Last week's challenge was focused on attention getters. I did not do as well as I would have liked, but with the exception of Monday, I was able to get the goal of using attention getters at least 20 times a day. Friday I only ended up with 15, but we did have a two-hour early dismissal so I am still counting that as meeting the goal. I am hoping to step it up a little this week and have set a personal goal of using attention getters at least 30 times each day.
Week 2's challenge is focused on 100% Engagement; the video can be found here.
I'll start out with the three levels and then I will explain a little more in detail.
Rookie: use Mirror Words at least ten times a day
Pro: use Silent Mirrors at least ten times a day
All Star: use a mixture of Mirror Words, Silent Mirrors, and Magic Mirrors at least twenty times a day
Just like last week I will be keeping track of these with a tally sheet.
For those of you unfamiliar with WBT, let me start out with explaining what Mirror Words, Silent Mirrors, and Magic Mirrors are. For Mirror Words, you should say "Mirror Words" and hold up your hands. Students respond with "Mirror Words" and hold up their hands. They now will repeat after you and do the same motions as you. Silent Mirrors is done the same way except students do not repeat your words, just your motions. In Magic Mirrors, you put your hands behind your back and students create their own gestures for what you say.
Mirror Words (and the other variations) involves students' motor, visual, and auditory cortices, resulting in Whole Brain Learning. The best learning takes place when the motor cortex is activated. Everything is retained in our brain through the motor cortex.
Student do better with Teach Okay if they have practiced the gestures ahead of time by using Mirror Words.
Mirror Check should be performed every so often to make sure students are doing it properly. When you do a Mirror Check you say "Mirror Check" and then move your hands around wildly. Watch to make sure all students are following along.
Mirror Words is used to tell a story, describe a process, teach a state standard, for crowd control, or to wake up a sleepy class.
------------------------------------
This week I also tried out three other components of Whole Brain Teaching that I would like to share with you. They are both completely transforming my classroom. They are Genius Ladder, Crazy Professor Reading Game, and SuperSpeed Grammar. Stay tuned in the next couple of days to learn about these other Whole Brain Teaching strategies.
No comments:
Post a Comment