Writing Songs

I’ve always been impressed how singer/storytellers like Bill Harley, Michael Parent, and others create the songs that they write and perform. In the past year, I’ve written two songs, both of which I would like to use in my storytelling events. What has fascinated me is how these songs came to me.
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Positive Thoughts

I searched the Internet recently to find research on positive thinking. All I used as keywords was “Positive thoughts” research. As expected I was referred to a large number of sites, all of which stated the same thing. Your physical and mental well-being is directly affected by thinking positively. I was not surprised. All the research shows that if you continue to think more negatively, you will feel more negative. Negative emotional feelings can have a cumulative effect on your body over time. In one study published in the American Psychologist it was concluded that “words can have the same effect as drugs: thinking optimistically can change your whole biology”.
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Being read to

As a parent, teacher and storyteller, I know the importance of reading to kids. Reading to kids allows them to enjoy tales that they might never attempt on their own. It encourages listening and a better understanding of literature. A colleague of mine once wrote, “We are pleasure seeking individuals by nature. Reading should always be viewed as an enjoyable event.”

My sister told me that when she was young my mother used to always share with her “Struwwelpeter” stories. I looked some of these stories up on the Internet and discovered that they were a series of poems written (in German) by Heinrich Hoffmann. Most of them were pretty gruesome. Here’s an example of one:
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Time to reflect

When I was a junior in college at SUNY Stony Brook, I finally decided what I wanted to be when I graduated from school. I was going to be a teacher. I was lucky to have as my mentor and professor for 2 years. Dr. Dennis Littky. Dennis at the time was in his mid-20s, a professor in the Education department and at the same time directly involved in creating a new Middle School in the Shoreham-Wading River newly merged school district on Long Island. I learned a lot from Dennis as I completed my final 2 years of undergraduate college. The year I graduated Stony Brook in 1972, Dennis left his post at the university to become the principal of SWR’s new Middle School. Continue reading

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I wish they’d given it back.

When I was a young, I loved to write. As you can tell, I still do. One of my aspirations as a child was to become a writer. Most of the writings that I did as a child were done based on assignments that were given in school. The ones that I made in school that were good enough that my teachers chose to keep them. Those were not the days of computers where, I could just print an extra copy for my teachers. Whether or not my teachers had copying facilities, making a copy never occurred to them, because with them keeping my originals, I never saw them again.

Though I never got those papers back, I can clearly remember some of my best writing.
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What will you remember 20 years from now?

One of the scenarios that I put interviewing teacher candidates in when I was on interviewing committees was, “Pretend that we hired you, and you’ve now been teaching here for 20 years. You run into one of your ex-students from your first year here in the district. What do they remember about your class?” This question, which is not a usual question that one gets asked, gets to the true heart of your philosophy about teaching. As a teacher you want to have impact on your students. Deep down you want them to remember key things that you taught them. Based on most answers, key things generally do not include content.
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They said it couldn’t be done.

I spent over 49 years of my life in a formal school setting. Most of those years were spent as a teacher. All of those years were spent as a learner, whether I was sitting in the pupil’s chair or the teacher’s. I learned a lot over all those years. One of my most memorable moments in all my schooling years happened when I was in 5th grade as a student. It involved trust, respect and willingness of my 5th grade teacher to believe in our class.
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Dentists – Who gets to work on me now? Part 2

I had a plan. Having had a successful experience with a dentist, I now knew what pain free dentistry was like. For my next venture to Dr. Guenther I would attempt to teach him about modern dentistry. The plan was simple. I would first tell him about the numbing paste. I assumed that even if I didn’t know its chemical name, he would, once I described it. My next instruction would be on the use of Novocain, of which I was sure he was familiar. On the off chance that he did not have any of those materials at hand, I explained my system of raising my arm to signal him, should any pain be involved in his work. I was confident that I would prevail against the Dentist of Pain. Boy was I wrong!
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Dentists – Who gets to work on me now? Part 1

I’ve been with the same dentist for over 30 years. He is now in partnership with his son, so I can anticipate continuing with this practice for many more years. Both dentists are very personable, have a good understanding of my needs and my family’s needs. They are excellent at what they do. I originally went to this practice based on a recommendation by one of my teaching colleagues. This was the first time I ever had to pay for my own dental work; I wanted to make sure that I picked the right practice. This wasn’t the case growing up, where I had no choice. My parents, both immigrants from Germany, were the people that chose who was going to deal with my teeth as I grew up. Unfortunately for me finding the best dentist wasn’t necessarily their highest priority.
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The refrigerator was locked.

It may be hard to believe, but when I was young, my mother used to lock our refrigerator. It was an old fashioned refrigerator, with one door and handle to open it. Inside there was a freezer part on the top about the size of a bread box, with its own pull down door and the rest was just refrigerator space for regular stuff. Having only one door on the outside it was easy for my mother to take a length of chain, wrap it around the refrigerator and have a keyed lock in place to prevent any unauthorized entrance. You might wonder why?
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