My To Do List

I am a list maker by nature, so in preparation for next year, the first thing I did was to sit down and make a list of everything related to WBT that I will need to or would like to accomplish before my students walk through the door on the first day of school.  I typed it as I wrote it, in no particular order.  Every time I complete something on the list, I will cross it off.  As you are planning for next year, I hope that you will find this list to be helpful to you.

1.  Make Scoreboard

2.  Runoff 5 rules and other signs

3.  Create Super Improvers Board

4.  Make Genius Ladder

5.  Create a bulletin board in which the "Brainies" are placed in a treemap

6.  Decide on writing focus skills and their order.  Then create editing sheets based upon these 

     skills for "paper clip" editing and create a small bulletin board to post them as they are taught.

7.  Buy enough red and green pens (for red/green writing) for every student to have one of 

     each

8.  Make Wacky Star Fun Button

9.  Make signs for Mind Soccer

10.  Make a list of questions for Mind Soccer

11.  Create sample test questions for Prove It

12.  Runoff materials for SuperSpeed Math game

13.  Runoff materials for SuperSpeed Reading game

14.  Create star homework board and thermometer

15.  Make star homework cover sheet and reading log

16.  Make language arts and math pics bulletin board

17.  Runoff and laminate all language arts and math pics

18.  Decide on classroom design

19.  Make a list of all the procedures I will use 3 peats for

20.  Decide which procedures I will play "Beat the Clock" with

21.  Study and learn all "Brainy" gestures, as well as any other commonly used gestures

22.  Prepare the rule practice cards

23.  Prepare a letter to parents for students to take home when they need to practice a rule

24.  Began putting together 5 step WBT lessons on standards being taught the first couple of 

       weeks of school

25.  Think about my daily schedule

26.  Decide how to plug all of the WBT writing components into my day

27.  Watch the WBT videos on the first hour and first day of school, and then plan my first day

28.  Learn more about all of the "Brain Toys" and decide on good places to use them

29.  Place SuperSpeed Grammar and SuperSpeed Rhymes on desktop

30.  Make a sign to post with oral writing pattern

I will be busy this summer getting all of these things done, but I still plan on taking some time off to relax and enjoy myself.  To be honest, because I am so excited about WBT, most of this list seems more like fun than work.  

As you were reading through this list, there were probably many things that you have questions about.  Remember, to find the answers you are looking for right away, you can always go to www.wholebrainteaching.com.  I will also be blogging in-depth about the items on this list throughout the summer and the school year.  I also promise that before the school year begins, I will show you what my finished classroom looks like.

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Getting a Teaching Job Resources

I have been thinking about new teachers who will be going to interviews soon and have no idea what to bring, do or say. With that in mind, I have been compiling different websites, articles, and books that can be helpful when preparing for a teaching interview!



The Best Advice for New Teachers (Article)
- Larry Ferlazzo is an AMAZING edublogger that has multiple lists of resources
   that I recommend you check out. He's put together a great list of websites that offer advice for new teachers and people preparing to be teachers.
- http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2012/04/23/the-best-advice-for-new-teachers/

The Rookie Teacher (Website)
- This website has a variety of great blog posts about everything to do with
   being a "Rookie Teacher" including subject-specific information,
   curriculum, professional development, and interviews.
- http://therookieteacher.ca/

 Substitute teacher interview questions* (Website)
- I found this website very useful and it had many examples of
  interview questions provided by new teachers who had just gone through the interview process.

- https://coverlettersandresume.com/teacher/substitute-teacher-interview-questions-and-answers/

What Do Principal's Look For When They Hire (Article)
- Peter Jory has written a great article on his blog, "I Have an Opinion About
  Learning". Being a principal himself, I value Mr. Jory's opinion and think he provides some great insight on what administration looks for during the hiring process.
- http://peterjory.blogspot.ca/2012/02/what-do-principals-look-for-when-they.html

How to Find Your Dream Teaching Job (Article)
- Heather Wolpert-Gawron at Edutopia has written an 8 Step List on
  how to find your dream teaching job which includes everything from targeting certain schools to the actual interview itself.
- http://www.edutopia.org/school-employment-finding-teaching-job

Apply to Education (Database)
- Apply to Education is an online database that school divisions and private
  companies use to post teaching positions. I check this website weekly to see what sorts of jobs our area has available.
- You can search through jobs from any area without having to become a
  member of the website!
- https://www.applytoeducation.com/

EduEdge (Website)
- EduEdge is an entire website devoted to preparing future teachers for the
  interview and hiring process. They have several great articles, blog posts,
  workshops, and resources all designed to help you get a job.
- http://theeduedge.com/

Advice to New Graduates About to Enter the Teaching Profession (Article) 
- David Andrade has put together some great points on his blog,
  "Educational Technology Guy". He touches on everything from staying organized, to asking for help to copyright concerns.
- At the end of the article, he also includes some more great resources for
  new teachers.
- http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.ca/2012/04/advice-to-new-college-graduates-about.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+EducationalTechnologyGuy+%28Educational+Technology+Guy%29&utm_content=Google+Reader 

First Day of School by Harry Wong (Book)
 A teacher recommended this to me and she said, "It is a fantastic resource to use throughout your teaching career". Since then I have also seen it praised in many of the edublogs. I definitely recommend it to any teacher, new or experienced.

Student Teacher, Temporary Teacher or Substitute Teacher? What to do if a Teaching Job is Rumoured to be Available at Your School (Article)
- This article by EduEdge (also on this list) offers some great advice on
  how to get your foot in the door and start building yourself a teaching career.
- http://theeduedge.com/student-teacher-temporary-teacher-or-substitute-teacher-what-to-do-if-a-teaching-job-is-rumored-to-be-available-in-your-school/

Top Strategies for Selecting References for a Teaching Interview (Article)
- This article by EduEdge (also on this list) offers some pointers on how to
  pick appropriate references for your teaching application. Who should be a reference? Do you pick different references depending on the school?
- http://theeduedge.com/top-strategies-for-selecting-references-for-a-teacher-interview/

131 Tips for New Teachers (Presentation)
- Richard Byrne included a free slide presentation on his blog, "Free
  Technology for Teachers" that highlights 131 tips for new teachers.
 - http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/09/131-tips-for-new-teachers.html

If you know a soon to be teacher share this blog post with them so they can be prepared for an interview. Best of luck to all the new teachers out there who are preparing for their job interviews!

Have a good resource to add to this list? Let me know in the comments below!

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Whole Brain Teaching Series! The Genius Ladder

    Hi, everyone again I am currently writing my fifth Whole Brain Teaching Series post! I hope that this focus on a specific WBT strategy is helpful to those of you who are wishing to learn more about how a certain strategy may work. My last WBT Series post I highlighted was "The Scoreboard", this week I would like to introduce you to the WBT strategy of "The Genius Ladder".

     So far, my WBT posts have been summarizing classroom management strategies but this week I would like to add something new! I've decided to include some information on the WBT teaching strategy of "The Genius Ladder". I really enjoyed learning more about this strategy so I've decided to include it as this week's WBT focus.

 "The Genius Ladder" is a visual teaching strategy that provides students, of any age, with an opportunity to practice sentence structure, parts of speech, complex sentences, and paragraph organization. The following describes "The Genius Ladder" teaching strategy as stated by Chris Biffle in the WBT Model Classroom PDF available here.

Genius Ladder made by Allison, WBT Intern for 2011/2012

     The Genius Ladder is posted on the front board and changes daily. Students work from the bottom of the ladder, simpler sentences, to the top of the ladder, a paragraph. The rungs of the Ladder are:

     Genius Paragraph

     Extender Complexor Sentence

     Spicy Sentence

     Blah Sentence

     Here is a filled in sample (Note that when used in class, students work from bottom to top, from Blah sentence to Genius Paragraph).

     Genius Paragraph: The crazy boy runs down the street. He looks like he is being chased by a ghost. No one knows what is wrong with him.

     Extender Complexor Sentence: The crazy boy runs down the street.

     Spicy Sentence: The crazy boy runs.

     Blah Sentence: The boy runs.

     The Blah sentence, as you can tell, is composed of an article, "the," a non-subject, "boy" and a verb, "runs." Obviously, an infinite number of sentences can be composed using these three simple components.

By having students begin with a Blah sentence, teachers can employ a very useful rule for student writing, "No Blah Sentences!"

     The Spicy Sentence adds an adjective, one of the simplest grammatical devices for increasing the flavor of student writing.

     The Extender Complexor extends the Spicy Sentence and makes it more complex. This category is extremely rich in possibilities. A Spicy Sentence could be extended with because or a prepositional phrase. A Spicy Sentence could also be extended with a conjunction, an adverb or a dependent clause.

     At the top rung of the Genius Ladder, the Genius Paragraph, several sentences called Adders are added to the Extender Complexor. Adders are defined as any sentence that adds information to a previous sentence. Thus, Adders make up the bulk of student writing. As you can see, as the student moves up the Genius Ladder, the sentences advance, quite naturally, from simple to complex. Fairly sophisticated topic sentences can easily be created. 

 Click on the link below to the PDF where you can find the full "Genius Ladder". There is a great section on how to specifically utilize it in the classroom.

Check out the Whole Brain Teaching PDF to see Chris Biffle's instructions in context or check out Chris Biffle's YouTube channel to see this strategy in action.

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Resources to Start Off Your Week 3

Sorry, everyone for not posting some more resources last week but that's okay. So it's a new week and what better way to start off our week by finding some great new online resources to use in our classrooms when school starts back up again. Remember, I will be adding these to my Favorite Websites page when I have that ready please ensure you head over there to check out the full list that I've compiled so far.

1 ) What Was There?
- A website featuring an interactive map of the world featuring historic photographs
  organized by location and year. Their goal is to provide a photographic history of
  the world!
- Teacher can use this website to provide primary visuals during Social Studies,
  Geography and History lessons specifically but the possibilities are endless!
- Users can upload pictures and some locations have more photos than others
   so make sure to do your research before class!
- http://www.whatwasthere.com/ 

2 ) Story Bird
- A website for creating online narrative stories using visual art prompts.
- Teachers can use this website to encourage writing assignments and it is
   the perfect platform for sharing stories online (link to your classroom blog, email to parents, receive meaningful feedback, etc).
- The illustrations are gorgeous, funny, and engaging for students!
- http://www.storybird.com/

3 ) Resources for History Teachers

- A wiki summarizing educational resources for teachers and students looking to

  learn more about various history, geography, politics, economics and much more. 

- Teachers can use this website to gather resources for a lesson or have their
  students explore certain pages for information.

- A 2011 Edublog Award winner!

- http://resourcesforhistoryteachers.wikispaces.com/

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Whole Brain Teaching Series! The Scoreboard

Hey, everyone, I'm excited to be writing my fourth Whole Brain Teaching Series post! I hope that this focus on a specific WBT strategy is helpful to those of you who are wishing to learn more about how a certain strategy may work. The last post I highlighted was "Mirror", today I would like to introduce you to the WBT strategy of "The Scoreboard". 

Scoreboard for older students (5-12): Teacher vs. Students

"The Scoreboard" is a classroom management strategy that assists in motivating our students. We are told again and again in our education classes that a student's motivation can affect the entire classroom environment and will affect us and the other students as well. We can tell when one of our students (or perhaps the whole class) is just not into a certain idea or activity. Maybe its the topic, maybe its the teaching style, maybe they are having an off day, or maybe its one of those days where you swear its a full-moon (it happens)!

Scoreboard for younger students (K-4): Smiley vs. Frowny

We are not always going to be able to have all of our students be super-excited about our subject or a certain activity. We get that, right? Some people will just not like the subject "x" no matter how hard a teacher tries. "The Scoreboard" can be a fun way of boosting our student's motivation in the classroom. Essentially, all it is is a basic T-chart where we keep tally of positive and negative behaviors. What type of behaviors is completely up to the teacher. Using "Teach-Ok" and the students aren't participating? Negative point. Morning announcements come on and everyone attentively listens? Positive point. We can award points for anything depending on what type of activity we are doing and what our expectations are. This way, even if a student doesn't like the subject or activity, they still realize the expectations for the classroom and can be motivated by the scoreboard even if they are not motivated by the task at hand. The following describes "The Scoreboard" strategy as stated by Jeff Battle on the Whole Brain Teaching website.

During class, you will be rewarding a mark in the Student section for procedures performed well. When you reward them with a mark in the student section for their performance, just like the smiley-frowny game, you can involve the kids in a really fun way. Walk to the board, raise your chalk or marker, or stylus, and address the class.

“One-second party!” You proclaim enthusiastically. Make a mark in the smiley section then point to the students. To this, they respond by clapping and throwing their hands in the air and yelling “Oh, Yeah!”

However, if the students do not listen, and follow instructions you do not have to fuss at anyone! You just look at the non-compliant students and say “Thank you very much! That was a point for ME!”

You walk to the board and add a mark to the Teacher column. Loudly proclaim, “Mighty Groan!” and point to the class. They must lift and then drop their shoulders and groan loudly! Since they are getting to make noise in class it is usually nearly as enthusiastic as the one-second party (or Mighty Oh, Yeah!)

In this way, you have a “game” in which students cannot rebel effectively. Rebellion only results in a point for the dreaded teacher.  You are either playing for the students and getting a reward, or not following instructions and playing for the dreaded Teacher's Team, and losing some reward.

Note that there is no punishment. You do not assign extra homework, or take anything else away. They just lose a privilege they were working for.

One thing you must understand from the start is that you should not let the difference between the number of Student and Teacher points get greater than three. If you over reward they will stop working for it. If you let them get too far in the hole they will quit trying to win the reward. That is the reason for the +-3 rule.
Student and Teacher points will build quickly at first, but fall off as they get better at procedures.

     I used "The Scoreboard" before and I did find it effectively. Like Jeff mentions, I did not punish my students for receiving negative points but I did not allow them a privilege that they were working towards. For example, at the start of class, we would decide as a group what type of "reward" we wanted based on what we were doing that day. Maybe it was extra time to complete an assignment or the option to work in groups as opposed to individually. If they "beat" me in "The Scoreboard" they would receive that privilege, if they didn't I would carry out my lesson like I had originally planned. The students definitely got into it and I could tailor "The Scoreboard's" use each day depending on our activity. Sometimes it would be based around specific WBT strategy expectations, sometimes it would be based around basic classroom procedures and sometimes both. Note, that we always talked as a class about what the expectations were for the day so everyone could be on the same page. Personally, I am not incredibly fond of creating a teacher vs. student environment in my class. I would like to come up with something that achieves the same effect, just not with those labels attached to it (I don't think High School students would be as motivated by a happy face and sad face).

     What are your thoughts? Comment down below.

Check out the Whole Brain Teaching website to see Chris Biffle's instructions in context or check out Chris Biffle's YouTube channel to see this strategy in action.

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The Impact of Technology In the Classroom

Once upon a time, the role of the teacher in the classroom conjured up images and ideas of blackboards, rulers, chalk, and pencils. But now, technology is becoming more and more integrated into modern school systems—not just as an added bonus, but as a necessity to how students learn and how teachers teach. While at one point in time, adopting technology into the classroom may have been perceived as stressful and forced for teachers and students alike, as it stands now, students aren't just excited about using technology, teachers are excited and highly capable of utilizing its presence in the classroom. From smart boards to class computers to e-readers and e-textbooks, each new technology presents new modes of both teaching and learning opportunities. Now, everyday teachers with tech access are finding new ways to embrace technology and incorporate it into the classroom. As a result, teachers are more efficient than ever, and students are capable of learning faster and more efficiently. In fact, a majority of students say that technology has helped them to achieve their academic goals, while a majority of teachers say they would like to use even more technology in the classroom. 

I want to ask you all some questions about this topic. If you have any answers to these questions please write them in the comments below because I would be glad to read them :).

How has technology affected your teaching style?  How?
How has technology affected your management style?  How?
Has the use of technology become a "norm" in your daily lessons? How/Why?
How has technology changed your planning and pacing?  How/Why?
What social etiquette standards regarding technology are you expecting your students to follow? 
What are the most important technology-based skills that your students need to master and how can I make this happen?
Is there a more efficient way to accomplish what is required, using technology?  How?
What is the best way to differentiate instruction using technology? How?
Project-based learning…..How can technology support & incorporate multiple content areas to accurately display what students have learned?  



Whether we are ready to or not….It is time to truly embrace technology!

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Whole Brain Teaching Series! Mirror

July is here and I'm excited to be writing my third Whole Brain Teaching Series post! I hope that this focus on a specific WBT strategy is helpful to those of you who are wishing to learn more about how a certain strategy may work. In my last Whole Brain Teaching post I highlighted "Teach-Ok", this week I would like to introduce you to the WBT strategy of "Mirror". 

     "Mirror" is a classroom management strategy that allows us, as teachers, to gain our student's attention while maintaining engagement levels. One of the things that I found difficult with teachers that they always couldn't tell if their students were truly paying attention while they're speaking. Sure they were sitting quietly staring at the board but were they actually listening? I found that many times the teacher would explain an activity or concept (verbally and on the board) only to have a few students respond, "What page was that on?", "Am I allowed to use markers?", "Can we have partners?" I quickly learned that no matter how clear the instructor made their instructions, some students will just zone out at times and not be able to pay attention. That's fine, we all do it! There is a way, however, to assist in addressing this concern in our classrooms.

The strategy of "Mirror" is awesome in the sense that it is very simple, requires little to no planning and we can quickly ensure that we have engagement from our students. When we are introducing something important like a definition, a new topic, an important announcement or instructions for an assignment we want to make sure our students are paying attention and understanding what we are saying. Like many whole brain teaching strategies, "Mirror" engages our student's motor cortex of their brain which assists in memory development. The following describes the "Mirror" strategy as stated by Chris Biffle on the Whole Brain                                                                                                                                          Teaching website.

Mirror is one of WBT’s simplest and most powerful techniques.  You say “mirror” and your students respond “mirror.” They then pick up their hands ready to mimic your gestures.
As students imitate your motions, their motor cortex, the brain’s most reliable memory area, is automatically engaged.  Use mirror when telling a story, giving directions, describing the steps in a procedure, demonstrating a process ... anytime you want your class locked into what you are saying.  In general, there are three kinds of gestures that you can use with mirror:

     -- casual:  these are hand motions that come naturally while speaking
     -- graphic:  match your gestures to exactly what you are saying.  

                       For example, if you’re talking about walking somewhere, 

                       walk your fingers through the air.  If you want to explain a hard problem, scratch your head.  If you are presenting a big idea, spread your arms far apart.

     -- memory:  these gestures are linked to core concepts and/or state standards. 

                       Every memory gesture should be unique.          

Thus, we suggest pretending as if you are writing in the air like the memory gesture for an author, making an “X” with your arms for multiplication, dealing imaginary cards for sorting and so forth.

     I used this technique with teachers so they can teach their class and it worked amazingly! I am a "hand talker" to begin with (maybe that's one reason why I love whole brain teaching haha) so I could easily incorporate casual gestures so the students would follow along with. The very first time I saw a teacher introduced this they were explaining an assignment, so the instructor said, "There are 3 things I need from you today" and then as she went through the list she would have her students hold up 1, 2 or 3 fingers depending on what step she was explaining. At first, they were hesitant because before they could just let her talk and they didn't need to be paying attention but now they had to participate! After some encouragement, however, she was able to have them all participate with following along with the instructions. It was super simple, didn't require any prep to incorporate but she and I could easily tell if her students were paying attention. Plus, she didn't have any questions about assignments afterward!

Check out the Whole Brain Teaching website to see Chris Biffle's instructions in context or check out Chris Biffle's YouTube channel to see this strategy in action.

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