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Teachers and students use the "Super Improver Wall" to keep track of improving scores, behaviors, etc.

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What are the different strategies to keep students engaged?

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Will Whole Brain Teaching help me improve the performance of the students in my classroom during math time?

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Incorporating ways to get students excited about math.

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1. Be an example

Many adults say they hated math in school, according to national polls. If you are one of them, be careful that you don't communicate that attitude to your child. Help him improve his attitude toward math by showing him that you are confident when completing routine tasks like counting money from a school fund-raiser, balancing your checkbook or completing your tax return. You can also point out the importance of math in different professions including architecture, medicine, fashion design, restaurant management and computer programming.

2. Help your child use math every day

Encourage your child to solve problems involving math outside of school. In the grocery store, ask her to figure out the price of four cans of tuna fish. In the car, ask her how long it will take to travel to your destination based on your speed. In the toy store, ask her to calculate the price of a discounted toy and how long it will take to save up her allowance to buy it.

3. Familiarize yourself with learning standards

It's important to know what math skills your child should learn in his current grade. You can access the learning standards for your child's grade on the Web site for your state department of education or ask your child's teacher to outline them for you. If you know what your child will be learning, it will be easier to complement those skills with activities at home.

4. Monitor your child's math homework

Do your child's math assignments only call for rote work or does the teacher include a creative "problem of the week" that tests students' understanding of mathematical concepts? Ask your child's teacher which techniques he uses to help students become more comfortable with math.

5. Pay attention to details

You can help your child with math homework by making sure she shows all her work when solving equations and checks for correct calculations and answers. It's a good idea to limit distractions and set aside the same time every day for homework.

6. Play math games at home

There are many games your child can play that involve math. Beginning in the elementary years, students can learn to enjoy math by playing games such as chess, dominoes, cribbage, checkers, Yahtzee and backgammon.

7. Read books that incorporate math

More and more schools are starting to integrate diverse subject areas in the curriculum so that students can make clearer connections. But how do you include math in a history or English class? One way is to read books in which the main characters solve a problem using math or logic. Examples include One Hundred Angry Ants by Ellinor J. Pinczes, The King's Commissioners by Aileen Friedman and Socrates and the Three Little Pigs by Tuyosi Mori.

The bottom line

We naturally encourage our children to read, write and speak outside of school, but often leave learning math skills to 45 minutes a day in the classroom. Like everything else, your child's skills and confidence in working with mathematical concepts will improve with daily practice, support and encouragement.

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7 secrets to get your child excited about math | Parenting

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Many adults say they hated math in school, according to national polls. If you are one of them, be careful that you don't communicate that attitude to your child. Help him improve his attitude toward math by showing him that you are confident when completing routine tasks like counting money from a school fund-raiser, balancing your checkbook or completing your tax return.

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The study of Neuroscience and how it effects teaching

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Even though I was a physician with a strong science background, when I decided to become a classroom teacher (and thought I'd teach science), I did not want to make that career change without the benefit of instruction and guided student teaching. The year I spent in my graduate school of education program was invaluable in my transition to becoming a professional educator.

Curriculum in schools of education has changed in response to changes in society, pedagogy and technology. As computer technology became an asset in classrooms, schools of education appropriately included that instruction in the curriculum. Many states made similar education program curriculum adaptations in response to multiculturism, increases in English language learners, and the use of the concrete-connect-abstract progression in math instruction.

Now that the neuroscience research implications for teaching are also an invaluable classroom asset, it is time for instruction in the neuroscience of learning to be included as well in professional teacher education.

Neuroscience Knowledge Strengthens the Lifeline

For today's students, educators are the lifeline they need to climb for access to the playing fields of 21st century opportunity, open only to those who acquire the necessary skillsets. Teachers who are prepared with knowledge of the workings of the brain will have the optimism, incentive and motivation to follow the ongoing research, and to apply their findings to the classroom. These teachers can help all children build their brain potential -- regardless of past performance -- bridge the achievement gap, and reach their highest 21st century potential starting now.

One example is the research about the brain's neuroplasticity and the opportunities we have as educators to help students literally change their brains -- and intelligence. To become a teacher without understanding the implications of brain-changing neuroplasticity is a great loss to teachers and their future students.

Beyond understanding the brain's neuroplastic response to stimulation -- how activation and use of memory networks makes them stronger -- future teachers need to recognize how stress inhibits neuroplasticity. It is only when information is processed in the brain's reflective, cognitive prefrontal cortex that new learning can be incorporated into networks of long-term, conceptual memory.

Seeing neuroimaging scans of students during stress states, such as those that build up with sustained or frequent boredom (information already mastered; no evident relevance) or frustration (repeated past failures in subject), offer powerful insights into the importance of classroom climate and differentiation of instruction. These scans reveal the increased metabolic state that blocks processing in the highest brain (prefrontal cortex; PFC) when this boredom or frustration alienates students from instruction. The amygdala is the switching station that, when hyperactive in response to high stress, switches input and output away from the PFC and down to the control of the lower, reactive brain. Behavior reactive responses from the lower brain are the involuntary survival responses of fight/flight/freeze (act out/zone out).

What Triggers Student Behavior

As students' stressors build, loss of information access to the PFC for memory construction means new learning is not retained. The lost communication from the PFC emotional control networks to the lower brain means the lower brain's reactive behaviors are in control. These students and uninformed teachers come to believe that nothing better can be expected. Students develop the fixed mindset in which the brain's primitive survival networks restrict effort toward goals that, by experience, are not expected to be reached.

Teachers who understand this neurological consequence of the brain's programmed response to stress can change the educational and life outcomes for students who have been blamed and punished for unintentional acting out or zoning out. When teachers know about the brain's reactions to the stressors that promote the low brain control state of involuntary, reactive behavior, they become more aware of how much they can influence students' successful brain processing. When they understand that the brain responses in the high-stress state are neither voluntary student choices nor reflective of a student's academic potential, knowledgeable teachers recognize that their interventions can reduce stress, return students' voluntary control of their behavior, and promote successful memory construction and cognitive processing in the PFC.

When new teachers understand how they have the capacity to reduce the stress of frustration or boredom by providing all students with opportunities to learn at their appropriate level of achievable challenge, their motivation will increase with the expectation of success. As we know, it does take dedication, motivation and lots of time to achieve the often onerous task of differentiation for all students. The background knowledge of neuroscience provides that extra motivation.

Bringing Neuroscience into Education

There are no more critical life supports than passionate, informed teachers who can resuscitate students' joyful learning. When educators learn about how the brain appears to process, recognize, remember and transfer information at the level of neural circuits, synapses and neurotransmitters, and when they share that knowledge with students, they share empowerment with their students. Informed teachers help students understand their ability to change their brains and experience success and renewed confidence. Students thrive in classrooms where teachers have the added tools from their neuroscience understanding. The result is nothing less than reigniting the joys of learning, even when they have been extinguished for years.

The most valuable assets for improving education won't be developed in a neuroimaging laboratory. It will be educators, with the foundational knowledge about the science of learning, who will be prepared to evaluate the validity and potential educational correlations from neuroscience research. These teachers will be the front line professionals who will recognize potential applications of laboratory research and develop the strategies that bring the benefits of this research to their students.

Frontloading is More Critical Than Ever

If you've read this far, you have probably developed your foundation of the neuroscience of learning knowledge through professional development, reading or professional learning communities in your schools. Sadly, those opportunities are increasingly limited for new teachers.

With decreased funds for substitute coverage, professional development conferences, consultants and prep time, it is becoming more difficult for teachers to access new topics of expertise after leaving schools of education. There is also the problem of integrating new learning into the classroom without guidance and feedback. The time for future teachers to build the foundations of neuroscience knowledge is during their studies and supervised teaching experiences while they are in schools of education.

The future developments in neuroscience, with the most extensive and useful classroom applications, will likely arise from input that educators provide to scientists. When experience reveals particular strategies as repeatedly successful, classroom-to-research lab channels will be open for teachers to suggest investigations into what is happening in the brain in response to those conditions. Through this collaboration, their observations about what works for their students will feed neuroscience research. As the data is analyzed, replicated, applied and adapted, and as strategies become even more effective, what started as a teacher's observations will be disseminated to benefit students worldwide. After all, isn't sharing what we teachers do so well?

References

Eisenhart, M., & DeHaan, R.L. (2005). Doctoral preparation of scientifically based educational researchers. Educational Researcher, 34(4): 3-13.

NCATE report recommended instruction in developmental and cognitive psychology and neuroscience in teacher education as having beneficial effects on teachers and students.

Links to additional information about the neuroscience of learning

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A Neurologist Makes the Case for Teaching Teachers About the Brain | Edutopia

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Even though I was a physician with a strong science background, when I decided to become a classroom teacher (and thought I'd teach science), I did not want to make that career change without the benefit of instruction and guided student teaching.

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Great article on Kinesthetic teaching through the use of creative movement.

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First Person

I specialize in kinesthetic teaching, the use of creative movement in the classroom to teach across the curriculum. My techniques, in which I have trained hundreds of classroom teachers, release students from a passive learning posture—glued to their seats, dissociated, with decreased oxygen in their brains—and engage them physically and creatively with what they are learning. Simply by getting students out of their seats, we encourage new levels of self-discovery and self-expression. And by letting students experience the curriculum through their bodies, we help them make deeper emotional, interpersonal, and kinesthetic connections to academic subjects.

According to Harvard Medical School's Professor John Ratey, in a 2008 Education Week article, physical exercise "puts the brain of the learners in the optimal position for them to learn." My methods build upon this observation by bringing physical movement into the classroom and connecting it directly to the content of the curriculum. Imagine, for example, students sitting at a desk and listening to a teacher expound on a topic with a certain amount of dialogue, questions, and answers. Think about how much brain activity is being generated. Now imagine those students working with their classmates: figuring out how to show the causes of the American Revolution through whole body shapes; climbing into the skin of a literary character or improvising a creative-movement response to a plot element; enacting a journey through the water cycle; or arranging themselves as solid, liquid, and gas molecules to demonstrate density.

Such experiential learning can apply to math, science, history, literature, punctuation, grammar, and a range of other curricular subjects. By creating a rich contextual environment, kinesthetic learning constructs memories connected to time, place, and emotions, which we call episodic encoding. Students activate and integrate physical, emotional, and cognitive responses to what they are learning, making learning more meaningful. As neurophysiologist Carla Hannaford says in her book, Smart Moves: Why Learning is Not All in Your Head, "Movement anchors thought."

A Lifeline to Students

Often, children who have trouble reading or remembering information can increase self-confidence by learning through the body. It's not unusual for a class hierarchy to get reshuffled in the course of kinesthetic lessons, allowing such children to shine, which can have immediate carryover into other classroom activities. Success in the realm of creative movement grounds their understanding, so that communicating with words becomes less challenging. One teacher from Hudson, N.Y., described two boys who never raised their hands in class. During energetic sessions, they:

... smile, stay glued to the story, and interpret the character's feelings and actions with grace and creativity. They even volunteer to verbally respond to questions about the story. I think it is because they feel so grounded in their physical experience of listening through their bodies that they have a new confidence.

By teaching through the universal language of movement, we can offer a chance for real success to children who may be caught in a spiral of academic failure. At the very least, kinesthetic teaching throws a lifeline to kinesthetic learners, who often can't sit still and are seen as disruptive or learning disabled. Allowing these students to become leaders can strengthen the learning community of the whole class.

By working together creatively—constructing a tableau (a group body sculpture) or a piece of choreography, for example—students acquire many skills they will need to be successful adults. They learn about communication and teamwork, giving and taking, leading and following, taking risks, being accountable, and giving and receiving affirmation. They learn about their individual responsibility for a successful group effort, and the role the group must play in supporting the needs of individuals. This also helps build a genuine learning community, as students become invested in the process and the product. In short, people who create and perform together simply feel a stronger bond than individuals who sit in separate seats facing a teacher.

In a traditional classroom, when a teacher asks a question, "Who can tell me ... ?" usually four or five hands go up. The teacher will call on one student, and perhaps on another few to see if their answers agree with the first, but the teacher will have no way of knowing what is going on in the heads of the other 20 students.

The kinesthetic teacher has a different approach. "Show me ... " Twenty-five students are being asked to respond physically to the question: Show me what comes first, the comma or the closed quotation mark. Show me if this is a series or parallel circuit. Show me an animal that lives in the rainforest; show me how the character feels just before the story's climax. Immediately, all of the students respond, and their learning is made visible. They have to think about what they are going to do, and literally take a stand. If they want to change their answer, they don't have to erase anything, they just change their pose. Rather than calling attention to the "mistake," the focus is on the "re-take," which lessens the fear of failure that is so prevalent among students today—and teachers can give immediate feedback to students (formative assessment) rather than waiting for a weekly or unit test.

For the sake of awakening and engaging our students in today's stressful, high-stakes academic climate, teachers can find new inspiration by embracing kinesthetic teaching. They need not be dancers or even comfortable with their bodies in order to use kinesthetic techniques effectively; they need only learn how to recognize the links between curriculum and creative movement, and then ask their students to embody learning.

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The Power of Movement in Teaching and Learning

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First Person I specialize in kinesthetic teaching, the use of creative movement in the classroom to teach across the curriculum. My techniques, in which I have trained hundreds of classroom teachers, release students from a passive learning posture-glued to their seats, dissociated, with decreased oxygen in their brains-and engage them physically and creatively with what they are learning.

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A good insight on why some students are failing math.

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As sure as one plus one equals two, it happens year after year. Kids who have been bringing home A's in chemistry and acing AP Calculus arrive at college with visions of STEM careers dancing in their heads. Then they hit an invisible, but very painful, wall.

According to research from the University of California, Los Angeles, as many as 60 percent of all college students who intend to study a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) subject end up transferring out. In an era when politicians and educators are beside themselves with worry over American students' lagging math and science scores compared to the whiz kids of Shanghai and Japan, this attrition trend so troubles experts it has spawned an entire field of research on "STEM drop-out," citing reasons from gender and race to GPAs and peer relationships.

One theory for the STEM exodus is that American students aren't getting a good foundation in math - a necessary skill in many scientific and technical curricula. After all, about a third of American high school seniors don't score proficient in math. But here's the kicker: STEM attrition rates are even higher at the most selective colleges - like the Ivy Leagues - places where kids need killer AP scores and grades just to get in.

So why do even the most accomplished students burn out of STEM programs when they hit college? One recent article in the New York Times explored possible reasons - from the alluring grade inflation in the arts and humanities, to what one engineering professor characterized as the boring, largely theoretical "math-science death march" of first-year requirements.

That may explain the phenomenon, at least in part. But math experts around the country point to another culprit. Richard Rusczyk, a former Math Olympiad winner and the founder of the online math program Art of Problem Solving, is part of a group of math educators who sees the mystery of the disappearing STEM major from a different angle. It's not that kids aren't getting enough math, they say, but that we're teaching K-12 math all wrong.

Rusczyk's insight is based on a phenomenon he witnessed firsthand when he arrived at Princeton University and began studying math alongside kids who had attended the most prestigious high schools in the country. "These were kids who had never gotten anything but 95s and 100s on their tests and suddenly they were struggling and were getting 62s on tests and they decided they weren't any good [at math]," he explains.

Next page: a math reality check

Call it the mathematical reality check. Suddenly, Rusczyk recalls, formerly accomplished students were faced with a new idea: that math required more than rote learning - it required creativity, grit, and strenuous mental gymnastics. "They had been taught that math was a set of destinations and they were taught to follow a set of rules to get to those places," he recalls. "They were never taught how to read a map, or even that there is a map."

Indeed, traditional math curriculum is to teach discrete algorithms, a set of rules that elicit a correct answer, like how to do long division, say, or how to use the Pythagorean theorem. Then students "learn" the material by doing a large quantity of similar problems. The result, says Rusczyk, is that students are rarely asked to solve a problem they are not thoroughly familiar with. Instead, they come to think of math as a series of rules to be memorized. The trouble is kids don't necessarily learn how to attack a new or different kind of equation.

Rusczyk watched many of his fellow students, long accustomed to being "quick studies," as they soured on math after experiencing what they perceived as failure. They quit - transferring their hopes and dreams to a less numerically challenging field like sociology or graphic design.

Rusczyk, in contrast, felt far more prepared when faced with a problem he didn't know how to solve. Despite having attended what he characterizes as an average public school without a lot of advanced math classes, he had participated in math clubs and contests. In math clubs, he'd become accustomed to facing harder, multifaceted problems where the right approach wasn't immediately apparent.

Math as problem solving

Instead of just learning how to follow rules, he explains, "In math competitions, I learned how to solve problems that I hadn't seen before." Instead of math becoming something he accomplished in return for a perfect score, he came to see math as problem solving - an exciting pleasure that was a distant relation to the rote drudgery of memorizing algorithms.

When Rusczyk looked around him, he noticed a pattern. His classmates who had experienced this kind of difficult problem solving - usually in after-school math clubs - could survive the transition to college math. The ones who had only been exposed to traditional math curriculum, the ones who, as Rusczyk puts it, have experienced the "tyranny of 100%" - gave up too easily because they thought if they weren't getting top scores, they weren't meant to do math. "Suddenly, a solid B was a 40%, the top grade [was] an 82%, the next 68%, and no one is getting a 100%," he recalls. "But they didn't know this." Rusczyk realized that these kids had been dealt a bad hand: "They were taught [math] is a set of facts, not a process."

These fundamental ideas - that math isn't about following rules but about solving problems, that math means fun mental struggle, not boring rote learning - forms the basis of his online math school and curriculum, which currently includes pre-algebra though calculus and one year (third grade) of his new elementary school program, Beast Academy. Unlike traditional math curriculum, The Art of Problem Solving books first give kids problems (not the explanation for how to solve them) and leading questions to get them to struggle with the ideas a little before they are given the foolproof algorithm.

His programs are designed for gifted math students, but he claims his ideas could help all kids, gifted or not. His observations offer a solution for parents who want to help their children keep those STEM doors of opportunity open. To this end, he has a clear message to parents assessing their child's math experience. What should kids be learning about math? For younger children, it's important to give them a love for math - just as we try to give kids a love for reading.

Math that's a challenge

"Kids smell fear," he says. "And many elementary school teachers love reading but not math." Once kids get older, don't be afraid to push your child in a program that challenges him. "It's supposed to be hard - if you're getting 98% in a class... it may be too easy."

He also recommends that parents look outside the classroom to provide the best place to challenge kids. "Math competitions, summer programs, math circles (programs which offer challenging math in non-judgmental environments) - whatever you can find that will give your kids a taste of why math can be fun."

Finally, and most importantly, Rusczyk wants parents to give kids more time to explore their passions. "It's terrible. Kids are so overscheduled - there's AP this AP that - they're doing all this garbage that doesn't serve them in the long run."

Rusczyk cautions that kids who love math and science often end up filling up their time with AP classes that aren't central to their aspirations but more focused on GPA calculations (like AP Art History), and shortchange themselves when it comes to exploring math and science learning outside the classroom.

In the end, the skills required to solve a complex problem - to break the problem down into smaller parts, to approach it from different angles using different methods, to not getting intimidated or frustrated when the path isn't obvious - are practical in any field of endeavor - from astrophysics to er, parenting. Ideally, math prepares kids to be better thinkers no matter where they land. For now, parents can use these skills to fill in their children's math deficiencies, one problem at a time.
Next article: 7 ways to get your child excited about math

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Why our smartest students are failing math

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As sure as one plus one equals two, it happens year after year. Kids who have been bringing home A's in chemistry and acing AP Calculus arrive at college with visions of STEM careers dancing in their heads. Then they hit an invisible, but very painful, wall.

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Whole Brain Teaching in the Philippines

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Whole Brain Teaching Effects self-concept

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This study done by Jessie Fishel (2011), discusses the importance of engagement through active learning.  This study compares the differences and results of active and passive learning.

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Dear readers, This year, the topic of my research project was prompted by two youtube videos I stumbled upon in August. As I was setting things up for this classroom, I was youtubing videos...

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I can articulate the research behind the techniques in Whole Brain Teaching and state why these techniques, according to research, work in the classroom. What's my goal??? Technique: Teach-Okay! Technique: Switch Why does Whole Brain Teaching work? Technique: Class-Yes! The primary attention-getter activates the prefrontal cortex, often called the CEO of the brain. The prefrontal cortex controls, among other functions, decision making, planning and focus of attention. Little, if any, learning can take place if the prefrontal cortex is not engaged. Brain and learning research indicates that students learn the most when they are engaged in teaching each other. By emphasizing energetic, instructional gesturing, we engage, during teach-okay sessions, five of students' most powerful brain areas: visual cortex (seeing gestures), motor cortex (making gestures), Broca's area (verbalizing a lesson), Wernicke's area (hearing a lesson), and the limbic system (giving emotional content to a lesson).

Additionally, learning research indicates that teachers, as a general rule, TALK TOO LONG! The longer we talk, the more students we lose.

Short term memory for most people is limited to 3 to 7 items. As new information is added to short term memory, recently acquired information is dropped. You can only fill the cup so full and then it overflows. Your students have small cups! What we do in Whole Brain Teaching is talk in shorter chunks- thirty seconds to one minute. We focus our lessons into groups of two, three or at most four points. We are teaching to short term memory, a small cup, which quickly fills. Teaching for shorter periods of time and presenting fewer points, takes some practice ... but it is easier than it seems. Some students talk easily, often too easily! Other students fall into the role of passive listeners. In terms of brain structure, classes are often divided between those who are Brocaians (speakers) and Wernikites (listeners). By using Switch, an instructor can easily teach listening skills to the speakers and speaking skills to the listeners. Technique: Hands and Eyes When we are making an important point, we want students to focus intensely on what we are saying. In the hands of a practiced WBT instructor, Hands and Eyes creates instant silence, eliminating all learning distractions. The prefrontal cortex takes control of brain activity focusing the visual cortex and the auditory cortex on the lesson at hand. Whenever you want your students to pay close attention to an important point, say, "Hands and eyes!" Your students respond, "hands and eyes!," fold their hands and stare at you intensely. When I say 'Class!' and the students say 'Yes!' They have to say it the way I said it. If I say 'Classity-class-class!' they have to say 'Yessity-yes-yes!'. If I say it loudly, they have to respond loudly. If I whisper, they respond in a whisper. They have to match my tone and intensity. You want students to do a large amount of the teaching. Present a small amount of information, complete with gestures. When you finish, look at the class and clap two times, say "Teach!" Your students clap twice and respond "OK!" When you are using Teach-Okay you'll notice that you have some students who are chronic talkers and some are chronic listeners. We want the talkers to learn to listen and the listeners to come out of their shells and talk! This is where the Switch command comes in handy. Technique: Mirror As students imitate your motions, their motor cortex, the brain's most reliable memory area, is automatically engaged. Use mirror when telling a story, giving directions, describing the steps in a procedure, demonstrating a process ... anytime you want your class locked in to what you are saying. Mirror is one of WBT's simplest and most powerful techniques. You say "mirror" and your students respond "mirror." They then pick up their hands ready to mimic your gestures. Research Studies San Jacinto, CA
98% Free and Reduce Lunch
80% Hispanic
12% increase in reading achievement in 3 months as compared to non-Whole Brain Teaching settings Detroit, Michigan
50% decrease in negative student behavior between pre-observation to post-observation More research available on the Whole Brain Teaching website

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I can articulate the research behind the techniques in Whole Brain Teaching and state why these techniques, according to research, work in the classroom. What's my goal??? Technique: Teach-Okay! Technique: Switch Why does Whole Brain Teaching work? Technique: Class-Yes! The primary attention-getter activates the prefrontal cortex, often called the CEO of the brain.

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The author discusses the importance of limiting the amount of lecture time to one minute to accommodate the attention span for young learners

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RACINE - When Heidi Treffert begins a lesson to her first-grade class at Goodland Elementary School, 4800 Graceland Blvd., she gives herself no more than a minute to talk.

Explaining the concept with hand gestures for certain words that students repeat, she ends the introduction with a clap and says "teach," to which the students unanimously respond "OK." They turn to each other in pairs and begin repeating the concept back to their partner using the same gestures.

"The longer you speak, the more students you lose," Treffert said after a lesson.

She was citing a key tenet of "whole brain teaching," a teaching methodology she has been implementing in her classroom over the course the past year, especially during the last semester.

During that time, she said that her students have been better behaved, more engaged in class and covering material much more quickly than before.

"We've gotten a lot farther this year than I got by the end of the year last year, and it's only Christmas," Heffert said of her class' progress. "That's why I believe in it so much, and I just want to keep learning more about it and show people about it, because this class to me just looks so amazing; they're always on, they're always into it."

Staying actively engaged

The crux of the method is that children remember concepts more effectively when they are actively engaging in the material - not when they are sitting and passively listening to a lecture.

To facilitate fuller student engagement, the method uses hand gestures that denote certain concepts, Heffert explained. In reading lessons, these hand gestures can signify punctuation, like commas or periods, or terms, such as "and," "because" or "if ... then ..."

After repeating the concept as a class, the students then turn to each other and "teach" or practice in pairs. Heffert said she typically pairs a stronger student with a struggling peer. Then, some students apply the lesson in front of the class and briefly re-teach the concept to the entire class.

"Those kids are only 7 or 8 years old and all of them can teach each other the concepts, so that's pretty amazing," said Jeremy Benishek, professional development supervisor at Goodland.

Benishek started at Goodland last summer as part of the extra resources invested in the school when it was designated as a "priority school" by the state on account of low student performance.

Explaining that objectives are posted in each classroom to remind students of their goals, Benishek noted that students in other classrooms often cannot remember these objectives when asked, but Treffert's students can.

"Anybody in that class can teach anybody else what they're learning and they can refer to the objectives that are posted in the back of the room," he said.

Impressive progress

Heffert began using whole brain teaching at the start of second semester last year, the middle of her second year as a teacher and at Goodland. She primarily began using the "classroom management" portion as a way to handle poor behavior and brash disobedience among students.

Within a couple months, she said students who had been walking out of the room during class were willingly coming back into class and participating.

In September, she decided to use whole brain teaching in her classroom even more and has found that her students are covering far more material than last year. She pointed in particular to how she had planned for the students to be able to articulate a five-sentence paragraph by the end of the school year, but they did it by October.

"They're getting the commas, they're getting the punctuation, the capital letters," she said. "I've been really impressed with how it's been working in here this year."

Still working to improve her use of whole brain teaching in the classroom, she attended a conference on whole brain teaching over the summer and interned with another teacher more experienced with the method.

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Teacher uses 'whole brain teaching' method to engage

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RACINE - When Heidi Treffert begins a lesson to her first-grade class at Goodland Elementary School, 4800 Graceland Blvd., she gives herself no more than a minute to talk. Explaining the concept with hand gestures for certain words that students repeat, she ends the introduction with a clap and says "teach," to which the students unanimously respond "OK."

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The main focus is on the techniques used to exercise the five parts of the brain that are important for learning.

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The class yes, the teach OK and the scoreboard

In an article which I wrote for ajarn.com I introduced a wonderful system of teaching called "Whole Brain Teaching" (WBT) in which I outlined the fundamental techniques it uses. For those of you who have not read the article, WBT is a pedagogical approach which is based on current research into brain activity and how we learn. Not specific but very applicable to EFL , WBT uses techniques which activate both hemispheres of the brain - thus it is a "Whole Brain" approach.

Traditionally education has focused on right brain activity - the reasoning, rational part of the brain. WBT techniques seek to make connections between this rational part of the brain and the left side of the brain which is concerned with creative activity . It is being proven more and more that an approach which integrates these two different activities of the brain leads to far more effective teaching. We will today look at three of the most basic techniques involved in WBT: "THE CLASS-YES", "THE TEACH-OK", and "THE SCOREBOARD". These are three amazingly simple techniques you can quickly learn and immediately use to greatly improve your effectiveness as a teacher.

What makes them especially useful in ESL classes is it gets the students talking in English , which is often problematic, especially here in Thailand. It is not necessary to implement all of the WBT techniques at once. You can choose to use just a few techniques,. I have however found the more techniques you use the better you and your students' performance will be.

It is important to note that of course when introducing a new technique to class that they understand what is expected of them. In addition you have to practice the procedures with them and get them to the point where they can do what you tell them on command. It doesn't take too long. . Depending on your level of Thai you may at times need somebody to explain to the class in Thai what it is they are required to do. The directions are basically like rules to a game. WBT is very big on rules and has easy ways to get students to comply with them.

TECHNIQUE ONE: THE "CLASS-YES" - "PLUG" YOUR BRAIN INTO THE BRAINS OF YOUR STUDENTS.

The prefrontal cortex is nicknamed the "CEO" by scientists who do research into the human brain . It controls decision making, planning and is also responsible for the focusing of attention. The "CLASS-YES' works like this: The teacher makes a decision to get the class's attention. To do this the teacher is activating his/her prefrontal cortex by using the decision making function of that part of the brain. The teacher then says "CLASS" and the students respond by saying "YES" in unison. The students must say "YES" in the same tone of voice and in the same way that the teacher says "CLASS" - this is crucial.

So if the teacher says "CLASS CLASS' in a high whiny tone the students respond "YES YES" in a high whiny tone. The students, by mimicking the tone of the teachers voice, have now activated their own prefrontal cortexes by using its focusing mechanism. In a very literal sense the teacher's brain is now "plugged into" the students' brain. The "CEO" of teacher's brain, exercising its decision making capacity, now has the attention of and is ready to instruct the "CEO" of the students' brains, which are utilizing its focusing mechanism.

It is fundamentally the same type of relationship that would exist, at that moment, between the CEO of Pepsico and the CEO of KFC. (Pepsi owns KFC and I assume KFC takes direction form the parent company). The technique can be understood as a brain switch which readies the students for instruction. In Whole Brain teaching classrooms it is used whenever the teacher needs the class's attention, which is of course quite often. This technique, like almost all WBT techniques,can be used from kindergarten to university and with adult classes. With children in addition to being a "brain preper" for instruction it an indispensable tool for classroom management.

TECHNIQUE TWO: THE "TEACH- OK" - TEACHING ISN'T JUST FOR TEACHERS

Some of us may have come to Thailand just a bit unclear on the differences between the Present Perfect and Past Simple tenses, or between First and Third Conditional. I know I did. I also know that I could now tell you about fundamental English grammar in my sleep and I am sure, at least hope, that everyone reading this who has taught English for a few years can as well.

How did you learn this grammar so thoroughly? . You did it by teaching. This is the main idea behind the next crucial technique of WBT- the "TEACH-OK". Research has shown, not surprisingly really, that students learn best when actively engaged in the teaching process. When students , using energetic gesturing, reteach to their partner what the teacher has just taught them they are activating five parts of the brain important to learning : the visual cortex (seeing gestures), motor cortex (making gestures), Broca's area (verbalizing), Wernickes area (hearing) and the limbic system (giving emotional content). I will number the steps of the ""TEACH OK" to hopefully make it easier to understand and use.

STEP ONE - Divide your classes into pairs. You will want to group weaker students with stronger ones. I think two is the ideal number but if you have an odd number of students you will have to have at least one group of three. In this case put the best student in the class with the two who need the most help and ask the best student to take special care of the group. I have found that at first you may need several groups of three students if stronger students are hard to come by. However as time passes and you continue to implement WBT, you will see a more uniform level in your students ability. This is due to the fact you will be getting almost 100 per cent participation and the students lagging behind will begin to catch up with the others.

STEP TWO - Micro teach with gestures. This means giving one small bit of information that the students will reteach to each other. It requires the teacher to be animated and use gestures as he or she teaches. As an example, if we were teaching the Present Perfect, the teacher would begin the process by introducing a very small bit of information such as "We form the present perfect with have or has." After the students have learned this small bit of information you build on this idea. The following TEACH-OK segment would be " We form the present perfect with have or has and verb three."

We continue building so on and so forth until all the rules of present perfect have been taught or at least all the rules that we wish to cover . If this were a very advanced class the final installment of our look at the present perfect would finally build to up to the studetns teaching each other in pairs something like" The present perfect is formed with have or has plus verb three. It is used for both unfinished actions from a specific time in the past which are continuing into the present and with finished actions that have a relevance to present circumstances. Although it is used exclusively with already, just and yet in British English, these words can be be used correctly with both the Present Perfect and the Simple Past in American English." I have used an extreme example here of a final "TEACH OK" mini lesson on the Present Perfect to make my point that we build to whatever level the dictates of the course demand, as opposed to giving a lot of information at once.

STEP THREE - To recap steps one and two-we have divided the class into pairs and presented a small bit of information . Now it is time for the teacher to say TEACH! and his/her hands clap hands and have the students respond in the same tone of voice with the same number of claps with an OK! They then work with their partner taking turns reteaching what was just presented. the students are expected to use gestures as they teach each other.

STEP FOUR - The teacher monitors the groups as the students teach each other.

STEP FIVE - The teacher brings the "TEACH-OK" to a close with a "CLASS-YES"

STEP SIX - The teacher then continues with another bit of information building on the previous bit of information, or if it is time, change activities.

Two other valuable tools which are often used during the presentation of a micro bit of information are the "HANDS AND EYES" and "MIRRORING." These are related but separate techniques that will be elaborated on at a later date that augment the effectiveness of the presentation of information. If you just cant wait for the next blog visit www.powerteacher.net for an immediate explanation.

I have not found a lot of information about EFL and WBT, although it is certainly being used for teaching foreign languages. In my past training I found an emphasis on getting students to use the language creatively. I have certainly done this in the context of WBT. Since I work with phratom students now the steps to creativity are very small but they are creative nonetheless.

For example during the presentation of information I may want the kids to practice using the question word "where." I may drill the class as a whole by asking students a question like "Where is the dog?" trying to get them to think of places a dog might be. Often times kids will come up with something really silly like "The dog is on the sun." I love this kind of response. It shows they have used the language creatively. In fact a kid told me when asked once "The dog is on the sun." I quickly joked back with the question "Is he a hot dog?" and pretty much everybody got the joke.

That really shows that language acquisition was taking place with a group of phratom two students. Think about the implications of that- Phratom two students involved in the creation of and appreaciating a double entendre. Thats the power of Whole Brain Teaching at work. After the good laugh about the" hot dog on the sun" the kids were coming up with wacky places the dog was. During their " TEACH OK"segment of "Where is the dog?" they seemed to be trying to outdo their partner with the craziest place a dog could be. This is proof of being able to use the language creatively which means real learning is taking place.

TECHNIQUE THREE: "THE SCOREBOARD" - KEEP THE TEACHER HAPPY AND EVERYTHING IS SABAI.

The scoreboard is a central feature of the Whole Brain Teacher' s classroom. It is an integral part of class management when working with younger students and is critical in keeping older students focused. It basically operates on good ole positive and negative reinforcement. It is simple to understand and use.

STEP ONE - On one side of the whiteboard draw a "Smiley face" next to a "Happy face."

STEP TWO - Draw a line between the two faces creating a column under each face.

STEP THREE - When students are paying attention, and paricipating with gestures and you are happy with the way things are going put a check in the Smiley face column and have them cheer your approval by saying an enthusiastic "OH YEA" in unison (known as 'the "MIGHTY OH YEA").

STEP FOUR - When student performance/behavior is not up to par put a check under the the Frowny face and have the students moan a a collective "OH NO" while wiping away an imaginary tear.

STEP FIVE - At the end of class add up the checks under the respective faces. More checks in the Happy face column means the class has earned some kind of reward (I usually use less homework as a reward) More checks under the frown face means a negative reinforcement (for me more homework).

IMPORTANT NOTE! Do not have a total of more than three checks in in the Frowny face column in excess of the number in the Smiley face otherwise the "SCOREBOARD" loses effectiveness. Students become resentful and lose interest in the "game."

The "SCOREBOARD" works on the limbic system which is the part of the brain that controls emotional response. It is a powerful tool to keep order and keep things focused. In follow up blogs I will discuss "THE FIVE CLASSROOM RULES" which for the most part are used for class management issues with kids. The rules obviously relate closely to the "SCOREBOARD". Remember though the "SCOREBOARD" is also used with older students to keep focus.

If I were teaching up university anywhere in the world I would have no qualms about using the "SCOREBOARD" as a fun way to give the class feedback about how well they were performing . That being said I would feel a little foolish walking into a corporate training class anywhere but sanook loving Thailand and drawing a Smiley face and Happy face on a whiteboard in front of a group of business executives and telling them to give me a "MIGHTY OH NO".

I have taught all kinds of classes here in Thailand as well as a lot of corporate classes . Although I have not had the opportunity to use WBT in a corporate situation, my guess is all Thai students would play along with "THE SCOREBOARD." Having been witness to a teacher leading a group of bank managers in a game of "Simon Says" I gotta figure you are on safe ground with "THE SCOREBOARD" in any class in Siam. (Simon says touch your butt hahahahah....true story).

These are the three most important techniques in WBT. Just these three simple things can greatly enhance your students learning as well as making your job a helluva lot easier and more enjoyable. There is a lot more to WBT but this can get you started.

Finally I want to underscore that these techniques are flexible and can be used in harmony with your own style and class goals/level. That is unless sadly you have an "I don;'t really give a damn" attitude. I think it is more easily adapted to animated lively styles of teaching but I personally think there is room for those of a more phlegmatic nature, however gestures must be used.

You look at professional athletes, say in a sport like golf or tennis, you will see that the pros are all pretty much adhering to the same set of fundamentals to swinging a club or racket. In spite of this commonality each player has his own unique swing. In the same way each teacher will have his own style in which he can adapt a given pedagogical approach to be the most effective teacher he or she can be.

It is my stalwart conviction that Whole Brain Teaching (or in our case here in Thailand "Ajarning"...lol..) is by far the most effective approach to accomplish this goal. Give WBT a try, you'll love it and so will your students. Again to find out more about WBT visit the powerteachers website

Happy teaching!

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Three basic techniques in whole brain teaching

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In an article which I wrote for ajarn.com I introduced a wonderful system of teaching called "Whole Brain Teaching" (WBT) in which I outlined the fundamental techniques it uses. For those of you who have not read the article, WBT is a pedagogical approach which is based on current research into brain activity and how we learn.

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Authors Maria Szott and Megan Molitoris offer two separate scenarios where WBT is being used in a 6th grade classroom and a 3rd and 4th grade multi-age classroom.

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Research on the brain and how we think and act is influencing the way some teachers teach. Special correspondent John Tulenko of Learning Matters goes into a classroom where the instructor uses different methods to engage different parts of the students' brains, then checks with a neuroscientist about whether that strategy actually works.

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Teachers tap into brain science to boost learning

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Research on the brain and how we think and act is influencing the way some teachers teach. Special correspondent John Tulenko of Learning Matters goes into a classroom where the instructor uses different methods to engage different parts of the students' brains, then checks with a neuroscientist about whether that strategy actually works.

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This article’s main focus is giving educators who are new to profession a resource they can use to enhance their classroom management skills.

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For a new teacher going into your first classroom is a prospect that is both exciting and frightening. Training and practical experience under the tutelage of professors and experienced teachers is all well and good, but those people are not with you when you walk into that room and look into the expectant faces of your very own students. The methods you use can make your classroom experience enormously rewarding, or enormously stressful, often both at the same time. However, there are ways to approach your interaction with your classes that can make the experience both more fun and less stressful for you, and your students at the same time.

Whole Brain Teaching is an approach designed toward maximizing student engagement, and focusing on the way the brain is really designed to learn. It is an integrated method combining effective classroom management and pedagogically sound approaches to student engagement that are effective with a wide range of student learning populations vetted through 15 years of classroom application. From this research and experimentation Whole Brain Teaching was born.

Whole Brain Teaching can, and is being used at every level of instruction, kindergarten through college, with tremendous positive results.

Learning an effective, flexible approach like this, particularly one that integrates classroom management with effective teaching techniques, can give new teachers a tremendous advantage in their ability to deal with the stresses of the teaching profession.

Whole Brain Teaching is intended to be flexible, adaptable by any teacher to their own teaching methods. It is based on seven core components, referred to as The Big Seven. The speed with which a teacher introduces these to a class depends on the comfort level of the teacher and the students. Never try to add something new until both the teacher and the class are ready to move on. Only a few of these components will be discussed here.

The first element of the Big Seven is the Class-Yes,

and is intended to get the attention of your class with one word. There are a lot of attention getters out there, from flashing the lights, to raising a hand and waiting for the class to stop talking and listen. All of these are missing one critical element to be effective- the students! In most of these methods the teacher is the sole active participant, and the students are completely passive. Students are taught that when the teacher says 'class!' they respond 'yes!' The hook is that the students have to say yes in the same way the teacher says class. For example, if the teacher says 'class-class' the students' respond 'yes-yes'. Teachers should use as many variations of 'class' as they can think of. This keeps the technique interesting and unpredictable for the students. Most importantly they have an important role to play and are an active part of securing everyone's attention for the instructions to come from the teacher.

The next element is the Five Rules.

Rules are an important element in any effective classroom. A new teacher in particular needs to establish expectations for behavior. The problem many teachers have is that they post their rules on a poster, or a bulletin board, go over them a time or two near the beginning of the year, and then are surprised when the students do not know the rules months later. Once again the students are not a part of the rules. In Whole Brain Teaching there are five simple rules, each has a gesture associated with it, and each one is an intimate part of the classroom learning environment. For example, Rule Two is 'raise your hand for permission to speak.' As you practice the rule you raise your hand, and then bring it down and make a hand-puppet like speaking motion with your hand. As one might imagine, it is the most violated rule in a classroom setting. Typically, if a student is speaking while the teacher is addressing the class, the teacher calls the student down and asks them to stop speaking. This can open up a power struggle that can derail the class, or at least lead to hard feeling by the student for the teacher. With this approach instead the teacher addresses the class, calling them up with a class-yes, then the teacher says 'Rule Two!' and the whole class practices Rule Two. This way the teacher has not embarrassed the speaker, every student is involved in practicing the rule, and class has been interrupted for a matter of seconds with no possibility for power struggles. In this approach the students master the rules quickly, and the rules are an active part of class.

One of the most important elements is the Scoreboard Game.

This is a classroom engagement game that your students want you to play, but the teacher cannot really lose. In the Scoreboard Game a scoreboard is drawn on one side of the board, and can be divided for different classes for secondary teachers or teachers who rotate classes. Elementary scoreboards are set up with Smiley versus Frowny. Secondary classrooms are set up teacher versus students. This 'game' rewards kids for doing what the teacher expects. In the secondary environment the only way for a rebellious teenager to rebel is to do what they teacher asks, scoring for the students, keeping the teacher from getting a point. Teachers usually provide a reward for students winning the game on a daily, or weekly basis. However, the rewards are not extrinsic. Recommended rewards include a little less homework, the ability for students to choose their own seats, or time to play a game. The Scoreboard Game will work for most students, but Whole Brain Teaching does have other disciplinary elements that are effective, even with the most difficult students.

Try Teach-OK and then add Switch.

For any teacher maximizing student comprehension is a vital part of the job. Most teachers rely on the traditional methods that were used when they were coming through school themselves. Typical activities in the traditional approach, worksheets, notes, or lecture, engage only one portion of a student's brain when creating memories for content. Students can learn information using all of their senses, but they may learn through some senses more easily than others. A valuable approach for a teacher would obviously be an approach that provides the information to the students using more than one sensory system. The Teach-OK element of Whole Brain Teaching does just that. Using this method a teacher talks about an important concept or idea for a couple of minutes. Then the teacher has the class copy his/her gestures, and teaches the main ideas contained in that short segment of lecture. Then the students turn to face their partner, and teach their partners the same information that the teacher just covered, and they can then take a note on the information if the teacher desires. The students are now part of the teaching that is going on, and they are delivering content to one another using all their senses. As any teacher knows, you learn the most about any content when you are the one who has to teach it. An additional benefit of this technique is that, unlike most traditional instruments, the teacher can tell at a glance if every student is engaged in the lesson or not.

Once the students have learned the Teach-OK approach the teacher can add Switch. The Teach-OK is performed that same as listed above, however, this time one student partner teaches while the other mimics the teacher partner's gestures. In a moment when the teacher calls out 'switch!' the students respond 'switch!' and the teaching partners switch roles. This insures that students who are reluctant to talk are actually teaching their partners.

These are just a few of the elements of Whole Brain Teaching that provide teachers, especially those new to the classroom, with a method that integrates both effective, fun, low stress classroom management and exciting teaching methods that produce enhanced retention and comprehension of content. This has been only a very basic introduction to the things that can be accomplished using Whole Brain Teaching. The flexibility and utility of this approach is limited only by the imagination of the teacher. To learn more about this approach, and talk to hundreds of teachers who use this approach everyday in their classrooms, visit www.wholebrainteaching.com. All of the videos, and e-books detailing this method are free to teachers.

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Whole Brain Teaching: Learning the Way the Brain is Designed

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For a new teacher going into your first classroom is a prospect that is both exciting and frightening. Training and practical experience under the tutelage of professors and experienced teachers is all well and good, but those people are not with you when you walk into that room and look into the expectant faces of your very own students.