Whole Brain Teaching is Coming!!!!

I am sooooooooo excited!!! After much debate, I decided to go ahead and jump into Whole Brain Teaching this year, and something tells me I won't look back. I have used bits and pieces of Whole Brain Teaching since back when it was called Power Teaching. I was contemplating trying to implement more this year, but I was worried about adjusting to a new district, school, and grade level...and trying to throw something completely new into my classroom management. Especially something so complex. I thought I would wait it out a year and get used to the new curriculum first. Over the weekend I was scouring the internet for new classroom management strategies for my class of very eager and energetic learners:) After getting to know the personalities in my classroom over the last three weeks, I feel that this group is the perfect group of guinea pigs!
The other super exciting thing I discovered is that Whole Brain Teaching now has WAY more resources than the last time I looked into it...and wait a minute...they are FREE!!!!! Nothing is ever free nowadays. Especially something so fantastic. There are so many fantastic resources on their website now. I am jumping for joy! I spent countless hours watching videos and reading ebooks this weekend. My husband thinks I am nuts. Oh well. The other plus is that I can actually become a certified Whole Brain Teacher online...also for FREE! Part of my certification will require that I blog about Whole Brain Teaching, so as I begin implementing it in my classroom you will get to see more about how it is working for us!
So, this week we are going to add to our callbacks (they learned the "class-yes" callback the first week of school) and focus on The Big 7:
1. Class-Yes
2. Hands and Eyes
3. Teach-Okay
4. Mirror
5. Switch
6. Scoreboard
7. Rules (and I am adding in some new procedural callbacks)

I also went in today and put up our "Super Improvers" wall just to spark some curiosity and excitement:) I will post more on that later. I also have some exciting games for sight words, math, and reading that I will be introducing one at a time over the next couple of months.  I can't wait to see what kinds of changes are going to take place in our classroom!

And before I call it a night (and tune into The Great Food Truck Race), here are a couple of pictures from last week. We working on writing friendly letters for Daily 5, and the "Clean Desk Fairy" paid a visit to some of our friends:)

By: Student #22

Work on Writing

The second week of school was jam packed with testing, testing, and more testing. Luckily for us, the heat advisory finally let up and we were able to go out on the "big" playground...FINALLY! Let me tell you, being trapped inside all day for the entire first week of school was not fun for anyone. I was so happy that they were able to get out and run off some energy, especially when we had so much sitting to do with all the testing that had to be completed. Even though testing weeks are never very fun, the kids thought it was super cool that the math test was done on a netbook, and the reading test was done using remote control "clickers". I will admit, technology makes for less work on my part too which I won't complain about. When we weren't testing, we were continuing to build stamina for Daily 5. I am so ready to have the whole system up and running and I can't wait until we are out of the "baby" stage and I can finally take the training wheels off! For right now, students are increasing stamina in reading and writing independently so that when we are finally ready to implement all 5 choices, they will be able to work independently for extended periods of time. This will allow me to work with small groups that need additional support. It also also students to work at their own level, learn about making choices, and take control of their own learning. I will get around to posting a more detailed explanation of how Daily 5 works at some point, but I am still trying to keep my head above water with the beginning of the year craziness, which is even more crazy when you are in a new school AND a new grade. Ahhhh! Well, this is going to be a short post and run because my son is about to get into trouble any second. I hope that now our testing is finished we can really dive into all the fun of first grade and I will start having some more exciting things to post about! For now, here are some shots of us practicing "work on writing". This week we learned how to make lists and we made a variety of lists to add to our Daily 5 writing journals.

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Whew! We made it through the first week!

I don't know who is more exhausted, me or the kids. Ok, probably me, but seriously...this was one crazy week! I will say that aside from the heat advisory that kept us cooped up inside all week, this school year is off to a fantastic start! We have an amazing group of kids...seriously. We are probably the smartest class of first graders. Ever. Wink, wink. Well, I am eager to share with you what we did all week, so here we go!
We started the week getting to know the rules and procedures for our classroom. We read a book called "David Goes to School" about a naughty boy named David who got into all kinds of trouble at school. After we read, we talked about what a good student looks like and how David was not a good student! We made this chart to remind us not to act like David!

Yep. I drew that awesome picture of David. We also practiced reciting our classroom rules with fun hand motions to help us remember them. One of our rules is about being kind to others. We read this book:

After reading, we talked about how to be "bucket fillers" and not "bucket dippers". We made a chart of our ideas.

Everyone got to decorate their own "bucket" which we then put on the wall. Once we start using the writing center, we will have forms for students to fill out where they can say something nice or encouraging to another student and put it in their "bucket". When we start community circle next week we will also take time to share moments from our day in which our bucket was "filled". We will also discuss times in which our buckets felt empty and how we can help each other when things like that happen.

Another book we enjoyed this week was "Yo! Yes." which was about being different. It is a book about two boys that don't have much in common and don't really understand each other very well, but they become friends anyways. After reading the book, we wrote about ourselves and something that we like to do. I was really impressed with some of my little writers! I love this one. It says I like to do "crafts". Great inventive spelling!

                                                                         By Student #5
Another way we built our classroom community this week was by reading "The Giving Tree" and making friendship trees for a classmate. I failed at getting a picture of that (and my phone camera was really frustrating me this week because it kept deleting all my pictures!!!) but they turned out super cute!

Once we got to know each other a little better and got acquainted with the rules and procedures of the classroom, it was time to start earning some rewards! The kiddos were eyeing my lollipop tree (thanks Pinterest) during open house, and that was one of the first things they asked about on the first day. I had a few kids that I caught setting a great example for their classmates this week, and my lollipop tree was a huge hit! The cool thing about the lollipop tree (besides getting a lollipop of course) is that if you pull a lollipop with a pink stick you get to visit the treasure box!

Another cool part of being in our classroom is the "special supply bucket". We are sitting in 5 "teams". Each  team has the chance to earn points throughout the week by listening, keeping a clean work area, helping one another, sharing, following directions quickly, etc. On Thursday at the end of the day the team with the most points is the winner, and they get to use the "special supply bucket" all day on Friday. Who wouldn't love to write with a rainbow pencil all day? Let me tell you, it certainly makes school work much more fun. Our winner this week was team number 1, and they earned it! I think they were excited.

Next week, we are all ready to get rolling with Daily 5, Fundations, and writing. This week we introduced "read to self" during our Daily 5 time. I have decided Daily 5 needs its own blog post, so that's on my list of things to do (along with 5 trilling other things). But here is a quick peek at one of our friends practicing "read to self", along with our I-Chart to help remind us of our roles during read to self.

Well, thanks for stopping in! I hope you enjoyed a peek at our first week of school, and I can't wait to share our learning with you throughout the year! Please check back frequently and leave comments. I am trying to get access at school so I can share your comments with the students. I want them to be a big part of the blog eventually, and even write posts, so I know they will appreciate having an "audience".

Ready or Not...

Well, the room is ready (kind of), lesson plans are typed, desks are labeled, and copies have been made. Open house is tomorrow night. After two full weeks of training, meetings, meetings, and more meetings I think I am finally ready to welcome students...but man am I exhausted! I would like to say I am going to spend the weekend resting up and preparing for Monday, but I know I will be busy worrying about all the details of that first day (while chasing my busy little boy around and trying to clean up the mess that is my house). Teachers get nervous about the first day too, and it doesn't matter how many years we have been teaching. This year is extra nerve racking for me being in a new school and new grade, but I have an AWESOME support system. I pink puffy heart my new coworkers. I hope they feel the same about me! I am so excited to meet all my new little friends tomorrow night, and I am ready to get this school year started! I know we are going to have a fantastic year. As far as the blog goes, I am going to make it my goal to post once a week at least. I am working on getting blog access at school so students can also view the blog (under my supervision of course) and contribute eventually. So far that hasn't happened. I am packing my camera to take tomorrow so I can get lots of pictures of the room and of course open house. I will update sometime in the next week, hopefully with some pictures and all kinds of fun news about our first week!