Schools eager to meet legal requirements for increased PE minutes take note: the nonprofit Rockademix curriculum enables schools to offer structured, standard-based physical education, while teaching STEAM and language arts. This easy-to-use, supplementary curriculum combines singing, dance moves, art, and technology to increase student engagement and retention. Rockademix is a song-based program designed by a […]

We are pleased to announce that Mrs. Kathy C. Harris has joined the Rockademix Nonprofit Board of Directors. Joining the Rockademix team is a natural extension of her personal philosophy. Mrs. Harris is laser-focused on dramatically improving how we educate children from kindergarten to career, and Rockademix provides a groundbreaking curriculum to schools that increases student […]

Ross Elementary School is bringing education to the next level for its students with Rockademix, a nonprofit K-5 educational curriculum that uses music to teach academic subjects like science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math, also known as STEAM.   Click here to see a video about Rockademix.   Stacy Neuman, Ross Curriculum Coordinator, has been looking for […]

Maya Azucena has traveled the world to unite people through music, and now she’s singing for a nonprofit educational program called Rockademix that uses music to teach kids academics. As cultural ambassador for the United States, she’s brought soul and R&B to the Kremlin. She’s also joined lineups with Beyoncé and been featured on MTV Made. According to the Village […]

Music can help kids learn academics. When the National Association of Music Education (NAfME) wrote a cover story about using music to teach interdisciplinary studies, they featured Rockademix, a new 501c3 nonprofit educational curriculum created by a unique team of teachers, Grammy Award-winning musicians, professors of education, and artists.   The article “Singing, Playing, and Studying The Blues” that […]

Music producer Sonix “The Mad Scientist” was called “the best music producer in the game” by DMC of famed rap group Run/DMC. Working with artists from David Bowie to Barry White and Rolling Stones collaborator Sugar Blue, the accomplished musician/producer has had a hand in some of the most sophisticated releases in the industry. More […]

“This is exactly what I need to reach my kids. Rockademix is an exciting way of instructing students. Addressing every learning style, students explore concepts for mastery rather than memorization. Using dancing, singing, and art captures the students’ interest and keeps them involved.” – Stacy Neumann, Ross Elementary   We’re very excited to announce that […]

The Rockadmix program is thrilled to be collaborating with Dr. Adam Blahut, currently a visiting Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico, Gallup. Blahut’s input thus far has been extremely helpful and the way he’s contributing to Rockademix is invaluable!   When I started creating Rockademix, the goal was to write original songs that […]

One of my favorite aspects of Rockademix is the musical diversity it offers. All of the songs produced, recorded, and used within the program are original and they cover everything from funk to blues, rap, metal, country, and of course, rock and roll (I’d love to claim the program incorporates so many musical genres in […]

When we first began to create dance moves for the Rockademix songs last year, I worked closely with a choreographer, an occupational therapist that specializes in child motor development, and the Rockademix kids. In fact, many of the dance moves for our first songs were actually created by kids in the Rockademix program. Our collective […]

I am thrilled to announce that Leslie Mauerman, Lecturing Professor of Education at Cal State San Marcos, is now actively involved in the development of Rockademix, a non-profit curriculum that uses the visual and performing arts and technology to teach kids academics. She joins a diverse team that includes Grammy-winning musicians, PhD historians, child development […]

So by now you’re likely wondering how and where I found an entire class of kids to pilot the Rockademix program. It’s every curriculum creator’s dream (or it should be!) to actually test things out with a diverse group of average kids before hitting the schools – so how did we manage this?   Well, […]

Don’t get me wrong – all of the various pieces of the Rockademix curriculum are cool. The songs tailored to the standards, custom-made materials and artwork, our original blogging platform, and corresponding books in print and online – they all contribute a great deal to the program. But perhaps one of my most favorite parts […]

Heterogeneous Grouping: Research and Rockademix Support It!   Though classrooms tend to be made up of very different students, most teaching materials and curricula don’t meet the needs of a wide range of kids. To make up for this, teachers often create leveled work for their students, resulting in lots of extra hours of teacher […]

My quest as a teacher has always been to find interesting ways to engage my students. As a musician, I frequently brought my guitar to school. I began to use my personal knowledge of blues music to carefully select existing songs that lent themselves to students learning academics. My student’s interest and abilities soared with […]

In naming Rockademix, I considered spellings like Rockademics, Rocademix, Rokademix, Rockuhdemics, and Rockademicks. I ran these variations by the kids in the program and we settled on Rockademix (pronounced Rock-a-dem-ics), as in, rocking academics. Deciding on the name was easier than a decision I’d recently made, which involved taking a break from teaching grades 1-6 […]

When kids are participating in their learning through music, art, technology, singing, and dance, they are learning on a deeper level. That’s what Rockademix is about: multimodal, experiential learning. There are so many ways to engage students, but perhaps it is the visuals that manage to hit home for so many young people. For this […]

What goes into the creation of a Rockademix song?   When I was using the visual and performing arts in my public school class, I spent hours combing through existing classic songs that would lend themselves to a more authentic way of learning. This was no small feat. Not only did the songs need to […]

I’ve spent time discussing how the musical aspects of Rockademix come together, so now I’m going to discuss how I incorporate movement and dance into the program. After all, it is this multi-modal approach to learning that really makes Rockademix unique.   For the first couple of songs, the kids and I came up with […]

A Snapshot of the Rockademix classroom   When I began this adventure, I was confident in all of the resources that were coming together – Grammy Award-winning musicians, professors of education, history PhD’s – the list just kept growing. But, there was one area I didn’t have covered. Having left my classroom teaching job, I […]

As educators, we traditionally begin with one uniform approach to teaching and then make a noble attempt to adapt to fit other learning styles (yes, Howard Gardner and his multiple intelligences would be proud!). Maybe we begin with a class discussion or lecture and then create or search for closely matched organizers, visuals, or video […]

For years, I worked as an elementary school teacher and enjoyed playing the blues on the side. On a whim, I brought my guitar to class one day and amazingly, every single one of my students quickly became involved – singing, dancing, and coming out of their shells. As the weeks turned into months, my […]

Grammy Award winner Dennis Walker is producing blues songs with elementary students and their teacher to help kids learn academics! How did the 70-year-old blues veteran, who produced BB King and Robert Cray and penned classics like “Phone Booth” and “Right Next Door” get involved in such a project?   About a year ago I […]

A captivating NY Times article further explores the impact and importance of arts education in our schools. Below is an excerpt and link to the full article: “For many education advocates, the arts are a panacea: They supposedly increase test scores, generate social responsibility and turn around failing schools. Most of the supporting evidence, though, […]