As a part of an effective classroom management system I have consistently used a practice called Whole Brain Teaching in my classroom this year. I learned of this practice from a colleague a few years ago and since then I have implemented various techniques from WBT into my classroom. This year I was committed to implementing all aspects of it which has resulted in positive outcomes in my classroom.
My students have responded well to this practice. It involves a lot of responses from my students out loud as a group to keep the whole class on track. It also involves all students working together to earn rewards as a class for positive behavior as a class.
When learning new concepts and ideas I incorporate a lot of hand gestures to help them remember these concepts. I then use a method where they have to teach their partner with the hand gestures what the new concept is. This has been really helpful with my students and some of the tricky concepts that come up in 5th grade.
Whole Brain Teaching has several components and steps to implement this into your classroom effectively. I strongly recommend looking at the website to help you with this process.
I am so glad I have committed to implement all parts of WBT in my classroom. It really makes a difference for my class and their behavior this year.
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI am glad to hear that you are seeing success using WBT in your classroom. Being a secondary teacher, WBT is a new concept for me. Rarely do we see teachers outside the ESL and foreign language classes using hand gestures to introduce new concepts. I was wondering if you could give me an example of a hand gesture that works well with your students? Also, I was wondering if you could give me an example of one of the trickier concepts which the WBT works well to introduce?
Looking forward to your response,