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!