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!  

Oh Ya - Awwwwh! Playing 'the game'

Oh wow, this blog has been neglected!  I thought I'd check in and report on how we're doing.  If you've been keeping up, you know that my class is super-crazy-out-of-control 

spirited.

In an effort to maintain a safe environment, I have been playing around with whole brain teaching.  It's been a while.  I'm not going to say it's turned my rascally friends into perfect angels...  but, there have been some improvements.  

On with it.... the topic of this post is "The Game".  The Game is a daily behavior activity.  Each day, the kids play 'against' me.  But really, its pretty win-win.  You see, all day long, when they are on task, doing the right thing, etc. etc. they earn a point for the student team.  And if they are not following the rules or what-not, they earn me a point.  We play for some kind of daily reward.  If they win, they get the reward, and if not, I get extra teaching time. I tell them all the time, I'd rather THEY win.  Of course!  Because if they win, I actually got that extra teaching time all through the day. 

Some of the rewards we play for are: free draw, chit-chat time, You-Tube video (like 'funniest babies', Charlie Bit My Finger, etc.), extra recess, games and puzzles.  I try to change it up regularly.

How do we play?  Each time I see some kind of action or behavior I want to see more of, I mark a point on the students' side (the happy face side), and they get a 1 second party.  They say "Oh Ya!" - each time I see a behavior I don't want to see, I mark a point on my side (the sad face side).  They get a 1 second pity party and say "awww."  

Simple enough, right?  

Well, sometimes I forget, or sometimes we get distracted, or sometimes behavior is 10 kinds of wrong and a sad-face point doesn't quite cut it.  

But, when I commit and they try, we all have a better day of it.  

Try it out and tell me how it goes for you!

New month - new partner - new condiment!

Well, this whole brain teaching certainly has it's ups and downs, no?


I still have a couple of boys who will. not. buy. in.  Nope, not gonna do it.  "You want me to work with a partner?  Nope.  You want me to gesture?  No way.  You want me to participate with enthusiasm?  Not gonna happen lady.


What to do?  I'm super sad and disappointed that I have little firsties that are already so jaded and too-cool-for-school to have fun with learning.  When did that happen?  Is it a coincidence that both these peanuts have much older siblings?  I think not.  They are too big for their britches!


I considered putting them together and letting them have their own little pity party together while the rest of us have fun, fun, fun.  But thought against it and paired them with some of my most eager beavers, hoping some of the fun-ness and love for learning rubs off on them.


Moving on....


Every month, I change the kids seats.  I want them to constantly have a new, fresh perspective.  In February, my kids had 'peanut butter and jelly partners.'  This month, we have moved on to ketchup (or catsup if you prefer;) and mustard.  HOWEVER, being that I only have 6 girls, and they were working SO well with their partners, I left all of them the same.  Why fix what's not broken, right?

Week 1, and done

Week 1 of Whole Brain teaching is done, done, doooooone!  And I must admit, it's working.  My kids are having fun, participating, working hard, even getting along with each other better!

Mostly.  

There are of course, those couple of difficult bunnies who seems to think they won't survive without negative attention.   I (and the rest of the kiddos) feel kinda bad for them.  I am really interested in seeing whether this new style will eventually appeal to them, or if they will continue to fight it tooth and nail.

Anyways.....  SO far this week we:

1.  Reviewed the rules about 1.6 trillion times (see my signs I posted previously).  I had a different student helper come up and help demo the rules and their motions after every recess, special class, morning, and any lull where we got 'off track'.

2.   Enacted the scoreboard.  The students are playing a game every day.  It's me vs. them.  I told them: "You will earn ALL of the points in this game.  Either earn them for me, or earn them for your team.  I'll be happy either way."  So far they have earned their 'reward' each day.  Yay kiddos!

3.  I paired all of the students low-high and mid-mid.  We call them peanut butter and jelly.  I made little cutouts for each student.  Brown splat shapes for the peanut butters, and purple splat shapes for the jellies.  I wrote their names large on the splat, and their partner's name small on the tag.  

4.  We have been doing TONS of repetition with large gestures.  First I teach, then they mirror with gestures.  This is working out VERY well for me after having studies sign language in high school for 4 years- I finally have a use for it!  And the kids LOVE knowing they are learning REAL signs!

5.  After mirroring, the students peer-teach.  I do:  clap-clap "TEACH" or something similar, and they respond: clap-clap "OKAY."  Such a good cue for them to know when to start.  And it gives them the opportunity to talk, but in a very directed manner.

6.  But probably the best thing that came of this so far has been the attention getter "CLASS" - "YES"  I had been having trouble allllllll stinkin' year with this class and attention getters.  We have been through many.  Its like their effectiveness wears off and they just stop responding after a few days.  I think this is a more novel approach because I change the way I say class to them, so they are always having to listen.  Yes, listen!  It's this new crazy thing that all the kids are doing these days (or at least the ones in my class!)  

I can say for the very first time this year, I am looking forward to next week!

Oh no. A sub day.

I was worried this would happen.  Just when my kiddos are making forward progress, one of my own kiddies gets sick.  


Let me say here that I actually took a sub day last week; that sub told me she would never. come. back. to. my. class...  They were THAT bad.


So, when my own little one got sick, I just came to school to get the room set up for a sub, and asked the office to help find one.  I work at a GREAT school, where people are so helpful and always watching out for one another.


Who did they call?  The sub who said she'd not be coming back.  Did they tell her it was my class?  ummmm, no.  She came.  I asked her to give them one more chance.  Before I left, I asked her to watch the two videos I posted here previously....  She did.


Let me just say, I am so excited by the note she left.  She said they were, and I quote, "great!"  Can you believe it?  Someone used the word 'great' to describe my rambunctious, 14 boy, 6 girl, class.  I know, pick your jaw up off the floor.  I think we've turned a corner!

Days 1 & 2

Wow.  I mean WOW (underline, bold, exclamation point)!


My students are like different people.  After Day 1, I could already see an improvement.  But, figured, novelty can be to blame.  And now after 2 days, I'm still hoping its not just novelty here, they are 

AH-MAZING! 

What have I tried so far?  In my class we:

Have new rules!  Yes, halfway through the year, and we have new rules.  They like them.  They are very clearly defined.  I always say that kids do better when they know what's expected of them.  I guess my old rules just didn't cut it weren't any good weren't specific enough. So, our NEW rules (with the hand movements we do) are:

Rule #1:  Follow directions quickly.  (hand moves like a fish swimming in water)

Rule #2:  Raise your hand for permission to speak. (raise hand and then bring to shoulder level and pretend hand is a mouth talking)

Rule #3:  Make smart choices.  (tap head)

Rule #4:  Keep your dear teacher happy.  (hands open wide next to face, like jazz hands, and tilt head back and forth)

I know many other have another rule:  "Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat."  I allow my kiddos to get their sweatshirts, put them away, get pencils from the sharp cup and get sips of water when they need to.  Having them raise their hands all the time would only serve the purpose of making me crazy.  So, we tossed that rule.

I made rule cards, and laminated them.  They look like this:

We review these rules ALL THE STINKIN' TIME.

Getting started.... in the middle of the year?!

After realizing, "This is just not working!" I knew something had to be done.  After looking through tons and tons of some of my favorite bloggers, I realized I would need a radical change.  I also needed a way to get the kiddies on board with this small big monumental change.

I started by watching some wonderful You Tube videos - of which there are quite a few good ones.  

My personal favorite:

Gosh, this one is just great.  It was so great, I showed it to my class.  Twice!

So, my super-mature firsties thought this seemed a tad hokey for them.  SO you know what?  I told them, it may look hokie, but these are some of the smartest firsties out there, and if you want to be smart, you'll have to learn to use your whole brain too!  But to help the buy-in, I also showed them this video of middle schoolers. 

 Now they are IN.  Capital I, Capital N.   You have to understand...  We are a k-8 school.  So the middle schoolers are the coolest thing since cupcakes.  When I told my firsties that even middle schoolers can learn whole-brain, they decided to give it a go!  Yay!

Intro

Welcome!  This is a blog to track my progress as I begin using "whole brain teaching."

Why?
This year I have been *blessed* (insert wink) with a highly animated class, that includes 14 boys...  and 6 girls.  It had become UGLY!

 I always thought of myself as a teacher with stellar classroom management.  Until.  This.  Year.  Was I just lucky in the past?  Or is there really something different with this bunch.

I have to say, that on an individual level, each of these kiddos are awesome.  But as a class?  NOT AWESOME.  not even a little awesome.  Unless your definition of awesome is like a train wreck or a car accident that is so intense you can't look away.  Ya, that's my class.

Realizing something had to change, I took to the internet and set my sights on whole brain teaching.  I have decided to go whole hog and jump right in.  Here we go!