Saturday Speed Scrap

Here is my page for tonight's speed scrap with the peeps from My Memories Suite.

The kit is part of the old company the Ettes designed for and is called Tressie

Wordless Wednesday

Tackle it Tuesday

It will be a busy Spring Break tackling some Spring Cleaning and working on some Whole Brain Teaching projects. Check out my Whole Brain Teaching blog to see more. 

Sunday Scrappin'

Might be changing the pictures but here is my ABC album so far for the Treasures Sound Spelling Cards.

From Movies

Don't forget to visit the MMS forum for the Spring Into Scrapbooking ABC album pdf's 

Faith -Serious and Silly

This is not a faith blog and I usually do not post about my faith but I thought I would share a little on this weekend when many are thinking about Jesus Christ and/ or Passover.

For the serious- “I have come that they might have life and might have it in abundance.”—JOHN 10:10.

 

and a little silly

New Whole Brain Teaching Blog

Want to find out more about Whole Brain Teaching? Well hop over to my new Whole Brain Teaching blog where I share all about my experiences with Whole Brain Teaching
http://scrapbunnywbt.blogspot.com/

Tackle it Tuesday

So thankful today was a first grade collaboration day because we got a bunch of great teacher stuff I'll share ASAP. We were challenged to share more with other teachers in the district so one tackle I hope to do this week and Spring Break is organizing my first grade stuff to share. Can't wait for Spring Break to start Friday!
I'm also working on

•  Spring Into Scrapbooking with My Memories Suite
• Re Starting A Heathier Me Challenge once I'm on break

Hope everyone has a great week

My Memories Suite Monday

Jessica from My Memories Suite made an AWESOME cover page for her ABC album with a photo mosaic in the shape of Micky's head. I decided to create a photo template I can use with my Disney photos and made a quick video. Below is the MMS album for you to unzip and have the Mickey page. Enjoy :)

Sunday Scrappin'

Here are the I-N pages for my Sound Spelling Card book. Made all of them in less then 30 minutes in My Memories Suite

Brain Toys

ChrisRekstad posted this great explanation of Brain Toys, the newest goodies from Whole Brain Teaching. Here is the forum post and below it Chris' explanation. Enjoy


There are three levels of understanding: memorization, paraphrasing and original thinking. Brain Toys are used to engage the prefrontal, visual, motor and auditory cortex in original thinking, learning’s highest level.

1. Props: books, pencils, papers, keys, even a whole classroom can become problems, ideas, events, abstractions, etc.

2. Air Blackboard: clean the dirty left corner; pull the screen to any size you want, make invisible diagrams. Good for illustrating the relationship between ideas, creating outlines, anything that can be drawn.

3. Mirror: Use your hands to act out a story. "First", (Hold up one finger)"the man drove his car to town" (Pantomime driving a car), etc.

4. Sockless Hand Puppets: great for conversations between opposing points of view: can be used to compare and contrast or in any dialogue situations.

5. Infinity Sack: Use the Infinity Sack when you need something that can't be illustrated by a single prop. Pull anything you want out of your infinity sack: mountains, cities, people, an ocean, a mouse, a planet of daffodils to use in any explanation...

6. Example Popper: Pop example out of the top of your head to illustrate important points.

7. Vocab Candy: Pop one in your mouth and automatically use a vocabulary word in your next sentence!

8. Two Finger, All Terrain, Action Figures, with Anti-Gravity Boots:
use them to recreate any sequence of events in a story or a process. Walk your Action Figures on your desk, in the air, up your arm, anywhere. They're All Terrain! And they hop free of gravity!

9. Because Slappers: "Because" is probably the single most important word in clear thinking, because it introduces evidence for your conclusions. Slap one hand on top of the other when you use "because" to show your are "building" evidence.

10. Compare/Contrast: Bump your fist together when contrasting; lace your fingers together when comparing. Compare/Contrast is probably the most powerful, most deeply explanatory of all Brain Toys...use frequently!

11. Combos: Use any combination of the above.

Use these when you use the "Teach/Okay". Instead of (clap twice) "Teach"...try this...(Clap Twice) "Props" and the kids say "Okay".

This adds variety and builds massive critical thinking. Try it out tomorrow!

Sunday Scrappin

Changed up the ABC album for the Sound Spelling Cards

Wordless Wednesday

Not ready to share my abc pages yet so I did a quick page of the boys' baby pics. I am so blessed that they are happy, healthy 33 month olds. I still wrry that there is a little language delay but for being preemies and spending 2 weeks in the NICU they are doing soooo well.

Tackle it Tuesday

So I'm busy this week with the usual school and family stuff but also a lot of new.

• Started Spring Into Scrapbooking with My Memories Suite
• Part of the Ultimate Blog Party with 5minutemoms and playing with twitter
• Starting A Heathier Me Challenge 

More then I should be tackling but we are going to give it a try :)

WBT Live TV!

Come join me in the BEST teacher training with WBT! It's a bright new day ...

April 9, Saturday, 9AM PST Got Challenging Kids?  Want to learn a great, academic review game that your students will beg to play?  Tune in to "Mind Soccer!"  Whole Brain Teaching's first, live, TV broadcast and watch Chris Biffle in action!  A few minutes before program time, click on the link below: http://www.livestream.com/wholebrainteaching1    Text In Your Questions Yes!  Our live, TV broadcast will be fully interactive.  Play "Stump Biffle" as you text him your toughest, teaching questions.  Want more info?  Email Chris Biffle at  ChrisBiffle@WholeBrainTeaching.com   Professional Development Credit If you need professional development credit, or would like a copy of the slides used during the program, we'll email you a link to a pdf download for $5.00.  Otherwise, the broadcast is free!  free!  free!

Sunday Scrappin'

Ta-Da's

• Started 2 ABC albums for the MMS Spring Into Scrapbooking
• Updated ACDSee Pro and fixed my categories for sorting digi supplies and photos LOM style (hoping to make a tutorial this month)
• Signed up for the  Spring into Action Photo Challenge

To-Do's

• Stay up to do with the Spring Into Scrapbooking and Spring Into Action challenges
• Finish up tutorials on MMS and ACDSee

Blog Party Prizes

Check out the SUPER cute prizes here

http://julieannart.blogspot.com/

March Round Up

So I have not done a round up in a year! Bad blogger. These are a great way to remember what you have done (or not done) :) For more info on Round Ups visit Katie the Scrapbook Lady. She is AWESOME!

I'm just doing the questions since my tasks are tied to Library Of Memories but Katie has wonderful monthly tasks to do as well.

Here are the questions:

1. What books and/or magazines did I read this month?
2. What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?
3. What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?
4. What gifts did I give and/or receive?
5. What special or unusual purchases did I make?
6. What illnesses or health concerns did I have?
7. What were my accomplishments this month?
8. What were my disappointments this month?
9. How did I do on my goals for the month? (Or any current short or long term goals)
10. Anything else noteworthy to include?

Here are my answers:

• What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

Lots of teaching books, mainly Debbie Diller's new book Math Work Stations. Need to catch up on my spiritual reading but have been listening to mp3's 

• What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?

Too many :) Current favorites on my DVR are: Top Chief, Fairly Legal, Who Do You Think You Are, Shark Tank, Castle, Harry's Law, The Event, The Mentalist, Grey's Anatogy, Private Practice, and Bones

• What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?

Had Family Literacy Night and a week long book fair at school that I was in charge of at the beginning of the month and just had a great gathering with the Pittsburg Spanish congregation

• What gifts did I give and/or receive?

Elisa got some dresses and books from Grandma and Grandpa

• What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Bought Elisa's dress for the Memorial and Muzzy to help us all with Spanish

• What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

Everyone has had the never ending cough /flu and Daniel had another small MIRSA on his leg

• What were my accomplishments this month?

Got all my report cards done and Curriculum Associate tests on time :)

• What were my disappointments this month?

Everyone being sick, don't getting to meeting as much as I want/should

• How did I do on my goals for the month? (Or any current short or long term goals)

Need to work on eating healthier and exercising so I can start losing weight

• Anything else noteworthy to include?

The boys are doing better with speaking, especially Daniel. I'm still a little worried they are language delayed but feel better about where they are now.

Spring Into Scrapbooking Day 2

Today/s assignment is to make the cover page for our abc scrapbook. I am going to try to  make 2 books, one for family and one to help with teaching. Let me know what you think :)

Check out today's lesson http://www.mymemories.com/
forums/13
For my family book I'm finally going to use the ABC book that was from LifeTimez, the software from Top Line Creations that the Ettes designed for. It is similar the the Ettes' ABC book in the store. I am not sure what picture to put on the cover yet so it is just the title

For my school abc book I am using the Girly Doodle kit that I think was part of My Memories Suite version 1 but might be version 2. Here are the possible covers

Whole Brain Teaching

I love Whole Brain Teaching and last week was great so join me for this week's 

FREE! Live WBT TV broadcast, "Stump Biffle!"

9AM Pacific Standard Time, Saturday, April 2. Click below to watch and text in your questions.

http://www.livestream.com/wholebrainteaching1

Blog Party

I love 5MinutedForMom so I thought I would join their blog party. This is my little spot in the internet word that I started when I was a consultant for a scrapbook company. Now I still share about scrapbooking but usually about my family and teaching. Thanks for visiting and hope you hop back over again :)

I

Organizing Math stuff in the Classroom

Continuing with Organization week with

We have consumable math books so I have parents eager to help at the beginning of the year rip out each chapter and staple it so students only have one chapter at a time. This has worked better then giving students the whole book or one page at a time. Students keep their math in a folder in their book bins.
 I was able to grab a TON of Math Land tubs that were being thrown out when we adopted our new math program that I have stacked by my Board Math white board. Here is a picture from before school started this year under the blank board.

 I am reading Debbie Diller's new book Math Work Stations and hope to get all organized soon. 

Daily Organization in the Classroom

Mrs. Patton has invited us all to share our Daily Organization Tips as part of her Organization Week! Finally have time since I have today off :) For daily organization I need to work on my paper stuff and I hope to use the desk apprentice from Staples that I got at the beginning of the year. A teacher was throwing it away along with a lot of other great stuff when he switched rooms. Right now it holds stuff that doesn't fit it my file cabinet like the Oral Vocabulary Cards for Treasures but I think I can fit daily files in it too. The big thing I do do is line up all the files I need for the week on my desktop of my laptop. Here is my desk top for next week. 

I will try to add pics once I update my other daily organizing. Be sure to check out the other ideas for classroom organizing at
 

Spring Into Scrapbooking Day 1

My Memories Suite is doing a Spring Into Scrapbooking month long challenge to make an ABC book by the end of April. Check it out!
http://www.mymemories.com/forums/13