Must Watch and Must Reads for WBT-The Walls

Last Wednesday we covered the Core Four and the Five Classroom Rules, the foundation of Whole Brain Teaching. The 5 Rules, Scoreboard, Class/Yes, Mirror and Teach/OK make the foundation of the WBT classroom and really will change the way you teach forever. For me I can't teach without these WBT tools and the more I use them, the more I love them and the better my class is. If I have a hard day or a lesson does not go well then I can usually find that some thing with the Core Four was off. I didn't use the Scoreboard as much as I should have or I forgot to have the students Mirror or we didn't do enough Teach/OK.   If you are new to WBT, new to teaching or new to a grade level just start with these and you will have such a strong foundation to build your classroom learning on. You will be blown away by how awesome your class becomes just with the Core Four and the Five Rules but just like a house is not only the foundation, WBT is so much more than the Core Four.

Once you are ready with your WBT foundation, the next step will be the walls. Today let's take a look at the parts of WBT that make up 2 of the walls of the classroom, figuratively and literally :) To me the WBT tools that make up the walls are the PowerPix, Super Improver Wall, Oral Writing, and the Genius Ladder. Each of these WBT tools offer so much bang for your teaching buck that they are the next must haves after the Core 4 and Five Rules. Today we will look at PowerPix and Super Improver Walls. Now I could type up long reviews of each of these and have done one for PowerPix here but the ebooks and webcast are so great let's start there and visit some other WBT bloggers for today's Must Watch and Must reads for WBT.

Our first set of Must Watch videos are the webinars from Coach B. Each one is about an hour so settle down for one an evening or get ready for a little professional development in your PJ's one day :)




Our Must Reads start in the ebooks section of http://wholebrainteaching.com/. To access the free ebooks you will need to register here, which is free :) Now the powers that be are working on the site so there may be issues with the ebooks sometimes. If you are unable to get the ebooks after a few tries please comment below with your email and I'll email them to you.:)
For PowerPix the ebooks have the California State Standards and are avalible for K-3rd grade, though many can be used for upper grades. Currently the PowerPix are on page 2 and 3 of the ebooks section.

You will find information on the Super Improver Wall in the WBT Model Classroom ebook.

Now for the Must Watch and Must Reads from your fellow WBT'ers with lots of Must Have goodies :)

For PowerPix I have been working on PowerPix with the Common Core standards and am working on making Electronic PowerPix. You can find Math for lower grades here and below are the links for Language Arts.

• PowerPix for Reading: Literature and Reading:Informational Teacher Notes
• PowerPix for Reading: Foundational Skills, Language and Writing Teacher Notes
• Over 100 pages of PowerPix for Language Arts K-5

If you need/want to create your own PowerPix you can download my Electronic PowerPix Templates for PowerPoint for free HERE. I'll be sharing more about creating your own PowerPix in another post :)

Here is the fabulous Farrah Shipley about WBT and using PowerPixs. There is a little issue in the video between mintues 6 and 8 but just keep watching because it is great!

Nancy Stoltenberg has a great post with pictures about PowerPix. Click on the picture of her wall below to read the post and don't forget to make sure you are following her.

Mrs. Smith also has a great post on her PowerPix Wall with a camping theme :)

For the Super Improver Walls we have to start again with the fabulous Farrah Shipley who has a great post on setting up the wall and a post with a video :) 

April at Wolfelicious has a rocking post about her Rocking Improvers Wall

The perfect pinetreelia of My Whole Brain Teaching has the cutest Super Improver Wall sets that will have you all ready to go in no time. 

    

Here is the one I'll have up in my room :)

These are just a few of the wonderful posts about PowerPix and Super Improver Walls and I want to make sure we get all of them so please join the linky below with your PowerPix and Super Improver Wall posts. If you are just starting with WBT I hope you are now excited to try these tools and have what you need to get started for you can join the linky too. 

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.