Super Improver Wall!

Once again, I find myself a few weeks from the start of school and I’m not finished with my summer stuff and definitely am not finished with my back-to-school stuff.
I finally found my notes from the WBT conference and was able to create some categories for my Super Improver Wall. If you are new to Whole Brain Teaching, we strive to make all our students successful. They are not competing against each other but are competing against themselves. Teach them to strive to do better than they did last time and then reward them.
Since I have so many classes, (27 this year) there was no way for me to have a place for all those charts in my classroom. I decided to have the categories on the wall next to the SmartBoard but use the SmartBoard to display the different classes.

My classroom theme is musical with my 45rpm’s-themed posters so I decided to go with a music theme here, too.

These will be printed on cardstock, cut apart, and attached to a strip of poster paper. The chalkboard graphics came from www.teachingsuperpower.blogspot.com/ and I love how the circles came with different color choices.

That helps when I change the colors of the stars for each level. My levels are 1. listener, 2. garage band, 3. 1,000 views on YouTube, 4. US Tour, 5. Platinum album, 6. World Tour, and 7. Grammy Award.
Each student star begins with white. WBT usually has 10 levels of improvement, but since I only see my students once a week, I’ve opted for 7 for now.

The Smart Notebook slides include the classroom teacher’s name on the bottom and the stars will have the students’ names as soon as I receive the rosters. The color of the star can change and the students can “decorate” their star with the magic pen. 5 “stickers” puts them up to the next level. Photos may be included as they improve at certain levels.
Next project: mini-books for their lapbooks.
Happy planning!

Finally, Music Elements

I have finally finished the music posters for 5 elements of music. I am hoping to add more at a later date. You can find them here.


The first one (shown above) is geared towards kindergarten. We practice these from time to time all year long. For Whole Brain Teaching, I will use gestures for each of the voices. This leads into dynamics in the later grades as the poster is set up from loudest to softest voices. (Thanks to my daughter for that idea.)

The next is tempo with pictures of animals that move at that particular speed. Yes, we do teach the Italian definitions. The lower grades will start with only presto and largo. Lining up at different tempos is always fun for the kids. They can also suggest the (appropriate) way to walk down the hall. WBT gestures will be the speed of arms moving.
Dynamics are next. I need to add crescendo and decrescendo to these. WBT gestures will be similar to a conductors cues. First graders begin with forte and piano. Second grade adds fortissimo and pianissimo. Third grade adds the mezzos.
Form was an interesting element to work out. I tried to make the definition as simple as possible. The WBT gesture is the American Sign Language sign for “together” indicating how the music is put together.

Last comes the poster for the instrument families. Normally, I teach only the families in the orchestra but I have added keyboard instruments to the list. Different grade levels will discuss the combination of instruments in different ensembles such as a jazz band, rock group, and marching band, etc. Gestures will be however the main set of instruments is played.
I hope to add genre (which could easily follow the instrument families), the staff including letter names and solfege syllables, and folk dance movements at a later date.
Again, if you have any suggestions for me as to different gestures to use to get in that Whole Brain Teaching, it would be much appreciated. As I am the only music specialist that I am aware of that is trying WBT, I can use all the help I can get.
Also, thanks to Lovin Lit for the graphic frames.
Trying my first Made It Monday linky at 4th Grade Frolics.

Thanks for stopping by!