WBT During the First Week of School

I finally feel like I can breathe for a minute.
Maybe even two.

The first week was a doozie.  I've talked so much that my throat hurts.  Who's with me on that one?

I've enjoyed every minute of it.  Truly I have.  I'm not lying.  Swear.

Last year, I started implementing Whole Brain Teaching strategies (known henceforth as WBT...I'm so smart to have used such a big word.  Did I use it correctly?)

I really enjoy WBT.  I know that I've shared this video before, but it's worth a look-see:

I also love the video that Farrah Shipley posted.  Her blog is Mrs. Shipley's Fabulous Firsties and her video can be found at this post {here}.

Let me tell you how it works in my room.

First of all, I use five simple rules in my room. Here is a picture of my rules.  Click on it to make it larger.

(Sorry, I can't share these since I made them with Scrappin Doodles clip art and I don't have a license to share these as freebies. And, with WBT principles, I can't charge you for them, either.)  However, my friend Stephanie from 3rd Grade Thoughts has some excellent freebies {here}. 

I use movements to go with these rules similar to what you saw in the video above.  Since I am switching classes and teaching three periods of math, I go over these same rules with all three classes EVERY day.  It literally takes 15 seconds.  I know this, because I've reviewed the rules while watching the clock before starting our timed multiplication tests (more on that in a later post).

The fun part is using the attention getter, "Class, Yes".  It is amazing at how quickly they stop what they are doing to listen to what I have to say.  No more waiting for everyone to be quiet.  I have never been one to raise my voice to get their attention.  I used to say, "Clap two times if you can hear me."  But then, you have the noise of the clapping.  Some students say, "Clap, clap".  And so on......

With "Class, Yes", they never know what type of voice I will have when I say it.  It keeps all of us on our toes.  I love it.

I will say, though, that at first I felt a little awkward.  I thought other adults would walk by my room and think I was weird.  Well, I am a little.  Needless to say, if this works as beautifully as it has in the first week, I couldn't give a rip about what people think when they walk by.

It works.

I'm going to be sharing a lot more about WBT as the year progresses.  

Do you use WBT?  Do you have a favorite component?  I would love to hear how you use WBT methods in your room.  Leave me a comment below and feel free to link to a specific post.  I'd love to read what you might have posted about WBT.