Throwback Thursday- Common Core PowerPix

I first started working on switching the official WBT PowerPix with CA state standards to Common Core standards in 2011. I want to be clear NONE of these PowerPix were created by me, they are all a part of the grade level PowerPix that are on the WBT ebook area. The original PowerPix reference the California State Standards and all of California and many other states are now following the Common Core standards. I used a digital scrapbooking program, My Memories Suite, to modify the  PowerPix to reference the Common Core Standards. The originals had the PowerPix and teacher notes in one file. In the files I made there is one file of the Pix for ELA and one for Math for each grade level to be printed in color and/or shown on your LCD projector. There is a separate file of teacher notes, one ELA and one Math for each grade level, that can be printed in black and white. I have my PowerPix in sheet protectors with the matching teacher notes slid in the same sheet protector so that I can hold the PowerPix up and read the teacher notes :)

Here is a little explanation of what is on each PowerPix. I have simply changed the California State Standards to the Common Core Standards and formated the Teacher Notes to be one page for each PowerPix.

You can learn more about using PowerPix from Coach B's webcast below and from wholebrainteaching.com 

 Below are links to the Common Core PowerPix I currently have finished. If you are at a school that does not use Common Core or teach upper grades that I have not finished PowerPix for be sure to check out this post for the JPEGs of the PowerPix. PowerPix are one of my favorite WBT tools and I hope that these updated PowerPix and Teacher notes are useful.

ELA PowerPix with Common Core Standards 

 Just click the picture to download the PowerPix and then grab the Teacher Notes from the Goggle Doc.

Kate Bowski has 3rd Grade Reading and Writing PowerPix HERE

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Math PowerPix with Common Core Standards 

 Just click the picture to download the PowerPix and then grab the Teacher Notes from the Goggle Doc.

Kate Bowski has 3rd Grade Math PowerPix HERE

WBT Book Club Chapters 1 & 2

Today I am linking up with The Teacher's Desk 6 for Throwback Thursday. I am loving the badge, so purr-fect! This is a post from my WBT blog with my response to the WBT Book Club prompt for Chapters 1 & 2. Remember you can join in at the book club any time at http://wbtbookclub.blogspot.com/ :)

Have you grabbed your copy of Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids yet? I have had the free ebook for years now so I have to admit that I wasn't in a hurry to grab the new Amazon book by WBT co-founder Chris Biffle( Sorry Coach).  I figured I should know all of the stuff that would be in it right? I watched all the webcasts, read all the ebooks, have gone to a training so I should know this all. Well when they decided to have a book club for the book I knew I had to grab it and see what was new.  Well it is a must have friends! Even if you can just grab the Kindle version you will not be disappointed. This book really does give you the whole picture of what Whole Brain Teaching is today. There have been so many additions over the years that it can be overwhelming to start using Whole Brain Teaching and this book shows you where to start and how to successfully become a Whole Brain Teacher or WBT'er. 

You will want to join the book club once you get your book, you are ordering it now right? The best part of the book club is that it is not a summer book study but an ongoing book club you can join at any time! It doesn't matter if you got your book last month or get it next week or in 2015, you can join in. I have had my book for a couple months but am just now ready to share my answers to the book club questions. I will warn you that many of the questions/assignments are hard, especially if you are going for certification points, but all worth at least contemplating for your self. 

Click on the image below to read and respond to the Chapter 1-2 assignment and read on for my response :)

Welcome everyone! Today I want to start our year together with a 45 minute lecture and discussion on classroom management systems. I need you all to turn your cell phones into the basket in the middle of the table and give me your full attention. If you can not follow along and fully participate in our discussion you will need to write a one page essay on listening skills during lunch. OK are we ready to begin? Why don't you look excited? Doesn't a 45 minute lecture sound exciting? Don't you respond well to the threat of punishment? No? But we will have discussion time! Well you can relax because really today we are going to talk about classroom management but in a fun and much more engagement friendly way because I am going to be using Whole Brain Teaching.

The First Great Law of Whole Brain Teaching is: The longer we talk, the more students we lose. This applies not just to students kindergarten thru college age, but even adults in a staff meeting. I can give you a great lecture on the history of classroom management systems I have tried, complete with a 50 page Power Point but as soon as I have talked more than 15 minutes none of you will be hearing anything but “WahWahWahWah” like in Charlie Brown. Even if I add discussion time few of you will be talking about what I want you to be discussing. When I gave my first technology training to teachers I thought it would be great because I had so much built in discussion time but really I only had the attention of 10% of the teachers and the others were talking about everything but what I was teaching. We are going to make sure we watch how long we talk so we don't lose many students.

Now I could have called out those teachers that were not on task during that technology training and I could make you write that one page essay at lunch but punishing adults is just as ineffective as punishing students. When we are bored we all act out or tune out, no matter the age. So what can we do if punishment doesn't work? Here is the secret I learned from Whole Brain Teaching Challenging Students written by WBT co-founder Chris Biffle, if a student’s whole brain is involved in learning, there isn’t any mental area left over for challenging behavior. For our classroom management to work we need to work on engagement of the whole brain. I want you all engaged at staff meetings this year as much as I want our students engaged in every lesson this year so this is as much talking at one time as I will be doing all year.

So we have the First Great Law and the secret of Whole Brain Teaching but why are we talking about using it? What makes it work better than traditional classroom management systems? Orderly Fun! The main thing that makes Whole Brain Teaching work is because it produces classrooms that are full of orderly fun. WBT is more like a large, lively game than a traditional elementary school classroom management system. Just as in all games, there are penalties as well as rewards… but like “going to jail” in Monopoly ®, even the penalties are entertaining. We learn better when we are having fun so we are going to have fun in our classrooms and our staff meetings. Who's ready to really get started with our year now?

Throwback Thursday- Confer

I am excited to do my first link up with The First Grade Parade for

This is actually going to be a throwback and an update to a guest post I did last year that is no longer showing on the other blog :(  and a follow up post I do on the Confer app. First the throwback post :)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Original posted at LMTree June 30, 2012 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Hi! Welcome to the Blog Swap and Hop! I am excited to be here at Arlene's blog today. This is my first ever guest post so I hope you forgive any typos :)  I'm Melissa O.  from Transitional Kinder with Mrs. O. I will be teaching Transitional Kindergarten this fall in California after 11 years teaching in elementary technology, first grade and kindergarten. In every grade I have taught I have always been amazed at how much differentiation is needed and how much growth is possible in one year. It is awesome when that struggling student becomes a top student. Today I wanted to share with you a tool that has helped me the last 2 years keep track of differentiation, the Confer app.

The Confer app has helped me so much in my planning, conferencing with students and meeting with parents because I can take notes quickly during Reading and Writing Workshop on individual students, small groups or even whole class lessons. I even track behavior with Confer. The Confer app is for iPods, iPhones and iPads and can be found at http://www.conferapp.com/. I have no affiliation with the app or its maker but love that he is a teacher sharing something that he created for his classroom.
Here's what you can do with Confer:

• take notes on individual students and small groups

• view your students by the "tag", "strength", "teaching point", or "next step" in your note

• view your students by date, level, group or flag

• search through student notes

• create flexible small groups 

• upload your data to your gmail account as a spreadsheet

• export and import your data on any iOS device via email

I started with the free Lite version then upgraded to the paid after I saw what I could do with the app. With the Lite version you are limited to 2 subjects, 10 students per subject and 5 notes per student.  You can export data through email but not import so it really is just to see what the app can do. When I used the Lite version I found 2 ways to make it work since I had 20 students. The first way was to track 10 students in subject 1, the other 10 students with subject 2 and export the data each Friday. I would then copy and paste the data into a new excel sheet to look at all the data of all the students. This gave me the data with a few extra steps. The second way I used the Lite version was to track small groups and whole class lessons. 

After a few months cutting and pasting I decided to upgrade and it is much easier :) I have all my students and can take as many notes as I like. I use the CAFE approach to notes based on The Sisters' work you can find at http://www.thedailycafe.com/. My Tags are Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Vocab. For Strength I list what the student is doing well on and the Teaching Point is the CAFE Strategy the student is working on. I often fill out Next Step after conferencing with students as I sort the data. With the paid app I usually sort data during lunch or in the evening during commercials because all I need is my iPhone :) I can quickly see who needs to work on the same skill, who I haven't met with in a while, who is ready for a new skill, which groups are working, which groups need something new and what needs to be taught whole class again. It is also great during parent conference week because I can show parents the notes for their student.
If you want a visual of all that Confer can do here is the video about the app :)


I hope that some of you can see that Confer is an easy and fast way to track during and after Reading and Writing Workshop and give it a try. If you do decide to purchase the paid version please stop by my blog at

Be sure to post a comment with your email and I will email you my Confer spreadsheet to help get you set up :) I hope you will visit even if you decide Confer is not for you for Teacher Tech Tuesdays and Whole Brain Teaching Wednesdays. Thanks for hopping with Arlene and me! Enjoy hopping to all the other great blogs!



NOW the update for July 2013!

It is now much easier to share files, all I need is your Confer id and I can send you my Confer file with my Tags, Next Steps, ext based mostly on The CAFE by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser.  I also have included my Behavior file based on a clip chart system and Whole Brain Teaching rules. You can import this file on Confer Lite or Confer :)
When you have downloaded Confer you will see one of these screens when you open it  

 

If you see the screen on the right click on the little gear at the bottom of the screen and you will get this screen. 

When you click on Enable Syncing you will get the Cloud screen and from there you can create an account. Once you have your account name come back here and leave a comment with it and I can add you to the list  of people that can download the file and message you that you have been added. Once added you will see the Behavior and Reading CAFE subjects when you open Confer. Remember you can only have 2 subjects with Confer Lite but you should be able to take a look at both files if you haven't created your own subjects in Confer Lite.

 If sharing works well I well share my current files for the other CAFE menus and more WBT goodies :)