Kids have character

The kids and staff at E.T. Carmichael kicked the school year off in September by learning the golden rules of behaviour – Rights, Respect and Responsibility also known as the 3R's and continued to further discover acceptable behaviours like “Perseverance” and “Courage” through the Terry Fox run activities.

This month the 3R’s focused on “Kids Have Character” with a visit from Bobby Boogaloo. Bobby Boogaloo, alias Bob Cook recently spent the day at the school getting to know the values of ET Carmichael and in the end produced the new school song.

“We are sort of kicking off our Character Ed for the year by having Bobby Boogaloo here, singer songwriter from Edmonton, who focuses on kids and character it’s his theme or logo,” explains School Principal Roz Bowness.

“What he has done is he’s worked with our kids in multi-level grade groupings throughout the day using what the kids have given him as what they value at ET Carmichael and reflecting on our rights, respect and responsibilities. We focused on that last month as sort of entry into school expected character within the school we focus on rights, respect and responsibility called the 3R’s and the kids have given him that information throughout the day as well as what is the ET Carmichael Cats spirit.”

“So he has taken all of what the kids have given him and written a song together with the kids which will now become our ET Carmichael song. And it will be a terrific kick off and as a reminder to the kids through the music what it is they value as being pillars of character in the school and important values that hold as a group and I think it has got power in a sense that they created it themselves.”

Bowness says that music and the arts is a very powerful learning tool for kids and she is so pleased that the school’s Parent Council sees the value as well and covered the cost to bring Bobby Boogaloo to the school.

“Kids are really tuned into music obviously from what we have seen today their bodies are moving as he is singing, I think the approach through the arts to anything is always appealing to kids and you can bring the arts into any subject area kids have an automatic connection with music and movement so they feel at ease with it,” she says.

“I think the fact that the kids were involved with pre-activities prior to him coming here where they had a sense of what is expected at ET Carmichael and what we value at school and keeps us all safe and allows us all to learn in a safe environment they bring that pride forward to him the things that make us a team at ET Carmichael make us a family.”

“We are hoping it will carry us through the year as something we can play off of and remind us of what is important to us,” she adds.

Bowness says Bobby Boogaloo will go back to his studio after the recording session and put the finishing touches on the song and in November will send a copy of the finished product to the school. As well, he will also create an MP3 version of the “live” taping which everyone can download from his website.