Whole Brain Teaching: Two weeks into Classroom Management

Two weeks in and I am so glad that I decided to finally return to the classroom. I was a little worried about my students prior to meeting them, I heard some stories. I don’t want to jinx it but they are a fantastic group of kids!!!

I give credit to many things that have helped me manage my classroom, especially….

Whole Brain Teaching

“CLASS” “YES” This works it really works and it is fantastic. I say class and the class says yes with enthusiasm I then quickly have 22 eyes looking my way ready for direction, well sometimes they need a second reminder. I change it up frequently so that it keeps them on their toes, saying “class’ a variety of ways.

The Scoreboard

I changed this up a little but the concept is still the same. WBT uses a scoreboard with smiles or frowns, or class vs teacher. I thought smiles and frowns was too primary and class vs students puts me against the students. So I made up an acronym for points against. Meet Count Snaagit

he gets all of the points against. The kids already don’t like him and want to dress up as Snaagit for Halloween.

WBT Rules

I was a little skeptical at first thinking I would have some trouble getting the kids to buy into this. However, this is not the case at all. The kids love it and I am seeing amazing results. They are following the rules, remembering the rules, and motivated by the scoreboard. It really is amazing to see them at work. I used the rules posters from Stephanie over at Third Grade Thoughts on her TPT store. I love the graphics, and they look great up on the wall.

They know the rules so well, we rehearse them quickly and often throughout the day. What really stuck with me from WBT is that when students break a rule, its an opportunity to practice. Don’t scold -> Practice!! What a great reminder. I still fall back sometimes to previous strategies of scolding but I’m a work in progress too, lol.

Another strategy I use…

I also pick referees every morning. Seven students assume the role of referee for a certain character trait or target behaviour. Referees include

Hands Up
Line Up
Respect
Lunch Break
Empty Hands
Listening
Quiet Work

Once or twice a day student’s stand up and nominate their classmates for being leaders in these areas. Nominated students receive tickets that they enter for our monthly prize draw. I am the ultimate decision maker if the student nominated gets the ticket. However, I have not had to deny students tickets they have denied themselves tickets if they don’t think that they deserve this. How awesome is that!!! They are so honest to say no I don’t deserve this ticket I wasn’t a good example of that behaviour today. This makes me so proud of them as their teacher.