Get Involved: A Program for Kindergarten Students, Parents, & Teachers to Promote the Development of Motor Skills for Daily School Occupations

In the educational setting today, children are asked to acquire advanced academic skills at a faster pace and earlier age. Children entering the first years of school exhibit variances in their physical maturity levels, which affects both fine and gross motor skills and their performance in daily school occupations. Frequently, young children are unable to keep up with their kindergarten curriculum. Currently, the programs available to work on motor development in kindergarten age students focus solely on pre-writing skills and handwriting instruction. These programs lack information on motor skill development, home program activities, and specific occupations that kindergarten students are expected to complete during a typical school day. An extensive literature review was conducted and pertinent information was gathered to help illustrate the need for the product and guide the development of the product. A manual was developed to provide parents and teachers of kindergarten age students with information and resources for motor skills training and to give children opportunities to practice motor skills in the school and home environments. The manual is divided into three appendices. Appendix A is a parent manual on motor skills development. Appendix B is a teacher manual to focus on motor skills development in the school environment. . Information in the manual includes the developmental progression of motor skills, a quick motor skills screening tool, resource lists for parents and teachers, background information on motor skills areas, occupations children complete in school, an activity guide for the motor skills areas, and a complete reference list. Appendix C was included in the manual to provide teacher workshop information on how to use the manual in the classroom setting. This manual will be a valuable reference tool for parents and teachers of kindergarten age students to assist with motor skill development for occupations completed in the school environment

TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR DIVERSE LEARNING STYLES

Abstract Students tend to perform best when they are taught, at least in part, with the learning style that they favor. There are three major learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Students that favor a visual learning style prefer to have content delivered in a way that contains many visual elements. If a student prefers an auditory style, they respond best with a style that’s delivery is given in a lecture or discussion format. Kinesthetic learners need to have movement incorporated within the content. Teachers need to explore a variety of teaching strategies to best accommodate these broad learning styles. Teachers need to be willing to incorporate multiple strategies in their classroom to effectively meet the diverse needs of their students. Keywords: Auditory learners, Visual learners, Kinesthetic learners Teaching strategie

Application of kinesthetic and visual strategies in english reading comprehension skill development of junior students at Colegio Universitario UTN, 2020-2021

El propósito principal de este trabajo de investigación es aplicar estrategias basadas en las inteligencias kinestésico y visual, que ayuden a los estudiantes a desarrollar la habilidad de comprensión lectora en inglés. Esta investigación se realizó con estudiantes de segundo bachillerato del Colegio Universitario UTN del Cantón Ibarra. Para este proceso se aplicaron estrategias metodológicas en función de la problemática relacionada con estrategias de habilidades de comprensión lectora para desarrollarla y mejorarla mediante la aplicación de algunas características. Para recoger toda la información se aplicaron entrevistas a la coordinadora y docente del área de inglés; por otro lado, se aplicó una encuesta dirigida a los estudiantes de segundo de bachillerato del Colegio Universitario UTN. Después de recopilar toda la información, las personas entrevistadas sugirieron la mayoría de las estrategias kinestésicas y visuales que fueron utilizadas en la guía de estrategias. Ello como parte del proceso de desarrollo en la habilidad de comprensión lectora en inglés; de la misma manera, los estudiantes encuestados recomendaron algunas actividades que sirvieron como base principal para el desarrollo de la guía. En conclusión, la mayoría de las estrategias y actividades aplicadas en la guía fueron sugeridas y recomendadas por los entrevistados y encuestados, por lo que el resultado fue muy significativo. Como resultado, los estudiantes se sintieron más seguros durante las clases de comprensión lectora en inglés, lo que se evidenció a través de su participación durante la clase.Licenciatur

Trilingual Mathematics M-Learning for Kindergarten Students

Mobile-learning (m-learning) has been the current trend in this mobile age and education in technology has been a norm to students. This project aim to investigate the right method of learning mathematics effectively that leads to the development of an appropriate m-learning application for pre-school students of age four to six. Children of age four to six have difficulties learning the basic concepts of mathematics as they are yet to be able to perform mental operations. They have short attention span and some parents are too occupied to accompany their children nowadays. Furthermore, there is limited local material in the market. Hence the main objectives of this project are to develop a trilingual mathematic m-learning application for pre-school students that help boost learning innitiatives at the same time able to improve their memory capability and to perform user testing on the mlearning application developed. The mathematical concepts that are included in this application are count, addition and subtraction. The development approach for this project is the Rapid Application Development (RAD) model as it has rapid prototyping features and could be developed iteratively according to users’ needs and expectation. Eclipse Indigo is the main development platform for this m-learning application. Based on the user testing, this application has gained full recognition from targeted users and all of them learned something from this application

Assessing Thinking In and Through the Arts: Second Year Evaluation of the California Arts Demonstration Project

For two years, the Workshop participated in an evaluation project run by the California Arts Council. The goals of this project were to identify potentially "at-risk" student populations and then evaluate the effects of a Creative Movement or Theatre residency in the classroom. Areas for student improvement were based on the Workshop's Cycle of Artistic Inquiry which seeks to demonstrate the process of critical thinking through arts learning. The following reports deal with the findings of this project at three separate locations: The Paul Robeson & Diego Rivera Academy, John Muir Elementary, and Mission Education Center

Navigating Social and Emotional Learning from the Inside Out: ?????????????????????Looking Inside and Across 33 leading SEL Programs: A Practical Resource for Schools and OST Providers

The field of social and emotional learning (SEL) is rapidly expanding, as educators bring a sharper focus to helping children build skills beyond academic knowledge. School climate initiatives, anti-bullying work, positive behavior supports and other SEL efforts are now steering programs in schools and out-of-school-time (OST) settings across the country. Building children's SEL skills has taken on even more urgency in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.This updated and expanded guide to evidence-based SEL programs offers detailed information on 33 pre-K through elementary school programs, encompassing curricular content and program highlights. Practitioners from schools, early childhood education (ECE) providers and out-of-school time (OST) can use this resource to look "inside and across" programs to better understand program content and assess program fit with their district or community needs.New chapters in the 2021 edition include recommendations for achieving equitable SEL (including common barriers and best practices) and guidance on trauma-informed or trauma-sensitive approaches to SEL, which includes principles, practices and recommendations for integrating SEL into regular practice

Using HeidiSongs Music as an Instructional Tool in the Elementary School Classroom: A Case Study

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study is to understand how teachers use HeidiSongs music as an instructional tool in the elementary school classroom. HeidiSongs uses multisensory structured language education to teach by engaging multiple senses simultaneously to increase retention. The theories guiding this study include Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, which involves kinesthetic intelligences among other types of intelligences, and Krashen’s theory of second language acquisition. HeidiSongs uses both musical and kinesthetic activities to enhance literacy. The central research question focused on how teachers use HeidiSongs music as an instructional tool in the elementary school classroom. The sub-questions explored the different instructional settings where this literacy instruction could take place: whole group, small group, and individual instruction. Eleven participants were current or former users of HeidiSongs music, and data was collected virtually through documentation, individual interviews, and a single focus group interview. Data was analyzed through cross-case synthesis, searching for patterns, forming naturalistic generalizations, and explanation building. Findings indicated HeidiSongs is most applicable in the whole group setting in the elementary school classroom, with teachers and students using recall of the songs in small group and individual worktime to enhance memory. Teachers enjoyed the combination of multisensory music and movement in HeidiSongs and reported an overall positive effect on student engagement, even in diverse populations. Further research on instructional data distinguishing between audio, visual, or animated versions of the songs could help teachers determine which version of the songs is most ideal for each classroom

Meeting the Academic and Social Needs of Diverse Mainstreamed Students (K-4): A Series of Workshops for Mainstream Teachers

A series of workshop materials was developed to help educators meet the academic and social needs of students at Goldendale Primary School in Goldendale, Washington. The targeted students are those who make insufficient academic and social progress in mainstream classrooms. The materials included in the workshop series consist of assessment training, behavior management strategies, and curriculum adaptation and modification skills that can be used by rural primary mainstream teachers