I began using Whole Brain Teaching about two months ago..and it's working out GREAT!

One thing I have done is to incorporate some of the "sign" language into my classroom.

I sign American sign Language. Not fluently..but more than enough to have a conversation with Deaf people with whom I'd worked previously in the schools.

I learned that 6th graders LOVE to learn something NOT related to math (I teach that...)
and they also LOVE to tell others what they're learning!

so..in order to not interrupt my flow in the classroom, I've began teaching the ASL signs to the students.

I can also teach ASL in between and use it as a sort of slight of hand distraction.
In other words..by giving them a taste of ASL, they're focused on me. They LOVE learning ASL.
so, I give them a new sign like "test" or "sit down" or "lunch", "tardy/Late", "Radius", "diameter", etc. I give them news signs including the manual alphabet.

I can give them a sign..and 30 seconds of its use...the back to math for 5 to 10 minutes. I have their attention. By using the ASL it keeps their focus. In between ASL learning...they've learning math and aren't even aware that I'm distracting them from their "asl" lessons with math lessons.

There are easy to learn signs that can be used to communicate and also math symbols that I use. They're great!

Do you use a scoreboard? It occurs to me that learning a sign would be a fantastic scoreboard prize for middle school (where you don't have that long to give the prize due to period lengths).

Also, why not make the signs part of the lesson too? Choose cognate signs (I don't know if that's the right term, but signs that look like what they are) that go along with whatever math concept you are doing, especially some hard-to-remember step or something.

I'm new to Whole Brain Teaching too, and am having a great time with it as well!

jwhicks727 wrote:


Yes I do use the scoreboard. I also use the free timer. 2 minutes per day..to be cashed in at the end of the week. I use another for "homework" passes. You ALWAYS have to bring in you homework, but if you DO NOT want me to contact your parents when you DO NOT bring it in..AND you do NOT want lunch detention for the usual "I lost it" or "I threw it away" you have very hard to earn points. 10 points keeps you out of detention.
the signs are easy to learn. They are simple gestures.
The kids love it! I use them for discipline also. A sign of "1 warning" "2 warnings" work without having to utter one word.
the signs for "hooray" and "happy" and "silly me" work really well too.

That sounds awesome. You should try to do some video of some of your best signs, I'm sure people would be interested in seeing that in action.

You can easily see the signs and look up more at www.aslpro.com

I had to learn new signs for diameter etc. but the signs I use the most are like sit, stop talking (which is STOP plus TALK)

You will have to learn what you want for your kids. I'm not fluent in ASL by any means.
but I can dangle the proverbial carrot in front of them and they will try to practice when I'm not looking or they will leave my room and tell others about it.

This is telling me that I have their attention. when I have their attention I can get them to do anything.

Here are two great sites to see demonstrations of ASL signs.
This one has video demonstration for all the words. It makes it SO easy.
commtechlab.msu.edu/Sites/aslweb/browser.htm

This one doesn't have video, but it has very clear step-by-step pictures. Great to print an display as reminders on your bulletin boards, and also great if you don't have and don't want to download QuickTime player.
www.lifeprint.com/

Those are all great sites. I'm going to start checking those each week as I work out gestures to go with vocab words for the week.

I have also been looking for good ideas for gestures, and I came across this website several weeks ago. I especially like the signs for things like fractions, numerators, and denominators because it incorporates the ASL alphabet (just check it out). What a find this site was!!!!

www.tsdvideo.org/