Whole Brain Teaching

Here we go!  We are about 3 weeks into the new school year, and I have quickly realized (again) that the learning strategies that make work really well with one class will not work at all with another.  Rats!  If only our job were that easy!  This year, I am a really energetic, busy group of kids.  Completely opposite from my quiet group last year!  These little learners LOVE to talk.  All the time.  All day.  Every day.  So, it's time to change how I am teaching!  They aren't going to take in the information like my kids last year, so I don't need to give them information that way.

Introducing:  Whole Brain Teaching.  I have used elements of whole brain teaching in my classroom management since last year, but I have not used the instructional elements to their full potential.  I am most specifically focusing on the strategy of "Teach OK", where I teach the kids a concept, then they teach each other the concept.  It incorporates so many levels of thinking!  Here is an example of one way I have used the Teach OK strategy:

Me:  Class!
Students:  Yes!
Me:  Gestures! (Students lift their hands to imitate my movements like a mirror image)  Today we are going to learn to order numbers, putting them in order from least to greatest, or greatest to least, by stacking them.  (Throughout this statement, I move my hands to show meaning of the words.  Small for least, then spread my arms for greatest, and for stacking I may pretend to make a stack with my hands.)
Students:  (Imitate teachers hand movements.)
Teacher:  XXTeach!
Students:  XX OK!  (Students turn to their pre assigned partners and re-teach the concept to them, by using gestures that they just learned.) 
Teacher:  Classity Class!
Students:  Yessity Yes!
Teacher:  (Begins next lesson)

Since this is a little confusing, take a look that this 1st grade teacher using some of the whole brain teaching concepts:

All things whole brain teaching can be seen/found on Chris Biffle's website.  Registration is free, so check it out!

Whole Brain Teaching

Here are a few pictures of my students using the Teach OK strategy to determine different ways to make the same amount of money:

Here We Go!!

It's Here!!!!  I feel like the past week has been a blur leading up to open house tonight!  I have been rigorously working to get my room kid-ready, and I am stoked to share my pictures!! 



This is the bulletin board that is on the 3-5 hallway.  My husband was sweet enough to draw the bushel of apples for me!



The view of my classroom from the door!

My classroom library-I have labeled my book boxes using the labels from Beth Newingham's website.

Hat's Off to Good Books Bulletin Board!  The kids will write book recommendations for each other using the Cat in the Hat Templates that are shown on the board.

Center Rotation Chart!  I go into more detail about how this works on my literacy centers page.

My daily schedule and objectives headers.  I write daily objectives for each subject under the headers.

We are Bucket Fillers!  This will be the place where the students can write kind notes to each other after we read the book, "How full is your Bucket?"

Close up of the Bucket Fillers Sign!

This is my listening center.  The cutesy tablecloth came from Target.

This is my teacher desk/guided reading table.  I have a ton of storage at the back of the room, so I do not need a desk.  Instead, I keep things I need at hand in the black desk organizer, or in drawers at the back of the room.

This was the open house gift that I gave to my kids.  I got the printable from What the Teacher Wants.  This was a huge hit!  Most of the kids were eating cereal before they got out of the room!

This is what my pods look like in my classroom.  The empty purple bins will soon be stocked with back to school goodies!!

This is my math rotation board for this year.  Each group will move through two rotations daily while I work with guided math groups.  I stuck the names to the board with velcro so that I could change the groups as needed.  I got the idea for this chart from Clutter Free Classroom.  She has a fabulous blog!!

These are my math tubs.  They have pictures on the outside that match the pictures on my math rotation board to help the kids determine which tub to grab!

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This is a view of my classroom from the back of the room.  The pocket chart to the right of the SmartBoard is used as a word wall.

So, that's that!  I hope you enjoyed all of my pics!  Ready or not, the first day of school is Thursday!!  Here we Go!!

Literacy Centers

Since I just started my blog, I want to go back and put up some ideas for things that I used at the beginning of the year that I found too be really effective.  I used literacy centers at the beginning of the year while I held guided reading groups, and the kids LOVED the centers!  I have included pictures and descriptions for how I managed the class below!!




This is my management chart/student schedule that I use for managing my centers.  The numbers at the top of the chart represent the table numbers in the room.  Those numbers rotate daily.  Each table has 3 center options for the day (those centers are listed below the table number).  The students rotate on three 20 minute rotations while I am working with guided reading groups.  No more than two students can be at one center at a time.  The rotation is effective for management because the students do not spend the whole hour with the same classmates.  Also, the kids usually have at least one "favorite" center each day.  Since the rotations are based on tables, I am able to flexibly pull as many or as few students as I need based on the skill that the students need, rather than by ability.



 This is the timer that I use to let the kids know when it is time to clean their center and rotate to the next center.  If you are interested in purchasing the timer, click here.

This is the text features center in action!  Student's learn about text features that are used, and use this center to locate the text features.  I make sure that there are sharpened pencils and highlighters at this center!

Reader's Notebook Center:  I must give credit where credit is due-I got all of the ideas for the reader's notebook center from Beth Newingham, who is one of Scholastic's Top Teachers.

This is the Writing Center.  Students get a chance to work on their writing skills in a small group setting.  I make sure that there are pencils, colored pencils, makers, crayons, notebook paper, decorative paper, and magazine clippings for inspiration at this center!

This is the writing "in-progress" station.  Students can store their work that is not quite finished here, so that they may continue their work next time they are at the writing center.

Hot Dots!  Students love getting to use the hot dots to practice their question/answer skills!

At the Word Work Center, Students are using wikki stix to practice making their spelling words for the week.  They also use white boards to call each others word's for practice.  To purchase wikki stix of your own, click here.

This is our class listening center.  Until this year, I was unfortunately stuck using a tape player that I think zapped straight out of the 80's.  But, thanks to Donor's Choose, my class now has a fully functional listening center, and four of the students can enjoy books together!  Follow the link to see my current project, A Flashy New Look for our Class Listening Nook!

These girls are at the Easel Center.  My county is a "Thinking Map" County, so the easel center is used for creating thinking maps.  The studnets work with a partner to create the weekly thinking map using information from a current book that we are reading in class.

These are the notebooks that I use during guided reading for the students to document what they are learning.  I organize them by groups.  The groups change often, so I like to make sure I keep the notebooks separated.

This little girl is at the Buddy Reading center.  Student's read books together, then toss a question ball or use question dice to guide discussion of the story together.

Bucket Fillers

After looking through a lot of my favorite teacher blogs, I saw this idea of "Bucket Fillers", and thought it was pretty cute! And, as we all know, the end of the year can be a tricky time for managing the kids.  I introduced the bucket fillers during March, and started by reading the book How Full is Your Bucket?  The kids loved the book!  It talks about making sure that we lift people up with kind words instead of tearing them down.  I bought an over the door shoe holder and hung it up at the front of the room for each child to have their own "bucket".  The kids have the option of dropping in a note to their friends buckets throughout the day.  My only rule is that you must drop a kind note into a different bucket each time.....that way we avoid this becomming a popularity contest!