Category Archives: Uncategorized

Teacher Brain Subscriptions

Here at Teacher Brain we give you resources until you tell us to stop!

We continually add new games, activities and posters and hence, we automatically renew your subscription each year! You can easily unsubscribe any time within the year through Paypal (in your pre-approved payments).

You can simply log onto the Teacher Brain website, and look in your account section to see when your renewal is due. You can also look in Paypal.

 

Only $25 per year for access to over 500 resources and growing!

 

Susan Burke Interactive Lessons

There is a big demand for ICT skills and integration these days. It is rare to find a classroom without an IWB (or equivalent).

Susan Burke has found the hole in this market and has launched her website with ready-made lessons for Interactive White Boards!

They are fun and engaging and provide activities, clips, graphics, games and quizzes on a range of different topics. You can even email and request a theme and she will make it for you very quickly.

Susan has uploaded many samples of free IWB lessons on her website: http://interactivelessons.com.au/free-lessons/
Check out her Facebook page too!

 

Just Dance!

Our good friend told us about ‘Just Dance’ on Youtube and we have been having SO much fun with it!
Load the video and watch with delight as your students groove away!

We use it as a brain break, or after our students have been sitting at a long assembly.
It can also be used for sport on a rainy day, or as a reward.

Some dances do require you to put students into rows (like they are line dancing). If there is more than one character on the screen, you can assign parts to the students, so they are following the different people.
If you have a kindergarten class, this is a must! It is hilarious and so darn cute, all at the same time!

Do be careful, and watch the videos you plan on playing at home first – you may not like the lyrics (Think Gangnam Style’s ‘sexy ladies’), and some are a bit dull with the music or dance moves.
Our favourites are:
One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful
Who Let The Dogs Out?
Under The Sea
Cotton Eye Joe
Wild, Wild West
Gummy Bear Song
I like To Move It

(Try searching ‘Just Dance Kids’ on Youtube too)

Enjoy, and you are welcome for the tip!

 

Spot It Educational Card Game

Have you played Spot It?!
It is our all-time favourite game!
You grab 2 cards and work out what picture is the same on both.

It will seriously blow your mind trying to come up with how there is a matching picture on any 2 cards that you grab, doesn’t matter the order!
It’s about $18 to buy (we even play it with our adult friends)… and now they’ve just released an education series with letters, numbers or sight words!

“The circular cards feature illustrations, numbers, letters and sight words, and
there is always one-and only one-matching symbol between any two cards. Players
search for the match and spot it to win, while building letter, number and shape
recognition and reading comprehension.
http://www.fishpond.com.au/Toys/Spot-It-Educational-Set-Blue-Orange/0736970570327

spotit

 

Sign Language Resource

Our classes find Auslan (the Australian Sign Language) really interesting.

Whether you have a hearing impaired child, or just want to introduce your students to something new, you may consider Auslan.

There are so many resources available out there, and many youtube clips to get you started.

Children get joy, excitement and fun out of it, as well as using a new skill.

We love this poster, available from here. We use the poster as a Spelling Station during literacy group time.

Auslan

 

Teacher Brain

We described a ‘Teacher Brain’ as being able to find mistakes in everyday places and conversations.

A teacher brain also works in thinking about your job when you are ‘off-duty’. Perhaps walking through a shopping centre and seeing some random craft objects in a store and being bombarded with visions of your class’ next art adventure.

Or seeing your own child’s homework sheet and working out how you would do it differently.

We found another blog which describes some more examples of a ‘Teacher Brain’. We were a little excited to see our terminology used elsewhere!

http://jimburke.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/12/the-teacher-brain.html

 

Welcome To Our Blog!

Welcome to our first blog post. Make sure you visit often as this will continually be updated.

Teacher Brain was created to share valuable resources with other teachers. There are many teacher resource websites out there, but after you have a subscription for a year, you find that there is not much else they can offer you.

Teacher Brain ensures there is new content on a weekly basis, and guarantees that there is absolute minimal preparation for the games and station activities. Most resources simply need to be laminated, and this means they will be in your classroom quickly and ready to be used! (No pieces to be lost either!)

Not only are they fabulous for teachers with Literacy and Maths groups, but our resources are amazing for casual teachers as you only need dice, counters and/or whiteboard markers to play games or complete activities!

Teacher Brain resources cater for many learning styles and ability levels. They are interesting, bright and keep students interested.

Our website offers products which assist with Australia’s L3, Best Start and Naplan programs, and United States’ Common Core outcomes. The resources are universal, so can be used all over the world as well.

Enjoy our website, you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Remember, you can have instant access to single downloads (mostly costing 50c), or grab a subscription and open your classroom to over $220 worth of resources (as of April 2013).