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Allied Arts Wins $5,000 Grant to Bring Ken Waldman to Midway Hills & Lakeview Academies


Stock photo of Ken Waldman playing fiddle.

Between February and March, Allied Arts, a Partner In Education with the Baldwin County School District, will sponsor A Residency with Ken Waldman. The two - week residency will be split between working with the fourth grade at Midway Hills Academy School and Lakeview Academy School. The grades that are selected were identified through close communication with the Baldwin County Schools Superintendent, the Gifted Coordinator and Principals. The residency will reach about 350 – 400 students, plus friends and family. Both schools are eager to have the opportunity to host a residency with Ken Waldman.

The residency at Midway Hills Academy and Lakeview Academy February 26 through March 2 and March 12 through 16, will focus on the fourth grade and will reach about 400 students, their parents and teachers. The residency will start with a musical assembly with the students and then focus on literacy through poetry. Waldman will work with 3-4 classes per day. The unit content that the fourth grade is already working on will be enhanced with literacy through poetry and music using cross curriculum and multidisciplinary teaching. By making comparisons with literacy and music, storytelling will be enhanced. The residency will also include one workshop for teachers. There will also be a public performance featuring some of the student’s poetry along with a musical accompaniment by Waldman in Allen’s Market, Friday, March 2.

Waldman has nine CDs of old-time Appalachian-style string-band music including two for youth. His nine books consist of seven full-length poetry collections, a memoir about his life as a touring artist, and a volume of acrostic poems for kids. A former college professor with an MFA in Creative Writing, he's been a visiting writer at nearly 100 colleges and universities, a visiting artist at over 230 schools in 33 states, and has led workshops from Alaska to Maine. As a performer, he's played from the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage to Berkeley's Freight and Salvage, occasionally as a soloist, more often as leader of one of his ever-changing troupes of nationally recognized musicians. His website is: www.kenwaldman.com Allied Arts website is: www.milledgevillealliedarts.com.

Having visited over 200 schools in 31 states, Ken has found what worked with children in rural Alaska works virtually everywhere. Ken continues to share his talents with a wide range of ages, and is effective in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Depending on the community, he'll work with at-risk, general, or gifted-and-talented students.

Because of Ken's teaching background, he also excels in residency settings, where he'll visit schools, whether to meet with individual classes, or with groups in a library or theater space. While his specialty is writing—and this work is all about literacy and involves fundamental curriculum markers—his programs also include lessons in geography, math, critical thinking, and music.

When Ken is asked to lead professional development sessions or in-service programs for teachers, attendees invariably tell him how pleased they are to have learned practical lessons to take back to the classroom. Any teacher paying attention during one of Ken's outreach sessions can follow up with several in-class writing assignments. He offers separate study guides for primary students, elementary students, middle-schoolers, as well as for high-schoolers.

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