I'm in California, we use HM and I have a teacher Eval. coming up. I told my princ. I would do a Lang.Arts lesson on the questioning strategy. The story I plan to use is Anthony Reynoso, Born to Rope. I plan to model the strategy, use the strategy together. After that, have students question each other(teach okay) as we read a page or two. Do you have any other suggestions or ideas to incorporate whole brain teaching into the lesson? My observation is the first week in Nov. Any direct instruction ideas would be helpful also(it goes hand and hand with Whole Brain Teaching.) Our Princ. is new and doesn't have a clue about whole brain teaching, I want to try and wow her!!!!

Just remember, the most valuable aspects of WBT are the student engagement, the engagement of the whole brain, and the fun.

Keep your students engaged through gestures (Mirror!), through the scoreboard (Mighty Cheer! Mighty Groan!) and Teach-Okay! Those three things will make your lesson stellar.
Also, if you don't already do this, between now and then practice NOT asking for raised hands to answer questions, but simply posing a question to the whole class and choosing a student to answer (either at random, or because you are matching the question level to student ability). Use the "It's cool!" if they aren't able to give a correct answer, and the "Woo!" if they are.

Thank you for the reminders Jackie, you are so right. It changes the dynamic of the class and I do have to work on the mirroring and woos etc. I also like the strategic questioning, my principal would really be impressed with that aspect. Any other advice or reminders would be appreciated. I want to really impress her with Whole Brain Teaching. If only Biffle could stand in for me!!!!

I am in CA also and use HM, what grade level are you teaching? I volunteered (I think) to have my vp or prin. do a writing lesson in my class, so I too could use help.
Annette

I teach 3rd grade. We actually use Write from the Beginning for our writing. Did you see the writing download? You may be able to incorporate that into your writing lesson. Hopefully some more ideas will come our way through this post. Good Luck!!!

I had the observation and it went great!!! Thank you Jackie for the reminders. We have a new principal and she is very interested in Whole Brain Teaching. For two years, it's been my goal to have a conference here in Lancaster. I can only hope that she can influence the powers to be to get it to happen. Thank you to all the Whole Brain Teachers out there. It's nice, while being observed, to see the Principal smiling as you're teaching.

I just wanted to share about the feedback received this year on a year three evaluation. My principal was totally blown-away by whole brain teaching. She even wrote a special commentary about my going the extra mile to become trained in a student-centered, high-engagement instructional method. This is after 20+ years and with a supervisor who already liked me!
Absolutely show off with pride Whole Brain Teaching during your observation. It showcases research evidenced best-practices and can only help!