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! 

Engaging Incentive - MIND FOOTBALL!

I haven't had time to laminate my football,
disregard the wrinkles! 

In honor of one of the greatest times of the year, I present to you Mind Football!  Mind Football is a game that I modified from several of the Whole Brain Teaching games to make work for my classroom.  My students earn minutes to play each day based upon their success at beating me on the Scoreboard.  At the end of class, I make time to play the few minutes they have earned.  My students beg for this game!

So, here are the rules:
1.  You need two teams.  I do boys against girls because it gets the students super excited.
2.  I use a bell in the middle to ring in if they know the answer (This is kind of like Family Feud style).
3. Which ever team rings in to answer the question first gets 5 seconds.  The second team then has a chance to answer if the first team is wrong or takes too long.
4. When a team gets the question right the official (ME!) awards them yards based upon difficulty of the question and enthusiasm in answering.
5.  When a team reaches the goal, they have scored a touchdown.

Now, for some of my favorite parts of the game:

• The ball always starts at the 50 yard line. If no one chimes in then no matter where the football is, it's a delay of game and the ball resets to the 50 yard line. 
• In true football fashion, a touchdown is only worth 6 points, but I throw in a basic math fact question as the extra point opportunity.  
• Lastly, if anyone argues, I give the opposing team yardage.  

You can change up the game as you like, but it is perfect as an incentive when students are good and the questions I ask review the material we recently covered.  It's a win-win for the teacher and the students.  

I hope you enjoy.  If you have any questions about how to implement the game comment below.  If you do implement the game, please let me know how it goes for you! 

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! :)

Go Noodle Works!

Today was the day that I decided to introduce GoNoodle to my students.  I knew it could go one of two ways.  The students could get completely into it or they could think it was super lame.  Guess what!?  They loved it! 

What's GoNoodle?  If you have not heard about GoNoodle, definitely click on the link provided to access their website.  GoNoodle is a website that provides different brain breaks for your students.  Currently, my plan is to primarily use the dance category, but there are several categories to calm or energize your students.

The best part of GoNoodle is the interactive avatars that are provided. Below you can see the different avatars that my classes selected. Each class is different and I love that! Each avatar, such as "Bart Reynolds" or "Zap von Doubler" grows and becomes stronger as students move up levels.

How does this link with Whole Brain Teaching?  This year my goal was to stay consistent with the Scoreboard.  When students beat me on the Scoreboard, then they get to play GoNoodle for 1-3 minutes.  This keeps my students wanting to play more, so they are sure to have great behavior the next day to finish their current dance party! 

GoNoodle is the perfect incentive for students in relationship to WBT's Scoreboard because the activities are short enough to complete or get students hooked enough in the time frame available.  I never thought I would have time to give students game incentives.  When you only sacrifice 1-3 minutes of class, it's worth it to improve engagement and get students excited about learning!

Good luck, and let me know if you implement GoNoodle in your classroom and how it works for you!

The SCOREBOARD: Pt. 2

Hey guys!  Last week, we discussed the Scoreboard and how it is an influential classroom management strategy.  Today I'm going to discuss a few key features and ways in which you can implement the Scoreboard into your classroom.

Reinforcing Classroom Rules: Last week I posted about the 5 classroom rules that will change your life. They cannot do that in your classroom, if you do not reinforce them and practice them often.  A great way to reinforce them is to just start your day going through the rules. You can lead them or have a student lead them.  You can also use the scoreboard throughout class.  A key part of the classroom rules is to not point out a student for negative behavior.  Rather, just say the rule that was broken and have the class respond with what the rule is.  When marking a point for the teacher on the scoreboard you can just say, "It appears that some of our classmates are not following Rule 2."  You can then mark a point for the teacher.  They will interact with you and give a "Mighty groan."  You can then say "Let's make sure everyone remembers what rule 2 is.  Rule 2" and your students will say "Raise your hand for permission to speak!"  When they all respond with the gesture that accompanies it, you can tell them that they did a great job and give the students a point.  This encourages your students to follow the rules because they associate it with the positive of receiving a point for their team.

Speed: I love increasing the pace I go in my classroom. You can give students a direction and then if they did not do it fast enough you can mark a point for the teacher.  Make sure you give them another shot at that direction, though.  By working to reinforce the right way to do it, you will increase the engagement of your students.  For example, you say "Class!" and your students respond "Yes!", but not everyone responds.  You can say, "Aw, bummer.  That was not fast enough." and give a point to the teacher side.  Then you can say "Claaasss!" and then more students will respond "Yeesss!" They will likely respond filled with energy and excitement because they want to prove to you that they can do it to earn a point.  Give it to them!  Reward them for changing their behavior and responding quickly.  You've got them!  You are teaching them to do things quickly to earn those points!

Variations: "Variety is the spice of life!" Variety is also the key to keeping the scoreboard interesting.  Once you are consistently using the scoreboard, change it up in order to keep the engagement of your students.  One way to do that is to make teams.  You could do boys versus girls or left side of the room versus the right side of the room.  For me, I'm going to do the Pirate Scoreboard.  When a point gets marked for the captain (Me!), instead of doing the Mighty Groan they will say, "McHaaaargg!"



Teaching with Style Scoreboard

The scoreboard image you see above is courtesy of Teaching with Style from Teachers Pay Teachers.  You can download it for free off of her store.  This is just demonstrating one way you can modify the scoreboard to meet the needs of your students. You can find more variations of the Scoreboard at www.wholebrainteaching.com!  Good luck with implementing the Scoreboard this year.  If you have any further questions, please feel free to comment below.

Teacher vs. Students: Who Will Reign Victorious?

Do you ever feel that way?  It's you against ALL of them. How can you reign them in and teach what you need to teach?  If you are like me, you've tried several strategies to motivate students to listen, participate, and follow your rules. Many of the strategies I have tried (writing names on the board, giving warnings, gem jars, etc.) did not work for everyone, and their effect over time wore off. 

With whole brain teaching, you have a cheap, and easy interactive game to monitor student behavior that can constantly evolve to keeping hooking your students in.  Your students want to win and will do whatever it takes to beat the teacher. It brings out the competitive side of them.  What they don't know is that whether you, as the teacher, win or lose on the scoreboard, you win because you are able to teach instead of monitor behavior.

SCOREBOARD: So, here is how it works.  On your whiteboard, or another place that is convenient for you, just write "teacher" on one side and "students" on the other, now make a line.  You have created a scoreboard!  Wow, wasn't that easy!?

Whenever students are doing a great job, you mark a point for the students.  Chris Biffle, of whole brain teaching, recommends that they get a one second celebration ("Oh Yeah!") whenever they earn a point. When they are not doing a great job, you mark a point for the teacher.  They then can make a one second mighty groan.  You see, they still get to interact whether it is a positive or negative point. This contributes to their buy in to the game.

The secret, though, to truly keeping the students engaged in this activity is the Rule of 3.  Keep the score within three points no matter what.  You do not have to mark negative for every negative thing that happens, just as you do not have to mark positive for every positive.  Mark when it is convenient for you, but make sure to stick with it!  Lastly, what are they playing for?  Why would they care if they win?  Give them a minute free time for every point they beat you by, or one less problem, or one less page to read.  In my classroom, I'm giving them one less sentence for their summaries.

I don't want to overwhelm you with this strategy, so I'll post again tomorrow about how you can use this strategy to increase speed in your classroom, reinforce the behavior that you want, and how, once your students get the hang of the scoreboard, you can vary the game to keep the interest of your students!