Monday 21 April 2014

WBT–Hands And Eyes…

Everybody knows I love & appreciate

Whole Brain Teaching.

I love it because it works.
I love it because it’s quick.

But most of all…

I love it because the Little Learners love it!

The Whole Brain Teaching approach is really fun and extremely successful too. 
It just makes sense to teach this way.  Come on, give it a go. 
It’s FREE
I read about it, watched several You Tube clips and videos about how to implement it but to be honest I completely underestimated its value until I tried it.

Guess What?  I bought the book!
I had to following the little fiasco written below.
READ ON IF YOU NEED A LAUGH

WBT book cover

There is so much more to this approach and you can adapt as much or as little as you like. 

‘Hands and Eyes’
also known as The Focuser

Best introduced through a little story at my expense…

I watched a You Tube showing how to implement WBT in an Infants classroom. 
I watched carefully oo-ing and ah-ing at all the appropriate places. 
I was looking for pointers to use in my room.
I hadn’t read the book. 
I knew that Hands and Eyes was the focuser to use directly after the Class-Yes! 
I watched the clip carefully.
Learned the accompanying action.

Hands and eyes2

Slight problem at this point…

I thought the teacher demonstrating was saying ‘hands in ice’.  I listen to it several times.
I thought that was unusual and must be an Americanism.  Didn't question it beyond that really. 
So…
I was armed and excited ready with my next WBT development
to trial with my Little learners.
 

In I went so excited and taught the kids the very next day the focuser .
I taught them that when I said ‘hands in ice’ they needed to echo and complete the accompanying action. 
This action was to clap hands together quickly directly out in front of their torso then snap their clasped hands quickly towards their bodies landing in their laps with one smooth movement as they echoed ‘hands in ice’
Well naturally they did this, such an obedient bunch of kindergarteners.
Look at the Little Learner above so sweetly following.  
We practised a few times and then…
my 15year old daughter happen to pop past my room
(She is in Year 10 at our K-12 school and sometimes visits me…usually for money) 
She wandered in,
she listened and she laughed…

loudly.  

She said mum, it’s not ‘hands in ice’ it’s ‘hands and eyes’
and instantly it made sense to me. 
After all, it was an meant as an attention grabber. 
Hands in laps meant not fiddling attention my way as did eyes to me. 
Oh my! 
Yes I did feel silly but I did LOL too. 

So there you have it my introduction to WBT Hands and Eyes
Hopefully yours will make a lot more sense when you try it with your Little Learners.

By the way it works brilliantly as a focuser after using Class-Yes.
Want to know more about WBT…try my You might also like links below.

Happy Tuesday
Mrs StoweSmile

3 comments:

Karli Lomax said...

That's hilarious! I can see how you got confused :)
Hey, as long as it works with your students, right??
Karli
Creating a Thoughtful Classroom

Barbara said...

Too funny. I thought maybe it was "hands in nice" even though that's not grammatically correct. Haha!
Ruby Slippers Blog Designs

Unknown said...

It really did work, even with my ridiculous mistake which just shows me it's not so much what we say it's the positive attitude we bring with it. Looking forward to exploring this... :-)

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