Reflections

At the time I wrote this post I had been doing Whole Brain Teaching for about 14 weeks.  It was around the beginning of last May that I first discovered this gateway to teacher heaven.  I implemented each component that I learned about as quickly as I could, but there were some things (Super Improvers' Wall, Three Star Homework) that, because it was so close to the end of the year, I didn't get to try out until this year.  From the start I fell in love with Whole Brain Teaching.  The ideas were fun, simple, and easy to implement.  I can't tell you how many times I have said to myself, "I can't believe that I never thought of that."  The results were also amazing!  Some of them were expected, but I have to be honest.  Some came as very big, but very pleasant, surprises.

This week I found myself reflecting upon those unexpected results.  I would like to share some of my reflections with you.  It is my hope that if you are new to WBT or are thinking about trying it out in your room for the first time, you will find my experiences inspiring and decide for yourself to take the plunge into Whole Brain Teaching.

1.  I can not believe how hard students will work to earn a little star on a piece of paper.  I do not think I have ever seen anything as motivating as the Super Improvers Wall.  It is the buzz of the classroom.  I am always hearing things like, "I only need two more stars to level up."  The best part, however, is all I have to do is say to a student, "If you start writing neater (or whatever else the student needs to improve upon), you will earn a Super Improvers' Star."  The results are instant.  The student will start writing neater.  It still amazes me.

2.  Everyone does their homework!  I think it is a combination of the choices that students are given with three star homework and the motivation of getting to play Mind Soccer on Fridays that produces these results.  I have to be honest.  I was very skeptical at first about giving kids a choice.  I thought that many of them would take the easy way out and simply do one star homework.  What I discovered, however, is that almost all of them are doing three star homework.  They are choosing to do all of their homework neatly and correctly for the privilege of playing Mind Soccer.  Which leads me to my next reflection.

3.  Who would have ever thought that a review game would generate so much excitement.  Mind Soccer, however, does just that.  You can literally feel the buzz in the room on Friday afternoons.  It is like a countdown until Mind Soccer begins.  It is amazing that students will work so hard to earn the privilege of reviewing everything that they have been learning.  Wow!

4.  Getting kids to write in complete sentences with all of their periods in the right places has never been so easy.  It is only the beginning of November and all of my students, including my special education students, punctuate properly.  This is my twenty fifth year of teaching, and I have never seen this before.  Don't get me wrong.  I am not saying that they are perfect and never leave out a period here or there, but overall they have got it!  Right now I am thinking about one of my special ed students that I will call Dan.  Dan did not use any periods in his writing.  One day I sat with Dan and showed him how to find his periods by listening for the clicks.  (The click goes along with the "Midnight Phone Call Test".  This is the WBT way of teaching what a complete sentence is.  The idea is that if someone calls you in the middle of the night and you pick up the phone to answer, is what the person on the other end of the line saying to you a complete message?  If it is, then it is a sentence.)  I have my kids hold an imaginary phone to their ears and pretend to hang up when they hear the click (the end of a complete message).  The next day I noticed that Dan was still not using periods in his writing, so I challenged him to listen for the clicks himself and offered him a Super Improver Star if he could put all of his periods in the right places.  Not only did Dan put them all in the right places, but he has been punctuating perfectly ever since.  To what do I attribute this?  I think it is a combination of all of the WBT writing techniques, but if I had to pick just a couple, I would say that oral writing and the Brainies have made the biggest difference.

5.  Rule Two (Raise your hand for permission to speak.) really works!  We all have blurters in our rooms, but rule two will put an end to the blurting.  It still amazes me how well it works.  If a student calls out, I simply say, "Rule Two".  The class repeats the rule, the calling out stops, and I never have to address the one who did it.  Soon those students learn to stop calling out.  The key is consistency.  I have been very careful to never address a student who calls out, but to always say "Rule Two".  As a result, I rarely have blurters anymore.  There have been a couple of times when I have gone two or three days without ever having to say, "Rule Two".

6.  Not once this year have I heard the words "I don't know what I'm suppose to do".  The use of "Mirrors" and "Teach Okay" keeps the students engaged, so that they actually focus upon and understand the directions being given.  Wow!!!

7.  My struggling readers love coming to group, are excited about reading, and believe in themselves.  This is thanks to two wonderful WBT reading games that I use everyday with this group of students.  They are Super Speed 100 and Super Speed Rhyme.  What I like best about these games is that they provide my students with the multiple repetitions that they need in order to learn.  What my kids like is that they can see their growth as they work to beat their scores and fill up a page of stars with smiley faces.  (They get to put a smiley face in a star each time they beat their previous score.  One page full of smiley faces earns a Super Improvers Star.)  Both games are free downloads on the Whole Brain Teaching website.  

8.  My students actually reread and edit their writing!  I attribute this to red/green writing.  (For more information about red/green writing see my post on this topic.)  They do not want that red mark on their paper, so they are very diligent about the things that I am looking for.  When they get a green mark they will often say, "Yes."  I have also had students point out something to me that they want me to mark with my green pen.  Of course, I am happy to oblige.

9.  The Brainies are a hit, and many of my students will use them even when I have not asked them to.  When Coach B. came out with the Brainies I knew that they would be motivating.  I guess I just did not have any idea how motivating they would be.  I also did not realize how much of an impact they would have on students learning.

10.  Teaching is really fun!  I enjoy coming to work everyday.  Learning is really fun!  The kids enjoy coming to school everyday.  Our classroom is just a really fun place to be, and I love every minute of it.

For more information about any of the techniques that I mentioned within my reflections, please go to www.wholebrainteaching.com.  There you will find a number of amazing free downloads, as well as a library full of webcasts by Coach B., the founder of Whole Brain Teaching.