Whole Brain Teaching

Have you ever been teaching your kids and noticed the few students who weren't involved in any whole group activity? As teachers we can always identify the students that lack concentration and interest during whole group time. We also tend to struggle and fight against that student trying to make them get involved and actively participate when they would rather be counting dust particles on the floor. Whole group activities can tend to be very challenging and frustrating because it is nearly impossible to reach every single one of your students every whole group lesson while making sure it is fun and engaging and meeting all of their personal learning styles. Wow! That's an incredible mountain to climb just for one lesson!
When I began teaching I started researching every classroom management strategy that I could find. About a month before school began in August I came across a strategy called Whole Brain Teaching. I spent about three hours on the website researching all of their different methods and immediately fell in love with everything they were saying.

Whole Brain Teaching was created as a response to the challenge of actively involving all students and engaging all parts of the brain during the entire day. There are seven easy steps to use when you are beginning WBT. You can either choose to integrate all seven steps or pick the ones you like most and try using those first!

In my classroom I have taught my students "Class-Yes", "5 classroom rules", "Hands and eyes" and I use the scoreboard.

Class-Yes

This is my favorite strategy from WBT. Class-Yes is used as an attention getting strategy. The teacher says "Class" and the students respond with "Yes" then focus their attention on the teacher and wait for directions. What I love the most about this attention getter is that you decide how to say "Class" and the students have to copy it exactly with "Yes". My kindergarten students love hearing all the different ways I have said "Class" and they love having to copy it exactly. It's also a very quick way to get everyones attention and even my kinders caught on easily after a week of practicing.

5 Classroom Rules

As with any management system you always need to have classroom rules for the students to follow. The creators of WBT believe that all procedures and expectations can be covered through 5 basic rules. They have created motions that go along with each rule and recommend that students recite the rules in the morning and afternoon or after a long break from your regular routine. I changed their 5 rules to fit the needs of my students as well as my teaching style and developed my own motions to go along with the rules. In the beginning of the year we recite our rules in the morning and after outside time. As we get further into the year we only recite the rules in the morning or if we are struggling to regain focus after being out of our daily routine. I love the chant with the classroom rules. It's especially helpful if students are consistently not following rules all you have to do is hold up your fingers say rule number 4 and have them recite the rule. This is a quick and easy way to refresh their memory and have them check their self to make sure they are following that particular rule.

Hand and Eyes

This is another one of my favorite strategies. This is used after Class-Yes to get students focus on the teacher. It can also be used anytime during whole group activities to regain focus on something important. This strategy is extremely simple but very powerful. The teacher simply says hands and eyes and the students are taught to put their hands in their laps and their eyes on the teacher. It sounds simple right...but it actively engages more parts of the brain so students are ready to hear what you are about to say.

Scoreboard

I recently started using the scoreboard technique during our whole group activity time. My class this year is extremely active and so far the scoreboard is the only technique that has helped calm their behavior during whole group. There are many different levels and games that you can play with the scoreboard which makes it very fun and new for the students. My students love walking in on Monday and seeing a new version of the scoreboard above our calendar as we move through the different levels. They also love when they are able to beat me on Fridays. Any competition against the teacher seems to work wonders for students attention!

Whole Brain Teaching is a very easy and engaging management system that anyone can implement in their classroom with just a few simple steps. Even if you just try one of the seven steps you will be amazed at how focused your students become and how they participate more often during whole group activities. My classroom is still a work in progress. I'm working towards using all of the whole brain teaching strategies and I'm extremely excited to see how it affects my students learning!