Whole Brain Teaching

I've been on vacation this week and, like nearly every teacher I know, I have spent the past 7 days learning, reading, blog-hopping, pinning, planning, copying, laminating, and cutting.  Well, that and watching ridiculous television shows like Jerseylicious and Real Housewives of Wherever.  While pinning one evening, I came across this video:



I had not heard of Whole Brain Teaching before, but I was superficially introduced to Chris Biffle's "Class-Yes" technique by my superintendent.  As a new teacher, I am still trying to find classroom management routines that work for me.  We use Rick Morris' classroom sign language, music transitions, a behavior star chart, and few attention-getters.  After watching this video I was really excited.  I love how the kids are "teaching" each other and are super engaged.  After doing A LOT of reading (FREE on the website!) and watching many YouTube videos, I have decided that I am going to give a few of these techniques a try.  We'll be starting out slow with "Class-Yes," "The Five Rules," and "Teach-OK."

Have you heard of Whole Brain Teaching? Do you do anything similar?

If you are interested, there is a live webcast that you can receive Online Professional Development Credit with a seminar on WBT's student motivator "The Hidden Powers of the Scoreboard!" Tuesday, February 28th 5 PM Western, 6 PM Mountain, 7 PM Central, 8 PM Eastern.

Dropbox is My Homie

I use Dropbox every single day.  We are homies.  We hang out at home, at school, sometimes even on my iPad. It has really become an invaluable tool for me.  Dropbox is a "cloud" storage program that allows you to save your documents in a Dropbox folder.  With an easy installation, you can access any file from any computer.  The program keeps your files synced and accessible from any computer.  All through grad school, I was saving to a thumb drive, emailing myself, and finally using Google Docs, but I always had multiple versions of files that were getting mixed up, then I found Dropbox.  I put all of my "teaching files" into my folder and I can easily access any of them from my school desktop or laptop without having to use an external hard drive. I especially love that I can move freely between my home desktop (in the office) and my laptop (usually in front of the TV).

As a new Dropbox user, you start with 2GB of free space.  You can earn more space by inviting others (250MB for each invitee that downloads the program and they get extra space, too!) or purchase more space, but 2GB has been great for me so far. My grade level team and I have also started to use Dropbox and Shared Folders to share documents with one another and it has been wonderful.  It's nice to know that we all have access to the most current version of important documents.

Oh, and I almost forgot... Dropbox retains all previous versions of saved files for up to 30 days!

Leave a comment if you would like an invite so we can both get the 250MB of extra space!

Do you use Dropbox?

~dani~

p.s. This is not a paid endorsement for Dropbox.  I just really, really love it.  :)

I won! I won!

I never win raffles of any kind.  Competitions... I've won my fair share, but with things I cannot control, I have never actually won anything of any kind.  Until today...

I just won the Valentine Blog Hop over at Teach123!

As a winner, I got to choose 4 items from Michelle's wonderful TPT Store.  Here's what I chose:

I am so excited to use these resources in my class! I am also glad that I have next week off for President's Week so that I can do some umbrella planning for the rest of the year!

Thanks, Michelle!

Valentine's Day

I have lots of fun activities planned for my class on Valentine's Day this year.  I'm not sure why I'm so excited.  Maybe it's because it's my first class Valentine's Day, or maybe it's because my husband hates Valentine's Day and we never do anything big to celebrate.  Whatever my reasoning, I'm pretty sure it has a lot to do with the amazingly fun things I have found on Pinterest (love...) and on my fellow teacher-blogger websites.  I love all of the amazing freebies and units that everyone is creating (I'm planning to start creating my own this summer... I've gotta survive year 1 first!)  Here are some of the wonderful things that I will be using on Tuesday.

These beauties are from The Teacher Wife and I love the idea of at least one sugar-free treat! And I spent under $3 for the ENTIRE CLASS!

p.s. I love Instagram... 

The kiddos will be doing this morning work from Made In The Shade In 2nd Grade.

We will also be using this comprehension activity freebie from All-Things-Picture-Books Teacher's Notebook Shop.

We are also going to play Minute to Win It (Valentine's style) from stacy julian.  So fun!

{Click picture to download the PDF)

Here's what they have to do, in 60 seconds or less:

1. Bite the ends off the Red Vine
2. Open the Pixy Stix and dump the powder into the circle
3. Use the Red Vine straw to blow the powder out of the circle
4. Open the Hershey's Kiss with one hand and eat it
5. Arrange their M&Ms in the circle
6. Complete the "M&Ms Math" problem!

This is going to be insanity, I know... but we'll do it outside and the kids are going to love it!

We are also going to be doing a hearts-only art activity and writing project.  I'll be sure to post pictures when they're done!

What are you doing for Valentine's Day?

You know you're a teacher when...

I love laminating.  I hate the cutting afterward.  But, I LOVE LAMINATING!

That's mine!

 This is very evident when we gather... Comfort is key!

This is a really important test!

~dani~

Currently February - It's been over a month!!

Holy cow!  It's been over a month since I started blogging and time has gone by in a flash.  One of my first posts was Oh' Boy 4th Grade's Currently January.  I was so proud that I figured out how to do it.  I've learned a few bloggy things since then, and am having a wonderful time spilling my guts here.  Well, here we are, almost mid-February and I'm at it again!

Join the linky party here:

 

One more week and I'm on vacay! I'm am so ready for a break!

~dani~

Sometimes you just need a laugh.

It's been crazy busy and I promise to blog about all of the wonderful things happening soon, but until then, check this video out.  I was literally crying because I was laughing so hard.



love,
~dani~

Check Out My Desk!

I love Clutter-Free Classroom! I love reading about all of the storage, organization and management ideas and I am slowly, but surely, attempting to revamp my classroom.  I am lucky that I am a newbie and I don't have a ton of stuff, but it is really easy to allow things to pile up (especially on my desk).  I started my recent organization kick with the realization that my desk drawer was not necessarily as organized as I thought it was.  You can read about my obsession with office supplies here. Well, I have been busy for the last few days, and while I forgot to take a picture of the before, here is the after:

TADA!

Just ignore those charts living under my desk... they're next on the list!

Don't mind the folder on the left, that's my sub binder and folder for tomorrow. I'm attending a meeting for the county Curriculum Leadership Council (sounds important, huh?). We are unpacking the Common Core State Standards and looking at grade level progressions.  I actually really enjoy these meetings.  More on that tomorrow!

I even cleaned off my one-on-one workspace.  Aren't you impressed?

I must say that my motivation was two-fold.  It definitely helped that I have a sub coming in tomorrow and I want to make sure that they are as comfortable and things go as smoothly as possible.

Happy Wednesday!

~dani~