Pinterest Directory for Special Needs Resources

Currently I am a 'music-lady' morphed into an Author/Illustrator of picture books. Previously I had been the resource teacher at a private school for young children with special needs. I'm a HUGE visual learner and adore Pinterest. [I'm nearing 60,000 followers and have nearly 20K pins organized for you by category.]

Here's my latest installment in my directories of Pinterest People by category. This time the list is for those who have a board or an entire collection of boards on Pinterest that are dedicated to 'special needs' and 'special education.' 

These boards are an absolute wealth of resources on all things from IEP development around Common Core to sensory integration, therapy, tools and support systems for parents and teachers. These are your go-to people who are already cultivating resources for you on Pinterest. 

Did you see my earlier directory for Art Teachers + Teaching Artists? If you're looking for Art projects this is the directory for you to mine and the people you'll want to follow to make your life easier. 

Here are the links to the earlier directories in the series:

The first and broadest: Edu-Pinners now with nearly 600 links!

The second was Early Childhood Educators. 

Then came the Kinder-Pinners for all things kindergarten. 

Then came the installment for Primary-People. 

There's even a Library + Book Lovers directory. 

You are more than welcome to add your Pinterest URL to as many directories as are suitable for your collection. 

 

My latest endeavor is to open a Teachers Pay Teachers store and offer my music as digital downloads. I'd LUV to have you follow me there as well. Here's the direct link to my freebie Mp3 "Going to the Library." Can I get an 'oh yeah?' 

Hope that your new year is off to an amazing start! 

-- Debbie --

RainbowsWithinReach

Observing September 11th with Children

School has barely gotten underway and suddenly its time to observe September 11th with your students. 

I just wrote a blog post with suggestions. Immediately after 9-11, I wrote a very simple song  to help restore hope in the aftermath. I recorded it onto my fourth CD and have since turned it into a traditional hardback picture book as author and illustrator. My book, with CD insert, is entitled "Red, White and Blue." The book won the 2011 Indy Book of Excellence Award!! Whoohooo!

In opening my new TpT store, I have created a zip file with 2 Mp3 versions of the song included -- one that is sung (with my voice as well as children and professional vocalists) and another version that is the instrumental only. The song has been performed around the country. The zip file also includes a sign language chart and music notation with chords to support your use with your class. 

Here's the link to TpT for the digital download. I have it set for 20% off for the next three days. I know that its sufficiently simple that you still have enough time to teach it this week and perform it next. 

If you're looking for possible patriotic Art projects I have lots of those in this link at my blog. 

-- Debbie -- 

RainbowsWithinReach

Pinterest Directories for Teachers

Just how much do you love and adore Pinterest? Are you using Pinterest for your room's facelift? For your lesson plan inspiration? For your bulletin board make-over? 

I had the pinspiration that it would be helpful to 'find' other educators using Pinterest for educational purposes. To that end I started creating Pinterest Directories to help us 'find' others in our specific niches, to make the pinning easier. 

Here's the link to the first directory. It is the broadest and the oldest and has nearly 600 people linking their Pinterest account in a PreK-High School directory..... click here to go directly! 

Original Directory of Pinterest EDU-People

The next directory was to help folks find fellow Early Childhood Educators on Pinterest. If you are in preschool or parent young children, this list is a wealth of pinteresting people to follow.

Early Childhood Educators on Pinterest

The third directory in the series is specific to the Kindergarten world. All things kinder. Kinder bloggers and kinder-teachers, and folks like me (author-illustrator of picture books) that spend a LOT of time in kindergarten. Here's the link to take you directly to that list of kinder-hearted pinners. 

Kinder-Pinner People Directory

Last Saturday's Directory is specifically designed for the Primary Grade folks. Primary Grade Bloggers, Primary People in general: Primary teachers and administrators. All you've got to do is follow this link to find this subset directory. 

Primary Grades Directory on Pinterest

Week number five is a round-up of all sorts of Art Teachers and Teaching Artists. If you're looking for creativity in the classroom, this is the list for you! 

Art Teacher Directory

Wishing you an amazing new year and hoping that these directories of similar minded pinners can help you utilize this amazing resource for your ease and professional development. They seriously need to give professional development credit for Pinterest! 

By all means, please come and add your PINTEREST URL to the growing lists. Come and follow your peers. I would be ever so *grateful* if you'd pin the directory that serves your purposes specifically. 

-- Debbie -- 

RainbowsWithinReach 

 

Digital Downloads from Debbie Clement

I am so excited!!! I have followed so many edu-bloggers into the future and have joined the gold-rush to Teacher's Pay Teachers. Here's my NEW store! Earlier today I uploaded my first "digital" product -- which includes an Mp3 of one of my original plus two dozen pages of support materials. It's a whole new era for me!!! 

Fine Motor Development for "Pollywog" Metamorphosis Unit

People have been asking me for years and years to go digital and now the day has arrived! One ready-to-go and that only leaves another hundred-and-how many? 

My favorite part of this first adventure are the 5 'illustrations' that I made from fabric to 'match-up' to the verses in the song. I even went the extra mile and made a quilt-picture for the "punch-line' of the song. 

 

Of course chances are good you've never heard the song before -- so here's a YouTube version from my nationally award winning DVD, "Kweezletown." What a great way to mix some science into your back-to-school routine! 

Want to see some of the other 'goodies' in the packet? Just visit this article on my blog, RainbowsWithinReach. 

-- Debbie -- 

Resources for Back-to-School!

AWESOME AUGUST!!!!!
With the abrupt arrival of August, there's no denying that Back-to-School season is now upon us in earnest. 


I have pulled together a TON of resources to support your efforts into one blog post which includes links to: organization, classroom doors, bulletin boards -- you name it! 





While the article is premiering at PreK+K Sharing collaborative blog, I think there are more than a few ideas that would be stretched to suit first grade. (Bulletin boards and decorated doors for example.) 

Yours for a song! 
I'm setting up my Author-Illustrator school visits for the year ahead. 

-- Debbie -- 

Here's the link to the article: click here! 

Bulletin Board Round UP: TONS of Ideas

Thought it would be helpful to pull together a TON of bulletin board ideas that I have seen during my travels, making Author-Illustrator school visits around the country. 


There are LOTS!! All seasons + all reasons!!!! ENJOY!!!! 
Click right here to get to the collection on my blog, Rainbows Within Reach. 

-- Debbie -- 

I also have the ultimate 'organization' post that 30,000 have read. Click right here if you haven't yet. 

Word Walls A to Z! Round-UP

ROUND UP!! All things: WORD-WALL!!!
I have a blog post today that rounds up all styles and manner of presentation of sight words on the wall, on anchor paper, on a mural. YOU name it!! Here or there. Word walls, word walls EV-ERY-WHERE!


Come be inspired! 


-- Debbie -- 

Meaningful Math: Activities, Bulletin Boards + More!

Math, Math + More Math! Super Sunday to You!

I've gathered another 'round-up' of amazing ideas that I've observed making my rounds of Author-Illustrator school visits. This time I've focused on all things 'math' related. There are ideas from bulletin boards, class goals, team building projects, classroom collaborations, fine motor development the whole nine yards!! 


It's a bloghop so if you're a blogger I'd invite you to get your blog articles into visibility -- as this promises to be a big visibility post due to the power of Pinterest! 


P.S. I've got a give-away going for a personalized set of my picture books and you have until Thurs the 19th to get entered at this link. All you have to do to win is to pin something from my blog: easy-peasy!! Combine these two concepts! Pin an image from the math article and let me know in the Fine Motor contest. Happy summer everyone!

-- Debbie --

Classroom Organization Vignettes Captured in Photos

Happy Summer, Blog Hoppers!!! 

My travels as an author and illustrator of picture books takes me into schools around the country. I dedicated my last couple of months of classroom visits to capturing 'excellence' in action with my camera. The result of all those visits, and weeks and weeks of editing the tons of photos, is my article of yesterday. You get to look over my shoulder and visit OODLES of classrooms and see how they are organized!!! In your pajamas or your bathing suit! It's summer!!


Enjoy touring classrooms near and far! Of course I 'go where I get invited' and would LUV to talk about making a visit to your school! 

Get inspired + Get motivated + Get Energized!!

Hop on over. Hoping I can share some inspiration and motivation to get your new year off on the right note!

Follow these links by clicking below:  

Organization in the Classroom 

Classroom Door Decorations + Bulletin Boards

and here's a clever overview of different teachers using: 

Pete the Cat

in preschool + kindergarten. 

Happy Hopping!! 

-- Debbie --

-RainbowsWithinReach-

Beach + Ocean Art Resources!!

As an author/illustrator of children's picture books, my favorite part of making school visits is to see what sort of "Art" is on display during my time on site. As a 'snow-bird' resident of Florida,  my favorite part of our season in paradise is getting to go to da-BEACH!!! As an educational blogger one of my favorite things is linking up my observations + efforts to that of others to share with a wider audience. 

So imagine my enthusiasm when Mary at Sharing Kindergarten, said she was going to host a blog-hop on all things Beach related!!! 


Check out all of the dozens of simple Arts + craft ideas that I've gathered together into one l-o-n-g post. There are additional bulletin board ideas, sunny projects to paint, an awesome anchor chart and some delightful connections to palm trees from "Chicka, Chicka Boom, Boom!!"


The post is quickly charging toward my Top 10 list as readers pin + share it to their circles of influence. Check it out, by clicking right here. 


In any case, I promise it will get you thinking of summer!!!


-- Debbie -- 

Graphic Organizers: Foldables

Popping through from RainbowsWithinReach again.

I've added a second article filled with photographed examples of 'graphic organizers' -- known as 'foldables' from my recent travels to the Illinois Reading Council's conference.

I know that these are a delight for differentiated learning and support kinesthetic learners.

Here's the link to my second article on Graphic Oragnizers.

Here's the link to the original article, filled with Graphic Organizers.

Hope that your spring is filled with a feeling of accomplishment.
                                                  -- Debbie --

Children's Art: Process vs. Product

I realize that I am very new here at BlogHopping and that beyond that newness, I'm a little outside the box of the average teacher blog, primarily because I'm NOT a classroom teacher.

Having said that as a pre-amble, I have created an amazing amount of passionate reaction to an article I wrote a few days ago on our collaborative blog PreK + K Sharing. I wrote about the differences between 'process' and 'product' in Children's Art. The responses have been AMAZING in every way.

That article is linked right here..... and I invite you to take a look when you have time. What has TOTALLY amazed me is one of the comments that a teacher left saying she got 'in trouble' at her school for sending home 'imperfect' artwork.

That led me to write a follow up article on my own blog, regarding 'fixing' children's Artwork.

Would you have been tempted to 'fix' this child's stop-light?

I invite you to share your experience with these various 'issues.' It has raised much discussion regarding education in general, and teacher competitiveness as well.



One other amazing development in the last week. Yesterday in the midst of the Super Bowl I had well over 1000 people read my article about childhood obesity, because a pin of the image went haywire. If that is a topic on your mind, click on that link.

Thanks for your time

-- Debbie --