Whole Brain Wednesday: Make it Your Own!

Today I want to share with you how you can make WBT your own!

I've shared in many posts the gestures my class has made up for different words. Such as this gesture we created for Author's message...

Or these gestures for story elements...

I want to share now what some of the first grade teachers in my building have created, making WBT their own after attending the 2 WBT workshops I did at my school!

One of the first grade teachers (Mrs. M) loved how the kiddos were getting right to it when using Teach, Okay and she wanted a way to connect this immediate turn & teach action with directions such as getting to work!
Teacher: *clap clap* Go get started!
Students: *clap clap* Okay!
And she tried it for lining up too!
Teacher: Let's get ready!
Students: Okay!
 Mrs. M said it has made a HUGE difference just by having the students give a verbal & physical response. They are reminded what they need to do and they get going immediately!

Mrs. M is also using capital letter, comma and end mark brainies when students read & write sentences during their phonics program (Fundations) to reinforce these important parts of sentences.

Another first grade teacher (Mrs. J) has created a list of "rewards" under the scoreboard as a reminder to students why they want to earn smilies! This is such a simple way to make WBT your own, but has been working wonders in her class... they REALLY want to be able to earn one of the choices on the board!
Some easy choices that you could include on a "if smilies win" chart are: extra brain break, chat time, around the world, game on the promethean/smart board (my kiddos love abcya.com), mind soccer (see WBT website), and ANYTHING else that is fun, motivating and only lasts a few minutes.

I hope you enjoyed another reason why I love WBT... you can make it your own and still be activating the WHOLE BRAIN and creating TEACHER HEAVEN!