Teacher and the Rockbots

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Teacher and the Rockbots
MULTIPLICATION Album Cover
MULTIPLICATION Album Cover
Background information
Genre(s) Children's_music
Years active 2005–present
Website [5]

Teacher and the Rockbots is a cartoon band with songs in the educational children's music genre. There are 51 songs in the four CD collection related to elementary school subjects. Teacher and the Rockbots was created in 2005 by Chris Bihuniak and Bryan Mace and is a registered trademark of Power Arts Company. All songs are registered with ASCAP under SmartKid Publishing. Their music CDs and songs are distributed by Allegro Music Group [1], Scholastic Corporation, Discovery Communications, CD Baby, Amazon.com and iTunes.

Contents

[edit] Style

Teacher and the Rockbots has an energetic rock sound that was described as a "postmodern Schoolhouse Rock" by Cookie Magazine[2]. The band also uses some potty humor to demonstrate a point or simply for the sake humor. Many of the songs also incorporate interactive elements which the producers have called "Guess-the-Answer" songs. Clues are given in the verses and listeners try to guess the answer before it's revealed. It turns a regular song into a game which Parenting Magazine[3] described as "Electric guitar-wielding hard rockers create "Guess the Answer" songs that impart knowledge through musical rambunctiousness."

[edit] Name

The name directly relates to the educational aspect and style of the band. "Teacher" honors the teaching goals, "Rock" is for the genre and "bots" is short for robots, two of the main characters. The 3-piece band members are as follows:

  • Teacher is the green alien that plays bass and is the lead vocalist.
  • Jet plays guitar and has the robot voice.
  • Crash is the drummer and singer with the grizzled voice.

[edit] Awards and Honors

  • A [6]2005 Parents' Choice Recommended Award Winner for the Multiplication CD.
  • A [7]2005 Parents' Choice Approved Award Winner for the Science CD.
  • 2006 International Songwriting Competition for the song "Animals Belong In Class"
  • Learning Magazine 2007 Teachers' Choice Award for the Family for the America CD
  • "Editor's Pick" on CD Baby

[edit] Album Descriptions

The MULTIPLICATION CD was released in January 2005. Scholastic Corporation offered the CD in a Teacher's Bonus Point Catalog. The CD covers the multiplication facts from 0-12. Each song focuses on multiplying one number at a time usually from 1-10. Many of the songs present the multiplication facts within the context of a story.

The SCIENCE CD was released in May 2005. The album contains a variety of physical and life science subjects ranging from human organs to outer space to the water cycle. When the International Astronomical Union determined that Pluto was no longer a planet, the songs "Nine Planets" was remixed and changed to "Eight Planets" and re-released on iTunes in late 2007. The song "Things In Space" was also remixed to change references to eight planets instead of nine.

The AMERICA CD was released in August 2005. It has 13 songs about American history and government lessons in a non-political way. The song "Let's Learn the 50 States" has been the companies most downloaded song.

The WORLD CD was released in June 2006. The songs have the goal of promoting global awareness, cultural diversity and knowledge of world geography. There are songs about continents, oceans, habitats, landforms, maps and more.

Teacher and the Rockbots also released a self-titled CD in August 2005 with 7 songs. Only 100 copies were made and all songs have been released on subsequent CDs.

[edit] Worksheets and Games

A variety of resources for every song are offered on the bands website. These include printable worksheets to help introduce, reinforce or test lessons. In February 2008, online quizzes were made to offer visitors a "paperless" option.

The Rockbots website also features a variety of online games. All of them were designed and programmed by Chris use javascript. A game called "Rockbot Fashion"[4] shows the band in different outfits that were requested by visitors. For example, Teacher and the Punkbots, Teacher and the Soccerbots, Teacher and the Dirtybots to name a few.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Allegro Music Group, [1]
  2. ^ Cookie Magazine, [2]
  3. ^ Parenting Magazine, [3]
  4. ^ Rockbot Fashion Game, [4]

[edit] External Links