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| Year 1 Ferncourt Public School |
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| Prep St Aloysius Primary School, Queenscliff, Victoria |
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| My Largest Audience 400 Prep- Year 2 kids at Yugumbir State School in Logan, Queensland (The friends of 10) |
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| Be Kind to Everyone with the Prep-Year 2 kids at Coomera State School |
A huge thank you to all the teachers and principals who allowed me to come to their schools and preform the Rocking Dan show to their children. Everyone I encountered was friendly and welcoming and it made the tour so much more pleasurable. I ended up playing 37 shows in 55 days at 32 Primary schools to a total of 4857 children in 3 states, travelling 6121km in the process. The Rocking Dan tour stretched from Queenscliff in southern Victoria all the way up to Petrie in Brisbane's north. I had the opportunity to play at Catholic Schools, Public Schools, Special Schools and Independent schools. |
| Prep at Petrie State School |
Over the last decade I have researched the impact that music and movement has on helping children with their learning. Putting educational concepts to melodies with repetition and adding movement helps children learn new concepts and reinforces previously learnt ones. Singing and dancing is also lots of fun for the kids too! Everyone certainly had fun at the shows and it's so wonderful to be able to help children from outside my classroom with their learning through music. It was so rewarding seeing the children smiling, laughing and singing along to the songs.
Now that Term 4 about to start the Rocking Dan Long Service Leave Tour is over and I am heading back into the classroom as a teacher. Thanks again to everyone who had me at their school!
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| It's nice to be thanked (Rosehill Public School, Kindergarten) |
Dance to the Days of the Week with Rosehill Public School Kindergarten
Finally, I would like to give a shout out to my official charity tour partner Code REaD Dyslexia Network. This is a charity that is very close to my heart being dyslexic myself. Code REaD seeks to raise awareness of dyslexia. At least 10% of children in Australian schools are dyslexic. Early identification and evidence based intervention is key to helping dyslexic children overcome dyslexia. Check out their website for more information about dyslexia and how you can help. https://codereadnetwork.org/ Here is a link to the Australian Dyslexia Association which also has lots of information about dyslexia.
It was great to meet some of the amazing members of Code REaD Dyslexia network on the tour and thank them for their hard work advocating for dyslexia awareness.
Don't forget to check out my YouTube channel Rocking Dan Teaching Man! While the tour was going on my channel hit 5 Million views! Wow!
On a side note mid tour I had the opportunity to hear Professor David Kilpatrick speak about recent advances in understanding word-level reading problems. The presentation was amazing. It was so informative and gave me a greater depth of understanding about the research, evidence and cognitive science of reading. I highly recommend reading his book Equipped for reading success.
After the tour I went on a very nice holiday with my family to the USA. It was so great to see my guitar the 58 Explorer on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Contemporary Art (The Met) in New York City in the Play it Loud exhibition! (used on such classic Rocking Dan recordings such as Be Kind to Everyone)
...and yes I finally made it to Carnegie Hall!
Come on everybody let's do the floss
A big thank you to my Road Crew for all their hard work behind the scenes putting the show together! I couldn't have done it without you!
By the end of the tour it was time for a nice cup of tea!
Until next time Rock on with Rocking Dan!
