I'm blogging to you from a hotel room in Topeka, KS, where I was born (not in the hotel room - in the city). Tomorrow I present the first of my librarian workshops, which was the motivation for me to create The Program Room podcast. There are three workshops this week. I'll let you know how they go!
The other thing that has taken up my time as of late is a new CD called "Let's Get Creative," which I'm recording with my friend Mr. Billy. We are on the home stretch, and I'll be able to let you hear some of it soon.
Thank you for your patience on waiting for new episodes to come out. I have three great interviews in the can, and now that the workshops are underway and the new CD nearly complete, I'll be able to turn some attention back to continuing the podcast. I hope to post new episodes in March!
In the meantime, I've uploaded four new files for my workshop participants, which I hope you will find helpful as well.
1. Encouraging Kids Creatively - this is a .pdf version of my slide presentation for the workshops. It is a work in progress, and I'm not sure how much of it will make without the narration, but it is here for workshop attendees to reference, and maybe you'll find it useful too. There is some good information about how to encourage kids to be creative, which can be applied to any and all arts activities. If you're going to be in my workshop, no fair peaking ahead of time!!
2. Create a Comic Book Character - feel free to adapt this activity as needed and try it out with your kids. Use the characters they create in all kinds of other activities, such as storytelling, drama, or movie making. They could even make a comic book! Check out my interview with Michael Bitz for more information on how to make comic books.
3. Songwriting With Kids - this is a fairly detailed outline of what I do with kids in my songwriting workshops, when there's time. Specific tactics are suggested for older, younger, and middle grades.
4. The Art of Critique - It's important for kids to get feedback on their work if they are to grow as artists in whatever field. This critique method puts the artist in charge and allows them to receive useful feedback from a group without ever feeling they are being criticized.
Let me know what you think!
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