Mid-Year Reflection

After implementing a Whole Brain Teaching model in my classroom for the past five months, I would like to reflect on how things have gone.  I have learned many new strategies for classroom management and instruction.  I enjoy sharing my successes with other teachers.  I have also had struggles with some strategies that have not gone as smoothly as hoped.  My students started out slowly, not grasping the concepts as quickly as I would have liked.  However, as the routines and strategies are continually repeated, they are beginning to show great growth.  The areas the students lack in are a direct reflection of my failure to focus on these concepts.

Successes:
Super Improvers Wall
Consistent use of scoreboard
Guff
Practice cards
Teach-Ok
Red Green Marker
Genius Ladder
Super Speed Math
Crazy Professor Reading Game
Oral Writing
Power Pix
5 step lesson plan
Becuase clapper

Areas for growth:
Use Super Improvers Wall more consistently
Use Guff when needed
Use purple practice cards more often
make Power Pix smaller, and review more often
Learn more steps in the Crazy Professor Reading Game
Add more Red, Green marker requirements
Use oral writing more often
Implement Independents
Blog more often
Use double and triple because clappers
Consistent use of 5 step lesson plan

As you can see, the students are moving up the levels on the Super Improvers Wall.

We are now using practice cards.  The rule requiring practice is placed on the students number.

Today was the first day of the independents.  We started with 3 students and added a fourth.  I'm sure they will all be asking to be out of the group tomorrow!

We are using the electronic scoreboard!  So fun!  Just wish it had Guff and Independents built in.

As you can see we have added tons of Power Pix.  In fact, we have run out of room, and I need to make them smaller to fit the rest.  When we review, I put the ones that don't fit on the wall in a stack.  The students can choose one from the wall, or say "bonus" to choose a random Power Pic from the stack.  You can also see that some of the Power Pix are teacher created.