Whole Brain Teaching: The Basics

I had another teacher come teach a lesson to my students using power teaching yesterday. I LOVED IT!!!! I tried it for the remainder of the day and today and my kids are responding so well and I feel like a totally new teacher. I feel so energized and the kids see that. It takes a special teacher to still be energized 3 days before Christmas Break. Haha Thanks for the video!

I tried this today in my Visual Art class. It was such fun.The students reminded me when I forgot the gestures. Ill be using it again for sure. Even the shy kids responed really well and such a 'team' atmosphere in the room.

im so this is macking me sick ther being completely controled like freken robots

It can be in my opinion. Yes...if it is not crafted the right way it could lose its potency over time. I think the best way to do this is do it a few ways to test how students will react over time. Implement it daily for the first few weeks of class so they get the routine down...then space it out and use it when new concepts need to be introduced whole group. A language arts lesson could take a few days...so you do it at the beginning get students engaged with it.

Well that's why it was invented, to help all teachers become better. The overarching goal is for students to have fun learning in a peaceful environment. Granted everything is not for everybody, it's a choice you can choose how much of this you want to implement. You should check out the wholebrain teaching website. Everything is free there!

when students are in "teach" mode, do they know to alternate speakers? I have attempted this in my class several times by my first graders sometimes talk over one another or not at all. Is there a way around this?

Partner up your students with one child being the one and the other being the two. When you say teach let the ones go first, then say switch and then let the twos go. You have to model it and explain this explicitly, especially for 1st graders, but it can be done. My first graders just naturally knew to take turns speaking because I had always stressed that in class. But if they are having problems then using "switch" would be a good idea.

how bout this. get them to actually think rather then making them respond like robots without any kind of coherent thought. Ask them a though provoking question like "what would you like to learn about". Just get them to think. I think small groups are great for this because they can share there ideas with each other which promotes conversation and allows them to think deeper. If you can get them to develop their own thoughts on something they will remember it much better.