Webinar Tuesday

I hope many of you can take advantage of the Tuesday Webinars while they are still going on. If you have missed any most are on the livestream site so check them out :) See you Tuesday!

WBT TV Live Broadcast !!!

 Professional Development credit available!! 

"The 5 Step Lesson Template"

Learn the amazing WBT technique 

for delivering lessons that combine 

seeing, hearing, saying, doing ... feeling!!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

5 PM Pacific and Mountain

7 PM Central

8 PM Eastern 

Text in your questions to Chris Biffle and a panel of WBT All Stars!

www.livestream.com/wholebrainteaching1

First Days in ..... Kinder!

So all summer I thought this would happen, went to set up my room and was told it probably would NOT happen and what happened Tuesday afternoon with school starting Wednesday? I was switched from first grade to morning kindergarten! I ended up starting the first day with the first graders I was going to have this year and the wonderful sub the school got for them in Room 501, then did some re organizing in my classroom, 104, and met with the afternoon kinders since all my students were placed in afternoon. Parents were happy to hear from the principals (we have co-principals) that we would now have a third morning kindergarten with me as the teacher.
With all the chaos of switching grades and not knowing what to expect from kinder I didn't know what WBT I would get done the first day. I was able to go over class yes and the 5 rules with the first grade class to get them started. With the kinders I did class yes and rule number 1 on Wednesday, lines and seats on Tuesday and all 5 rules and score board on Friday. Not what I had planned but it is a start especially when I had a few different kids each day. Monday I should have mostly the students I will have for the rest of the year so I hope to start the week like Day 1 of  Andrea Schindler's WBT document for starting Kinder
I hope to have pictures to share next week after Back to School Night when I have permission slips.

Next Webinar on Tuesday!

"Designing Your WBT Model Classroom:

The Universal Homework Model (UHM)"

Discover how to use peer pressure

and the reward of playing Mind Soccer

as student motivators to complete homework!

Tuesday (new day!), August 23, 2011

5 PM Pacific Standard Time

8 PM Eastern Standard Time

Text in your questions!

www.livestream.com/wholebrainteaching1

Webinars Are Back

On the forums some people were asking about a summer refresher on WBT so I suggested we use the chat area on livestream. We had a wonderful chat time Friday that turned into a review of the new Sentence Ladder. 

 Come chat with Coach B, tomorrow, August 8. The chat is scheduled for 8 PM EASTERN time/5 PM Pacific. We'll be broadcasting live on Oral Writing.  If you can't make it tomorrow bookmark the site and mark your calendars because we talking about having several more.

The address is 

www.livestream.com/wholebrainteaching1

Get that printer ready!

It's time to sort all the summer goodies into the ToPrint folder on my desktop. There are the usually things like homework folder covers and name plates I can't print until I have my class list but also many new goodies to keep my color printer busy like new PowerPics and classroom rule posters. I have been using the posters in the Teaching Challenging Kids ebook but think it is time to shell out a few dollars for the high res posters from the WBT store. So much planning to do since I'm in a new classroom and have so much to get on my boards. What are you getting ready to print for 2011-2012?

Getting geared up for 2011-2012

Hope everyone has been enjoying summer. I have taken some much needed family time and me time and hope you all have too. I love teaching, especially Whole Brain Teaching, but it is one part of my life and not my WHOLE life. It is easy to get caught up in prepping for school and spend hours on the computer looking at many wonderful blogs, ebooks and videos. I have decided to limit how much time I spend on school stuff this year so I am clearing out my favorites to the real gems and getting my files organized so I can continue to have family time and me time during the school year. Don't worry, I've planned in a little blogging time :)

Math Power Pix k-2

Here are the Math Power Pics for k-2. I have to go through the rest of the 2nd and 3rd grade powerpics but thought I would share what is done so far. Can't wait to print and plan out my Power Pic wall :)

CCSPowerPicsMath

CCSPowerPicsMathPics

Math Power Pix draft

Here is the ROUGH draft of the Math PowerPics reference sheets. Still have part of 2nd and all of 3rd to add and formatting to fix. 

CCSPowerPicsMath

Model Classroom

So I have officially been out of school since Wednesday but have been moving classrooms so I was at school Thursday, Friday and today (we have a church that meets at our school each Sunday). I have my old and new classroom ready to be cleaned this week, stacks of stuff in both rooms in the corners so the carpet can get a good cleaning. I can't wait for the cleaning to be finished because I have my new room all planned out so that is can be a Model WholeBrainTeaching classroom. Want to join in the fun and have experts guide you through the school year using WBT? Hop over and grab the latest ebook WBT Model Classrooms

It will give you all the info and a sneak peak at Sentence Ladder, a new WBT component that will have your students writing super charged sentences in no time. 

ELA Common Core Standards Power Pics Scribd downloads

I am not liking how Google docs is working so I'm going to try sharing the ELA power pics with Scribd. I know my district blocks Scribd but hope it will be easier to download for you. Be sure to download the original PowerPics from Whole Brain Teacher to have the directions on how to teach with these.

CCSPowerPicsRLRI

CCSPowerPicsRF%2CL%26W

ELA_CCS_PowerPics

ELA Common Core Standards Power Pics

Here are the draft ELA Common Core Standards Power Pics. I have to organize by standard so that is how these are arranged. All standards are taken from http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/english-language-arts-standards/, PowerPics and text taken from the WBT PowerPic ebooks. You will notice page numbers and headings that are from the original PowerPics. I hope you find these useful, please post a comment if you do :)



Download PDF of all PowerPics

Report Cards and blog layouts

Taking a break from repord cards to play with the layout of my blog again. I think I will keep this one for a while :)  If you are new to Whole Brain Teaching or just want to be up on all things WBT be sure to visit and bookmark the links in the top left. These are the official WBT links where you can download ebooks, visit the forum to chat with other WBT'ers, get info on FREE conferences and of course watch WBT in action through videos. The blog list on the right will lead you to other WBT blogs where teachers are sharing their experiences with WBT. It is wonderful to read and share with follow WBT'ers on the web. 

As I was working on my final  report cards I noticed something interesting, attendance. Once we started playing SuperSpeed to start the day my tardies went way down. Think I will start that as Morning Work earlier in the year next year :)

End of the year

This is the last full week of school in my school district then we have Monday and a half day Tuesday. We are still teaching and testing in my class. Variation has been key since our late spring break. Different score boards, especially Mystery Road have helped and Mind Soccer. 

To prevent summer sliding I have made a Super Summer folder for my students. It is a simple pocket folder with Super Math in one pocket and SuperSpeed  reading in the other. I am typing a simplified direction sheet for the cover for parents so students don't forget how to play. I put the Super Math in a page protector so students can write with expo pens then correct. I will try to take pictures this week before the folders go home with the students. 

Playing with PowerPics and blog design

I changed my blog template while taking a break from my big Spring Break project. What do you think?

Here is a sneak peak of my project, editing the PowerPics to include the new Common Core Standards

Lesson Plan/ Brain Toy Cheat Sheet

Even though I am on Spring Break I am working on school stuff :) Thought I would share a lesson plan template/ cheat sheet I made tonight based on forum posts from RiseKinder, lnutini and ChrisRekstad.


Download

Brain Toys

Why attend the Saturday broadcasts at http://www.livestream.com/wholebrainteaching1 ? Well not only are they free and you get to chat with wonderful WBT'ers from all over the world but they are the only place to find out about the newest WBT gift- Brain Toys!

If you missed the broadcasts no problem! You can view them below or straight from the link above :) It is not the same without the chat but you can still learn about the brain toys and  how to get the pdf Biff uses for a small donation. These are well worth the time so grab your drink of choice and enjoy!

wholebrainteaching1 on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Watch live streaming video from wholebrainteaching1 at livestream.com

Gestures Video Library

A favorite part of WBT for me is the use of gestures and Mirror.
Since my BA is in Deaf Education I end up using a LOT of American Sign Language for gestures. I let the students know if a gesture is an ASL sign and they love learning a new language to help them learn with their Whole Brain. Here is a great site with video of American Sign Language signs. Just go to the Main Dictionary and try an ASL sign for your next gesture :)

Connect with others

Want to connect with more WBT'ers? You can always comment on this blog and Make this Teacher Very Happy :) You can visit the other WBT blogs on the side bar. Attend a WBT conference or Saturday broadcast. And to really join in be sure to visit the Whole Brain Teacher Forum. 

Scoreboard

I started using WBT (then Power Teaching) as a Technology teacher. Since I had 25 classes once a week for only 45 minutes I mainly used  Class-Yes, Hands and Eyes, and the Classroom Rules. Three years ago class size reduction was cut and the district switched to mainly PE and Music preps, dropping my Technology position. I was transfered to a new school teaching 1st grade. It was a big change but I was able to use most WBT now that I had the same students more then once a week.
  This year I introduced Class-Yes, Hands and Eyes, the Classroom Rules and the Scoreboard the first day of school in my first grade class. The Scoreboard is wonderful because it starts very simple but can grow and change as you need it to.
Scoreboard Variations

Classroom Rules

I LOVE the 5 classroom rules from Whole Brain Teaching!

1. Follow Directions Quickly
2. Raise Your Hand BEFORE Talking
3. Raise Your Hand BEFORE Getting Out of Your Seat
4. Make Smart Choices
5. Keep Your Dear Teacher Happy

 I use the posters from the free download area and we go over the rules each morning. The best part of the rules is I can just hold up 2 fingers when a student is calling out and everyone says" Raise Your Hand BEFORE Talking"! The student will then raise their hand and I can call on them.

Check out the AMAZING WBT Intern Deb Weigel going over the rules

Here is the first in a set of videos from Chris Biffle 

Class Yes

The first WBT tool EVERYONE can use is Class Yes
This was my first WBT tool that I used while teaching Technology to 1st-5th graders. I taught this to all my classes and it worked great and was a lot of fun. The key is to change the way you say Class.

After a while with Class Yes you will want to introduce Hands and Eyes . The big ahah for me was DON'T over use Hands and Eyes! Use Class Yes whenever you want everyone to pause and listen and use Hands and Eyes when you want everyone to STOP and really pay attention. This was/ is a hard balancing act for me and is different with each class.  Click the links to find out more about Class/yes and Hands and Eyes.

Whole Brain Teaching

Welcome to my Whole Brain Teaching blog! What is Whole Brain Teaching you ask? Whole Brain Teaching is a teaching movement that will get your students engaged and you enjoying teaching even the most challenging kids. They have everything from classroom management tools to learning games students will beg to play. Oh and EVERYTHING is FREE!   Find out more here http://wholebrainteaching.com
Even if you only have a few weeks of school left start with First Steps and end the school year re energized.