Whole Brain Teaching

Picture a classroom full of chatting 6 year olds.  Their attention in a million different places... how do you get them back to you?  I've tried it all.  I clapped my hands, I rang a bell, I counted down, I asked them to give me five, I turned off lights, I used all the techniques I had heard of in books and conferences.  They were wild, crazy, non-respondent (ok, maybe not wild and crazy, but certainly not ready to give me their full attention).  I had an 80% success rate at best!  I was wasting valuable time just getting their attention so we could move on.  Then, I spent one morning observing a first grade teacher in our district.  She talked to me about Whole Brain Teaching.  Its an entire system, an interesting approach, to classroom management and teaching skills.  I saw some of it in action and I was inspired!  Since she didn't have the time to teach me everything, I did what I always do - head to the internet!  Sure enough, I came across wholebrainteaching.com.  The website is full of information, videos, instructions, research, processes, and more.  Its free to sign up and have access to everything.  There are a ton of YouTube videos as well of teachers all across the country teaching every subject using this method (from kindergarten to college!)  The amount of information was overwhelming to say the least.   Still I forged ahead.

The website conveniently has a seven step "starter" process.  When I saw this I decided this might be good place to begin (I know, smart cookie alert.)  It begins by telling you to teach your class the "Yes" response to "Class."  You say "Class" the class responds with "Yes."  Keep this interesting by changing the way you say class and they repeat that to say yes.  For example, if I say "Class, Class"  they say "Yes, Yes" or "Classy, Classy, Class" they say "Yesy, Yesy, Yes."  If I use a low voice, they use a low voice.  If I sing, they sing.  I thought, "This is too easy - I've heard about this before... right?  Why haven't I done this..."

I taught it to my class the next day.  It took a few times of them getting it (by a few I mean about 5 minutes), but it has been heaven ever since!  I never have to shout, whisper, turn off the lights, find my bell, or put down things to clap, or anything.  I just say "Class" ... they immediately stop and say "Yes" like a beautiful chorus of angels waiting for their next assignment.  It has yet to fail.  Of course, the system has been in place only a few weeks, but I am thoroughly impressed.  Over break I plan to look more into this entire system of teaching...this seemingly seamless form of classroom management.  Maybe there are more parts that I need to implement into my classroom.  Until then... "Class!"