Five For Friday - Newbie Post!

Here is my first shot at participating a Five For Friday, or really any linky party for that matter! I have been a teacher blog reader for years and I finally feel like I might have something to contribute now that I'm starting my fifth year of teaching! Whoo-Hoo!

 In my district, you have to pack up your whole classroom at then end of every year and whatever doesn't fit in the two teacher cabinets in your classroom has to be stored at home for the summer. My first two years of teaching I had the classroom of my dreams with 4 walls, a door, the key to the building so that I could work in my classroom during the summer..... aahhhhhh..... I am envious of you all who have these things. While Cy-Fair is quite unique it is a great place to work and I've quite acclimated to the open-concept classrooms. I have yet to have any of my teaching neighbors complain about how loud my classroom is. I'm also changing grade levels and campuses this year so a major clean-out of my teaching items was needed. Here is what I have so far.....

Thankfully, we have an empty room in our house that becomes my teacher storage area during the summer because in Houston you don't leave anything that could be rained on or melt in the garage!

 Mardel's 20% off sale during the summer is one of my most favorite days. Last year I practically bought the place out, but that means that this year I was able to be a little more economical (and the hubs put me on a budget for classroom purchases during the summer....bummer). You can see what my classroom looked like last year here. I decided to keep all the black, add in some brighter colors, and get rid of the maroon because another classroom already claimed Texas A&M for their No Excuses University classroom at my new campus. :(

I'm going to try and let students create some of the classroom decorations so that it will feel like "theirs".

 Can we just celebrate that I have officially blogged more in the past week than in the past year?!?! Hallelujah! Let's just see if I can keep this up when my master's program and school starts back up.... Speaking of master's programs, I decided to not only take 2 four week long master's classes, BUT teach summer school too! #crazy
Obviously I survived, not only that but I received A's in both classes and they were not easy!!! WHOOP!

 I spent the last couple days updating my district website to be more than a contact information. One of the things that I have absolutely fallen in love with, and I have found I'm not the only one, is Symbaloo! I created a Symbaloo "page" for each of our math topics and am working on adding websites so that students have a central location for all the websites I want them to visit. I'm not quite sure how to follow other people or share my "pages" just yet, but I'd be more than happy to share what I have!

In just a few short days, my hubby and I will be camping, hiking and jeeping in Colorado! We keep joking that we might just not ever return to Houston from our trip!

That's Mt. Sneffels, a 14er that we are supposed to climb! I'll let you know how that goes!

Thanks for visiting and I hope that you'll be back! Let's link it up!

Making a Case for Music

To preface this post, you really need to glance over the previous blog post here.

In summary, this year I, The Techie Teacher, do solemnly promise to use music with more purpose during the 2014-2015 school year. Not willy-nilly, pandora-ing like I used to.

A few things to consider:

First.....Match the music to the activity (duhhhhh...) You know, slow music for journaling and upbeat for fastwriting. Mind-blowing, right?

Second......Choose music without lyrics when students need to concentrate. This is one I know from experience. There is no way that I can grade something that I have to read and process if I have music with words or the tv going.

Quantum Learning adds the next few reasons.

The brain can only concentrate on one new thing at a time.
Lyrics may distract the brain from learning.
If new information is being processed or learned, music with lyrics may be using valuable space in our working memory.

Choosing the right kind of music can not only signal our students to start or end and activity, but it can also help our students who struggle with hearing the noise from lights and other distracting noises around our classroom by create a "white noise". This is especially helpful for our ADHD/ADD and Autistic kiddos.

As we orchestrate learning in our classrooms, we need to purposefully choose music to guide our students into the best learning state. Music sets the mood, changes states, and supports the learning environment. Music stimulates, rejuvenates, and strengthens learning both consciously and unconsciously.

So, what kind of music do we need to purposefully play in our classrooms? Well, they fall into four categories: Upbeat lyrical, upbeat non-lyrical, slow/medium lyrical, and slow/medium non-lyrical.

UPBEAT LYRICAL

 Happy by Pharrell Williams
Counting Stars by One Republic
Firework by Katy Perry
Stronger by Kelly Clarkson
These can be used from come-in songs, moving seats, distributing papers/supplies, or other transitions. I would think that any song that I choose for a transition should only be about 30 seconds long. In another post, I will show a tutorial with how to cut a song, as well as a post with what songs I will be using for what transitions.
Glee and KidsBop are good resources for this one

UPBEAT NON-LYRICAL

Pretty much anything by The Piano Guys! I like this one, this one, and this one too.
Pirates of the Caribbean Theme Song
Tron Movie Theme
Chariots of Fire
Root Beer Rag by Billy Joel
This music is best for fast-writing, group work, project creation, or seat work

SLOW/MEDIUM LYRICAL

Hey, There Delilah by the Plain White T's
Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
A Thousand Years By Christina Perri
Gone, Gone, Gone by Phillip Phillips
I See the Light from Tangled
I can see myself using this type of music for a "one-song break", transitions, or a group activity not requiring focused attention.

SLOW/MEDIUM NON-LYRICAL

This is specifically Baroque music. (Think Mozart and Handel)
This music should be played at a barely audible level and should be used during testing and times of deep focus. All of this is based on Dr. Lozanoff's research that found that the beats per minute calmed our heartbeat and allowed our brains to be in the healthiest state for learning and retaining knowledge.

Want to know what songs I'm going to play in my classroom? You'll have to wait for the next blog post!

What are your favorite songs/music to play in the classroom?

Quantum Learning- Music in the Classroom Recap

Let's not talk about the fact that I haven't updated my blog in almost a year. Starting a master's and teaching is rough. Moving on.

Last week I attended a training for Quantum Learning that was offered through my district in Houston, Texas. I had heard all sorts of crazy good things about the program and how my teaching style would fit seamlessly into this brain-based learning.

Basically, Quantum Learning is using activities to get the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to teaching time. We all know that Brain Breaks and chunking information are great for kiddos, but Quantum Learning really dives deep into the "WHY?"

(Exerpt from QuantumLearning.com)


 The Quantum Learning system is a powerful research-based educational methodology that increases teacher effectiveness and improves student performance through the orchestration of four core components:
Foundation
Atmosphere 
Design & Delivery 
Environment

I didn't write this post to sell you on Quantum Learning, but I HIGHLY suggest it! In my district is 5 days long, but I was only able to go to Days 1-3. I'll pick up Days 4 and 5 during the school year. I just couldn't handle going to PD 5 days in a row during the summer. It made me feel like the beginning of the school year was approaching WAY too fast!

What I really want to talk about is MUSIC! In Quantum Learning, Music ties all of the components together. According to QL,music can be used for two main reasons; change of state and orchestrate learning.

You can change state by having an anchor song that signals something, playing songs that soothe (after recess, anyone?!?), or to energize. Music can orchestrate learning by playing songs that are scientifically proven to trick our brains into focusing. Look up Dr. Gregori Lozanov and his research from 1960s with Baroque music and accelerated brain recovery. It is pretty spectacular.

Even though I teach in an open-concept classroom, I already play A LOT of music in my classroom, but after this PD I plan to be more purposeful with the music that I play. Stay tuned for more on how I will create playlists and such!

Are any of you Quantum teachers? Give me tips and tricks!

These are on my professional reading list!