Ch 1 & 2 WBT assignment

One way to earn certification points is answers questions assigned to certain chapters in the book Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids by Chris Biffle.

Ch 1&2 assignment
CoachB says ….."You've just been made principal of a charter school and you're about to address your staff for the first time. Select three points from chapters 1 and 2 that you are going to talk about describing key aspects of Whole Brain Teaching. Include one story about your teaching experience."

My answer
Good morning and welcome to a brand new school year! As we begin this new year, I know many of you are feeling anxiety, nervousness, and pure excitement. Those feelings are normal as I experienced those as a classroom teacher, and now as your new principal. We all look forward to new lessons and strategies that provide productive learning, enthusiasm for the content, and 100% student engagement. I want to share with you a way we can accomplish those three things with every lesson.

Early in my teaching career I was introduce to the Whole Brain Teaching system. I knew it was the perfect solution for my classroom in a high poverty school. Whole Brain Teaching brought classroom management using a scoreboard, super improver's wall, and five important rules. Also the student engagement was very visible with "teach-okay" and "mirror and words.” The students enjoyed learning new content with the Whole Brain Powerpix and Speed games.

Now your probably asking yourself, what makes it work? The answer is simple according to Chris Biffle, “if a student’s whole brain is involved in learning, there isn’t any mental area left over for challenging behavior.” I experienced this first hand in my own classroom. When I started using Whole Brain teaching, I went from having 50% student engagement and “Little Johnny” disrupting everyone in the room, to having 100% student engagement, and “Little Johnny” was no longer disrupting everyone because he was trying to earn a star on the Super Improver wall.

I’m encouraged with you as my staff that we can change the atmosphere of learning in our school. I’m encouraged by the sounds of teachers practicing “teach-okay” in the classrooms. I’m encouraged by the enthusiasm our students will have towards learning. I’m encouraged by the number of students we will empower with knowledge. I am encouraged by you, and I want you to be encouraged by the change Whole Brain Teaching will bring to our school.

Let me leave you with these last words as I hope I have not done this to you. Chirs Biffle says the First Great Law of Whole Brain Teaching is “the longer we talk, the more students we lose.”