Whole Brain Teaching is for Everyone

[wbtisforeveryone]

I am just learning about WBT and am wondering what do you do with the students that misbehave in the restroom or hallway or recess. Things like throwing paper towels at others poking or bothering others or recess problems. Any help clarifying this is helpful. Thanks!

We use 'resets' in my class (see my post about this for more info). I would also say : 'rule 4' and have them repeat the rule. If the behavior persists, they would get a practice card and sit out of recess for 2 minutes repeating broken rule with gesture of course.

[wbtisforeveryone]

Blurters Beware!

We all have them, and if you're like me, they annoy you more than most things in your class . . . Blurters!

How many times have you yelled out "Rule 2!"?  Yet the blurting continues.

Well, thanks to Coach B's new Hello Yellows and WBT 2.0, WBT is knocking out so many new strategies and they have a great one for those pesky blurters!

Here's how it works:

Put this poster on your white board at the front of your room (click picture to download) and at some point during the day, pull out a stopwatch or project one on your screen.

Tell the class: It's time for the Three-Freebie Stopwatch! and your class waves their hands above their heads and says "3-freebie stopwatch - hooray!"

Start the timer.  The first time someone blurts, say "That's 1!" and make a mark under the poster.  Continue until 3 blurts have occurred.  At that point, say "That's all the freebies!" and stop the stopwatch.

Say: "Next time we play we will try to beat this time and see if we can go longer!"  Write the time under the poster.

When the class gets really good at this game, you can only give them 2 freebies.  

Cool game, huh?  I can't wait to try.  WBT 2.0 is just bursting with new inspirational ideas.  I'll hopefully post some more about those soon!

[wbtisforeveryone]

5-Step Lessons: Part 2

Hopefully you haven't been waiting with bated breath for this!  The 1st month of school has been more challenging than I'd anticipated leaving me little time to blog.  

Let's get to it:

Bridge, Switch variations, the Tickler and Class/Yes variations, Brain Toys & Hands & Eyes!

The Bridge: On my lesson plan template you'll notice a Br.  This is where you put your instructions for the next step of the lesson.  For example: "When I say Teach, I want you to make a fast, full turn to your neighbor with your arms up ready to make BIG gestures!"  Another: "Tell your partner that you can't wait to play "Yes, No Way!"

Switch Variations: There are 2 switches I use all the time in my class.  The 1st one I use most often when I want 1 student to speak and the other to mirror gestures and listen.  This is especially good during Step 2. The 2nd Switch is the Tag-Team Switch.  Used mostly during Steps 4 & 5, this Switch lets partners fill in sentence frames, make up sentences, solve math problems and much more!

The Tickler- Right before you say "Teach!", do something weird!  Play an air guitar, clap your hands above your head, pretend to shoot a bow and arrow, make a kevin-from-home-alone-aftershave face, etc.  Students mimic - instant hilarity and engagement ensues.

Brain Toys: Don't forget to put at least one of  these into each of your 5-step lessons!  Brain Toys boost critical thinking by requiring students to use something they don't have to use much these days: their imaginations!  Click here to download posters with amazing ideas.

Hands and Eyes: Don't forget to plan when you want to make the REALLY BIG POINTS and use H&E so your students will stare at you with eyes wide open and hands folded as if their lives depended on your very next word!  

There you have it!  As you can see, the 5-Step lesson is nothing to be afraid of!  Hopefully I'll have a video up soon to show you what it looks like with my behaviorally-challenged bunch. :)

Thanks for reading, comment and ask questions away!

[wbtisforeveryone]

5-Step Lesson Plan: Part 1!

The year has begun, your students are getting the hang of mirror/words and teach/okay.  You have learned the 5 rules, the Scoreboard is filling up with tallies and Class/Yes is echoing off the walls.

Time to get serious!  For all you newbies out there, here is where the rubber meets the road.  Time to print out those Power Pix (search on Pintrest or TPT, or download from wholebrainteaching.com) and sink your teeth into the 5 STEP LESSON PLAN!

There it is in all it's glory!  (But don't fall in love too much, I'm working on a new version that will allow you to plan out which Brainies you will use!)

Here's the problem, you want to use this ridiculously-effective format but you don't know where to start.  Hopefully what you're about to read will put an end to all that worry: it's easier than you think!

Hopefully the above poster equips you with the knowledge you need to confidently implement the 5-steps in your classroom! (click the picture to download as a .PDF)  If not, here is the 5-step lesson webcast from Coach B:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEbwZIeL544

Here is the link to the WBT Book Club with 30+ examples of some amazing 5-step lessons!

Stay-tuned for 5-Step Lessons: Part 2 where we'll go deeper by explaining the Bridge, Switch variations, the Tickler and Class/Yes variations, Brain Toys & Hands & Eyes!

[wbtisforeveryone]

Joke of the Day 3!

After much demand, I have miraculously completed a Joke of the Day 3! I say miraculously, because not only was I able to find 50 more hilarious, rib-tickling jokes (with equally hilarious pictures!), but I think this may be my best effort yet! So if you have Joke of the Day 1 & 2 and the Christmas or Halloween jokes, GET THIS NOW and you will have a joke for all 180 days of the year! Not convinced? Now you can download a 10-joke sample preview presentation!

Head over to my TPT store to get yours now for less than a Starbucks Latte!

[wbtisforeveryone]

Christmas Joke of the Day!

Christmas will be here before you know it, but now you'll be ready! because you'll have my latest JOKE OF THE DAY: HOLIDAY EDITION! complete with a laugh-out-loud picture with each joke!

Go to my TPT store and pick yours up for a measly .99 cents!

[wbtisforeveryone]

Brainy & SIT Wall!

The Brainy Wall is finally up:

That's how it looks unlocked.  And here it is in version 2.0 with Brainy Locks (which you can download on this site):

As you may be able to see, some of the locks come with a fancy "!" which means their is a bonus surprise hilarious picture when the brainy is unlocked.  The number in the right-hand corner tells how many keys are needed to unlock the Brainy.  

I'm pretty happy with my homemade Einstein Triangle, too! :)

Here's my finished Super Improver Team (note I only have 6

the moment, which is still enough to keep me crazy busy since they are behavior students!)  We'll fire this thing up on Monday.

Whole Brain Teaching is so much fun!

[wbtisforeveryone]

5-Rules for Special Ed

I'm a by-the-book kind of guy.  To be honest, I'm always annoyed when people want to mess with a good thing.  The 5 rules are a good thing. They are extremely effective at covering any and all behavior that can and will arise in the classroom.

So what am I talking about 5-rules for Special Ed?  Maybe that title is a little misleading.  I teach special(exceptional)ed and felt a need to tweak the rules a little.  So maybe I should have entitled this post, 5-rules for My Classroom.

There is ONE particular PROBLEMATIC behavior that comes up over and over and over in my classroom that I desperately wanted a quick and easy rule for. 

So my rule 3 was born.  I'd love your input:

There it is as a lovely wizard-themed poster.  (Our classroom name is the Tan 1 Wizards).  

FOCUS ON YOURSELF.  No more do I have to tell students to stop worrying about what their neighbor is doing ("She's looking at me" or "Why did she get to do ______" or "Sam's not opening his book!", etc.) When these inevitable things occur, I can call out "Rule 3!"  

In case your curious, the gesture is: when we say focus: two-fingers pointed at our eyes.  And when we say ourselves, the two fingers travel down to our chest.

I'm aware that FOCUS ON YOURSELF is covered by rule 4: make smart choices, but I needed to be more specific as this was a POOR-CHOICE that my students consistently made.

I also am kind of happy with combining rules 2 & 3 into one handy "Raise your hand for . . . " kind of rule:

Gestures just the same as usual, except we stick the AND Brainy in the middle. :)

So a new rule is born, at least in my classroom.  I'm hoping it will cut down on lots of scolding on my part.  What do you think?  Are you angered by my tampering with a good thing. don't worry . . . I understand.

(if you want these posters for your room, click here to download)

[wbtisforeveryone]

Behavior Consequences in WBT?

I wanted to take a minute to address a pretty popular question of WBT newbies:

How do I address individual negative behavior using Whole Brain Teaching without interrupting the 'flow' of the lesson?

This is only my 2nd year implementing WBT, but I've found a couple ways to do this that really work for me with the toughest kids around.

                  The first technique I use multiple times a day is from a man named Howard Glasser who developed a teaching/counseling strategy called The Nurtured Heart Approach.  If you use time-outs in your class, PLEASE STOP!  They take too long and do not teach replacement behaviors.  Glasser compares the classroom environment to a video game.  When students 'die' or 'lose' on a video game there is very little time before they are right back in, earning points.  Just like a video game, classroom "losses" can be painless, brief and even motivating.

(I always illustrate this with my students by playing pacman at www.webpacman.com)

What does a classroom Reset look like?  Immediately following the negative student behavior, I say "reset" and they put their head in their arms on their desk.  After 3-5 seconds I say, "Great, job! Come back."  You'd think I'd need to do more than this, but I usually don't.  If a student is still 'grouchy' after 'resetting', I either try humor or redirection and one or the other almost always does the trick.

The second method comes from Coach B himself and is the rule call-out.  Even when a single student breaks one of the 5 rules, you call the rule out for the entire class to recite (with big gestures, of course!)  

And then, sometime after Christmas or a little before, I may need to implement practice cards so that frequent-offenders can practice weak-rule skills at recess.  

I find that both of these methods function great together and negative behavior doesn't take up too much of our focus: even in a severe-behavior school setting. 

[wbtisforeveryone]

Brainy Lock Posters!

Just in time for the 2014-2015 school year:

The wait is over . . . Are you ready for something that you HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE?!!  I have made a product that will CHANGE BULLETIN BOARDS FOREVER.  (Bulletin boards 2.0, anyone?)

Brainy Lock Posters are a revolutionary way to systematically introduce each brainy SUPERCHARGED with funtricity.

Here's how it works:

Post your Brainy Posters on a large bulletin board or around your classroom.  Cover each brainy with its custom brainy lock.  Students then earn keys (by completing lessons, mind-soccer questions, super gestures or any way you'd like) to UNLOCK the Brainy poster.  Each key has a task related to the brainy for students to solve.

and for added fun, some posters come with a PRIZE: A HILARIOUS PHOTO!  

Did you ever think that a bulletin board could be so engaging, so inspiring!!! Let the woo's commence! :)

I have yet to put these up in my class, but as soon as I do, I will post pictures of how to set them up (this pdf also comes with instructions).  

Here's what you'll get:

           A Brainy Lock Poster for each of the 34 Brainies

           Keys (2,3 or 4) for each Brainy

           Hilarious Prize Photo Posters

           Instructions

download your set now by clicking here.

[wbtisforeveryone]

Improve Away!

I know that there are many Super Improver Team templates out there (just search on TPT for a bunch of 'em!) but I'm pretty happy with the way this one turned out and consider it to be one of the better ones out there.

For one, there is no THEME to this one, so that it can be laminated and used again and again.  I have also included some handy tips on how to get the most out of the SIT as well as a coming soon poster to amp up enthusiasm and excitement!  Here are some samples:

Click the top picture (title poster) to download!  

[wbtisforeveryone]

Brainy Posters Printed!

I know I told everyone about a site that someone recommended called bestvalueprinting.com, but after shipping, I decided I might as well just go to Kikos.  

If you register here, you can apply for a 15% off card good for ANY print services at your Kinkos/FedEx store.  That's what I did.  Take a look at my receipt:

A little pricey, I know, but I opted for thicker paper so that once laminated, these puppies should last for years and years (assuming Coach B doesn't change them before then!) :)

[wbtisforeveryone]

Teaching is repetition!

Michael Jordon didn't learn how to dunk after 2 times.  Yo-yo Ma didn't learn how to play Beethoven's 5th the first time through. It took Louis Sachar 6 drafts to write Holes.

As Chris Biffle says in the WBT book, Teaching is repetion.  If you don't like repeating yourself, don't teach.

We need to remind our students (and our colleagues who are skeptical of WBT's repetitive nature) that Learning happens through repetition.

I just finished the above poster for you to put in your classroom to help yourself (when you're frustrated with lack of progress - time is an ally!) and your students that it's okay to repeat, repeat, repeat to move that knowledge from short- into long-term memory!

Click the picture to download.

[wbtisforeveryone]

Brainy Posters Galore!

Just in time for room-setup!  I made these for my class, but I thought ya'll might be able to use 'em, too. :)

First, I've taken the Brainies and made them into color-coded wall posters (legal sized)

Of course, these are 32 more where that came from!  Click here to download the posters (legal sized) in pdf form.

And here are the student desk-sheets which I'm planning on printing front to back.  Just for fun, I've made a PRIMARY, MIDDLE and HIGH school version (they're all in this pdf file: here.)

There are Beginner and Competition Brainies of each and look like this:

PRIMARY:

MIDDLE:

and HIGH:

I plan on printing these all from a discount online printer:

www.bestvaluecopy.com

and it should be fairly cheap. 

Brainies are going to SUPER-POWER our classrooms and PUMP UP the critical thinking!  I hope my old school building will be able to take it!  I'll also put these up on my TPT store when I get a chance. :)  

[wbtisforeveryone]

Woo Dat?

WOO VARIATIONS

A WBT classroom is just chock-full of parties, celebrations and fun.  We've got the 1-second party during Scoreboard, the three-cheers during Super Improver Team advancement and, of course, the most frequent of Sillybrations: the Woo and all of it's exciting variations.

Since the woo is a reward for brilliant behavior or thinking, our job as teachers is to make sure that it STAYS REWARDING.  In other words, the 453rd 10-finger woo probably doesn't have the same enjoyment level as the first 5 did!  

So how do we keep it fresh?

No, not THAT fresh!

Here are a few of my ideas (several of which I've borrowed from other Wibbiteers) and then I was hoping that we could GET A DISCUSSION GOING.  Please add your own ideas below in COMMENTS.  

1. The 13-finger woo: a ten finger woo with three tiny woo's added one finger at a time to reach 13 (can switch up with any number 0-99).

2. The disco-boogie woo: students do the John Travolta disco finger before giving their woo.

3. The cowboy woo: students lasso an invisible lasso around thier head and then say: yee-haw-woo!

4. The roller-coaster woo: students put their hands up above their heads and say 'click, click, click' then excidedly shake their woo's at the recipient as if descending down a steep shaky wooden coaster.

5. Tsunami-woo: students slowly raise their 2 hands up like a giant wave while inhaling and say "WOO!" with their exhale like a giant wave crashing on the shore.

Okay, your turn! Help us make sure the woo stays powerful all-year-long!

[wbtisforeveryone]

The Grandma Rule

To go along with my latest behavior posts (even though it's not really WBT related): This is one of my favorite quotes that I'm known to repeat to my students:

If you agree that The Grandma Rule is one of the very best out there, click the picture above to download a FREE poster for your classroom! :)

[wbtisforeveryone]

7 Common Teaching Mistakes Poster

This poster was created using Chapter 3 of the WBT book:

1. Don't yell at your students!  Out-of-control children do not need out-of-control teachers. 

2. Confronting challenging students in front of their peers MAKES THEM BRAVER!  Talk with them privately.

3. Disorganization = chaos.  Don't 'shoot from the hip'.

4. Happy teachers = Happy students (rule 5, anyone?)

5. "The less work you do outside of the class, the more work your classes will be."

6. "Invite students into your world; don't expect them to already be there."

7. Challenge yourself, challenge yourself, challenge yourself.

(click the above picture to download poster)