First Week=FANTASTIC

Wow! I can't believe the first week went by so quickly! I have 26 (soon to be 28) firsties, with a co-teacher. They are great students, who did a fantastic job this week. As I stated in an earlier post, I wanted to start this year the correct way with Whole Brain Teaching techniques. Well, I did it! I managed to teach "class, yes", "teach, okay", "papers in", "lines", "seats" and I added "table buckets". Each table has a bucket with supplies like crayons, scissors, glue and markers. I say "ohhhhh, it's table bucket time" and my students say, "ohhhhh it's table bucket time" as one student from each table gets their bucket. It has worked out GREAT!!
I was worried about having this many students, however with Whole Brain techniques I can see that it isn't so scary after all because they are sooooo engaged. My co-teacher is getting the hang of it too and she can see the difference it makes. One thing that I've been focusing on is to say, "rule number 2: raise your hand for permission to speak", whenever a student calls out. I've been pretty successful, however I have caught myself returning to the "shhh" moment. My goal next week is for myself and my students to keep focusing on rule number 2. I think it is going to be a great year! I will post pictures of my classroom later this week, I LOVE my room!