I still think I am a little crazy for just deciding to do it and running with it, but I am in love with Whole Brain Teaching! It has totally transformed my classroom and my discipline problems have been zero because my students are constantly engaged.
One of my questions that I was asked in my Q&A post was about WBT, so I thought I would go into a bit more depth about it.
Ms. D from Superlative Six asked me (Kim and Elizabeth had WBT questions too):
How did you start with WBT? Do other people in your building use it? How was it introduced?
I am going to answer them a little out of order. :) I am the only person that I am aware of that uses Whole Brain Teaching on my campus. I am on a middle school campus that is composed of about 50 teachers and we teach students in grades 6th-8th. I know several of the teachers on my campus have thought I am a little crazy for trying to implement WBT, but I know it is what is best for my kids right now.
I started with WBT my simply surfing the web, blogs, Pinterest, and YouTube. I actually first came across the concept of Whole Brain Teaching on some of my favorite blogs. This is when I really started looking into how I could make this work for my classroom. This was the video that really got me hooked and made me realize that I knew I wanted to implement WBT.
The Whole Brain Teaching website is wonderful and has lots of great resources to get you started. Some of my other favorite websites that I found were from:
The Whole Brain Teaching website is wonderful and has lots of great resources to get you started. Some of my other favorite websites that I found were from:
You can also check out my Pinterest boards, I have one that is dedicated to WBT!
I knew that I wanted to introduce WBT from the first day of school because I felt that it was important to learn the 5 rules from the start as well as Class-Yes. I started the first day of school by teaching the five class rules with hand gestures. WBT suggests that you review the rules each day, but I simply do not have time for that since I only have 55 minutes with each class. I try to at least review them on Monday first thing, but it does not always happen. After teaching the rules, I introduced the concept of Class-Yes. This has literally saved my life. Last year I would get so sick of counting backwards from three to get the attention of my students. I love the variety with Class-Yes. I am even known to bust out in a rap with it, just ask my 6th graders!
To be honest, I have not done as great of a job with some of the components of WBT like the Scorecard. I just find myself too busy and then I forget to award my kiddos positive and negative points. I think what I might need to do is put one of my students in charge of reminding me to use it. Hopefully they will hold me accountable. I find myself using the Teach portion of WBT, but sometime I also just tell them to go and meet with their partner. I need to do a much better job of using the Teach hand motions as well as the Mirror motions.
As you can see, WBT is something that is still evolving for me, but I am so pleased with the results that I have gotten from it thus far. Do you use WBT in your classroom? What do you like or dislike about it?
I absolutely love the turn and teach portion of whole brain teaching. I find that I have far less "What do I do now?" questions. After they turn and teach the directions to one another they really seem to know what they are doing. I put the scoreboard on my white board every Monday and the kids help remind me about the points. I roam around the room alot, so when they earn one and I'm no where near the board, I just have one of my kiddos add the point. We also use a monetary system in my room, so for 5 smiley faces they get a Denney Dollar to use at our quarterly auction....they love it! I am amazed every day how saying one simple word like "Class" gets every single person attention!
ReplyDeleteI'm at the same stage of WBT as you are, and I find the same things {mainly time} are what prevent me from implementing it further. I love class/yes, and have used it for almost 2 years now. I struggle with remembering Teach/Ok, and therefore my students arent great at it yet. But, we're getting there!!!
ReplyDeleteHalle
Across the Hall in 2nd Grade
I had never heard of this until you mentioned it a few months ago. With just a little, tiny bit of knowledge and watching a few videos, I have started to implement some things in my room. Today I tried the blow it in to your hand and release like the video you shared. My kids LOVED it. Ate it right up!
ReplyDeleteLindsay
My Life as a Third Grade Teacher
I'm fairly certain your blog is where I first learned about WBT. I don't fully implement it, but I do try to incorporate hand motions for the things we're learning in class. I've seen a huge increase in engagement when we do this, and my students are retaining the information better too. I'm looking forward to doing more.
ReplyDeleteI am still a student teacher but have been following your blog with such interest the last year and I have loved the ideas I have found here. I just wanted to say thank you. Cause its wonderful teachers like yourself in blog land that I have found so much inspiration and ideas that I have used successfully in my time in the classroom. I am loving the concepts of the WBT and cant wait to use it in the classroom for my last year of University and hopefully when I finally get my own classroom. By the way you are influencing a future teacher in New Zealand.
ReplyDeleteHappy Teaching
I'm a fifth grade teacher and I've just started implementing WBT techniques in my room this year also. So far I'm having a lot of fun (and so are the kids) with the structure, and I'm loving the engagement level. I'm excited to hear more about your journey with WBT this year. Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteI teach fifth grade and have started using some of the WBT techniques. Like you, I learned about it by reading blogs and through pinterest. I love the concept. I have used scoreboard, mirror, teach, and the super improver board. My struggle is being consistent with each of them. I would also like to start using the universal homework too, but I haven't been able to figure out how that would work in my class.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your blog. I'm your newest follower.
Katrina
Teacherofscholars.blogspot.com
I teach fourth grade and I learned about WBT surfing the Internet for new ideas to better help my students. I have been implementing parts of it for about 8 weeks and my students and I absolutely love it.
ReplyDeleteI also did a lot of searching this summer and started with some components of WBT in my 4th grade class this year. I have the rules posted, and we review them every now and then, but it will be time to do it daily for awhile once we get back to school after break. I also struggle with the time issue, and doing the "smileys" and "frownies". They are great with the "Class, OK" and "Hands and Eyes" but don't do the teach component a lot. One of my professional resolutions for the new year is to do WBT more consistently. I'm also using Class Dojo for management, where I award points on my IPod. The kids really like it!
ReplyDelete