First of all, one of my WKU classmates and friends came with me. Here we are standing by the university sign.
And here we are with my new boyfriend, Chris Biffle. He is the main mastermind behind the madness. More on him in a bit :)
So, as you can tell, he is an older guy but this man has energy like you wouldn't believe! His enthusiasm is absolutely contagious and I am determined to be certified to teach teachers about Whole Brain Teaching by December. It is a dream of mine to stay as passionate as he has in his 40+ years in education.
Oh look, here we are again. :)
Alright, so here is the deal. Today I am only going to talk about the "Core 4." If you are wanting to start some WBT in your room and you just aren't sure where to begin, the Core 4 is where it's at.
CORE 1:
The first core is the "Class, yes" statement. The teacher never has to turn lights off, say give me five, or even 1,2,3 all eyes on me. In a regular talking voice, to get the students' attention, simply say Class. You can switch it up and make it fun. A kindergarten teacher could say "Class-a-doodle-doo." An intermediate teacher can say a math fact or state capital. The students then respond the same way the teacher grabbed their attention. The only difference is, the students say, "yes." So, in that kindergarten room the kiddos would say "Yes-a-doodle-doo." The intermediate teacher could have said 9x9. The students would respond with, "9x9=81." All this is is a way to get the class' attention. When the students respond with yes they stop whatever they are doing and put hands folded. This takes away any hand distractions. It is pertinent to stress the importance of every single student is focused on the teacher.
CORE 2:
The second part of the Core 4 is "Mirror." Mirror is simply the students mirroring, but not talking (Mirrors don't talk :)) the gestures that the teacher is making.There is something else called "Mirror with words" and of course you speak in small chunks and the students are mirroring gestures and repeating your small chunks. This will make more sense when we talk about gestures in a future post.
CORE 3:
The scoreboard. This and the "Class,Yes" are the two things to for sure for sure start first whenever you get started. The scoreboard will come into play during lesson delivery and classroom management. Again, another post. :) Be patient with me.
CORE 4:
Teach, OK. This is when there is whole group instruction (that should only last from 1-3 minutes) . Once the teacher is finished teaching in gestures and words, he will say, "Teach." and the students respond with "OK." Just like class and yes, you can switch it up to keep it fresh. You can say teach like a grumpy old man, and the students would say OK in their grumpy old man voice.
I know what you are thinking. Lost, dazed, and confused. I get it. I was the same way last September. I promise you two things: 1-If you stay with it and take it slow, maybe do a little research, you'll be absolutely hooked. 2- I promise to help you in any way I can. I plan to have lots and lots of videos of me implementing the strategies that I learned. Just be patient. It's got amazing results. :)
Happy Whole Braining to you :)
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