Monday Meet Up and Monday Made It- 6/23

I just love linky parties! Great opportunity to find new blogs and network with awesome teachers.

First I am linking up for the first time with the Teaching Tribune for Monday Meet Up. Everyone is sharing little random facts....join in and share!

Three random facts about me....

When deciding what to name me my aunt came up with the brilliant idea to name me after my grandmothers. It's funny because those two ladies are the reason I'm the woman I am today. 

I'm slightly picky when it comes to food. There are several foods I won't eat because I can't stand the texture. I'm weird about tomatoes too, I can eat them on hamburgers but not on a salad because I can feel the texture. Weird..ha!

Charmed is one of my favorite shows! I watch the re-runs that come on in the morning even I own the whole box set. Love it!

Now on to my link up with Tara for Monday Made It. 

I made whisper phones! Since I am moving to first, I wanted to make whisper phones to help those little firsties with fluency! Of course this pinspired project was all over the place and seemed easy enough so I went for it!

On a scale of 1-super crafty I'm like a 6 depending on the complexity of the task. These were super easy, and cheap {my favorite}. I thought about spray painting but decided to keep it simple with washi tape. They came out great!

Easy Whisper Phones

You need: 10 ft. long 3/4 in pvc cut into 3 1/2 in. pieces, 3/4 in. elbow pvc pipe (2 for each phone) and washi tape or duct tape

So as I blogged about last week I went to the WBT national conference. I've used elements of WBT for the past two years but this year I'm going full force. I made rule posters last year but modified them a bit. I've decided to add the official WBT rules and included them all together as a free download. Click the picture for your WBT rules freebie!

That's it for me! Off to work out and get started on this week's projects!

Five for Friday-June 20th!

It's Friday and I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the Five for Friday linky. For me this week has been amazing....be sure you link and share your week!

On Sunday I drove 9 hours from Atlanta to Alexandria, LA for the Whole Brain Teaching Conference! I left really late because I bartended the night before and had to get everything ready. It was a long drive and during the drive I asked "Why did I do this to myself?", however I found out the why once I reached Louisiana! 

 The Whole Brain Teaching Conference was nothing short of amazing! Day 2 was definitely my favorite day because (clapper) we learned about oral writing. Coach B broke down the lesson sketch in morning session and Farrah Shipley broke it down even further for the teachers of firsties!

Mrs. Shipley breaking down the oral writing diagram! I just love her! I was extremely excited to learn from her, talk to her and got some great advice for how to work WBT with Class Dojo! You rock Mrs. Shipley!

On the last day, I finally got some pictures in! I was so engaged in the conference, didn't take a ton of pics! I happen to believe I got thee best pictures with Coach B! If you follow me on instagram you might've seen them!

 Before I left, I had to get some authentic cajun food. I looked up the best take out Cajun restaurant in Alexandria and Debarge's was the go to place! Man on man was it! The cashier was super sweet and let me try their cacklins and boudin balls free of charge! Talk about yums! {I'll be working that off in the gym  next week}

On my way back I made a pit stop in Natchez, MS to go to the riverfront! It was gorgeous!

In addition.......

Before I left for the conference I put together my whisper phones {$16 project}. Now that I'm back this weekend I will be spray painting and adding washi tape! I've also been working on a QR code station and have lots of things to make for my WBT journey!

Happy Friday y'all!

WBT National Conference and then some

Hey Everyone!

I am back and before I get going with this post I MUST shout out Tessa at Tales from A Blog Designer for my beautiful and brand spanking new blog design! She's awesome to work with and gets your blog up and running in no time!

I am currently in Alexandria, Louisiana at the National Whole Brain Teaching Conference and can I just say I am soooooo excited about the coming school year!!! I am moving to 1st grade next year and to be quite honest was not happy about the move because I absolutely looooooooooooooove {you hear me} third grade! Despite the extremely tough year I had this year, I still love third but I am embracing the change and challenge, and being here at the WBT conference has definitely sparked the change of heart.

On Day 1 I was completely out of it because I drove 9 hours from Atlanta to Louisiana solo but I still absorbed a ton of great ideas from THE great Chris Biffle himself, as well as the lovely Farrah Shipley. Currently in my classroom, I use Class-Yes, Hands-Eyes, the 5 rules {modified}, the Super Improver's Wall, and gestures.  I wanted to attend the conference to get a better understanding of other classroom management tools like the scoreboard, Teach-Ok, Mirrors, Three-Peat etc. When I tell you I was invigorated about each of these practices even through my haze and disorientation, {9 hours people!} I really mean it! Coach B also went into further detail about the progression of the levels of the classroom management tools like the practice cards and dealing with backtalk. A huge part of me was all.....where was all this with this past year's 3rd graders????? *hits head* I'm all in now!

Day 2...man on man did we learn a lot about WBT writing. The entire day was spent on writing with Coach B leading the morning and afternoon sessions with breakouts in between. I was really excited about the components of oral writing, the genius ladder and triple whammy sentences during my breakout with Mrs. Shipley, but I was totally floored and completely sold on WBT writing when Coach B taught us the history of western civilization using WBT Writing "Brainies"! Western Civilization! Hours later I can still tell you about prehistoric times, and the order of the civilizations! WHOA!

Tomorrow is Day 3 and the last day and I will definitely be back to share more. I just had to get this post in because I am already planning how I intend to implement WBT fully in my first grade classroom in conjunction with all of the other systems and techniques I use. Wib on y'all!