The Song Flight Pilot - Week 4

Passing Along the Love

I’m never quite sure what to say when a program I’ve orchestrated comes to an end. This is especially true of the Song Flight pilot, which not only exceeded expectations but had so many hopes and expectations riding on it.

I had seen the basic concepts and techniques I was using in Song Flight work many times in many classrooms using CritterKin, my first children’s media property. And I knew that helping kids develop the emotional intelligence they’ll need to become kind, capable adults is vitally important if we ever hope to prevent wars and heal the planet.

However, I never know how kids will respond. Will they like me? Will I like them? Will they enjoy and respond to my stories? Will the creative exercises help them make connections between their feelings and how they treat one another? And how will the language issues faced by some of the students impact our interactions?

As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. The kids took one look at my ski hat with the cardinal perched on top and listened to my exuberant “Hellllooooo!” with a mixture of disbelief and delight. I’m sure no teacher they’d ever met had dared to be so blatantly loud and silly. “Hellllooooo!” they shouted back. And just like that Song Flight was off and running!

If you have been following my weekly video posts, you will have a pretty good idea how the four weeks unfolded. The video at the top of the page chronicles our last day together. We finished Part I of the Song Flight story, in which our main character discovered that her passion for birds (which other kids teased her about) turned out to be her superpower. She not only found and rescued two baby owls, but got to see them adopted by a foster mom named Snickers.

Click HERE or on the image above to see a video of Snickers adopting the baby owls.

What’s Next?

With the successful completion of its pilot, and a minimum viable product (MVP) in hand, Song Flight will be looking for four things:

• Groups/classes with kids* between the ages of 8 and 10 to take part in the Phase II of the program. We hope to include classes in non-English speaking countries if funding becomes available. If you know of any classes that might like to take part, please reach out to us at info@critterkin.com.
  *Groups should include Ukrainian children.

• Introductions to individuals and organizations that share our interest in helping children grow into kind, empathic, and capable adults. We are particularly interested in meeting members of the media, parents, mental health and social services professionals, and educators working with displaced Ukrainian children. Please reach out to us at info@critterkin.com.

• Financial support. As we begin to add more groups/classes in different countries to the program, we will need translators, interpreters, and assistants. If you are interested in sponsoring a class or becoming a sponsor, please reach out to me at JenaBall@CritterKin.com.

• Guest Bloggers. As we begin to build our Song Flight community, we would like to hear from and feature the stories of others who are interested in emotional intelligence. If you are interested, please reach out to JenaBall@CritterKin.com.

Finally, I want to thank the three adults whose tireless efforts made all of this possible:

• Oksana Levytska, Chair, International Education Coordinating Council, Ukrainian World Congress who embraced Song Flight from the start.

• Iryna Perehinets, the Vice-Principal of the Josyf Cardinal Slipyj Catholic School where Song Flight was held.

• Nataliia Gordey, the incredible teacher who never lost her cool, was up for almost any idea I had, and patiently corrected my poor spelling and pronunciation of Ukrainian names. We would never had accomplished as much as we did without Nataliia’s unflagging support.

Thank you Oksana, Iryna, and Nataliia. I look forward to the day I can give you each a hug in-person.