Whole Brain Teaching #1 The 5 Rules

I am beginning my certification in Whole Brain Teaching and so I am breathing new life back into this blog.  I just completed my second year of teaching, well year one was student teaching, AND THEN my first full year of independent teaching, it was amazing! My stint in student teaching left me feeling ill prepared, (at least that's how I felt; I was told by a seasoned teacher that all teachers feel that way their first year) so the summer between student teaching and becoming a "real" teacher I searched the internet for MORE preparation and what I found was WBT. I watched a series of videos and absolutely loved how engaging and fun it looked. It was definitely not the way I had learned as a child, or how I was taught to teach in my college courses. Lectures. WBT would keep my "lectures" lively and reach all my students and their differentiated learning styles, especially my bodily-kinesthetic learners. I had gone to Howard Gardener's seminar about the theory of Multiple Intelligences early in my college years and it  was an experience that has always been in the forefront of my mind when I plan my lessons. It is always my objective to differentiate my teaching to engage each learning style (SUPER interesting if you want to read more on the theory of Multiple Intelligences  {here}).

Anyhow, I knew WBT would take time for me to learn and implement, and being that this was my first year on my own, majority of it would have to wait till next summer (this summer). Baby steps. So I just focused in on the Five Rules of WBT and this is how it went...

On the first day of school I had intended to come up with class rules as a whole class. You know; where the students think they're making the rules but you are really guiding them to the same rules you would have made without them.  Oh, the nature of psychology. I had  learned this approach in college and had read about it on many teacher blogs, but then low and behold I found the Five Rules of Whole Brain Teaching and decided to take this out-of-the-box approach. I then found other teachers on the internet that were also using the Five Rules of WBT. I read about how it was working in their classrooms and solidified my commitment to this approach. To my delight an awesome teacher in blogland had already created cute posters that had my classroom Zebra theme and so I quickly printed those beauties out and laminated them (I am OBBSSESSED with laminating EVERYTHING in my classroom! Seriously their should be a 12 Step program for teachers like me!) You can snag yours for free {here}.

So instead, on the first day I stood between my eager First Graders and my cute little posters of the 5 Rules. Then I began  to teach. I taught them each rule with the hand gestures I had learned from the WBT videos. They LOVED the rules and the gestures, it was almost like a game for them. We practiced them several times throughout the first two weeks. Then throughout the year all I had to do to correct a rule breaker was say, "Rule number 2"! All the students respond with the rule, "Raise your hand for permission to speak!" and the gesture. I never had to point out the one who was breaking the rule and they were all back on track and engaged.

I (we) especially love Rule 5: Keep Your Dear Teacher Happy! Instead of listing all the dos and don'ts in 20+ rules the first four rules of WBT cover all the common rules teachers want followed in the classroom and number 5 covers Everything else!  The kids loved saying and gesturing Rule #5, too! I think because they had never heard a rule like it before. Again, here are the Five Rules of Whole Brain Teaching in my classroom!

If you are interested in getting started with Whole Brain teaching start with this video here. Chris Biffle does an excellent job teaching in his video series. I would love to learn from him in person. Remember these rules apply to All grade levels!!