Teacher Talk Thursdays

Today is Teacher Talk Thursday over at Snyder's Stories. Today's topic is "Show and Tell".

By the way this is me at my desk at the beginning of the year when

a. everything is organized

b. floors are waxed and beautiful

c. no piled-up paper work

d. tanned and relaxed teacher

NOTE: (pictures to come of what I look like near the end of the year and what my classroom can turn into).

No seriously I am trying to become more organized -Starting with my morning routine of make-up organization---I did just buy little storage compartments for my make-up (yes, I have THAT much),.  Now if only  I could just put it BACK  after each use:-)

I just had a conversation with my hubby that I wish I could be more organized. His comment to me was focus

on your strengths and not your weaknesses. Now he tells me!!
 SO......
here
are
a few
of my strengths:

I love my job!  I am at a place in my career where I  genuinely enjoying being at work-my students, my team-mate, my curriculum, my routine,even my boss (nice guy) ......I think after almost five years of teaching things are FINALLY starting to fall into place.  I try to be positive, flexible, and remind myself to breathe through times that demand more of my patience.  My students feel comfortable, safe, and know that I will be there to guide and push them to reach their fullest potential.

One of the things I am working hard at is giving more positive feedback-  (some students receive  little or no attention at home-neither positive or negative).

I want to build their confidence and show them that they can do anything with effort.

I am always trying to find new teaching methods and strategies to help guide and strengthen my teaching practices and I found a guy named Chris BIffle ( a college professor out in California). His "Whole-Brain" teaching approach

is something that I have learned so much from. I am going to try to post a YOU TUBE video because seeing is believing.

The one thing I want to share are his rules! He has five although I added one more on respect. The students practice these

six rules at the beginning of class each day. We go through rules 1-6 using gestures to act them out ( it takes very little time).

IF I hear a student talking during my lesson then I just say RULE 1 and the whole class repeats the rule quickly and loudly and

then I carry on (without having to directly say anything to the student or students talking) and the student/s just immediately stop--hard to believe I know!.

Another example is when I am at my desk and a student randomly walks up without permission. I now just say to the student

"RULE 3" (Raise your hand for permission to be on the floor). I don't have to give an explanation or get into a ten minute conversation and it does not become personal so therefore I don't hurt anyone's feelings.

 I just calmly and quietly say RULE 3 and they

just sheepishly go back to their seats. I have many things I love about this approach to teaching but that is the one thing I wanted to share.

View the video for a little more info. -if you are interested.