I will be teaching summer school for just one month this summer. It's only M-Th 8:30 - 1:00 - ALL literacy (YAY!!!). Just wondering if anyone had any experience with doing WBT for such a short amount of time?
I am thinking the first day we will do class/yes, scoreboard, and rules. By the 3rd day I'll have them paired and ready for Teach/Okay and mirror. I will just add in the gestures as we go.
Any insight would be great!

Hi Megan!
I have never taught a class for just one month, but......

I do teach Sunday school one Sunday a month, Children's Bible study once a week, and I have tutored a couple days a week after school (students who were not my own) for 2 months AND......

I found that WBT can work in any context, with any group, in any situation. I even brought it to South Africa and used it in an assembly to teach a rowdy crowd of 2nd~5th grade students about AIDS education! I am telling you~ because WBT utilizes effective, brain based strategies it will work in any teaching environment. It is just how the brain works! Our brain retains information that is chunked and that triggers the motor cortex (a part of the brain that processes movement~ so all the gesturing = success!!!)~ in fact~ it will store that information in long term memory (that's why we never forget how to ride a bike even though someone isn't drilling us on it everyday!!!).

SO my opinion (I'm sure you can guess) is DO IT! I know you will see success and will be happy you did!!!
Good luck~ and keep us posted!!!

Megan,

Like Andrea I have not personally used it for a one month type gig.

However, one of my teachers uses it on a regular basis in his off campus ESL classes teaching English. Those classes only last 6 weeks. He said that the kids love it and have much better retention etc. He keeps using it in the new classes each rotation.

Also, I used it at weekly one hour school assemblies for middle and high school before it was introduced in the classrooms. My part typically was about 10 to 15 minutes speaking as the principal. Of course it was abbreviated because I did not have the scoreboard or memorized gestures, but still the students caught on the first time I used it and were pretty good every time after that.

So based on my personal experience and that of my teachers, I would strongly recommend that you use WBT in you summer session.

And like Andrea said, please keep us posted on how it works for you.

I'm certainly looking forward to it. I have not looked into the literach ebooks yet as I'm really focused on my classroom management and routines/procedures. I think this summer would be a great time to really utilize the literacy strategies and games!

I absolutely agree!
The videos, ebooks and webinars will help guide you and get you going. Email me if you need anything and keep us posted

Megan,

Hey there girl!!! YES YES YES!!!! It can work! My very first experience with WBT was teaching summer school from 8 to 12 4 days a week the summer before I moved to kindergarten! It gave me a chance to really practice with a group that I didn't have to worry about messing up with ! Go for it girl! Take this opportunity to tweak it to your personality!

Let us know how it goes!

Farrah Shipley
Texas

Of course you can use it for one month of summery school! They catch on quickly.

Last year we were rotating our classes around for test reviews. We had each class for one hour. I used the class-yes and the scoreboard for that short amount of time.

My guess is that you probably won't want to spend so much time on some of the procedures (like practing lining up) but you can definitely incorporate the joys of WBT in summer school.