Tag Archives: Children

Special education: Wuhan City School for the Blind helped over 500 children pursue their dreams

Beijing, China, Jul-19-2017 — /EuropaWire/ — Wuhan School for The Blind is the only school of its kind in Hubei province, central China. Not only does it cater to pupils who face enormous challenges because of their disabilities, but it is also proud to have a star teacher who has given new hope to the pupils.

China, with its huge population, has a large number of blind people. More than 5.5 million people are registered blind, among them, some 120,000 children. Though there are more than 50 special schools in major cities catering to the needs of these individuals, the task is never easy. Special facilities and teacher training is hard to come by and the children often feel alienated from society and lack ambition.

Zhang Long, born in 1975, volunteered to teach at Wuhan City School for the Blind in 2011. Though she had no experience teaching children with visual impairment, after seeing the difficulties faced by pupils there, she decided to change the course of her life and accept the challenge of making a difference to their future.

It wasn’t long before the gravity of the situation sunk in. As a music teacher she discovered many pupils at the school of 150 lacked the motivation to even turn up to class, believing their only career option would be to become a massage therapist, a common occupation for blind people in China.

Persevering, Zhang Long established a school radio station, a rock band for the most talented children, and invited performances from other schools. Eventually, the children responded to this new approach revealing both passion for music and hidden talent. One student, Gan Wenjun, proved gifted at piano, for which he won several national awards and even played with famous pianist Richard Clayderman in concert.

Among other successes, Zhang Long was awarded titles such as “Most Admirable Teacher in Wuhan” and a national honor “The Most Beautiful Teacher of China”,“I’ve never treated them as blind children,” says Zhang of the pupils. “It doesn’t matter that those kids can’t see. They can use their own ways to express themselves. I’ve never lowered my standards for them because they are blind, because to me they are just children.” Her approach seems to have worked and now pupils harbor ambitions such as to become a teacher, a professional singer and even an astronaut.

Wuhan City School for the Blind holds the belief that blind children are perfectly capable of the same achievements as sighted kids, given the right guidance and a little courage. Since its establishment, it has helped over 500 children pursue their dreams and been a cradle of many rising stars in music, sports, teaching and other fields. It aims to keep making contribution to China’s endeavors in special education.

SOURCE: EuropaWire

Book Trust Welcomes Nationally Recognized Literacy Experts to Academic Advisory Board

Nell Duke, Linda Gambrell, and others join Academic Advisory Board

Denver, CO, Mar-21-2017 — /EPR EDUCATION NEWS/ — National literacy nonprofit Book Trust announces the establishment of an Academic Advisory Board, formed to ensure that ongoing enhancements and expansion of its national literacy program are informed by the latest research and best practices in literacy education. Members of the Book Trust Advisory Board include several nationally recognized leaders in the field.

“We are honored and delighted to welcome these esteemed literacy experts to our Academic Advisory Board,” said Book Trust CEO Amy Friedman. “Benefitting from the collective experience and wisdom of this panel is going to have an enormously positive effect on our ability to continually refine and improve our program. Our collaboration will ensure that Book Trust is an evidence-based model, designed to produce positive reading outcomes for kids.”

Book Trust Advisory Board members include Nell Duke, Professor in Literacy, Language and Culture and and in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology, the University of Michigan, KaiLonnie Dunsmore, Principal Research Scientist, NROC at the University of Chicago, Linda Gambrell, Distinguished Professor of Education, Clemson University, Ernest Morrell, Macy Professor of English Education and Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, D. Ray Ruetzel, Dean College of Education, University of Wyoming, and facilitator Darren Cambridge, President of Cambridge Learning Group.

“Collectively, these experts bring innovative and research-based thinking to the core components of the Book Trust program: Choice, Celebration and Consistency,” adds Book Trust Board Chair Ron Lowy. “Our mutual goal is to create engaged independent readers, and this advisory team will bring considerable knowledge to bear on that mission.”

Members of the advisory group will convene twice a year and will also be available informally as needed to make recommendations to the Book Trust team. Each member will serve a one-year, renewable term.

“Book Trust’s program is innovative and robust, and as they continue to expand nationally, folding the latest research into their program strategy will help them continue to deliver impact and value to students. I am pleased to be invited to help in this role,” says Nell Duke, whose work focuses on early literacy development, particularly among children living in poverty.

About Book Trust
Book Trust is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower children from low-income families to choose and own books, inspiring a passion for reading that leads to cultivating increased literacy skills and life-long learning. Book Trust currently serves 50,000 students in 19 U.S. states. Since 2001, Book Trust has facilitated over 6 million book choices, and placed them in the hands of students in need.

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CONTACT BOOK TRUST:
Amy Friedman, CEO
720.459.6491
afriedman@booktrust.org
www.booktrust.org

New iPad App Gets Children School-Ready

Parents are preparing to send their children off to school for the first time. An Australian Mother of two has developed a way to give children entering school in this technological age a head start by creating an educational iPad app.

Rebecca Monument said that she, like most parents were aware that basic literacy skills developed in the home long before a child starts school.

“I created the app because I wanted to give my children the best of every possible opportunity,” said Ms Monument. “I was worried as my kids weren’t learning the correct way to write the alphabet, that they would have to re-learn it when they started school.”

After the application was released in October this year Ms Monument approached a local teacher for feedback. Ms Tanya Burton from Whitehouse Primary School in Australia agrees that Writeforschool is a resourceful learning tool for young children, and that the app that will complement the introduction of iPads into the prep classrooms in 2013.

“The application combines many features that other similar writing applications fail to deliver, like a variety of accents and a choice of the writing fonts taught in Australian schools” Ms Burton notes. “The large number of fonts back up what is taught in the school curriculum; it not only includes letters and numbers but blends of letters.”

The idea came to Ms Monument and she began developing the iPad application Writeforschool after her children, aged five and six began taking great interest in playing the games on her iPad.

“I thought if I could make educational game for my children, they could begin to learn to write in the cursive they are taught at their school the correct way,” Ms Monument explained. “My children love the app and its exciting graphics that can be completely personalised.”

Ms Monument hopes that her application is able to help as many young children as possible get a head start for this school year.

Via EPR Network
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