Guide to posts

Two weeks ago, my morning coffee was accompanied by some of the best news I've heard in years regarding education and the arts.  President Obama announced he is waiving many of the absurd requirements of the No Child Left Behind law.  It is long overdue, and welcome news

Demise of a model arts program

This week I am including a video of the presentation that I made in a workshop at the 2008 California Art in Education Conference in Burlingame, California.  I'm presenting the video to give an overview of what  one comprehensive music education program in public schools can, and did look like,

Cyber-lessons, Skype

As I've said before in this blog, technology offers many powerful ways to enhance education. Cyber-school, Virtual Academy, online education, blended learning, distance learning, we're all familiar with the terms.  Never before has so much information been available to so many individuals who are motivated to pursue it.  

Time to change

In another blog, I am writing a more-or-less detailed accounting of some of the lessons and practices that have proven effective in teaching music to the  thousands of kindergarten through high school students that I have had in my career.  

The arts in education, What happened? What now? and What next?.

Much  of what is said by arts teachers and arts advocates is in defense of the arts and their importance to children, students, and education.  I believe that the time to defend the arts in education is past.

High Tech and High Touch

In the art of teaching, the challenge is to communicate information to the student in such a way that they receive, process, interiorize, apply and retain new knowledge.  To do that the teacher has available to them the seven senses of learning

Music Makes You Smarter ?????

In another blog,  JNM-Teachers Corner, I am spending time each week going over specific portions of the RITMMAP study because of its value to practitioners in finding, and applying those portions of it that were most helpful in extending the language learning capabilities of the students involved.   Before going into that study in depth here however, I want to make it abundantly clear that I do not believe that teaching the arts is ever justified by the 'instrumental' effect that it has on other learning.

Reading Improvement through Music, Movement and Play 'RITMMAP'

Up to this point, I've shared some principles and insights of educators, psychologists, and even neuro-biologists that have proven to be particularly instructive in my own understanding as I've taught thousands of students over the last two decades.  These insights are not new.  What is new however, is the convergence of the various sciences of cognition, neuroscience, learning theory, and psychology - especially as it relates to emotional development.

Notes and Neurons, Mozart & Einstein

I get puzzled by why so many people (often politicians and all too often, school officials) claim that we need more of an emphasis on math and science in our schools because we as a nation are falling so far behind other countries in the world in  grade-level tests 

Direct Instruction + Art = Engaged Students

In the last blog, I talked about how one of the arts, drama,  can enliven any classroom and significantly contribute to student interest, engagement and learning.

Drama In The Classroom

One of the statements that I made in my last blog is a little difficult to understand without some background.  The statement suggested that an infusion of the arts into teaching is how we all learn, all the time.

The 'System' isn't working

Long before the educational morass that we are now experiencing  began,

Current state; Identity

Hello - Let me introduce myself.  My name is Ron Zell.  I am a former California k-8, public school music teacher.  Believe it or not, once upon a time,