-Ramblings of a Fifth Grade Teacher: Time Zones, Housekeeping, and a Differentiated Instruction Conference: Excuses for not Blogging

So I feel that I should preface this post with the information that I have a really good reason for not blogging steadily the last few ~~weeks~~ months. I have been a ~~world~~ US traveler the last 3 weeks, and truly didn't want the crazies (no, I'm not talking about us crazy educators..) knowing that I was away from my humble abode. Seriously, someone might have stolen my milk and kool-aid stained couch or the desktop computer from 1862 or my stylish mom jeans or...
I do have to say that I have been SO excited to share my trips with my fellow bloggy people though! In the last 3 weeks I have traveled from my sweet home of Wyoming to Washington DC for an NEA assembly (which was amazing for this new delegate!) back to Wyoming for 1 day ( yes only 1day- gee, no time to clean the house that day) then I was off to Vegas with Hubby, Kiddo, and 3 amazing teacher friends for the Differentiated Instruction conference. L.O.V.E.D. it!! Got to meet Stephanie Harvey, and am super excited to see her again next week at a local reading conference. (Yes, my name is Mrs. M and I roll with the Stephanie Harveys of the world. Don't you wish you were me?) For those that are unfamiliar with Ms. Harvey, among other educational supports, she has written several books, including Strategies that Work. Google her..I hope to be her, umm like her, when I grow up.

Crystal aka the new Mrs., myself (yes, I'm actually dressed up!), Stephanie Harvey, Brandie BBG the Softball Diva , and our "I teach every grade" Sheila!

Wait...did anyone else go to either of those events? Let me know!!

Since I just spent a week listening to some great teachers speaking about everything from DI to technology, to sponges and warm-ups to poverty and beyond, I thought I'd share some ideas that they gave us throughout this next week. Wish I could claim these, because they are wonderful. Tonight I'll stick with some classroom management/ brain break/positives, because seriously, clapping a pattern is SOOOO 2011.
1.) To the tune of Who Let the Dog's Out... "Who did a good job? You! You! You! You! You! Who did a good job? You! You! You! You! You!" (Haha-don't blame me when that is stuck in your head!!)
2.) Voice Chorus- As you raise/lower your hand students make a higher or lower pitched "ahhh" sound. Challenge them by splitting the group in half and "directing" using both hands.
3.) To allow time for thinkers to think, and blurters a chance to blurt instead of burst; simple count down from 5 silently with fingers.
4.) Keep in mind, " When our bottoms go numb, our brains get dumb." LOL!
5.) When someone does a "Great Job" turn one hand into a cheese grater and the other into cheese then make those motions.

Tomorrow I will share some, ok a lot, of technology sites for the classroom. Disclaimer: some of these sites will force you to spend less time on Pinterest. Now that I'm back in the real world, away from hotels, big cities, and long days of meetings, I have come to realize 1 important thing....there is no maid or room service where I live. Sigh. Can you guess what I'm going to be doing after I publish this post...yup, you got it. Ignoring the laundry...still...and the dust bunnies...ahh, aren't they cute...and going to play with, umm professionally analyze, these sites for tomorrows blog post. I'll leave off tonight with some pictures of what we accomplished after the meetings...