SMART Goals

Our professional goal for this school year has been approved and reads as follows:

Implement Whole Brain Teaching  classroom management strategies to move students up, on average, one level in classroom behavior as evidenced by tracking sheets that highlight the frequency in which  students meets 5 established criteria (raises hand for permission to speak, follows directions quickly, stays on task, turns in neat work, applies practiced skills independently).

 

 

My student learning goal is:

 

Students will learn to use gestures to recall and teach the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grade 7 texts and topics

 

 

Now we are working on our educator plans.  It is our excitement to have measurable results with the implementation of WBT that has made this exhausting process bearable.  I hope other teachers have as worthwhile endeavors to get them through it as well.

B

Joyful One: New "Class-Yes"

Looking through Whole Brain Teaching pins at Pinterest, I found this great post.  There are so many ways to keep Class? Yes! fresh all year.


Joyful One: New "Class-Yes": "Class-Yes" can be heard across our campus each day. It is our Attention Getter in WBT, and it is extremely effective. This week, ...

Is Mirror a game?

In an earlier post B blogged about S.M.A.R.T goals and whole brain. I too have a WBT S.M.A.R.T goal and just received feedback from my first observation.  

In our district observations are unannounced and have to be a minimum of 10 minutes. The observer sits in the classroom with their IPAD and observes. On that day I just happened to be reviewing vocabulary using whole brain techniques of mirror and teach, okay! My students did phenomenal and I only had to redirect one challenging student! 

I received my feedback which consist of mostly checklists with a few boxes for comments. I was surprised to see the academic game box checked which referred to the mirroring and gestures. I want "funtricity" in my classroom but I had never considered Mirror to be a game. What's your thoughts on that? I would LOVE some feedback. 

K

Power Pix

Many teachers, including K, make power points with pictures and definitions to teach core vocabulary.  I have always had a space for my science vocabulary words and lots of clues to help remember their definitions, but nothing as effective as a prepared visual display.  This was the first time taking it a step further by making Power Pix.   I know this is a good strategy for visual and ELL learners, but it was also a great process for me.  The Power Pix have helped me to choose specific language to prepare for my lesson delivery and has taken my already organized unit/lesson up a notch.  I'm anxious to see how the students respond.  You can find my first set of power pix here.
http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/27175980"
Hope they are helpful. 
B
If you see any errors, let me know.

K and I are both teachers in Massachusetts, so we are working on establishing goals for this school year.  We wanted to incorporate the WB strategies into our goals and collect measureable data regarding our success with implementation.  We are hoping that by year's end our data will support our feelings and back up our belief in the WB learning system.

Using Chapter 4 of Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids, we developed a S.M.A.R.T. goal that reads:

By June 2014, every student in my class will move up, on average, one level in classroom behavior  as evidenced by tracking sheets that highlight the frequency in which each student meets 5 established criteria.

Each of us has slightly different criteria, and we are waiting for approval, so we'll let you know. 

K&B

Super Improving your Alphas, Go Alongs, Fence Sitters, and Challenging Students

 

This weekend I wrote a reflection for Chapter 4 of Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging kids for WBT certification.  This chapter, called Charting Progress, discusses charting our own behavior as well as student’s behavior.  Initially, I knew I would chart my own behavior because I can be pretty sarcastic and stern.  However, I was not convinced I would use the system described in the book for charting student behavior.

 

I happen to be thinking about K’s post about the Super Improvers Wall and the work she did setting up goals with her students.  K’s initiative to make the Super Improvers Wall more authentic for her students inspired me to see the value of charting student behavior described in chapter 4.

 

Like K, I will set up goals with my students. These goals will be based on 5 measurable behaviors (follows directions quickly, raises hand for permission to speak, stays on task, hands in neat work and applies practiced skills independently).  I will also divide my students into the same groups discussed in the book based on the frequency in which each student demonstrates these measurable behaviors.  I’m going to use the same rating system and hopefully, this will indeed move each student up 1 group by years end.

 

But those are just the logistics.  The truth is both K and I, with the guidance of WBT, are setting up goals that go beyond academic ability.  As long as we keep our students motivated and provide them with consistent feedback, our kids will also experience personal growth and pride.  Moreover, this process will help to build both character and resilience; two very important traits of lifelong learners.

Super Improvers!!

 

                The Super Improver Wall has been a great way to individually acknowledge students for their personal gains in the classroom.  Now that the first month of school has passed and I have learned so much about each student.  I decided to step up the expectations for the Super Improver Wall a bit and hold students more accountable for a personal goal.   I met with each student for a minute or two and we discussed what they needed to work on in ELA. I took charge of the conversation and guided them in this decision. The goals ranged from completion of all assignments to more participation during class discussions.  Each student had a goal on a white index card and I required students to keep the index card on their desk as a friendly reminder during class.

                Wow! The small index card with their goal made such a difference in class discussions. Students remained on task, participating effectively and MADE SMART CHOICES! Every single student in my second period class received a star on the Super Improver Wall for their great work! Reflecting on this experience I think next time I will have students come up with their goal rather than me guiding them.  Below is a picture of how Super Improver Wall looks like in a middle school classroom. I divided it by classes at the bottom so I could better manage students' stars.

K

Mirror and Teach! Ok!

The kids and I love using Mirror and Teach! Ok!  Below is a sample video of us at work.  The video is a very powerful tool for me as well.  You'll notice that at one point I'm on the side of the room away from the video camera and don't notice the uncertainty coming from the students directly in front of the video.  After I watched the video, I knew I needed to watch these students more closely the next day.  Though they were participating, they had little control over the information.  It ended up that I was able to work with these two students more closely and increase their motivation and control of the concept being introduced. B

To Gesture or Not to Gesture?

I'm preparing to teach my 7th grade students classification.  We usually use a mnemonic device to remember the levels of classification, and I wondered if I would still use gestures for this information.  I came across this great WB video posted below and my question was answered.  Of course I would still use gestures!

 I will be sure to post my students using Mirror and Teach-Ok after our work.  Unfortunately, it will be a few weeks.  My students are in engineering for the next 3 weeks and there in no WB learning taking place there.  Today, I actually cried because I miss my students and our WB learning. 

Anyway, check out the cool math video below. B