Toys have always fascinated me. Children learn from play and it helps to formulate their ideas, devise challenges and of […]
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ruthcatchen
Ruth Catchen is available to engage in new STEM/STEAM curriculum or enrichment activity projects. Ruth Catchen received her Bachelor of Music degree from American University and her Master of Music degree from The Catholic University of America, in Vocal Performance and performed with many distinguished opera companies, conductors and orchestras in the United States. During that time, she created a series of lecture recitals called “opera coffees” in which she performed and discussed the history of pieces of music and operatic traditions. Later in her career, she turned her direction to music education and founded a youth chorale with the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra in Naples, Florida. This group grew from 45 children to over a hundred from a three county area. They performed with the orchestra as well as with well-known conductors such as Pops great, Erich Kunzel. After moving to Colorado, Catchen focused her attention to public education, hoping to better its quality and depth. She received her second master’s degree in 2007 from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in Curriculum and Instruction/Leadership. Since then, she has worked in developing arts integrated curriculum programs for various schools and school districts. Her work has included the creation, development and marketing of educational programs through social media. Through her consulting work, Ruth brings educational opportunities to disadvantaged youth, schools, and other non-profit organizations. Her passion is to promote excellent instruction that supports teachers and to bring education and the arts to life for children by connecting the arts to other core academics. Specialties: Music curriculum, integrated arts curriculum, arts marketing, education marketing, social media, new media marketing, project management, voice teacher, youth chorale director.The Communication Gap — Communication is an Essential STEAM Skill
In creating a curriculum for STEAM, I pondered what the essential elements are to create a scope and sequence that […]
The Value of Tinkering
Tinkering. It has been a while since I have thought about tinkering. As a child I loved to build things. […]
Teach Students to DISCERN Good Information From Bad
In considering a 21st Century education, teachers should become facilitators of knowledge rather than authorities and dispensers of facts. Most […]
STEM plus the ARTS –
What does STEAM do for STEM? As a society that loves to jump on trends, often we […]
Musings of an Educator on a Mission – How To Make STEM a Reality
My passion is to improve education. Since I was young, I realized that education was the ticket to improving poverty […]
ART with SCIENCE-SCIENCE with ARTS — Justify Studying the ARTS?
This morning I saw this blog published two days ago on the New York Times blog about the benefits of […]
Curiosity as Inspiration — The Rover Roves!
I hope you are following the progress and success of the Mars Science Laboratory Rover Curiosity as she begins her […]
Are we trying to minimize or maximize potential?
Recently, several articles claim that students don’t need to learn Algebra, or at least they ponder the question of what […]
RIP Neil Armstrong – An American Hero and Inspiration
ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND I remember that night, almost like it was […]