In February 2010, I attended a Professional Learning Communities workshop and was introduced to Whole Brain Teaching Strategies. I immediately fell in love with the concept and strategies. I raced back to my elementary school, utilized the website, printed out all the teaching materials (Class-Yes, the Scoreboard, Teach-Okay, Mirror, Hands and Eyes, Switch, Practice Cards, Guff Counter and Independents, WBT’s reading, math and state standards ebooks), provided the information to my grade level, emailed Chris Biffle with ten teacher names, shared the information with my principal, and any other teacher that would listen to me. I presented the information at a Pre-K-5 staff meeting the next week. A first grade teacher was intrigued and wanted to learn more. We found workshop opportunities on the website and submitted to attend the Whole Brain Teaching Conference presented by Chris Biffle and Chris Rekstad in West Plains, MO that summer. What an awesome informational and fun experience. I now had all the tools that I needed to practice and implement the Whole Brain Teaching Strategies in my fifth grade classroom beginning in August. I have taught for 18 years in the K-12 world and this is one of the most effective, successful, and fun classroom management systems I have implemented in my classroom. My kids love to come to school, love to learn new concepts, are able to retain the new information taught, discipline rates have declined significantly in the entire grade level from prior years, and learning is soaring to new heights while my students have fun!
Now it is summer break! I am excited, ready to research, and learn all I can about how I can make WBT the best it can be in my classroom for next school year!
Link to first steps: http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/Whole-Brain-Teaching/First-Steps.html
after goin to the West Plains WBT conference i am more fired up than ever! armed with a ten finger woo and so excited to start oral writing!! and the genius ladder!! :-)
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The West Plains conference was also my first! However, I basically learned about WBT a month before the conference! What a difference a year with WBT makes!
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