Hello fellow WBTers!!!

I want to share my wonderful experience with you regarding my trip to TEACHER HEAVEN! Yes it was an amazing journey filled with laughter, giggles, and on task chaos!!! We jumped around, swung our arms, talked loudly, wiggled our bodies, and just had a grand old time today in class. Now some would think "WOW! It must have been a party day." Oh but no!!! You would be mistaken! Today was the first day back after our Spring Break and we had lots to do! We learned about retelling a story and putting the parts of a story in order (Using the CRAZY PROFESSOR READING GAME)...we learned the 1 LESS THAN RULE from the wonderful 1st grade Math Power Pix....and introduced SENTENCE STRUCTURE from the 1st grade Language Arts Power Pix (using the wonderful midnight phone call rule). Yes dear friends we had a full day of learning...and sad to say...we did not win our Mystery Road scoreboard today but never fear...this quite possibly was the most amazing day in my teaching career! There wasn't one moment of teaching frustration! My kinder's were on task...soaking up the excitement and information at the same time! It just so happens that sometimes their excitement/or lack there of got away from them for a few but never a worry...we came close to winning making it to the end of our road!! ITS COOL!

Now...if you are a WBT and haven't quite found Teacher Heaven yet...keep at it! The hard work and persistence will pay off! You will get there...just remember when booking your ticket.....make it a one way trip...because believe me you will not want to go back once you have experienced it! When you can leave your classroom at the end of the day and look at the scoreboard that you won and think WOW...how in the heck did I win today?....you have found TEACHER HEAVEN!!!


Hope you are all having awesome years!!!

Farrah Shipley
2010-2011 WBT Intern
Texas

Great news Farrah!!

I'm hoping for the same results next week. It's time to pull out some things from the big back pocket.

Hey, I had a small part of the pie this morning in teacher heaven. Yup, we started the day with mind soccer and they were telling the answers to the Power Pics right and left. The score was 5 to 5 so I asked them to wait until later in the day to break that tie.


It was a treat to hear a kinder say to the other team "your going down we know this stuff" (HE DID IT POLIETLY)and boy was he right.

Anyway, rain (yes, it rains in Southern California) put a wrinkle in our plans- but look out tomorrow morning! AND HERE IS THE POINT The power pic questions were the same ones some of them missed on our recent benchmark test, oh my goodness.

Thanks Chris!!! I am loving the power pix and the MYSTERY ROAD!!! I thought the kids were going to miss the scoreboard but they love the opportunities to stop class and play Mind Soccer!!!

And to top it off...so much review happens in that 5 min of Mind Soccer! We got at least 20 questions answered during the time...everything from simple math to language defs to vocabulary candy sentences...it was awesome!

Good luck next week!

Annette,

How awesome! It is amazing when you see the light bulbs go off! I love the "friendly taunting"! Whoever in this country said competition isn't a good thing is crazy! Competition drives our desire to better ourselves...and in the end...if it is done in the right spirit...everyone wins..even the ones that lose (thinking of my scoreboard today)!!!

Keep up the great work!

Farrah Shpley
2010-2011 WBT Intern

Oh I'm getting there. Not sure if I've had a WHOLE day like that yet, as we have only implemented certain aspects as of 2 months ago.

Here was my teacher heaven though - a few weeks ago the phone in my class rang. I was in the middle of a guided reading group, other kids were at a stamping center, others were at a fluency center. I walked across the room, answered the phone, talked for a minute, hung up and turned around. My guided readers were GUIDING THEMSELVES. They didn't even need me! My stampers were still stamping! My fluency center kids were still reading fluently. I was super excited!

Oh Teacher Heaven, how I want to get there!! My kiddos were getting the pre Easter wigglies, so I introduced the Mystery Point- a twist on the great Mystery Road idea that I read about in the forum earlier. When the students got a fifth tally mark, that meant it was Mystery Activity time. We took a short break to either do a 1 minute Mind Soccer Game, sing a song, look at a piece of coral that I had brought in, or some other quick brain break. This really supercharged the class energy, which we needed.(I know I sure did!)

I'm saving the actual Mystery Road for later in the year, but this was an easy twist on the score board.

Karen Chavez
Second grade teacher

Karen - I like it. My kids too have the pre-Easter wiggles combined with pre-fieldtrip wiggles for our fieldtrip to the Children's Museum tomorrow. I've even had a kid tell another to bring a pocket knife and (i can't even say it so I'll spell it!) K-I-L-L another student. Of course the five year old who said it wasn't intending any malice but it created an uproar in my class.

Karen~
I LOVE that twist to the mystery road! I'm sure just the simple part of not know what you are going to reward them with gets them going. Thanks for the idea!!!
Andrea

That is so awesome!!! I love that twist on Mystery road! Teacher heaven continues....we had a field trip on Wed this week and I assigned two STUDENT LEADERS! We attended a show at the planetarium and the museum and then the park! Ok teachers, hold onto your seats! I practically didn't have to say or do anything on the trip! LOL! My student leaders kept the class in line, kept their voices at the appropriate level, moved our class from room to room at the museum using READY/EXPLORE (instead of Teach/Okay) and then LINES LINES LINES to call them back to move to the next room! They planetarium and museum staff were IMPRESSED! They were even more impressed that these were KINDERGARTNERS! I just basically ran the time in each room and got to explain exhibits and such! It was the most awesome day! Even took our portable scoreboard along!

WBT ROCKS!

Farrah Shipley
Texas
KINDERGARTEN