Biff presented the Leaders Rule scoreboard at the San J. mega-conference to the advanced group. I went back to school Monday and tried it right away. Monday we brainstormed the qualities of a classroom leader. I told them it was time to choose a few leaders. They were very excited. I let them pick there top 3 choices for classroom leaders. They asked me all day to reveal the list of leaders. I told them they would have to earn with the scoreboard game. They worked all day to earn the priviledge of just hearing the names! Of course, at the end of the day....gee, we just didn't have time. So they waited for the next day. They were begging me Tuesday morning to reveal the list. Mind you they still had no idea what the leaders would do. So I revealed the names and explained their purpose. The leaders have been expectional and the funny things so has the rest of the class!!! To be honest excitement has been waning since coming back from spring break. This just what we needed to get pumped up again! Thanks Biff! Another stroke of genius!!

Leaders are key and this totally helps out with the concept of the Self-managing classroom. Rochelle you mention the boost that we need after spring break and you're right. I'm going to try it. Thanks:cheer:

Now that is how to keep it fresh! Biff does an amazing job at the progression and growth of WBT. He is a visionary and it is cool to see you jumping in with your students!

So, what will you have your leaders do, exactly? Sounds like a great idea that I'd like to use after winter break to keep my students motivated (and always guessing about what I'll do next).

I tried the leader system last year with a really tough class that I had. The kids were really excited about it. Biffle gave me this idea: We started by having students brainstorm a list of adjectives that describe the students opinions of adults. We divided the list into two categories- positive and negative. By the end we had a list of adjectives that describe what they felt a mature adult should be like. We picked out top four and they turned out to be responsible, honest, hardworking, and fun. These became our definition for maturity which we revisited several times. This was what I used to have them pick their top three leaders. I told them that I would choose two students from whomever got the most votes. It worked well for that group because they had some ownership in the process. The hard part was finding ways to give the leader responsibilities in class. I think if I try this again, I will have a short lesson each day that the leaders get up and teach. Checking for completed homework is also a good responsibility that I have heard other whole brain teachers have been using.