PB&J Website!

                                                                 Photo by Lauren Mancke on Unsplash

We did it!  We finally created a website.

Check it out at: pbandjlearninglab.com

Revamping the Let's Try... Box

Jim and I are thrilled that schools have been reaching out to us wanting 

Let's Try... boxes for the 2020-2021 school year. 

As educators, we know we will need a variety of tools and strategies to help students work through their anxiety and uncertainties of the changes to their school routine.  

Minimizing the spread of germs is another top priority for the new school year. Therefore, we revamped the Let's Try... box to make sanitation of items easier. 

The stress band, 3D erasers, and pompoms were removed as they cannot be easily sanitized. 

A puzzle cube and magnetic doodle board were added.  

We were able to keep the price at $48 plus tax and shipping per box.

For more information on the Let's Try box, you can email us at: pbandjlearninglab@gmail.com

To order a box, fill out our order form.  

Let's Try... Boxes Now Available!

Let's Try... Boxes

We have had an overwhelming amount of interest in our Let's Try... box after Behavior Flip
asked us to do a guest blog.  We are currently working on creating boxes for those who would like to purchase one.

The new version of the box looks like this:

We switched to the 3-layer stackable box and it is working great!  Although the multicolored photo box was an attention grabber, it proved to be too cumbersome for elementary students.  It ended up being too heavy with all of the items and limiting in item choice due to the 4x6 box size.

The inside allows for more room so educators can add their own items.

If you would like to purchase a Let's Try... box, please email us at: pbandjlearninglab@gmail.com

Doodles Activate the Brain's Reward Pathway

(Image - Kate's Classroom Cafe)

Have you tried letting students doodle when they are frustrated?  

Research from Drexel University found that art-making, including doodling, resulted in the activation of feelings of reward.  A 3-minute session led to greater blood flow in the brain's reward pathway.

Next time a student is having a tough time, try giving him/her a piece of paper and a pencil.  Even better... colored pencils or markers.  You may see a change in their mood which will allow you to begin to talk through the problem.

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Article:  Making Art Activates Brain's Reward Pathway

Full Study:  Functional near-infrared spectroscopy assessment of reward perception based on visual self-expression: Coloring, doodling, and free drawing

ABCs of Teaching Multilingual Learners

 
 

Share these resources with your colleagues!

ABCs of Teaching Multilingual Learners - PDF

ABCs Explained - PDF

Let's Draw Implementation

This week I paired “Let’s Draw,” our new self-regulation tool with our previously used self-awareness tool “Let’s Talk.”  There is plenty of research outlining the benefits of drawing with helping students de-escalate in order to regulate their emotions.  It’s because of this research that we developed “Let’s Draw” as a complementary tool to “Let’s Talk.”

Early in the week I had a student brought to my office.  He was highly emotional and clearly not ready for a productive conversation with me.  All my attempts to engage in conversation were met with closed off body language, a look of anger on his face, and no verbal responses.  I saw this as an opportunity to try the “Let’s Draw” self-regulation tool.

I asked the student if he liked to draw.  He immediately looked at me and said, “Yeah, I love to draw!”  When I pointed to the drawing board on my wall which held two blank sheets of paper and said you can take some time and draw if you’d like, he immediately moved towards the board.  I gave him a pencil and some colored pencils. I told him he could either stand or sit while drawing and he could draw whatever he wanted. It could be things he is good at drawing and likes to draw, or things that reflect how he’s feeling.  

He started off standing, but it didn’t take long before he pulled up a chair and sat down.  It was incredible to feel the energy that radiated from him body. As he moved from a standing to sitting position, his energy and emotions also lowered.  When I could feel he was in a better place emotionally and seemed to be effectively self-regulating his emotions, I asked if he was ready to talk about what was going on.  He said he was ready, so I suggested he take a few minutes to finish up his drawing and then we would talk. It was powerful to hear his responses to me asking how the drawing made his body feel and if he would share what he was drawing.  He said it made his body feel calm and that the bright circle was because he was feeling “bright” and “happy” while drawing. We finished up our problem-solving by working through the “Let’s Talk” self-assessment.  He shared that he was feeling “good/happy” because he got all his feeling out and got to talk to someone about what happened.  

The entire experience with this student validated the research and beliefs we have about the power drawing can have in aiding a student’s ability to self-regulate their emotions.  “Let’s Draw” has already proven to be a successful and valuable resource when working with students to de-escalate their emotions. I can problem solve with them and get them re-entered into their classroom.    

-Jim

3D Graphic Organizer

A basic paper-pencil graphic organizer is a typical to go writing tool.  Let's think beyond typical and expected.  Let's go for different and interactive!

Jenga blocks are one of my must-haves when I work with small groups of students.  Sometimes I use them for sight word practice, other days I use them for a pre-writing graphic organizer.

When you set a pile of blocks on the table, two things happen:

1. You spark curiosity in students
2. Students become actively engaged in the topic

Here is an example of a 3D graphic organizer comparing two stories:

I typically give each student a few blocks to begin. I start by asking, "What was one of the stories we read this week?"  I write down the student's answer on a flag (with older students, I have them write the answer).  The student puts the flag on the block and sets it on the bottom.  As we work through the activity, the students stack the blocks.  

I continue to build wonder and excitement by asking students, "Will we finish before it falls over?" or "How many blocks will we be able to stack?".  I am able to keep them hooked as they never know when it might fall. 

Students reference the block towers as they work on their writing for the day.

Try adding blocks to your next lesson!

Thanks for reading,

Rachel

Erasable Pens = Engaged Writers!

Do you ever have those days when you struggle to get your students excited about writing?

I have found the solution!!!!  Erasable Pens!!!  I am not kidding.  These pens are a game-changer...

I was leading a teacher training and one of the teachers shared how she uses erasable pens to get her students excited about writing.  I figured the pens would smear (like erasable pens of the old days) and I would have a group disappointed students and a pile of illegible papers.  This is not the case.  They erase better than I ever thought possible.  

When I go to coach teachers and they discuss struggling with engagement in writing, I immediately pull out my erasable pens and begin sharing ideas.

Here are a few of the many ways you could use erasable pens:

- Final drafts

- Peer editing

- Partner writing

- Adding pictures to writing

- Note-taking (changing colors for different topics)

- Finding text evidence 

- Emphasizing new vocabulary words

The possibilities are endless! (Just don't use them daily or the novelty will wear off.)

Bottom-line: Students will want to write when you add the element of change.  The moment you tell them to put away their pencils for writing, they will be intrigued as to what will happen next.

Keep them guessing...Keep them engaged!

Thanks for reading,

Rachel

A Must Read: The Wild Card

If you have not read, The Wild Card by Hope and Wade King, I strongly suggest you add it to your Amazon cart and immediately proceed to the checkout.

Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc. has published some of my favorite professional reads.  This is by far my favorite as it directly aligns to my passion and belief on the importance of creativity in education.

This book is filled with ideas and quotes that I have flagged and written down for future use.  However, I decided to narrow them all down to the top ideas I will pass along.

My Top 3 Takeaways:

1.  Creativity is key to engagement

2.  Standards don't determine how you deliver the content

3.  The engagement factor must enhance your content, not detract from it

"Pretty Good"

Today the yellow light next to the happy face meant, "pretty good".  The student said he felt pretty good after his problem-solving session with Mr. Potthoff.  He went on to explain his feelings by stating, "I feel this way because I get a second chance to fix my attitude and behavior."

Let's Talk is proving to be a very helpful for students to not only name their feeling but explain it in detail.  

Let's Talk: Day 1 Implementation

Successful Implementation!

A few students today had problem-solving sessions with Mr. Potthoff.  After working through things, students used the new, "Let's Talk" system to reflect on their feelings.  Mr. Potthoff guided them through a 3-step self-awareness process:

Step 1: Think

Step 2: Name their feeling

Step 3: Explain 

The above picture shows a student in step #2 who said she was happy.  Next she explained she felt this way because she was able to explain what had happened and that Mr. Potthoff was going to help her.  

We are excited to have students use this tool to self-reflect!  We want students to be active participants in their learning, especially during difficult conversations.

Self-Awareness Tool for Students & Admin

Our first project was attached to the wall today!  

Our goal was to create a self-awareness tool for students and administration.  

We focused on two of the Social and Emotional Learning Competencies: 

Self-Awareness and Relationship Skills.

Adults too often assume they know how students are feeling after a problem-solving session.

We want students to have an active role in recognizing and explaining their feelings.

The visuals and tap lights make it interactive for the students.  

This is a great tool to use with English learners.  The visuals and sentence starter

helps to scaffold language.

Here We Go...

We have been talking about starting a blog, getting an Instagram account, and setting up a Twitter account to share our ideas for a few months now.  This weekend we finally jumped in... Head first!

Do we know what we are doing?  Hmmm...Well... Kind of.  Neither of us are super techie, but we can watch a How To Video and fumble our way through it. 

So here we are!  Fumbling but beyond excited we have started.  We conquered Instagram and Twitter and even posted a few things.  Now, it is Google Blogger time.  

Be patient with us as we work out the kinks.  We are proponents of messy learning.  Letting our students experience productive struggle and at times failure in order to have a breakthrough in their learning.  Today, we are practicing what we preach.  We are learning Google Blogger and it is in fact going to be messy for us.