WBT, Week 1

The first week of school is over, and I slept for 12 hours last night!  Teaching is exhausting, but I am pleased to have Whole Brain Teaching to minimize the stress!

Within the first half hour of the first day, my 2nd graders were answering class-yes,  cheering on the scoreboard, and using the teach-ok like champs!  It was awesome! 

Our school now has a "social skill of the week."  This week it was, "Make eye contact while speaking."  This went along perfectly with learning the teach-ok.  

"Remember, make eye contact with your partner!"  

After a few days I added in the Switch.  They were giggling and smiling with joy as they called out, "ah-oh, switch!" and pulled the imaginary switch to take turns.

On Monday we started by learning only the first three rules.  The students mirrored me as we practiced the gestures.  The rules are a great way for them to start learning the teach-ok.  They taught their partner each rule and then practiced them all in order.  On Tuesday and Wednesday we added another rule.

By the end of the week the students were tired and getting sluggish.  I amped up the scoreboard, called out the rules for practice when someone broke them, and rehearsed, rehearsed, rehearsed.  I had to keep Chris Biffle's words in mind, "Whole Brain Teachers never scold...they rehearse!"  That sure is hard to remember some times, but it does keep the blood pressure down ;-)


Allison
WBT Intern, 2011-12

My new class rules!

Last  year I basically used the five Whole Brain Teaching rules, with a little of my own variation.  It was a great success.  Why did I love it?

• The rules no longer hung on the wall ignored.
• We practiced the rules everyday in the beginning, and frequently throughout the year.
• It became an EASY and POSITIVE way to redirect behavior.  Was someone talking?  I simply said, "Rule #2."  And the whole class reinforced the rules by repeating, "Raise your hand to speak," along with the gestures.
• The rules set concrete expectations that the students became so familiar with that it helped them to monitor their own behavior and take responsibility for their actions.
• Students even began to use the rules to kindly correct their classmates!  Is that teacher heaven, or what?!

This year our school as a whole is adopting a new set of rules.  There are ten "behavior ethics"...

and ten "work ethics".

Every class in the school will use these "ethics" to set expectations and communicate with parents.   In a perfect world, I would be able to follow the WBT techniques to the letter and use the five classroom rules.  However, due to these school-wide expectations I think it will be best to jump in and find a way to "Wibbify" what I have here.

The first five behavior ethics, more or less, cover the basic classroom rules that one would find in Whole Brain Teaching.  I think I will post all the behavior ethics, but highlight the first five in some way. I will point out that these rules give guidelines on classroom behavior, so we will focus more attention on them in class by rehearsing them with gestures.  Who knows...by the end of the year, the students might make gestures for all twenty of the ethics listed!

Allison

WBT Intern, 2011-12

Whole Brain Writing Game

In the past year I have had a chance to try out the Whole Brain Writing Game.  I like how it starts by creating sentences orally before pushing to have them written down.  In the future I will definitely combine this game with the Air Punctation brain toy, so that students can use gestures to practice capitalization and punctuation.

I tried this game last year with my entire 2nd grade class but unfortunately I did not follow through.  It is always challenging to find the time to fit everything in!  However, I really feel that taking the time to use this game will truly impact the students' writing.  It would have worked if I kept at it, but I think it may be even better to do it in small groups next year (at least in the beginning) so that I can more closely monitor for understanding.

I also used the writing game with the 7th grade boy that I tutor.  He needed practice writing and I really like how this game allowed for specific practice in a limited amount of time.  The topic lists for each complexor are also helpful because it sparks ideas while also allowing for plenty of creativity.


Just last week I had the 7th grader use the WB Writing Rules listed in the book to check his writing.  I love the list because it kind of took the pressure off of me.  It was no longer just me critiquing his writing.  It gave him guidelines to assess his writing himself.   Each rule also has a gesture to go along with it to make it more active and fun.  Even this 7th grader started to giggle when he got to #5 and got to flick each punctuation mark with his finger!

Last year I created a simplified version of the writing rules for my 2nd graders.  Before my students ever turned in their writing they had to grab a checklist and review their own work.  Click here to preview/download a copy of the document.  To download a free copy of the Whole Brain Writing Game book click here.

Brain Toys

For the past few weeks, Chris Biffle has been broadcasting live from his garage on Saturday mornings.  I didn't have the time to participate until last week and when I finally joined in, I was shocked that I have gotten so far behind in the world of Wibbeting! 

Last Saturday I learned about the new Brain Toys: "Gestures that students use to develop critical thinking skills and...enliven lessons."  I've got to go back and rewatch the show, but this is what I gleaned from my preliminary viewing:

Use the question answer technique to help students orally practice answering in complete sentences.

Use air punctuation to reinforce punctuation as students answer aloud.

When I first heard about the question answer brain toy, I was thinking, "This sounds wonderful...but do we really have time in the day to sit around and practice answering questions?"  The answer was YES.   I introduced the question answer while discussing plant parts in science.  It was really basic information that the students probably learned back in K.  So it was the perfect way to review the content while also practicing this skill of answering in complete sentences, AND have some fun!  I wrote a sentence frame on the board, modeled it, and let the students create their own question answer sentence with a partner.  It only took a few minutes, and I will definitely tie this in to other content areas.

Back when my 2nd graders were studying complete sentences, my students used a gesture for capital letters (sweeping hands up with a "whoosh") and periods (flicking the pointer finger while making a clicking noise).  I thought it was an awesome idea to use this air punctuation as students construct complete sentences orally.  So many of the students know that they need capital letters and periods, but they just don't remember to use them in their writing. 

Today we were working on constructing topic sentences.  As students shared, the class mirrored my air punctuation.  I was so impressed when a student raised her hand after the first example and pointed out that we should use the captial letter gesture when referring to proper nouns as well.  YES!  She received a ten finger woo with lightning sizzles, by the way.  The students were engaged, involved, and having fun!  After this practice, they were let loose to write their own topic sentence for their paper.  This is an excellent way to scaffold the ESL students and those that need extra support.

I love that the WBT strategies just make so much sense.  They solve problems that all teachers encounter.  They are quick and easy to incorporate in a variety of situations.  They are free, require no materials, and they are fun!