Teacher Tricks Tuesday- Whole Brain Teaching

Last summer was when I made my first pin on Pinterest.  My life, like many of yours, will never be the same again.  As I was preparing for the new school year, I found myself finding so many brilliant ideas on there that made me so excited to get started with my new group of firsties.  One of my most life-changing finds was a pin that led me to a YouTube video of a teacher using Whole-Brain Teaching.  Our school has not had this training,  but I used what I gathered from the videos in my classroom and it is AWESOME!  I have since registered for the WBT website and watched the videos, read the research, and applied other aspects of it in my classroom ( I highly recommend you do this...there's a lot more videos with detailed explanations of their philosophy).  I can't wait to start this next year with an ever better grasp of it!  HERE is the link to the WBT website.

I started to type out a long description of what I’ve learned from the videos, but then I figured it’d be much better for me to just give you links to some of these videos so you can see for yourself and take what you want from them!  WBT is full of lots of little "teacher tricks" that help with classroom management and engagement.  The best part?  You can start a lot of the concepts now- right here in the middle of the year!  Another great part?  These little "tricks" aren't time consuming at all!  In fact, all of these little things you can do are meant to be quick commands with quick responses to keep the students engaged and actively learning!

I hope they inspire you like they have me.  I really have noticed a difference in behavior management, engagement, and information recall!  If you watch these videos and like what you see, you’ll have to let me know what you try in your classroom and what works for you!  And if you already use whole-brain teaching, would you share with us other ideas that bring success to your teaching?

Here you go...

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**Search on YouTube for "Whole Brain Teaching" and you'll find lots of great videos for your grade level!

Happy watching!

**Disclaimer: A criticism I have read by from some of the video comments on YouTube is that kids aren't really "learning" this way...that they're just using repetition to recall information.  Let me say, before I receive similar criticism, that my understanding of WBT is that it is meant to be used as an effective management tool and teaching aid, not the sole means of instruction.  Of course, all teachers want their students to think critically and comprehend deeply.  But they need a foundation of basics in order to do that.  I think WBT is a great way to establish that while keeping the students on task.