Music on Academic Development

MUSIC AND ACHIEVEMENT

There have been a number of studies done on the effect of music on academic development. It has been shown that high school music students have higher grade point averages than non-music students in the same school. At Mission Viejo High School in Southern California in 1981, the overall grade point average of music students was 3.59 and for non-music students the overall grade point average was 2.91. This same study also found that 16% of the music students had a 4.0 overall grade point average and only 5% of the non-music students had a 4.0 overall grade point average.3 A study of graduates of the New York City School of Performing Arts found that 90% of them go on to college.4

Rees feels that involvement in high school music programs helps students develop the skills necessary for a variety of occupations. She states: "Successful music students tend to possess the qualities and skills that are generally considered essential to employers in business, education and service organizations."5 She also recognizes that music education assists students in improving their writing, communication skills and DOES improve analytical skills. Rees further states that to be successful in music, takes a great deal of self-discipline and notes that "music majors have the highest SAT scores in all areas." 

Fred Hargadon, former Dean of Admissions for Stanford University, in a 1983 interview with Stauffer said, "We look for students who have taken part in orchestra, symphonic band, chorus and drama. It shows a level of energy and an ability to organize time that we are after here. It shows that they can carry a full academic load and learn something else. It means that these particular students already know how to get involved and that's the kind of campus we want to have."

English Test Store, an English test for English learner

This website provides many kinds of English test material. There are grammar test, listening test, reading test, speaking test, vocabulary test, TOEFL test and TOEIC test. Those tests can be downloaded. There are many classification of test, for example in grammar section, there are test about article, tenses and other aspect of grammar, and also a test to check our grammar level. In listening section, there are test about pronunciation and sentence stress which are very useful to distinguish how the native speakers use the language in speaking. In vocabulary section there are test about phonetic, synonyms, antonyms and another aspect of vocabulary.

Beside Those kinds of test there are also TOEFL and TOEIC test. We can do the test online or download it to have an individual practice. This website is suitable for all level of English learner. Test material on this website is for any level of student. 

English test store

LoLoL Day!

today is suppose to be a fun crazy day for me and Laila

we called it LoLoL day

laugh at many things, joking around, 

the most epic thing is a burden of something that is a big responsibility

I don't know why she gave us the duty

 
the burden face and the paper

When?

tired, exhausted, aaaaaarrrgh......
ini kapan selesainya kalo setiap minggu nambah mulu. coba di rem sedikit pemberian tugasnya, kami sudah terlalu banyak menerima. I wouldn't mind if you stop giving us another assignment. Hahaha... it won't happen until we finish this semester.

Idiom Corner, where people learn idiom, proverb, phrases, phrasal verb and quotes

Idiom Corner

This is an English expressions community where people learn idioms, proverb, phrases, phrasal verb, and quotes. We need to make an account first to use all facility in this website. If we already become a member we can explore the quizzes, expressions practices, and other activity. For quizzes, there are three levels of quizzes, easy, intermediate, and advance level. There will be about 10 to 20 question in a level and every level has a different amount of question. For example, there are 10 questions in easy level. We need to answer at least 90% correct to be able to proceed to the next level. Every activity we done we will get points. So far the highest points is 14, no one has reached more that that.

Beside quizzes there are also practices by suggest new expressions or make a new example for one of the expressions. When we posted new suggestion of expression the other users will review it and they can either approve or decline it. If they approve it we can get 2 points but if they don’t we will not get any score. We can also post comments on another user’s suggestion. Users with the highest score will get to be featured. 

here is the link

English expressions community where people learn idioms, proverb, phrases, phrasal verb, and quotes.

Games for young learners

Mingoville

This website is a website for young learners like children to learn English. Mingoville is a game based learning.  There are many activities in this websites. To start using this website we need to make an account. There are two kinds of learner, super learner where we need to pay about 23 dollar for 3 months, 35 dollar for 6 months or 59 dollar for 12 months and there is also free account fro an ordinary learner. Children can learn in a fun way and also make friends with other users. There are numerous interactive and interesting missions, education games and songs to learn. It is an interesting way to learn English for children. Children will learn best when they immersed in the language.

A coward by Guy de Maupassent

A Coward 

Society called him Handsome Signoles. His name was Viscount Gontran-Joseph de Signoles.

An orphan, and possessed of an adequate income, he cut a dash, as the saying is. He had a good figure and a good carriage, a sufficient flow of words to pass for wit, a certain natural grace, an air of nobility and pride, a gallant moustache and an eloquent eye, attributes which women like.

He was in demand in drawing-rooms, sought after for valses, and in men he inspired that smiling hostility which is reserved for vital and attractive rivals. He had been suspected of several love-affairs of a sort calculated to create a good opinion of a youngster. He lived a happy, care-free life, in the most complete well-being of body and mind. He was known to be a fine swordsman and a still finer shot with the pistol.

"When I come to fight a duel," he would say, "I shall choose pistols. With that weapon, I'm sure of killing my man."

One evening, he went to the theatre with two ladies, quite young, friends of his, whose husbands were also of the party, and after the performance he invited them to take ices at Tortoni's.

They had been sitting there for a few minutes when he noticed a gentleman at a neighboring table staring obstinately at one of the ladies of the party. She seemed embarrassed and ill at ease, and bent her head. At last she said to her husband:

"There's a man staring at me. I don't know him; do you?"

The husband, who had seen nothing, raised his eyes, but declared:

"No, not in the least." 

Ellen the Eagle Needs Glasses by Phil Saphiro

Ellen the Eagle Needs Glasses

Ellen the eagle first suspected that she needed glasses the day that she swooped down out of the sky and grabbed a small lawn chair to carry back to her hungry children. When she arrived back at her nest, perched high atop a cliff, her oldest son said, somewhat sarcastically, "Great. Another lawn chair for breakfast. Just what we need."
Her husband, Ed, was more forgiving. He gently picked up the lawn chair with his beak and moved it over to the flat, back section of the nest. Then he sat down in the lawn chair, folded his wings comfortably behind his head, and lay back.
"Honey, you might want to go and have your eyes checked one of these days," Ed said. "It's easy enough to do, and only costs a mouse or two."

"I've been meaning to get my eyes checked," replied Ellen, "but you know how it is. Every day it just seems that there are new mice to catch, new things to do for the nest, and new nature shows to be in."
"True, the nature shows do put the dead mice on the table, but they take away from the hunting and stalking I really like to do."
"I'll put it on my calendar as something to do next week. Although, I've got to say, I would feel a little self-conscious wearing glasses out in public. What would the other eagles say?"

E-learning and the benefits

What is E-learning? That question might pop into our head when we consider about how education have improved through technology. E-learning, as almost everyone knows is electronic learning. It means that the learning environment has joined together with the development of technology that create new environment which utilizing technology and Internet connection. It emphasize on learning along with technology and how to use and benefit from it. There are many definition of e-learning that defined by some expert but I found in a book written by Bryn Holmes and John Gardner where they defined e-learning simply as online access to learning resources, anywhere and anytime. Another definition of e-learning refers to courses that given online rather than having a classroom meeting. As we know in day-to-day activity we are now routinely technology-based, for example using cell phone, mp3 player, laptop, and many electronic devices which are very crucial for our daily activity. E- Learning offers new opportunity for both teacher and student to enrich their learning experiences through new environment, which called virtual environment. Teachers and student can search as many as information they need for the learning process through Internet and also joined to some virtual classes that can give them new experience and information. Beside that, they can also share information and discuss things with another people who might be having different experience. To be able to have that kind of learning process learners must have the ability to use the technology and also the responsibility in using it, if not it will be meaningless. there are many benefit of e-learning that I can't mention it all but for me, I can mention some benefit that i feel it myself in my learning process. the first is, it helps me on doing my assignment. I can search for many resources that relevant to the subject i learn. Second, it gives me opportunity to share ideas and discuss things with other people in another part of the world, let say the native speaker of English because I'm major in English. I can interact with them through many social media like Skype, twitter, Facebook and email. Third, I can express myself through writing in a blog and other people can give comment on it, so that I can improve myself in writing. maybe other people will get the same benefit as I get and maybe they get more benefit than mine because every people has their own purpose of learning.