By Jessica Baron | Executive Director
Dear Supporter,
Thank you so much for continuing to support this important project. I'd like to share a few important new developments that have taken place in the last few weeks.
When we first started this project, it was a responsive idea based on what teachers were talking about in our training programs. We saw a need to address emotional needs of children experiencing stress and crisis. But this past school year, there has been a major shift in curricular focus across the nation. Instead of focusing solely on academics, The Department of Education is finally paying attention to social emotional learning or what teachers call in shorthand SEL. So have we, especially in our work with students in special education.
What this shift means for this project is an expanded goal of not only providing teachers with songs that help students cope with and rise above difficulties but it will not include songs that give them social and emotional strategies that are specific to self soothing and developing emotionally healthy habits. The book will also include songwriting fill in the blank worksheets to prompt students to put their understandings and strategies into songs!
Last week we negotiated with the largest print music publisher in the United States to grant us favorable terms for including several popular songs in the book for a reduced fee. We were hoping they would publish the book for us but their publishing schedule is too busy. So we will be doing it ourselves. We will also be producing a CD because teachers still use the use their boomboxes in their classrooms even more than MP3 downloads.
We'll be working on getting the rights to songs in the next month and then we will be ready to physically begin to produce the book. The last stage will be recording the music which will probably take place in the early fall. It helped to have the book CD ready beginning of 2020.
Thank you so much for continuing to follow the growth of this project. I believe you will be very proud of it in the end.
Warmly,
Jess
By Jessica Baron | Executive Director
By Jessica Baron | Executive Director
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