Teaching Challenging Students Conference

I had the immense pleasure of attending my 1st Whole Brain Teaching Conference today.  It was awesome.  Although most of the topics covered are already well-underway in my classroom, I took great satisfaction in seeing a large group of fellow nerds who don't mind giving up a Saturday educators who are also interested in growing as a whole brain educator.

I will be posting about this wealth of knowledge over the next few days.

I attended the conference with another awesome teacher from my school.

Here we are with THE Chris Biffle himself.  

He was our presenter for the day.  Why learn from the rest when you can learn from the best?!

I feel very excited to walk in to school on Monday and whole-brain-teach-my-little-heart-out!

For many of you, you probably have a variety of behavior management systems in place - I know I do (see my Gold Tags post from before).  I want to review this idea in my own room, and suggest you take a look at your own as well.  Coach B. tells us this great anecdote: when you're teaching, its like fishing in a pond.  You're fishing for kids who are paying attention and engaged.  What motivators are you using for gaining their engagement?  He related like this -

There's a pond over here, and the motivator is 'making your parents proud'.  Guess what?  No fish!  How about this pond over here, the motivator is 'you'll make more money one day'....  aaaannnddd.... NO FISH!  But this pond over here, the one marked: "less homework" and the other one marked "more recess"..... now THOSE are ponds are well-stocked with the fish!  Be sure you're dangling the right carrot in front of them!

A little inspiration

Hey Whole-Brainers!

Or Should I say "Class-Class-Class?"

Did you know there is a FREE Whole Brain Teaching Conference this weekend in beautiful, sunny, So-Cal!  Huntington Beach to be exact!  I will be going (as long as I secure some child care)....
Super-exciting!

If you haven't already like Whole Brain Teaching on Facebook - go now!


And.....  how about a little video inspiration?  If this video doesn't make you wanna go out and WHole Brain Teach everyone, I don't know if you're in the right place.

Happy Whole-Brain Teaching Folks!

Language Arts Using a SmartBoard in my Classroom

I heart technology in the classroom.  It's kinda my 'thing'.  At my school, I'm definitely a go-to gal when your printer is broken (turn it on) or your computer is broken (again, did you turn it on?) etc.  But I am also very interested in using technology to reach the kiddos I have a students today.  A few years ago, my school jumped into the SmartBoard world and bought those for every class at our school.  I super-sparkly-pink heart my SmartBoard.  It was broken for a few weeks and I cried every day, had a mental breakdown, barely managed to get along without it!  I create a LOT of my own content for my SmartBoard using the Notebook software.  It seems like a lot of work, but each week, I pour through my TE and make a lesson for the week for Language Arts.  I include all of our sight words and spelling words for the week, as well as journal ideas, oral language activities, grammar, stories, poems, etc.  Each day, I just open that weeks file and continue where we left off the day before.  I did this all the 1st year I got my board, and now I have it all done.  FAB!  Here's a sample page that has the kids drag the sight word to fill in the blank:

You can download a copy of the notebook file for Harcourt Trophies Theme 4, Week 7 here!  I'm pretty sure you will only be able to open/use this if you have the Notebook Software installed on your computer.  You will also need a Smart Exchange (free) account.

I heart gold tags

Do you guys know about The Teeny Tiny Teacher Blog?  Love her.  Love, love, love her.  And I completely stole her idea this year!

If you don't know about gold tags, read this post here by Teeny Tiny Teacher.  It's great.  It will change your life.  OK, maybe not the whole entire thing, but at least a small part - behavior management.  Do away with the whole red green yellow system.  DO IT!  I'm telling you.  Amazing.  My kids are doing oh-so-well this year with gold tags.

Yes, I do Fun Friday.  Do you?  I teach at a FAB private school that really allows me to structure my classroom schedule how I want and really lives with the motto: "Work hard, play hard."  So, we have Fun Friday.  My little peanuts really 'go for the gold!' and love to get a gold tag.  And what does that earn them?  First dibs on Fun Friday choices.  That's it!  Really!!!

Be sure to check our Kirsten's post above!

Class Jobs - Class President

In the past, I have always LOVED doing classroom jobs.  I have tried it every way to Sunday and back again.  I have done a few jobs, with some having the week off: didn't really love that.  I have done a job board where everyone ALWAYS had a job...  love this, but two problems always arose: 1.  Coming up with 20 jobs that actually had a purpose and weren't just 'figure-heads' & remembering to change them in a timely fashion.

I know there are about as many ways to do class jobs as there are teachers out there.  But, this year I have tried something new.  I picked this idea up from someone on Pinterest.  If anyone can recall the source, I'd so happily credit/link them!  But I'm at a loss....

There are just a few jobs I really NEED, like, can't do without someone to help pass out papers, someone to hold the gate open for the kids by the pool, someone to be the line leader, someone to sit in the 'special chair' during SSR.  So instead of assigning these all as separate tasks, I just let 1 (or 2) kids do it all!  Yes, all of those jobs!  I change the student daily, that way everyone gets tons of turns!

Every day, we have a CLASS PRESIDENT.  The president picks a vice president, and those two kids do all of the little jobs that arise during the day...  running notes to other teachers, taking the roll up, etc.

I am sharing here my poster that I use for this.  I took a picture of each student holding a flag (very presidential, no?) and change the picture every day.  I go in number order so the kids know when it will be their turn.  If they are absent, I skip them for the day and let them have their turn when they get back.
I have laminated both pages and just pin a new pic up each day and write in the name of the prez & VP.  The kids LOVE this and there hasn't been a single complaint all year.  I am loving it!

Thanksgiving Fun!

Wow!  I can't believe that Halloween is over and we're already on to November/Veteran's Day/Thanksgiving.  Ohmyword!  So much to do, so little time.

For planning purposes, I have to condense my fun stuff into two weeks (minus a day off for Vet's Day).  I have decided that I will be doing traditions, turkeys and thankfulness this week.  Next week we will talk about the first Thanksgiving and discuss Pilgrims and Indians.

I'd love to share an activity I have made to use this week that go along with turkeys.  This week, my darling kiddies will be writing about "How to Catch a Turkey."  I love the super-fun idea of "How to Cook a Turkey," but our 2nd Grade does that, and I'd hate to steal their thunder.  So here's my take!  Follow this link to get yourself a freebie copy! 

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Checking in

My class this year is wonderful, darling, adorable, and brilliant!  I adore them to pieces!  They are the kind of class that makes you remember why you became a teacher in the first place...  Kind of a contrast to last year!

Last year, I began using whole brain teaching concepts to help my difficult class find their niche and it really helped out.  I had posted some of my materials I made to use in class including these cards which I laminated and put up as the rule cards.

They were great.  

This year's class needs a lot less reminding.  They are the self-starters, go-getters and happy-go-lucky type of kids that just get in the groove and get going.

They also are much happier to repeat back with gestures and sing along/chant along!  Yay!

We have been working on a calendar routine this year that has been awesome. If you have a SmartBoard, I'd be happy to share it with you - keep in mind its been chopped together using some amazing resources from the world of teaching blogs.  One important thing my kids do daily is our Math Notebook....  purchased from Teachers Pay Teachers by Cara Carroll.  

I seriously could not live without that site!

If you haven't ever been on their website, or heard about it - go check it out!