Okay, so today was our first day of school with students! Yes, August 9th!  We're in school almost a month more than what it used to be years ago.  This year I am trying to fully implement Whole Brain Teaching.  The webinars and the conference this summer have proved to be invaluable to starting this year off right.  Can I get an OH YEAH!?  Well, I want to share this process with whoever wants to read about it and to be able to reflect myself on how the day went, how to plan, what is working, what needs to be tweeked, and it will help me to stay on top of this amazing brain based program that WORKS!

  Here was our checklist of what we went over on the first day.  Yes, I even started the scoreboard and got alot of the students to begin thinking of how to get each other to work together and build each other up instead of the norm of tearing each other down, especially when someone doesn't follow the rules

 The Literacy Cafe from the 'sisters' is how I plan to address the needs of all of my students from high achieving to not quite there yet.  They have strategies that address every need.

 I know it's not spectacular, but this is my super improver's wall.  It might not look like much, but it will get the job done.  I plan on starting with stars as early as next week.  The students were getting curious this week but I just let them know that this is a way to become a living legend in the class. I'll tell them more about it next week.  Well, we did have to collect supplies and get through some school routines.  They can't get everything in one day :)  I was amazed, however, at how much we did learn today.

 I had printed all of the the WBT signs for the sayings we use constantly.  Each time we learned one today, I posted the picture as a reinforcement on the wall.  Class/yes is great.  They have that down no problem.  The teach/okay was a little tricky for them.  When I would clap twice and say teach, they would just start right away without clapping twice and saying okay.  Okay, it's just the first day.  I'll give them a little more time to get this down.  I did mirror with the help of one of my most talkative students.  It was great.  He stood next to me and as I went over the rules again with full gestures, he had to mirror me.  Remember, mirrors don't speak.  But, my students told me - "the one is Snow White does!" Ok Coach B...we'll have to say that it pertains to all of the regular mirrors, not the special fairy tale ones.

 I wore my Rule #5 pin today.  After we learned the first rule, I asked the students how many rules did they think there was.  Most of them said five.  I asked them if they wanted to know what rule #5 was.  When they answered yes, I told them sorry that they would have to wait until later.  Well, we learned rules 2 and 3 after PE and learned rules 4 and 5 after lunch.  It's very true that repetition does work.  I know that the first thing that I will do tomorrow is review the rules.  We also went over the school rules.  I know I watched a video where the teacher incorporated the school rules with the WBT rules, but I think I will keep the WBT rules as my classroom rules and the school rules for everywhere outside of the classroom - for this year at least.

 This is the wall where I will be posting the GLE's, standards, goals or what ever you want to call them, the power pix for Language Arts and for Math.  I still have to label it with the a, b, c, ... and 1, 2, 3, ....
On Monday, I will be posting some already.

 Our school uses Mountain Language and Mountain Math for skill reinforcement and practice.  I have the students do certain numbers daily.  I have it set up for both boards to be completed in two weeks.  I then collect this work for a participation grade.  Anything that is done on a daily basis and is repeated consistantly everyday creates long term memory and automaticity (is that the right word?).

 Yes, You see correctly!  That is a piano in my room.  I've actually had it several years now.  Someone had put it in the hallway to get rid of it one year.  I asked if I could have it and the rest is history.  Music is very important in my classroom.  Just think of how many songs you remember the words to, or a vivid memory comes to mind when a certain song is played.  I like to incorporate songs into my lessons whenever possible.

 This beautiful picture, a gift from my daughter, is a focus in my class as a memorium to the classroom pets I had for 12 years.  To to changes in our hallway and other changes at our school, my classroom pets had to be returned to their birthplace, the swamps of Marrero.  They were a great learning tool for all of my former students teaching them things such as responsibility, compassion, life science, ecosystems, and helping us make it through the school year with a pleasant distraction.  Three of them were also Katrina survivors.  Go Turtles!

Our computer center.  We should start on this on Monday.  I have to put the super reader powerpoint on each one tomorrow.  Of course, the students wanted to get on computers today.

So that's a look at my classroom so far.  I'm not quite finished, but I think we're on the right track.  Tomorrow I will write about the secret I shared with the students.  Don't tell them I told you, but I think you'll want to know.

Oh, talk about a first day. from about 1:30 something to about 3:00 today our school lost power!  Yes, we were over 700 students, teachers, and staff, sitting in the dark wondering for a few minutes - how do we teach in the dark.  Then, magically everyone was doing something.  It was, however, the quietest I have ever heard a school on a first day.  After this, the rest of the year should be a piece of cake!