Practice Cards

The final thing I want to share, today that I put in my room, is the practice cards. As you can see they are all numbered, minus the ones under the directions. These will basically take the place of my weekly behavior sheets.

I just wanted to show you them. I will talk more about practice cards later on.

Super Improver Wall

Another component to Whole Brain Teaching is the Super Improver Wall. On the left you can see the color key for the cards on the right. Every student will start the year out as a "fan" in my room. Now the color key and labels can be tweaked to fit your classroom theme. I just used the theme from the book "Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids" on page 102. 

The way I understand this to work is that everyone starts out on the same level (even ME). The first level everyone will have the same goal to earn their 10 stars.  Some students may earn the stars at different rates than others in the room. Once the student has earned a new level, you replace the card in the right with the new colored card. At the second level, every student will receive academic or behavior goals for just them. When a student reaches "living legend," they get a picture on the wall. It will remain there for years to come.

We will have to see how this works out in my room. By the way, I found the card with stars template and certificates for free on Shayla Blaschko's TPT store.

Scoreboard

One of the main components of Whole Brain Teaching for classroom management is the use of the Scoreboard Game.

As I am getting ready for the new school year, I want to make sure my scoreboard has a place on the front whiteboard, and that it is visible for everyone in the room to see. I will have to teach my students about the scoreboard day 1 of school. 

So the idea of the scoreboard is that when the student's are doing something (follow the instructions quickly, following class rules, everyone participating, etc.) to make the teacher happy, they receive a tally mark under the smiley, and they get to celebrate with a "Mighty Oh Yeah."  Now when the student's are doing something ( not following directions, not following class rules, not everyone participating, etc.), they receive a tally mark under the frowny and get a "Mighty Groan." 

WBT Conference

This past weekend myself along with two colleagues went to the Whole Brain Teaching Regional Conference in Lubbock, Texas. If you have never been to a Whole Brain Teaching Conference, let me just say you are missing out. You receive so much wonderful information to start implementing in your classroom immediately. The best part is the conference (regional and national) are both FREE!!! That's right I said free, and what teacher doesn't love free things. The part I enjoyed the most was that our wonderful presenter, Farrah Shipley, didn't hand out papers, read from them, and then except us to remember it. She used the amazing techniques Whole Brain Teaching offers to present the information. It was much more engaging. 

Look at my awesome door prize, I won, from the conference. It will get a lot of use in my classroom this year.