In this dynamic, interactive workshop, Ben empowers teachers to use music and movement in their classrooms. Regardless of musical background, teachers will learn to incorporate musical techniques such as call-and-response, simple rhythms, and dynamics to increase experiential learning opportunities, facilitate language acquisition, and teach common core topics. Teachers will leave with a toolkit which includes a free download of Mister G’s environmental-themed album Mundo Verde/Green World, sample teaching guides, song lyrics, online resources for teaching music in the classroom, and current research about the connection between music and education.

Ben demystifies the creative process to illustrate how great songs, like great stories, follow a narrative form with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Employing basic concepts in literacy, students brainstorm specific imaginative details to create compelling characters and events and then translate these ideas into lyrics. Using this participant-generated material, Ben demonstrates how a range of musical styles including funk, rock, reggae, bluegrass, and jazz can be paired with lyrics to invent a fully formed new song.