First Two Weeks of Whole Brain Teaching

Sorry it has been a long time since I have posted.  I have had an idea of what I am going to say and have jotted those ideas down in a notebook, but I have not taken the time to write them out here.  That is why I am going to have several posts today. My goal is to post more frequently for the month of September.

My school year is unique in that we started in school with students on July 31st.  That is the first time in my educational career (both as a professional and as a student) that I have been in school in July.  I also volunteer with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, and the annual training was taking place August 7th - 10th.  That would be three days out of the classroom during the first full week of school.  Yikes!

I introduced the five classroom rules to my students the very first day of school.  We practiced them multiple times throughout the first day along with other classroom and school procedures.  Most of the kids participated enthusiastically. Some of them needed a little more work to get fully involved.  I also introduced Class? Yes! to my class on that first day.  I was pretty frustrated those first two days with the way it was going in my classroom.

It took the weekend to remind myself that it was only TWO days into the school year.  It is going to take more time to go smoothly.  I came back Monday morning refreshed and determined to make these things work.  And guess what?  They did!  The rules are going so smoothly now.  Students lead them every time we do them.  I love it!  If a student is breaking a rule, I just simply say, "Rule Number (insert rule number here)" and the students know exactly what I expect of them.  We are still very much a work in progress, but I am pleased with the progress so far!