We’ve just returned from our live interview on CBS Los Angeles (KCAL9 News). Thank you so much to Brittany Johnson for taking care of us, and to the amazing Sandra Mitchell for inviting us and interviewing us. We’ll publish a video clip as soon as we get hold of it…!
KinderBard at Folger’s Annual Education Conference
We are so thrilled to have been invited to the Folger Shakespeare Library‘s annual Conference on Teaching Shakespeare in the Elementary Classroom on June 24-26, 2013 in Washington D.C.
For those of you who don’t know, the Folger Shakespeare Library is home to the world’s largest and finest collection of Shakespeare materials, and their annual conference connects with educators from around the country for three days of interactive workshops, discussions and activities for bringing Shakespeare to life in our elementary classrooms.
We will be presenting uses of our book, using materials from our free guide which many of you have already downloaded. There will also be a book signing event after the conference – oh, and they’re now stocking our book in Folger’s gift shop!
FREE Parents and Teachers Guide Available Now!
You can find out more about this great 18-page booklet and download it HERE.
Conejo Valley Shakespeare Society’s Youth Shakespeare Company
Remember the blog post just over two months ago about how much the Conejo Valley Shakespeare Society impressed us with their acting skills, and that we decided to use these talented children’s voices in our iPad app?
Well, we began the recording process and Alicia Doyle from the Ventura County Star wrote an article about it! Thank you again to Mary Carrig for organizing the day, to Pete Turpel for letting us use his studio, and Karen Quincy Loberg for the wonderful photographs!
Watch us on CBS LA!
We’ve been invited as guests on CBS LA on Thursday, February 7! Tune in at around 2:45pm to watch our live interview, where we’ll be talking about our book, our pictures, our music, and our app!
UPDATE: Following the Chris Dorner incident, our live interview has been rescheduled for Tuesday, March 11 at 2pm.
KinderBard Review at Picture Book Depot
We are so honoured and thrilled to receive this wonderful review from the Picture Book Depot, especially as they have a policy of not reviewing self-published books. I suppose, technically, ours isn’t a self-published book – having been made possible by the support of every single one of our generous Kickstarter campaign backers – so thank you all again!
Here is an excerpt from Rita Lorraine‘s review:
A Horse With Wings (And Other Songs for Children), by Daeshin Kim, has all the qualities of “sleeper.” For those who do not know, a sleeper is a book or movie that, from its simple title, seems that it would be an ordinary product – but once you encounter it, it’s anything but ordinary. It is, in fact, a surprise hit.
Our precious children
Many of us this week have been thinking perhaps more than usual how precious our children are to us, and in that spirit, here’s to the children in our lives, and here are the children of our most generous backers and most special friends, children who brighten our days and inspire our work.
Season’s Greetings
Just wanted to share this photo of our Christmas tree surrounded by gifts for our Kickstarter backers. You can see the books, badges, bags, and pouches, all of them on their way!
Los Angeles 한인 1.5세, 셰익스피어의 문학과 예술 세계를 접목시킨 교육 교재 출시
햄릿, 로미오와 줄리엣, 리어왕, 말괄량이 길들이기, 한여름밤의 꿈, 모두 이름만 들어도 알수 있는 셰익스피어의 유명 희극속 인물들이 어린들이들에게 즐겁고 흥미있는 동요로 다가온다. 미국 로스 엔젤레스에 거주하는 한인이 어린이들에게 셰익스피어의 문학과 예술세계를 소개함과 동시에, 음악과 미술, 그리고 영어까지 동시에 배울수 있는 교육 자료를 출시했다.
옥스포드에서 영어 영문학을 전공한 한인 1.5세 김대신씨는 셰익스피어 희곡 등장인물들이 그들의 관점에서 부르는 노래를 담은 그림 동요집을 만들었다. 셰익스피어의 희곡 내용을 바탕으로, 어린이들이 쉽게 이해할 수 있는 소재를 골라 직접 작사, 작곡을 하고, 고등학교 미술 교사를 지낸 부인이 노래 하나하나의 주제를 표현할 수 있는 그림을 그렸다.
일명 “날개 달린 말” 이라는 제목의 이 교육자료는 모두 16곡의 노래와 그림이 수록돼 있으며, 현재 책과 CD, eBook, 그리고 디지털 음악을 통해 웹사이트로 세계 전역의 어린이들에게 소개되고 있다. 딱딱하게만 느껴질 수 있는 셰익스피어의 희곡들을 따라부르기 쉬운 동요을 통해 재미있게 어린이들에게 소개하고, 이 노래들을 통해 어린이들이 자라면서 흔히 겪을수 있는 사회적, 정서적 문제, 예를 들면 따돌림, 놀림, 질투, 분노, 불안 등을 예술적이고 창의적으로 그려 나갔다. 아이들의 흥미를 돋굴수 있는 재미있는 소재들도 함께 다뤄져 있다.
단발성 캐릭터와 단순한 흥미 위주의 교육 재료가 만연한 시대에, 깊이 있는 문학과 예술을 접할수 있는 셰익스피어의 셰계를 어린이들이 쉽고 즐겁게 배울수 있는 유용한 교육 자료라는 지적이다. 어린이들은 이 동요를 듣고 따라 부르면서, 자연스럽게 문학과 음악, 미술을 함께 접하게 되고, 즐겁게 영어를 배울수 있다는 장점도 있다.
세계에서 셰익스피어의 원작을 가장 많이 소장하고 있는 워싱턴 DC의 “Folger 셰익스피어 도서관“의 교육 관장 로버트 영 (Robert Young)이 이 책의 머릿말을 직접 자청해 쓸 정도로, 이 교재에 대한 대중의 관심과 주목은 대단하다.
자체 웹사이트인 kinderbard.com 에는 부모와 교사가 아이들을 상대로 이 교재를 유용하게 사용할 수 있도록 도와주는 무료 가이드북이 수록돼 있으며, 셰익스피어의 희곡과 인물에 대한 자세한 소개, 그리고 아이들에 대한 효율적인 교육 접근 방법 등을 명시하고 있다.
Conejo Valley Shakespeare Society
Here’s a little story about the kinds of amazing people you meet through the experience of running a Kickstarter campaign.
You already know how fellow backer Robert Young wrote the foreword to our book. Well, we got to know Mary Carrig, another backer, who introduces children to Shakespeare through her Inside Shakespeare workshop, runs a Shakespeare bootcamp for kids every summer, and is the artistic director of the Conejo Valley Shakespeare Society, a youth Shakespeare company.
Mary is an accomplished actress herself, and we started talking about how I planned to gather a group of talented actors to record the voices speaking Shakespeare quotes for our upcoming app. Then she asked if we had considered using children’s voices to speak the quotes.
To be honest, I really hadn’t thought of this. I was aware of lots of kids’ apps that used children’s voices, and I liked a lot of them, but I had never really thought it would be possible to find the kind of talent needed to entrust with the responsibility of introducing Shakespearean language to little children. And that’s when she suggested that I meet with the actors of the Conejo Valley Shakespeare Society.
This is a group of children aged between 10 and 18, who are bright and enthusiastic learners, and already accomplished performers. And Mary has helped instill into these children a real love for Shakespeare, and a level of passion and performance that is extraordinary to see. They organized a special presentation for us to show off their talents, and we were absolutely astounded by them.
So I just wanted to say thank you to Mary, thank you to CVSS, and I wanted to announce that we will be working to incorporate these children into our app so that we can showcase a combination of amazing adult and child performers in order to breed a new generation of young lovers of Shakespeare!