This week I observed a classroom which I wish I could help. The class is a 9th grade Earth Science class, 29 students and two co-teaching adults. The highest grade in the class is a C, 19 students have a D and 8 students have an F. The teachers seem nice. Most of the students talk very out loud between task transitions.
One of the teachers tell me that the students are not interested in studying. He makes many speeches during the week warning them that they will not be able to find good jobs if they don't pass which is a precursor to graduating. Some students have repeated grades and will eventually be expelled because of their age. He tells me that some of his students are in ESE erroneously because he sees that they can keep up with the work on some occasions. He says that most of them don't have a stable home. He says that the problem is that they are lazy.
The other teacher says that the students should be allowed to choose vocational programs because they can excel in those classes. He also says that what has shown to be effective are material things such as money, ipods and shoes.
I wish I could help their class feel motivated, but I think they are finding that by being despondent they find relief from stress and that they are challenging their teachers sensitivity towards adolescence as people.
When I was in school, some of my classmates were very disrespectful towards our teacher and the consequences were the teacher being sarcastic and even offensive. I didn't approve of her response and I can see why a teenager would want to rebel. Also, as adults we know that controlling oneself is not as easy as we thought.
Unfortunately, none of the two teachers showed much interest in allowing me to give a 30 minute lesson in their class, so I doubt they would want my help to motivate their students, but I still would like too. What can do?

Ok...this is going to sound terrible, perhaps...but there may not be much you can do if they are not interested or not willing. Talk to them about Whole Brain Teaching, show them the website and the videos, and offer your help. However...if they brush it off, then you cannot do much for them at this time. I have tried over and over to rescue drowning teachers, and the truth is, if they aren't REALLY interested, then Whole Brain Teaching will flop for them, anyways, because they won't buy-in and hence, will not be consistent.

Help the teachers that want to be helped!

I agree with Jackie, the worst thing you can do is be too pushy about it. Send them the email, forward them a video - and hopefully they will become interested. You have to be prepared that they won't be interested in the system, a lot of teachers give the reason that they don't want to switch things up mid-year... they can't Whole BrainTeach half-heartedly. Good Luck!

Perhaps in your e-mail to the two teachers sharing the WBT links with them you could mention the fact that since 27/29 of their students have Ds or Fs, perhaps WBT is worth a try. Tell them Whole Brain Teaching is designed for students like theirs who don't want to participate. WBT certainly won't cause the students to get lower grades! I would share that when I started using Whole Brain Teaching it made teaching more fun for me (not just the students). Perhaps they feel like they are tired of teaching and maybe a change in methods would be good. Ultimately, I do agree with everyone else who has responded. If they still don't want to check out WBT, then there isn't much you can do.

As a newbie, I agree with what you said about it can't hurt to give it a try. I just started Whole Brain Teaching two weeks ago with my 7th grade math classes of 29 which had been getting grades similar to what was detailed in the first post. I was very frustrated. After using WBT for the last chapter in our math book and giving the test on that material on Friday, my scores have gone up to a couple of As, lots of Bs, some Cs and only a handful or so of Ds and Fs on the test. I am totally convinced that this is the way to teach todays teens.

This is very encouraging! Which parts of Whole Brain Teaching did you use with that group?