Hello!

I will be a first year teacher this year at a school in which 63% of students are economically disadvantaged. I went to CAMT a few weeks ago and attended a conference about Whole Brain Teaching, and I am HOOKED! I am very excited about starting the year, but I have a few questions about how to implement WBT in my 8th grade math classroom. I will have my students for 45 minutes ever day, and because of this schedule I was hoping for some suggestions for what I should introduce and when I should introduce it. I have looked over WholeBrainTeaching.com and found some very helpful videos, but I was also wondering if anyone had suggestions for math gestures for 8th grade math as well as Algebra I. Also if anyone has any general advice for a new teacher trying to implement Whole Brain Teaching, I am MORE than open to new ideas to make my first year a successful one.

Thank you!

Whitney

Congratulations on your first year teaching and on implementing WBT. Keep reading through the website and the forum. There are a lot of teachers here to help you. Since you only have the students for 40 minutes, make sure you implement your classroom rules and scoreboard. For other advice with 8th grade, look under specific grade levels. Angela M has a lot of great ideas on the secondary level. She will be able to help you with power pic for your grade level. Good luck with your first year! Keep us posted on how it goes!

Rebecca Crooks
WBT Intern
2011-12

Whitney,

Start out with Class-Yes, the Five Rules and the Scoreboard Game, and then introduce other elements as you become familiar and comfortable with them.

Remember that the average young person's effective attention span is about equivalent to their age. Think about segmenting your class into ten minute segments, each focused on a different activity. The lesson you are trying to teach can be the same, but try to vary the activity itself to regain their attention.

Remember to use verbal hooks frequently to refocus their attention- "give me an 'oh man!'"; "gimme a mathematically cool!" and so on.

When you use class-yes try not to say it the same way twice in a row. It takes more practice than you would think.

Look into the Five Point Lesson Models you can find here.

Above all, remember that you do not have to be perfect! If things do not work the way you thought they would take a step back and analyze what happened. Why did it not work? What could you change to make it even better even if it did work.