Category Archives: Education Research | News

Is Music the Key to Success?

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Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass

Is Music the Key to Success? By Joanne Lipman
CONDOLEEZZA RICE trained to be a concert pianist. Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was a professional clarinet and saxophone player. The hedge fund billionaire Bruce Kovner is a pianist who took classes at Juilliard.

Multiple studies link music study to academic achievement. But what is it about serious music training that seems to correlate with outsize success in other fields?

The connection isn’t a coincidence. I know because I asked. I put the question to top-flight professionals in industries from tech to finance to media, all of whom had serious (if often little-known) past lives as musicians. Almost all made a connection between their music training and their professional achievements.

The phenomenon extends beyond the math-music association. Strikingly, many high achievers told me music opened up the pathways to creative thinking. And their experiences suggest that music training sharpens other qualities: Collaboration. The ability to listen. A way of thinking that weaves together disparate ideas. The power to focus on the present and the future simultaneously…

via Is Music the Key to Success? 

Visit the OTA Amazon Bookstore! Core Knowledge Books • Browse by Grade • Recommended Reading List

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  • Visit the OTA Amazon Bookstore to buy Core Knowledge® books for your child or your child’s classroom. Each purchase earns OTA a small donation.

OTA Amazon Bookstore*** *** ***
OTA’s Core Knowledge curriculum is a very ambitious K-8 learning sequence based on research findings that show that children need knowledge (vocabulary: ideas, facts, phrases, idioms) in order to develop real skill. Two ways to learn more about OTA’s Core Knowledge Humanities Curriculum:

The new Common Core standards (which the Core Knowledge sequence already encompasses) have set a goal of 70% non-fiction and 30% fiction for students. This OTA Amazon Bookstore List will help you find vocabulary-rich books to read at home or to donate to your child’s classroom library.

OTA Bookstore Browse by Grade

***** Sample Classroom Core Knowledge Reading List ***** Continue reading →

OTA “School Quality Snapshot” Released

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2014 Update: See “9 OTA Math Acceleration Tools“

Dear OTA Families:

The California Department of Education has released its 2012-2013 “School Quality Snapshot” report cards. The reports are based on OTA students’ California Standards Test (CST) results, which you received by mail earlier this fall. OTA now has two years of test results; so we can see some growth data for the first time. Our second year API (Academic Performance Index) is 901 and you can compare Year 1 vs. Year 2 results here: School Report Cards. Please see the notes below for more information on the CST tests.

As an OTA parent and a believer in quality public schools for all children, I would like to say thank you OTA Teachers, Parent-Volunteers, and Families for another great year.

Thomas Donahue
Executive Director
Old Town Academy K-8 Charter

OTA 2012-2013 School Quality Report Card

Click to download PDF version: OTA 2012-2013 Accountability Report Card. For a text version visit the CDE web site, enter Old Town Academy, and select Text Report.
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Flu Season Is Approaching • Article: “Children Too Need Flu Shots”

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This article is informational only, to help families make informed decisions. Flu Vaccines are not on the list of required vaccines for public school students.
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Children, Too, Need Flu ShotsBy NICHOLAS BAKALAR

Music News from OTA • Why We Teach Music: Music Education Makes Kids Smarter and Keeps Their Brains Young!

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men in blaque

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  • In the OTA Piano Lab students in Grades K-8 learn to read music, play piano, and train the ear using Solfege (Do-Re-Mi).

New Orchestra Blog HEADER 288 Purple

  • OTA orchestra builds on the ear training and music reading work that students do in Piano Lab.  Watch and Listen to some selections from the OTA Orchestra repertoire.

Why 9 Years of Music Education at Old Town Academy? 

Music- It Makes You Smarter and Younger

OTA Student Simone’s brain-on-music at the “Mainly Mozart and the Mind” festival!

At the “Mainly Mozart and the Mind” concert last month we learned from Northwestern university professor Nina Krauss that 6-12 years of music education (playing an instrument) not only makes you smarter, it actually prevents the brain from aging!

More confirmation that we are on the right track at OTA with our focus on early learning advantage courses in the Kiwanis Club of San Diego Piano Lab and our schoolwide focus on Music, Math, & Science.

ST Math program (the innovative visual learning software that Continue reading →

Why OTA Teaches Programming – “How America Can Get More Start-Up Talent”

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How America Can Get More Start-Up Talent

Build it right at home: Congress should encourage public schools to teach American children how to code just after they learn to multiply.

Read the full article in  How America Can Get More Start-Up Talent.

See slideshow from the latest OTA Robotics Tournament, Dec 10. OTA entered 3 teams…. and a more recent update from the 2014 Botball Tournament

Teaching every child to program a computer was a dream of the 1980s when the personal computer first entered the classroom. The dream quickly died out, however (buried under a flood of point-and-click “edu-tainment” software), and the computers ended up programming the children.

At OTA children program the computers; and it all starts with robots…

We not only teach every child in grades K-8 how to read music (their first symbolic language) and play piano, we also teach them to “write code” by teaching them to program Roamer Robots, Probot Racer Robots, and Lego Mindstorms robots.

  • Kindergartners, 1st Graders, and 2nd Graders learn to program using Roamer Robot and Roamer World Simulator. New “Roamer Too” robots are on order thanks to a grant from Kiwanis Club of San Diego. Watch VIdeos of K-1 programmers.
  • 3rd to 5th graders will start using the Probot “Racer” robot and Terrapin Logo Simulator in the second quarter thanks to a grant from Kiwanis Club of San Diego. Watch videos of 3rd-5th Programmers
  • 6th-8th Graders learn to Program with Lego Mindstorms, writing code that will prepare them to write apps for the iPhone/Android or iPad. Watch Videos of SumoBot robotics Competition.
The OTA Math & Science Olympics! uses Robotics to teach Programming, Problem-Solving, Applied Mathematics, and Engineering skills to all Old Town Academy K-8 students.
Thank you to our Robotics Coaches Jeff Major, Jon Doar.

 

Celebrate 20 Years of Charter School Success – Saturday, October 13, 9:30 AM at Balboa Park

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Dear OTA Parents, the charter school movement in California is 20 years old. The original legislation authorizing charter schools gave charter school organizers an exemption from the general Ed Code in return for making promises (laid out in each school’s “charter petition”) to reach clear educational goals within a 5-year period or be subject to closure. The legislation listed three goals for these new K-12 public schools:

  • Increase Parental Choice
  • Encourage Innovation
  • Provide Alternatives for Underserved Students
By all three of these measures California Charter schools have been a great success and last year alone California added 115 new schools, making it one of the most charter-friendly states in the nation. But every year legislation is proposed that would undermine the independence of charters, reduce parental choice, discourage innovation, and limit alternative solutions that charter schools might propose for at-risk students.
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Supporters of charter school movement need to make their voices heard, at both the District and the State level, to protect what we’ve achieved so far and gain more equitable funding for facilities, teacher salaries, and teaching tools. Now the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) has created a new organization, CIVICS (California Informed Voters in Charter Schools) to help us do just that.
 

As schools, we have an incredible opportunity to engage our communities and prepare the next generation of citizens. That’s why CCSA has launched CIVICS – California Informed Voters in Charter Schools.

Here are three easy ways every school can promote voter participation and be sure to check out CCSA’s new CIVICS Tool Kit!

Valieria Koss, MPP
Director of Parent Advocacy & Community Engagement, Southern California
California Charter Schools Association (CCSA)
Cell: (858)663-7507
Email: vkoss@calcharters.org
Website: http://www.calcharters.org

 

 

Student Survey Results for 2011-2012

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Below are the results of our student survey question: “How Does OTA Compare to Your Old School?” As a brand new school we had a priceless opportunity to ask all our students to compare their experience at OTA with their recent memory of day to day life at other schools (though in the end we asked students in grades 2-8 only). We also asked students to rank their favorite—and least favorite— subjects. That data coming soon.
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We think the results of the Student Survey question are as important as the California Standards Tests (CST) that measure skills and knowledge in Math & English/Language Arts. Those tests are useful (and our 2011-2012 results are encouraging); but they do not measure whether the joy of learning that all children bring to Kindergarten is being kept alive, and nourished, at OTA. This student survey question does.
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At our Orientations we promised parents that children would like coming to school at OTA. Continue reading →