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 the introduction of more music, visual arts, movement and technology, and I named that program Kids Like Blues.

For many reasons – see Challenge Accepted blog post – I decided to take a temporary break from teaching public school and focus on creating a new program and curriculum called Rockademix. Kids Like Blues was a good start but I wanted to create a more comprehensive curriculum that other teachers could use, even if they have no musical ability or familiarity with how to use the visual and performing arts to teach kids academics.

Naturally, I still get a lot of questions regarding the difference between Kids Like Blues and Rockademix. While Rockademix is influenced by my work with the Kids Like Blues program, the two programs are very different. Take a look…

Kids Like Blues

• The program I formed with my class while teaching public school.
• Met daily.
• Class comprised of same age students.
• Used existing classic songs.
• Difficult for others to implement as it was based on me playing guitar and my familiarity with the blues genre.
• Involved the kids performing publicly.

Rockademix

• The program I’m currently creating.
• Meets twice weekly after school.
• Students ages 5 – 11.
• Original songs and materials based on academic standards.
• Easy to implement, requires no special training or musical ability, not geared towards performing in public.
• Grammy Award winner-produced.
• Heavy input from professors of education, platinum-recording musicians, choreographers, artists, animators, and tech experts.

It’s true that both programs – Kids Like Blues and Rockademix – work to reach and teach children on a more authentic level. And, both programs incorporate a great deal of music, movement, and technology to create genuine experiences for students in which they can improve their reading, writing, and language skills.

Perhaps the biggest difference lies in how Rockademix is proving its effectiveness across ages and ability levels and is being tried, tested, and improved with the input of students. And, it is my hope to eventually partner with larger non-profits that can help me make Rockademix available to teachers, parents, and students everywhere..