Sunday, June 14, 2009

Playing For Change

Many of you are just embarking on some time to take things a little easier - of course, except for all of those things you saved to do this summer. I know for a fact that teachers never really leave their classrooms behind for the summer - just maybe just a little bit in the background. I thought I would share something inspirational with you this evening.

Playing for Change is an inspirational music project that celebrates diversity and culture that was born out of the idea that through music we can inspire each other to come together as a human race. The project started four years ago on the streets of Santa Monica, with the recording of a street musician playing Stand by Me. Make sure you first listen to the introduction.

This was shared today in a newsletter that arrives each week with one new website. It is called Worthwhile Websites and is sent by Sandra Gluth of Canada. Sign up so that you will start receiving her emails in the Fall. Thanks, Sandra - I really liked this.

I am doing a two day workshop tomorrow and the participants are receiving graduate credit. This means that we go from 8:30 AM to 4:00 each day. I hope I can keep "up"!

Whatever you are doing this summer - take some time for yourself. I will keep blogging as things look appealing.


NEW! Playing for Change
http://www.playingforchange.com
Playing for Change, an inspirational music project that celebrates diversity and culture, started four years ago on the streets of Santa Monica with the recording of a street musician playing Stand by Me. The project was born out of the idea that we can inspire each other to come together as a human race and that music is one way to achieve this. Playing for Change contains videos and musical recordings of artists that have been recorded over the years. Start with the Introduction. And for the Stand By Me video by itself, go here: http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741

*This site is also listed under The Arts.

Sandra Gluth :-)

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Phonics Practice

This is for the teachers of very young children. Having something that is interactive with audio and a pleasing visual will go a long way in helping with phonic sounds and how they blend into words. Such a site is Phonics Training Ground , a simple online interactive for teaching and learning letter sounds. I found this on Larry Ferlazzo's blog today. It is a very short game but one to add to your list of activities for teaching the sounds with interactivity and multi-media.