Whole Brain Teaching

Whole brain teaching refers to a set of strategies that are used in classrooms everywhere to maximize active learning and student engagement. The idea behind whole brain teaching is to focus on the way that the brain was designed to learn and to activate each part of the brain individually. Whole brain teaching can easily be modified to better accommodate any grade level or specific class needs, but generally follows the same seven major “rules” in any school. These seven rules do not follow any specific order and can be used in any variation but are designed to activate each area of the students brain and effectively manage the classroom. The seven major rules to using whole brain teaching are named: class-yes, teach-okay, switch, scoreboard, hands and eyes, class rules, and mirror. Each of the seven rules bring something different to this teaching approach but together they accomplish all of the following: grabbing the students immediate attention, engaging the students brain, directly instructing the class, allowing the students to work collaboratively, and character education. The methods used for whole brain teaching are all research based and can be used as early as pre-k. Check out the video below to see whole brain teaching in action!

I believe that whole brain teaching is overall a great way to help your students get the most out of classroom instruction. The rules are designed to challenge the students to remember what is taught and then teach the material to a peer. The rule that I find most interesting of the big seven is scoreboard. This teaching strategy is used mostly as a way to improve classroom management but can be modified in almost any way to become whatever the teacher and students want it to become. In this strategy, the teacher will come up with a scoreboard to keep track of anything she wants to keep track of. The teacher might want to track students good and bad behavior or even track their academic performance. I like this teaching strategy the best because it can be used in a variety of ways to motivate students in any way the teacher sees fit. Scoreboard can also be modified to give students rewards to add extra motivation. 

Professional Learning Networks

Professional learning networks (also sometimes called a personal learning network) do not exist only within education, every profession has them. In the teaching field, a professional learning network is created when several educators join together to plan, experiment with new ideas, and develop quality learning activities for their students. A single network can consist of people all from the same school or even stretch across the country with hundreds of educators joining. It is even considered beneficial to have people in a professional learning network that do not all share the same profession. For example, why would we only include teachers in our network when counselors, principles, and media specialists might also have fantastic ideas about education. 

By creating these networks, teachers are introduced to new ideas for teaching, different resources, and the newest strategies in the education field. They also allow for teachers to share their thoughts and ideas with other educators and receive constructive feedback on their ideas. For anyone to be an active member of a professional learning network, one must both take away information as well as contribute their own knowledge. With technology today, professional learning networks are easier to keep up because communication can occur online via email, Skype, or any other digital communication means. Teachers involved in these groups must be imaginative, innovative, determined to better the education of students, and encourage a changing environment in order to see what works best in the classroom.

When I started learning about personal learning networks, I had no clue what they were or how to build one. I find professional learning networks to be extremely useful in the world of education and very easy to become a part of with the help of social media. In order to offer students the best education possible, we must stay up to date on all new teaching strategies and not be afraid to explore different options and methods for teaching. The video below shows viewers exactly what a professional learning network looks like, how to get one started, and the tools needed to keep the network running.  

Math Apps and Digital Games

With schools gaining more and more technology, math apps and other educational digital games are on the rise.  Math apps allow students to directly manipulate images on screen and usually involves children answering mathematical problems correctly in order to advance through the game. This allows room for scaffolding within the learning as well as opportunities to review skills that the child may already know. There are many benefits to using math apps and other digital games in the classroom, some include: teachers being able to progress monitor, regulate the pace of the students learning, create an individualized learning path for each student, and having complex math procedures broken into smaller steps. Immediate feedback is also available with many apps, taking the burden of grading papers off of the teacher and helping students correct mistakes as quickly as possible. When a student is not answering questions correctly, many times the app will even show the steps necessary to find the correct answer. Schools across the nation have already begun using subscription based math apps to supplement instruction such as stride academy and math IXL, but there are hundreds of free apps available as well that can help children as young as two years old develop math skills. Math apps should not be used to replace math instruction, but should be utilized as a tool to enhance student learning experiences. The video below showcases several free and paid for math apps specifically designed for elementary math. Some of the apps in the video include: quick math, show me, mathDoodles, 5 Dice, Geoboard, Measures HD, and Chicken Bounce. 

What I love about math apps is that they get students excited about learning. Not only are they getting to play games, but many times these games include their favorite characters and motivate students to learn with digital reward systems. It is important to keep students engaged with learning and I believe that apps can be a fantastic way to do that! I have learned that not all apps are a good fit for every classroom, but there are great ones out there. Some apps are even aligned with common core state standards! 

Nearpod

Nearpod is an app created by EdTech that helps fill the gap between teachers, students, and boring lecture PowerPoint presentations. Nearpod takes presentations to the next level by allowing teachers to upload and edit or create their own interactive presentations for students to view. The app is now available to almost any device whether it be a smartphone, iPad, Chromebook, or even a desktop computer. Teachers simply create an educator account and can then begin designing unique lessons that are certain to keep students engaged. Quizzes, open-ended questions, polls, and drawn out response questions can all be added into a presentation easily to assess students as they learn. Teachers can even review individual or whole group accuracy ratings. There is a free version as well as a paid subscription version of the app available for both Microsoft and Apple devices. When it is time to teach a lesson, the students simply sign on to the app and enter the pin that pops up on the teachers share screen. There are even thousands of premade lessons aligned to k-12 standards across all subjects available for teachers to use! The video above shows step by step tutorial for teachers on how to create their own presentations and display them in their classroom. It also gives a side by side view of the teacher and student versions of nearpod to help give a better idea of what to expect from the app.
I have learned that adding small variations to classroom lectures and presentations can make all the difference in a classroom. By just adding a short quiz to a lesson, students are better held responsible for the information being presented to them and stay more engaged with the lesson itself. The picture above shows some different things that can be done with the Nearpod app. The biggest thing I had not thought about until seeing this image was how Nearpod could be used for distance learning. I think that it would be a perfect app for distance learning and could even be a great option for students who are being homeschooled.

Flipped Classroom

I have learned how a flipped classroom approach benefits students who do not have a parent at home available to help them with homework. Many students do not have a parent at home who can help with school work, but with this type of learning they should be able to complete assignments independently. Students can access the content at any time from home and revisit all of the material at any given time. I believe that the flipped classroom compliments traditional teaching well and is a great way to give students more time for hands-on learning and assessment during class time. I can’t wait to use it in my future classroom! The video below shows exactly what a flipped classroom looks like and gives some tips on how to use this model realistically with students.

The flipped classroom model takes a traditional classroom model that is utilizing a gradual release of responsibility and flips it into a “you do, we do” modeled classroom. Flipped classrooms typically begin a lesson by introducing the topic to students while they are at home with the help of different web pages and videos online. The student will work through the content assigned on their own and write down notes and questions as they go. Then, once the students come to class, the teacher simply reviews the homework with the students and assists with questions instead of lecturing for the entire class time. This approach to learning leaves more time for the teacher to work individually with struggling students in class and allows time for more multisensory learning activities. There are pros and cons to every model, and the flipped classroom is no exception. Some pros of a flipped classroom are: an increase of student engagement by integrating technology, more time for class discussion, and students have access to assignments even when they are absent or if they need to revisit the information. A big con to flipped classrooms is that all students may not have access to reliable internet services outside of school and they may not have the self motivation to follow this classroom model.