School starts Monday and I'm getting nervous!

I've used bits and pieces of WBT over the past year, and this year I want to jump in with two feet!

Can someone talk to me more about the micro lecturing. Is there somewhere on the site that it goes into more details? Is it hard to plan micro lectures with gestures for all subjects all day?

I wish the gestures board got some more activity.

If I understand your concern correctly, I think you're feeling nervous about having to come up with gestures for your lessons. I feel a bit nervous about that, too, as I don't consider myself a very creative/kinesthetic person. (This will be my first year trying WBT as well...)

Remember, though, that you can try as little, or as much of, WBT as you are comfortable with, and the gestures don't have to be elaborate. I don't think this is an all-or-nothing approach. I've seen many posts here where teachers have tried SOME WBT strategies last year, and plan on adding more this year. I think that goes for gestures as well. Use a few, or use a lot. It's up to you. I plan to focus my gesture-development on just a few key concepts to start with, then add more as I go. I have a feeling that the more I come up with, the more ideas I'll have for others.

Also, I don't plan to use gestures for everything.

For example, since I teach 9th grade Physics First, I'll use gestures for the following concepts:
- Scientific Method
* Observation (make "goggles" with hands around eyes - or maybe telescope?)
* Hypothesis (point to forehead and look up like I'm thinking)
* Experiment (pretend to pour from one test tube into another)
* Analysis (hold one hand palm up, and "punch" numbers into an imaginary calculator)
* Conclusion (rub chin like deep in thought, then smile and point in an "aha" way)

- Scientific Theory (BIG circle motion) vs. Scientific Law/Principle (smaller)
- Scientific Fact (two fingers coming togeter signifying agreement between two people)

I'm NOT planning to use gestures for Scientific Notation and the Metric System, because I have graphic organizers that I think will work better. (Of course, if I think of some appropriate gestures, I'll incorporate those, as well).

I guess what I'm saying is, don't psych yourself out. You didn't say what grade you teach, but if you teach "all subjects" I'm guessing you're elementary. In that case, why not just pick a few concepts for each subject area to start gestures with? As with anything new, some things/gestures will work better than others. And maybe your kids will help you come up with some ideas, too. I know my kids will really respond to the gestures, and especially to me breaking up my lectures (!). So, even if I don't "do" WBT perfectly, as long as it's "good enough" they WILL learn...

- Jen

Micro-lecture is not really that different from what you already do in a normal lecture. You are only going to break the lecture down into parts. Remember that you will lose the attention of more kids the longer you talk. Also keep in mind that most kids, or adults for that matter, cannot really keep more then three to five items in short term memory with much accuracy.

With these things in mind, plan to break your lecture into smaller more manageable sections. Try to lecture for no more than thirty seconds to two minutes. About a minut to ninety seconds works best.

So if you have a lecture planned that is going to take ten minutes, try and break it down into ten one minute segments. After each segment check for understanding by choosing a student, a different one each time, and ask them to repeat the most important point of the lecture. Prompt that with a question that highlights that piece of information. If they cannot do it, break the information into smaller pieces and have them repeat each part. When they get the whole thing right have the class give them a ten fingered woo.

Next have the class teach their partners the important point. If you want them to you can pause for a second and have them take that point as a note.

Move on to your next segment, and choose a different student to check learning.

That is the basic description for micro-lecture.

You can also use to to make points during a video, a lab or anything else where you want the whole class to learn an important point.

I hope that helped.

Thanks Jeff!

Start small. Pick one concept per day that you are going to create a gesture for. Teach it and have them do Teach/Okay. Then each day you review previous concepts. Pretty soon they will continue to come up on your activities and assignments and you can challenge your kids to remind you what the gestures are. As the year goes on, it will get easier.

flyingms2

This is a bit of topic as it pertains to the gestures in your post. There is another thread all about gestures and I did not see your Physics gestures there. I would cut an paste for you but don't know if that is okay on this forum. As it seems there is a lot of nervous energy about gestures adding your post to that thread might be helpful to others who don't come down this one.

Also, I very much like what you said about not pushing on the gestures. I am telling my teachers to do what comes naturally, involve the students to make stuff up, make it fun. I keep telling them that I am introducing WBT to the school to make life easier with less stress.

Jason