Swap Day

Today was swap day at our school - yes!  All the primary teachers drew an intermediate classroom to teach for the day and vice versa.  I drew the Grade 5 classroom and the Grade 6 teacher taught my Grade 1's.  It is amazing how many little details go into planning for a sub - especially for a teacher that you work with - I kind of wanted to impress her with my skills:)  Luckily, I had the WBT Sub guide created by the lovely Deb Weigel.

I have to admit I was a bit of a nervous wreck.  However, I was confident Whole Brain Teaching would save me and....of course...it did!!!  This particular class had already done a little bit of WBT.  They knew the Class/Yes!, the five rules, the Teach/OK! already.    I taught the Scoreboard (the incentive was 1 minute early to lunch) and reviewed five rules within minutes.  We recited the rules.  I talked a little bit about how the brain works and the importance of keeping the entire brain active through gestures, visuals, speaking and fun.   Then I taught Bodies Up!  and Seats!  Finally, I added the Woo! and the It's Cool, Hand and Eyes, Mirror and Switch!.  The kids were really into it.  They kept on getting faster and more in sync with one another.  It was really cool.  I did have to ping pong a bit and practice a few times but it was still super exciting.

The first lesson was on Sentence Fluency from 6+1 Writing Traits.  I taught it like a Power Pix with gestures.  Then I had them teach their neighbour using the Teach/OK.  We did a really neat sentence building activity and I used Papers! and the count down to hand out and collect everything.

After recess, two students came up to the front and lead the class in the rules.  One even did it using a silly voice.  In Math, I had a few students teach the class.  There was some really cool teachable moments and I even threw in a quick mini-lesson on the equal sign with gestures.

In Social Studies, I taught the four requirements needed to vote in an election.  As a class we came up with gestures to match and the students taught their neighbour.  I even still remember them - lol!  Alas, they lost the Scoreboard before lunch so we had to try again in the afternoon.

In Science, I taught about the circulatory system using an analogy about cars and highways to describe arteries and veins, gestures included.  One students had the definition down so she taught the class.  At the end of the period there was a little time so I taught them my version of Mind Soccer and I used the material from the previous chapter on respiration for the questions.

The rest of the day was pretty zen.  They did win the Scoreboard for the end of the day so they got some D.P.A. (Daily Physical Activity) time out on the playground.  I really made them work for it - no calling out and staying in their seats was big!  All in all, WBT and the day was brilliant.

Beginning Gradually in the Classroom

So here is Andrea Schindler's document for starting Kinder adjusted for First Grade!

Day One:
Class Yes!
Rules 1-5
Scoreboard Game
Hands and Eyes!
Criss Cross Applesauce
Bubble in your mouth
Lines, Lines, Lines
Seats, Seat, Seats
Cubbies, Cubbies, Cubbies
Backpacks, Backpacks, Backpacks
Tell your neighbour

Day Two:
Practice all the routines introduced so far

Mirror

Mirror/Words

Switch!

Teach your first 5 Step Lesson

Pencils and Erasers, Pencils and Erasers, Pencils and Erasers

Name, Name, Name

Work, Work, Work

Papers, Papers, Papers

It’s cool
Ten finger woo



Day Three:
Practice all the routines introduced so far

Continue to teach one 5 Step Lesson a day - try to make them short as it is the beginning of the year.

Week 2:
Practice all the routines introduced so far
Weekly Stars (When students get 10 stars, which usually takes about a week, they earn a special reward, like a five minute game of Mind Soccer).

Introduce the Practice Cards when you feel the time is right and approximately 85% of your students have bought into the Scoreboard Game. If you start the Practice Cards too soon you will have a ton of students practicing and the goal is not to have any if possible. Some teachers wait until Thanksgiving or January to introduce them and some do not use them at all. It really depends on your class:) Begin with the white cards. Gradually, introduce the purple and green cards - this may happen days, weeks or months later. Remember, it is a long year:)

Month 2:

Begin teaching two Five Step Lessons plans per day. You may even increase this to 3 or 4.

“Milestones to Reach for Further Routines”:

*If you have used the individual pocket chart and still have a select group of students who are exhibiting undesired behaviors, use the Independents Group

*Once students are comfortable with “Tell your neighbor”, move to “Teach! Okay!”, with both students talking

*Once students are comfortable with “Teach! Okay!” add in the "Switch!"

*Once students are comfortable with "Switch!" add in "Tag Team"
*Once students are comfortable with the “Teach! Okay!”, teach the students the Crazy Professor Reading Game.


Here it is in google.docs

My Venture Down Mystery Road

Last week and this week I have begun playing Mystery Road with my class.  I drew a path on the chalkboard with three detours leading to a magnet or "Mystery" prize, game, or treat (Mind Soccer, extra recess, extra centers, etc.).  The final destination was the biggest magnet and represented the biggest "Mystery".   Then I took my Mickey Mouse magnet and started it at the beginning of the path.

I introduced the game by explaining that good behaviour and following the rules would move Mickey down the path.  Once Mickey reached an intersection, good behaviour would send Mickey down that path to a mystery surprise.  Of course, there would always be the option to bypass a path or retreat back away from the mystery surprise depending on behaviour.  As the day progressed, sometimes I would say, "Wow! That good behaviour earned you 1 cm of Mickey movement down Mystery Road!" or "Let's see if can clean up by the time I count down from 20 and you could earn 1 cm down Mystery Road!"  Then I would take out my ruler and use it to model measurement.

Mystery Road has increased focus, excitement, and fun in my classroom.  My kids and I are having a BLAST!!  Can I get an OH YEAH!!

Repetition, repetition, repetition...

Another teacher came to see my class yesterday and she is totally on board with WBT!  Today she tried it out - at every break she came to gush about everything she loves about it.  It is very exciting.  What I like about it is that now when I am on supervision at lunch in her classroom all I have to say is "Class" to get their attention!  Once everyone is on board the continuity at our school will be through the roof!  Oh yeah!!  Better for all students and teachers? - I think yes!!!

More importantly, I realized again how vital teaching a lesson more than once is to learning.  When that same teacher came to observe I decided to do a lesson I had done twice before - reviewing the less than/more than rule.  Low and behold, I had about 90% of my kids catching on and using the less than/more than sign correctly.  I would say that this is at least 15% more than last time I taught the lesson.  I would attribute this to my increased knowledge and familiarity with the lesson, as well as my students familiarity with the concept.  Repetition is the key my friends!!

Super Speed 100 is still a hit.  My kids are even begging me to do it during their spare time!!!!  Another game that we have been playing lately and that my students BEG to play is Corners.  I decided to do a variation one day and now it is similar to Mind Soccer.  The basic rules of the game are as follows: I stand in the middle of the room and count down from 10 with my eyes closed.  All students find a corner to stand in. (If they are in between corners when I open my eyes they are automatically out!)  I turn around and point to a corner and then open my eyes.  In the regular game of Corners all those students in that corner would be out (go back to their seats, go for recess, be dismissed, etc.)  I now call it Super Corners.  Every one in the corner I point to must answer a question of my choosing (spell a word, answer a math fact, give a definition, etc.)  We play until there is one person left in the game.  Often everyone is still playing and then everyone wins.  My students LOVE this game!  (In the gym, I call it Super Dooper Corners:)

Scoreboard Turnover

So the scoreboard turnover to students continued this week.  As the interest grew, I started to have the class vote on who they thought were excellent leaders and teachers.  I chose one for the scoreboard and two for other leadership jobs (calling students to the carpet, etc.).  I LOVED giving the scoreboard job out to a student as I was not forever searching for a pen.  I would just say, "I think the class deserves a smilie for that!" and my student leader would say, "Wait for it!" to which the class responded, "Oh yeah!"

During Library, we read a book about the digestive system and students initiated a discussion comparing and contrasting plant stems and blood vessels.  Students stood up and taught the class their higher level thinking connections!!

I taught a lesson on expanded form after watching Farrah Shipley's amazing video on compound words. To help I had a slide on the SmartBoard for each section of the lesson: the rules, the power pict, examples, non-examples, Yes/No Way!, Cutie, Critical Thinking, written work questions to be completed in a notebook or on a recipe card.  I added a target bullseye to discuss and provide class and teacher objectives near the beginning.  It worked really well and the lesson had better flow.  Next time I want to have a clipboard so that I can assess and record student learning during Cutie.

In other news, I started saying, "Quiet on set!" when Sharing time was about to begin ~ I borrowed this from another post on the forum.  The class responds, "It's show time!"  Way fun!

Also, we did an animal unit this week.  Each student wrote a report about their chosen animal after reading a book and writing down four fact words and an opinion word about their animal.  I demonstrated how to gesture through the title and each of the sentences created from the collected words.  Then, I had the students return to their desks to silently make up and gesture through their own sentences using uppercase letters and periods at the end.  Next, using the Teach/OK, they practiced saying and gesturing their sentences with their partner.  Finally, they wrote down their prepared sentences.  In the end, they produced fantastic reports with beautiful complete sentences!!  OH YEAH!!!

The week ended with a field trip a golf course to learn about our community  The Class/Yes! and the rules were well utilized (although silently with hand gestures by me due to golf course rules:).  The parents and golf course staff were extremely impressed with my students' manners.

Phew!  I think it's time for a vacation!