Tuesday #TeacherFriends Twitter Chat with Jerry 'cybraryman': Ask Jerry

TUESDAY! TWITTER TUESDAY!! PRACTICE CHAT TUESDAY! 

School's in full gear and we continue to learn together! 

Tonight we have THE authority on all things Twitter and education 

as our #EduCelebrityGuest! 

WELCOME @cybraryman, Jerry!!! 

We are thrilled to have arranged an hour of "Ask Jerry."

Bring your questions!  

Plans are underway to 'expand' our chat to include our first scavenger hunt.

A scavenger hunt, you ask? 

How will that work?

You will want to open a link on your computer to Jerry's site directly. 

We're going to encourage you to REALLY grow your Twitter-expertise! 

There are PRIZES! PRIZES! PRIZES! 

It has been quite a month of expertise! 

We have learned so much! 

There's so much more to learn!!!

Here's the storify archive from last week with Heidi of Heidi Songs fame! 

CELEBRATION! FREE Video Release and GIVEAWAY Party!

MILESTONE MANIA!!! 

It's been a MEGA week for me in the social-cyber world. 

I've clicked past a number of awesome milestones. 

I now have over 165,000 followers on Pinterest. 

I have over 5000 followers on my Facebook Fanpage. 

Then I hit 4000+ followers at TWITTER! 

How happy am I to have 2000 followers on Instagram? 

And the biggggg, biggggg, bigggity BIG? 

My *T*W*O* videos filmed for Zaner-Bloser

 have just been released!!!

Think fine motor fun, brain break for the ECE classroom!

Hop over to ZB to see them! 

The early bird viewers are just beginning to report the fun 

their kinders and PreKs are having: 

singing & dancing along!

I'm so excited that our videos are making their way onto lesson plans! 

TIME FOR A PARTY!!!!!!

Time to Celebrate! 

Time to discover some new favorites!

Time for a BIG Drawing!

I will be giving the winner two of my favorite digital files. 

"You're Wonderful" and

"Red, White and Blue" 

are both PERFECT as the school year unfolds in earnest!

{click each image below to see it in its entirety at TeachersPayTeachers.}

I asked my blogging buddies to join me in the celebration! 

These dear woman jumped in at the first heart-beat. 

I am soooooo grateful for their continued support!

I have their prizes listed in the order that they volunteered to help! 

YUP. Deanna threw her name into the google doc first! 

Her prize is all pumpkins and my pumpkin photos are featured in her product! 

Won't the lucky-duck who wins all of this awesomeness be one happy camper? 

A HUGE *T*H*A*N*K*S* to all who have contributed to the fun! 

Check out all of the seasonal goodies! 

Go watch my videos and include them in your plans moving forward.

If you happen to be seeing this article in real-time on Sunday, 

you still have a couple of hours to go enter my Zaner-Bloser give-away! 

Hurry, hurry, hurry before that Rafflecopter expires! 

You have the opportunity to win a classroom bundle valued at $259!!

*Pinch me*Pinch me*Pinch me*

In real life we're in Denver. 

Celebrating all things "BMX" with four racers! 

The GRAND PRIZE WINNER is Ashley T Alcazar!!

Our two Runner-Up Winners: 

Jessica & Cherie 

Thanks for playing.... watch your inbox for surprises! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ZB Releases Two FREE Classroom Videos Starring Debbie Clement! PLUS GIVE AWAY!

Zaner-Bloser Releases "OUR" 2 FREE VIDEOS! 

Oh happy, happy day! Today's the day! 

I promised and the day has arrived. The two videos that we shot months ago *NOW* are ready for YOUR use with YOUR students, children, peeps, littles, wonders {WHATEVER you call them!} Better than that? THEY ARE FREE! FREE!! FREE!!!

Here's the image that you'll see when you click through the link to Zaner-Bloser. {Don't hit the red arrow below, it won't take you anywhere.} 

"Skywriting" is all about VISUALIZATION. 

What we can picture in our mind, we can create. 

So imagine if you will, a SKYWRITING MACHINE. 

Get your 'robot' moves dusted off from the disco era. 

They will come in handy. 

We're going to be blasting off into outer space! 

The idea is that the children will 

"picture this and picture that" and then draw + write it! 

"Top to Bottom" is simply brilliant beyond brilliant. 

I can imagine that teachers can use this one numerous times per week. 

ESPECIALLY THIS TIME OF YEAR! 

PRINT DIRECTIONALITY! 

FUN!

BRAIN BREAK!!!

People that know me, know that I like BIG ENDINGS!

This has got a BIG ending. 

It goes fast. 

Then it goes faster than fast!

{Again. Here is the link to the videos}  

Here's the link to the Zaner-Bloser website,

directly to the videos and 

where you can also request your own sample materials. 

The videos are part of their new program, 

"ABC, 123, Just for Me!" 

To launch the release of the videos I have a SPECIAL Give-Away 
JUST for my readers!!! 
My friends at ZB are going to give one lucky individual the WHOLE classroom bundle!

"ABC, 123, Just for Me"

- 20 student activity books
- a teacher guide with my music CD 
- a CD of letter stories 
- a school home book of booklets
PLUS 
- a resource kit filled with manipulatives 
(retail price is $254.99)

This program is the “Readiness” level of ZB Handwriting – so you could easily use it in PK/Transition K/or early K  …anywhere that students need to work on their readiness skills.

Are you as excited as I am? 
Get thee to the Rafflecopter below. 
Enter to win! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tuesday Twitter PRACTICE Chat with HeidiSongs: ADHD Support

TUESDAY #TEACHERFRIENDS PRACTICE Chat Continues

We are learning together. 

We are supporting each other. 

We are stretching boundaries. 

We are making new #TeacherFriends!!! 

This week there's something special getting created!

Heidi of Heidi Songs is honing in on the topic of ADHD. 

We are guiding the chat in a very specific, concrete direction. 

It is certain to be of MONUMENTAL help to classroom teachers! 

PLUS there are PRIZES!!!

"Official" Kickoff is at 9 PM EST!*****

*****I launched this effort mid-summer, in the hopes of luring some non-Twitter people into the Twitter fold. I thought it would be supportive to call it a 'PRACTICE' chat and therefore take some of the edge and pressure off. They liked it! They LIKED it! We continue to call it a PRACTICE chat -- which is a tad counter-intuitive for the pace of the thing these days. 

HOWEVER!!!!!!!!! If you arrive as an "EarlyBird" beginning at 8:30 EST, we will be there to specifically support your learning curve and offer encouragement. We have recently decided that it is important to reward the EarlyBird Newbies and will be giving some digital prizes BEFORE the chat begins at 9:00. EXTRA INCENTIVE! Your odds are VERY good! 

Heidi has been HARD at work explaining her own Twitter curve of learning. See her thoughts here. She has chosen a Top 10 Kinder Tweep List. It was sweet of her to give me an honorary mention {since I don't teacher kindergarten.} 

She has also written an extensive article on #ADHD in preparation for our chat tonight. You can get a sneak peak of her thoughts in her article to prepare for chatting with Heidi in person. 

I have a collaborative PinBoard for Special Needs that is also very supportive and FILLED with links of interest. There are already over 1000  classified for your support! My own article RoundUP of dozens of 'visual' learning supports for the classroom and beyond are gathered into this article. 

Set your alarm clock! Make plans. Order a pizza! Join us! Learn! 

As if that isn't sufficiently amazing. 

We are entering into an awesome era! 

Heidi made the connection from our chat to ESGI. 

ESGI has offered to become an official SPONSOR of our chat! 

This week they will be giving away an ANNUAL membership to their software program. 

{Retail value of $199.00!!!} 

To enter to win the EarlyBird Prizes AND the official chat prizes, 

you will need to enter your info into the Google doc that will be tweeted through out the chat. 

{you only need to enter your contact info one time to qualify for ALL prizes!}

Here's the best news of all! 

We archive each weekly chat!!!

Did you miss the amazing insight last week on Critical Thinking? 

You can follow the chat at your leisure and click through to the links at your own speed. 

P.S. I have some SUPER HUGE POLKA DOT PROFESSIONAL NEWS TO ANNOUNCE TOMORROW!

Let me just *PROMISE* you that you'll want to come back here to get in on all of the specifics for THE BIG REVEAL! TALK ABOUT PRIZES!!!! This whole week is gonna be BONZO! 

Mind Mapping & Making Music in Early Childhood with Debbie Clement

MUSIC! MUSIC! MUSIC!!!

Once upon a time there was a music-lady. 

Actually. Before that she was an elementary Art teacher..... 

but let's just start with the music-lady chapter, 

which is now unfolding in the 19th year of evolution. 

The music-lady travels about the country sharing her ideas, songs and 

happy sing-song simple, repetitive approach with teachers near and far. 

In the course of those travels she saw this "Mind Map" displayed in the hallways of Concordia College's Early Childhood Building, in Chicago. 

It stole her heart. Literally. Completely.

This simple graphic inspired our artsy-music-lady. 

This mind-map started a gazillion thoughts all these years later. 

What if she could capture & summarize her insight onto one page?

So she got out her dry erase board and started thinking. 

That lead to grabbing a great drawing marker and some colored pencils.

Here's what things looked like early on. 

[Maybe you saw that image on her Instagram feed this summer?] 

MUSIC: At the heart of it all! 

Singing is 'within' music. 

So that's where I started. 

I put the word singing in the middle of my page.  

Then I built everything out from that starting point. 

There are a bajillion benefits to singing {and music.} 

I looked at two major categories of benefits. 

Moving above the word singing are all of the benefits that arise in what I have classified as the 'language' division, arising from the lyrics within the song. 

Below the word 'singing' are the benefits that arise from the beat. 

I think of the beat as the foundation for my song/the music. 

You will see I have then divided those benefits into two major compartments: 

-INSTRUMENTS 

-MOVEMENT 

My finished "Mind Map" is now in pdf format and can be downloaded for

 FREE at Teachers Pay Teachers!

This is what it looked like just prior to being 'finished.'

----------------------------------------------------

***I have TWO earlier articles here at blog-Rainbow, 

where I have attempted to spell out my approach. 

If you click the picture you will be transported back in time. 

Debbie's Dozen Directions for Classroom Music 

Music as Motivator: Intelligence Theory and MORE! 


I spend an inordinate amount of time sharing visual images here. 
Let's conclude today with some of my favorite 'visuals' from the MUSIC world. 


This first bulletin board was so WIDE it was impossible
 for me to photograph the entire image. 
This is from my school visit in Arlington, outside of DC.

Look at the 'header' from one of my newest Twitter followers! 

What an incredible collaborative MUSIC bulletin Board. 

Sue gave me permission to use it in this article. 

THANKS!

MUSIC PEOPLE. TEACHERS. LIBRARIANS! 
My intro-freebie song is "Going to the Library" 
which is available for immediate download at Teachers Pay Teachers. 



I have written over 100 original songs. 
The two that I think are the *MOST* perfect for the beginning of the school year are: 

"You're Wonderful" and 
"Red, White and Blue" 



Each of these two songs I have turned into the traditional picture book format. 
There is a CD insert with the sung version & also the instrumental version. 
Also included in the end-matter are charts for both sign language and music instrumentation. 

-- Debbie