Busy, Busy

I think any teacher would agree with me in saying that August and September are just plain crazy. The first month is all about training. Yep. You have to train the kiddos on how things run in your classroom. Rules, procedures, all that fun stuff. Then before you know it, you are in September and all of a sudden report cards are upon you...which means assessing, assessing, assessing. PHEW! I have been busy lately to say the least, and I apologize for the serious lack in blogging. Teacher fail. I will say that the past two weeks have been exciting. Well, for me anyways. I am FINALLY starting to see the classroom running itself, which I LOVE. It means all that training is paying off and my kiddos are starting to get the hang of things like Daily 5 (man, that requires a TON of practice in order to run successfully...who knew?), Whole Brain Teaching, and all the other things that are new to them as big first graders like "clicker tests" (we get to take our weekly reading tests with a super cool remote control). I am also getting into my groove as a first grade teacher. Having taught kindergarten the last 4 years, I am still finding out what's I like and what's going to work with first graders (and what has failed miserably). It's a learning process. But I finally feel like I am liking the way things are headed.

So after that ramble I will get onto the good stuff. What's going on in room 202 these days? I think the best and most exciting thing would be how well Daily 5 has been going and how proud I am that the students are finally at the point where they have gained enough independence that they can make their own choices. They have now learned 4 of the 5 components, and they have the freedom to choose between read to self and work on writing each day. Next week I am going to add read to someone as a choice. After fall break I am going to go crazy and throw in word work as another choice, and hopefully shortly after that I will be able to introduce listen to reading which will allow students to choose computer reading programs such as Reading Eggs, MyOn Reader, and Accelerated Reader. Daily 5 rocks, and I have a big post all about how I run Daily 5 coming soon. Stay tuned. Here are some fun pictures taken during word work:

The other fantastic thing I see going on in our classroom is the sense of community that is starting to develop. We are all starting to come together as a team, and that is a special thing in any classroom. I mentioned Bucket Fillers in an earlier post, and I have to mention the sweetest thing ever. We started using the Bucket Filler forms during work on writing and the students have been so incredibly sweet and thoughtful and it melts my heart! You would just die if you sat in on community circle on Fridays. I pull out the slips from each bucket and read one aloud. Their faces just light up when someone fills their bucket and I could just cry it's so darn sweet. My favorite is when they notice that someone's bucket is empty and they make an effort to fill ALL buckets by Friday so no one is left out. It doesn't always happen, but we get close, and everyone has had at least one bucket filler. Next week I hope to get some pictures of some of the darling things they write to one another. And wow does it build self esteem. I just love it. It's my favorite part of the week.

We also had our first student reach level 2 on the Super Improver wall. Congratulations student #3!!!

Oh, and our cafeteria is doing this neat program where they deliver an "unsual" healthy snack once a month for everyone to try. This month we tried a "seckle pear". All but two students loved it, and they DEVOURED it.

 Hopefully next week I will be able to finish my new math tubs so we can enjoy some fun math games on Fridays. I did teach them how to play "Bump" last week, and we played a fun Halloween version called "Boo Bump". I know it's early, but I love Halloween. We are also playing the scoreboard to earn a Halloween party. That should be fun:)

Super Improvers!

We have been busy these last couple of weeks, and one my the most exciting things was introducing the Super Improver Wall. This is an idea that comes from Whole Brain Teaching, which we have also implemented in the last couple of weeks. On  the wall I have posted 10 levels with fun names like specialist, pro, genius, etc. The kids can work their way up the levels by earning stars on their Super Improver card. It takes 10 stars to move up to the next level. To earn stars, you have to collect "power poms" throughout the day by doing a fantastic job, demonstrating a great effort, or by improving on something (possibly a behavior or rule that needs practiced, improving a test score, etc). 5 power poms=1 star on your Super Improver card. 10 stars=a move up to the next level. When you move to the next level, you get to take your old card home, and you get a different colored card that corresponds to the next level. Level 10 is the "genius" level. Once you reach the top you get your picture posted on the wall, and you get to participate in a special party for "geniuses". It's a great motivator, and you are competing against yourself and constantly trying to improve and work towards your goal. The best part is, there is no real "prize", it's just the satisfaction of knowing that you worked hard and achieved a goal. Now that I like! Check out a picture of our Super Improver wall in action:
Notice all the cards are currently on level 1, so they are all white at this point. They will begin to change colors as kids work their way up the wall.

In addition to the Super Improver wall, we have also been practicing the callbacks for Whole Brain Teaching. We are getting pretty good at "Class-Yes", but we still need to improve our speed!!! It's all about how quickly you can follow directions. And Whole Brain Teaching means you have to be on the ball all. the. time. You can see how well we are doing (or not doing) by checking out our class scoreboard. When the happy face side has more tally marks than the sad face side, we get 1-5 minutes of something fun at the end of the day like a dance party, game time, or extra recess. And the exciting part is....the scoreboard will eventually begin to morph, and the game will change. More on that to come...

In addition to lots of Whole Brain fun, we have also been building our Daily 5 stamina, and working on patterns and problem solving in math. This week we read Diary of a Worm and learned about diaries/journals. I showed them my personal blog so they could get a feel for what a modern diary might look like. They will be getting monthly journals starting next week so they can write about all the fun first grade stuff going on in their lives.

We also started daily problem solving in our math journals, which unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of so I will catch one next week. The kids really loved getting out the linking cubes this week to practice patterns, and we learned the correct mathematical name for the patterns we were creating.

Next week we will introduce word work for Daily 5, and I know the kids are going to be super excited to see the fun word work centers they will be able to choose from! I am also working on some fun math tub games and activities, which we will start using on Fridays. Check back later to catch the fun!

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!