Tried It Tuesday: WBT Scoreboard

Hello again bloggy friends! It's hard to believe it's already the end of the year! While I know most of you are busy with end of the year shenanigans, I've been busy with teaching applications, revising my resume, and updating all my clearances. I'm working towards (fingers crossed) my first "real" teaching position next year as a first year teacher at some lucky school district.

Anyway, for today's Tried it Tuesday, I'm linking up again with Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper.

One of the new strategies I've recently been using as a substitute is Whole Brain Teaching methods by Chris Biffle. Now for those of you who are familiar with WBT, I'm only dabbling in these techniques, and by no means, am I using it as effectively as I could in my own classroom. However, as a substitute, implementing some daily tricks like the The Scoreboard has helped with my traveling classroom management plan.

One of the reasons I started using WBT is the truth that "The longer we talk, the more students we lose." Students need 2 minutes of processing time for every 10 minutes of direct instruction. WBT creates a structured routine for this, where students can turn and talk about what they learned and activate their schema. With subbing, I try to implement this 10/2 ratio with my teaching, so that students, no matter what age, are always so busy being engaged in my lessons, they simply don't have time for poor behavior.

For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this already!

I just love using the scoreboard as a substitute! Here's how it works:

1. I printed the scoreboard from Whole Brain Teaching with Style (she has the cutest WBT blog). I laminated the paper, cut it out, and attached it to an old lanyard. So, this is a virtually free (sans the cost of printing) class management system. It's super easy to implement, too! I use an Expo to write, and carry it around all the time - to Special, Lunch, etc.

2. I give tally marks for positive AND negative behavior. This is a group reward system, not individual. The one thing I tell every class is that my students have a reputation to know how to work together as a team to make positive choices. So, aside from the system in place for their classroom, I motivate students by increasing the amount of teamwork in the classroom. Every time I enter a classroom, even if it is for part of the day, I give this two minute spiel. (Yes, spiel. Believe it or not, I need to take 30 seconds to explain what a spiel is too!)

3. When awarding points, they are working to make me (the teacher) happy. This is pretty fool proof, because if a group of students say, "Well we think that it was a good idea to...(insert poor behavior choice here)" I can easily argue, "Well, that doesn't make me happy." So maybe it's a little self-centered. But, it works.

4.Students can earn "happy" points for working well in groups, being on-task, getting compliments from adults, etc. Every time a "happy" point is earned, kiddos get a ONE second (yes, that's right, one) celebration. They clap their hands in a circle and exclaim, "Oh yeah!" The trick is: they WHOLE class needs to do this all together, synchronously. If even one student (there's one in every class) carries on his or her one-second celebration for too long, they earn a "sad" point.

5. "Sad" points can be any poor choices made by the class. For every "sad" point they earn, they do a one second groan and should shrug with a quick "Ugh." Now, the trick is, I use Chris Biffle's 3 Point Rule - don't let there be more than 3 points between the positive and negative points. I tell the students about this, too. I let them know that if they are higher than 3 "happy" points, then I will be looking for negative behaviors, no matter how small. And, if a class is 3 higher in "sad" points, I will be looking for even the smallest amount of positive behavior. This is when I can be really impressed by a student who is struggling with his or her behavior, and allow them to earn a point for the whole class. Even if just one student is sitting in his seat like asked, I point him out and give the class a point.

6. How do I reward the class as a substitute? I reward the smallest rewards for the class, because my students work hard for their progress. Kids typically work towards one extra minute of recess. Yes, you read that right, ONE minute of recess. As a substitute, it can't be anything costly, or anything that is too much prep, since I never know what to expect. Typically, I ask that my class is the first ones out to recess that day if they win on the positive side. If not, they owe their teacher one minute the next day. Sometimes this goes toward a one minute YouTube video, an extra minute of free time, or a one minute dance party via GoNoodle.