Nov, 30th, 2014 Polish translation of THE BOOK, yes THIS BOOK

Dear All,

I am happy to announce that official works on translating the book into Polish have begun.        
                                                   
                                                  

Two chapters are behind waiting for some fruitful comments of my closest ones. 

Please keep in mind that Polish language has thousands of inflexions whilst English is just positional. Being faithful to the origin is quite a challenge - maybe because the book is for challenging kids ;]

I'm polishing my tanslating workshop and going back to notes from translation studies.

I hope (no1) to finish my work by the end of January 2015 and hope (no2) the book will see its light in Polish language before summer holidays.

Keep your precius fingers crossed!

Be back soon.

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Nov, 24th, 2014 Webcasts - week 1

Some of you may wonder what are those webcasts and other livestreams...

Well as you may think such crazy people as WBT Teachers have to have the place to get motivation and inspiration from. So there we have webcasts. Those are online "conferences" organized by Chriss Biffle to present some new ideas to do during WBT lessons.

In posts named "Webcasts - week ...." I'll present short summaries and thoughts on those newly presented things. Some of them are not so new, we began meetings in September but they are kind-of-new for those, who didn't know about it before.

WEEK 1

ATTENTION GETTERS

This is one of my favourite things used during classes and I wrote about it here http://brainactivateyourself.blogspot.com/2014/10/oct-15th-2014-my-top-10.html but Coach B. brought some new variations on that.

As the name suggests those are catchwords to get students attention whatever they are doing and wherever they went in their minds.

 

Teachers role is to choose one and throw it into the air out of a sudden! When I see that my students are doing things that I don't want them to do, I say: CLASS! and immendiately get their eyes on me.

THERE'S ONE POINT we should remember about. Last time I wrote about http://brainactivateyourself.blogspot.com/2014/11/nov-18th-2014-wbt-change-of-heart-oh-my.html and to keep it in mind let's give students options to use. Write on the board three (or more) attention getters and let them choose which you'll be using on your lesson today. 

Let them feel the power of that too!

Not satisfied with 10??

OK here are 10 more:

If you'd like to see the webcast go to:

http://www.livestream.com/wholebrainteaching1/video?clipId=pla_251a0c14-b6a7-484e-9b09-34c90cfcfb10

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Nov, 18th, 2014 WBT Change of Heart! Oh my!

Being WBT intern is a huge case. 

It's the best thing that could ever happen to my professional career ever. However, there is a scratch on this beautiful picture.

Yesterday, 17th Nov, Coach B. introduced one of the most truthful and powerful statements in the world. 

Kids from shattered families 

have external locus of control.

That means, the surrounding in which they grow up is so powerful that they have really low self-esteem and see the world as "the ocean" that is the power without any control. 

What can we do to make those kids feel safe and secure at schol? The role of the teacher is to change external locus of control into internal locus, to give the choice and to give kids power over their lives.

Till now WBT method didn't give kids choice. This is what I've noticed today on one of my classes. Surprisingly, I couldn't believe my ears when one of my students said "Gosh! they seem to be like in an army, reacting to teacher's orders! I don't think it's good" - we were watching one of WBT youtube videos. That was a simple opinion, about the behaviour he noticed.

I don't want anyone to feel offended. 

I want to highlight a trouble that I found myself in. 

Does it really work when I make my students so busy that they don't have the time to decide on their own?? Not really.

My students work within some time limits but I always ask "How much time do you need to do this task? one minute or more? suggest something, please". Give students choice, make them feel like they influence the world they live in. 

Be the motivator and let them create their reality.

AMEN

P.S.

Here's the link to this motivating webcast

http://www.livestream.com/wholebrainteaching1/video?clipId=pla_71f54937-ce78-4023-bd9f-3ee821a991d2

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8th, Oct, 2014 My super power!

Skype session with Nancy S. gave me the power to explore. The feedback given from people who are more experienced is priceless!

Having this is my mind I started to explore... watched some inspirational videos by Mateusz Grzesiak http://www.create-yourself.pl/ on his youtube stream, having a quick look at his favourites and comments and tadaaam! found some really nice video by Bartek Skwarczek http://www.skwarczek.pl/ about.... in general.... doing business. What brought my attention was his last words: "success is not what you have but who you become in this way". This made me think about WBT. Whom I become after trying this? Probably this post is one of the series because practising WBT is a constant change and a bunch of new experiences. Soooo..... 
1. it helped me to see my teaching from a different angle,
2. made me realise how talkative I am,
3. organised my work and my workplace,
4. brought my attention to the students not to the content/material/curriculum (choose best),
5. widened my perspectives and future plans,
6. lit my way to change other teachers way of thinking,
7. encouraged me to change myself from a sea slug to teaching professional,
8. saved my time during classes,
9. made me believe, after being proved, that my students are smarter than I thought,
10. gave me the power to teach with the passion I had at the beginning of my teaching career.

POWER TO THE WBT TEACHERS... and to the rest ;)

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4th, Oct, 2014 My success story

Coach B.'s warm welcome during Monday's livestream gave me some superpowers and here I put my video about my scoreboard success. 

Underneath you'll find some info about scoreboard.

The Scoreboard

When your students are well acknowledged with Class!Yes! and Teach!OK! it's high time for the scoreboard.

How? you have to be a really careful observer and notice every single positive behaviour during your class. On the other hand you have to be a careful punisher when sth goes wrong. 

Rules? Yes. Remember to keep the points close, so if you have 3 smileys keep frowneys at about 4 or 5 level.

The purpose is simple, keep them engaged but not discuraged by too many points for bad things.
The best fun is when points are given one by one, on both sides eg. point for quick disposing the papers but point aside for doing it not as quickly as you would like to.
Anything else? Of course! DON'T give points for bad behaviour to one person. Do it when a group is distracting your attention or more than one student is disturbing. However, you can GIVE good points to a single person. Don't scold individuals! praise them! so that everyone would like to be alike.

Remember: you are the scorekeeper. They have to keep you happy and you decide WHEN and FOR WHAT you give points.
It may happen that students will tell you: "Oh Miss! we should be given a point" then you may answer "That's right but this is my class and I decide how many points you get, don't hurry me because it doesn't keep me happy" (this is the time for you to give a frowney ;) You don't have to tell them "Now I give you a smiley/frowney for this and that" just do it and don't comment too much.

Coach B. recommends to make a sound when giving a smiley (mighty Oh yeah!)or groan when giving a frowney - but my Middle school students don't feel comfortable about it. So I'll wait until they feel safe. In my class no sounds are made when scoring.

That's it!
Easy-beezy-lemon-squeezy! Fingers crossed and good luck!

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