I was a little disheartened...BUT .....

Come to find out that our district will not allow us to blog about our class, use pictures or videos in any form on a blog...Well, I gave up and decided that I would wing it on my own. However we learn from each other, so I thought that maybe if I did not use any names, pictures or videos maybe I will not get into trouble. I really need all of you to make me the best I can be. 


I was feeling very isolated until a couple weeks ago one of the 3rd grade teachers came to me to talk about something. We talked and I introduced him to whole brain teaching and lent him my huge binder with the WBT books in it....He has been using it with his class and loves it....He now has introduced it to his team and they are wanting more information...THANKS to a wonderful teacher from another grade level I am also becoming excited. I am getting to see the excitement spread and the children from other grades learning....

Also the wonderful ESE teacher I worked with last year in 4th grade was talking with me. She said that our ESE kids are not as excited about reading as they were last year. This makes me so sad...they are a wonderful group of students who need the actions, movement and excitement to learn. I cannot stand to think of them in a traditional situation; sitting and being lectured too....I wish I could be with them. The ESE teacher does what she can but since we are inclusion she is in another teacher's classroom and unless that teacher makes her and them part of the class it is like an outsider looking in....

Here's whats been happening this year in a nutshell....

My class consists of 16 students who retained in kindergarten for various reasons and one first year kindergartener. The students are extremely kinesthetic and should I say talkative/energetic. I come home extremely exhausted...
We use whole brain teaching and the students are loving it. When we do knee to knee however we are still having both talking. I can't seem to get them to understand one talks the other listens and vise versa....ANY SUGGESTIONS????

Now that I have come to mid year almost...I have very distinct levels in my groups...they range from some who are still below pre-k level and still can't write their names (fine motor skills) to my high group that have this past week started 1st grade work or kindergarten knocked up a notch....

WHOLE GROUP is a hard time because of the distinct levels in my room.  I need some ideas....I am trying to figure a way to cover the kindergarten CCS while kicking it up a knotch in order to keep the others engaged....this is for both reading and math...

I am doing a lot of center time with flex groups being pulled....this is helping keeping everyone on the level that they need....Now my next problem....ANY ideas for including WBT in the small group setting while making sure you do not stop ALL the other center activities because they love WBT so much....


Excitedly awaiting all of your input and ideas....kel

Two weeks and still holding strong

     We have been in school for two weeks. I have not kept up with my blogging as well as I wanted too. My daughter and granddaughter (18 mos) was visiting before their 3 year trek to Japan. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with them. We had a wonderful time together and Aly loved the fact that she got to tuck her YaYa in bed every night. Guess she loved the fact that she was not the first to be put to bed.
     Also my classroom is still in the process of being arranged due to a problem with moving my interactive white board from my old 4th grade class to kindergarten. The kinders were so excited yesterday with they brought the board in. We won't mention that I did a dance and looked like a little kid in a candy store. I was also made team leader which is very new for me since I have not been in kindergarten for a couple years and have never been a team leader before. My kinder team is an AWESOME bunch and I love working with them. One of the newbees who moved to kindergarten this year was having problems with control last week. I told her about WBT and she has already seen a difference in her class this week.
     My students are doing GREAT with the 5 rules. They can actually tell you which rule they broke when they do something wrong. We are still working on perfecting the classity class....they seem to be so engrossed in their learning that they do not respond as well as I was hoping for at this time. I guess it will come with practice.... I am also in the process of matching the common board configuration with the power pics. I was thinking that it would be better for the little ones if everything matched.
     I did get before school started pictures and was hoping to upload them before now but those plans did not come to pass. I will work on trying to get them up this weekend along with some pictures up to this point....

Totally Bummed

I have been waiting for today all summer long. It was supposed to be the day we could get into our rooms and work before next weeks preplanning. That is the operative--SUPPOSED to--well due to county cuts our janitors had other schools to work on as well as ours. Well to make a long story short I was able to drop off a few items and take pictures of the before of my classroom but that was it....

I will post the before pictures in the am if not before. Now the waiting game....I will be able to get into my class Wednesday...

Whole Brain Intern

School is just around the corner and I am so excited. I can not wait to begin a new year with a new class. But best of all I am going enhance my classroom environment by incorporating Whole Brain Teaching completely. I have been using parts of it successfully but have not completely dived in.

WHOLE BRAIN TEACHING Rocks!