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9 thoughts on “Brain Break”

  1. I have a group of juniors and seniors who LOVE THIS. We do the Spanish and the French and we just yell out the Spanish. :o) Thanks to MB who first convinced me to try it with a great video of her kids!!
    with love,
    Laurie

  2. Maybe Sabrina got it from MB. By the way, we trust that she is safe and sound back in Maine. She left early before what looks to be lots of snow is making its way into Colorado today. It was good to see her!

  3. Thank you! This was shared (I think it was MB) at the October Maine conference and I had been wanting to try it out, but couldn’t remember what it was called!
    Btw, I tried out Don Pepito the Juego de Palmas (patty cake) and it was a hit! I then did some whole-class reading and I felt like I had more of their focus. I gotta start taking more regular, physical brain breaks!
    I also tried out the T/F game that Skip shared in Maine (I don’t know if I credit Skip or if he got it from somewhere else). The idea is that there is a pencil for every 2 students and the teacher says a sentence (I based mine on the reading) and if the sentence is false, then the first of the 2 students to pick up the pencil gets a point. I also added that touching it on a true sentence lost them a point. They had to start with their hands on their knees.
    I had 2 lazy and boisterous boys who, rather than try, would just pick up the pencil every sentence, which wouldn’t allow the opponent to score. So, I had to make the rule that if a student had negative 5 then they lost. It was the day before break, otherwise I would have demanded those 2 kids play the game seriously or not play at all – and not playing would have meant a 0 for their daily Communication grade.

  4. Hi there Folks!
    #1. Proper credit for the 5-a-day videos goes to Bryce Hedstrom. He used it as a brain break during the learning lab at iFLT in Breckenridge. I have been using ever since with mostly GREAT luck!!! Most of the kids love it. In Spanish it is a “Hula”; in French, it is “Disco”; the English one is pretty funny too!! (that’s the kids’ favorite cause it’s the corniest!!!)
    #2. Yes, Ben, I made it safely back to Maine!!! Thank you. I had a WONDERFUL week learning from the CO folks!!! I got to attend a “scoring of writing assessments” workshop held by Diana for DPS teachers, I attended two learning labs (Sabrina and her colleague Nina Barber) and then I visited Bryce Hedstrom for the whole day. As Ben said, I was supposed to leave Sat. night at 11:30; however, they were predicting a massive storm to hit Denver starting Friday evening and going through to Monday. I was afraid of getting stuck and missing work Monday, so I called to switch my flight to Friday night, and the CS rep at Jet Blue suggested I fly out Friday afternoon because the night flight could be cancelled!!!! So I flew out Friday afternoon, and guess what? No major storm — just a few inches! I am SOOOOOO completely bummed! I was supposed to go to Julie Soldner’s learning lab Friday afternoon!!! 🙁
    But, I am home with my Hubby and got to get to my classroom yesterday for about an hour to “get a feel” for what I want to do for the rest of the year. The trip to Denver definitely gave me my “spark” for TCI back!!! As Sabrina told me: “You are a CHICKEN! You KNOW exactly what to do, you are just too afraid!! So, just go back and DO IT!” THANK YOU Sabrina! You are right — I have had a few years of being doubted and questioned about my methods which made me doubt myself, and I see that the students have suffered. I saw that CI works – OMG, it WORKS wonderfully!!! The kids I saw in Spanish 1 and French 1 had SO MUCH proficiency in the language, it is crazy!!! Oh yeah — I also got to sit in on a “grammar” teacher’s class — I asked to …wanted to see the other side of “me” – (who I have become some days because of the doubting Thomases) and I was completely bored. This teacher did some TPR with commands, then taught “tú” commands, irregular “tú” commands, then handed out worksheets for them to follow up with at the last 15 minutes of class. The 4%ers were done within 4 or 5 minutes, then packed up, pulled out their cell phones and started texting. The (what I would guess, based upon their comments during class) lowest students didn’t even do the worksheets – they just chatted and “fought” among themselves. There was not a lot of “acting up” – this teacher has a good relationship with the kids, but 15 mins were wasted at the end, when they could have been getting some sort of input. Nina and Sabrina’s classes ran bell to bell. I then remembered that my classes ran bell to bell when I was heavy into CI, and my colleague’s classes were like the teacher I explained above — but with kids hanging out at the door five minutes before the bell rang!
    Tomorrow I will be back using CI! Thank you COLORADO!!!! 🙂

  5. Great post! Thank you MB! I especially liked Sabrina’s challenge to you, ¨You KNOW exactly what to do, you are just too afraid!! So, just go back and DO IT!” These are words to live by at this time of the year!

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