{"id":367,"date":"2010-06-10T00:00:03","date_gmt":"2010-06-10T00:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/otherthings.com\/blog\/?p=367"},"modified":"2011-10-23T04:49:16","modified_gmt":"2011-10-23T04:49:16","slug":"with-the-right-teacher-school-can-be-awesome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/otherthings.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/with-the-right-teacher-school-can-be-awesome\/","title":{"rendered":"With the right teacher, school can be awesome."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_new\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pnwlocalnews.com\/vashon\/vib\/lifestyle\/95886239.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/otherthings.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/andy_james.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"andy_james\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-384\" height=\"323\" width=\"450\"><\/a><br \/><font size=\"-2\"><i>Andy James works with Chautauqua students, including Shayla Malm, left, during a recent music class. Photo by Elizabeth Shepherd<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n<p>My friend Andy James teaches elementary school on Vashon Island, a rural community a short ferry ride from Seattle. He\u2019s got a real passion for teaching, and my conversations with him about it always leave me inspired. His latest project is no exception: faced with a new role as music teacher, he decided the thing to do would be to get the kids to compose, perform and record an entire album. And <a target=\"_new\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pnwlocalnews.com\/vashon\/vib\/lifestyle\/95886239.html\">they did it<\/a>. Not just any album, mind you: a concept album made entirely of original songs written by the kids, based on a South American folk story called \u201cThe Whistling Monster\u201d. Now they\u2019re selling the CD to raise funds for the school (and in the process help save Andy\u2019s job, which like many teachers\u2019 is on the chopping block). I haven\u2019t heard the music yet, but if I know Andy it\u2019ll be worth a listen!<\/p>\n<p><strike>The whole operation is pretty low-tech, so as of now you can\u2019t buy the CD online.<\/strike> <b><font color=\"#dd0000\">Update:<\/font><\/b> Chautauqua Elementary School has made the CD available online! You can <a target=\"_new\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cdbaby.com\/cd\/chautauquaes\">order it here<\/a> in MP3 form or as a physical disk. Take a listen, and leave a comment below if you\u2019ve got anything to say!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andy James works with Chautauqua students, including Shayla Malm, left, during a recent music class. Photo by Elizabeth Shepherd My friend Andy James teaches elementary school on Vashon Island, a rural community a short ferry ride from Seattle. He\u2019s got a real passion for teaching, and my conversations with him about it always leave me &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/otherthings.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/with-the-right-teacher-school-can-be-awesome\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">With the right teacher, school can be awesome.<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11,17],"tags":[64,65,66,67,68],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fun","category-links","category-personal","tag-awesome","tag-friends","tag-kids","tag-music","tag-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherthings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherthings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherthings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherthings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherthings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/otherthings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370,"href":"https:\/\/otherthings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions\/370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherthings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherthings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherthings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}