Rule #5: Keep your dear teacher happy!

Last Saturday I had the privilege to attend a FREE conference for Whole Brain Teaching.  Have I mentioned before how much I rely on WBT techniques to help me in my classroom?  Well in case I haven't, I LOVE Whole Brain Teaching! I may not be the best at it yet, but I will continue to work everyday toward the goal of being an inspiring WBT teacher.

While attending this conference we had break out sessions by grade levels.  My group was led by Deb Weigel.  She was quite the motivator for really understanding rule #5: Keep Your Dear Teacher Happy.  Rule #5 really isn't about me, but about the kids.  If I see them engaged and happy and learning then I am happy.  The only way to break rule #5 is when kids are not actively engaged in their own learning.

I went back to school Monday with a renewed purpose; to keep my kids actively engaged.

This is what we did:

 Yes, that's right, we learned how to do Subtraction!

We had big gestures to remind us that subtraction means you "Take it away."

The power pix help me to remember what concepts I am working on.  Power Pix also help to keep things simple!

Simple means the kids can turn and tell their neighbor all about subtraction.  Simple means they can explain it and if they can explain it then they can do it.  I enjoy walking around and listening to them as they are teaching their neighbors.  This is my assessment as to who is hearing me and remembering what my words are.  Which means they are closer to understanding.







Which brings me to the next key component of teaching the Whole Brain Way

Mirrors

When I call out "mirrors", the kids reply "mirror" and they hold their hands up like L's to frame their faces.  Then we do the mirror check, their hand should do what mine do, (this is a favorite little activity of mine) it is great for doing a quick little cross lateral too!  Then I start to teach the concept, quickly, with few words.  I repeat myself a few times doing the gestures.  The kids should be doing what I'm doing not saying what I'm saying because mirrors don't talk. (Haha, that one always gets them.) 

Then we move to "mirrors and words."  Then they are repeating what I am saying while mimicking what I am doing.  We do this for just a quick minute or so.

Finally, they move on to teach your neighbor, where they should turn fully to face their neighbor and then do the gestures while repeating what I had said.  This is where I will decide if we need to practice again or not.  If I hear the majority of the group saying what I want to hear then we can move on.  I call them back with "Hands and Eyes" and they turn back to me, repeating "Hands and Eyes."

The final activity is the time to work as a whole group and do some hands on subtraction.  This is my way of seeing who can follow along.  I can also usually get a little glimpse of who is probably able to venture out on their own.

All in all, we had a great week and they were exceptional at following rule #5 as well as astounding at understanding the concept of subtraction!!

As a matter of fact, one little guy loved subtraction so much he included it in the birthday card he made for me!

This is what I live for, this is why I teach!

Don't forget, if you want more information on Whole Brain Teaching, please visit the WEBSITE.  All of these awesome classroom management and teaching techniques can be yours for FREE!!

Until next time.....

Deanna

What does a Scientist do?

Let me begin by saying, "I love Science!"  I especially love to teach science to first graders.  Maybe it is because everything amazes them or maybe it is because I actually have the answers to their questions, who knows, the main thing is "I love Science!"

This is what we have been up to in science for the first few weeks of school:

What does a Scientist do?

I began by using the posters created by Deanna Jump,  they are perfect for introducing the scientific method in simple terms for first graders.

Next, let me say how much I also LOVE my document camera!

So we have been talking about the 3 states of matter and also doing color review, so this little project is perfect to combine the two.

I used clear cups with the three primary colors and then asked the question, "What will happen if we mix blue and yellow?" I ask students for their hypothesis and then we test their hypothesis.  They ooh and aww as they see, live and in color on the big screen, green magically appear!  I continue the same routine and make orange and purple.

The finale for this lesson is the little experiment I saw on Pinterest, (another thing I LOVE!)

 This project absolutely amazed me!, (oh, and the kids too!)  I started with blue water and yellow water, tore a paper towel into 2 strips and then stapled the 2 pieces to make the middle.  I put each end into the water and then placed the center into an empty cup.  I knew the towel would turn green in the middle, but I actually wasn't expecting the cup to fill with green water!  You should have heard the kids as they watched the yellow and blue climb up the towel, and then the next morning when they saw the final results.

And because we do rotations every day, I got to do it again with another class and we made orange!  For whatever reason, I tried to make purple 2 different times.  The first time we ended up with blue in the middle and a little purple on the towel.  The second time we ended up with a dark red in the middle.  Weird. I'm sure it must have something to do with the amount of food coloring.

Finally, along came fun Friday and it was time for my kiddos to get to play, I mean experiment, with making their own colors.

My favorite part of this was of course listening to the kids ooh and aww as they made their own colors.  I actually laughed out loud when I heard one of them tell another,  "Look, I'm a scientist!"

Gotta love it!

 

        

I hope everyone is having a great year!  Happy experimenting!

Until next time.....

Deanna