Our Class Rules.

This child has come a long way to have the confidence to read our class rules.  I am very proud of him.

Our first attempt, 1 week in.

 

We were doing a big book about a ' Grumpy Rhino' By Jill Eggleton.  The children had to teach each other  the last 3 scenes.  They did a great job ans as you can see in the backgroud we even have some rhinos.

All going well !

So I have been using WBT for 2 weeks since my last post and all is going well.  I am so motivated by the literacture available online that I wish I had a few weeks to study.
My class is succeccfully using the Big Seven, Class Rules daily, The Scoreboard and we have just inrtroduced The Practise Cards at Level 2.
Last Friday was the first go with this.  Mr D and Mr K managed to get  Rule Number 2 to practise.  I made sure this was seen as extra practice not punishment.
Both went well and the cards were left in for the day as a reminder.

So Monday today and what do I see across the room when he wants my attention Mr D was raising his hand all morning.  All he needed was the reminder in the morning and he went over and removed the card.  Lots of class smilies were given and indiv points all went well.
After reading the WBT guide I really liked the rules about not berating children in front of an audience as this fuels the fire.  SO... I took this on board today and took one of my challenging students  aside and discussed with her what was happening and what should be done.  This allowed us both to be calm, she was able to talk without being stressed and we both walked away in one piece.

My goal for the next 2 weeks is consistent  use of the rules and WBT techniques and to manage my emotions and think about the impact on my children.

Week 2 down.

I'm classing this as week 2 as I have been doing this properly for 2 weeks.  So we use class-class all the time. Teach-okay, the scoreboard is getting better but I forgot to give them the quick treat at end of day. Nso have decided I will appoint one of my kids that love to organize to be scoreboard monitor and check results at 2.30pm so we know.  How's that for utilizing a trait that could drive you nuts.

We start off well in the morning but found Friday to be a really loud day, it was hard to bring the down.  I had about 3-4 kids who just kept going and going.  So will make sure I target their behavior this week and appoint frownies based on level of noise to get this back under control.

I have planned to use Smoothy Bumpy Planet for maths and have a go at The Writing Game.  Have watched a couple of videos with Chris demonstrating in New York and think with a bit of work we can do it.  My lower ones may struggle so may do this when they Re out for phonics to start.

Looking forward to a bit of reading is weekend and get my notes sorted for the week, as I still need a written reminder of when and where to use the teach-okay and rule of the game.

Is making my class lots of fun though.

A New Beginning

So... its was in the early hours of a morning when I couldn't sleep that YouTube was calling my name.  I belong to a few groups on Facebook and I saw a post about Whole Brain Teaching.  So I followed the link and I haven't looked back.

I have read all the stories, watched all the YouTube clips, downloaded all the books and begun from what I have self taught.

The next day I went into class and taught them.  The rules, teach-okay, switch, class-class, the scroeboard and the ten finger woo.
I had full engagement from the moment I opened my mouth and began the big gestures, they thought it was fun, they could remember all the things we were learning and I really enjoyed teaching this way.

So the next weekend I started reading the books and looking at all the other things that I could add to my programme.
I have added Superspeed 100 and 1000, Suerspeed addition and subtraction, Superspeed letters and phonics but I am just concentrating on the letters with my special needs group.

I am becoming more confident and seeing how I can use these all day rather than in blocks around the the rules time which I started out doing.

I videoed the class to see how it worked and if they were all engaged and it was AMAZING!!!!  All my children were on task, working with each other and using large gestures.

I am going to continue using this in my class.

My next goal is to get the scoreboard working properly and the Super Improvers Wall which I see they are putting so we can access on the Activboard which will be great.

Watch this space.... as we are just beginning!!!!