My Beauty Best Teacher

Although many liberals and progressives (and those who unwittingly do their business for them) are going to try to continue to extend the race for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney's victory in Michigan should end this long and draining contest. From my hotel room in Cheboygan (I was up north this week visiting my grandparents) I managed to watch his victory speech after winning the primaries in Michigan and Arizona, and from that and his overall conduct in the campaign I think that we learned some important things about Mitt Romney from this victory.

First, when Mitt gives speeches and speaks with people he provides clear objectives and lays his views and policies clearly out, although sometimes in a way that lacks passion or in a way that is too complicated for your average voter to understand. Either when delivering prepared statements using a teleprompter as he did in his victory speech on Tuesday or when responding to question and answer periods with no preparation as I saw him do the week before at an event in Royal Oak, Mitt Romney is able to address a range of questions and issues in a manner that is more clear than either his GOP competitors (with the exception of Newt) or Barack Obama (who after four years as President still knows very little about how government really works or operates, understanding only power and rhetoric).

Second, I think we learned from the Michigan primary that Mitt will continue to keep his eye on the real goal of this election- defeating Barack Obama. While his rivals attack him in their speeches and statements (and may even win an occasional victory against him), he personally does not frequently engage in this sort of behavior and in his public speeches and at rallies he focuses almost entirely on comparing his resume and policy proposals with the results of the last four years of an Obama Presidency. He is focused in a very clear way at beating Obama, and in doing so he is still beating his opponents- one can only hope that voters recognize this and reward him with the nomination, because if he gets dragged into the gutter of negativity and attacking speeches like his opponents, that will take away from his appeal and damage the GOP in general.

Third, from Romney's schedule and the sheer volume of his actions we can get a taste of the kind of worker he would be in the White House. Right now our President is perhaps the laziest President we've had in many years, working few hours, taking many vacations, and frequently playing golf. The bulk of the 'work' that President Obama appears to do (from reports from his own people) is giving speeches and making comments on proposals and research that other people come to him with. Imagine a king sitting on a throne, making a pronouncement or favoring a chosen advisers advice, and you get a good picture of President Obama's 'hard' work in office. In comparison, Romney appears to be everywhere, crossing the nation to attend debates, go to a NASCAR race, make speeches all over Michigan, and somehow find time to spend with his family (I met his niece and she told me about the nice lunch and enjoyable lunch she had with her uncle last week when he was in town). Romney works long hours, shakes a lot of hands, patiently signs every sheet put in his face, and moves with strength and energy from place to place. My observations match what people have said about him during his time as Governor or saving the Salt Lake City Olympics or as CEO of Bain- that he is a hard worker and willing to put in the long hours doing real work as President to make our nation better governed.

Fourth, out of all of the candidates that I have heard speak and met, Mitt Romney refers the most to the principle of federalism. Federalism is one of our nation's founding principles and is not just a talking point to him- he truly thinks that people should have more ability to make decisions at the local level regarding their lives. This is one reason why I believe his defense of Romneycare and his attack on Obamacare- healthcare is an issue that was constitutionally left to the states and there is nothing constitutionally wrong with states deciding to tackle healthcare in whatever fashion they wish (although I personally don't like Romneycare). But Obamacare is different- there is nothing in our constitution regarding government control of our individual health choices or health insurance choices- in fact, because health insurance does not cross state lines it is not interstate commerce and even even liberals with a broad and utterly tortured interpretation of the commerce clause can not defend Obamacare on those grounds. Romney as President will spin off many national government functions to the states, and our nation learned a great lesson from the welfare reform debate in the 1990's- that liberals were utterly wrong on all the horrors that would be unleashed if states regained more local control and that conservatives were completely proven correct that more local control would lead to better policies and more people gainfully and happily employed. The success of the Welfare Reform Act in 1996 was not lost on Mitt Romney, and his belief in federalism shows through in his many speeches.

The last observation that I am going to offer after watching Romney campaign in Michigan and win is that he appears to be running a convention campaign that in resembles candidate campaigns in 2004, 2000, 1996, 1992, 1988, etc. By 'conventional campaign' I mean that he is targeting issues and speaking about them and developing policies to address them, and systematically going after Obama on a range of issues and policies. He isn't engaging in an Obama '08 campaign or a Santorum '12 campaign and relying on hope and change and rhetoric and tapping into the culture of an American people- rather he is playing a game of small ball and going to bunt and single his way to victory in the general election. As a government teacher I've watched almost all of the campaign commercials on Living Room candidate and put together units on campaigning and elections, and as a history teacher I've taught about the elections of the past, and Romney's campaign looks the most like these. Obama is going to go small ball in 2012, focusing on individual policies and small gains in a range of measurables to make his case for re-election- and this is going to be a winning strategy and much better than his 2008 hope-and-change and people-fainting and soaring-rhetoric strategy. To continue my baseball metaphor a little further, since we don't have a candidate who can smash rhetorical home runs (like Reagan) and just power to victory on the strength of an amazing resume (like Nixon), it is good to see that we have a Romney who is going to match Obama bunt for bunt, single for single, and engage him and win the election by battling on each specific issue and drawing clear contrasts in policy decisions.

As you can see, Romney's victory in Michigan showed me some important things, and I know that the media is going to try to spin it differently because they want to keep this thing going and bleed Romney dry of resources, but this government teacher saw some very positive signs out of Michigan and hopes that readers in other states will continue to vote for him and move him through these primaries and to victory.

Please read my endorsement of him from earlier this week for more of my thoughts on why Romney is the best candidate for the GOP in 2012.

I love Teachers Pay Teachers. But what makes me love them even more is when they have a S-A-L-E!

It's time to shop 'til you drop, folks. Teachers Pay Teachers is having a special sale today to celebrate Leap Day. This type of sale only happens once every four years, so you definitely don't want to miss out. Here's more information:

Teachers Pay Teachers is offering 10% off every purchase, and then select sellers (myself included) are offering additional discounts up to 20% off. Click the picture to be taken to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Happy shopping! :)






P.S. Would you like to become a Teachers Pay Teachers seller? Click this link for more information!

Let me ask you a question: how many times a week do you get on Google or Yahoo! and use the search bar? It seems that I am always searching for something! Until a few months ago, I thought there was nothing more to conducting an internet search than just to type in a few words and get the results. But, as it turns out, there's a search engine company called Swagbucks that allows you to get rewards every time you conduct an internet search through them! How cool is that?!

I stumbled onto Swagbucks through Facebook, actually. A couple of my FB friends posted statuses about it, and I finally got curious enough to check it out myself.

Basically, you sign up for an account at Swagbucks, and you have an option to install a search bar (that's connected directly to your Swagbucks account) into your internet browser. Any time you use Swagbucks, you have a chance of earning reward points.

I don't earn reward points every single time I use Swagbucks to conduct an internet search, but I figure if I'm going to be searching anyway, I might as well give myself a chance to get some rewards while I'm at it! There are other ways to earn reward points other than just conducting internet searches: you can take part in their daily polls, you can take surveys, or you can purchase their daily deals. Basically all I do is conduct internet searches (which earn me anywhere from 0-16 reward points) and participate in daily polls (1 point for every answer). I think the surveys are a hoax -- I don't want the companies to get my personal information, and I'm not interested in sitting through 20- and 40-minute long surveys. But you can earn some pretty hefty points through participating in them (I think I saw one survey that would give you 250 points if you completed it!).

The rewards can be pretty cool, depending on how many points you've earned. I think the rewards that interest me the most are the gift cards, but there are rewards in virtually every category: books, movies, clothing, jewelry, electronics, school supplies... you get the picture. You do have to earn a fairly substantial amount of points to earn a nice reward, but isn't that to be expected?

As a teacher with a couple years of experience under my belt, I can personally attest to the fact that teachers can spend a lot of their own paycheck on their classroom. I think it's because we care so much and want our students to have the best of everything. I think you could use Swagbucks to help you get things for your classroom -- all it costs you is a little bit of internet searching or poll-answering!

You could use Swagbucks to purchase supplies for your classroom or for individual students:

A $5 Amazon gift card currently costs 450 SB

A set of 4 skinny dry-erase markers currently costs 349 SB

A 26- or 39-week subscription to the Wall Street Journal currently costs 3,400 SB

 You could also use your SB reward points to purchase things for your classroom store or for a school raffle to earn money:

Modeling Dough currently costs 279 SB

A Spongebob puzzle currently costs 429 SB

A $10 gift card to Fandango currently costs 1,175 SB

A $25 gift card to one of the above restaurants currently costs 2,949 SB

And I've noticed that Swagbucks runs sales on select items at random times. I've seen gift cards on sale before, but they're basically the only thing I keep my eye on at this point, so I'm not sure about the other items. In any case, Swagbucks seems like a great way to earn some things for your classroom or school without spending more of your own money!

I recently redeemed my first prize -- a $5 Amazon gift card -- and am pretty pleased with the results. It takes about 10 business days to receive your gift card code, but it's free, so I really can't complain!

I won't say that searches conducted through Swagbucks get you the same results as a Google search -- they don't -- but if you're searching for something that's fairly popular, you'll find it with a Swagbucks search, no problem. I keep the search bar installed on my browser window so that I'm not tempted to use Google, instead. As far I know, you can download the search bar to any browser window an unlimited number of times, so you could install it onto all your home computers and, if your IT crew will let you, install it at work, as well. If you have computers in your classroom, you may consider installing the Swagbucks toolbar onto those computers, as well (so long as students aren't tempted to redeem prizes for you!). Swagbucks has a strict policy against searching just to earn points, but if you're going to be searching anyway, you might as well make it a Swagbucks search!

Have you heard of (or do you currently use) Swagbucks? What are your thoughts on this service?

A Conservative Teacher officially endorses Mitt Romney in the Michigan Republican Presidential Primary of Michigan and encourages all of his family and friends and colleagues to vote for him next Tuesday, February 28. Do not sit at home hoping that change will come to our nation and that hope will be restored- go vote for Mitt Romney in the primary and assure it.

After spending a year following the campaign, after watching all of the campaign commercials, after researching all of the candidates, after recently hearing them all speak in person, after shaking the hands of Romney and Santorum, and after spending a lot of time thinking about what kind of candidate our Founding Fathers would have wanted as President, I have decided that the best candidate that there is from either party to be the next President of the United States is Mitt Romney.

As Rick Santorum said about Mitt Romney in 2008- “this is the guy who is really conservative and we can trust him.” He is conservative in that he believes in and attempts to put in place policies that follow the founding principles of our nation- limited government, individual liberty, free enterprise, and national security. And we can trust him as a person- he does not back down from his views, he is a decent guy who has spent time volunteering and giving back, he says what he means and means what he says, he stays on his message even without a teleprompter because he believes in his message, and he has a firm handshake.

Oh, I know some of his positions and views and statements are nuanced and guarded, filled with technical details and complicated arguments, and that this at times has made him sound like a technocrat or a cold robot- but I think that it is time for our nation to go back to electing competent, articulate, and measured people to the President and ignore all the candidates with thin resumes who simply preach hope and change.

Our nation can no longer afford to have as President someone who governs based on rhetoric and gimmicks- we need someone able and competent who will issue executive orders, make judicial appointments, act as commander-in-chief, hire the proper administrators, and budget appropriately. Being President is not about being a symbol, or making a statement, or doing the will of some sort of heavenly being- being President is about doing a job, and doing a good job of it, and Mitt Romney is the best one to put at that desk to push papers around, make decisions, talk with people, and do the real work of being President.

Conservatives want a magical being to be the White House who will throw conservative pixie dust around and say pretty conservative things; liberals want a magician in the White House who will dazzle them with tricks and gimmicks and pithy sayings- but real patriots should want someone in the White House who will return our nation back to its first principles and do the right things through competent hard work based on a lifetime of experience in managing and being an executive, and that man is Mitt Romney.

As I wrote in my post Elect a 'Clerk' For President in 2012 and Restore Founding Father's Vision of Executive Branch?:

...The President of the United States should be clerk, and nothing more. Conservatives and Tea Party people should not be looking for the President to be a 'king' who commands us to go forth and do his bidding, they should not be looking for the President to be the source of ideas about how government should run, and they should not be looking for the President to be an outsider who will shake up Washington.

The office, as designed by our Founding Fathers and illustrated in Article II of the Constitution, is an office that empowers the President of the United States to execute the laws passed by Congress in the most efficient manner, act as Commander-in-Chief of our military, act as the dignified ceremonial chief of state, handle foreign policy with other nations, and discharge effectively the various other duties of the office. A true conservative or someone who wants our nation to return to its Founding Principles should be pushing for the person who is best able to act as a clerk, a manager, and a CEO for America Inc…

… Look, I know this isn't exciting to you guys- you all want a President who will blow your socks off, light up the system, ride in on a horse of hope and change and remake the world. You want a king to rule you and control other people who you disagree with. You wish that someone who will go into the White House and then start just shutting down executive departments, slashing spending on programs, and ignoring the Judicial and Legislative Branches to bring you closer to our Founding Fathers. The problem is, that isn't how our Founding Fathers designed the office of the President and it is not how our Founding Fathers would have wanted the system to work…

I know- you want to go to the polls on Tuesday and feel like with one vote you will once again restore America back to its founding principles and with one magical check mark or bubbling in you will have fixed all of our nation’s problems. There are candidates out there who are basically telling you that.

But the truth of the matter is that the damage that President Barack Obama did to our nation is not going to be fixed by one President, or even two, and so we should not indulge in these sort of fantasies but rather go about electing someone as our next President who is willing to do the hard and solid and thankless work of stopping the decline that Obama has ushered in and perhaps- and I personally think this is a small possibility- putting in place a culture that will push further down the road for the real changes our nation needs to once more have hope for the future. And Mitt Romney is that guy- he is a hard worker, an able administrator, and a positive person, and just the kind of person who you should vote for on Tuesday.

Many of you conservatives and tea party supporters who read this post will think that we need a President who will be a source of conservative ideas and that Romney isn’t- my reply to you is that our system, as designed by our Founding Fathers which you all pretend to honor, clearly makes the legislative branch the source of ideas and legislation and merely makes the executive branch a clerk and executive. Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul would all be great legislators- even President Obama would have made a fine liberal Democrat Senator- but we are electing a President in 2012, not a legislator-turned-king, and the best executive in the race is clearly beyond a shadow-of-a-doubt Mitt Romney.

As Governor of a liberal Democrat state with an overwhelmingly liberal Democrat Congress, Mitt Romney was able to hold the moderate line on a range of issues and push for conservative policies as well and only let slip through an occasional liberal policy (like Romneycare)- imagine what he would be able to do as President of the United States with a Republican Congress animated by conservative tea party values. To make this image come true all you need to do is vote for Romney in the primary elections.

The image of stronger property rights, more protection and support for life, a recovering and prosperous economy, freedom and liberty embraced, and class warfare ended is a lot more welcoming to me than an image of President Barack Obama destroying a far-right wing GOP nominee and then ignoring the GOP Congress and issuing executive orders and making arbitrary policy decisions, and the only way we can avoid this image is by voting for Romney in the primary elections.

Over the past year, Mitt Romney has been challenged from the right and left and has beaten them all, emerging time and again as the front-runner. This was an important process and has forced him to be better- but at a certain point the primary needs to end and the race for the President needs to begin, and that point is now. Romney has responded to Perry, Huntsman, Bachman, Gingrich, Cain, Daniels, and now Santorum, fending off their attacks from the right and the left, and he is now a fine candidate to support. Let go of your anger and fear and embrace the good side of the force- Mitt Romney is the candidate who we can win back America with.

As President, Mitt Romney will leave America better than he finds it, he will work to reduce the intergenerational theft that is robbing our grandchildren of their future, he will work on repairing the destroyed foundations of our nation’s social safety nets, he will continue to keep our military proud and strong, and he will stop the incredible and amazing decline in our nation that has taken place over the past 4 years.

Mitt Romney says that America’s best days are ahead- with him as President and with a Republican Congress dominated by conservatives and tea partiers and with a Democratic minority party that regains its sanity, I think he could be right. He needs your vote though- go to the polls on Tuesday, February 28 and vote for Mitt Romney for Presidential nominee for the Republican Party.

One of my best teacher-friends is a secondary math teacher (and runs the Numbers Rule My World blog), and she is always looking for ways to incorporate technology into her math lessons. She tipped me off about this site that has virtual manipulatives, and I wanted to share it with you guys!

Although my friend uses this site with her secondary students, the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives has something for students PK-12!  It's so rare to find an educational resource that can cater to all ages...I guess that's part of why I think this website is so nice.

The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is amazing! I love that it is free and easy to use; you don't even have to register before you start using!

The homepage is relatively simple:

Notice how you can view the site in a variety of languages (at the bottom)!

But looks can be deceiving. :)


As you can see, you can access math manipulatives based on the grade of your student(s) or the target skill. Since I'm a teensy bit obsessed with organizing, I particularly love this feature.

Although the homepage isn't anything particularly mind-blowing, once you start clicking on portions of the index, you'll see that the rest of the site is!

So what kinds of things does it have to offer? Unfortunately, I'm going to have to do more telling, rather than showing, because the manipulatives are used through pop-up screens that then start using Java... I'm not even able to take a screen shot of the manipulatives in action...sorry! I've never had an issue taking a screenshot before, so I can't explain this one! Anyway, I clicked on PK-2, and I was presented with the following list of sub-topics:

• Numbers and Operations
• Algebra
• Geometry
• Measurement
• Data Analysis and Probability

And each of those sub-titles had an average of 13 manipulative options underneath it, but you should be aware that that is an average... the "data analysis and probability" sub-topic only had 3 options. Although the graphics aren't anything particularly flashy or high-tech, I feel that they definitely could be used in the classroom. I saw some time-telling activities, graphing options, pattern blocks, etc. I know that most elementary classrooms don't have a 1:1 ratio of students:computers, but you could ask a few students at a time to practice certain math skills during centers!

As for the secondary side of it, I clicked on 9-12, and I was presented with the exact same sub-topic categories as the PK-2 side, but of course, the options underneath each category were drastically different. The sub-topics in 9-12 had an average of about 18 manipulative options underneath it. I saw some great ones in this category, as well. In particular, if I were teaching secondary math (big hypothetical here, folks), I could see myself using the rational numbers triangles, the Venn diagrams, and the geoboards.

If you're a math teacher, give the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives a chance in your class and let me know how it goes!

As a conservative teacher, I plead guilty to the worst sort of offense for a public school teacher- thoughtcrimes. I am guilty of thoughtcrimes- I am a conservative teacher even though I do not push or encourage my conservative views and values in my classroom, even though I make conscious efforts to articulate all sides of every debate and situation, even though I play devil's advocate and am critical of all politicians and views at one time or another, and even though I seek primarily to inspire critical thinking.

You see, it is not my actions which threaten liberals and leftists and Democrats- it is my very existence and the fact that I do not quietly acquiescence to their thuggish attempts to convince me to think differently.

In his novel 1984, George Orwell described a thoughtcrime as an illegal type of thought. Liberals and leftists hate and fear me, because while in the classroom I may be a model teacher and may be inspiring and motivating students, in private I am the author of this blog where I state my thoughts and opinions on a range of subjects in a conservative manner, and for that they feel I must be silenced, fired, and perhaps worse.

Increasingly as our nation descends into a totalitarian fascist state, people like me are a threat to the government. Some people might be conservatives or libertarians or Republicans, but they're usually not teachers, and if they are they have been successfully revealed as thus and thus marginalized and silenced already. What really bothers the government and the fascist thugs who run it is that I'm still hidden in the system, unexposed, unsilenced and unmarginalized, and still teaching. I'm still teaching young children the skills of how to think critically. I'm still exposing students to tough questions and hard facts, and them giving them the skills to grapple with them- without telling them what to think about those facts or without answering the questions for them as a liberal leftist teacher would do. I'm still employed, even though I am a conservative and a teacher.

Some teachers inspire a few students to be conservative by accident or just absently are a conservative and a teacher- but I've thought about this beforehand and put forethought into it, showing that I have a plan to teach students how to think and to give them a wealth of information to think on, and I have done all of this knowingly and purposefully- and that's a crime worse than actually pushing my views or indoctrinating students. I'm not just a conservative and a teacher- I am A Conservative Teacher, and that's a threat to liberals and leftists and makes me guilty of thought crimes of the worst sort.

In many ways, thought crime is an even more serious offense than committing an actual crime, and that is why I have inspired such hate and attacks from my comments and blog posts, more so than others who simply are conservatives. Our outward actions and character stem from our inner world, and my inner world is conservative, and thus it does not matter to liberals and leftists what my outer world of teaching is like and how professional I am in that environment- they know and I know they know that I am a conservative teacher.

Many out there, including President Obama and the modern day Democratic Party that has been infiltrated and taken over by liberal fascists, believe that you can practice one thing all you want, but you must think and believe only what the fascist government tells you to believe. And I don't, and that is why I am a threat that they need to silence, intimidate, and threaten.

The good news is that I have for years been lying about who I am- using friends for radio interviews, having family members post my comments and blog posts from their locations, and even mixing up personal details. Since I started this blog in 2008, I've moved three times and worked in two school districts on either edge of town, gotten married, had a dozen kids, and even taken up urban farming! Because I am still unknown, I remain a threat. I'm nearing retirement age though and just need to hold on for a couple more years. And you wolves, although you may circle me, I am a friend of liberty and a patriot, and you will not terrorize me into thinking differently. Two plus two does equal four.

From time to time I comment on other people's blogs and on facebook, and last week I made a comment on a liberal blog that offended someone, and as is typical of liberals when their ideas and beliefs are questioned, they attempted to silence me.

For years I've pointed out that personal attacks and bullying is now the domain of the left- liberals reject freedom and liberty and so do not support or respect those who exercise it and speak their views and beliefs, liberals do not respect property rights and so have no problem in damaging others property through cyber attacks or other attacks on property, and liberals do not respect life and so see no problem in ruining others simply to score political points.

It doesn't matter who did what and I'm not going to name names- I don't want to engage in childish games like that any more than I want to moderate vile comments that used to be spewed in my comment section, or respond to emails filled with childish insults, or spend my weekend recovering lost posts, or press charges of any sort.

Hopefully I didn't lose any readers over this mess and you all will find your way back to my blog again and once more be loyal readers. Regular posting will resume tomorrow.

In the dictionary, a "brain break" is defined as "a short mental break, taken at regular intervals during instruction, and used to achieve optimal learning."

OK, I made that up, but that's the definition I have in mind when I use brain breaks in the classroom. :)

Why Use Brain Breaks?

As a teacher, you don't have a lot of control over your students' schedule. I mean, you can usually decide when to do math, when to do reading, etc., but you don't get to decide when you leave the classroom for library, specials/encore/activity, lunch, or recess. Sometimes, there is an usually long block of uninterrupted instructional time. For instance, during my student teaching, I taught a kindergarten class who had our specials (P.E., art, etc.) first thing in the morning, and then lunch and recess from 10:45 - 11:45. That meant we had from 11:45 until 2:45 that afternoon before we needed to start getting ready for the dismissal. When you're surrounded by 22 five-year-olds, that three hour block of time can be a lot to handle. (Not to say I didn't l-o-v-e my kinders with all my heart -- I did. But they definitely kept me on my toes, especially since that my first "real" experience teaching!)

While a long block of instructional time is a blessing in some ways (think about how much you can get accomplished!), it can also be a bit of a burden. Kids -- especially the little ones -- have short attention spans and crave variation and movement. Teaching kinders for an entire, uninterrupted three hour block of time was sometimes stressful. And, of course, to them, three hours is FOREVER.

I started breaking up the instructional time with "brain breaks." If I had a lesson that was supposed to last 30 minutes, I would insert a short brain break about halfway through so that the students got to have a little mental release from learning for just a minute before going back to work. 

I do this with my tutoring students (2-4 brain breaks per hour of tutoring unless the student has ADD/ADHD, and then we break more often) and the classes in which I sub. I even did it sometimes with my freshman English students last year. At first, they thought I was a little crazy for asking them to do the Macarena, but they eventually got used to it! :)

I always find that the minutes right after a brain break are incredibly valuable, as the students are the most engaged that they've been...well, since the last time we took a break! The activity gets their blood flowing, the break gives them time to clear their head, and when it's over, their concentration is fantastic.

When Should I Use Brain Breaks?

You could use brain breaks in the middle of lessons or in-between them. You could take a brain break right before you go into the hallway (let them get their wiggles out before trying to get them to walk quietly down the hallway) or to let out some energy after a particularly quiet activity. The beauty of brain breaks is that they are so quick and easy that you can do them at pretty much any time. I've even used some of them for "filler" activities when we have just 1-2 minutes to kill and can't even start an educational game.

What Brain Breaks Can I Incorporate?

1. One-minute dance party (could do a random song or a choreographed song...my 2nd graders loved doing the Cupid Shuffle!)
2. Do 25 jumping jacks
3. Play one game of Simon Says
4. "Minute-to-Win-it" games (some ideas from Buzzle.com)
5. Jog in place for 60 seconds
6. Jump a pretend rope for 60 seconds
7. Seasonal movement -- "fly like a witch on your broomstick for 1 minute" around Halloween. "Gallop like a reindeer for 1 minute" in December. 
8. "Order" -- quickly order themselves in a line, according to the specification. For instance, maybe you call "Order -- first names, ABC order!" and the students scramble to order themselves. You could do height, last names in ABC order, color-coding, birthdays, etc. You could make it even harder on things like height by asking that they don't speak during the ordering! 
9. Hop on your right foot 25 times, hop on your left foot 25 times, then hop on both feet 25 times
10. Play catch with stress balls or beach balls for 1 minute
11. Play telephone
12. Any number of Dr. Jean, Greg & Steve, or Jack Hartmann fun activity songs
13. "Go Bananas" song (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, please scroll down to the end of this post for two video examples!)
14. Do 1 minute of wall jumps
15. Play Sparkle with a spelling word or word wall word (or just try saying "Word Wall Word" 5 times fast! Phew.)
16. Play a memory game, such as "I went on a trip and I packed ____," and each student around the room has to say everything else that has been packed, plus add a new item to the list. Or a variation: "I went to the zoo and saw a ____," and each student around the room has to add an animal to the list. 
17. Play the alliteration game (start with a random word and every student must say another word that begins with the same sound)
18. Variation of the alliteration game: play the rhyme game!
19. Teach a few words of sign language
20. Lightning round of trivia questions (I use Brain Quest packs: Brain Quest trivia packs )
21. Play a couple rounds of Pictionary or Charades
22. Stretch
23. Do "the wave" a few times
24. "Sentence-by-sentence story:" go around the room and allow each student to add 1 sentence at a time to create a story. (You can play until each student has said one sentence or you can play until the story is finished.)
25. Yoga poses (try Yoga Pretzels , which is a deck of cards with easy yoga poses for kids on them)

...You get the idea.

In case you've never heard of the "Go Bananas" song/dance routine, here it is on YouTube:



Here's another version of it that I just found and really like, too:



If you have other brain break ideas, I'd love to know about them! Please leave a comment with your ideas and I'll gladly add them to my list. :)

What do you think about brain breaks? Do you use them in the classroom? If so, when and how often do you use them?
 





P.S. I just found this great blog dedicated entirely to Brain Breaks! It's called Energizing Brain Breaks, and you can read all their ideas by clicking here. Enjoy. :)

This post doesn't offer any resources for you -- it's just an "old-fashioned" blog post that I hope will spark a little bit of discussion.

If you've read my "About" page, then you know that I'm currently a substitute for several local districts in an effort to keep my foot in education and to maybe gain a classroom of my own again next year.

While I would much rather be teaching in my own classroom this year, there are definite perks to substituting. Mainly, I love seeing what goes on in other classrooms. Substituting doesn't allow me to watch other teachers in action, but it does allow me to acquire many ideas on classroom setup, management methods, and lessons. I always leave at the end of the day with my brain buzzing with all the new things I learned. I try to write it all down as soon as I can so that I can apply it to my [future] classroom (when I get one again).

Anyway, I've been subbing a lot this semester, and I've noticed a definite trend in hot classrooms.

Source

I'm sure this probably has something to do with the budget cuts and the fact that schools are trying to save money in whatever ways possible at this point...right?

I'm naturally a pretty hot-natured person, so my body can find a way to sweat in the dead of winter (sorry if that's TMI). But when I encounter other teachers in the hallway whose hair has become stringy and their foreheads are glistening with beads of sweat, I know I'm not the only one who feels like she's in a furnace in some of those classrooms!

I am realizing just how lucky I was in my classroom last year, where I had free reign (to some extent) over the thermostat in my classroom. Teachers at my school last year could change their classroom temperature to anything between 65-80 degrees. The teachers I'm subbing for this year don't seem to be able to control the temperature of their classrooms at all. I even saw one smart-cookie teacher who was dealing with the heat by placing a lamp underneath the thermostat's temperature sensor; as the lamp's heat increased on the temperature on the sensor, the thermostat thought it was too hot in the room and kicked on a little cool air. Brilliant solution!

I was prompted to write this blog post after a subbing experience where the kids kept exclaiming over my red cheeks, and I could feel my glasses sliding down my face from the sweat. I ended up having to open the door to get some air circulating, but the teacher had written for her students to be doing some very social activities that afternoon, and I was afraid that our noise was going to disturb other classes. On the other hand, I knew it was way too hot in there to be able to keep the door closed....

This prompted me, again, to think about last year, when I had control over my thermostat.  Since I am naturally hot and I spent a lot of time moving around in my classroom, I kept the temperature at about 68 degrees. If my students spent a lot of time in their seats during class, I found that the girls would complain about the cold. But if I kept my students up and moving (which I wanted to do, anyway), they thought it was a good temperature, too. Upon entering, other teachers would comment on how "cold" it was, but then again, they weren't moving around and working up a sweat all hour, either...

If my college classrooms' temperatures weren't "just right," I considered them to be on the cool side. I have rarely ever been in a classroom that is too hot...until this year. It seems to be a common theme that most teachers agree that a chilly classroom is better than a warmer classroom. My college professors reasoned that a chilly classroom will keep students awake better than a warmer classroom will (although, if your lessons are really innovative and intriguing, the majority of students won't have a hard time staying awake, anyway!). I've also heard that a chilly classroom is healthier than a warmer classroom, since germs crave moisture and warmth. I don't want to freeze my students, but I do want everyone to be comfortable enough so that they can function with ease, myself included.

I find it very difficult to function in a hot environment because my mind can't seem to get over the fact that I'm sweating buckets (sorry again if that's TMI. I'm normally not this gross, I promise. :) ).

So I have a few questions for my bloggy friends:

1. Do you have the ability to control the thermostat in your classroom?
2. What temperature is your classroom normally?
3. What do you think is the best temperature for optimal learning? Why?

I'm anxious to know what you think!