whole brain teaching f.a.q.

I absolutely cannot wait to get into my room and setup some of the newest ideas from wbt {at least new to me}. This coming week I will be working on my Universal Homework model {UHM}, Power Pix-I dreamed about where to post these in my classroom last night!, and incorporating the Whole Brain Writing Model this year. I am never afraid of change! Now, I’ve gotten lots of emails and comments with questions about wbt this week, so this post will hopefully answer those.

{1} How did you begin using Whole Brain Teaching? It seems overwhelming!

Um, yes it does! You begin here. Register as a member at wbt.com. it’s the red box on the right!

read it! It has everything you need to get started then some! It’s a free download. Just click the book cover. I also love e-books! I can read them on my laptop or print them, which I do for ones I need to riffle through!

The first step I took was the 5 Rules and Scoreboard. This is Level 1.
This is really all you truly need to get your feet wet. I still watch in awe at the “power teachers” in the You Tube videos. I am tired watching them. But after I moved to 2nd grade and no longer got the chance to catch my breath until the dismissal bell rang, I knew I could do this! It makes me excited!

the 5 Rules are our class rules, no more, no less. Rule 5 is the best because it covers anything. Keep your dear teacher happy! What’s not to love.

Scoreboard is your ultimate motivator for the first 9 weeks of school. If you have a great class, you may not need anything else! This also allowed me time to read more on the website because I was not having to add anything else to my management. You can always go to Level 2 {practice cards} sooner if needed. It’s very flexible.

{2} What about parents? How do you get them on board?
Parents? Who cares what they think! Ok, really…I have not had a parent question the whole brain method per se, however, there are parents that absolutely will not like if the whole class has extra homework because of Scoreboard or if they lose 5 minutes of recess.
You may have realized I am a blunt person. I do tell my parents at Open House all about my management system. I explain that in the beginning we work as a team. I have used every reward method under the sun. However, I am a parent too and I find myself getting a little irritated when my middle schooler has silent lunch because of 2 kids who refuse to behave in class on a daily basis. This is where the Guff Counter comes in. If it is truly just 1 or 2 kids in your class keeping the smilies on the scoreboard from happening, they should not be included! Remove their support with their peers. Remove their “power”. Thankfully, I have never gotten to this level, but it sounds pretty powerful! My team teacher actually used it with a heck of a class she had 2 years ago.

Another thing is not sending home the practice card notes. Like I said in an earlier post, I write in assignment books about daily behavior as required my my administration. This is where I stop. I truly believe every day is a fresh start. Parents still know if we had any issues and everyone is happy.

{3}Do you use everything on the website?
In a dream world, I absolutely would. Everything I have used from WBT I have adored. Each year I aim to implement more of what they offer. This year I will play host to a PLC at school where we will watch the weekly boradcasts as a group, try things out, then come back to share the next week.
The very first thing I ever saw from wbt.com was Super Speed 100 and 1000. It was offered to us as an intervention for RtI nearly 3 years ago. I looked into it, joined the site, downloaded both, then downloaded Super Speed Math, too! I have all my students do Super Speed with partners supervised by my assistant 3 days per week.
Then last year I downloaded Crazy Reading Professor. My students LOVED it to say the least. It’s the ultimate in comprehension. In pairs {or as a read aloud as I have used it} students read the text aloud while the partners uses gestures to act out what is going on. Talk about challenging! Great for guided reading, too! I did not use it enough to blog about it, so that will come with time!
This year brings Power Pix, Universal Homework Model, and writing instruction along with a change in my lesson planning. They have a great 5 point lesson plan!

So stay tuned as I journey through another year! Tomorrow I will announce a WBT giveaway!! Woot-woot!