On Friday, January 15th, Pride College Prep Academy celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King. For the two weeks prior, I worked with all 120 of my students at Pride, pre-K through 2nd grade, on two songs: "Down By the Riverside" and "This Little Light of Mine." The songs were my contribution to the celebration. It was also to be the first time parents were invited to watch a performance by our students. The closer the day got, the better I wanted it to be, so I recruited the help of the… Continue

In the 5-10 minutes separating my final Pre-K class of the day and my after school enrichment class, I hurriedly set up the five centers that we often use. All these students had music class today, so I decided to give them some independent choice in their after-school activity, rather than leading another lesson.



In one corner there are some beanbag chairs (thanks to the 2nd grade reading group that shares the room!), where I set up the "library center." Three students, one each… Continue

Minutes ago, I got home from performing, along with the rest of the New Orleans team, for residents at the Woldenberg Village retirement community. We played and interacted for about 45 minutes. After we finished, a woman stuck around to thank us for coming. She said that music was like vitamins for the soul. She told us that we really played from the soul. Her husband passed away over a year and a half ago, and she said tonight was the happiest she had been since his death. David could not… Continue

Randy Fertel threw a party Monday night to signify the launch of MNS NOLA (with Kiff as the guest of honor). For the first time, we, the fellows, met the Task Force that is responsible for making it happen. I am not even going to begin to try describing how incredible and supportive this community is. A truly inspiring night.



Tuesday evening we found ourselves in the living room of Terence Blanchard and Robin Burgess, both big players on the Task Force. With his three Grammys on the… Continue

On day one, there was a fight in one of my second grade classes. Like Eric Plaks, I swore revenge and we had a great time chanting about bananas and learning to keep a beat on day two. There are many yet unresolved challenges, but every kid is cute enough to make me work harder than I have ever worked to learn all I have yet to learn.



I have revisited a lot of the resources from training, typing quotations at the top of lesson plans for inspiration. Two things I am thinking about a… Continue