Certification Webcast: Super Improvers Wall 503 & Practice Cards 523

I am so excited about these two webcasts because they are both new learning for me! I haven't seen any information yet about the Super Improvers Wall and Practice Cards, so I can't wait to share all of this with you!

Let's begin with the Super Improvers Wall. This wall rewards students individually for any classroom activity. This is not a place for students to compete against each other, but against themselves. You want to create a growth mindset with students. "The only fair race is the one you run against yourself." Coach B.

Set Up
To make this wall, you simply put every student's name on the wall, leaving blank space after their name. Include a key with a color code beside the wall. You will need 10 colors. (Students will be earning stars. As they earn 10 stars, they will get to change the color of their name.)

How does it work?
When you see huge improvement in an area by a student, put a star by that student's name. Have the rest of the class do a quick cheer for that student. (It can be a reward for anything. For example, finding the right page quickly when it usually takes a long time.) Once students have gotten the hang of earning stars, post goals for the students on the board. Goals can change as often as you would like.

As stated above, students get a star for improving. Once they have earned 10 stars, their name is put in the next color on the color key and they begin collecting stars again. Critical thinking update: Can you say place value practice for first graders!? Groups of ten and students move up a color on the color key. This gets them thinking in groups of ten and counting how many more until they have another group of ten. LOVE IT!

After students have advanced several color areas, take pictures of the kids making silly faces. Post their photo on the wall, facing the wall so no one can see the picture. As a bonus, 5 stars are needed in order to turn their picture around. You can obviously change this any way that works for you. Critical thinking update: You can make the photo go face down at 45, so that in 5 more stars it will be turned over at 50. What is so special about 50? Halfway to 100! There's another math benchmark!

Here are a few other ideas to spice it up a little:
1. Give the color levels different names. I have a Dr. Seuss theme this year, so I am probably going to name the levels after Dr. Seuss books or maybe even characters. (Horton, Cat in the Hat, etc.) You want them to have an emotional/visual attachment to the colors.
2. Give students some leadership privileges when they reach certain levels.
3. Add photograph opportunities more often throughout the chart.

Practice Cards are another new component of WBT I am very excited to learn more about.This is an extension of the scoreboard. The scoreboard is for the whole class, practice cards are for individual behavior. 

Set Up
Set up a pocket chart. Each child gets a pocket with a number. Sounds pretty familiar to the old flip-card system so far, doesn't it? Here is where we switch it up. Have a stack of white, purple, and green practice cards ready. To make the cards, print the words "Rule 1" on several of each color, "Rule 2," etc. 

How does it work?
Use white cards only to start out. If students are struggling with a rule, place a white "Rule 1" card (or whatever rule is needed) in their pocket chart. The pocket is going to work as your memory device. There are card penalties for this section. If a student gets a white card, he or she has to spend 2 minutes at lunch or recess practicing the rule with the gestures. The student must practice the gesture over and over again. If one arm gets tired, move to the other arm.

A note then goes home informing parents about the rule that needs practice. If the note comes back home from a parent signed, remove the card. If it doesn't come back signed, leave the note in one more day. If you know the note will not get signed at home, assign them an on-campus parent (an adult that can have a relationship with that child and help him or her be accountable). No student ever receives more than 2 white cards per day.

After several weeks, introduce the purple cards. Purple cards are given to reward for excellent behavior. A note goes home to inform parents how well their child is doing. Students can obviously not get a white and purple card note home in the same day.The purple card can cancel out a white card on the chart.

After many, many weeks, introduce green cards. These are cards for self-monitoring positive behavior. This is for a student who needs to practice in the situation in the classroom. Every time the student follows the rule, he gets to put a tally mark on the green card.Check the card at the end of the day. Don't reward with candy or food incentives.

I can't wait to find a wall to start implementing these strategies!

Certification Webcast: Teach-Okay 516 & Scoreboard 517

"Electrify your brain with learning!" -Coach B.

Today's "Pearls of Wisdom" come from two more Webcast training videos: Teach-Okay and Scoreboard. These videos are great for pushing my learning to the next level. Reading all of the introductory information through the WBT website has been a great introduction for me. These Webcasts have been a great stretch to take the basics to the next level and to learn the next steps for myself with WBT in my classroom! Now, on to the learning...

If you are unfamiliar with the Teach-Okay strategy, check out my original blog post first. This Webinar, Teach-Okay got us started as the "whole brain activator."

One of the things that I really like about this strategy is its ability to be used as a continual comprehension assessment. As students are teaching one another, the job of the teacher is not to sit in her teacher chair and watch each student teach his or her partner, it is to circulate and listen to partners teaching. As teachers, we should travel to all of our students throughout the teaching time. Chris suggests traveling to the "borderline" kids most often because they might or might not understand it.

Gestures are important! Why? Because they activate the motor cortex, the brain's most powerful learning station. Memories are formed by repetition. We need students to switch their brains on and be ready to learn. So many portions of our brain are turned on and ready to learn by Teach-Okay.

There are three types of gestures we can use:
1. Casual Gestures: These are simply gestures we use when we talk with our hands.
2. Graphic Gestures: These are gestures we use to describe a process. For example, introduction (hold hands up top), conclusion (hold hands down at the bottom.)
3. Memory Gestures: Gestures that stand for something.We want to link these to our state standards. For example, holding your hands parallel to mimic an equal sign.

Our short term memory can only hold 3-7 items in it at a time. To move things to long term memory, we need repetition and activation of different brain areas. As we all know, there is very little repetition in lecture teaching. As we have our students use Teach-Okay more and more, they are hearing and saying the learning more and more. Long term memory, check!

Another foundation of WBT is leadership training. Teaching students how to lead different activities like Teach-Okay give the leadership opportunities to students. Let the students choose the signal to let the learning begin. Instead of clapping twice, let the students choose something else to do before they say teach. "On-task" laughter is great!

Critical thinking can also be incorporated very seamlessly into this strategy by asking students a question to discuss with their partner. Here are some first grade critical thinking question examples:
1. How are these two versions of the story The Gingerbread boy alike? How are they different?
2. Our new vocabulary word for today is "impossible." Use the word impossible in three different sentences.
3. Describe what you think the author included in her illustration on the next page before I show you.
4. If we added another character to this book, who should we add and why?

The second webcast focused on more with the scoreboard. This was another webinar packed with ways to stretch my learning in the classroom. The scoreboard becomes the motivator to get kids excited and on the edge of their seats to learn. Who doesn't want that in their classroom?

One thing Coach B. suggested was to begin the scoreboard with no reward in the end. Just play with the smiley and frowny faces alone. If you do use rewards, make sure they are not physical like candy. Also, keep the rewards small because the smaller the reward, the more precious it is. (For example, one minute extra of recess time.) Another great variation is to rename the categories. Instead of using a smiley and frowny, rename them to something fun.

Another great idea Coach B. discussed was the use of a stopwatch. Time students to see how long you can go without a student calling out. Keep track of that time. (I can see great tie ins with the Olympics currently going on! Having students track and compare their scores and try to beat our class "world record" would be a great critical thinking addition to get students to make comparisons and set goals. )

With a "Mighty Oh Yeah," I am on my way to WBT heaven!

Classroom Rules and Scoreboard

With every classroom community comes a set of rules. Along with trying every form of attention signal, I think I've also tried every variation of classroom rules. I like these rules because they are simple, clear, and easy for my young students to remember. They also go hand-in-hand with a great motivation component, the scoreboard.

How Does it Work?
There are five simple rules to be taught. Each rule has a set of gestures to follow to help students remember the rule. The rules are as follows:
1. Follow directions quickly.
2. Raise your hand for permission to speak.
3. Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat.
4. Make smart choices.
5. Keep your dear teacher happy.

If you are looking for adorable versions of these rules, search Teachers Pay Teachers. One of my favorites is a set by Gypsy Teacher (free) of chevron rules. Miss Nelson has a cute (free) set of polka dot ones as well. (Between Teachers Pay Teachers and Pinterest, it's easy to see where my summer has gone...)

As any experienced teacher knows, the rules cannot be introduced and forgotten. Students need plenty of practice. I typically practice them at least twice a day: first thing in the morning, then after lunch. Just like with anything else at this age, the more fun you make it for students, the more engaged they will become.

The scoreboard becomes a motivator/game for students. It is simple to make. Simply make a quick T chart (see example below). Draw a smiley face on one side and a frowny face on the other. Students earn smiley points for following rules and procedures and frowny points for not following them. The purpose of the scoreboard is to reinforce positive behavior in a fun way.

There are many add-ons that can be done with the scoreboard as well. For example, positive points can earn students saying together "oh yes" or having a "one second party" to celebrate. Negative points can just as easily cause a "mighty groan" from the crowd. One tip I have read several places online is to be sure that the difference between frowny and smiley faces remain no more than three points apart to keep students engaged and interested in the game.

What does the research say?
The brain learns in five ways, by seeing, saying, hearing, doing and feeling. When we learn and practice the rules with gestures and emotion, we are covering all of these ways. Seeing a smiley or frowny on the scoreboard gives students small positive or negative emotions. By using the scoreboard, we are activating the limbic system, our source of emotions.

What does this mean for first grade?
In my classroom, it means it has to be ready to catch and hold their attention. In the past, I have used Class DoJo's for team and individual points. This year, I plan to continue to use Class DoJo for individual points, but move to using smiley and frowny points for whole group time.

My classroom is Dr. Seuss themed, so thanks to the dollar bin at Target, I will have a lovely Dr. Seuss scoreboard this year. I have attached circle magnets to the back so it will attach to my marker board since the scoreboard is not magnetic. I like it because I will be able to move it around the room depending on where our learning is taking place.