I am so excited by Whole Brain Teaching. I have been using it for about one year now.
It works so well with challenging students. I love the idea that I always have a plan in mind and that I have many possibilities to use. My students love Whole Brain Teaching!
The other teachers in my school are always asking about it and they want to come to see it happening in class.
The principal has even used class-yes to get the staff meetings to come to order!
It really makes the days of teaching so much more enjoyable. When I am presenting something that classes over the years have groaned at, it still surprises me as the students respond with "Oh, yeah!" I can't believe how much it changes everyone's attitude toward school and learning.
My favorite experience was having the students rub their hands together and say, "Oh, sweet moma, I just can't wait to take the NECAP test (our state standards test) in math!"
All of the visitors to our room laugh with us when I say, "Give me a ha-ha-ha!" and the kids and I all smile as they give it to me. The visitors always smile, too.

Sounds awesome! What do you use the "Ha Ha Ha" for? Just anything that was funny?

I use it when we all need a smile.
Sometimes a child will try to get me engaged in a power struggle where I have given directions, the members of the class are all following and he/she is waiting, not following. Some students may have, on their own not wanting me to have to talk about GUFF, put their hands up and said, "Stop that"! to him/her. Yet he/she is wanting a power struggle. This little laugh can get him/her back on track and following directions.
At other times it helps students to give all of their attention to me. After a class-yes, we do a ha-ha-ha similar to hands and eyes. I do not know if I am really following a Whole Brain Teaching way of using this. I have not been trained, but I have watched all of videos online and read everything that I could find online. I thought about flying to a seminar, however I have not been able to yet.

busybeec, I like to use the "oh, oh, ooohhhh" as a way to say to my students, I've just connected things in the lesson that should tie something together for you. Kind of like an "a ha!" moment. I immediately follow that up with "teach/ok" to support any students who were not paying attention during that brief micro-lecture. I find it's really effective to support those all important, you must understand this, parts of a lesson.

Your use of this Oh-Oh-OHHH is great! Thanks for sharing that it is kind of like thinking aloud and letting students know that we learn best when we connect our new learning to what we already know!
I must admit that I love Whole Brain Teaching, but I do not understand the "why". I think that as I understand the "why" better, then I am better able to implement Whole Brain Teaching from online reading.

busybeec wrote:

Is there anything specifically that you want some clarification of the "why" on?

jwhicks727 and everyone, I am just interested in learning all that I can.
Recently we change the ha-ha-ha to a whinny because the children were reading a text where the unicorn whinnied goodnight and they kept reading it as whined. So now we use a whinny like a ten finger toot, to give someone recognition for a good answer/thought.