Whole Brain Teaching Freebie and Winners Announced!

As you know, I attended the Whole Brain Teaching Conference last week in Louisiana.  I'm super excited about sharing more about these teaching strategies with my school next year!

The first day of the workshop was all about Classroom Management, which is definitely the key piece {and most used piece} of WBT!  There are seven components to the Classroom Management piece, known as "The Big 7."  I used "The Big 7" in my classroom last year and fell in L-O-V-E with each of them!

As they introduced "The Big 7" at the conference, they went through each letter of "T-H-E-B-I-G-7" with some sort of "visualization" that was intended to help you remember each component.  I cannot explain to you how the letters connected with each component because it made ABSOLUTELY no sense to me.

I'm pretty sure they were trying to line them up in the order you should introduce them in your classroom, but the connection to the actual letters in the words "The Big 7" went completely over my head.  In fact, the connections were so obscure that THAT was all I could focus on.  My head was sitting there making its own connections and mnemonic devices that actually made sense {to me, at least!}

Within minutes, my friend Jennifer and I had completely revamped the "visualization" of "The Big 7" in a way that made much more sense to us!  And, since we are going to be taking this information back to teach to our staff this year, we think it will make much sense to them as well!

This morning, I whipped up some signs to show the mnemonic devices we created.  If you are interested in introducing Whole Brain Teaching to your school or fellow teachers, feel free to grab these signs and use them in your workshop!

{Click the image above to download the signs}

Here's an overview of "The Big 7" mnemonic devices that we created.  I'll be doing a post on each of these strategies this week - starting tomorrow!

1. T - The Scoreboard {each side of the T represents one side of the scoreboard)
2. h - Teach! - Okay! {the tall stick on the "h" represents the teacher standing and teaching, the short hump of the "h" represents the students sitting and teaching each other what they have learned)
3. e - Class? - Yes? {the "e" is part of the word YES}
4. B - Mirror {the two humps on the "B" are mirror images of each other}
5. i - Hands and Eyes {the "i" is a play on the word "eye" - also imagine the "dot" of the "i" as an actual "eye'}
6. g - Switch {the two "circles" in the "g" could be "switched"}
7. 7 - The 5 Rules {7 is a number and there is a certain number (5) of rules for the classroom}

I hope these mnemonic signs help you (and your colleagues) remember these WBT classroom management strategies!  I can't wait to start a discussion on how I (and you) have used these in the classroom!  Come back tomorrow to start sharing!

And, CONGRATULATIONS to the 6 WINNERS in my Blogiversary giveaway!!! Emails are on their way to you right now!

Suzanne F. - Alex & Ani Wisdom Bangle Bracelet

Leann - Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener

Elizabeth P. - TC Unit of Choice (Christmas Around the World Unit)

Francheryl - LM Unit of Choice (Word Choice Unit)

Sarah H. - Scotch Laminator

Denise S. - $50 Target Giftcard