Monday Madness

Welcome to world of MLWM on this fine & sunny day! Only a short one today – I promise.  It struck me last Thursday, whilst I was listening to one of our early years presentations, how fantastic it is to listen to & be inspired by some fantastic music practitioners.  Em & I are very fortunate here at ML HQ as we do get to do that on a regular basis. 

We had over 80 people join MLWM & WCC early years team for a day of all things early years and all things music.  Thanks to all that attended, particularly our workshop leaders, Dr. Alyson Street, Sandra Barefoot & Sarah Moody, & Jenny Goddard – for some fantastic interactive workshops!  Also to our speakers Dr. Susan Young and Dr Alex Lamont.

There are loads of things I will take away from the day – but a few things have stuck in my mind

• Do we actually need words to tell stories – or can we just let the music do the talking?!
• That everyone needs an ideas basket and some stretchy lycra for teddy trampolining- hey this is something everyone should try!

Some great web links/ useful thoughts 

•  http://education.exeter.ac.uk/music-one2one/
• speech contours - Anne Fernald
• the ripping newspaper exercise for babies and parents

Thanks guys!

Erika

International Women’s day & Pancakes!

I really don’t need any excuse for pancakes – jam & ice-cream are sounding good to me!  Anyway here are a few things that caught my eye today.

The UN theme for International Women’s Day for 2011 is “Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women”. Thinking about this in relation to our work, if we remove the word ‘science’ then the theme is entirely fitting in terms of the aims and objectives of the MusicLeader programme. Equal access to professional development is vital to ensure we are able to keep our approach music making activity with children and young people fresh and creative! Let us know your thoughts...

On another note, the PRS Foundation has launched a new grant today to coincide with international women's day, its called “Women Make Music” The maximum you can apply for is £5000.

Finally back to those pancakes – I just read this how to guide – I might give this a go this evening – last time I made pancakes they ended up rather stodgy... here are some filling suggestions just in case - Enjoy!

Erika

words words words

Spent this morning pulling together a review of our IAG services  some cool images came out of it!!

If you have not used wordle – then check it out - its very cool 

thanks Bym for the heads up