I suspect that this will just be a quick one before bed, but you never know with me!
Lately I have been busy on the internet finding information about some topics I will be teaching this summer. For the last two weeks I did a mini-course about modern music in the west. I had a ball. I introduced the children to many different styles of music, and had the opportunity to listen to some of my favourite old songs with the kids. We covered popular music from the 50s to the present. Needless to say, since I was teaching to children, I threw in quite a few novelty songs. Two of their favourites were "They're Coming To Take Me Away" by Napoleon XIV and "Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley.
The children also REALLY enjoyed singing "Lollypop" by the Chiffons (Ba-Boom-Boom-Boom) and "He's So Fine" by the Shirelles (Do-Lang-Do-Lang-Do-Lang).
The other big hits of the week were "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne, "Good Times Bad Times" by Led Zeppelin, "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult and "Kung-Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas.
Hmmm... They liked the Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, Prog Rock and Disco. How odd... they must have had me as a teacher, LOL!
Most of the kids also liked songs by Blitz, Sex Pistols, Abba and Elvis Presley: it was quite the eclectic selection of music we checked out last week! In the end, I think the children got a pretty broad overview of western pop music. The only thing I didn't really bother with was modern stuff... although we did listen to "Number 1" by Goldfrapp and "Can't Get You Outta My Head" by Kylie Minogue! :)
It was a fun week. I printed up lyrics for all the songs and we read them together before listening to the songs. The kids especially loved "(Don't Fear) The Reaper". One of the reasons they gave in their written reports was the fact that the lyrics were more interesting than most of the other songs. Of course, considering the different ways that this song could be interpreted, I put as positive a spin on it as I could. I think the kids got a positive message from the song. We certainly talked enough about it!
Many of the children saw reincarnation in the song, it being hinted at by the line "the seasons don't fear the reaper", meaning all things die and become renewed again.
In all it was an interesting couple of weeks and I quite enjoyed it.
It is time for a new subject now... the summer marches on!! I am now, for the next two weeks, going to be presenting an eight hour course on various holidays! The holidays we will be looking at and exploring are Martin Luther King Jr. Day, St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, and National Days (Canada Day, Independance Day, Taiwan's October 10th, etc...).
I have been very busy digging things up on the internet to discuss with the children. I found myself especially interested in Martin Luther King Jr Day. I found his story fascinating, and I took the opportunity to watch recordings of some of his speeches. His "I Have A Dream Speech" is rightly listed as one of the most moving and powerful speeches of the 20th century. I highly recommend that you check it out on You Tube... click the link to check it out. This is the full speech (roughly 18 minutes). It is well worth the time.
Before I forget... there was the most AWESOME rainbow today! Sue was at my house and we both ran up to the roof and took some pictures... of course, we didn't think about posing ourselves in any of them until it was too late. UGH.
Well... that's all I really wanted to talk about today. I am off to bed because I need to get an early start tomorrow.
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