WBT Classroom Rules

Many years ago, my children attended a charter school where they started out each day reciting the 7 habits of highly effective students. It was so cute to watch my kindergartener remind me to "sharpen my saw." And while the method had value, much of the terminology was lost on my kids.

Fast forward to today, whole brain teaching once again starts the day off with children reciting the expectations. Instead of the seven habits, they have 5 rules. However, WBT uses gestures to help students remember these... take a look:

 Mrs. Nichols at The Polka Dot Patch has a GREAT freebie on this! I also really enjoy her rule #6! What a great addition! Some people have even replaced #3 with the new version or have changed the order of the rules.

The options for this is limited by you and what you think is important. The key is to repeat it daily, let the students lead the rules eventually, and use GESTURES!

So with this in mind and from viewing the websites of other whole brain teachers, these are the rules for my classroom:

1 - Follow directions quickly (make your hand shoot forward like a fish)

2 - Raise your hand (put hand in air) for permission to speak (put hand by mouth and mimic talking with it)

3 - Respect others (point out), Respect yourself (point to you), and respect your school (point at floor)

4 - Make Smart choices (gesture: tap your head for each word)

5- Keep your dear teacher happy (L's on either side of head like a frame, big smile, move it slowly like a bobble head)

I decided to replace rule number three as I use other gestures in my classroom for leaving their seats. Most of there are simple ASL signs to help the student better communicate with me. I also use ASL for classroom discussions. However, as a sub, I stick to the original version.

The rules are posted on my classroom website for parents to see and I am planning on video taping my students on the first day of school saying the rules and using the gestures for parents as well.