Oh. Sweet. Mama!!!

Wow wow wow!!! Coach B was in town this morning delivering the PD for ALL PreK-5 teachers in my district.  And can I just say... it was AHHHHH-MAAAAY-ZING!

I'm going to share my favorite parts and Big Take-Aways, but lucky lucky you - the WHOLE lesson was recorded via Periscope.  Click here to watch!

First of all, Coach introduced the coolest new feature to really amp up those gestures and mirrors - Power Cards with Power Plus for extra uummph!  Each child is given a 3X5 index card.  One side is the Normal Power card.  This is what you typically expect from your students.  But the other side is Power Plus.  When students are feeling sleepy and slow after lunch and you want them to remember a big point, have them flip their card over to Power Plus and really get into those gestures and use their big teacher voices.

Who is excited to try Power Cards????  This girl!!!!

Of course, because I am awesome and I love you so very much, you can download your very own Power Cards here!  Just print them on card stock, laminate, and velcro to your desks.  (That's my plan anyway!)

Secondly, Coach introduced a new review technique which I can already see working seamlessly with the lesson sketch.  The Big Questions of the day (or lesson, or unit, or chapter, or whatever unit of measure in your room...) are listed on the board in a PowerPoint presentation.  At the beginning, students read the questions to each other using brainies, similar to a Crazy Professor reading.

Then once you have taught a lesson and answered a question, you flash the slide again, but the question is in blue.  The students simply Review the Blue!  Then, as the chapter, or unit, or whatever progresses, more questions are flipped to blue and students are continually reviewing all the lessons or skills you wanted them to know.  Can I get an OH YEAH? I mean... c'mon.  OH STINKING YEAH!  Kids constantly reviewing EVERY skill they need in a unit.  YEEESSSSSS!!!! THAT is teaching heaven!

Finally, Coach gave us some Mirror Words varieties and Teach-Okay varieties.

In true Coach B style, he used his chair props to navigate through the sequence of the lesson.  Which I personally love!

And of course, had lots of colleagues get up and practice.

To end the presentation, we all had to evacuate due to a fire alarm in the building.  I just figured Coach's gestures were so fast he started smokin' up the place.  Turns out a day care kid on the other side of the building pulled the alarm... but I'm just going to continue to imagine Coach setting off the alarms with sparks of funtricity!!!

Book Study: 122 Amazing Games! Chapter 2

This chapter is a more in-depth review of "The Big Seven" of WBT.
1. Class-Yes! (Attention Getter)
2. Mirror Words (Engager)
3. Scoreboard (Motivator)
4. 5 +1 Rules (Unifier)
5. Teach-Okay (Activator)
6. Switch! (Involver)
7. Hands and Eyes (Focuser)

If you are new to WBT, or just still feel overwhelmed, these are the seven steps to master before you proceed to any other components!  You can read my original blog post about The Big Seven here. And, you can see how all these components integrate into a single lesson here.

The Big Take-Away for me from this chapter is that the "classroom management plan" we use in Whole Brain Teaching cannot be separated from the instruction we teach.  Coach says it best on page 9, "...thinking well is behaving well."  When we keep our students focused, motivated, involved, engaged, and active, there is NO ROOM for misbehaviors.  We have their WHOLE BRAINS developing reading or writing or math skills, and that, my friends, is a WONDERFUL place to be!

Another Big Take-Away for me was the description of the types of gestures used during Mirror Words.
     * Casual gestures - make lessons visual; match the story/instruction; can vary from teacher to teacher.
     * Memory gestures - linked to core concepts; should be the same for every WBT teacher in a school; (can find these in conjunction with Power Pix).

There have been some ahhhh-mazing updates and additions to the Scoreboard. Check out my original post here!

Five Rules; Plus on brand new, oh so shiny, new in the box... DIAMOND RULE!  The Diamond Rule is "Keep your eyes on the target."
     >Reading a book?  Page is the target.
     >Listening to teacher?   Teacher is the target.
     >A classmate is speaking?  Classmate is the target.

When it comes to teaching the 5 rules, Coach B has included some extra special 2-step lesson plans for teaching all 5 rules AND the diamond rule.  Rolling 10-finger WOOO, Coach!

Using the Switch! helps our most talkative kids to listen, and our most quiet kids to talk.  It forces each of those "learning styles" to embrace the opposite - thus, involving the WHOLE brain!

Use Hands and Eyes only SOMETIMES to make a very important point or call students to "laser" attention.

Next week we will be talking about the 10 most popular WBT games, and I will *hopefully* have some lesson plans to share with you that involve some-most of the games.

That's all for tonight, and remember that by adding these little sparks of funtricity into your classroom instruction, management will work itself in and you will be visiting Teacher Heaven on a permanent teach-cation.  Oh, sweet mama!!!!

Chapter 1: WBT Overview

I am BEYOND excited to read through Coach B.'s new book with y'all!  I've been reading and, honestly, the ideas he has compiled are nothing short of genius!  By utilizing even just a few of these 122 games, my classroom is going to be sizzling with funtricity and let's face it, we could ALL use a little more fun in our lives!

Let's get started with Chapter 1.  It's a really quick 4 page read, but it is the foundation for everything we are going to study.  If you haven't already read through the original text, I suggest you find it and really get a firm grasp on the foundations of WBT.  Chapter 1 in this book BRIEFLY reviews chapters 5-12 from Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids.

Major points from Chapter 1 include:

*The Big Seven*

       1. Class-Yes!  Everyone's favorite attention-getter to calm your class and focus their attention.  It has infinite entertainment possibilities, if you just use your imagination!  Make the call-outs seasonal, academic based, or just plain silly.

       2. The Five Classroom Rules + the all NEW Diamond Rule - a rule for EVERY scenario without posters and posters of lists.
            -Rule 1: Follow directions quickly.
            -Rule 2: Raise your hand for permission to speak.
            -Rule 3: Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat.
            -Rule 4: Make smart choices.
            -Rule 5: Keep your dear teacher happy. (*More on this in a bit.)
            -Diamond Rule <> Keep your eyes on the target.

       3. Mirror words - activates all areas of the brain including speaking, listening, motor, visual, feelings, and critical thinking.  100% engagement?  Oh sweet mama, yeah!

       4. Scoreboard - with all new levels to game-ify your classroom so kids WANT to win the behavior "video game" you're in charge of!

       5. Teach-Okay - like think-pair-share, except FUN, focused, and energetic... activating all those neurons again!  No sit-and-get here!

       6. Hands and Eyes - use this sparingly to make REALLY BIG points, or in cases where complete attention is of the utmost importance.

       7. Switch - balancing our Chatty Cathy's with our Silent Susan's.

I promised more about Rule 5.  I've heard a lot of teachers say they get grief from parents over this one.  It's all in the explanation.  Notice that the rule is KEEP your teacher happy, not MAKE your teacher happy.  I tell the kids a whole spill about how no matter what happens at home I will come to the classroom happy.  Some mornings throughout the year, the kids even get to see me take deep breaths or sip my tea and get myself happy so we can begin our day.  Coach B. says that it is the no-loophole rule.  Even for those kids who can argue their way out of anything, or think they can anyway, you are the master of your own emotions.  They cannot argue with what you feel.  Also, Coach B. says that the one true thing that keeps him happy as a teacher is for students to learn.  Students learn?  Happy teacher!  I usually end up with parents creating this rule for their families at home, or at least buying-in to why this is important in the classroom.

Which WBT strategy are you most interested to learn more about?  If you have looked ahead (who hasn't sneaked a peek?!), which game do you want to know more about, or which chapter seems the most relevant to your curriculum and grade area?

I am so excited to begin this book study with you!  Don't forget to follow my blog so you will get updates, and SHARE!!!

You can also follow me on Instagram and Twitter at @AddieKelley.

National Conference 2014 - Day 1

OH SWEET MAMA!!!!!

Day 1 of National Conference 2014 @ Louisiana College in Pineville, LA
One day down... two to go!  Whew!!!!

My brain is on OVERLOAD but my limbic system is overflowing with excitement.  Where do I begin?

1. Mirror updates that I have apparently missed over the last couple of years, but I LOVE so I'm excited I learned them today:

* Mirrors Off - - use when you are done modeling with Mirror Words.  Yay!! An end to those pesky "stragglers" who turn "mirror" into "Monkey See Monkey Do."

* Silent Mirror Mmh - - Instead of just "mirror," it specifies that this mirror is silent.

* Magic Mirror Ooooh - - Listen to my words and make your own gestures.


2. When using Teach-Okay, have the kids say "Ok" as they clap and turn all at the same time.  Don't waste a second!  Or as Coach B says, "Keep that train rollin'!"

3.  There is absolutely NO asking "Who knows number 1?" and calling on one kid and only having one kid talk, or walk to the board.  When you call a kid, point to that kid and say their name.  They stand and say "Class" AS THEY STAND.  The class responds "Yes" and the student you called on answers the question.  When a mistake is made, no sugar coating... no lovey-dovey "that's interesting" when it's not.  You say "Mistake."  Everyone else responds, "You're still cool!" and you immediately correct the mistake.  Repeat and continue.

4. Coach discussed macro skills and micro skills.  In order to master a macro skill, the students must master all the micro skills.  For example, when you want to master swimming, first you must master breathing under water, moving your arms, moving your legs, etc.  The same is true for writing, math, and even lining up in the classroom.  Master the micro skills, to master the macro skills.

5. Class-Boom is a version of Class-Yes that reminds the students to end "Yes" in learning position.

In addition to these wonderful, amazing, life-changing points, Coach B also spent his breakout session for advanced WBTers discussing the new brainies.  A new post will follow later to explain the WBT 2.0 addition of brainies and how to use them in the classroom.

My brain is on overdrive with ideas and a To-Do list a mile long of what all I want to include in my room next year.  I'm not anywhere close to perfect at WBT, but being here with all these people who are so excited and getting to learn from Coach B himself, and all the other presenters has revved me up for another year!  Stay tuned, folks, and keep checking back often!

Activating the WHOLE BRAIN in a Single Lesson!

The following narrative illustrates how the brain is activated in a typical WBT lesson - creating Teacher Heaven!

Class/Yes activates the students' prefrontal cortex, readying the brain for instruction.  Immediately following that with Hands & Eyes eliminates all learning distractions, allowing the prefrontal cortex to control the rest of the brain.  These two steps, together, take less than 10 seconds to complete with a classroom full of students, and yet they are ESSENTIAL to any successful lesson.  As the commands are given and students respond, points are awarded on the Scoreboard.  Thus, the limbic system is activated causing small emotional jolts, either positive or negative, causing the brain to again narrow its focus on the learning about to occur.  In order to negate habituation (think sea slug here!) the scoreboard has built-in levels so that students view it in the same manner as a video game, always trying to get to the next level (and the teacher looks oh so cool!).  Within a total of 30 seconds, we have already activated two VERY important areas of the brain, and the brain is now ready to absorb all it can - within about 30 seconds until its short-term memory dumps its load and starts over.  I think of short term memory as a 32 GB flash drive that all information must pass through before being allowed onto the infinite hard drive of long term memory.  The brain either moves it toward the mainframe, or dumps it in the recycling bin.  Therefore, the instructor should only "teach" for about 30 seconds while students Mirror the teacher's gestures, just before "the dump" occurs, and then have the students Teach-Okay.  Now we are really activating some neurons!  During Teach-Okay, the students engage the visual cortex by seeing other people's gestures, the motor cortex by doing the gestures themselves which also activates those mirror neurons - the primal learning aspect of the brain, then Broca's area as they verbalize and Wernike's area as they listen.  Switch is used in order to maintain a balance of activation between Broca's Wernike's areas so that students don't get over or under activated based on their natural tendencies.  Now, because all of the students have rehearsed the 5 Classroom Rules, they know exactly what is expected, leaving no behavior choices to be made because their brains are VERY busy being activated by all this learning!!

The Big Seven

In a previous post, I introduced the Core 4 Principles of WBT as the cornerstones from which the foundation is laid.  They are

1. Class/Yes (the attention getter)
2. Teach / Okay (the engager)
3. Scoreboard (the motivator)
4. Mirror (the unifier).

In addition to these four core principles, the rest of the foundation is made of three additional essential practices, making the foundation known as the Big Seven.  These principles include:

5. Hands & Eyes (the focuser)
6. Switch (equalizer)
7. Five Classroom Rules (expectation setter).

These seven principles should be introduced, and mastered, within close proximity.  There will be another post on the Five Classroom Rules, but for the purpose of this post, we will focus on Rule 1.  After introducing Class/Yes, Teach/Okay, the Scoreboard, and Mirror, the very next things I teach my kids are Hands & Eyes and Rule 1.

Hands & Eyes focuses the brain allowing the prefrontal cortex to control the brain.

Switch allows for equal activation between Broca's area for verbalizing and Wernike's area for listening.  Kids usually tend to fall into the "speaker" or "listener" category. Switch allows the teacher to control the timing to ensure that all students are speaking AND listening during any part of a given lesson.

Finally, the 5 classroom rules are rehearsed.  Frequently is an understatement!!!  Because the rehearsals activate mirror neurons, students begin to buy-in to the rules, whether they want to or not!  Their brains take over and begin to believe that this set of rules governs their thinking.  So, activating the prefrontal cortex before rehearsing the rules trains the prefrontal cortex to use this set of standards to control the limbic system.

Rule 1 is taught first and to MASTERY!  Most of the problems and aggravations I face in my classroom are because students just sluggishly do what they are told, if they do it at all.  It is very frustrating to ask a group of students to complete a simple task, like get into a line... something they have been doing for YEARS in school, and they just mosey around talking.  Rule 1 is my FAVORITE rule (next to Rule 5 of course!) because it establishes an expectation and a TIME FRAME for doing a task.  Other rules are introduced and practiced, but on the first day of school, Rule 1 is what we learn and what the Scoreboard is based on.

By implementing these seven essential foundation techniques in your classroom, you are already elevating yourself toward Teacher Heaven.  If the entirety of WBT scares or overwhelms you, start small.  Begin with these principles and REALLY use them.  They work so well that you will wonder how you never thought of it, and you will be thanking Coach B, Jay, Chris and all the other WBT vets for establishing the words and techniques to describe this mindset!

WBT - The Core 4

There are four basic corner stones on which all other WBT structures are built on.  They are:

1. Class/Yes (the attention getter)
2. Teach / Okay (the engager)
3. Scoreboard (the motivator)
4. Mirror (the unifier)

These cornerstones create the foundation that will end challenging behavior because every student is engaged and on task by using the combination of these principles.  Here is how they work:

Begin every lesson with a variation of Class/Yes.  There are several posts on these derivatives, especially on the WBT Book Club Blog.  Use one of them to get your class' attention and then mark the scoreboard according to their response, either positive or negative (click HERE to find out how to use Class Dojo to make your scoreboard more tech savvy!). 

Then, ask the students a question and have them "teach" each other the question.  You clap twice and say "teach" they clap twice and say "okay" and then turn to their partner and repeat your question.

After this you teach SMALL snippets of information, having them teach in between to keep them engaged.  You can also have the students "mirror" your gestures as you teach.  This unifies the class and keeps them on task while you are speaking.

During the lesson, award points on the scoreboard to keep students engaged and motivated.

The video on the following Glog is AMAZING at teaching this to students for the first time.  You will also see the rules being taught, but pay attention to the Core 4.  Start small and implement just these 4 principles in your room today, and I can guarantee in a matter of a few moments you will be kicking yourself for not trying this sooner!