PTMs in the news: Learning other subjects with music
Former nurse and now-schoolteacher Debra Cave was looking for something to supercharge her fourth-grade students’ learning. Instead of just repeating the material and hoping for the best, she spent two months watching the Disney Channel(TM), composed and recorded “science songs”, and began singing them in the classroom – to rave reviews!
This article tells the rest of the story. For those of us who passed our high school Speech class recitation of the Preamble to the US Constitution by singing the Schoolhouse Rock version in our heads (adding the phrase “of the United States” that the jingle version inexplicably omitted), this serves as no surprise. Frankly, I can sing many of the Schoolhouse Rock jingles to this day…but we’ll address that in a future article. 
Ms. Cave’s resultant DVDs have been purchased and used in schools across the country, at every level from elementary to high school. Simply put, learning music helps us learn…everything.
As Part-Time Musicians (PTMs), many times we are guilty of focusing only upon playing an instrument…but the voice is also an instrument, one that is nearly universal. Hats off to Debra Cave and all of the other PTMs who “play” the most natural instrument of all…and share their gift with others.
All the best,
Mark
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Tags: Cave, Channel, Debra, Disney, DVD, learn, News, part time musician, Rock, Schoolhouse, science, subject
1 Comment to “PTMs in the news: Learning other subjects with music”
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By Debra Cave, October 8, 2009 @ 9:59 pm
Thanks, Mark! I wish I could say that I was the vocalist on the songs, but we wanted them to sound good!
I am the composer, but hired very talented people to do what I could not.