Today is my youngest daughter Calli’s twentieth birthday. She’s a wonderful young woman, attending Occidental College in LA. What’s not to love about that? Beach. Hollywood. Swimming pools. Movie Stars. I love her deeply, and I’ve loved watching her grow from a sometimes not so happy baby to a confident, active, and smart adult, moving …
Bullying is a big current topic in school and has been for some time. We’ve seen horrific, violent examples of what can happen when we don’t recognize or address behaviors and the cultures that spawn them. I noticed recently that businesses are getting in on the act, using their brand platforms to bring attention or …
When Amy Duma of the Kennedy Center asked me to sing a song at last month’s retreat, I wrote “Lean on Love.” I recruited a small chorus to help me get started leading it, because it’s a very nerve wracking thing to get up in front of peers, for whom I have so much respect. …
This last summer I read a blog post about helping children deal with fear, in particular, fear about a storm, with music. I got inspired by the idea and wrote a song, included below. It’s a zipper song where you can substitute different words for what you want to sing through: lightning, fire drill, snack, …
As a follow-up to my recent piece on research, and in particular the claims we make about it, I’ve received a number of comments and links. For those interested in this topic (and I confess I quickly get overwhelmed by my own fascination with these ideas and the huge quantity of information out there) here …
The annual Kennedy Center retreat for teaching artists is one of my favorite times of the year. I get to hang out with amazing, intelligent, engaged, and committed teaching artists who are doing great work all over the United States. We receive a variety of workshops on subjects that are current in education, and we …
I presented at a conference recently for early childhood teachers. I enjoyed my sessions, and I thought that the whole event was well planned and executed. However, I was troubled by several of the keynote sessions. Three different sessions led by musicians involved the presenters talking and then pressing “play” to cue up a song. …