Thursday, March 29, 2007

Kid Pan Alley Tunes

For those who thought imagination and play in the classroom are endangered species: take note.

Tennessee singer/songwriter Paul Reisler (not to be confused with Paul Reiser from TV's "Mad About You") is helping students from ages 6 to 10 create write their own songs. In an interview this week with NPR, Reisler talks about the joy he finds in helping children craft songs.

"The great thing about writing with kids is, it's not edited before it comes out of their mouth," Reisler tells NPR's Renee Montagne.

The result? Snappy little tunes like "The Rainforest" and "Cartoons," both inspired by subject matter close to kids' hearts. Although a folk singer by trade, Reisler helps children explore a variety of musical stylings and genres.

The result of his seven-year journey across America is a CD, Kid Pan Alley. You can buy the CD on the Kid Pan Alley Web site, order curriculum guide for teachers, or make a donation to Reisler's program. To date, he's helped create 600 songs with more than 12,000 children!

With all the musical talent in our great state, there just has to be a program like this somewhere in Washington. Do you know of any?

Also, starting tomorrow, I, along with about 230 elementary and middle level administrators from around the state will be in Seattle for the NAESP Convention. I'll try to do a little blogging from the Convention Center to share some of what I'm learning during my stay in Seattle. It's shaping up to be a great convention.

1 comment:

Dr. Glenn E. Malone said...

See you at NAESP, don't forget to add the naesp2007 tag to yoru entries and they'll automatically show up with all the pics and blog entries from the conference here:
http://hitchhikr.com/index.php?conf_id=191