Sara Jordan's 'Songs That Teach' Blog

The Frankfurt Book Fair - What a "Messe"!

2007-10-16T14:54:00.000-04:00

Actually, this is a play on words. The word "Messe" means "fair" in German. Having just returned from eight days in Germany where we exhibited as part of the worlds biggest book fair, I can't stop thinking about the Frankfurt Book Messe.

If you had the chance to see this fair, you'd be utterly amazed! The fair, which consists of ten enormous halls covering 172,000 square meters, attracts over 7,000 exhibitors and 300,000 visitors from around the world. Buses shuttle visitors back and forth from hall to hall.

It's a totally exhilarating experience. So many people from so many countries, speaking so many languages. I've posted a few photos here.

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Meeting with Stephane Derone [top left] of Linguascope in the U.K. Conversing with Sean Charlebois and Peter Crabtree [top right] of Crabtree Publishing. The "messe" was crowded [bottom] with people and excitement from 9 am to 6:30 pm every day!

My Nephew the Genius

2007-09-28T14:18:00.000-04:00

My sister’s kid is a genius. I watch him from a distance. I say “from a distance” because it seems he’s always sitting glued to the computer screen. However, I worry about all the time that he spends and if it is being channelled into something challenging.

This got me to thinking. Chances are, there are hundreds of kids in my nephew’s French Immersion school, also sitting at home with their eyes glued to monitors. Are they learning new and exciting things or are they instant messaging their friends?

I can see a solution. For the cost of perhaps 50 cents or a dollar per kid, all of the students in your child’s school (and in my nephew’s school) could be accessing online arcade games teaching English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. These games are terrific. They would be a valuable resource for the students of any school.

A subscription price of $399 per year allows all students and teachers of a school to have access, both at school and at home, for an entire year. Teachers even have access to an additional 3 sites with downloadable lessons and quizzes to use at school.

Linguascope is something that every school and PTA across the country should consider. After all, we aren’t just investing in what students are doing at school, but what they are doing at home too. Click here to learn more about Linguascope, try some sample pages, and subscribe online.

The Most Precious Time

2007-09-18T10:25:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, in the big rush of meeting deadlines, we forget that our most precious times are those spent with family. Last weekend was a time of anticipation and celebration because my son, Benjamin came to visit. He lives across the country and spends much of his time traveling to distant and exotic destinations. I don’t get to see him often but we did spend some time in one of the most exotic places in our community, the Butterfly Conservatory. Ben, who is a professional photographer, can take great photos even with my small camera. I’ve included a few here.

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Speaking of the big rush to meet deadlines, we will be celebrating the launch of our “Singing Sight Words” series on October 15^th. This neat series is based on the famous list of ‘sight words’ compiled by Edward Dolch. This new program is a fun way to help all students, young and old, learn to read English. You can purchase “Singing Sight Words” in advance, at a very special discounted price.

Could Text Messaging Be the Cure for Illiteracy?

2007-08-14T09:46:00.000-04:00

This afternoon I went for my meeting with my literacy student. The hour I spend volunteering every week is always gratifying, charges me up and gives me so much to think about. While going through our usual routine of comprehension quizzes and worksheets reviewing important basic skills, he started to ask me about the word “our”.

“This is not what I had been expecting,” he announced. “I was expecting ‘R’.” That is what I have seen when texting my friends. This led to a conversation about the differences between “our”, “are” and the “R” which is used in text messaging.

At first I was horrified. My literacy student’s dyslexia had discouraged him from trying to read and write for over 25 years of his life. Imagine him now texting and using “r” instead of “our” and “are”. But, then again, here he was, inseparable from his cell phone, trying his best to message his friends. Before parting ways, we decided to make a short list of messages (using conventional spelling) that he could refer to when texting on his cell phone.

What an interesting phenomena! According to my Google research, text messaging has become the dominant mode of written communication for many young people. As such, it is starting to be adapted by many progressive educators as a learning tool. Apparently students, who would never write at all before, can’t be stopped now!

Next week, I plan to have my student teach me how to text message! I’ll keep you posted.

How Many Wrongs Make a Right?

2007-07-25T09:51:00.000-04:00

Do spelling and grammatical errors drive you whacky? They do for me. I was hoping to escape the problem, years ago, when I resigned from my position as a teacher. It wasn’t so much the students who were driving me nuts. It was the teachers’ mistakes!

I’ve heard that if something is written wrong enough times, it eventually becomes right. Perhaps this is why we now see CD’s with an apostrophe. ABC’s and 123’s often sport apostrophes too. Is this world ‘apostrophe crazy’? Perhaps people are hoping that if something is done wrong, often enough, it will become right. If you check out the alternate spellings on Google, I’m sure that you will find that we are coming close to the tipping point.

One of my favorite grammatical sites was created by The Apostrophe Abuse Society. http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/examples_1.htm

Although the society is no longer soliciting examples of apostrophe abuse for their website, you could carry on the tradition by having your children or students assemble a collage of photos demonstrating incorrect uses of the apostrophe.

Somehow the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar must have hear that I’m fanatical about grammatical mistakes. They now send me their newsletter. Check them out here: http://grammatically.blogspot.com

In short, we should remind ourselves that spelling, punctuation and grammatical mistakes are not tolerated on résumés in this very competitive world. How, then, can we accept them from our students?

A Whirlwind Tour of Calgary

2007-07-18T14:09:00.000-04:00

Sometimes things happen at the most unexpected moments.

With very little notice, we made our way to Calgary to see my son, Benjamin, honored as one of the parade marshals of the Calgary stampede. What an amazing experience. These four guys, who traveled 8,000 km across Canada last year, via skateboard, to raise money for breast cancer, were honored in front of 300,000 people. The event was covered by media from across the country. Ben is amazing at everything he does. When he is not skateboarding and paragliding, he is a web designer and commercial photographer. Of course, I am a proud mother.

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The "Push Boys", Benjamin Jordan, Carlos Köppen, Aaron Jackson and Rob Lewis, with me and Rob Lewis's mother, Lorraine Lewis [left]. Benjamin leading the parade on his skateboard [right].

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The "Push Boys" being honored during the stampede [left]. Me hugging Ben [right].

It’s a very rare occasion when I get to visit Calgary, so I was glad to have the time to visit some of our retail buyers and their stores. Many thanks to my Calgarian sister, Merry, who chauffeured me around, otherwise it might have been pretty tricky to find them!

KidSource was our first stop. This is a neat store with staff very dedicated to finding the perfect learning resource for every situation. I met with Penny Kunitz, Wanda Liski and Marilyn Block. KidSource has a new website, so now you can shop there even if you don’t live in Calgary. Visit www.KidSource.ca.

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Owners of KidSource, Wanda Liski [left] and Penny Kunitz [right].

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Marilyn Block, sales associate [left], and the actual store [right].

After a huge lunch (just like Texas, everything is big in Calgary), our next stop was Canadian Home Education Resources. It was a pleasure to meet Brenda Baradoy, in person, after so many years of phone calls and emails! Brenda’s shop mainly serves homeschoolers however she said that many teachers who stumble upon her place are always pleasantly surprised. Brenda’s store has a playroom where kids are happy to play for hours on end. According to Brenda, parents often come in from out-of-town and spend the entire day shopping for a year’s worth of learning resources. Good thing she has that playroom!

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Brenda [left] and her shop [right].

La Librairie Monette is located in a cute little area of Calgary. I think it’s called Brittania Square. It seemed to be an enclave including bookstores, a toy store, Starbucks and a high-end deli. Even though La Librairie Monette is in the basement of a building, you can see from the photos that the entire store is brightly lit and very cheerful. Bridgette and Claudette Monette carry an extensive selection of French and Spanish resources in their friendly store. You can visit La Librairie Monette online at www.librairiemonette.com.

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Bridgette and Claudette [left] and their store [right].

The Beginning of a Great Summer

2007-06-22T16:03:00.000-04:00

I know it’s been a long time since my last post. One would expect life to be simpler in the summer, but between a Spanish course at the local community college and the preparation involved in producing our new series for beginning readers, there hasn’t been much time.

The big news around here is not with me, it’s with my kids.

You may remember that my son, Benjamin Jordan, alongside three friends, Rob Lewis, Aaron Jackson and Carlos Koppen, made a trek across

Canada

last year on skateboards. The 5,000 mile (8,000 km) trip took over five months and raised $60,000. Next month they will be honored during the Calgary Stampede when they lead the parade as parade marshals. The city of Calgary literally shuts down for this parade and it is televised nationally as well. Congratulations boys! You can view the stampede promo video for these extraordinary young men here: http://cs.calgarystampede.com/video_popout/video.html?video_id=18 or visit the "Push for the Cure:" website here:
www.pushforthecure.com.

My daughter, Jessica, a video artist, has been just as busy. Tomorrow I’ll be attending a reception at the “X Space” gallery in Toronto, which is exhibiting many of her latest videos. You may already know of Jesi. She has been illustrating our books and creating our free cartoon lessons online for the last few years. Congratulations and a big hug to Jesi who spends endless hours creating her animated videos. You can watch a couple of Jesi’s videos by click on the following links:

http://blip.tv/file/get/Jesicarrot-TheUkraniansMusicVideo918.mov

http://blip.tv/file/get/Jesicarrot-jui887.mov

You must wonder if I have any spare time at all! I’m including a few photos of fun things I like to do in the summer. Often on the weekends, we drive to a little café in the neighboring town of Welland. The attraction here is that they serve "los huevos rancheros", a Mexican breakfast, and they also have a stack of free newspapers en español.

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The Welland Café [left] and Belinda [right] hard at work.

Belinda, who hails from Mexico City, and seems to know everyone in town, works there all day long and is happy to converse in Spanish.

We are lucky to live near the water here. Just behind the house, there is almost always a duo of geese pecking away at the grass. I’ve noticed lately that they squawk in two different pitches. I was hoping to do a little research to see if the males squawk one pitch and the females another. This goose squawks a C#. I took his/her photo but haven’t been able to discern whether he/she is male or female.

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The goose behind my house [left] and many ducks near the pier [right].

While looking for more geese for this informal survey, we decided to take a walk down to the pier. Alas, lots of ducks but no geese! Oh well.

Mother's Day and IRA

2007-05-22T13:42:00.000-04:00

It has been such a busy week with Mother's Day and the International Reading Association conference but it was nice to spend so much time with my daughter, Jessie, who helped me during the whole week.

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Jess and I at a great little restaurant on Mother's Day.

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Despite the large crowds [left] our booth [right] still looked great.

It definitely feels like spring again. There is a robin that has decided to make her nest on a porch lamp right outside my front door. Despite my best efforts to persuade her not to, I finally gave up and she moved in. Out on the pond the rowers are back in full force. Between the chaos on the pond and birds chirping, it sure sounds like spring again too!

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A crew of rowers practicing [left] and my new feathered neighbor [right].

International Women’s Day

2007-03-08T16:17:00.000-05:00

This past weekend Jess, my daughter, and I attended a concert featuring a popular local female band, Broadband. This was Broadband’s 15th annual benefit concert to raise money for Women’s Place in St. Catharines and to celebrate International Women’s Day.

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Jess and me [left], Broadband concert [right].

Women’s Place is a charity providing housing, safety and support for abused women and their children. The shelter is actually moving soon to a fantastic new location in a former elementary school.

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The future home of Women's Place, St. Catharines.

Today I received an email from Amnesty International. I thought I would pass along the information. You can quiz yourself on women’s rights around the world, by taking the quiz here: http://www.amnesty.ca/quiz/seeithearit/seeithearit.htm By the way, entrants can also win prizes.

Canadians are urged to send e-postcards to Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs urging him to use part of the $300 million dollars Canada is sending to Afghanistan, to protect the rights of women as well as men. You can participate, and send an e-postcard to Foreign Minister, Peter MacKay, by clicking the link here:
http://www.amnesty.ca/quiz/seeithearit/afghanistanaction.htm

NSSEA SPRING EXPO – Atlanta

2007-03-02T16:18:00.000-05:00

Well. It looks like we escaped a few ice and snow storms again. It seems that just as we missed a major storm (at home) while we were in New York City, we have missed the second major storm while in Atlanta!

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Wil and I setting up the booth.

Every spring, members of the National School Supply and Equipment Association meet for ED EXPO. Wil and I were able to fly in a day early so we had lots of time to set up. It could easily take half an hour to walk from one end to the other of the mammoth convention center. Atlanta is also home of CNN.

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(left) Georgia Congress Center, (right) huge CNN building, across the street.

I view everything at the show now from a new perspective, after having taken on the challenge of being a literacy tutor. Hopefully I’ll be able to come home with some great resources and I’ll let you know how they work out.

Buyers often approach our display asking what makes our educational audio so special.
Yesterday I shared a story with one of our customers. He found it so interesting that I think I’ll recount it here.

This past November, while exhibiting at the Guadalajara Fair in Mexico, the buyer for Mexico’s major book store chain stopped by to place an order. Her face was beaming as she asked, “Sara, do you see how well I can speak English now?” It turns out that she had been practicing with some sample copies of our Bilingual Songs. Her English had improved so much that she was confidently able to do business in the new language. These CD kits are flawless. They can help students, of any age, learn either language easily and they’re fun.

2007 American International Toy Fair

2007-02-12T13:59:00.000-05:00

We’re in NYC for the Toy Fair and finding us here, you’ll see by the photos, could be like finding Waldo!

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Some of the busier places at this year's Toy Fair.

One of our neighbors at the Toy Fair, is David of the Little Linguists Company in Hong Kong. I have long admired the videos that Little Linguists posts up on You Tube. You can see them here too, by clicking on this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW-OgJYnZ_o

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David from Little Linguists.

If you happen to be attending the Toy Fair, you’ll find us at booth 3217. France Gobeil, my associate, and I are having a terrific time meeting all sorts of interesting people.

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Sara and France exhibiting at Toy Fair.

The Hustle and Bustle of New York City

2007-02-09T09:54:00.000-05:00

I've been spending the last few days at the KidScreen Summit. KidScreen is an annual meeting of more than 1000 industry leaders from 35 countries. I'd say that most people here are involved in children's television programming.

We had a little bit of excitement here that had nothing to do with the industry meetings. The Sheraton Hotel experienced an electrical fire our first night here. Apparently there were 8 fire engines, with the media and helicopters flying overhead in full force. We were instructed by an overhead speaker system, at least every five minutes, to stay in our rooms. Many people panicked and went down to the lobby where they waited wrapped in blankets. Luckily there were no fatalities.

I WAS able to snap a couple of photos showing the hustle of the industry and the bustle of the city (Times Square).

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The hustle of the industry [left] and the bustle of the city [right].

We're moving on to set up for the New York Toy Fair tomorrow. More pics to follow!

Winter Wonderland

2007-01-16T09:56:00.000-05:00

Well, after a wonderfully temperate winter (so far) we woke up Monday to find ourselves covered in ice! Quite dangerous and slippery, but beautiful all the same.

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The 'Winter Wonderland' in all it's beauty [left] and this clothes line that has seen warmer days! [right].

Even if the weather has been 'chilly', business has been 'hot' and everything seems to be moving at a fair clip.

NOW is a good time to order 'Prime Ministers of Canada' at a greatly reduced price. We'll be coming out with a new edition soon. These first editions have got to go. There is SO much content in these, they're great for boosting literacy levels as kids sing along.
Click here for details.

Guadalajara Book Fair 2006

2006-12-12T14:57:00.000-05:00

The beginning of this month was a whirlwind of activity as we flew to Guadalajara, Mexico to exhibit our products at the annual FIL Book Fair.

The fair this year was at its best.

The hall was packed with excitement each day, from mariachi bands, thousands of visitors and even the Prince of Spain. France Gobeil, my trilingual assistant (Spanish, English and French) was a real godsend!

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Sara and France at the booth [top left], crowds surrounding the mariachi band [top right], tight security during the Prince of Spain's visit [bottom left] and school children wait patiently to enter the fair [bottom right].

I was able to snap some photos of the historic city center and the beautiful foliage. In Mexico, flowers bloom all year long!

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Historic Guadalajara [left] and some beautiful flowers [right].

New Bilingual Products

2006-11-28T10:06:00.000-05:00

We are all very excited to announce that we have two new titles that will soon be available worldwide. Bilingual Preschool: English-Spanish and English-French will both hit the shelves on December 18 and we anticipate that they will be among our most popular all-time CDs.

We were very fortunate to have such a hard working and talented team working on this project. Our two English-French singers were Julie Crochetière and Peter LeBuis. Both brought with them a lot of enthusiasm and energy and helped to make this a memorable and fun experience. We would also like to recognize Mark Shannon, the recording engineer and arranger who always does an excellent job in putting together all of our music.

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Julie Crochetière and Peter LeBuis [left] and Mark Shannon [right].

After months of working on these two new products it is very rewarding to see them nearing completion. It was a lot of work but certainly well worth it. The songs all sound great and soon the public will be able to hear them too. Please visit our website to check out some samples of our new songs.

Celebrating Languages – Around the World and at Home

2006-11-07T09:48:00.000-05:00

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind, complete with me making two presentations, one in Lansing at the Michigan World Language Association Conference and another in Indianapolis, for the Indiana Foreign Language Teacher’s Association.

Luckily, at the conferences, I had time to catch some dynamic presentations too.

The keynote speaker at the MIWLA, Dr. Andrew D. Cohen, made a very lively, humorous and informative presentation on different learning styles.

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My presentation at the MIWLA and here I am standing with Tim at the Applause Learning Resources stand.

At the IFLTA, Molly Krueger Enz of Augsburg College and Jennifer Watland of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, presented: Multiplicity, Multiculturalism, Music: Demystifying the Francophone World Through Song. Molly and Jennifer’s presentation was very well done and included a 22 page handout! When I have the time to digest everything that was presented, I will try to include some of their ideas in upcoming newsletters.

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A birds eye view of the luncheon and keynote speech at IFLTA and a Sunday stroll with Wil in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Needless to say, it was great to get to Niagara-on-the Lake for a long walk and some sunshine, between the conferences.

Fall Presentations

2006-10-24T10:22:00.000-04:00

The nicest thing about October, here, is the constantly changing color of the leaves on the trees. Over the past week, I was able to capture some nice images of the park next to our home. Hopefully, over the next little while, I'll have some time to spend outdoors just to enjoy all of this.

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Autumn in the park.

Last week I had the honor of making a presentation to some teachers in the York University Additional Qualifications program. It's always fun to see them actually use the song tracks to perform their own lyrics, karaoke style. Check out these pictures of some of the teachers as they perform for their peers.

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Groups of teachers performing new lyrics to our songs.

Over the next little while, I'll be making presentations to foreign language teachers in Lansing, Michigan and Indianapolis, Indiana during their annual conferences. I'd love to meet anyone who happens to be in the vicinity during conference times. Please drop me a note and perhaps we can chat over coffee.

The Amazing Frankfurt Book Fair

2006-10-10T10:36:00.000-04:00

I realize I haven't posted much on the blog lately, but I've just arrived home from the Frankfurt Book Fair.

I'd heard, for many years, about the fair in Frankfurt, but you truly can't imagine what it is like unless you see it for yourself. I liken it to a Disney World for bibliophiles.

Each year almost 300,000 visitors descend on Frankfurt to visit the stands of more than 7,000 exhibitors. The fair lasts a week and is enormous. Attendees can hop on shuttle buses from one hall to the next. In total, there are nine halls and some of them, like Hall No. 5, even have two levels!

It was exhilarating to meet distributors and publishers from all over the world (the U.K., Belgium, Germany, Slovenia, Spain, India, New Zealand, Australia, Greece, South Korea, Jordan, Egypt, U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia come to mind), who are concerned, first and foremost, with the well being and education of children.

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Wil and me at our booth and me standing with Metod Boèko of DZS d.d. Educational Publishing, a company in Slovenia.

Apart from the fair, getting around Frankfurt was quite the challenge. Luckily, as exhibitors, we could take the trains free of charge. We even got to see a lot more of the countryside than we expected because of a few navigation mistakes. If Wil, who speaks German, hadn't been with me, we probably would have fared much worse with our directions!

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The train station in Frankfurt, outside and inside.

I found Frankfurt (and Germany in general) to be smoky! It's a difficult situation if you're allergic to cigarette smoke. People smoke in restaurants everywhere! They even smoke at the book fair!

We found accomodation in the historic town of Höchst. Here, we sampled meals in the various restaurants but were very surprised to see that almost all of the locals brought their dogs along to the restaurant too! Some people might joke that Höchst has gone to the dogs!

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Views of historic Höchst.

Our "home away from home", a boat called the Hotelschiff Peter Schlott, was docked on the Main River (a tributary of the Rhine) in Höchst. The weather turned out to be great on our last day of work. What a wonderful place to wind down and enjoy a glass of German beer.

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Me, alongside our riverboat and taking a break from the busy book fair.

Recording New Music in Toronto

2006-09-19T10:00:00.000-04:00

It seems as if I've been living out of my suitcase over the past few weeks, as we are very busy recording and producing two new albums, in Toronto. However, I must say that nothing is quite as exciting as hearing brand new songs come together after so many months of hard work. The singers that are working on this project with us are: Ricky Franco and Shantall Young, two of the finest Hispanic pop singers in the world. Also, kudos to Mark Shannon, the musical engineer and co-producer extraordinaire.

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Ricky Franco [top left], Shantall Young [top right], Mark Shannon [bottom left] and Mark, Me and Shantall after a recording session [bottom right].

Many thanks to the dozen people behind the scenes who always work really hard to make sure that everything is perfect. We will certainly be having a celebration once this project is finally completed!

Getting Ready for Fall

2006-09-05T12:36:00.000-04:00

As the summer draws to a close, it seems that much of my time has been spent couped up in the 'music room', composing new songs. Over the Labor Day weekend I tried to relax before the recording begins today. We will record the two albums over the month of September. I will try to post photos of the sessions as the month progresses. After working with Patricia Gómez, the lyricist, for the past few months, and going through final edits by different proofreaders, it's great to see the end in sight.

We celebrated Labor Day weekend by taking walks between the intermittent rain showers. Niagara-on-the-Lake is a really pretty and historic town. It's over 200 years old and was the first capital of Upper Canada. I've taken a few photos of Niagara-on-the-Lake and another of our walk down to Port Dalhousie, our own little scenic neighborhood.

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Views of lovely Niagara-on-the-Lake and Port Dalhousie.

You may remember me mentioning my son, Ben, who is skateboarding across Canada with 3 friends, to raise money for breast cancer research. The foursome left Halifax, Nova Scotia on May 1st. Having travelled 6,500 km, they are now west of Calgary, on the last leg of the trip. This is the scary part, however, since the last few weeks they will be longboarding through the Rocky Mountains. You can watch their progress and even donate to the cause at: www.PushfortheCure.com. Ben does all of the photography, the web design, most of the media promotion, plus longboards the entire distance. They will finish on October 9th, in Vancouver, which is the Canadian Thanksgiving.

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The Push Team [top left], a stop at the Terry Fox Memorial [top right] and longboarding through the Prairies [bottom].
Photos Courtesy: BenjaminJordan.com

Wishing you a safe and happy return to the school year.

Teacher Fairs and Workshops

2006-08-22T09:21:00.000-04:00

Last week was SO busy! Jessie, my daughter, and I spent a day in London and then a second day in Mississauga, Ontario participating in the Scholar's Choice Teacher Fairs. Everyone seemed to have a great time. Both fairs were held in accessible, comfortable venues, the presentations were awesome and lunches were great.

I made presentations based on our four volume Funky Phonics: Learn to Read series. The highlight of each presentation was a video that Jessie created showing teachers how to incorporate movement and exercise while still meeting academic curriculum standards.

It was a great experience and a wonderful chance to meet and converse with so many educators. Thank you, Scholar's Choice!

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A busy time for all during the Teacher Fairs.

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Photos of me at the display table and leading a workshop.

Foreign Language Education in the U.K.

2006-07-21T15:09:00.000-04:00

Time flies so fast! This time last week I was making a presentation to French teachers in the U.K. I got to meet a lot of fascinating people and stay in a really beautiful spot.

Did you know that the government in the U.K. has spent absolutely billions of dollars on foreign language education? Every single class has a “whiteboard” where a teacher, using a computer and projector, can include the entire class in online learning. Also, according to Stéphane Derône, my host and the president of Linguascope, each school in the U.K. has TEN computer labs which teachers are free to use with their students. WOW! That’s all I can say.

The trip was interesting and an education in itself. The most important thing I learned was that electrical power in the U.K. differs from the rest of Europe. I had thought I’d packed the right adaptor for the occasion. What a surprise, complete with sparks flying and a walloping bang (at the electrical store) as they tried to outfit me with the correct type of adaptors. Luckily, no harm was done to the equipment with the exception of a power bar that was fried in the process.

On July 14th, Danièl Eychenne, Julien Colot and I made presentations to secondary school French teachers teaching in the U.K.

Danièl, a French teacher in Denmark and co-author of the Avante Garde textbook series and Julien, the director of a language school in Helsinki, made presentations that were most interesting. Danièl shared some great ideas of how to make learning French more meaningful for students. Julien has created a website chock full of free activities teaching French. His website is REALLY great. You can check it out at www.maisondequartier.com.

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Julien Colot [left] and Danièl Eychenne [right] presentations.

Stéphane Derône, president of Linguascope.com planned the day so well that everyone had a memorable time. Stéphane never mentioned that his office is also located in this beautiful location known as Westwood Park. When you look at the pictures of the gardens below, you will know just how lucky Stéphane is to come here to work every day! Not a bad life!

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Stéphane and the gardens of Westwood Park.

Of course I made a presentation too. You can check out my presentation as well as class participants here.

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When we weren’t busy making presentations and chatting about the state of foreign language education, Stéphane drove us about. Talk about scary! This is when the right side of the road (as we know it) becomes the wrong side!

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Little Horkesley (where the conference was held) is just outside of Colchester, England. Colchester is known for being the oldest town in the U.K. Here you can take a look at the main street and some of the beautiful gardens.

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Stéphane Derône is a really interesting character. While teaching French in a school in the U.K., to students who were disinterested for the most part, Stéphane began creating online games to make the learning of foreign languages fun. His websites are now famous in the U.K. and all over Europe. To learn more about the workshop and Stéphane’s websites, please visit:

http://www.linguascope.com
and
http://www.linguahelp.com/inset/previous/2006/14july/

Stickers, Stars and Students

2006-06-06T16:15:00.000-04:00

Those of you who know me, know that I really hate to exercise. I mean, I have always considered it a waste of time and preferred to sit in my studio composing music. Recently I joined Curves, which promised to only take 30 minutes a day.

My enthusiasm and attendance was sporadic until Curves held "The Challenge". During the six weeks of "The Challenge", at Curves, every member who came to exercise was awarded a star. It's amazing to see how many middle-aged women changed their exercise habits and daily routines because of stickers and stars. It even worked for me! The 30 minutes a day has now become habit.

It's sometimes easy to forget how we, as adults, can bring about many positive changes in our students and our own children with a little positive reinforcement! Stickers, stars and positive reinforcement work for kids of all ages, 5, 25, and even 55!

When I'm not working out and adding to my collection of stickers and stars, Patricia and I have been developing some new neat material. These Bilingual Songs, for the younger set, are going to be great. Besides being great songs, they are all interactive and can be used as learning games. You'll see what I mean when the CD is released!

For now, I'd like to thank my friend, Pamela Spears-Wilson, for inviting me to observe her grade one classroom during the last month. Pam's kids sing songs from the "Funky Phonics Series" daily. Originally I went just to see how they were using the phonics program. (By the way, Funky Phonics has received a great review.)

Now, after watching Pam's class in action, my mind seems to be exploding with all sorts of other great ideas for great songs and great learning.

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Positive Reinforcement in the classroom and Curves' Six Week Challenge.

Summer Pastimes

2006-05-30T15:02:00.000-04:00

I always look forward to the good weather when we are able to spend some time each weekend in the canoe. Here are a few photos I was able to take on Sunday.

Up until last summer we were able to make extended trips up Twelve Mile Creek, but then we met up with a very fierce male swan (a cob) who would feign an attack and was really quite scary.

It seems that the swans have taken the pond over for themselves. Every time we canoe we meet up with more, but none as scary as the huge cob ruling over Twelve Mile Creek, which feeds into the pond.

Here are two photos of a swan sitting on her gigantic nest.

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A swan guarding her nest, from afar and close up.

The swans share the pond with the rowers and of course with us:

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Sharing the pond with swans and rowers.

Did you know that swans usually mate for life? I found an interesting site on the net about a swan family that had to be relocated after the male attacked a senior citizen. You can read this interesting story here: http://www.all-creatures.org/cc/an-su2001-swanrescue.html

BEA 2006 in Washington, D.C.

2006-05-23T15:16:00.000-04:00

This past week was a whirlwind of activity. We spent four fabulous days in Washington, D.C. at the annual Book Expo America Exhibition. Even if one walks continually for days, it’s hard to cover the 300,000 square feet of this show! There were over 2,000 exhibitors, 30,000 industry professionals and 7,000 book buyers milling around.

Here you’ll see a bird’s eye view of one of the main exhibit floors as well as the entrance to the Children’s Pavilion.

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Me, with a bird's eye view of the floor and the entrance to the Children's Pavilion.

Our titles were displayed at the Crabtree Publishing booth. Crabtree is our main distributor and we work very closely with them.

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Lisa Maisonneuve and the Crabtree booth.

The “American Dream” was alive and well at BEA. Authors, publishers and distributors try, in so many creative ways, to get their titles noticed. Check out “Thumbs Up Johnnie” who was looking for a publisher!

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"Thumbs Up Johnnie" and his quest to find a publisher.

Our hotel was very centrally located and we were able to get in a little bit of sightseeing. I’ve included photos of the incredible Union Station and the Capitol.

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Union Station [top] and the Capitol Building [bottom].