Poised for success!

Actress and musician Amy Hough

TESOL Conference

The Rome TESOL Conference was an opportunity to meet people and discuss projects. I made contact with Inspector Raffaele Sanzo of the Italian Ministry of Education. He specializes in English tuition in Primary Schools and invited me to Rome on 6th October to present the FunSongs License material. I also renewed talks with Arrigo Speziali ands Raffaele Nasti of ACLE Teatrino but we weren't able to reach a satisfactory agreement about distributing or licensing FunSongs Shows. Lingue Senza Frontiere, another theatre group expressed interest in using some of our songs in their own shows.
I met many teachers, publishers and people in education I already knew and got the impression FunSongs is now an established name in the field. My session was well attended and people appreciated the new action song about dinosaurs "Sixty-Five Million Years Ago".

Amy Hough

Amy Hough from Los Angeles will be presenting FunSongs Shows with Scott Bishop this school year. She should be arriving in Bologna mid October. The first scheduled FunSongs shows are on Friday 21st October in Ceretolo near Bologna.

FunSongs Summer Camp

I received an email from Rossella Gualandi with details of the people to contact in Monte San Pietro. The meeting with Elena Iacucci of Casalecchio was rescheduled for Saturday 15th October and by then I hope to have a definitive answer from Zola Predosa.

Shows and material

Requests and queries about shows and material have been steady all week. Only definite bookings appear on the FunSongs Show website calendar page.

Update on eve of Rome TESOL Conference

FunSongs Monster Show


Update on the eve of TESOL 2005

Yesterday Gloria Vannucchi and I met Francesco Giacomini of Zola Predosa. He seemed interested in the FunSongs Summer Camp. However he mentioned the Council's ongoing contract with the UISP Association for Summer activities and said it may be necessary to reach an agreement with them. He agreed to contact us soon after consulting with other people in the Council.
Tomorrow (or rather today - it's late!) I leave for Rome and the National TESOL conference. Before leaving I hope to be able to record a draft version of the new "65 Million Years Old" action song to present during my session.
This afternoon I delivered several hundred FunSongs Licence and Show flyers to FunSongs distributors Spaggiari Spa in Parma to help with the promotion. This evening I called Scott Bishop now back in Los Angeles. He's well and looking forward to returning to Italy in October for the shows. Yesterday I received confirmation of two more licence renewals (Gazzaniga and Nembro in Bergamo Province) and bookings for shows in Aosta.
Yestreday afternoon the Florence Branch of the book shop Feltrinelli called to ask FunSongs to organize a presentation of the FunSongs CD on 16th October. Could be worthwhile!

The days ahead

Zola Predosa Council Offices

Official Summer Camp meetings scheduled

In the next few days FunSongs has two important meetings fixed with Zola Predosa and Casalecchio local government officials. On Tuesday 20th September at 5.30 pm I have a meeting with Elena Iaccuci, Assessore della Cultura of Casalecchio and then the next morning with Francesco Giacomini in his office in the big building depicted above. I hope Antonella Gasparini and Gloria Vannucchi (and Rossella Gualandi of Monte S. Pietro too if she has time) will be able to attend. The aim is to lay the basis for the first FunSongs Summer Camp, scheduled for June 2006.

Licence and shows news

Requests for FunSongs shows are picking up. The promotional campaign with the new leaflets will help.
Yesterday Preside Perani of Gazzaniga Istituto Comprensivo in Bergamo Province verbally confirmed renewal of their FunSongs licence for the 2005 and 2006 and also expressed interest in doing shows again. This is a good moment to announce the arrival of a new action song package Words for Time, Time for Words

On Friday and Saturday next week in Rome the annual national TESOL conference for English teachers takes place and I hope to make more contacts and incite further interest in FunSongs there. My session will take place on Saturday afternoon.

Mid September Update

New logo






FunSongs Summer Camp - developments

After Monday's meeting with Sig.ra Melchiorri at Zola Predosa Council, I met up with Gloria Vannucchi on Wednesday and we visited the Falcone Centre in Riale, possible venue for the FunSongs Summer Camp. I also showed Gloria the new action song about dinosaurs "65 million years ago." The next day Sig.ra Melchiorri called to say we'd be dealing with Francesco Giacomini, the councillor who handles external relations with the schools and I'm waiting for him to contact me.
Yesterday I had a meeting with Davide Montanari of Casalecchio and also saw Roberto Mignani, the Deputy Mayor. He kindly introduced me to Elena Iacucci, Casalecchio's assessore per la Cultura and we scheduled a meeting for next Tuesday. I hope to have heard from Sig. Giacomini of Zola Predosa before then.

Shows and Licences

SDB have now completed the art work for the two promotional leaflets and they are now at the printers. The new FunSongs logos are ready too. The promo flyers should be ready for the TESOL conference in Rome which I'll be leaving for Thursday. Today I got confirmation for the shows in Albenga and Valle d'Aosta. I have a number of appointments with schools to discuss the licence. Spaggiari told me yesterday they'd be pushing the scheme at an E-learning conference in Genoa.

Conferences

This week also saw further requests for workshops and conference talks. These include the ANILS conference at Cento in October and a workshop in Genoa sponsored by the Britsh School and Cambridge ESOL. I was also invited to speak at a conference in Chiari and organize two days of action song theatre workshops in Aosta in February.

FunSongs Summer Camp 2006

Kids at a FunSongs Show

This afternoon I met with the FunSongs Summer Camp Committee (local teachers Antonella Gasparini, Gloria Vannucchi Rossella Gualandi) and the "Assessore della Cultura" Marilena Melchiorri of Zola Predosa Council to discuss the FunSongs Summer Camp. The idea is to provide local kids with a one or two-week full-immersion English language experience (using the FunSongs Approach)after the end of the school year. Sig.ra Melchiorri was most interested in the project and offered us her support. She will also help me to contact the right people in the neighbouring villages of Monte San Pietro and Casalecchio.
Linda Edwards of PET Brescia called to invite me to speak at a language teachers conference on October 20th. The event is sponsored by local educational pubslishers La Scuola .
Today we received a copy of the lastest issue of ET Professional containing my article "Songs in Action".
Thanks to the kind help of English teacher Carla Moretti of Milan's largest Scuola Media "Divona-Speri" I finally managed to complete the FunSongs Quiz Show leaflet and sent it off to SDB to get the graphics checked prior to printing.

John Grisham at Bologna University

VIP day

Today I met John Grisham and Romano Prodi at two separate events. The American writer was at Bologna University to mark the Italian launch of his thriller "The Broker" set in the streets of Bologna. After his public interview I somehow managed to approach him and ask him to sign my copy of the book which ex-FunSongs performer Jeff Canada had very kindly given me just before he left Bologna in July; that evening I exchanged a few words with Romano Prodi in a beer tent after his interview at the Festa dell'Unità. I was highly impressed with both men - John Grisham (the world's best-selling writer before Harry Potter came along!) was charming and witty, Prodi intelligent and credible.

Romano Prodi at Festa dell'Unita, Bologna 9th September 2005

Rome shows?

I met up with Andrea Arnsten-Harris from Seattle after she emailed FunSongs interested in working as a show performer. I liked her. Very musical and with experience both as an actress and working with kids. I told her we'd get back to her for auditions in October.


Andrea Arnsten-Harris

In the late afternoon, English teacher Marzia Catalana from Rome's 105th Circolo called to ask about shows. She'd been at a high-profile Tesol presentation I did with Scott and Megan Bishop at the Centro Americano in Rome some time ago. I told her we'd need to have at least six shows booked to be able to come.

Show bookings and licence requests

Interest is picking up in shows and licences. Yesterday a school in Albenga ordered a licence and also confirmed two days of shows on 24th and 25th October. Today Zola Predosa again reconfirmed renewal of the FunSongs licence for the 2005-2006 year.
On a less positive note we were still unable to find out about an unpaid invoice dating back to January 2005 for the sale of 80 CDs. Fortunately I now have a lawyer lined up in Milan - Avv. Mangiarotti - and won't hesitate to take legal action to secure payment if the situation remains stalled. Finally after the presentation at UCSB I received a mail from Andrea Arnsten-Harris who's studying at Chicago University. She's most interested in auditioning as a FunSongs performer.

CRT Mestre - Teacher workshop

The event was well attended and appreciated. The twenty teachers participating were there as part of a teacher training course organized by Annavaleria Guezzieri on behalf of IRRSAE Veneto. These teachers are working to achieve a high enough level (B2) to be able to teach English at Primary School along with standard subjects such as Italian and Maths. Carla from Associazione Morelli came along too.

FunSongs workshop with Charles Goodger

Mestre workshop

Tomorrow all going well FunSongs will be holding a workshop for Primary school teachers. It will take place at Liceo Stefanini, Mestre and has been organized by Annavaleria Guazzieri whom Charles met at a Tesol conference two years ago.

FunSongsNews early September

FunSongs is back at work getting ready for the new school year. Yesterday Charles Goodger met up with Sandro Morando of SDB and his partners to discuss the new Licence and FunSongs Show leaflet. It should be ready to go into print next week. Later in the day Goodger spoke to Davide Montanari of Casalecchio Library and arranged a meeting to fix shows for January and February 2006. He also spoke to Arrigo Speziali of ACLE/Theatrino about working together and they agreed to update at the 25th September TESOL Rome conference.
The Bologna office of UCLA and Indiana University are again interested in FunSongs Show opportunities for their students. Scott Bishop was in Bologna but is about to leave for Paris and will return in two weeks.