I am very interested in starting the Whole Brain Teaching concept this fall. I would like to learn as much as possible. Should I begin the school year with this or not? Also, I like the clever cheers that the students gave to their peers on the videos. Do the teachers make them up, or is there a list somewhere? Any other suggestions that you may have will be greatly appreciated.

You will love it. What grade do you teach?

Yes, definitely begin in the fall. I found out about it around Spring Break and started using some of it then. What I did worked well, but I'm looking forward to starting a year fresh with it from the very beginning. And here's the advice that some people gave me - you don't have to do it all at once. Start with a couple things and when you get comfortable with those, add something else.

I also recommend you to start from the very beginning of the course.

Remember not to start saying: "Boys and girls, we are going to try a new method I've found on the internet to see if it works..." It's always better to say something like: "Well, here you are in Xth grade! Now you are ready for a new challenge..." and you present Whole Brain Teaching...

I also agree that you don't need to start with everything, but step by step; although if you feel comfortable enough, you can always go for all of it..

Best,

Edward

Have you downloaded the books and videos, that is the best place to get ideas... take the simple concepts first, and then as the students get better at each concept begin adding another. I start the year with class/yes, teach/okay, scoreboard, might oh yeah/mighty groan + the rules, all on the first day - but I have 7th graders, so they move pretty fast, what grade level are you at?

I stumbled upon this website just this morning and signed up. I'm always on the look out for something to help in the classroom. I use Responsive Classroom techniques, which I was trained in, and these seem to coincide right along with them. I will be starting the use of them in the fall and I teach kindergarten. What advice in the implementation of these do you have for me and a timeline?

Hi there...I also teach kindergarten. I did not find whole brain teaching until October of this past school year. I started with class/yes and when teaching procedures to sit down...I taught my students to criss cross(cross legs one in front of the other), apple sauce (sit down with legs criss crossed) and then hands and eyes. With hands and eyes, I would ask them to pretend they were shooting Laser beams at me...Then I fall back and let them know that I can feel it and that it what I want. Next I would teach them the scoreboard and so on... Remember these kiddos are 5 and 6 make it fun and practice, practice, practice. Since you are a kindergarten teacher, I encourage you to go to the kindergarten foum on the website. There you will be able to brainstorm and network with other kindergarten teachers. See you there!

Two good places to start are with "First Steps" in the menu at the top of this screen ... you should also review the video tape Lessons 1-8 (free on this site) ... I give a description of each of the basic steps of our method and in the order they should be presented.