The first full day of Get Your Teach On was everything I knew it would be and more! I loved the different themed rooms. I was in the fourth grade room and it was a super cute Angry Birds theme. Each table had a green box containing group supplies. We also had small decorations. My table had a slingshot and an Angry Bird plush along with pompoms. Some tables had TNT made from pool noodles. The stage had a backdrop with cut-out letters of GYTO. There were boxes scattered around and some other plush characters....very cute.
This time this is what the notebook looked like I loved the muted tones. I like the retro color scheme.
Here is a close up picture of the table.
A quick view of the front of the room, the stage area, but the speakers definitely did not stay up there, they had a few chairs scattered around for the speakers to stand on.
This is the bag we got and it had a few freebies inside. We got a tie dye face mask, and a cute lanyard with oversized beads. I was thinking we would get a small notebook because last time we. did, but it was not included this time, so I thankfully had brought my teacher idea hard cover notebook and I used that. We also got a Seat Sack. The third day, we got a tiny sign from the Simply Stained Shop.
My first breakout session was Amelia Capatosta. She is one of my favorites. Her session was a Greatest Showman circus theme. It was absolutely amazing and filled with fun ideas for making reading class one that students will always love.
This quote resonated with me. You don't have to give a grade for everything, some things can just be for practice and there is nothing wrong with that. Students need time to practice to get better and master a skill.
Here is a fun craftivity we did with vocab/spelling words. Students would build these little circus tents, the lid removes and they sort the word by the featured sounds, in this case "ai".
This one, also very fun, was using different roots and students build a cute popcorn box to hold their popping' words for some vocal practice.
Who doesn't like cup stacking? This one includes the roots as well and also a ball to knock over the tower. Then students try to make words using the roots.
And of course, it wouldn't be GYTO without meeting my teacher heroes.
Steve Spangler showed up and when he shows up, he shows up big. It is a lot of fun to watch his science show. He is amazing! Lots of quotes to think about, but one that sticks out is, "If it gets to the dinner table, you win." Create experiences over activities. He says that you want to get kids talking about what you are doing. If they talk about it at home, you have won.
Chris Pombonyo and Josie Bensko presented a fun sports-themed Wide World of STEAM breakout session. We did some STEAM challenges and talked about what STEAM looks like in the classroom, including assigning roles to each student.
1. Coach: Speaks to Teacher
2. Manager: Manages Materials
3. Reporter: Writes and Communicates
4. Player: The Tester
5. Referee: Makes Sure the Rules are Followed.
We also learned about the six steps to STEAM learning. It was a lot of much fun! These two have so much energy and it was contagious.
We all got a sweatbands and jerseys to wear for the breakout session. I know students would love this! Who doesn't love a good theme?
A quick picture with two more of my teaching heroes. These two are awesome!
If you follow Shane Saeed from Fantastically Fourth, you know that anything she does is top-notch. This breakout was no different. It was called, Making Math Stick. It was all about retrieval practice. My favorite highlight was using brain dumps before testing to increase scores. Basically you have the students write down everything they remember from the topics you have studied before doing the actual test. This helps them retrieve the information that they are about to be tested for. When you do this, it is proven to raise test scores.
Of course I had to meet Shane, who I have been following for a while.
One more up close picture of the stage area of the fourth grade breakout room. It was pretty cool in there. Loved the vibe.
They had the sweetest little VW bus it was basically there the entire four days and everyone could get pictures in it.
So there you have it, day 2 was a hit!
