Back to School- Classroom Tour

You better up your bandwidth baby because today you get to peek around the place where I spend way too much time. Let the pictures roll... 

It's slightly unfinished, a tad disorganized, always more dusty than I'd like, but it's my little place where I get to do what I do.

I usually don't go theme crazy, and instead opt for vibrant bright colors. I like the idea of a full blown theme, but this works for me. 

Here's my little piece of the pie. 

I love using WBT's Super Improvers last year with my 3rd graders. I know my little first grade darlings will love it too! 

I really love my calendar board. It's missing a few components, but we'll get there. I'm giving my self permission to not stress out this year! 

Here is my huge gigantic board that I probably should have divided up, but I was running out of time. So it got some bunting that was left over from last years room (I changed rooms this year!) and ta-daa. Here's whatcha get. That paper is NOT so neon green...don't know why it looks that way on my screen????

That's all I got for ya today. Keep it real home slice...

(my husband always says that...I don't really understand the phrase, but whatev...keep it real anyway, haha!)

Thinking Maps!

During my one month hiatus from the blogging world, I went for the last two days of my Thinking Maps Training of Trainers course. So excited to say I'm officially "certified" to train teachers at my school in the use of Thinking Maps. We just need to purchase our teacher binders and schedule a training date. Yay! 

I was originally interested in bringing Write From the Beginning (the writing component of Thinking Maps) to our school, but found out that schools had to implement Thinking Maps prior to being allowed to purchase the writing component. I was a little bummed, since a school-wide writing program is really what we were looking for. 

I have to tell you, I am SO thrilled that we have to bring the Thinking Maps to our school first. The 5 days of training that I received was incredible. Seeing the possibilities for increasing student engagement and rigor was so exciting. I've been slowly introducing Thinking Maps to my 3rd graders and I'm excited to start pushing student thinking with the use of the maps. 

I'm also excited to share some snapshots of ways that we're using Thinking Maps in class. If you've never heard of Thinking Maps I suggest you visit the Thinking Maps website and watch the intro video for a taste of what Thinking Maps is all about.

Here's a Tree Map (used for classifying) that we created as a class before students even knew what a Tree Map was. Prior to the Tree Map we created a Circle Map (used for defining in context) to brainstorm what students thought the class rules should be. The tree map helped me show how all of their ideas fit into the 5 classroom rules from Whole Brain Teaching. It was a perfect beginning of the year lesson!

I Learned Something New: Age +2

I started a 3-part professional development series on brain based teaching. I LOVE IT! I haven't read a lot about whole brain teaching, but I bet it's similar.

You may have already known this rule, but if not you'll probably join me in thinking, "How on earth did I not know this!?" 


Here's how this Age +2 rule works:

Take the age of the students in your class and add 2.

What you have now figured out is about how long you will be able to keep your students engaged during instruction. After that point, their little brains will automatically be scheduling a break, whether you're ready for it or not.


Immediately I thought, okay video professor man, so you're telling me that since most of the kids in my class are about 8 or 9, I can keep them engaged for only 10-11 minutes? But what about the other 40 minutes of our math period?


His advice: Make that little break the brain is going to take intentional. Schedule it!


Now, the first thing I thought of are those adorable little brain breaks that I've seen floating around on my fellow teacher blogs. If I understand correctly though, these are quick physical activities to do periodically throughout the day. 


What my video professor man was suggesting is more like a processing pause. It's a time where the teacher stops talking and the students think. The students stop simply collecting data (the teacher's words) and engage in reflection. These pauses can be as quick as 2-3 minutes, depending on the activity. 


Make sure your processing pause hits one or more of the following working memory processes:


Comprehension- in the brain this consists of sorting, organizing, and labeling recently collected data.


Elaboration- this occurs in the brain when we relate new data to past experiences or known data (long-term memory).


Application- this is where students provide evidence of understanding by using or applying the new information.


Here's what this might look like in a classroom of 3rd graders (remember, I only have about 10 minutes before little brains take a hiatus): 


9:00 Math Class Begins:
The teacher introduces common tools for measurement: ruler, yardstick, measuring cup, scale, thermometer, gallon jug, tape measure, balance, etc.

• 9:10 Processing Pause- Have students talk with their neighbor to categorize these tools according to what they think they would be used to measure. Have students share with the whole class. 

9:15
The teacher selects one tool and gives more details about how that measurement tool is used. The teacher demonstrates how to use the tool to measure. The teacher might even call a few students up to the front of the class to see if they can mirror her demonstration. 

• 9:25 Processing Pause- Have students take out their math journals and quickly write a few sentences about a time when they have used that measuring tool or have seen it used. Have students read their journal response to their neighbor or have a few share with the class. 

And the lesson would continue with quick reflective activities interspersed throughout. 


What other processing pauses could you use in your class?