The scoreboard

This week the scoreboard has literally been a life saver for me.  I can’t tell you how many points I gave out on both the smiles and frowns.  We’re talking more points than I’ve given all year.  The kids were even amazed.  We were giving out points for everything you can imagine.  I gave out points because I saw the kids using the brain toys that I had not even taught them yet.  Of course, we gave out points for doing wonderful while carrying out ordinary routines.  We gave them points for doing so wonderful in those routines.  I gave points for kids who spoke in complete sentences.  I gave up points because I saw one kid who didn’t typically participate, actually participate without me telling them to.

Like I said crazy scoreboard action.  Boy did they work for those points.  This week I implemented something, at the time we needed to stop the kids were responsible for keeping track of time.  10 minutes before our day was over every hand needed to go up.  This was my signal that it was time and we needed to wrap up.  10 minutes before the bell rings we look at our scoreboard, and see what our day was like.  Now, this is the hardest part of my day.  Cleanup has always been a difficult moment for me.  I don’t care if the kids talk, but I want them to actually clean.  So the deal was that they would continue getting points and if cleanup was wonderful and fast we may earn extra minutes for a game.  If we need to practice in the rules, this could be their moment, during cleanup they could earn back some smile points.  I had some of the best cleanups this week that I have ever had.  Every chair in the room was stacked, the floor was clean, and everyone was ready to go. I didn't have to remind them.

I have to admit, the class was not getting a game most of the week.  They were indeed going to practice the rules, we didn't practice once.  If they worked and cleaned instead of leaving me to do it I added smiles and they didn't have to practice. The class and I worked as a team, I got my wonderful cleanup and they didn’t have to practice the rules.

About Wednesday, it occurred to me that may afternoons we’re getting very nice.  But I still had one major gripe, student book bags are supposed to be any pile, they were not.  So one day I told them if the bags is messy again you start with three frown points, the horrified sounds that came out of this class would’ve made you think I assigned a 20 page paper.  I simply reminded them that all they had to do was follow rule five, keep me happy.

I am a very happy teacher, very happy indeed.  My bags are perfect in the morning, cleanup is beautiful in the afternoon.  Too bad it only took me all year.  We’re down to two and half weeks, they will be a very nice two and a half weeks.

There’s a reason why the scoreboard is level one of whole brain teaching management plan.  Without the scoreboard we would be fighting our students to do daily activities.  With the scoreboard literally anything can become a game to them.  When it’s a game and everyone wants to play life becomes very easy.  As WBT always says: teacher heaven!  O yeah

For more information on the scoreboard check out the website:

http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/Whole-Brain-Teching/Levels/Level-1-The-Scoreboard.html

Love, luck, and lollipops

p.s. I am so excited, I have voice recognition software and I gave it a try. Next up, a voice blog or even video blogs. Fancy stuff