Excellent presentation!
"I enjoyed every moment. This workshop will enhance our current oral language program. I look forward to sharing it with the kindergarten and grade one teacher."
Lina Wilson, Grade 2/3 teacher, Vancouver, BC
Book Bonnie Davison
Bonnie offers training for educators who want to learn how to create engaging, research supported literacy and language lessons to children of all abilities. She provides fun, hands-on workshops, which leave educators feeling confident in implementing new song-games and techniques in a variety of settings.
Bonnie also offers continued support to workshop participants via monthly newsletters, discussions through the SEE Blog, and support through e-mail and teleclasses.
SEE Training is designed for educators working with children ages 3-10.
* Kindergarten, Pre-Primary, Primary and Grade 1-3 Teachers
* ESL and ESOL Teachers
* Special Education Teachers and Support Staff
* Teachers of the Hearing Impaired
* Parents, Grandparents
* Occupational Therapists
* Speech and Language Therapists
* Music Therapists
* Teacher’s Aids
* Care Givers
Book Bonnie Davision:
To learn more about hiring Bonnie for an in-staff training, or to invite Bonnie to speak at a conference, please contact her by e-mail: bonnie@singingenglish.com
or phone Bonnie directly at: 250 588-3303.
Past Presentation Topics Delivered by Bonnie Davison:
Song-Games for Literacy and Language Success (Full Day Workshops Level 1-3)
Songs! Songs! and More Songs! (1-2 hour presentation)
Song-Games: Reaching Every Child (1-2 hour presentation)
Success-Based Learning Through Song-Games (1-2 hour presentation)
Song-Games for the Hearing Impaired Child Learning to Speak
Bonnie's Story
Bonnie began her career as a Music Therapist, focusing her practice on children with special needs. One of her favourite contracts was at the Vancouver Oral Centre — a wonderful school for hearing impaired children who are learning to speak. Here, she explored the connection between language, literacy, and music. She began to see how important a strong foundation in oral literacy is to success for children in reading and writing.
Bonnie returned to University to complete a degree Education, as she wanted to explore literacy from a different angle. After many years of classroom teaching in Canada and in the Middle East, Bonnie received a post as the Learning Resource teacher at an International school in Singapore. She was faced with the challenge of helping struggling Kindergarten to grade 5 students learn how to read and write. There were 48 nationalities represented as well so you can imagine the different backgrounds students brought with them to school. From her experience at the Vancouver Oral Centre, Bonnie knew music was a powerful way to connect with students and used it as often as she could in her classes. But there was still something missing. She did not feel she was making a clear enough connection between music and how children learn to read, write and understand language. She was unhappy with how often she used worksheets and was getting frustrated. She had children with so many different abilities in one class and knew that she wasn't reaching everyone.
As she was flipping through a Vancouver newspaper one day (a rare treat on the other side of the world), Bonnie stopped on an article about Dr. Fleurette Sweeney. Dr. Sweeney works with ESL children in East Vancouver, BC, Canada, using a program she had researched and created called Singing English. Bonnie tracked Dr. Sweeney down and started learning everything she could from this inspiring educator. She found Dr. Sweeney's training fascinating and it helped her understand how to take what she was already doing to the next level. Bonnie started using Singing English song-games and techniques in her classroom and, excited about the progress she saw, offered after school programs as well.
Singing English was exactly what she was looking for. Dr. Sweeney connected song-games to how children understand language using a methodology called Sound to Symbol. Bonnie had so much success using the Singing English song-games and techniques and the Sound to Symbol Methodology that she decided to share her excitement and new-found knowledge with other educators. She received such positive feedback from the initial workshops that she decided to make this the focus of her career. Bonnie has trained hundreds of teachers around the world to use Singing English song-games and techniques and is excited to reach even more in 2009 through her workshops, teleseminars, and her forthcoming book, Song-Games for Reading & Writing Success, due to be published in the spring.