I have heard folks concerned that using WBT will limit the amount of material you can cover effectively, or will slow you down. Let me give you a picture from my classroom for this week, the first full week of school. In this last week my kids have:

Learned the basic definition for science, and been able to compare and contrast what science can and cannot do.

Learned to distinguish between scientific law and scientific theory.

Learned definitions for the three main branches of science, taught their partners examples of areas of study in each branch, and learned to identify where more than one discipline overlaps in fields of study.

Learned to distinguish observation from inferences, where to use each one, and how inference is connected to writing a formal hypothesis.

Learned the uses of models, the three kinds of models used by scientists, and examples of each type of model.

They have learned to distinguish between dependent and independent variables, what a control is and how to establish a control.

They have also begun to learn the basics of formal hypotheses- finding a problem, how use and IF statement to connect dependent and independent variables, and how to make a prediction using a THEN statement.

Phew!

Does that seem like it limit what you can introduce?

Jeff,

Awesome post!!! Thanks for sharing what your students did this week!

Tiffany
WBT Intern, 2011-2012

I am finding that WBT is actuallly helping me cover more material, while being very efficient, with the Power Pic Wall. I almost have half of my Language Arts Power Pics up and we are only approaching the 4th week of school!:


Heather Hansen
Wbt Intern
2011/12

I also find that I am getting a quality out of my instruction that I didn't get before. Something I might have repeated and restated a few times, can instead be reinforced with a quick TEACH/OKAY. Also, I feel less obligated to make them take so many notes, because the TEACH/OKAY with gestures is really solidifying the definitions in their memory. This frees up that dead time when I was waiting for them to copy something down. Then I can rehearse that definition w/ gestures again on other days to make sure it's sticking. Because really -- how many of my 7th graders are really going to look back at those definitions in their notes anyway!