It seemed like an easy assignment — videotaping Prince Street Elementary students performing a song.
But, after pressing the record button and calling ‘action’, I wasn’t prepared for what would happen next.
Panning the camera across the room, I see the smiling, sparkling faces and hear the sweet voices of 43 students lifting their hearts in song:
“Every face that I see
could be a friend to discover
and like a sister or a brother
they’ll never have to feel alone...”
As the voices swell in their song, A Family Like No Other, a warm feeling sweeps over me. And, for a minute, things get a little blurry in the viewfinder. Wiping the tears away, I listen to the chorus:
“We’ve got a family like no other
and we like to stick together
and with a family like no other
We got a home away from home.”
It was a song like no other.
That’s because it wasn’t a composition they had learned from a book.
It was a song that the Grade 5A and B classes had all written together, with input from all of the other students at the school and the help of singer-songwriter Liam Corcoran and record producer David Rashed, as part of the ArtsSmarts program. When they were through singing it from the bottom of their hearts, the students were eager to talk to me about the project.
“For me the song is personally awesome. Other people think it might be great,” says Thomas Nicholson, one of the 43 songwriters in the group.
Others like Olamide Olajide talked about being part of the creative process.
“Basically we came up with ideas and combined them with others and made a song for the whole school,” says the Grade 5 student.
Elizabeth Akinsola agrees.
“People united together to make one big, great song,” she says.
Watching the children perform the song that he facilitated is also moving for Corcoran.
“I didn’t realize that it was going to be such a great experience and I would get to meet so many great kids,” says the P.E.I. singer-songwriter, who spoke to every student in the school from kindergarten to Grade 6, during the course of the project.
“I got to tell them a little bit about how I got to be a songwriter, what songwriting is about. And I used those components to talk about what they love about their school. And a song was born.”
Already the song is having a positive effect at the school, says vice-principal Kelly Gillis.
“We received the final version of the recording on Monday night. So yesterday I played the recording during the announcements. As the song played you could hear a pin drop as well as a few students who couldn’t help to sing along,” she says.
In addition, the Grade 5 students wrote the lyrics on large pieces of paper and posted them around the school.
“This morning as I was walking down the hallway and the younger students were coming in, seeing their song on the wall and they were singing it, too,” says Gillis, adding the project will culminate on April 15 with an ArtsSmarts celebration in the gym at 1 p.m. where all the students in the school will sing the song.
Although he played a big part in the project, Corcoran is humble about his involvement.
“I was just there to facilitate and put the pieces together in a completed song. The kids blew me away with what they were able to come up with.”
scole@theguardian.pe.ca
Sally Cole @SallyForth57
Timline
September 2014: Kelly Gillis, vice-principal, speaks with Liam Corcoran and David Rashed about creating a school song and recording a CD. They agree.
October 2014: With Corcoran on board, the school submits a P.E.I. Arts-Smarts application. The project is approved in December.
January 2014; Corcoran starts the songwriting process with the Grade 5 students.
February 2014: Corcoran visits each class multiple times to get ideas, put them together, make a song and teach the song. Instructors/students from Holland College’s School of Performing Arts coach the young percussion players.
April 2014: An ArtsSmarts celebration is at the school at 1 p.m. The dance club is working on choreography to go with the song. The school is ordering CDs of the school song, which will be for sale.
It seemed like an easy assignment — videotaping Prince Street Elementary students performing a song.
But, after pressing the record button and calling ‘action’, I wasn’t prepared for what would happen next.
Panning the camera across the room, I see the smiling, sparkling faces and hear the sweet voices of 43 students lifting their hearts in song:
“Every face that I see
could be a friend to discover
and like a sister or a brother
they’ll never have to feel alone...”
As the voices swell in their song, A Family Like No Other, a warm feeling sweeps over me. And, for a minute, things get a little blurry in the viewfinder. Wiping the tears away, I listen to the chorus:
“We’ve got a family like no other
and we like to stick together
and with a family like no other
We got a home away from home.”
It was a song like no other.
That’s because it wasn’t a composition they had learned from a book.
It was a song that the Grade 5A and B classes had all written together, with input from all of the other students at the school and the help of singer-songwriter Liam Corcoran and record producer David Rashed, as part of the ArtsSmarts program. When they were through singing it from the bottom of their hearts, the students were eager to talk to me about the project.
“For me the song is personally awesome. Other people think it might be great,” says Thomas Nicholson, one of the 43 songwriters in the group.
Others like Olamide Olajide talked about being part of the creative process.
“Basically we came up with ideas and combined them with others and made a song for the whole school,” says the Grade 5 student.
Elizabeth Akinsola agrees.
“People united together to make one big, great song,” she says.
Watching the children perform the song that he facilitated is also moving for Corcoran.
“I didn’t realize that it was going to be such a great experience and I would get to meet so many great kids,” says the P.E.I. singer-songwriter, who spoke to every student in the school from kindergarten to Grade 6, during the course of the project.
“I got to tell them a little bit about how I got to be a songwriter, what songwriting is about. And I used those components to talk about what they love about their school. And a song was born.”
Already the song is having a positive effect at the school, says vice-principal Kelly Gillis.
“We received the final version of the recording on Monday night. So yesterday I played the recording during the announcements. As the song played you could hear a pin drop as well as a few students who couldn’t help to sing along,” she says.
In addition, the Grade 5 students wrote the lyrics on large pieces of paper and posted them around the school.
“This morning as I was walking down the hallway and the younger students were coming in, seeing their song on the wall and they were singing it, too,” says Gillis, adding the project will culminate on April 15 with an ArtsSmarts celebration in the gym at 1 p.m. where all the students in the school will sing the song.
Although he played a big part in the project, Corcoran is humble about his involvement.
“I was just there to facilitate and put the pieces together in a completed song. The kids blew me away with what they were able to come up with.”
scole@theguardian.pe.ca
Sally Cole @SallyForth57
Timline
September 2014: Kelly Gillis, vice-principal, speaks with Liam Corcoran and David Rashed about creating a school song and recording a CD. They agree.
October 2014: With Corcoran on board, the school submits a P.E.I. Arts-Smarts application. The project is approved in December.
January 2014; Corcoran starts the songwriting process with the Grade 5 students.
February 2014: Corcoran visits each class multiple times to get ideas, put them together, make a song and teach the song. Instructors/students from Holland College’s School of Performing Arts coach the young percussion players.
April 2014: An ArtsSmarts celebration is at the school at 1 p.m. The dance club is working on choreography to go with the song. The school is ordering CDs of the school song, which will be for sale.
Several of the students involved in writing a song for Prince Street Elementary School meet with their songwriting coach, Liam Corcoran, centre, after a recent practice at the school. From left are Colby Huggan, Tyson Rice, Elizabeth Akinsola, Prabin Bhandari and Michael Lavern.
