The Scoreboard and a MLK Jr. Day Activity!

Hello all and happy {almost} Wednesday! I haven't had the smoothest day so this is going to be short and quick so Aly and I can go to bed!

I wanted to write a little more about The Scoreboard I use in my class. This is a Whole Brain Teaching Strategy!

This is one of my scoreboards. I have two that I use in my classroom. This is a portable one that I use during carpet time. I used painter's tape to make the partitions. You can use any colored tape and I had it handy! The smiley and the frowney are written in dry erase marker.

This is my second scoreboard that is on my whiteboard. I use this mostly during "desk time". It's all written in dry erase marker so I have to be careful when I erase!

The scoreboard changed my room completely!! :) The kids love earning smileys. The class can earn smileys by doing what's expected and they earn frownies by not doing what's expected. Pretty simple! Here comes the fun part:

Smileys: (tally on the smile side) When the students earn a smiley they can have a one hour second party by shouting out "OH YEAH!

Frownies: (tally on the sad sideWhen they earn a frownie, they all have to do a mighty groan {the sound and shrug}. You can see an example in my last video.

Rewards: At first, you can just have the kids win. After a while you can give them a small reward like going to lunch 2 minutes early, 2 extra minutes of recess, or 2 extra minutes of center time. I usually play a song as a reward {Justin Bieber, Harry Kindergarten, Tony Chestnut, Cha Cha Slide, YMCA). You can even make the reward something that you are already going to do. For example, while we were studying bats their reward was watching a short video on bats {that was already on the lesson plan}!! Double WIN!

3 +/- Rule: You need to keep the score fairly close. You never want to win by 4 or more or lose by 4 or more!! The win has to feel attainable and if you have 30 more tallies on the frownie side than the smiley side, your students might give up! :(

{I think} that's all I have to say about the scoreboard! If you have any questions... comment below! I will be super happy to try answer them! :)

MLK Jr. Day Activity!

First, we read A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr. By David A. Adler.

It has really nice illustrations and my ELLs understood most of the language!!

Then, we made a bubble map describing MLK Jr. and his beliefs! (Sorry, no picture!)

After, we did the cute MLK Jr. drawing that I got from Mrs. Miner's blog. Click {HERE} to check out her post and freebie!

I did the drawing step by step on my document camera and the students did the drawings at their desks! They came out soooo lovely!!! :) Here are a couple of pictures!

Oops! I forgot to take a picture of the finished portraits :/ I will take a picture of them tomorrow! 
Have a fabulous evening, friends!! :)

Oh Class! Oh Yes! Whole Brain Teaching Video of My Class!

Happy Monday! I have a super busy week! I got a new student today, report cards are due tomorrow, and I need to blog!
It seemed to me that a lot of you guys were interested in seeing more of Whole Brain Teaching or WBT (for short). So, I decided to tape myself {eek!} and my class today while we were practicing our class rules! You will also see some other WBT strategies such as, Class-Yes, Hands and Eyes, and the oh so famous Scoreboard. You can't see the scoreboard but it is a little whiteboard with a smily and a frowny face. I will go more in depth with the scoreboard in another post! I just really wanted to show you how we practice and observe the rules in my classroom! Here it is: Video will be updated! You just saw me get my class' attention by saying "oh class" and they responded by saying "oh yes". It is super easy to establish and to use all the time. You can vary how you say it. You can whisper, shout, say it with an accent or even add something silly like "oh oh oh sweet darling class" and the students have to say "oh oh oh sweet darling yes". You will see more of the complicated ones in other videos. I wanted to keep it simple ;)

If the smileys win for the day, the class gets a reward. I am using small rewards such as, doing the Cha Cha Slide, Tony Chestnut, listening to Justin Bieber or BTR, and today's reward was the YMCA! They love these types of rewards. Like Chris Biffle says, "It's a long, long, year". So save your big rewards for the end!

Ha! I noticed some kiddos not doing what is expected! The goal is to get 100% engagement but sometimes it falls short! I've got to say that it is pretty darn close to 100% though!

You might've noticed that my class is an ELD class. That means that they are ALL English Language Learners. Their first language is Spanish and I can't say enough how much WBT has helped my ELLs! They love the gestures and the repetition!

Enough rambling about WBT and how wonderful it is! I hope you enjoyed the video and I would love to know if you would like to see more. I couldn't find my Flip Cam so I had to use my handy dandy iPhone. I don't think the quality is too bad! I searched high and low for my Flip Cam. In the process, I found 40 bucks, my amazing Burt's Bees lip balm, and these cute tiny scissors that I had forgotten I had! You always find other things when looking for something else.

I quickly wanted to mention some awesome giveaways that are going on out here in Blogland!




Peace Love Learning is giving away a MLK Jr. Unit!! It would be perfect for later this week or next Tuesday!




Amy over at the Resource(ful) Room is giving away a $20 gift card to Target!

Rachel is giving away her Winter Math Packet to one lucky follower!

Alright Lovies that's it for tonight! Talk to you later!!!

Whole Brain Teaching...WHAT??? and Some Awards!

Hello my dear bloggy friends! Yes, all FORTY of you! Wow! I published my first post on Tuesday and not even a week later I have 40 followers! It might have been that I was commenting on other blog posts and asking begging for them to check out my blog!! Ha!

I had said that I would talk write about my classroom rules so here I go!

[I thought I had taken a picture with my handy dandy iPhone and it is no where to be found! I do have an old picture though. In the current/new picture, I had covered the smiley face on Rule #5 with a picture of MY face! Ha the kids love seeing my picture and it reminds them of the {importance}! LOL]

These are my classroom rules:

1. Follow directions quickly
2. Raise your hand for permission to speak
3. Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat
4. Make smart choices
5. Keep your dear teacher happy

I did not make these up! {I wish I had!} They are from Whole Brain Teaching. I was honored to attend a Whole Brain Teaching workshop in my district with Chris Biffle {One of the guys behind WBT!} 

Whole Brain Teaching or WBT is not only a classroom management way of life but a completely different way to teach!!! I have not seen ANY blogger that I follow talk about it but if you have or use WBT... please tell me!!!! I love it and love how my students respond to it!! If you are interested on seeing some lessons check out the website {HERE} or YouTube them! There are some awesome teachers out there doing some awesome WBT lessons! It incorporates gestures, repetitions, positive reinforcement, and fun to get 100% ENGAGEMENT in your class!!!!!! It is UHHHH-MAZING!

Let me tell you a little more about the rules. On the first day of school, I teach the first 2 rules. Then, the next day I teach the other 3. I repeat them and have the students practice with each other. All five rules have gestures that accompany them when you say them. You can see them {HERE}. As I was looking for a video, I noticed that I do them a bit differently. So, I will be videotaping myself and my class practicing the rules on Monday... so be on the look out for that! I'm so excited to share my experience with WBT! :):):) 

Check out the Whole Brain Teaching Website {HERE}. There are a TON of FREE resources. You can print off the FREE ebooks that have the rule posters. You just have to make an account... super easy and totally worth it! There are also a ton of other resources, like Biffytoons (HFW), SuperSpeed Games and PowerPoints, forums with other teacher experiences, and much much more!

I will write additional posts on other WBT stuff that we do in my classroom!! I can't wait to share so you can use it in your classroom!!

:)

AWARDS!

I have been given 2 awards by some awesome blogger friends!!! I will start off with this one:

Here are the rules:

1. Show your appreciation.

WOW! I can't believe that anyone would mention me on their blog! Thanks so much ladies. You really made my day! Please check out the following blogs that have given me the Liebster Award:

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

2. Nominate other blogs with 200 followers or less by posting a comment on their blog.

Here are other blogs that I have recently discovered:

Also, check out A Pirate's Life for Us!

3. Post the award on your blog.

4. Check out other nominees of the Liebster Blog Award and see what they have to offer!

The next award is this one:

The rules:

• Thank those that presented the award to you and link back to them. 

Thank you!!!! Live. Laugh. Teach. your button isn't working for me!! But, thanks so much!

• Tell seven things about yourself.

1. I am 23 years old!
2. I have a four year old daughter. 
3. My husband and I will have our 5 year wedding anniversary next month!!!! 
4. This is my 2nd year teaching.
5. I student taught in 1st grade and fell in love!
6. I am highly qualified to teach middle school math! Ya, I know they are mostly taller than me. I am only 5'1''.
7. I love sweets, chocolate, and sour candies! YUM!

I will say more about myself in future posts!

• Pass this on to newly discovered blogs and let them know they've received the award!

Please check out the blogs above! YAY!!

That's it for my ramblings today!! :) I can't wait to blog-stalk, plan, and spend time with Aly today! :)