Spotlight Saturday-Round 3

It is Saturday! Another week of summer vaca has come and gone!!! I am really enjoying linking up with Erin from Kindergarten Dragons for Spotlight Saturday. It is such a great way to spotlight other teachers as well as things that work well in your classroom. I am so thankful that I have meet so many fabulous people through the blogging community. I am very blessed to have met Erin and now consider her a great friend!!!!

This week I decided to spotlight something that is very near and dear to my teacher heart!

Whole Brain Teaching has changed my teaching life for the better. Around 5 years ago I had a really difficult class. I really struggled with controling them. We all know as teachers you can not teach an out of control class! So over Christmas break that year I started researching classroom management ideas on the internet. I can across a youtube video on a WBT kindergarten classroom and immediately was interested! I watched several more videos and read all I could find on WBT from their website. When I got back from Christmas break I began implementing Class-yes, the WBT classroom rules and the scoreboard. Who would've guessed the success I found with it! My kids LOVED all of these components. I began to read and research more so the next school year I could implement even more the next school year. I would suggest ordering this book too! It is an easy read that lays out WBT and gives you the research behind it. I ordered mine from Amazon for $14.99.

These are the traditional WBT classroom rules. I start day one introducing them to my kinders. We do one rule a day and practice, practice, practice, practice it with the scoreboard. They earn smilies or frownies depending on whole class participation. The scoreboard is an awesome motivating too! Each rule has a gesture to go along with it. Everyday we repeat the rules with the gesture. Several times throughout the day for the first several weeks! The kids really get into this! 

These are part of the BIG seven as WBT calls them. the rules and scoreboard are part on the big 7. These teaching strategies are guaranteed to increase your student engagement and reduce your behavior problems. The kids get so involved with participating in the lesson that they don't have a lot of time to act up. (Yes you will still have a few non-conformers but I'll show you how to address them next:)

Class-Yes- I love this one! It is a great way to get the whole class' attention. The teacher says "class" and the class says "yes".  However you say class they are to respond with yes. Be silly and get creative! The sillier the better. Think about it this gives the kids to be loud, use silly voices, make noises whatever you choose. So they get some of that out of the way and can focus on the lesson. 

Mirrors-  this is another one of my favorites (okay they are all my favorite HA!) Mirrors is a great tool that encourages student involvement. 

Hands and Eyes- When you really need to get your class' attention to tell them something important you will use this strategy. You will say "Hands and eyes" and the class will repeat it and fold their hands and lock their eyes on the teacher!  Magical I know!

Teach-ok!-  This strategy is like pair and share or shoulder partners with a twist. When they teach each other they use the gestures and words. So they are teaching the concept with words and movement. Engaging more of their brain and deepening their understanding!

Switch- This is part of teach-ok! They are just switching up who is teaching and who is listening. 

I encourage you to go to the website and read more about these strategies. I promise if you decide to use WBT you will not regret it! BEST thing I ever did for my classroom and my sanity!

I started using the Super Improvers Wall this year! I threw out the clipchart and I don't regret it! The SIW is a wonderful thing! It celebrates the behavior and academic improvements of each student. They earn a star for each improvement. Each level has 10 stars. So at the end of the year is a child makes it to the top they have made 100 improvements throughout the year! Pretty impressive huh?!?!

These are the student cards that I am going to use this year. I will staple the level cards to it. I copy the level cards on whatever color the level on the SIW is. It is a great visual for the kids. It also sparks math conversation because they will say I only need__ more stars to move to the next level. My class this year celebrate each other so much! They would stop and give a round of applause everytime someone earned a star. When classmates moved up a level there were high fives and ways to goes all around! I love this tool and hope you guys will implement this with you upcoming students:)

It is important to let the kids set their own goals for the super improvers wall. It can be challenging to keep up with 20 students goals so this form helped me! I also will be giving out certificates when a child moves up levels this year. 

This tool will help you say goodbye to your clipchart and treasure box and hello to children who children that celebrate their own as well as classmates successes both with academics and behavior!  

All of this can be found in the FREE in the pack! Click on the link to TPT to download it. I would love some feedback!

I hope i peeked your interest on Whole Brain Teaching! There are several book studies happening right now! Tiffani fromTime 4 Kindergarten is leading one for Kindergarten and the fabulous Farrah Shipley from Mrs. Shipley's Whole Brain Classroom is leading one for First grade!

Whole Brain Teaching Website

Head over to Kindergarten Dragons to read about other Spotlight Saturdays and link up to join the fun!