Whole Brain Teaching…I'm Sold!

I am sold on Whole Brain Teaching and everything that goes along with it! I actually began implementing the five rules and the "class-yes" portion of WBT in my 6th grade classroom. I have been using these same two components in my 1st grade classroom since Day 1. I knew that I wanted to implement more, but I was not really sure how to do it. That is when I came across this video. 

I bit the bullet and implemented the scoreboard last week. It was a hit on day one and the kids were sold on it. It was awesome when they walked in today and their first question was if they were going to win the game again. :) Day by day I am getting better at implementing the scoreboard and becoming more religious with rewarding points for both good and bad. We got over 30 marks on our board today which was quite exciting. 

Today I introduced the concept of mirrors. Another huge hit!

I promise to keep sharing with you all on my WBT teaching journey! I am also going to be participating in a WBT Book Study that will begin in January! Be on the lookout for more posts about WBT!

Whole Brain Teaching...Update!

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.
 

Source: youtube.com via Katie on Pinterest

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:

Mrs. Stolenberg

Miss L

Mrs. Shipley

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?

1 down, 35 to go

My first week of school was simply amazing. I am really hoping that this was not just a Honeymoon week, and that this is how my year will be all year long. In honor of such a successful first week, I thought that I would share my top five moments with you. 

One. Whole Brain Teaching is amazing! I was so hesitant about using this technique at first, but I am in love with it. My kids kept telling how much they loved it too. In my opinion it seemed that my students were much more engaged than when using traditional teaching techniques. I cannot wait to see how WBT progresses as the year does. 

Two. Interactive Student Notebooks are still the best invention ever! I do not know what I did last year during the fall semester before I implemented them! My kids seem to really be enjoying them too and I heard several times that they didn't mind taking notes/working/learning this way. That sure made my teacher heart happy. 

Three. My room has been a huge hit. You can find the photos I posted here. I have gotten so many compliments about the decor. Since I have implemented WBT this year, one of the rewards they can earn with their scoreboard is to work with the lights off and we turn the lanterns on. I had no idea how excited 6th graders would be about that!

Four. I was dreading using CSOPE for my curriculum this year, but it too has been wonderful! I had heard many negative things about it, but I was excited to just have a scope and sequence for the year. I am happy to say that I am actually loving CSCOPE. My fellow Texans, if you are in a district that uses it, do you have to use the ELA one?

Five. I got out of AM Bus Circle Duty already. You have to love school holidays! 

I will be back soon with some answers to some of the questions that you all have asked. If you have one for me, just visit here!

Whole Brain Teaching

I have seen a lot of buzz about this lately and am absolutely loving it! I have always been a firm believer in allowing students to talk with classmates and using gestures to help them remember what we are learning. After doing lots of research this summer, I am excited to say that I will officially be implementing Whole Brain Teaching (WBT) in my classroom this school year. 

Have you or will you be using Whole Brain Teaching within your classroom? If you have used it before, what is your favorite component of it? What advice would you give a newbie who will be implementing it in their own classroom?

There are some really great videos out on Youtube with examples of WBT in action. Here are a few of my favorites that I have come across this summer: