Dr. Jean Feldman

My New Year's resolution? See more keynote presentations!! Yesterday was one part southern revival, two parts summer-camp song fest, one part Hoot-a-nannie, three parts motivational annual sales meeting kickoff, one part Hallmark movie sigh, two parts singing-to-the-choir sing-a-long joy, four parts State-of-the-Union address, twenty-nine parts PRICELESS. Dr. Jean really brought her A game yesterday. Her presentation was entitled "Back to our Roots" and was the perfect launch to a week of celebrating the possibilities of young children.

Wowzer. I stood in admiration for her entire 105 minute keynote. By that I mean I literally STOOD. Most of her wall-to-wall packed house were standing for the vast majority of her address. We were up. We were down. We were back up. We were up some more. We played patty-cake with a friend, we were up again and then some more after that. One of my favorite throw-away lines of the morning was when she said, "You'll notice the smart people just remain standing."

The woman is brilliant. She is also humble. She's also a great story teller. Weaving masterful tales of the road into her presentation. I especially enjoyed the way she punctuated her speaking with "reinforcements' for the children in the classroom. I had seen her "kiss your brain" eons ago and wove that positive reinforcement into my interactions with children way-back-when. I woke up this morning thinking of her 'firecracker cheer' and had the brainstorm of how to ask Connie Dow to work up a choreographed Flash mob sequence for the end of my "Red, White and Blue" music instrumental. Beyond those two 'happys' there were the snaps for 'looking good' and the entertwined thumbs for a butterfly greeting, the fisherman's catch, the farmer's delight, (Dr. Jean has a YouTube posted with many of her favorite handshakes, she also has a miriade of other YouTube cheers here) the pencil sharpeners encouragement, the gold star hug...... well you get the idea.

At one point Dr. Jean said that she'd leave the 'meat & potatoes' to some of the others in the early childhood brain trust and that her work is a little bit more of a condiment, bringing the spice to the classroom. She mentioned that one teacher's solution to the concern over providing sufficient accademics in every classroom, is that if you have a really great morning of fun planned, just put a sign on your door that says "Testing Underway" and that everyone will give you plenty of space. LOL. The lengths that we must go to, for the betterment of our children. She has just launched her first blog and you can find her making frequent contributions with her favorite fingerplays and suggestions.

In introducing every song & activity, she was clear on its purpose whatever that might be, phonemic awareness, kinesthetic integration, crossing the midline -- you name it she was abuzz with the educational jargon behind all of the Tootie Ta fun!

Right now I've got to put on my striped tights and go give my own presentation!!! Whoooooop! Whooooooop!!