WBT: Where Students Do the Teaching!

Benjamin Franklin said, "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." Statistics support this as well. The highest percentages of learning retention deal with students being involved in their learning.  Today, I'm going to speak about the Whole Brain Teaching strategy Teach, Okay which falls into the biggest retention level, teaching others.

Teach, Okay is a strategy in which you clap your hands and say "Teach!" and your students respond "Okay!" The students then turn to each other and begin discussing whatever prompt you told them to discuss.  An important part of the strategy is the quickness at which they turn to discuss with their neighbor.  You can use The Scoreboard to encourage quick turns.  They also need to be fully turned to face their neighbor.  When introducing Teach, Okay at the beginning of the year I tell my students "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and they say "Knees and Toes" This acts as a reminder of how their bodies should be facing prior to their discussion.

Learning Pyramid

Now that we have covered the fundamentals with Teach, Okay, let's talk about how your can be the teachers and you can increase learning retention in your classroom.  Here are some hard and fast rules with Teach,Okay:

1.  Teach students information in CHUNKS. Have the students then reteach their neighbor the information.  You can start with them repeating what you said, but then gradually have them teach the information in their own words.  Remember, we're trying to get them to the highest percentage of retention we can!

2. Have the students use GESTURES. As before, students can occasionally use gestures that you provide for them, but also give them the opportunity to create their own gestures.  When they create their own gestures then they are making meaning of their learning and it will stick better!

3. Use MIRRORS!  When one person is speaking the other student should mirror the gestures the speaker is using.  This will help them to pay attention and activate another part of their brain.

4. Allow time for both students to speak, by using the SWITCH.  Sometimes within a pairing you have one student that is always a talker.  Both students need the opportunity to teach or they both aren't having access to that 90% retention rate.  Allow one student to speak and then enforce a switch in which the listener now becomes the teacher.

Good luck with Teach, Okay!  It engages 100% of the students in your class and encourages learning retention.  What more could you ask for?

See other blogs about Teach, Okay by clicking below:

Ending the Question "What Page?"

When you walk into my room at the beginning of class you will hear a chorus of students responding to a direction by repeating it multiple times.  No, my students do not have a stuttering problem, but rather I use what is called The Three Peat. Whenever I need to emphasize something, be it directions or an important vocabulary term, I signal my students to repeat it. The dialogue in my classroom looks something like this:

Images by Sweet Kids Clip Art

T: "Class"
S: "Yes"
T: "Turn to page 23 in your notebook.  What page?"
S: "23, 23, 23!"

Later on...
T: "Today we are going to talk about Hypothesis.  What are we talking about?"
S: "Hypothesis, Hypothesis, Hypothesis!"

By having students repeat what you just said, students are tuned into and able to respond to your direction.  Now what's important is to make this repetition fun and engaging!  Students should not be slowly dragging out their response.  The responses should be quick and energetic.  Like many things in Whole Brain Teaching, you can make The Three Peat fun and silly. Change it up a bit!  Make your students eager to hear what's going to come out of your mouth next!

Some ideas:
1. High Voice
2. Low Voice
3. Silly Voice
4. I also sometimes point to my students when I say a vocabulary term, and they point back at me three times as they repeat the word.

If you are not getting the energy that you want from your students when using The Three Peat, remember you can always go to your Scoreboard and entice that energy you know they have out of them!

Want to learn more about Whole Brain Teaching's Classroom Rules and The Three Peat?  Check out other great blogs by clicking on the link below!

Making Student Leaders: Mirror Words

One of the best parts about Whole Brain Teaching is truly getting 100% participation.  If your school is anything like mine, it is an expectation to have students engaged in their learning; however, it is a constant battle to get all kids to participate in class discussion.  Introduce MIRROR WORDS! Mirror Words is a strategy in which you say "Mirror Words"  and then students say and gesture as if they are mirroring you.  Not only does it get kids involved in the classroom, but it provides a kinesthetic mode of learning.  Students are using their brains to listen and watch what you are doing.  They are then continuing to use their brains to repeat what you said and replicate your gestures.

Image by: Living Breathing and Loving Teaching

Want to encourage continued involvement?  Make your students the leaders.  Build up their confidence and have them lead discussion or answer questions using Mirror Words.  In my classroom the dialogue would go something like this:

Teacher: "All eyes on Blake!"
Students: "All eyes on Blake!"
Blake: "Class!"
Students & Teacher: "Yes"
Blake: "Mirror Words!"

Students & Teacher: "Mirror Words!"

*Note: The teacher should join in when not leading discussion! 

Blake would then go on using gestures to explain his answer to the students in CHUNKS!  Chunking is a very important component of Mirror Words.  By chunking the information students can better understand what is being said and can remember the gestures to mirror.  

Not sure how to introduce Mirror Words? When I introduce Mirror Words we practice a couple of times with me being the leader.  Then I immediately turn it over to the students.  By setting the expectation that Mirror Words is not just what the teacher does, it gives me more buy in from the students and makes them less reluctant to participate.  We spend the period getting to know each other using Mirror Words.  Each student stands, gets the attention of the class, and then says one thing about themselves using gestures. The students mirror the words and gestures, and then we have a discussion about others that have similar interests.

As with last week, attached is a short video by Coach B for further information about this strategy! 

Find more blogs about Mirror Words by clicking the image below.

WBT Wednesday - Attention Getter!

Can I just say how excited I am for WBT Wednesdays?  Hopefully this will hold me accountable to blog each week and will also give me a chance to give you guys some great ideas!

So, today's topic is the Attention Getter.  First of all, this is one of the BEST teaching strategies I have ever come across. It always drove me crazy when I was in school and the teacher would raise her hand and wait for everyone to do the same.  Can I just say "What a waste of time!"  Instead I say "Class" and my students respond "Yes" and I have the immediate attention of every student in my class.  It's quick. It's easy, and it's FUN!

Many of you that follow this blog already know about Class, Yes so I thought I could give you some of the variations of Class, Yes that my students love. You can't continue to just say "Class" "Yes" because that will get old and students will be less engaged.  Instead make it interesting by changing it up once in a while...or in my case each time I do it!

Here are three HIGH ENERGY variations that I use:

The Ninja

Teacher: "Class Hi Ya!" (Make a gesture like a ninja!)

Students "Yes Hi Ya!" (Make a gesture like a ninja!)

*Note: You may need to explain to some classes that it is not appropriate to kick or karate chop any other classmates.  I do not have this issue, but I've had classes in the past that may need to be reminded of Rule 4: Make Smart Choices.

The Yell

Teacher "Class" (Yell)

Students "Yes" (Yell)

*Note: Talk about an attention getter! The purpose of this one is not to talk over my students when they are working. Instead, when students are getting a little too serious for our high energy classroom, I use this one to get us back to the giggly selves we should be!  For some reason, this one always gets my 5th graders laughing!

The BOOM!

Teacher "Class Class BOOM!" (Swing arm and stomp foot, emphasize boom)
Students "Yes Yes BOOM!" (Swing arm and stomp foot, emphasize boom)

*Note: This is every student's favorite.  They really get into it and use their whole bodies to emphasize the BOOM.  This is a great one for students to earn points on the Scoreboard or for the teacher to encourage higher energy in class by giving him/herself a point.

Lastly, here's a video from Coach B about Class, Yes.  Enjoy! 

Follow other WBT Blogs by clicking on the following link:

Whole Brain Teaching: Activating the Parts of the Brain

Now let's take a second and talk about brain science!  The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. Scientists have spent countless hours studying how the brain works.  Not everything is known, but we do have a good idea of the importance of activating multiple parts of the brain when learning. In a book titled Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning published by ASCD, Willis explains that the more connections a student can make when learning, the more dendrites that are formed. These dendrites act as pathways to information and allow the student to more easily store and access the information in the future. Rather than simply attempting to memorize information, the brain is able to cross reference material and store it in in a meaningful way. The more regions of the brain that are stimulated, the more connections that are made in order for students to pull up learned material.

Parts of the Brain

Neuron

I introduce neurons and parts of the brain at the beginning of the year.  To introduce neurons, you can use your hand and arm! Your arm signifies the axon.  The palm demonstrates the cell body, and the fingers represent the dendrites! When students are learning new information, new dendrites form and can connect with other dendrites to make meaning of the information.

Introducing the parts of the brain is a highlight for students in my class. Students feel so smart because they have learned something about neuroscience! I have posted a video below to show how you can introduce the parts of the brain. The video is of 1st grade students, but you can do it with any grade level and just adjust to their needs!  After learning the parts of the brain, I have my students create a poster diagram of the brain and then brainstorm in groups how Whole Brain Teaching activates each part!  Good luck, and let me know how it goes for you!

Deb Wiegel's First Grade Class

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! 

I'm BACK!

Okay guys, sorry I've been MIA for months!  I have had a CRAZY year.  To fill you in, I recently completed my Ed.S. in Curriculum and Instruction from Liberty University.  I also was blessed with a new addition to the family, my son, Gavin James.  I hope to post at least weekly now that I have found a rhythm with life again.  Someone needs to hold me to this!

Here's my little handsome man!
Picture courtesy of Becky Howe Photography

Well, today's post is going to be about all of the exciting things happening with Whole Brain Teaching.  I'm still working on my certification. It appears to be a LONG process, but the end goal is just amazing!  By the time I complete my certification, I will be an "expert" on WBT and ready to help you guys even further in your journey to teach with "funtricity" and have 100% engagement!

periscope.tv

Recently, Whole Brain Teachers have embraced technology and have taken to several different social media outlets to connect with others.  You can gain information about WBT through Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, and Blab. Coach B answers questions on his scopes as well as Farrah Shipley, so if you are hesitant about jumping feet first into WBT, join one of these scopes and ask about your reservations.

Also, since I last posted, WBT has gotten some attention from PBS.  Check out this news clip starring my mentor, the one and only Jasselle Cirino!  http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/teachers-tap-brain-science-boost-learning/#.VfnufmMXEMU.blogger

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! :)

Air Punctuation and a Look into My Classroom!

Last week my students were exposed to air punctuation.  May I just say that this may be one of my
most favorite things I have implemented this year. It requires students to know what must be included in a complete sentence and makes them think critically about their answers.  I think it is great when teachers in multiple disciplines can integrate learning from other areas.  Air punctuation improves students' ability to speak in front of others and increases their logical thinking.  Through the skills they gain from science class, they are learning skills that are addressed in the Common Core Language Arts standards.

I am attaching a video of my classroom the first day they learned air punctuation.  I am the first to say, I have many things that need improving in regards to Whole Brain Teaching, but with the feedback from my WBT mentor, I'm getting better and better.

So here is how it works:
Capital letter:  A capital letter is represented with your hands moving from a closed flat position and opening them, kind of like an alligator!

Punctuation:  Punctuation is represented with a hand out like a stop sign and the sound "ert". When students need to ask a question or use an exclamatory sentence, they just make the symbol in the air and still end it with "ert".

Comma:  A comma is represented with the sound "zoop" and a hook gesture in the air.

In regards to WBT, this week I am working on shortening the "Mighty Groan" when a teacher gets a point, chunking the mirror words sections, and implementing the "All eyes on (name)".  If you all enjoy the videos, I will try to add another one after I receive feedback next week.  I hope your year is going well!

Discipline with Dignity & WBT Pt. 2

Expectation of Success

Discipline with Dignity says:
Although schools with better funding seem to be more attractive to parents because they tend to have better test scores, the authors of Discipline with Dignity point out a profound statement:  These schools still have just as many boring teachers.  The authors than task us with this question:

"Could it be that these [thriving] schools have a cultural expectation of success?

Whole Brain Teaching does:
WBT is about setting high expectations and moving students from a place of complacency to a place where they are so engaged that they want to do better.  Through friendly competition, a safe learning environment, and "funtricity", students understand that when they come to a WBT class they will be expected to do well and when they rise to that expectation, the bar will be raised even higher.

Focus on Improvement

Discipline with Dignity says:
Academic and behavior achievement should focus on improvement.  Competition between students should be replaced with competition within each student.  Students should be challenged "to be better today than he was yesterday."

Whole Brain Teaching does:
WBT's Super Improvers League emphasizes just that, individual improvement.  WBT Founder, Chris Biffle discusses the importance of recognizing improvement rather than achievement.  Students that struggle in class may never see recognition and begin to lose motivation to do well at all. By flipping recognition towards being "better than your best", all students have the opportunity to achieve recognition and stay motivated to continually improve.

If you would like to find out more about Super Improvers, please look in my archived posts.  It's a great way to improve effort, achievement, and engagement within your classroom!

The next post in this blog series will deal with modeling and chunking information. Hope to see you back soon!

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!

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!

Update from the Whole Brain Teacher!

Hey guys!  Not a lot has been happening to blog about recently.  I've been super busy with school, but everything is going great!  My students are engaged and excited about learning mainly due to my full implementation of Whole Brain Teaching. 

I have blogged about several topics in regards to Whole Brain Teaching (WBT), but I thought that today I could show you some of the strategies in action.  Due to a video camera malfunction...boo...I don't have actual video of me teaching, but I did manage to take a picture of a wall I use regularly. 

Okay, there is a lot going on here and much of it is hard to see, so bear with me. On the left is my Scoreboard.  This was after my ROCKSTAR AWESOME 5th period class.  Today they beat me hands down.  They wanted to show my mentor how well they could follow WBT.  I have improved greatly on keeping points on the Scoreboard, but still have a lot of improving to do.  As hard as it is to stay consistent with the Scoreboard, it is worth it!  I find myself almost speechless at how excited my students are when they receive points!

In the center of the photo is my rendition of the Universal Homework Model.  Whenever we take notes, students have different tasks to do to reach different star levels.  Today I wrote the number of stars they received as a class. Tomorrow their goal is to beat their current score.  If they successfully beat their score they will get a star on the Super Improvers Wall.

The last section of the photo shows the Super Improvers Wall.  All of my classes are at the Rookie level because it is the start of the school year, but two of my classes are moving up quickly.  The interesting aspect of the Super Improvers is that it rewards improvement.  This is hard for my 4th and 5th hours because they started out great and are slightly bummed that they aren't getting stars.  They'll be able do it, though! Their next chance is tomorrow when they need to beat their star homework score.

Well, there you have it!  Hopefully in the next couple of weeks, I will have an awesome video of me using these strategies in the classroom.  Remember, if you need more information about WBT strategies you can find information, videos, and printables all at www.wholebrainteaching.com!

Data Collection Pt. 5 - Charting YOUR Progress

Collecting data on students is a very important aspect of establishing a system to improve student learning, but just as important is creating a system to assess yourself as a teacher! This concept was somewhat mind blowing to me because I just assumed based upon how I felt my class was going, I could determine their success.  I have come in contact with a better idea!

Charting Your Progress:
Chris Biffle states in his book Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids,

"You cannot manage student behavior if you cannot manage your own behavior."

The two features to evaluate yourself on are:
1. Controlling emotions and tone of voice.
2. Consistently following through with the classroom management plan.

On top of personal reflection, you are going to chart student behavior progress!

This information will provide you with undeniable evidence about growth in your classroom!  First, what you need to do is give yourself a score each week between 1-10 on your ability to control your emotions, then give yourself a score between 1-10 on how consistently you followed through with your expectations and procedures. Add these two scores together, be honest, this is your baseline score.  Write this down somewhere and each week you can write your new score.  Don't expect yourself to immediately score perfect.  The school year is not a sprint, but a marathon.  Reflect upon what areas you need to work on and then hit the ground running on Monday being the awesome teacher that you are!

Now for the second portion of charting progress: student behavior.  I love this idea and am eager to implement it into my room.  I have uploaded the form I am going to use for this on TeachersPayTeachers.  You can get it for FREE on my page: Click Here!

Evaluate your students on a scale of 1-5.  Be brutally honest, no one is going to see this, but you!

5 points = Leader: This score is very difficult and likely you will have NO leaders at the beginning of the year.  They can 100% self-manage themselves.

4 points = Alpha: These students follow directions and stay on task.  They do everything you would want them to do.

3 points = Go-Alongs: These students go-along with what is asked, but sometime make mistakes. They may occasionally be off task or not turn in their work.

2 points = Fence Sitter: These students could go either way and may begin talking if others are talking or get off task.

1 point = Challenging Students: These students cause disruptions in class, do not do their work, get off task, and about any other number of things that make you want to pull your hair out!

Total your entire class and find the average.  This is your baseline for student behavior.  Each week evaluate your students.  I know this may take some time, but it will be worth it to see the progress!  I think a great goal would be to move every student up one level by the end of the year.  If that is the case, you'd hope to see a .1 change each month.  Remember: a marathon NOT a sprint.  Obviously, if students jumped a full level, then you as a teacher have succeeded in helping mold those students' behavior.  You can then give yourself a pat on the back! :)

Good luck!  Remember to document, document, document. For the rest of the school year, I won't be posting as much.  I will try to post at least once a week, so be on the lookout!

The Quickest Assessment: Smart Cards

As it becomes crunch time to get things ready for school, I wanted to give you a formative assessment strategy that is cheap and easy to make, and that you will actually use to gauge student understanding: SMART CARDS!

Smart Cards are just simply cards that have a red side and a green side. I just made mine out of colored notecards.  I didn't have red so I did pink. Creating these cards should not be stressful.  I made a class set in a couple of minutes!  I simply just put the two cards together and stapled. 

How it works: Once you ask a true/false or yes/no question say "Vote!" Students will then hold up the green side for true or the red side for false. Then say "Unvote!"  The purpose of the vote and unvote is to detour students that just look to their neighbor for the answer.  Students should answer quickly. 

How is the better than just doing thumbs up/thumbs down?  When you ask a question you will see a quick flash of color.  When students have the cards up, it is easy to see how many correct versus incorrect answers you have.  Based upon the amount of students correct or incorrect, you can make decisions about whether you need to go back and explain what was covered again, or if you can move on with your lesson.

Please try this out and let me know how it goes!  Good luck this year! 

Recognizing Super Improvers!

Do you want all of your students to succeed in your classroom?  What should count as success? I'm going to share a story with you that put some things about education into perspective for me.

"Imagine if you were graded based solely on a sprint race. The person who won got an "A" and the person who lost got an "F".  You lost, so you receive the failing grade.  The next day you race again, and you lose.  The person next to you is faster than you.  Soon enough you will give up because there is no way you will catch him.  He will also stop trying as hard because he knows he is going to beat you. But what if the rules changed?  What if the person who beats his/her personal best by the most receives an A?  Then wouldn't both the slower and faster runner try even harder to improve?"

This is a scenario presented by Chris Biffle in his book, "Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids". What should our goal as teachers be?  Should it be to award the student that always scores well, or should we change our focus toward recognizing students for working to be "better than their best"?


My Super Improvers Board...NOT FINISHED YET!

After contemplating this, I decided to adopt Whole Brain Teaching's Super Improver Team.  At the
elementary level, each student has a card and gets stars on their card for improvement.  At the middle school level, teachers have too many students, so you can mark improvement based on classes.  Classes can gain stars for improvement academically or behaviorally. If the whole class improves their assessment scores, then they can receive a star.  You could give a star to the class for improving their speed at completing certain tasks.  You could even focus on a particular goal.  For example, your students may need to work on Rule 2: Raise your hand for permission to speak. If the first day you have 5 students blurt out, but on Friday you have 0 students blurt out, maybe that class earns a star.

When a class gets 10 stars, they move up a level.  The goal is to reach the top.  My board is not finished, but you could have a theme for each level.  For example, the first level could be the Rookie level and the top level could be All Star.  There are several examples on TeachersPayTeachers!

The awesome part of this motivator is that the classes can see how other classes are doing.  They don't want other classes to get ahead of them, so they will work harder to show improvement as well!

Please go to www.wholebrainteaching.com or message me about how to implement this strategy further!  Good luck making a difference in the lives of your students!

Stop Pulling Your Hair Out About Homework!

Do you want a homework model for your classroom that entices even your most reluctant students to complete their work?  I think I may have found it!  Whole Brain Teaching uses the Universal Homework Model to achieve just that.  So, let me break down this technique into a few easy steps to follow:
1. All homework should have 3 levels (Do not freak out, it isn't extra work!).  The first level is the minimum requirement, whereas the third level is going above and beyond.  For example, this is how I am going to use this model in my classroom.  Each day that we take notes I have my students complete a summary.  A five sentence summary will be worth one star.  A two star assignment would have completed the summary and went through the notes highlighting or underlining key words.  A three star assignment did all of the requirements of a two star, but also wrote in the margins their thoughts, questions, and other information THEY felt was important.

Click here to get my Homework Log Freebie!

2. I am having my students fill out a homework log this year. Each day they will fill in what their assignment is and when it is due.  Once completed, they will fill in how many stars their assignment is worth.  I, also, have a section for a parent signature.  Students cannot get three stars without a parent signature.  This will improve your parent communication!
3. When a homework assignment is due, go through and count how many stars each student completed (A great way to do this is to develop a couple student leaders that can check that students are being honest). Tally up the number of stars each day.  Set a goal of how many stars the students as a class need to achieve to get free time on Friday.  I am going to use a chart to show them how close they are to their goal each day. 
4. On Thursday, let them know how many stars they need to get by Friday. Here's a hint: tell them that it looks like the class will have to have many students complete 3 star homework in order to win their free time. Then, ask for volunteers who will step up and attempt 3 star homework.  You will have some students jumping out of their seats to get recognition.  Write their names on the board and have the class praise them for stepping up!
5. On Friday, if they have earned it, make sure to give them the amount of free time you have allocated (No longer than 5 minutes.). Then, once they have achieved their goal, boost the amount of stars they need to reach. This method encourages class unity and helps students feel accountable to others. 

I'm so excited to use this in my classroom this year.  Let me know if you adopt this into your classroom and how it works for you!  Have a great day!