.

Curriculum: Almost all curricula, specially Arts, History, Literature, Languages, Civics, Open Culture.

Levels: All levels (some levels need teachers tutoring)

http://www.cleanuptheworld.org/

“Although individual decisions may seem small in the face of global threats and trends, when billions of people join forces in common purpose, we can make a tremendous difference.” 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

World Environment Day is an annual event on 5 June that is aimed at being the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action. 

http://www.unep.org/

The theme for this year’s World Environment Day celebrations was Think.Eat.Save. Think.Eat.Save is an anti-food waste and food loss campaign that encourages you to reduce your foodprint. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted. 

Here I am writing about Civics and Environmental in school education. So important to help our your students became 'engaged' citizens.

Yes! Because World Environmental Day is not about a day! WED is about every day! Schools have an important role. Educators must teach environmental values in different moments of their lessons, providing some thoughts and digital educational resources, educating young people for a sustainable future and inspiring them being a good example. 

Of course you can't forget to invite your students to use their devices (ipads, smartphones, tablets) for developing interactve actiivities.

Students will evolve in creative green projects that they will share with friends, families, and pen-pals. They will become good young environmentalists.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/

http://s1.lemde.fr/

Le Bac? Çs va bien se passer Le 17 juin, les étudiants français passereraient le bac. 

Jamais les étudiants ont eu tellement d'outils techno adaptés à leur goût et expérience de vie: la télé, la tablette, le smarthone, ou le iPhone sont à leur disposition pour réviser leurs connaissances. 

Ils ne peuvent pas dire que réviser, c'est ennuyant! Les enseignants suivent leurs tendances et font tout pour les motiver. Le numérique est là pour les appuyer!

De quoi contenter tout le monde, non? Mais surtout de quoi rassurer les bachos sur tout ce qu'ils ont vu et retenu tout au long de l’année scolaire.

http://a1.mzstatic.com/

On a compris qu'un smartphone ou iPhone peuvent se transformer facilement en excellent outil de révision pour le baccalauréat. A condition d'avoir les applis qui conviennent. 

Bon! Des applis pour aider les étudiants à réviser leur bac, j'en ai présenté. À vous de relire Le Bac? Çs va bien se passer et de regarder à nouveau le témoin de Maxime,  l'un des 3 plus jeunes candidats au bac 2013.

Le sociologue Baptiste Coulmont, chercheur et auteur du livre Sociologie des prénoms a réalisé une étude sur les bacheliers 2013, compilant les prénoms des 338 000 candidats ayant obtenu 8/20 ou plus au bac général ou technologique.

Une étude assez aintéressante qui prouve que les Diannes et Adèles ont fait mieux que les Sabrina au Bac 2013. Intéressante !

Photo: "Supermoon" Chris Spindley 

Colwyn Bay, Wales, May 2012

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/

June 22, the sky was set to be illuminated by what has appeared to be a much bigger and brighter Moon. Super Moon in sciences education, remember?

The so-called "supermoon" occurs when the Moon reaches its closest point to Earth, known as a perigee full moon.

Credits video: CBS News

Education:

For many, the moon appeared about as full in the June 22 evening sky as it did on the evening of June 23 for others. 

This full moon is not only the closest and largest full moon of the year. It also presents the moon's closest encounter with Earth for all of 2013.

So you have here some fantastic digital educational resources, the videos,  to share in Sciences curriculum lessons and explain to your students this awesome phenomen.

If you were lucky enough, you organized a skywatecher outdoor lesson with your students and they observed live this beautiful scientific phenomen.

Antoni Gaudi Google doodle

www.google.com

"Those who look for the laws of Nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the creator."

Antoni Gaudi

Google celebrated the 161th birthday of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi with a colorful, stylized Doodle, snippets of six of Gaudi’s iconic modernist buildings or mosaics spell out .

Education:

All my resident readers know how I defend Arts Education in school curricula. You know my thoughts about the importance of Arts in School Education, no matter the art fields: Music, Dance, Literature, Painting, Architecture, and other, all of them are essential to a complete and better education.

Love Google doodles! They can be introduced in any curriculum as I already wrote. And I write a lot about Google doodles, you can read on my blog. 

Doodles combine creativity, digital culture and motivation to fantastic school lessons. You must think about it.

Here, a good motivation to one or two lessons about Arts, Modernism, and Architecture. 

Of course, ICT and social media in the classroom are important tools to tackle the world's toughest problems creating bridges and establish a truly intercultural world, where diversity can be celebrated, a world where different cultures not only coexist but value each other for their contributions and potential.

“We need technology in every classroom and in every student and teacher’s hand, because it is the pen and paper of our time, and it is the lens through which we experience much of our world.” 

David Warlick

G-Souto

08.07.2013 

Copyright © 2013G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

June rundown:of the most-read posts by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.