M: Marvelous Music Motivator

WELCOME!!! You've landed under my rainbow!
I'm Debbie and I have a 'dozen directions' to share from my perspective as "Music-Lady" for your work with children. These are tips I've put together from my fifteen years worth of touring into classrooms. Here's my top twelve suggestions from all of those Author-Illustrator School Visits. 

Debbie Clement Keynote for Early Childhood Educators in Tennessee

Welcome! It's a party!!! It's an early education summit & party!!!
It's a celebration extravaganza of young children and all the adults who love them!! And trust me. We know how to throw a party. Welcome to my little corner of the party. Today we gather together in honor of our fellow blogger, Deborah Stewart and her many efforts on behalf of young children. We join forces. We join expertise. We join experiences. We join insight. Today we mark the milestone of 20,000 people, from around the world, joined together on behalf of young children on one FB page! Get your hands up in the air. We're getting organized! It's a party!

My contribution to the party is the letter M for MUSIC!!! 
Since I've written and recorded over a hundred original songs for children -- I guess that makes me qualified, even something of an expert! Get your groove on. Where else would you see grown women literally leaping at the opportunity to come up front, in a crowded auditorium, and dance to a song that they have yet to learn, a soon-to-be favorite, the "Piggy Rap"? Those are my 5 little Tennessee piggies. We assembled last weekend to get pumped for back-to-school. They're showin' the crowd what they've got!! We're early childhood & we're proud!!! LUV me some keynote excitement!

DEBBIE'S DOZEN: MUSIC AS MOTIVATOR

1. Music is one Multiple-Intelligence!  Thanks to the research and insight from Howard Gardner, we know that music is one of the 'original' intelligences -- from the perspective of multi-faceted individuals. Some children come into our lives & into our programs hard-wired to express their intelligence thru music! Acknowledge their gift! Play to their innate strength!


2. Music is a Learning Style Preference! When we think of the 'VAK Attack' [Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic] in working with children and their preferences for learning, we know that some children prefer to learn thru their Auditory feedback systems & their listening skills are their strongest mode of learning. Bring on the music & let the learning begin!! Children will 'remember' when something is set to music. Make music 'work' for you!!

3. Music is a cultural phenomena! It doesn't matter which culture is yours -- music is the bedrock and touch stone to express your heritage, your background, your shared experience. Music is also one way we come to learn beyond our own upbringing. Music brings us the world!
Enrich your music time by choosing selections and instruments from other cultures!

4. Music is life's backdrop! Name that tune! "They're playin' our song!" There's music playing at every significant moment of your life. Your first step. Your first kiss. Pomp & Circumstance. Here Comes the Bride. The funeral fanfare. Music is the under-girding of all the significant moments of our lives. Turn up your sound-track & tune in. Watch which tunes your child responds to most appreciatively when there's music playing.

5. Music is festive! Think Super Bowl. Think Mardi Gras! Think marching band parade. There's music if its a party and if its a party there's music. Woven together. Throw the confetti. Drop the balloons. The music's drum beat is the foundation, the very invitation for fun to begin. Playing music in your home + classroom brings it to life!


6. Music is engaging!  Macarena. Hokey-Pokey. Y.M.C.A. Wedding Chicken Dance. The Bunny Hop. The Charleston. The Electric Slide. Top-to-Bottom. What era do you reflect? You hear the beat and you know what comes next. You're tappin' your toes. You're clappin' your hands. You're ready to march: faster & faster!! Your eyes light up. You're involved. You're focused. You're engaged. Music has got to be one of the 'easiest' tools in your toolbox.... everyone wants to get involved. Brush off some ol' camp songs. Get active. Get moving!!!


7. Music is a bridge! Tell me your favorite song and you invite me into your world. Teach me your favorite song and we're bonding. Sing together your favorite piece and we knit cultures, classes and backgrounds into one shared experience. [Read this earlier post for the most amazing demonstration of how Hajar learned English to my song, "You're Wonderful". Have a tissue handy. Her handwriting alone may bring you to tears.] Ask families what their favorite piece of music from home is & share in the school setting.


8. Music is a (curriculum) support! Ask anyone. Music can drive the learning under your roof. From sun-up to sun-down. From cock-a-doodle do, shimmy outta jammies to lullaby 'n good night back into fresh jammies -- music gets it done. How did you learn the 50 states alphabetically? I'll bet it was to music. There's a song for the A, B, C's. There's a song for self-esteem. There's a song for Patriot's Day. There's a song for being "Glad I'm at School Today!"


9. Music is a memory enhancer! Having trouble teaching your young child their phone number? Put it to music and include the area code up front, with a 'boop-boop-sha-boop' at the end and you have a jingle worthy of any radio station. Madison Avenue knows the power of a tune for marketing. Use music to 'anchor' learning for your child.


10. Music makes the perfect transition! Has the group been playing hard-at-work in center-time focus and concentration yet now its time for the group to convene on the rug? Music is the perfect transition! Been sitting too long on the rug and need some oxygen? Music is the perfect transition! Been playing hard on the playground and its time to move inside? Music is the perfect transition!! Get it? Music is the perfect transition!!


11. Music leads to movement! Music's very structure is an invitation to move. Calypso? Get moving!! Jazz? Get moving!! Classical? Get moving. Reggae? Get moving!! Banjo pickin? Get moving!! Brass band? Get moving!! [Read here for my series with Dance & Movement authority, Connie Dow & come back soon for the next installment in our continuing series.]


12. Music is celebration! What is a birthday cake with candles lit without a song? Whether you're two or eighty-two there must be singing prior to cake-cutting. That's just how it works. What is preschool graduation without a song? For that matter, what are children without a song? Strike up the band or the boom box. Plug in the I-Tunes, the YouTube or the SmartBoard. Shake your shakers, pound your drum, sing your song. Let the party begin!!!

Kudos to Deborah Stewart for bringing us together A to Z and Z to A!! Continue on your alphabet hunt. Learn a lot thru these ABCs and see you at NAEYC in November!! I'll be presenting with Connie Dow on this very topic: "Movement and Music, Music and Movement." I'll also have my own booth in the wild exhibit hall at Booth #719, Come see me in my polka-dotted splendor and we can continue and make this at actual two way conversation. See you in Orlando!!

-- Debbie --

Now!!! How about bein' an absolute angel? Would you please hit one of these little buttons just below this post to continue the party? Please tweet this out if you're a tweeter or hit one of the other share buttons:FB/blog/Pinterest etc. that makes the most sense in your network of fellow folks concerned about children. Let's do all we can to support a system that focuses on the most significant resource for the future: our children!! Tweet on folks. Tweet on!!

Tennessee Morning Fun

You guessed it! It's time to get this party started! Hands in the air!! "It's time to cel-e-brate! CEL-E-BRATE!!" Get your groove on.
"It's time to ed-u-cate! ED-U-CATE!!!" Pump it up, now. "Let's all a-pre-ci-ate! A-PRE-CI-ATE!!!!"

It's so much fun to start the mornin' with some call and response. It's all the more fun when the auditorium is groovin, the house is wired with awesome speakers and there's a tech crew with experience with just how much bass is needed to start a Saturday with style.

Meet the teachers! This is my dance hall number from my fifth CD, "Debbie's Ditties 5: Jump, Jam and Jive." I think this opening song qualifies for both the jam 'n the jive!!

Good Lookin' Leadership

Question: How many women does it take to pull together an all day conference for early childhood educators? Answer: The more-the-merrier! I'm not sure that I've captured everyone who contributed to making this day such a success, and if I was capable at Photoshop I'd piece these two images together somehow. Here's the power-house people who have been planning for months on end to make this day an amazing success for all in attendance. There was a track for administrators led by the 'other' Debbie. The teachers had a mammoth make-it-take-it in the ballroom. Who would be brave enough to lead a MI/TI for 200 teachers in a ballroom you ask? That would be the Energizer-Bunny Lisa.

One of the greatest things about going on far-flung travels is that you get to reconnect with others who are far-flung journey makers. Today was the first time I got to see the magic Ms. Lisa in action. What joy. She arrived with three or four human-sized piles of bins worth of glue guns, felt, markers, paper plates, pom-poms, crepe paper -- well maybe you get the idea. She knows of my book, "Tall Giraffe" and told me ahead of time that she had a PERFECT craft to share with the crowd. Here she is mid-sentence in her presentation to the throngs to share a perfect 'extension' idea for my picture book. You gotta know that just as soon as I post this to my blog, I'll be 'pinning' this image to Pinterest! LOL! The paper plates are held together with pipecleaners..... could be made all the cuter by having the children paint the plates yellow before they cut the shapes for the 'brown & spotted, polka-dotted' spot-dots verse. Get out your glue sticks. Ready. Set. GLUE......

When you put a couple hundred teachers for young children in a big room with lots of art materials and give them sufficient time, you are apt to come up with new & different brilliant ideas. Lisa had all sorts of paper bag hats and puppets. She'd given her awesome plug for "Tall Giraffe" which I had already introduced in the morning keynote......... so look what one brilliantly enterprising & creative teacher created:

A paper bag giraffe head!!! And here's one final close up of Lisa's paper plate creation:

Back to School!!!

Look at these enthusiastic teachers!! Look at those smiles!! Look at this upbeat energy!!

Kindergarten LUV & Lessons

Do you want to know why I love my visits to kindergarten? The sign above is such a good explanation. Kindergarten is a magic place where sharing is at the top of the list. Remember how 'everything I really needed to know I learned in kindergarten?' It's true. Kindergarten is the "official" place that lays the foundation in earnest for all of those school experiences to follow.

[I promise another post as to why the preschool years make kindergarten joy a possibility.... but for now lets just soak up some K-LUV.]

Debbie's Half Dozen for Kindergarten LUV:

1. Share. Sharing is at the top of the list. Sharing is neither easy nor simple to a five year old, but conquering social skills is pivotal for a life time of success. Kindergarten is the proving ground for sharing. Share. Share your love of dinosaurs. Share your penchant for play-doh. Share your amazement over baking-soda volcanos. Share: it never goes out of style, it never costs any more, its always appreciated, one size fits all, its calorie free, there's always room for more! SHARE!

2. Listen. It's a good follow-up to share. To listen is to be willing to learn. To listen is the continuation of taking turns that sharing implies. True for adults. True for spouses. True for employees. True for students. True for grandmas. True for principals. How well do you listen? How capable are you at being quiet? Take a yoga class & learn about listening. Go to kindergarten and learn about listening. "Do you have your listening ears on?" [Have you ever said this outside of your classroom -- only to make yourself giggle-out-loud?] LISTEN!

3. Be Nice. The Golden Rule. Do unto others. Kindergarten is a place for the practise of manners and the foundation for a personal code of ethics. Ask any kindergartner who the nice kid is in class and they'll tell you in complete honesty. Niceness stands out -- even among kindergartners. The really good news? Niceness can be 'taught'. Niceness can be 'expected.' Kindergartners have a keen sense of right and wrong -- and they know where nice fits into the equation. Being nice counts in kindergarten & that's why I fit in there. BE NICE!

4. Help. Do you just LUV that 'help' is in the top 5? When I trudge up to a school with all my gear in hand, its always some little kindergarten child, with a backpack as big as they are, that seems to run up the sidewalk for the opportunity to hold open that humongous front door. Kindergartners know what its like to need help. They are earnest enough to be able to offer it and they are humble enough to ask for it. Embroider those four letters on your heart in kindergarten: h-e-l-p. Know when you can extend it. Know when to seek it. We need to offer each other merit badges for helping. Ask any classroom of kinder-kids for help and you will be utterly besiged with volunteers. Hands will flail at the speed of sound. Pick me! Pick me!!
Helping is a very big deal. As one who seemingly needs more & more 'help' these days, I love the precious kindergarten kids who know when they are needed and respond with delight. HELP!

5. Make New Friend(s). The expectation of kindergarten is that we are here to make new friends. It's a rule. It's number five. (My sincere apologies: it is my beginning photography skills that edited off the lone letter s in the official photo above.) Kindergarten is not about 'make new friend'. Instead iIt's about 'make new friendS'!! We're all in this together. Circle time includes everyone!  We make circles to include everyone, to gather everyone in!! We are a team. Every new day of kindergarten affords the opportunity for a new friend. MAKE NEW FRIENDS!

6. Be Respectful. Wow. That's heavy-duty stuff for five year olds. Be respectful indeed. I think some of our sports figures, politicians and Hollywood types have forgotten their kinder-training. I see so many FB postings from adults who seem to have forgotten this basic. Be respectful. Wouldn't it be a better world if we could carry respect further and longer and deeper and stronger? Wouldn't we have a better neighborhood, a better community, a better state, a better country, a better planet if we learned more about respect? Perhaps we need the kindergarten children to remind us? Perhaps we need the kindergarten teachers to speak up? Perhaps we need to recognize the kindergarten teachers for all that they do -- on behalf of children, on behalf of families, on behalf of their schools. How about stopping through your elementary school and thanking your kindergarten teachers as the new year gets underway? Getting the new year started is a truly stressful time. Let's be respectful and thank those who lay the foundation for everything that follows. Be respectful and appreciate a kindergarten teacher near you.   BE RESPECTFUL!

Special thanks to my kindergarten friends in Hilliard for inviting me into your midst and sharing those amazing smiles with me during my official GCAC Artist in the Schools visit! I'll be back next year!!

***Remember the promo code to receive 20% off of your copy of my INDIE award winning picture book, "Red, White and Blue" is: RWB911. Perfect resource for 9-11.

911 Picture Book Review!!

HUGE day for me!!! My picture book, "Red, White and Blue" was reviewed over at "Character Education Blog, Character Counts." Please, please, please click over and read the full account! There are all sorts of great ideas for its implementation in the school setting.

I am especially grateful for the reviewer's discussion of the diversity of our US geography suggested by my quilt illustrations and ways to use that to prompt classroom discussion. Her use of suggestive questions to prompt introspection in conversation about the history of Patriot's Day and heros in our lives can be adapted for the age and maturity of the setting, bringing important insight in the process.

Let me remind you that there is a promo code that is in effect from now until the end of Sept. When ordering your copy of "Red, White and Blue" please feel free to insert the code: RWB911 and you will receive a 20% discount. If you are in the position to need a LOT of copies just let me know (for your whole school, library or Head Start system please call the warehouse directly for bulk orders.)

There is another opportunity to **WIN** your own copy for free. This week there is a give-away at Organized Teacher Blog. One signed book will be given away at the end of the week. Charity has oodles of teacher goodies for her back-to-school give away. I want the get-away package!

Click here to directly enter the give-away for my book.

The quilt above was created for the end papers for the book. Click here to see earlier posts to see it under construction. This week I'm speaking to my local quilt guild & I'll be sharing these slides with my fellow quilters.

Top to Bottom YouTube!!!

Isn't it amazing? I started this summer with the goal of sharing my work with a wider audience. Today after I came home from church I remembered to go to my blog post of yesterday to add some links and while there I noticed the most dramatic stampede on my YouTube page of videos: EVER!!!!! What on earth had happened?


I posed that thought on my Facebook page -- and very shortly the answering angel herself popped through with an explaination. It seems that Charity, of the Organized Classroom Blog, my blogging mentor had mentioned my existence on HER FB fanpage and the stampede began in earnest! She put a link directly to my blog button above that lists my YouTube videos. Wow! Again, I say wow!!!!


Charity's generosity & kindness reminded me that I had worked on 'editing' some footage shot earlier at the Early Childhood Summer Institute during my workshop presentation. I had asked for a volunteer to handle my camera and take some photos. Un-be-knownst to me, my amazing participant thought to shoot this segment as a movie!!! So Allen just helped get this one together with some title slides and voila!!! (None of the participants realize that they are part of Clement's candid camera..... I didn't know it at the time either! LOL)


Is this video the cutest thing ever? This is a song that I recorded for my friends at Zaner-Bloser as part of their handwriting curriculum for young students at the beginning of their writing careers. Print directionality to the tune of 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!!!' Of course I knew that children always like for their favorite bits to get faster & faster and apparently the teachers like the challenge as well. [See my full set of Debbie's Directions.]


This is the evidence that there are some Kentucky educators who are truly having a good time. I know that those same teachers are getting ready to kick off their new school year with plenty of enthusiasm!!! This little dittie makes laugher contagious! It is available on my sixth CD, "Debbie's Ditties 6: The Handwriting Mix" with eleven others songs to support fine motor development. Contact Zaner-Bloser for all of the curriculum pieces to support your young students! They have a complete teacher's guide which comes with these same dozen songs included plus they have a gazillion other pieces to support you as you support the little ones.


Thanks to Charity for the prompt to move this movie-making task to the top of my list!!!! [Editor's note. It is Charity, from the Organized Classroom blog who has developed a 'system' to help us grow our blogging efforts through better traffic. She is the one with a series of 30 videos in a course called Teaching Blog Traffic School. Beyond the videos which are brilliant --the commaraderie of the fellow bloggers has been worth its weight in gold!

*****Editor's note. I have connected this post to a Linky party over at Messy with Miss Jessy.... and yet the magic linkie info has not appeared here as I think it ought. Until I can sort that out, please click on the Messy high light and go see the other posts in the party!!

*****Editor's additional note: Once I got blog hopping tonight, I found a BLOG HOP with well over 200 educational blogs already linked up and hopping. Again. I am apparently not figuring out how to link up??? Please go to Blog Hoppin' to see the brilliant list of edu-blogs.

I'm a music-lady turned author/illustrator, traveling to schools across the country & speaking to teachers and librarians!!! I've been out of college for over 30 years & this is my 15th year as a consultant -- running my own company. You may not know how much I love daisies or that we are about to blessed with our SEVENTH grandchild!

I seriously need to figure out how to make the links in the linkie party work?!?!?!?! I have been working all summer long to figure out how to get my blog to a wider readership and my latest addiction is "Pinterest."