SIW Lift Off....Huston Are You There?

Last week I introduced the Super Improvers Wall to my growing class.  (It's been interesting to watch my newly-arrived students as my 'veteran' students engage in WBT practices.  Clearly, this is something different than they've experienced before.)

The PowerPoint I shared on a previous posting of this blog was revamped slightly to include opening slides of some the well-known walls of the world - Great Wall of China, Berlin Wall, and our playground wall where students who have lost recess spend the period reflecting on the behavior choices that landed them there. None of these walls, I told them, could compare to the wonders of the wall they were about to learn about.

A sense of mild intrigue floated about the room; it appears my students like the idea of the SIW's similarity to video games, the focus on having to beat only themselves, the ability to move through stages and up levels.  They also seem to like the idea of learning the Greek alphabet - they began using the level names right away.

There were questions from the class....always a good sign that some buy-in is being built.  "How many stages are there?"  "What happens after you get to Level 10?" One student was soundly corrected by his classmates when he tried to liken the wall and its color changes to the typical "green/yellow/red" behavior chart.  "No, man!", one student countered, "We're in third grade now.  We don't need that kind of thing anymore."  At least to some of my students then, the SIW was a signal that they were able to handle something a little more sophisticated.

Use of the the Teach!OK! elements in the presentation as well as the Yes! No way! questions demonstrated that the majority of the class understood the basics of the concept and, at that point, could explain how to track their own progression.

Let me back up just a bit here to explain that going in I knew I wasn't going to be able to do a full launch of SIW as I was scheduled to be away at a conference the remainder of the week.  So I did some "bread-crumbing" the previous week and during the two days of the introduction.  During the previous week I announced a behavior focus for the day (students who followed Rule #4).  I randomly roamed the room or used practice and independent work times to stamp a tiger paw in the agenda book of a student or two who was meeting the goal. "Great job meeting our goal for the day."

The next day my class was away on a field trip so there could be no face to face follow up.  In a bid to keep their interest via a bit of mystery, I had a set of students create strips of 10 paws to be placed on each student's desk.  Per the PowerPoint, a check mark will be made on a paw of the student who was caught meeting the goal.  While I wouldn't be there the next day I knew my students would be intrigued by the paw strips.  When I return to class on Monday, I'll transfer the paws I stamped in their agenda books last week to the strip and continue to recognize students for meeting the daily goals.  By the end of the week I expect that several students will have made it to the first level, the Alpha level and will be headed for the next one.

Houston...we have lift off but please stand by.

Back to the Future of WBT?

What would happen if all the classrooms in your school used WBT?

Back to school after a wonderfully relaxing and learning-filled Spring Break. Never mind that, for some reason, the day-shorter week ended up feeling like two; the week brought not only its share of multiple challenges but, also offered an opportunity to glimpse the possibilities of school-wide WBT. Here's what happened:

It's S.T.E.M. Fair time in our school/county. (What we used to call Science Fair is now Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Fair.) My class is doing a study on brain and memory and we were in need of study subjects. Our 4-member study Sample Team set off for the three 4th grade classes that made up the population from which we would select our sample. (I had talked, of course, with my colleagues about the visits before hand.) Our first stop went well enough and we got our sample but, the end of our visit also coincided with the 30 students needing to transition from one classroom to another.

The next 20-minute period reminded me of one of those French farces with pretty maids, screwball servants, and outraged fathers dashing through doors. The specialist who was supposed to take the class was no where to be found and a scramble ensued to find someone to take watch over the class. Until that someone could be found, I was the designated watcher. Here's where the beauty of WBT classroom management tools, and a glimpse of the promise of school-wide use of WBT, comes in.

It so happens that the teacher of the class I unexpectedly was left to manage also uses WBT. Additionally, because several of the 4th graders in that class had been in my grade 3 room the previous year, they were familiar with some of the WBT 'moves'. Armed with that knowledge, I knew there were at least a few ways I could communicate with this set of students right off the bat and get a situation fraught with the possibility for chaos positively managed. "Class-class!", "Hands and Eyes" got everyone's attention and a call for Rule #1 not only got everyone ready to follow directions quickly but aware that I knew what their expectations were. I'm happy to report that the class of fourth graders performed rather flawlessly.

What was funny to watch were the faces of the 3rd graders who were there with me as well as those of the 4th graders whom I hadn't had in my class the previous year. My 3rd graders looked on in amazement at these "big" kids as if to say "Wow! These 4th graders are expected to do what we do - and they know how to do it." "Oh my gosh, we already know some 4th grade stuff!" The 4th graders looked equally amazed, as if to say "How does she know what to say to us to get us to do things?"

The minefield of an unexpected change in students' routine is one it's likely we've all experienced trying to safely navigate. (Edu-ethnographers will tell you that classrooms really do take on their own cultural identities and that routines and procedures have embedded cultural weight to which change does not come easily. As with other, larger social groups - tribes, communities - "Outsiders" coming in to classrooms (like substitutes) or changes in the cultural flow (an AWOL specials teacher) can lead to some serious acting-out. Yet, armed with a 5-pack of WBT Rules and a few other WBT management tools, I was able to help this set of 30+ students navigate the uncertainty. I think it also sent a message to both the 3rd and 4th grade students in this situation that expectations for their behavior stretched beyond their particular classrooms. I can imagine some of them were wondering if every teacher knew their rules. Were the eyes of the entire school on them?

Later, reflecting on the situation, my mind returned to our recent WBT professional development sessions and Coach B's encouragement to our principal and staff to seriously consider implementing WBT across the grade levels. After the day's events, I could see the power of the idea. Imagine welcoming students into your 3rd grade class at the start of the school year and knowing that most of them were trained up in 2nd grade and already knew your class rules and a number of other procedures! Also, it seems to me, the linkages from student behavior to the discipline model of the school would be made that much clearer to all involved. For example, any teacher in the building would know what to say to an unfamiliar student who was misbehaving -

TEACHER: "Rule #4 please."

STUDENT: "Make smart choices."

TEACHER: "What would be smarter than running down the hall?"

STUDENT: "I could walk."

TEACHER: "If you did that you'd really be doing an excellent job following Rule #5." "Rule #5?"

STUDENT: "Keep your dear teacher happy!"

TEACHER: "Now, let me see you walk down the hall and I'll let your teacher know about your smart choice."

In less than one minute's time the student can begin to realize that others hold the same expectations as their teacher. The student may also start to understand they are part of a wider community that is connected to their classroom in pretty key ways.

I'm seeing more and more evidence of the presence of WBT in our school house. Some teachers, having just been introduced to it, are getting their feet wet while others are ramping up their understanding and application of the practices. My episode with the 4th grade class unexpectedly left in my charge certainly illustrates the power of WBT if implemented across the schoolhouse. How about WBT in your school? Has it spread? Is it spreading? What is your lived-experience of WBT used across the grades or throughout a school?

I look forward to hearing from you.

WBT Super Improvers Wall Lesson

I had hoped to post my WBT Super Improvers Wall (SIW) Lesson PowerPoint as an audio/video file. (I narrated and saved a version of the lesson for viewing here on MWBB. There are some kinks to work out on how to best do such a thing. If you have some experience with embedding audio/video files in Blogger, I'd love to hear from you.

At any rate we're ready to move forward with the SIW in my classroom now that we are back in school and I've made some decisions about management of the strategy. The lesson will engage my learners in some signature WBT techniques including "Teach! OK!", Full Turn Talks, 3-peats. To wrap up the lesson, I'll use the WBT Assessment Trio "Yes/No Way", "QT", and "Prove It!". (Visit the video archives and web site files at www.wholebrainteaching.com to learn about these tools.) I'll also do at least a couple of review lessons to help my learners get grounded in the SIW structure and process. Following those reviews, or as the review itself, I'll use appropriate variations on the assessment trio.

I'm really looking forward to getting SIW going. Check back here towards the end of this week for an update on how things are going.

WBT Super Improvers Wall Lesson, a set on Flickr.

Welcome!

Welcome to My Whole Brain Blog, a place of celebration and sharing of learnings, reflections, and resources related to Whole Brain Teaching. What is Whole Brain Teaching? You can't do much better than to visit the site at www.wholebrainteaching.com to learn all you need to know about this incredible instructional approach created by educator Chris Biffle. Not only has Biffle been generating dozens of wonderful, research-based instructional practices....he's offering them at no cost to teachers. Let me say that again --- WBT is FREE for the taking!

I learned about Whole Brain Teaching (WBT) some years ago and adopted a few of its components into my instructional 'quiver'. Since then, I and Whole Brain Teaching have done a lot of growing and, this past year, I delved even further into its offerings and found a veritable treasure trove of interactive learning tools for use with my students. Biffle's proclamation that Whole Brain Teaching will change your teaching life is no exaggeration. The addition of just one or two of the practices has yielded wonderful rewards with my class this year and, even though the end of the school year fast approaches, I will be continuing to weave in more of what Biffle refers to as 'the golden thread of fun' into my teaching.

Left, my principal Eboni Harrington

and WBT founder Chris Biffle during his

recent professional development visit to our school.

Apparently, thousands of other teachers from around the world feel the same as I do. The weekly Tuesday night webinars find teachers from as far away as Australia, Russia, and India, 'tuning' in to learn more about WBT. Scores of teachers from across the U.S. direct their browsers to the website, too. It's quite the professional learning community - caring, dedicated, enthusiastic, and committed to Coach B's (Biffle) proposition that learning can and should be 'stinkin' fun!

Don't be fooled though; WBT is more than merely cute games to distract your learners or give them a break. WBT is a powerhouse of learning and academic rigor, fosters critical habits of mind in even the youngest of students and equips teachers with highly engaging classroom management tools.

It's been a while since I've been this excited about something. The invitation to become a Whole Brain Teaching intern came at a time when I was praying and reflecting on my next professional steps. Continuing to be a classroom teacher was something I definitely wanted to do. Figuring out how to be of service to teachers, the laborers of education's vineyard, was also something I was pondering. Biffle's visit to my school not only confirmed my practice of WBT but bolstered my confidence in adding on still more. A chance to chat with Coach B one on one and I knew WBT was a major player in my professional future.

I hope you'll take some time to explore WBT for yourself. Ask around your school house...are there teachers there already using it? Visit the archived webinars and take a look at the basics of the system and the incredible number of free tools and materials available to support your digging into WBT and making it yours. Then, come back here often to have a look at how this teacher (and her colleagues) are putting WBT into action.

Oh, Sweet Mama, you won't be sorry you did!