I purchased Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids through kindle for only $7.99, and I could not put it down! I thought this work was absolutely genius! It is like Mr. Biffle and his crew thought of EVERYTHING! When I finished this book, I had 6 and 1/2 pages (front and back) of notes.
With that said, I was a little overwhelmed by the information presented so I decided for this school year to work my way into Whole Brain Teaching. I almost wish Mr. Biffle would create an instruction manual with day by day instructions of when to present this idea to class or when to teach this strategy; the author does give a general outline of how to use these methods, but I need it spelled out for me.
Since I have not found such a manual, I do not plan to go 100% WBT for the 2014-2015 school year, but I feel I will use 50% of this incredible information.
What I liked and think I can implement...
- "The Big Seven"--Class-Yes, Teach-Okay, The Five Classroom Rules, Scoreboard, Hands and Eyes, Switch, and Mirror. I will defiantly be using ALL seven of these. I love these so much, and I truly believe these will help my students be the best they can be. I love how Biffle describes how each of these in regards to how they stimulate different parts of the brain. I could tell that he researched the brain and knew his stuff when creating WBT. Also, this book gives scripts for all of these so teachers will know exactly how to present these concepts to their students.
- Micro-lecturing: "The more we talk, the more students we lose," Chris Biffle says. He suggest this wonderful strategy of "micro-lecturing" which is lecturing in small doses (no more than 30 seconds). The same information will be covered, but when you pair this with "Teach-Okay" or "Switch" students are more engaged in the information.
- Daily Test Taking Skills: I LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea, and I am a little annoyed that I did not think of this, but Biffle suggests that students need 10 minutes a day in math and 10 minutes of Language Arts of test taking strategies every single day. I also love how this book gives concrete examples of how to teach test taking strategies. (There is even a timeline of when to introduce new test taking strategies.)
- Practice Cards: These serve as a consequence for breaking a rule. Basically, teachers are suggested to make students practice a rule that was broken instead of a pointless punishment like writing lines. This part of the book is very detailed and very informative.
- Challenging Students: Biffle gives practical strategies of how to get through to the toughest kids.
What I was confused about or thought was too time consuming...
- This book suggest dividing your class into 4 groups (Alphas, Go Alongs, Fence Sitters, and Challenging Students) and assign points to each student in each group. Biffle suggests helpful strategies you may implement to move students up the behavior ladder. You must reevaluate your class weekly using the point system to hopefully move each child to a more favorable category. Don't get me wrong, I think this is a fantastic idea, but I feel like this might be too time consuming for me. (You must keep detailed records of students behavior throughout the week to categorize them properly.)
- Brain Toys: This concept intrigues me, but I am still a little confused about how to use these. I do know that this part referenced http://www.youtube.com/user/ChrisBiffle to see how these "brain toys" may be used.
Now you must know, that I only scratched the surface of the information found in this book. You really need to check it out. It states in this book that out of 2,000 educators surveyed, 98% thought that Whole Brain Teaching was a better method of teaching. I really LOVE that statistic.
The freebie for this post is an activity that I created for "Rule 5: Keep Your Dear Teacher Happy." This is a cut and paste sort of items that would keep your teacher happy and what would not keep the teacher happy. You may also find it at my TeachersPayTeachers store here. I plan on using this the first week of school, and I hope you find it helpful too.
Is it possible that I was the only teacher in the world that was confused about what it means to have high expectations? I always felt that what one would expect, was a natural reaction that could not be helped. For example, if I saw that the sky was cloudy, I would expect it to rain. Or if I ran around outside on the pavement without shoes in the summer, I would expect my feet to burn. I wrote this post to possibly help others that are confused about having high expectations for students like I was.
Let me back up for one moment. It seems like the key to being successful in the teaching world is to have high expectations of your students' abilities. Principal after principal, and book after book would say that your students will not perform proficiently unless you have high expectations for them. I must admit that I would nod my head and pretend I understood what they meant by this. I must say that out of everything I have done, the concept of expecting greatness out of my students always left me scratching my head.
The whole argument is that when you expect that your students will achieve greatness then they will. Then my thoughts would lead to, "If I expect my dog to 'meow' and I really believe that, will he?" Or if I expect my pet goldfish to learn trigonometry, will he? The whole concept of high expectations really confused me to no end. Like I stated above, I had always believed that this was just a natural reaction and could not be controlled.
Now I am going into my fifth year of teaching and my confidence with my abilities is greater than ever; I think I am starting to understand what this business of high expectations is all about. I started with the following questions...
- Do I believe that every child can achieve greatness? Yes, I do.
- Do I believe that every child can learn my content area (4th grade math)? Yes, I do given that I have enough time to work with these children.
That is when I had a light bulb moment after four years as a classroom teacher. I HAVE TO BELIEVE IN MYSELF! I need to have high expectations for myself before I can have high expectations for my students.
So now, after I have gotten my feet wet in this profession and am not so "green" I am confident that I can teach my students anything. However, I cannot go into my classroom on the first day of school and just "expect" my babies to achieve greatness without proper planning. I need to plan EVERYTHING and treat each child as if they all have an IEP (Individual Education Program). I need to really focus on my students' unique personalities and learning styles in order for each one to be successful.
I need to have interventions included in my lesson plans and not allow my students to fail. I plan to tell them, "I will not leave you alone until you get this concept."
I plan to keep accurate records of each child and what they have mastered and not mastered. The students that have not mastered a skill or skills, will have interventions with me during silent reading time, during their activity time, practice computer games, or whatever I have to do to get that child to mastery. I know what I am capable of, so therefore I know that every child I am responsible for can achieve anything I want them to. (Some students may require more work than others, but they can still do it!)
In summary, I realized that in order for me to have high expectations for my students, I need to trust in my own abilities to make these children learn. I hope my little rant was helpful.
Since you were so wonderful to read all of this, I am including a free Individual Education Program template for you. Create one for every child and really know each baby inside and out so you will know what you need to do to reach them.
(For example, does Johnny have a person at home that can help them with his homework? If not, you might want to allow Johnny some time with you or a peer tutor to complete his homework.)
I know this will take some time, but it will be completely worth it!
