Coming Soon

I can't believe I have not posted since March!  I apologize to my viewers.  Time flies so fast and I thought I had something from April and May.  It could be because I had some failed post that I attempted to put up from my iPad.  I also tried to load a video from the last week of school, but our district network was not working properly and it failed to load.  It was a rushed video asking students their favorite part of WBT, but it didn't go as planned.  Since I teach learning support, students were being quickly pulled from my classroom to do fun activities with their homeroom.

Now on to my "coming soon"!  I am going to organize a Back to School blog hop for all you WBT out there.  You will be able to hop along from my blog to about 15-20 other blogs by staff and interns of WBT.  See all the ways we begin a new year implementing WBT from the key 4, critical thinking, and the Super Improvers Wall.  Let us help you get started, or let us hear your ideas and what works and what doesn't!  I hope to offer some blog candy along the way as well.  Keep checking back.  I will update the information with a date and time to begin the fun!  I will also post back to the forum as well.  Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your summer!

State Assessments

This week is filled with administering the state assessment.  It is difficult going from a day of fun filled, learning to these grueling days of testing.  We are having light and fluffy afternoons though.  Most of the kids are not returning to my room; however, those that do are taking advantage of computer time, movie time, and simple games.  We finish up the testing on Monday next week.  That leaves me with only 3 days of instructional time because they are off for teacher in-service that Friday.  I plan to spend that time doing a lot of superspeed along with a unit on poetry.  Writing poems using oral writing first just might be fun!

Stay tuned for our last week in March.  I am planning a March Madness where the 3rd and 4th graders duel against each other for the Super Whole Brain Students.  I still have to firm up the plans for that week, but we are looking at scoreboard, homework points, super improvers, maybe a mind soccer (or mind basketball) match.  Maybe we can even get parts of it on video!  Keep checking back!

Electronic Super Speed Grammar.wmv

Yesterday, I had an extra aide in my classroom, so I took advantage and had her video tape my 3rd grade class. They were doing a review on adjectives using Coach B's wonderful, new Electronic Superspeed Grammar. The kids love using this tool and will actually beg me to use it! I thought they did such an awesome job that they could have taught the lesson themselves. Next time! I apologize for a narrow video. I forgot to make sure the videographer turned the phone horizontally. The bright sunshine also made the lighting poor. I hope you enjoy it though.

The Crazy Professor Reading Game

This was a quick video that my 3rd grade learning support class did. I wasn't planning to video tape, but we were acting out "Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears." It was such a fun story and the kids were having a ball with it. I stopped them, picked up my phone, and we started again. I couldn't waste a great teaching moment. The best part, all of my students got a 100% on the test the following day!

To find out more about the Crazy Professor Reading Game, check out the Whole Brain Teaching website at www.wholebrainteaching.com and view free downloads. I hope that you enjoy!

What did you get for Christmas

Yesterday was our first day back after the holiday break.  Of course, 3rd and 4th graders are still excited about sharing what they received for Christmas.  I took the opportunity and turned it into an oral writing activity.  They rephrased the question to come up with a topic sentence and incorporated air punctuation.  They then were required two adders and a concluding sentence.  It was a great activity and the students didn't realize they were working because they were talking about the gifts they loved!

Genius Ladder

I recorded this video right before Halloween and am really late getting it posted.  My third grade class is usually my most energetic bunch; however, I believe they became camera shy the day we taped.  I hope you like what you see.  Now that the holidays are behind us, I hope to have another video over the next month or so.  A lot of it will have to do with how many snow days we have.  I really would like to demonstrate utilizing the five step lesson planner.

Thanksgiving Genius Ladder

I wanted to post this over the holiday, but life just got in the way. LOL.  Anyway, my fourth grade class was trying to come up with a genius sentence beginning with the subject "The turkey...".  Once we got a fantasitic genius sentence, I said that it reminded me of another story.  How cool is that being able to make a literature connection from one sentence!  That is how they were able to easily come up with the additional two sentences.  I hope you can view the picture of the entire ladder.