Saturday 31 October 2015

Rocking Dan Keeps the beat in About Catholic Schools Magazine interview

It was really wonderful to be interviewed by About Catholic Schools Magazine this week about the way I integrate music and movement with the primary curriculum. You can subscribe to my Educational YouTube channel by clicking on the link here: Rocking Dan Teaching Man YouTube Channel 

 I was also able to discuss what a great privilege and honour it was to awarded The Highly Commended Community Engagement award from ACU Alumni a couple of weeks ago.  A big thank you to ACU for the award and About Catholic Schools magazine for sharing my teaching story.



Here is a link to the article in the magazine: About Catholic Schools Article Rocking Dan keeps the beat and does it again  It's a very enjoyable read.

Until next time,
Rocking Dan Teaching Man






Sunday 18 October 2015

Rocking Dan Teaching Man receives The Highly Commended Community engagement award 2015 from ACU

A big thank you to The Australian Catholic University (ACU) and ACU Alumni for the huge honour of being awarded The Highly Commended Community engagement award for my work integrating music and movement with the primary curriculum as Rocking Dan Teaching Man. I am really grateful to receive this amazing award. I'd also like to thank the university's Education department for nominating me for the award.



Alumni Awards 2015



It was a wonderful night and I was totally inspired hearing the stories of the magnificent work being down by the major award winners. Click on the link below to read all it.

http://www.acu.edu.au/alumni_and_giving/alumni/acu_outstanding_alumni_awards

ACU has given me many fantastic opportunities both as an undergraduate and post graduate student to further develop as an educator. It was during my post graduate studies that I was able to investigate and implement action research on the impact of music and movement on students' academic achievement in the primary classroom. Now through the medium of YouTube I am able to share music and animations with teachers, parents and children all over the world. My YouTube channel now has over 900 000 views.

ACU also gave me chance to travel to The United States to attend the I Teach K conference in 2014 when I was awarded Frater International travel scholarship. ACU is a wonderful institution that has a goal to produce graduates who serve others.

The Catholic Education Office Sydney has also given me many opportunities to improve as a teacher through a wide range of inservices and professional development over the years. I am most grateful to them for subsidizing my Post Graduate study at ACU. It is a really wonderful and unique school system that I work in.

I am also thankful to the staff of About Catholic Schools magazine for the feature story they wrote about me last year. It was great to be able to share my teaching story with a wider audience and led to other stories being written about my teaching and YouTube channel including in The Sydney Morning Hearld, ACU insight magazine, Australian Teacher Magazine and a radio interview on ABC 702.

Click here to read the About Catholic Schools Magazine Article about Rocking Dan Teaching Man


Until next time,

Rocking Dan Teaching Man.

















  

Thursday 8 October 2015

More Scarecrow fun, keep on dancing!

Wow, Dance like a Scarecrow has had over 650 YouTube views in four days! A big thank you to all the teachers, parents and children who have watched the song and sung and danced along to it! Also I'd like to thank all the teachers who shared the song on Facebook. It looks like about 39 or so people shared it! That's really great!

If you haven't seen the video of the song yet, click on the link above. It's a lot of fun! I think your class will enjoy it! So get your kids up and moving and dancing like a Scarecrow.
It's a fantastic brain break for October or anytime of the year!

If you can't access YouTube at your school, don't worry you can buy the song on Teachers Pay Teachers! Click on the link below to go to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Dance like a Scarecrow on Teachers pay Teachers

If you are looking for more classroom related scarecrow activities then have a look at my friend Carolyn's blog Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together. She has put together a huge range of amazing teaching and learning resources based on scarecrows included many freebies!




Check out Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together's blog post on Scarecrow fun!



Carolyn's blog is always a great read, full of insightful and interesting teaching and learning ideas! So check out some of her past posts as well. 

Click on the link below to read her blog post about the power and purpose of play. It's excellent!


Until next time, keep dancing like a Scarecrow and of course you can always get up and dance to The Alphabet as well...but that's another story.
Rock on!





USA Z "Zee"Version



Australian/ UK Z "Zed"Version

Rocking Dan Teaching Man




Saturday 3 October 2015

Dance like a Scarecrow: A fun October classroom brain break




Hi everyone, here is a fun classroom brain break for October! Enjoy the Fall/ Autumn season in the Northern Hemisphere. Get your kids up and moving to Dance like a Scarecrow! Your children will love it as they jump, shake, move and sway in the breeze just like a Scarecrow! It's a catchy tune, so you'll be singing along with the kids. 

For more fun educational tunes visit my YouTube Channel Rocking Dan Teaching Man YouTube

If you would like to buy the song you can get it from my Teachers pay Teachers store Rocking Dan Teaching Man click on the link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dance-like-a-Scarecrow-A-fun-brain-break-for-October-2129434



If you are in Northern Hemisphere have a great Fall/ Autumn season. If you're in The Southern Hemisphere enjoy the Spring time and Bounce up and down because it is Spring!




Until next time Rock on, 

Rocking Dan Teaching Man