WBT Where to Start? Getting Ready

So we have been watching videos, reading the books, reading Facebook group posts and now it is time to get files downloaded, the printer going and planning book open. Time to get ready for the best school year ever!

So what do we NEED to get started with WBT? Here are my must haves to start the year with WBT

1. Need to have some basic knowledge of Whole Brain Teaching

Now more than likely you already have this but just in case you are totally new to Whole Brain Teaching I want to be clear that if you haven't visited WholeBrainTeaching.com and learned the WBT Basics , you should do that FIRST.  You don't need to read EVERY ebook and watch every video to get started but the tools like our Attention Getter Class/Yes will only work if you know the basics of how to use them. I also highly recommend grabbing Chris Biffle's books, especially the newest book, Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids-2nd Edition. You don't have to have the books to get started but they are all easy reads and great to have on hand during the school year.

2. Pick Rule Posters to download and print

I love the official WBT rules and the new early ed version! 

You can get posters for all the official versions of the rules on TPT here. I originally shared more about the 5 rules and the posters I made here. There are a ton of versions on Teachers Pay Teachers but be sure they are free and that they have the 2020 Rule 5 like the official ones or the Bitmoji version

3. Pick a place for the Scoreboard and make traveling Scoreboard

        

The scoreboard can be just a sad face and a happy face made with marker and the travel scoreboard just a 3 x 5 card. I'm excited to use the latest upgrade of the Scoreboard that is  shared here that is Turtle vs Hawk. The latest version features the sad Emo Turtle but you can also use Surfboard Emo. 

During distance learning and on my phone for a traveling scoreboard I used a digital scoreboard and I updated it to be Turtle vs Hawk

You can also make a simple traveling scoreboard to have on your lanyard 

4. Super Improver Wall/ Peregrine Falcon display

Super Improver is one of my WBT must do's. It is truly amazing how this will change your classroom. For me I do not start giving stars until a couple weeks into school but I want my Super Improver Wall and Peregrine Falcon display up before Day 1 if possible. I use a version with photos of real animals and organize the levels in a rainbow-ish order. You can get the posters I use HERE and here is one version of the cards. They are also in Spanish :) 

5. Create your Games List 

You want to make your Games List near your Scoreboard. You can just write it on your white board, use sentence strips with a pocket chart or use Google Slides and project it on to the main board.
Click on the Whiteboard set up picture below for the WBT First Days Cue Cards I am updating. You can print them on blank 4 x 6 cards or just project from Google Docs
The Games List is basically your schedule with what you are focusing on. Learn more at https://wholebrainteaching.com/day-one/ and by watching Andrea Schindler's Getting Started Periscopes from 2018 & 2019. The Periscopes are listed with some screenshots on the WBTKinderGettingStarted doc. 

  

6. Print or Download the Power Pix

Visit this post and this page to see why you need PowerPix in your life. 

As long as you have 1-4 you will be in great shape to start the year using Whole Brain Teaching but I hope you will find 5 and 6 as helpful as I do. I am updating a few more files that I will include here so check soon for updates

Throwback Thursday- Common Core PowerPix

I first started working on switching the official WBT PowerPix with CA state standards to Common Core standards in 2011. I want to be clear NONE of these PowerPix were created by me, they are all a part of the grade level PowerPix that are on the WBT ebook area. The original PowerPix reference the California State Standards and all of California and many other states are now following the Common Core standards. I used a digital scrapbooking program, My Memories Suite, to modify the  PowerPix to reference the Common Core Standards. The originals had the PowerPix and teacher notes in one file. In the files I made there is one file of the Pix for ELA and one for Math for each grade level to be printed in color and/or shown on your LCD projector. There is a separate file of teacher notes, one ELA and one Math for each grade level, that can be printed in black and white. I have my PowerPix in sheet protectors with the matching teacher notes slid in the same sheet protector so that I can hold the PowerPix up and read the teacher notes :)

Here is a little explanation of what is on each PowerPix. I have simply changed the California State Standards to the Common Core Standards and formated the Teacher Notes to be one page for each PowerPix.

You can learn more about using PowerPix from Coach B's webcast below and from wholebrainteaching.com 

 Below are links to the Common Core PowerPix I currently have finished. If you are at a school that does not use Common Core or teach upper grades that I have not finished PowerPix for be sure to check out this post for the JPEGs of the PowerPix. PowerPix are one of my favorite WBT tools and I hope that these updated PowerPix and Teacher notes are useful.

ELA PowerPix with Common Core Standards 

 Just click the picture to download the PowerPix and then grab the Teacher Notes from the Goggle Doc.

Kate Bowski has 3rd Grade Reading and Writing PowerPix HERE

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Math PowerPix with Common Core Standards 

 Just click the picture to download the PowerPix and then grab the Teacher Notes from the Goggle Doc.

Kate Bowski has 3rd Grade Math PowerPix HERE

WBT Wednesday- Classroom Rules

Updated for 2020

This all still applies but there is a 2020 Rule 5 update! Rule 5 is now "Make our dear team stronger!" See all the gestures, including for the newest Rule 5 HERE

The classroom rules are the first cornerstone to me of Whole Brain Teaching and Step 5 of WBT FastTrack.  Classroom rules are usually one of the first things you teach your class on the first day so they are one thing that is not easily changed after the beginning of the school year. That said if you are looking at this information and it is not the beginning of the year changes are your classroom rules are not working so don't be afraid to switch to these rules. 

The best way to master WBT Basics is to teach the Five Classroom Rules. I LOVE the Five Rules because they cover every possible issue that may come up in class with Rule 4 and Rule 5. 

Here is a great set of Rule posters from the official WBT TpT store with the Diamond Rule and updated Rule 5

 Before the Rule 5 update, I used the posters shown in Chris Biffle AKA Coach B's first book, Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids.

Here is my Diamond Rule Poster

The Amazing Andrea Schindler who is on the WBT executive board and runs the Kindergarten Facebook group showed me one rule I do add, The Big Rule: ALWAYS Listen to your Teacher when they are Talking! This rule is key for our younger ones because they can't follow directions they didn't listen to. Here is a PDF for you to use for The Big Rule, just click HERE to download.

There are many posters on TeachersPayTeachers in different themes. These posters should all be free, just search WBT or Whole Brain Teaching. I like having my posters printed and laminated before the first day. To build community and buy in I have my students share out different ways we can follow the rules and ways we would be breaking the rules to create an anchor chart. You could also create posters with your students and guide them to creating these rules. 

Here are  2 videos on the Rules with the updated Rule 5 with WBT Executive Board member Heidi Martin

Teacher Tech Tuesday- Twitter

updated June, 2019

Today's Teacher Tech Tuesday is all about Twitter. TTTTT, lots of T's!

Now I am NOT a Twitter expert, far from it but there are a ton of great educational chats on Twitter so I had to join and start learning and it is not too hard at all. No really!

First you need to sign up for Twitter. 

I find using the computer easiest with Twitter so go to https://twitter.com/ and you will see something like this on the left and click the sign up button or go straight to  https://twitter.com/signup

The hardest part here is picking your username but the awesome thing is you can change it later so just pick something and get tweeting, you can change it later :)  

Now that you are on Twitter it is time to find some super cool peeps to follow and chats to follow. 

I am @TKwithMrsO and I love #wholebrainteaching , #WBTchat , ##WeAreCUE and #TeacherFriends
The @ goes before the username and the # is the hashtag.
#wholebrainteaching #WBTchat are on Whole Brain Teaching, be sure to follow  WBT Executive Board member Sarah Meador @MeadorScience
#WeAreCUE is the hashtag to follow for all things CUE, Computer-Using Educators
and #TeacherFriends is a great group organized by Debbie Clement, @KweezleQueen and friends
Both #wbtchat and #TeacherFriends use to have chats on Tuesdays at 6 PM Pacific/9 PM Eastern and while the chats are no longer every Tuesday these are still active hashtags.
Do you have a favorite Twitter chat?

Even if you can not make the chat live you can search Twitter for the hashtag and still read the tweets, tweet using the hashtag and of course follow all the cool people that participate in the chats.

I recommend typing the hashtag #TeacherFriends  and #WBTchat in the search box and following the people tweeting in those chats. To follow someone simply click on their name and click the Follow button that will pop up :) 

Now if possible it is fun to follow Twitter chats live. You CAN follow a chat from the main Twitter page but I find it hard to do. It is just not user friendly to me on the main Twitter page so  I like to use TweetDeck on my laptop.

With TweetDeck you can make a column just for the chat and it will automatically load new tweets for you, something I can't do on the regular Twitter page. Once I have set up my TweetDeck all I have to do is open https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/ and I am ready to go with the chat column already setup :) Here is a screen shot of my TweetDeck years ago but it still is my go to way to read tweets

I am all set up to follow #TeacherFriends and #WBTchat as well as read my regular Twitter feed :) Now I am all set to read the tweets live for chats or catch up later. I hope this post was helpful and you feel ready to tweet and I can follow you :) 

WBT Book Club Chapters 1 & 2

Today I am linking up with The Teacher's Desk 6 for Throwback Thursday. I am loving the badge, so purr-fect! This is a post from my WBT blog with my response to the WBT Book Club prompt for Chapters 1 & 2. Remember you can join in at the book club any time at http://wbtbookclub.blogspot.com/ :)

Have you grabbed your copy of Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids yet? I have had the free ebook for years now so I have to admit that I wasn't in a hurry to grab the new Amazon book by WBT co-founder Chris Biffle( Sorry Coach).  I figured I should know all of the stuff that would be in it right? I watched all the webcasts, read all the ebooks, have gone to a training so I should know this all. Well when they decided to have a book club for the book I knew I had to grab it and see what was new.  Well it is a must have friends! Even if you can just grab the Kindle version you will not be disappointed. This book really does give you the whole picture of what Whole Brain Teaching is today. There have been so many additions over the years that it can be overwhelming to start using Whole Brain Teaching and this book shows you where to start and how to successfully become a Whole Brain Teacher or WBT'er. 

You will want to join the book club once you get your book, you are ordering it now right? The best part of the book club is that it is not a summer book study but an ongoing book club you can join at any time! It doesn't matter if you got your book last month or get it next week or in 2015, you can join in. I have had my book for a couple months but am just now ready to share my answers to the book club questions. I will warn you that many of the questions/assignments are hard, especially if you are going for certification points, but all worth at least contemplating for your self. 

Click on the image below to read and respond to the Chapter 1-2 assignment and read on for my response :)

Welcome everyone! Today I want to start our year together with a 45 minute lecture and discussion on classroom management systems. I need you all to turn your cell phones into the basket in the middle of the table and give me your full attention. If you can not follow along and fully participate in our discussion you will need to write a one page essay on listening skills during lunch. OK are we ready to begin? Why don't you look excited? Doesn't a 45 minute lecture sound exciting? Don't you respond well to the threat of punishment? No? But we will have discussion time! Well you can relax because really today we are going to talk about classroom management but in a fun and much more engagement friendly way because I am going to be using Whole Brain Teaching.

The First Great Law of Whole Brain Teaching is: The longer we talk, the more students we lose. This applies not just to students kindergarten thru college age, but even adults in a staff meeting. I can give you a great lecture on the history of classroom management systems I have tried, complete with a 50 page Power Point but as soon as I have talked more than 15 minutes none of you will be hearing anything but “WahWahWahWah” like in Charlie Brown. Even if I add discussion time few of you will be talking about what I want you to be discussing. When I gave my first technology training to teachers I thought it would be great because I had so much built in discussion time but really I only had the attention of 10% of the teachers and the others were talking about everything but what I was teaching. We are going to make sure we watch how long we talk so we don't lose many students.

Now I could have called out those teachers that were not on task during that technology training and I could make you write that one page essay at lunch but punishing adults is just as ineffective as punishing students. When we are bored we all act out or tune out, no matter the age. So what can we do if punishment doesn't work? Here is the secret I learned from Whole Brain Teaching Challenging Students written by WBT co-founder Chris Biffle, if a student’s whole brain is involved in learning, there isn’t any mental area left over for challenging behavior. For our classroom management to work we need to work on engagement of the whole brain. I want you all engaged at staff meetings this year as much as I want our students engaged in every lesson this year so this is as much talking at one time as I will be doing all year.

So we have the First Great Law and the secret of Whole Brain Teaching but why are we talking about using it? What makes it work better than traditional classroom management systems? Orderly Fun! The main thing that makes Whole Brain Teaching work is because it produces classrooms that are full of orderly fun. WBT is more like a large, lively game than a traditional elementary school classroom management system. Just as in all games, there are penalties as well as rewards… but like “going to jail” in Monopoly ®, even the penalties are entertaining. We learn better when we are having fun so we are going to have fun in our classrooms and our staff meetings. Who's ready to really get started with our year now?

WBT Wednesday Advance Must Haves

So we got the Classroom Rules, we are ready to use the Core 4, and  last Wednesday we covered the basics needed for the first days.  The 5 Rules, Scoreboard, Class/Yes, Mirror and Teach/OK make the foundation of the WBT classroom and really will change the way you teach forever. For me I can't teach without these WBT tools and the more I use them, the more I love them, the better my class is. If I have a hard day or a lesson does not go well then I can usually find that some thing with the Core Four was off. I didn't use the Scoreboard as much as I should have or I forgot to have the students Mirror or we didn't do enough Teach/OK.   If you are new to WBT, new to teaching or new to a grade level just start with these and you will have such a strong foundation to build your classroom learning on. You will be blown away by how awesome your class becomes just with the Core Four and the Five Rules but just like a house is not only the foundation, WBT is so much more than the Core Four.

Once you are ready with your WBT foundation, you are ready to build up the walls. These are the advanced WBT must haves that you will want to add to your classroom ASAP. Now ASAP will be different for everyone so don't rush, you may not use these your first months or even your first year. That said the great thing about these advanced WBT tools is they are all like brick walls, you can add a few bricks at a time, building on your foundation bit by bit. Today let's take a look at 2 Advance WBT Must Haves, the Super Improvers Team and PowerPix.

The Super Improvers Team is all about rewarding student improvement. This is Level 2 of the Scoreboard and replaces the card system or behavior clip chart. Instead of catching students doing wrong, you are focusing on catching them doing  right, making improvements. This was truly a life altering idea for me and a huge blessing to my classroom. The year starts with the Scoreboard and the Scoreboard keeps going all year but Super Improver Team is added into the WBT classroom and students are rewarded for individual and class wide improvement. Instead of racing other students, students race themselves, working to improve on their own personal best. The beauty is that each student can be racing toward their own goal and students can be working on an academic goal or a behavior goal. Students also work together as a team to improve on class goals, which also can be academic or behavior. WBT founder Chris Biffle explains the Super Improvers Team in Chapter 15 of the book, Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids and the Program 563 Master Class: Super Improver  webcast. The delightful Deanna Schuler did a great video as this tool was developed in 2012 that explains how to set up your wall and award stars.

If possible you will want to plan out your Super Improvers Team now, as you are setting up your room, even though you will not introduce it the first days of school. You will need a spot for your wall and you might want your levels to match your classroom theme. Last year I used photos of sea stars to go with my tropical theme but I am switching themes and haven't decided yet how I will set up my wall. There are MANY themes shared on blogs and on TeachersPayTeachers which should all be free. I try to pin them all on the Super Improvers pinterest board so check it out and hopefully it will help you find the perfect Super Improvers printable for your classroom.


Follow Whole Brain Teachers's board Super Improvers Team on Pinterest.


The second Advance WBT Must Have for me are the PowerPix. I LOVE the PowerPix and usually start introducing them the first week of school because they are a super way to introduce core content to students and are SOOOOOO easy to use. Really they are ready made lessons. The original PowerPix can be found in the ebooks section of http://wholebrainteaching.com/. To access the free ebooks you will need to register here, which is free :) The PowerPix ebooks have the California State Standards and are avalible for K-3rd grade, though many can be used for upper grades. Currently the PowerPix are on page 2 and 3 of the ebooks section.

Over the last few years I have been working on PowerPix with the Common Core standards and have a template for making Electronic PowerPix. You can find the most up to date Common Core PowerPix in this post here. I tried to make them printer friendly with one file of the pix to print in color and a separate file of the teacher notes to print in black. If you need/want to create your own PowerPix you can download my Electronic PowerPix Templates for PowerPoint for free HERE.

Nancy Stoltenberg has a great post with pictures about PowerPix. Click on the picture of her wall below to read the post and don't forget to make sure you are following her.

Since I am in a portable with limited wall space I project the PowerPix we are learning on the screen with the document camera or from my laptop. As we learn the PowerPix I add the printed version that is in a sheet protector to a binder ring and it becomes part of our review routine at the beginning of whole group lessons. I thought I had pictures of the binders but do not so I will take pictures and add them as soon as I can get into my classroom. Like Super Improvers I try to pin PowerPix displays and new PowerPix created by other Wibbiters to the  pinterest board. 

Follow Whole Brain Teachers's board WBT PowerPix on Pinterest.

I know I have just scratched the surface of pinning the wonderful posts about PowerPix and Super Improvers and I want to make sure we get all of them so please comment with links to your PowerPix and Super Improvers posts. If you are just starting with WBT I hope you are now excited to try these tools once you are ready and have what you need to get started. Be sure to come back for more Advanced WBT next Wednesday

Whole Brain Teaching Book Club

One of the best parts of summer vacation for me is the time I have to read books that help me be a better teacher. Even better is if there is a summer book study on a great teacher book so I can see how others are using the ideas from the book. My blogging friends always know the must reads and I get so energized each summer.  If I missed a book study I still love to read all the posts then of course pin and print all the goodies, but I do feel bummed that I missed the chance to participate. I am so excited that my must have professional book, Whole Brain teaching for Challenging Kids, has not just a book study but an ongoing book club. Everyone can not only read all the posts but participate no matter what month it is! Everyone can join the book club and respond to the questions and prompts at their own pace, at any time of year. When you participate you have the opportunity to earn certification points toward becoming a certified WBT educator! You of course do not have to type up your responses to enjoy the book club though. Just reflecting on the prompts and reading through the replies of others will help in so many ways! 

So where do we start? Order your paper copy of the book or borrow the Kindle version for free with Prime membership. The main page for the book club is http://wbtbookclub.blogspot.com/ and you will find prompts for the entire book. Below you will find the prompts  for the beginning chapters and the chapters on the Rules and the Core 4. DO NOT try to read everything at once, no matter how tempting! I am just grouping the chapters for easier bookmarking and pinning :) In the coming weeks I will group and post the prompts for the rest of the book :) Are you going to participate in the book club? I know love to know who is going to give it a try :) Happy reading!

Getting Ready and Why Whole Brain Teaching 

The Core 4 and 5 Rules

WBT Wednesday-Where to start? The Core 4

Whether you are new to WBT or an experienced WBT'er you will want to start with the Five Rules and the Core Four each year. We talked about the Five Rules last week so now we are ready for the Core 4,which are as the name implies the core of the Big 7. If this is your first year using WBT and the ONLY WBT tools you use are the Core Four you will still be AMAZED at how awesome your class is! If you are feeling overwhelmed ONLY implement these 4 tools of Whole Brain Teaching because they are the foundation of every WBT classroom.
So what are these life changing wonder tools?

 The Core Four are Class/Yes, the Scoreboard, Mirror and Teach/OK. If this is the first you are hearing about this click on each to see the explanation of each from wholebrainteaching.com. These are each very simple and VERY powerful! You can start using all of the Core Four in the first hour of the first day of school or the first hour of your new day of school if school has already started :)

Coach B's latest webcast this week was on the Core 4 so grab your beverage of choice and get ready for a crash course in the Core 4!

Now you already have the basics for the Core 4 and Coach will be doing a new First Hour/First Days type webcast in the coming weeks but if you are ready for more now check out the WBT First Steps playlist on the webcast youtube channel





Here are some more Core 4 goodies, which all can also be found on the WBT Basics Pinterest board.

First the Delightful Deb Weigel created this fabulous cheat sheet to leave for subs.

Next at the delightful Deanna's TpT store you can download her free WBT Cue cards for the first day. She has made many sets and they are AWESOME!

 Also visit her blog and check out her classroom pictures.

Finally hop over the spectacular Nancy Stoltenberg's blog and check out her post from last year on the First Minute, Hour, Day with WBT