Seamus O'Regan

'Gordie Howe' of music teachers exports songs to the world

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CTV National News: Canadian songs sung around the globe
An Alberta music teacher wrote a few songs where the alphabet ends in 'Zed' and not 'Zee.' Now her songs are being sung around the world. Seamus O'Regan has the story.

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Note from editor: On our latest Canadian Originals segment on CTV National News, Seamus O'Regan profiles Denise Gagne -- a woman who's made it her mission to put more Canadian rhythm into the songs we learn growing up in the classroom .

And if you know a Canadian Original we should be featuring, email us your ideas at originals@bellmedia.ca.

Here's Seamus's blog:


Hi everyone,

When you see the letter ‘Z' – how do you pronounce it?

If you're Canadian and you said ‘zee' instead of ‘zed' -- former school teacher Denise Gagne might have a word or two with you. She definitely has a song titled "Zed the Zebra" for you to learn.

For our latest Canadian Original, my crew and I visited a typical Canadian classroom in Toronto where we put the spotlight on Gagne.

She's an author who made it her personal mission to put more Canadian flavour (that's "flavour" with the "u"!) into the songs that we all grow up learning in classrooms across the country.

"It's shocking how many kids in Canada say ‘zee' instead of ‘zed'" she told me in an interview.

So Gagne set out writing a set of alphabet songs so kids could not only learn to pronounce the last letter of the alphabet the way it's done in Canada (not to mention in Great Britain, India, New Zealand, and Australia) but she makes them interactive. They're ‘action songs' that kids can dance to and perform in public.

(Denise Gagne in action, teaching her workshop in an Ontario classroom.)

(Teacher Lisa Fernandes says Gagne's songs help in dealing with the multitude of cultures you find in the classroom.)

There's research showing combining music and movement help students learn faster, and that's clearly what Gagne's done with her Alphabet Action Songs.

@SeamusORegan

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