I am teaching first grade this year, but will be teaching Pre-K next year. I would like to use Whole Brain teaching in my classroom. Do I need to modify it at all for such a young group of children? Are there certain ways that make it easier to teach and use Whole Brain teaching rules, etc to Pre-K kids?

I can not wait to teach my class with this new way this year. This will be my third year teaching in the public school system (10th year teaching children in all) and I know that this will be the best ever. This is great, I just wish I knew about it a long time ago.

I am subscribing to this thread and hoping that it gets some answers! I am a music teacher and one of my classes has been pre-K for the past several years. I am moving to a different school this year and will have two pre-K classes. One of them is identified Gifted students from all over our district. My son was in that class 18 years ago, but I have never actually taught a class of gifted preschoolers. I think this method may work especially well with them, but I don't really know. Does anyone have experience with using power teaching with gifted pre-K students?

I had some extremely challenging students in my pre-K last year. It was my most difficult class to teach. The challenging students were SO difficult that I couldn't properly attend to all the compliant ones. Unlike in the past, I actually dreaded them coming to me. I want to do better next year.

I have never taught Pre-K for gifted Pre-k Students, but I can tell you that WBT works with ALL children in ALL grades. you do have to make modifications and adjustments according to their age, but isn't that always the case in teaching;) Sounds like a fun assignment!

What I do in Kinder is I introduce things slowly and we practice, practice, PRACTICE alot! But it is so cool because it totally pays off! i have a document that I have used in Power Teaching Seminars call "How to start your year off Power Teaching in Kindergarten". Although it is directed towards kinder, it gives you an idea of how I break up the pace. Email me if you would like me to send it to you:)

Could you send this to me. It would be really helpful. Thanks, Deanna
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I also teach PreK and I'm very interested in using Power Teaching with my kids. Ms. Schindler could you email your "How to start your year off power teaching in kindergarten" to me too. Thanks!

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Please send me a copy of how to introduce this in Kinder. This sounds like it just may be a good thing for my kids!

thanks,
Jackie
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Here is the document

Hi Andrea, By watching all of the videos--I have noticed that your rules in the kindergarten video were different than the ones Chris was using--is there a reason for this and actually last year I changed some of the rules to match my classroom--I am thinking the rules don't need to match everyone else's but the routines and practice etc. is the important part? Just curious--thank you!

Andrea's vid is so sweet and such a good model! I don't think it matters that you tailor the rules to your situation. I started to leave out Rule # 3 entirely (Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat.) because in music we are up and down all the time and I rarely have children who get too far out of their bubbles since they aren't allowed to pop anyone else's.

I teach ECE, K, and 1 through 5. My youngest children's favorite rule is #5 "Keep your dear teacher happy!" They will see me in the hall and do the gesture at me. Last week my puppet orangutan taught the rules. I let the gifted ECE class name him with the stipulation that his name had to start with the same sound as "orangutan". They came up with "Opie". Opie even got a dum dum sucker for doing such a great job. They thought that was hilarious.

I am totally loving doing WBT with my ECE classes. It is really fun teaching the gifted class that my son was in 20 years ago. They still have the same teacher he had! There are only about 8 of them. They come from the entire school district, but they have to be in about the top 1%, and i guess not many 3 or 4 year olds qualify. It seems like it is easier for the older children to get into the Gateway (gifted) program.

They are so delightful and their teacher seems surprised that they love music class so much because she said they didn't even want to go to music in previous years. Apparently my predecessor didn't like teaching them. She probably just didn't know what to do with that age. They especially like humorous songs. They caught on to WBT faster than the older kids. They have larger vocabularies than most middle school children. It is like having my own little boy back who is now 23 and a college grad and in the Army! I enjoy the "regular" ECE and Kinders, too. They are so sweet and affectionate and very well-behaved unlike the ECE I had at my previous school last year. That group was mostly good, but there were two or three boys who were such severe behavior problems that even with an aide, it was hard to teach them.

I try to find lots of unique ways to practice the rules. Last week I used my Mac and had Vickie (one of the many voices) say the rules. They were fascinated. I told them Vickie couldn't do the gestures, so they had to show them to her. Even the gifted ones asked to "see" her. I wonder if Apple could supply photos of the people who originally supplied the voices. Of course, some of the voices have been digitally altered a lot. I think next week my dog puppet BINGO will do the rules. Then we can learn his song and the rhythm pattern that goes with it. I have had that puppet for maybe 25 years, but he is always a hit because he looks so real. It is one of the ones that hold onto you with arms around your neck and feet around your waist. Well, I guess with a dog, it is all legs and feet, LOL!

I am having difficulty opening the file for How to start WBT in Kindergarten. Any suggestions?? Thanks!

I'm sorry...did you ever get it opened? IF not email me and I will send it to you:)

I would love to get your document that describes starting WBT. Can you send it to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Thank you!

Pam Hollon

I would like for you to send me document that shows and describes starting Whole brain teaching. Email is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

I do believe it is available here in the free downloads section now!! Check there first!!!

Happy Teaching

Farrah Shipley
2010 WBT Intern
Lubbock, Texas
Kindergarten

Hi there~ I sent out the doc~ just in case you were unable to download it. Let me know if you don't get it:laugh:

I would love to get a copy of how to introduced it in a prek classroom and pace. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Hi all! I am quite senile and not sure who I did and did not email. So guess what? I will email you all~ sorry if there are repeats!!!