Plot with Gestures and Summarizing

Dog Breath is a fabulous resource to teach plot:  exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. You can also use it to teach foreshadowing and alliteration. Check out the video below of sixth-graders doing 'plot aerobics' and sharing their summaries of this book. A couple of students 'watched' the aerobics which is okay -- because they are still learning. Kudos to Mrs. Jackson's class for being patient with me and allowing me to video some summaries after the lesson was over. :)



You should always teach a lesson at least twice. Check out the modified gestures below. :-)

Math Investigations in 2nd Grade

Mrs. Cooper's Second-Grade Classroom

Skip Counting While Lining Up

One day I was walking down the hallway, and  I heard Mrs. Kinkeade's class skip counting in the hallway. The kids were smiling, having fun AND learning a tool to help with multiplication along the way. I appreciate her sharing her 'tune' with us.

Banana Brain Break

Mrs. Kinkeade used this brain break today during a transition time. You'll notice a few students finishing their origami following directions assignment too. She said she learned this while student teaching with Mrs. Ackerman. :-)

Legislative Branch/Executive Branch Motions

Legislative [Branch] makes the laws
Senate, House of Reps [Representatives]
Get the picture, yeah

*Executive Branch
Enforces laws
President, Vice-President, Cabinet Members

*Note:  As long as Arnold Schwarzenegger is the governor of California, it's easy to teach that the governor is the head of the executive branch at the state level. After all, Arnold is the enforcer. :-)

P.S. I only humiliated myself by videotaping these motions for a friend. She asked for me to write them out, but it's so much easier to simply demonstrate. I hope this makes sense. :-)

Kagan Structure - Fan-N-Pick

Kagan Structure - Quiz-Quiz-Trade

Kagan Structure - Traveling Quiz N Show

If YouTube is Blocked ...

I just learned this today:

If you teach in Nixa and YouTube is blocked on your computer, simply restart your computer.

Need a Smile? Ferris Bueller Teaching Clip

Multiplication - Use Your Hands to Learn Nines

Beginning Middle and End (Classic Sesame Street)

For some reason, blogger has disabled the embedding code for this video, so I'm sharing the link below instead. It's almost three minutes long, and it emphasizes that stories have a beginning, middle and end. It's a bit primary, but the tune is catchy. :) I like it.

Link to view:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnoJwfnzmqA

Power Teaching Basics (Now Whole Brain Teaching)

It's been a couple of years since I had Power Teaching (now Whole Brain Teaching) on my blog, but it's a FREE and easy way to help in managing those hard to manage classrooms. Quite honestly, it works well in all classrooms. Many teachers in Nixa use some of Chris Biffle's methods, so if you're interested in learning more, let me know. In fact, several teachers at High Pointe attended a presentation on this in West Plains, MO.

Baby Beluga

YouTube saved the day again.  I was working on a M.A.P. lesson for a third-grade classroom on using details with text about whales. We all know that using details is not the most exciting topic to teach but necessary to get full credit on the test. I remembered a song called "Baby Beluga" and found it in seconds on YouTube. It was fun to tease the students to tell them they would 'have' to listen to the song if they forgot their details since the song is pretty primary. I then told them I personally like the song, so don't tease me about it. After letting them listen to part of the Baby Beluga song, I showed the whale clip below. That was much more their speed. How did we survive without technology?

Nifty Thrifty Fifty Review

Each lesson below reviews five Nifty Thrifty Fifty words. I hope to get all 50 posted soon. Click start and then clue to play. If you have trouble downloading any files and would like me to e-mail them or bring them to you on a flashdrive, let me know. Also, these are draft -- if you see mistakes, please let me know so I can fix them.

 http://www.box.net/shared/9gtj9v1mqc

• richest
• prettier
• nonliving
• continuous
• swimming

http://www.box.net/shared/p3g3ot9853

• classify
• community
• communities
• electricity
• happiness

http://www.box.net/shared/a5ozxvcfrc

• submarine
• independence
• transportation
• unfinished
• beautiful

http://www.box.net/shared/cnxasix6fx

• composer
• impossible
• expensive
• governor
• impression

http://www.box.net/shared/lor2eno70t

• hopeless
• discovery
• encouragement
• musician
• unfriendly

Assessment Session Postponed Until February

The Keeping Assessment in Perspective session on balancing teaching and assessing will be postponed until Tuesday, February 1, from 3-4 or 4-5 at Faught Administration Center. Please RSVP to cheryldick@nixaschools.net. Be prepared to walk away with ideas you can implement the very next day.

Following Directions R3D (Context Clues too)

Access lesson here:  http://www.box.net/shared/770j6vssrz
If you received this lesson via e-mail, you may want to download this version. I typed of instead of off in the original one. Sorry!