Teacher vs. Students: The Game Where Everyone WINS!

Image from Miss L's Whole Brain Teaching

Recently I read a blog post that claimed that the Scoreboard game was not good teaching practice and expects students to fail.  While citing TeachHub as a source to explain the game, the author and TeachHub were misinformed about the appropriate way to conduct the Scoreboard game.

Today, I'm going to take some time to refute the negative claims against the Scoreboard game and explain why it encourages student growth and engagement.

Let me start off by explaining the rules of the Scoreboard game.  Draw on the board a smiley face and a frown face or I use T vs. S.  Every time the students do great they get a point.  Every time they don't meet expectations I get a point.  Here is where some teachers may play the game incorrectly:

• The goal is not to beat the students.  Instead it is to push students to try to beat you, by meeting the expectations established.  Set appropriate expectations that are obtainable and then keep raising the expectations bar to encourage them to keep getting better!
• When either side gets a point it should be fun.  When the students earn a point they get a one second celebration.  When the teacher gets a point the students give a one second "Mighty Groan".  When I introduce this, we see how fast we can groan and how big we can make our shoulders shrug. We do not dwell on not meeting the expectation, but rather acknowledge the need for improvement. 
• There are several ways to give both sides points in order to improve student effort. When students are trying hard, I might still give myself a point to encourage them to try even harder!  It's fun to see how much effort students will put forth in order to earn that point on their side.
• Teacher points give the teacher an opportunity to reteach expectations. It might go something like this:  "Oh students we were not giving enough energy. Point for the teacher. (Mighty Groan) Let's try again. Great Improvement! Point for the students. (Oh Yeah!). It's almost like a ping pong effect. 
• The teacher should never outright win.  The game should always be kept close (within 3 points) this encourages students to keep trying to better themselves to meet your expectation and also keeps you aware that you need to award students for their effort.
• Lastly, you should NEVER single out students by name and then give the teacher a point.  A better way to address not meeting an expectation would be as follows: "Some of my friends were not fast enough. Point for the teacher! (Mighty Groan).  Awesome groan!  Point for the students! (Oh Yeah!)"

This classroom management strategy is about teamwork.  Everyone in the classroom works together for a common goal. The teacher is the facilitator to help students reach beyond what they know they are capable! 

Here's a link with the different varieties of the Scoreboard game, and here's a video from Chris Biffle about using the Scoreboard correctly! 

Mohawk When You're Ready!

Today I am going to share with you a strategy that I never thought was that unique until a teacher friend mentioned to me that I HAVE to put it on my blog for others to see.   I use different gestures to be able to see who is finished with a task in my classroom.  My class is very fast paced and I give them time limits to complete certain tasks.  When they are finished with that task, they use their hands to show me they are finished. Everyone must be doing the gesture in order to earn points for students on the Scoreboard.

Basically, I give them their task and their time limit.  I then say, "Moose antlers when you are ready!" or "Chillin' like a villain when you are ready!"It then becomes a race to complete the task and get to do the gesture.

When asked, some teachers have mentioned concern about it getting kids off task. For me, it keeps my kids ON task.  Rather than them talking to their neighbor when they are finished.  They are doing a task that I have asked them to do and is fun for them.

 I have attached some of my students' favorites.

1. Hands on your head
2. Pencil up
3. Two thumbs up
4. Moose antlers
5. Chillin like a villain
6. Shark fin
7. Mohawk
8. Unicorn
9. Favorite zoo animal
10. Bunny
11. Goggles/Binoculars
12. Happiest face because you are in science!

I hope this gives you some ideas so that your transitions go more smoothly! :)

Making Your Scoreboard Portable!

Well, I have made one small step in Whole Brain Teaching, and one giant leap for my teaching sanity!  I introduce to you....drum roll please....the Portable Scoreboard!

This laminated index card was the best part of my day today!  To create it, I just wrote the words "Teacher" and "Students" on a neon index card.  I then laminated the card and hole punched the middle.  I added it to a lanyard for ease of marking and I was done. In total it took me about 5 minutes to make. I put a dry erase marker in my pocket and I was set!

So, what's so great about a portable Scoreboard?  I am one of those crazy teachers that are all over the place.  I'm walking around the room, nearly doing handstands as I teach my students.  I cannot be chained to my board to mark when students are doing great or when I need to correct their behavior.  This Portable Scoreboard gives me the luxury of giving my students immediate feedback wherever I am in the room.  

Portable Scoreboard:  Student and Teacher Approved! :)

Practice Cards to Improve Behavior

So...for my regular followers, I know I told you that this week would be a series on Discipline with Dignity, but we are going to take a little detour because I couldn't wait to get home to tell you all about my wonderful day today!

Coach B's post today tied right into my blog!

School has been in session now for a little over a month and as much as I love my sweet 5th graders, I have a class of 6th graders that are the dread of my day.  Individually, the kids in that class are amazing, but together they form this overwhelming environment of chaos.  I found myself each night coming home and complaining about not being able to fully do Whole Brain Teaching because they wouldn't let me.  In actuality, I wasn't letting myself.  I wasn't using all of the tricks I had in my bag to get through to this class.

Not every class is the same and so I needed to do something different with this group of students. Thus, Practice Cards showed their face today in science class.  Practice Cards are simply warning cards in which students owe time practicing the rule that has been broken.  I am very lucky to have recess time in which my students can come in to "do their time".

How I am formatting my Practice Sessions are as follows:
1.  Students receive a Practice Card when they break one of the five classroom rules.
2.  For each card a student receives he/she must practice that rule (WITH GESTURES) for one minute.
3.  If a student gets three practice cards, we are calling home to talk with parents.

Today, I had five 6th graders practicing Rule 2: Raise Your Hand for Permission to Speak.  The power of the Practice Cards was not only in having the students practice the rules, but also in detouring others from breaking the rules.  It acted as a reminder of my expectations and when they saw me follow through with the Practice Cards they knew I meant business!

Class ran SO smoothly!  I was able to teach instead of harp at students for talking.  It was as Coach B says "Teacher Heaven"!  What discipline strategies do you use that reinforce positive behavior rather than dwelling on the negative?  I'd love to hear from you.

Discipline with Dignity & WBT Pt. 1

This week's blog series is going to touch on the first three chapters of Discipline with Dignity, but rather than just telling you what is in the book, I'm going to present it in a way that gives those of you that use Whole Brain Teaching validation that we are making a difference in the lives of our students!

Before we truly get into how WBT reinforces Discipline with Dignity, I want to present you with a quote from the book:

"Good discipline is about doing what is best for students to make good, healthy choices, not about making the lives of educators easier."  

Many teachers ask me why my classroom management plan has so many components and how I can keep them all straight.  The answer to that question is quite simple. It isn't easy. It isn't easy to do everything I need to in order to make sure that I follow WBT.  What is easy though, is teaching students in a way that makes my job fun all the while shaping my students into well-rounded, hard working people.

Discipline with Dignity's main focus is reinforcing positive behavior and using negative behavior as a teachable moment to change the behavior rather than drawing attention to the negative and lessening the self-esteem of the challenging kids in your class.

How Does WBT align with Discipline with Dignity? This series will focus on the following areas in which WBT has gotten it RIGHT! :)

Expectations of Success
Focus on Improvement
Modeling
Chunking
Rule Reinforcement &
Evaluation of Discipline Plan

Tomorrow's post will be about the expectations of success and focusing on improvement.  Can't wait for you to check back tomorrow!

Blog Series Coming Soon!

As I work my way through ASCD's book Discipline with Dignity, I can't help but point out to my colleagues how most of the suggestions in the book align directly with the strategies in Whole Brain Teaching.  These reflections will make up my new blog series:  WBT Rooted in Research!