Today was a staff development day for my district. Our school was lucky enough to join 2 other schools for a day of Whole Brain Teaching. Our presenter was supposed to be Chris Biffle, but one of the co-founders of WBT came instead. He was awesome! I've done the class-yes part of WBT teaching for a few years and it's an amazing way to get kids' attention. I was always nervous about trying the rest of WBT even though there are plenty of videos out there to watch. But after today, I'm jumping in!
In case you don't already know, WBT has a techniques for getting attention called class-yes. However you say "class" the students respond with "yes" and are quiet with their eyes on you). For getting kids talking to one another they do teach-okay. The teacher says "teach", kids respond "okay", and turn to tell their neighbor about what you've just taught. Our presenter had us take turns practicing different ways to say "teach" and it wasn't easy to keep coming up with new ideas! I know that in front of the kids I won't feel so silly and it will probably be easier.
Tonight I found a great video that show how to get started with whole brain teaching. I love the way Nancy describes how to introduce the teach-okay part. After practicing today and watching this, incorporating teach-okay is my goal for this week. Tomorrow should be lots of fun. Wish me luck!
Hope you enjoy the video:
It's fun trying new things in the class. Good luck!
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