Today was a staff development day for my district. Our school was lucky enough to join 2 other schools for a day of Whole Brain Teaching. Our presenter was supposed to be Chris Biffle, but one of the co-founders of WBT came instead. He was awesome! I've done the class-yes part of WBT teaching for a few years and it's an amazing way to get kids' attention. I was always nervous about trying the rest of WBT even though there are plenty of videos out there to watch. But after today, I'm jumping in!
In case you don't already know, WBT has a techniques for getting attention called class-yes. However you say "class" the students respond with "yes" and are quiet with their eyes on you). For getting kids talking to one another they do teach-okay. The teacher says "teach", kids respond "okay", and turn to tell their neighbor about what you've just taught. Our presenter had us take turns practicing different ways to say "teach" and it wasn't easy to keep coming up with new ideas! I know that in front of the kids I won't feel so silly and it will probably be easier.
Tonight I found a great video that show how to get started with whole brain teaching. I love the way Nancy describes how to introduce the teach-okay part. After practicing today and watching this, incorporating teach-okay is my goal for this week. Tomorrow should be lots of fun. Wish me luck!
April, sunshine, and Spring Break. Life is good. I went in to school today to clean up a big mess I left behind last Friday afternoon. Brought home a little bit to do my planning for next week when we're back in school. We have a professional development day Monday and I'm so excited! No really, I am. It's not sarcasm this time. Chris Biffle is coming for a day on Whole Brain Teaching! Woohoo! I hear it's a pretty intense day but I'm sure it will be awesome. I'll let you know.
In the meantime here's a link to one of my favorite WBT videos you've likely already seen, but could you really get tired of watching this adorable little boy lead the class in the rules? I smile every time I watch it.
Since it's April (already) I'm linking up with Farley again for this month's Currently.
Listening- It's terribly windy outside today and has been for the last couple days. I really want to work in the yard and get my flowers trimmed up. Maybe tomorrow will be nicer.
Loving- Oh yeah, Spring Break. What's not love? Sleeping in, staying up late, no worries about what to wear, or getting lunch ready the night before. I wish I could say I've been extremely productive, but... not so much. And I'm enjoying it.
Thinking- that pretty much explains itself.
Wanting- my husband's first real estate sales are supposed to close in the next 2 weeks. I sure hope they go smoothly. One hit a major hiccup last weekend but he saved it. My husband was laid off a couple years ago so he got his real estate license and after lots of work getting his name out there the sales are here! It will be nice to do more than just pay bills. We're going to celebrate with a trip to Disneyland later this month or next month. He loves Disneyland! and we could use a fun trip.
Needing- Yippee I get my hair cut on Wednesday! I'm past due and it's driving me crazy.
My blog name- First Grade definitely found me! I didn't even want to be a teacher when I started college. I was a biology major and planned to become a zookeeper. But that first quarter chemistry kicked my you-know-what and my plans needed to change. I'd been very involved in 4-H and liked helping younger members in my project so I decided to become a teacher. But there was no way, no way! I could teach kinder or 1st grade. I was sure of it. How do you teach kids to cut with scissors, write their names, etc? Wouldn't you know it, my first job was a 1st/2nd combination and I loved it! Two years later we moved back closer to home and I decided I'd like whatever grade I got. That turned out to be kindergarten and no one was more surprised than me at how much fun I had. This year I moved up with my class from 1st to 2nd grade. It's been so much fun- this group is a dream! But one day after school it hit me, out of nowhere, that 1st grade really is what I love and that I wanted to go back. That surprised me too because I was all set to stay in 2nd for a while. I'm thrilled to be going back to
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and plan to stay there for a long time to come. So that's how First Grade Found Me- twice.
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