Must Watch and Must Reads for WBT - Core Four and the Rules

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start! This is the first in a series I'm calling Must Watch and Must Reads for Whole Brain Teaching.  Whole Brain Teaching  has so many amazing, exciting,  life changing tools that will improve your teaching sometimes it is all a little overwhelming. Newbies and experienced WBT'ers will want to start with the Five Rules and the Core Four each year. If this is your first year using WBT and the only WBT tools you use are the Core Four you will still be AMAZED at how awesome your class is. The Core Four are Class/Yes, Scoreboard, Mirror and Teach/OK. These are each very simple and VERY powerful. You can start using all of the Core Four in the first hour of the first day of school or the first hour of your new day of school if school has already started. 

The best way to teach the Core Four is to teach the Five Classroom Rules. I LOVE the Five Rules because they cover every possible issue that may come up in class with Rule 4 and Rule 5. The Rules are: 

 

You can get the posters with the red check border for free from http://wholebrainteaching.com/ but I LOVE the posters from the WBT store shown in the last picture. These are one of the few things WBT charges for and you can buy them HERE and support WBT. There are also many posters on TeachersPayTeachers in different themes. These posters should all be free. I like having my posters printed and laminated before the first day. To build community and buy in I have my students share out different ways we can follow the rules and ways we would be breaking the rules to create an anchor chart. You could also create posters with your students and guide them to creating these rules. 

Chris Biffle AKA Coach B is the co-creator of Whole Brain Teaching  and he has been doing wonderful webinars most Tuesdays. Here is your Five Rules and Core Four Must Watch playlist. Think of it as free professional development that you can do in your pajamas :) First we have the webcasts for each of the Core Four then we have how to bring it all together with the First Hour and Day One webcasts.

Now I also have for you some Must Watch and Must Reads from a few of the many awesome WBT Bloggers.

First the Delightful Deb Weigel has a quick post on teaching the Core Four at the National WBT Conference and a post with a Sub Cheat sheet that is also just a great cheat sheet for everyone especially in the first days. Deb is a WBT master so be sure to follow her and read her other post.

 

One of the things you might have heard mentioned on the First Hour video is the Three-Peat. The fabulous Farrah Shipley did a great post with a quick video that I wanted to share because it makes those day to day tasks sooooooo much easier. Check it out and be sure to follow while you are there and check out her other videos.

Next you must hop over to the delightful Deanna's blog, check out her classroom and download her free WBT Cue cards for the first day. She has made many sets and they are AWESOME!

Finally hop over the spectacular Nancy Stoltenberg's blog for a look at how she posted her rules and scoreboard and watch a video of her class doing the 5 Rules last year. On Nancy's blog you will also see a little about the Super Improver Wall, the Power Pix Grid and the Genius Ladder which will all be covered soon in our Must Watch and Must Reads of WBT. 

Hope you have fun watching and reading and don't forget to stop by my main blog for a giveaway.