As I began the Whole Brain teaching techniques, I started with the attention getter "class-yes". My students responded immediately with excitement because I would change it up. For example, I would change the pattern to classity-class-class and they respond as yesity-yes-yes. At Christmas, I would sing "sleigh bells ring" and they would respond "are you listening" and their all time favorite is when I say "Red Robin" they respond with "Yum". So they never know what to expect and it just adds fun and variation.

The next step was to introduce the classroom rules. I posted the rules and pictures in the front of the room so all students could see them at any time. Then, I taught all 5 with the hand gestures as they mirrored me and then used the “teach-ok” method to allow the students to teach one another the rules. This requires repetition and consistency. I use the rules all day long. I begin the day having them repeat all 5, again with every class rotation, and before any traveling occurs in the hallway (to lunch, library, etc.). At any given time, I might call out a rule, such as rule 2, and they know that someone isn’t following rule 2 (raise your hand for permission to speak).

This leads into the motivator (scoreboard) which I will talk about in my next post.

I was introduced to Whole Brain teaching a year and a half ago during a professional developement presented by our Curriculum Coordinator. I was very excited by the Whole Brain techniques and decided to implement them into my classroom.

I began with the WBT's Big Seven:

1. The Attention Getter (class-yes)
2. The Organizer (classoom rules)
3. The Whole Brain Activator (teach/Okay)
4. The Motivator (The scoreboard)
5. The Mirror (mirror)
6. The Focuser (hands and eyes)
7. The Involver (switch)

I slowly implemented each one rather than diving in all at once.

In my next post, I will talk about how my students responded to the first 2 steps of the Big Seven.