Fun night at Google's Australian Head office at the YouTube creators meeting

I had a great time at Google's Australian Head office at the YouTube creators meeting in Sydney on Friday night. It was a wonderful experience to see Google's Sydney office and network with other YouTube creators.  I got to meet so many different people with diverse YouTube channels and hear their stories. I had the opportunity to meet some other YouTube musicians and educators too which was excellent. I picked up some good tips about how to make my channel better and connect with more people. A big thank you to Google for putting on a fantastic fun and informative event.

It is a great thrill to have reached so many teachers and children from around the world through YouTube. My channel has had over 1.3 million views and currently has 1441 subscribers. It's always great to hear from teachers and parents about the positive impact my music is having on their classrooms and children's learning. 

Rocking Dan Teaching Man YouTube

My YouTube Channel Rocking Dan Teaching Man has given me many opportunities like winning The Frater Travel Scholarship from ACU in 2013 which allowed me to travel to Las Vegas and attended an international educational conference. Whilst in the United States I was able to meet legendary teacher and YouTube musician Pete Harry and see him present his educational session Teaching with YouTube. Pete's wonderful educational music channel has over 100 million views and has over 100 000 subscribers. Harry Kindergarten Music. 

YouTube has been a fantastic vehicle for allowing me to share my educational music and animations with a large audience and I am grateful to Google for that. It's led to me being interviewed by a few different magazines, newspapers and radio stations which has been great as I have been able to reach more teachers and as a result I have been able to help more children with their learning through music, movement and animation. 

ACU story on Rocking Dan Teaching Man

My YouTube channel gave me the opportunity to share my knowledge and understanding about how children learn  as a presenter at an EDTech Summit in Sydney last year. I was able to share how I use music, visuals and movement to help children's learning through the use of technology and YouTube. It's really great to be able to help other teachers with their professional development. 

As my YouTube channel has grown I've been contacted by other teachers which has led to more fantastic opportunities to share my teaching knowledge. In January I was lucky enough to lead an international twitter chat #teacherfriends on the importance of music and movement in the primary classroom. It was a great experience and I really enjoyed interacting and sharing ideas with other teachers.  

It has also been fantastic to hear stories about how educational presenters have used my YouTube songs and videos in their presentations and expressed their opinions about how they are great engaging teaching and learning tools for the classroom.  

I've also been amazed by teachers sending me photos of their students learning or completing a lesson based on one of my YouTube songs. 

My YouTube channel has also given me the chance to meet many wonderful teachers and play live music for their classes through video chat calls. It's really wonderful to interact with children by playing live music and singing a long with them in order to help them learn in a fun and engaging way.

Last year I received some fantastic recognition from the Australian Catholic University when I was awarded a highly commended community engagement award for integrating the primary curriculum with music, movement and technology through my YouTube channel. It was such a great thrill! 

I am really grateful to Google and YouTube for allowing me to reach so many teachers and help so  many children with their learning through a multi sensory approach by using Music, Movement and Visuals. It's truly wonderful to get feedback from parents and teachers who have contacted me to tell me that my songs and videos have helped their children with their writing, number skills, self regulation, routines and social skills.Without YouTube this would not be possible. Thank you Google! Now is a great time to visit my channel, subscribe to it and share it with your friends.Rocking Dan Teaching Man's YouTube channel

Until next time,

Rock on.

Rocking Dan Teaching Man

Rocking Dan Teaching Man's YouTube channel

The Galaxies and The Friends of 20

A few weeks ago I received a very nice message on my YouTube channel from a wonderful teacher named Gillian Keir. Gillian teaches a special group of ten children from  The Glenleighden School, in Brisbane, Australia called "The Galaxies". In her message she mentioned that "The Galaxies" really enjoyed singing along to my  song The Friends of 10.  Click on the link to go to Rocking Dan Teaching Man's YouTube channel.

The children enjoyed learning their addition facts of 10 with The Friends of 10 so much that they decided to write a song to help them learn their addition partners of 20. With the help of their teachers Gillian Keir and Belinda James the children wrote a song called The Friends of 20. When they had completed the song the school's very talented Music Therapist, Vanessa Jouet recorded it and emailed it to me. Wow, it was amazing to hear The Friends of 20 for the first time! The music and lyrics are based on my song The Friends of 10 and it sounds great! 

Gillian asked me if I could animate The Friends of 20 and post it on my YouTube channel. I was more than happy to do this. The amazingly talented teacher and artist Susanna from Whimsy Workshop Teaching very generously gave me some of her number clip art to use for the video. Thanks so much Susanna! Click on the link to go to Whimsy Workshop Teaching's TPT store.

Here it is! The video for  The Friends of 20 Written by the children of "The Galaxies" class and performed by Vanessa Jouet. Enjoy!

Gillian let me know that the children are very excited about performing the song at an upcoming school assembly. They are also writing more songs to help them with their learning! Great job Galaxies. Vanessa is also starting to write some educational songs too! I look forward to hearing them all.

Here are two of "The Galaxies" showing everyone The Friends of 20. 

I've also got a new song about the addition partners of 10 called Do the 10 dance. It's a super fun groovy tune to get the children up and dancing while they are learning their addition facts of 10. Check it out.

Until next time Rock on,

Rocking Dan Teaching Man.

Get your class moving with these seasonal energizing songs! Bounce up and down it is Spring and Dance like a Scarecrow

Have you just started back at school after Spring Break? Here is a fun way to energize your class, get the wiggles out and stimulate brain function. Bounce up and down it is Spring is a catchy song with a Spring theme to get your kids up and moving and ready to learn. Give it a try in your classroom!

Maybe you're down in the Southern Hemisphere, where the weather is turning cold and the Autumn season has just arrived.  Dance like a Scarecrow is a really fun movement song with an Autumn theme to get your class up and moving so they can refocus and get ready to learn again!  Sway in the breeze, catch the falling leaves and Dance like a Scarecrow!

Brain research indicates that we learn with our whole bodies. Movement set to music is very beneficial in stimulating cognitive function. It also helps children to regulate themselves and creates a good balance between alertness and calmness. So it's a great idea to incorporate movement and music as part of your daily classroom routine.

For more great music and movement song for the classroom check out my YouTube Channel

Rocking Dan Teaching Man YouTube Channel

Until next time Rock on,

Rocking Dan Teaching Man

Routines, Rules 'n' Rock in the classroom with Rocking Dan Teaching Man

The summer holidays are over and school has started down here in Australia. It's important to get your class settled into a routine and following the class and school rules as quickly as possible. If you are in the northern hemisphere and you are half way through the school year now is a good time to re-enforce your classroom routines and expectations. Music is a great way to help children learn concepts and can be used as an effective classroom management tool. Here are some Rocking Dan Teaching Man songs that can be used to help get your students into a routine and have everyone singing from the same classroom management song sheet all day long!

Start the school day off with music first thing in the morning. As your children come into class play the song "Good morning sit on the floor quietly." It gives the children clear directions and expectations about how to enter the classroom. The song reminds the children about the things the teacher is looking for when they come into class. It's a fun catchy song. Challenge your students to see if everyone can be sitting on the floor quietly ready to learn before the end of the tune. 

Getting a nice straight quiet class line can be a challenge at times. "The line up song" teaches the children in a fun melodic way the things you are looking for when they line up. It gives clear expectations about how the class line should look and what the children need to be doing in order to be ready to move around the school. 

A great session of learning can lead to an untidy classroom. The children may have been using glitter, recycled materials, boxes, paper, markers, pencils, scissors, electronic devices, books and cardboard during the lesson. Everyone needs to be responsible for taking care of the classroom when it's time to pack up. Sometimes it can be a challenge to get the children motivated to clean up. "Tidy up the classroom" is a fun song that encourages the children to clean up quickly, safely and respectfully.  Challenge your students to see if they can tidy up the classroom before the end of the song. You can play it a couple times if it's a big clean up job. Your kids will be happily singing as they tidy and before you and they even know it the classroom will be cleaned up and looking great!

Through out the school day you are going to need the children to move from one lesson to another. "Transition time" is a fun song that encourages the children to move quickly and sensibly to their next activity. The song gives the children 1 minute to do everything they need to do to get ready for the next lesson. It's a great way to get the kids focused on what they should be doing so no time is wasted between learning sessions.  

Music and movement can also have a positive impact on your students' brain function. Music and movement can help to create the right balance in the mind to allow the children to attain an optimal level of alertness and calmness so that they are ready to learn. Here are some songs that can help the children in your class find their optimal level of mental alertness.

"Do the Bear Walk" is a fun and energetic song that incorporates gross motor and heavy load resistance movement exercises with balance and coordination movements. It's a great way to help improve your students brain function and gets them in a good frame of mind to be ready to learn.

"Rocking Star" is another song that incorporates movement and music to help  children get ready to learn.

Try these songs to assist with your classroom routines and to help get your children in the right frame of mind to learn. For more educational tunes visit my YouTube channel and don't forget to subscribe!

   Rocking Dan Teaching Man's YouTube channel 

If you can use YouTube at your school then visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store

Rocking Dan Teaching Man's Teachers Pay Teachers store

Until next time Rock on in the classroom!

Rocking Dan Teaching Man

Rocking Dan Teaching Man's fun Skype Sing along with 1st grade Class in Delaware

I had a fantastic time singing along with and reading to Cindy Price's (Mrs Price's Kingergators Blog)  wonderful 1st grade class in Delaware, USA via Skype from Sydney, Australia on Friday afternoon (Saturday morning for me). The distance from Sydney to Delaware is 9854 Miles or 15858 km so the music had to travel a long way!

The kids were great. I loved their singing, actions and all round enthusiasm for music and learning. They had so many interesting and thoughtful questions for me about Australia and I learnt a lot about Delaware and the USA from them as well.  I even got to give out some Class Dojo points from halfway around the world!  It was an amazing experience.

The Songs we sung were "What makes a good friend?", "The friends of 10", and "Let's make a pizza".

"What makes a good friend?"

"The friends of 10"

 Thanks for having me in your class Cindy, your kids totally rock! I had such a fun time!

If any other teachers in the USA or any other part of the world wants me to Skype with their class for a sing along then send me a message on Facebook Rocking Dan Teaching Man Facebook  or Twitter Rocking Dan Teaching Man Twitter and I am sure we could work out a time!

Make sure you check out my YouTube channel and click subscribe.
Rocking Dan Teaching Man's YouTube channel

Here is a link to Cindy's blog http://mrspriceskindergators.blogspot.com  She is a wonderful teacher and her blog has so many fantastic ideas about teaching and learning.

Until next time, keep rocking,

Rocking Dan Teaching Man

Rocking Dan's GuestEduCelebrity appearance on #TeacherFriends Twitter chat

It was a wonderful  experience leading the #TeacherFriends twitter chat on Tuesday the 12th of January. I had an amazing time connecting with so many great educators from the USA and around the world. The topic for the chat was music and movement in the classroom. This is a topic which I have a great interest in and I was able to share some of my knowledge about the benefits of using music and movement in the classroom. I also shared some of my resources and learnt from other fantastic teachers.

Click on the link below to read full chat on  Storify. Thanks to Maggie from Maggies Kinder Corner https://twitter.com/maggieskinder  for putting it together.

Rocking Dan Teaching Man's Twitter Chat on Music and Movement #TeacherFriends Storify

 Here is a list of the questions from the chat.

Thank you to award winning children's author and musician Debbie Clement https://twitter.com/KweezleQueen for arranging to have me on the #TeacherFriends twitter chat. I had a fantastic time and I am very grateful for the opportunity. It one of the highlights of my teaching career. 

Music and movement plays an important role in the development of children. They are wonderful tools to help kids with their learning. Teachers can use music and movement to help teach curriculum content, social skills, rules and routines, gross motor skills and to help children get ready to learn. And of course singing, dancing and playing music is also lots of fun! Check out my YouTube channel for some great educational music for the primary classroom Rocking Dan Teaching Man's YouTube channel

Until Next Time Keep Rocking and Learning,

Rocking Dan Teaching Man

The Gingerbread Man Description song (New Video)

It's that time of the year again! Run, Run as fast as you can!  The Gingerbread Man is back! I have updated the video for The Gingerbread Man Description song! The song is a great stimulus for descriptive writing about that funny and delicious fairy tale character The Gingerbread Man! It's also a very catchy tune!

Here is a new video of The Gingerbread Man Description song! Enjoy!

It was a great thrill to have Palma from KFundamentals  share the original version of The Gingerbread Man Description song at her Kindergarten writing presentations in Minnesota and New Hampshire this week. Thank you Palma, I am very humbled! Go and check out the KFundamentals blog it's full of amazing teaching and learning ideas!

~

If you would like to buy a copy of the song/video click on the link and go to my TPT store.

The Gingerbread Man Description song Rocking Dan Teaching Man Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Until next time keep running as fast as you can with The Gingerbread Man! Watch out for that sly old fox!

Rocking Dan Teaching Man.