Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids: Fast Track: Seven Steps to Teaching Heaven

I stumbled upon the Whole Brain Teaching videos on YouTube while I was looking for ideas for brain breaks about 6 years ago. The WBT methods have been a game changer for me. I love looking out on 25 energetic, excited, and engaged students while I am teaching using the methods. I've adapted many and made them my own. For those that think that this is a rigid way to teach, that is not so. You get to read, watch others in action online, and practice the techniques in the privacy of your own classroom as presented. Then, see what matches your own teaching style. From my own experience, WBT has made a huge impact on my teaching. I've gone from "sage on the stage" teaching to engaging students in short micro-lectures, having them practice paraphrasing what I've said, checking for understanding, then having students apply what they've learned. The thing that I've enjoyed the most is the classroom management parts. I'm free to teach and I'm not constantly managing behavior.After a few years of just using the management pieces, I began using the oral writing. WOW! I've never had such strong writing since I began teaching 21 years ago. The conventions of writing are taught using "brainies" ... These are gestures that go along with the rules of writing (capitalization, punctuation, end marks, quotation marks, apostrophes, indenting, etc.). The class practices orally first, then we write. As I'm walking around helping individuals, all I have to do when I see something missing is make the gesture with the accompanying sound and the student knows what to fix. It's brilliant!I have also incorporated several other "games" such as the Super Improver Wall (works on individual improvement in anything from behavior issues to academic success), the Super Speed Reading (works on sight words), Super Speed Grammar (works on grammar rules), Smoothy Bumper Planet (works on the 17 tricky numbers 1-100 ... esp. the teens), and Mind Soccer (a high energy review game).This book covers mainly the classroom management side of things. Once you realize how well your class can run using these methods, you will want more. For that, check out the new book: 122 Amazing Games and the website. There are endless resources out there for WBT and, other than the books, they are all FREE!!!

I can't say enough about Chris Biffle or this awesome book. I first learned about Whole Brain Teaching in 2002 when it was known as Power Teaching. I was in my second year of teaching in a very tough urban neighborhood. Our school was adjacent to the projects and the area had graffiti, vandalization, gangs, illicit drugs, domestic violence, etc.My colleague was a past student of his and dragged me to out to his free Saturday morning classes sponsored by our district. He also came to our school and demonstrated strategies in my own classroom. I am forever grateful for all the strategies I've learned as without them I wouldn't have survived teaching. Eventually I came to present on Power Teaching a few times at Charter School Conferences and once with Mr. Biffle himself in a break out session for third grade teachers, all because I wanted to help spread the word.My current school uses many of his techniques with success. Class, class is used an attention getter in all classrooms, assemblies, and in our after school program. Many teachers also use the happy/sad points as I do. I've had great success with all the strategies for challenging students including independent scoreboard, rehearsing rules, and the Bulls Eye Game. I also use SuperSpeed reading games to increase fluency and Concept Pixs for a review of standards using Jeopardy and a hanging chart. I just began incorporating the Super Improvers board I learned at the last Whole Brain Teaching presented by Co-Founder Chris Rekstad and I blog about it here.As as a mentor teacher to new teachers I've also imparted the wisdom of his ways to them and it has saved some struggling teachers from either quitting or getting canned for poor classroom management. Whenever I'm able to head back to my hometown area and catch another Whole Brain Teaching free workshop I gather up more teacher friends to go with me, and we come away with even more great strategies.

I've been teaching for over a decade and am so happy to have found Whole Brain Teaching. My favorite techniques are the Class-Yes attention signal, mirror, teach-okay, the rules, the super improver chart, and the power pix. I started implementing the WBT strategies about 3 years ago and found them so effective.Here are a reasons I fell in love with these strategies.1. Class-Yes - I use this countless times a day. It works with a classroom of students and also a whole grade level. No more bells, whistles, or yells--using a spirit of fun and a smile to get instantaneous quiet and attention is amazing.2. Mirror/Teach-Okay: Just using these to make sure students have heard and remembered instructions is fantastic. Students mimic the teacher and then teach a classmate what was just said. So simple, yet so effective.3. The rules - Students love when it's their turn to lead the rules. Imagine students actually complaining that they didn't get to lead the rules practice when there was a sub!4. The Super Improver system - It's all positive. Students can help set goals for themselves. These can be academic and behavioral goals. It's truly like a video game as they work to move up a level. Several students mentioned that this was a favorite in their end of the year writing.5. The Power Pix - Students have fun practicing vocabulary and academic concepts. Seven-year-olds can tell me the difference between a proper noun and a pronoun. Imagine students begging to review these concepts. Imagine actually having to tamp down the excitement as students practice telling what a noun is, so that we don't disturb the classes next door!The Coach, Chris Biffle, constantly mentions "teacher heaven," but I've come to realize he is not joking. I've seen it. This book lays it out so clearly. You need it!

A really great book with techniques useful to teachers, pastoral support workers and trainees. As a secondary school teacher, this book gave me new ideas to try out in the classroom, backed up with great research (mostly USA, and if you've seen Kagan Structures before it's similar). Well worth a read.

I cannot over emphasise the importance of this book.It WILL become the world standard for teaching in general, in the years to come.It will help with your day to day lesson provision technique, and also give you numerous tried and tested Whole Brain techniques to keep your most challenging students engaged and behaving.Loads of linked videos on YouTube. It's all free.Your enthusiasm for the profession, if it is diminishing, will be rejuvenated.Don't eat or sleep until you've bought this.Power to the teachers.

Some really easy effective strategies

Try it - it works - even the basic introduction of getting a whole class to respond at the utterance of one word - honestly - try it.

Oh my goodness. Where do the positive reviews come from? This book is full of behaviourist strategies that are repeated over and over (yes that is their mantra but is it really necessary to reproduce the images and associated strategies so many times?). The approach to management relies on extrinsic motivation and a lot of surface-level knowledge retention. Points systems in class? Really? More or less homework as a reward? Really?The main message from this book to me was to feel pity for those teachers in the US. The strategies and tactics seem out-dated and not appropriate for K-12 as suggested on the front cover. For an alternative, check out Bill Rogers' work ('Cracking the Hard Class' or 'Behaviour Recovery') - far more useful and effective.