October 28, 2024 • 41 mins
Every teacher faces challenges with classroom management and creating a classroom where students thrive. Whole Brain Teaching is one of the world's premier instructional systems. Relying on research-based strategies to successfully engage all students, Chris Biffle shares how using Whole Brain Teaching can make your classroom the best place for every student to learn. Listen in to this episode from our most recent Rise Up Summit.
Get notes + links at http://teach4theheart.com/325
00:00 Introduction and Background
03:06 Engaging the Whole Brain: Whole Brain Teaching
05:48 Superimprover: Turning the Classroom into a Living Video Game
08:56 Mastering Classroom Management with Whole Brain Teaching Rules
11:53 Smooth Transitions: The Three P's and Gamifying Instruction
16:12 Adapting Whole Brain Teaching for Different Grade Levels
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome back to the Rise Up Summit.
I'm so excited to have Chris Biffle with us today.
A lot of you probably already know him.
He's the creator of Whole Brain Teaching.
And we are so excited to be talking with you today.
Chris, thank you so much for being here.
I'm always delighted to share old brain teaching.
Can you share before we get into it just a little bit of your background, your teachingbackground and what led you to come up with this concept?
(00:30):
All right, this is a good story.
So.
I taught philosophy, college philosophy, for 25 years and I was locked in lecturediscussion.
Is that the way you do college?
My favorite philosopher is Plato.
So I've been giving my Plato lecture for twice a year for 25 years.
(00:56):
I'd given it 50 times.
It was darn good in 1995.
So Linda, I do a magnificent.
Plato lecture.
I mean, I'd given it 50 times and it was all across the board and it was super clear.
And I was just riding high.
And I said to a girl in the front row, a good solid B student, I said, what did I justsay?
(01:21):
She said, I have no idea.
So I said to myself, gee, Willikers, I'm not going to get any better at the Plato lecture.
50 more years is not going to improve this.
So I came to the big decision, as we always do in teaching, the big wrong decision.
I'll give up lecture, I'm just gonna do discussion.
(01:44):
And philosophy is great for discussion.
Does God exist?
Do we have a soul?
What's the purpose of life?
How should we live?
Those are the big juicy questions.
So I did discussion, I didn't lecture, I just discussed.
I'm a son of the 60s.
I believe in discussion in a free -form classroom.
(02:05):
One day I had a great discussion.
Everybody, quote unquote, was participating.
I left the room and I counted up how many kids participated in a great discussion.
Now I had 35 kids.
I had seven participating in the great discussion.
If you have seven people participating in discussion, it feels magnificent.
(02:28):
That means 28 of them are out to lunch.
So I could do lecture, I could do discussion.
I thought the darkest thought,
that teachers could ever think.
You probably have thought it too.
I thought, maybe I should become a lawyer.
You know, that's a dark thought.
(02:49):
So I started trying stuff I'd never seen before.
Most of it failed.
And I began using some games that were kind of working.
And I was coaching girls middle school basketball at the same time.
And I used the techniques to coach basketball that I was using to teach ancientphilosophy.
(03:13):
Different population, different subject matter, different environment, and the sametechniques work astoundingly in both those two places.
That made no sense.
So I got a couple of former students who were then now teachers, one Jay Vanderfin inkindergarten, the other Chris Rexted in fourth grade.
(03:34):
And I said, look.
It's working in basketball at college.
They tried it out and we had 80 meetings in 95.
It blew up from there.
We decided from the start, we're not going to be a business.
We don't do cold calls.
We don't advertise.
All our online materials are free.
We're not going to be a business.
(03:55):
We're a movement and it's blown up.
Old brain teaching is used in a hundred countries.
We've got 200 ,000 podcasts downloads.
9 or 10 million YouTube views.
It's a big deal.
And it started with giving up lecture and discussion.
I guess there's a moral to that story.
(04:15):
Yeah, thank you so much for sharing that.
That is so fascinating to just hear and it makes sense just kind of built out of just thisproblem.
It's not, this isn't working, students aren't engaged and then, you know, trying thingsand coming across just really strategies that are really working well.
So some people listening are very familiar with whole brain teaching already, but somearen't.
(04:36):
So can you give kind of a brief synopsis of some of the high level things for those thataren't familiar?
Well, brain teaching is multi -sensory, but by multi -sensory we mean all the senses atthe same time.
So if I give you a definition, let's say I ask you a question, what's an adjective?
(04:59):
I want you to repeat that question over and over to your neighbor, then I'll call you backand I will explain an adjective changes or modifies a noun.
So you've seen it, you hear it, you're doing it, and you repeat it to your neighbor.
And in our game context, you're having a lot of fun.
(05:21):
So whole brain teaching, appropriately enough, is engaging the whole brain.
Now, here's the selling point.
Then to ask yourself, what makes video games so compelling?
Compelling.
Kids will play video games and almost
(05:42):
not even eat.
They will play video games at every opportunity.
What makes video games compelling is they are whole brain engaging.
You're seeing some stuff.
You're moving things.
You're hearing that music.
You're talking to yourself or someone else playing the game with you online and youremotions are going up and down.
(06:08):
And you're in a continuous search for uncertain reward.
Well,
There are board games about all different kinds of things.
Could there be an instructional game that uses video game like environment to motivatekids?
(06:31):
And the happy answer is after 30 years, yeah.
And the game is called Superimprover and we reward for improvement and we turn theclassroom into a living video game.
That's it, man.
Yes.
So can you share a little bit about...
I know we want to talk about kind of the classroom management side, but I feel like it isimportant that teachers understand just some of these ideas.
(06:57):
And I noticed a lot of teachers will use all of the whole brain teaching aspects andothers will pull in pieces.
So before we get into the classroom management side, can you share about just like themicro lecture and turn and talk concept, which I know is a really commonly used strategy?
Sure.
We start with our attention getter.
(07:22):
I say class and the kids say yes.
But if you say that four or five times, they will begin to zone out.
The problem in game playing, the problem in life, the problem in instruction ishabituation.
Linda, you can have chocolate cake.
on your birthday and it tastes great and then you have it next morning and it still tastespretty good but after three or four days of chocolate cake you'd rather have a bowl of
(07:52):
string beans.
Your brain becomes habituated to repeated identical stimulus.
So if we just said class yes or one two three eyes on me or god forbid flip the lights onand off which some teachers are doing it works for a little while then it wears out.
So we have all different kind of variations on class.
(08:14):
Yes, yo class, hey class, yabba doo class.
That is our attention getter.
And then we engage the brain with mirror words, which I'll demonstrate right now, me andyou.
Here we go, Linda.
Just repeat after me.
Mirror words.
Mirror words.
an adjective.
(08:34):
An adjective.
changes or modifies a noun.
changes or modifies a noun.
One more time.
One more time.
an adjective.
adjective.
changes or modifies a noun.
(08:55):
noun.
then I would say, mirror's off.
You'd say, mirror's off.
And I'd say, turn to your neighbor and repeat that over and over and over again, not justonce, over and over again, while I walk around the room and check comprehension.
I mean, think about it.
How many times do we teach what an adjective is or that sentences should have capitals orthat six plus seven is equal to 13?
(09:20):
We teach that for 12 years.
And I get kids in my college classrooms who never got it because it was teached withinsufficient repetition and insufficient emotional engagement in a deeply habituating
instructional system.
(09:42):
That's what happens.
Kids come in, they like the chocolate cake kind of on the first day and after a while moreand more and more chocolate cake, which is to say,
more and more junk from the treasure chest, obituates them, and makes them wish they wereat home playing Mario Brothers.
(10:04):
I'm kidding on my soapbox, but that's all right, I'm excited right now, go.
Well, this is just a really like a little bit of a light bulb for me.
And I hope for those of you that are listening to that, like that idea of just thehabituation that you have to keep things fresh.
You have to keep things different.
I noticed when you did the mirror, you didn't even do it the same way twice.
It was different both times.
And I do think, you know, repetition work has fallen out of vogue because of theboringness of it, the repetition of it.
(10:30):
But what you're saying is we need the repetition, but we just have to make it not.
boring.
We have to make it in ways that are interesting, that are different.
And then of course the whole brain method, you're using all different senses and it'sengaging your whole brain.
Am I tracking right here?
We're not doing too bad as a beginning whole -brain student.
We need contradictory things.
(10:52):
We need consistency.
You've got to keep using the same techniques.
And we need variety.
And so with mirror words, let's just demonstrate a few versions of mirror words here.
Here we go.
Mirror words.
Mirror Words.
(11:13):
Mirror words!
Mirror words.
Near words.
Mirror works.
it.
So consistency, mirror words, variety, different ways to do it, and we're engaging thewhole brain and we're lifting the emotions and we're creating, and we haven't really got
(11:35):
into it yet, but we're creating this beginning video game atmosphere where you don't quiteknow what's coming next.
Ask me about how we increase engagement.
Come on now.
I'm gonna tell you.
Listen.
Linda.
In the
and in a really fun way.
That is fantastic.
(11:57):
So to this point, we've talked about a whole bunch of ideas already, and we haven'tspecifically necessarily talked about classroom management, but I hope those of you that
are listening are recognizing this all goes hand in hand.
If you have students that are wanting to improve, that if you're engaging them, I mean,when I did that with you, I mean, I'm locked in.
I gotta pay attention.
I don't know what's gonna happen next, and I'm doing it, and it's very engaging.
(12:18):
So you're automatically eliminating a whole bunch of problems off the bat.
But I know you also have a system that specifically kind of addresses the classroommanagement side with your whole brain teaching rules.
So can we talk a little bit about that?
Love to.
So.
When we first sat down in 95 and I talked to these two elementary teachers and I said,well, what can we fix in your classrooms?
(12:43):
And they said right off the bat, transitions.
Transitions from A task to B task is where problems happen.
Teachers over and over again tell me they've got a hard time after six months stillgetting kids to line up correctly, much less get their math books out and their papers and
(13:04):
put their name at the top.
So rule number one, follow directions quickly.
There's my gesture.
Here we go, Linda.
I'm going to teach you all the rules.
Mirror words.
Rule number one.
Rule number one.
Follow directions quickly.
Follow directions quickly.
Rule number two.
(13:25):
Number two.
Raise your hand.
Raise your hands.
or permission to speak.
Permission to speak.
Rule number three.
Rule number three.
Raise your hand.
Raise your hand.
For permission.
For permission.
(13:45):
To leave?
to leave your seat.
You're excited to leave your seat.
Rule number four, make smart choices.
Make smart choices.
Rule number five.
Rule number five.
Make.
(14:06):
Make.
Our dear Dean.
Our dear team.
The wronger!
Stronger!
And then we recently added this last one, diamond rule.
Diamond rule.
Keep your eyes on the target.
Keep your eyes on the target.
Now Linda, we can teach those rules in the first day to third, fourth, and fifth gradersjust by doing mirror words and some other shenanigans.
(14:34):
In kindergarten, we're gonna teach one rule a day, but those rules cover every possibleclassroom behavior.
The first three rules are very specific.
We gotta get kids to follow directions quickly, and when they improve, they can get asuper improver star.
We've got to get kids to raise their hand for permission to speak.
(14:58):
And the problem there is kids don't have to raise their hand for permission to speakanywhere except the classroom.
So it's a new behavior.
And we can't have them wandering around the classroom.
So that solves three very, very specific problems.
There are other issues in instruction besides those.
So Make Smart Choices covers everything kids do in class.
(15:22):
on the playground.
In fact, taught philosophy for 40 years and all philosophers would agree you got to makesmart choices.
They just disagree on what those choices are.
And rule five, make our dear team stronger.
Kids understand what makes a team stronger and what makes a team weaker.
(15:43):
They do not understand what expectations are.
They do not understand what
being responsible is.
They have a foggy understanding of what being courteous or kind are all the adult words.
But they have been on teams and witness teams where kids are doing things that make theteam stronger and kids are doing things that make the teams weaker.
(16:11):
One of our problems in education is we use adult speak to teach kids.
And then the diamond rule is just a real good one.
I mean,
If kids are looking in the right direction, their visual cortex is engaged, you're halfwayhome.
So those rules cover a lot of stuff and we rehearse them.
(16:31):
We don't put them on the wall.
We rehearse them four or five times a day and then we have kids lead the rules.
It's one of the foundations of whole brain teaching.
Great, I have two questions.
So first, the diamond rule.
So is that, at first I wasn't sure if that was literal or metaphorical.
So it's literal.
Like look, actually look at what we're doing basically.
Okay.
reason we call it the Diamond Rule and not Rule 6, we're not keen on the number 6, and youcan just figure out why that might be.
(17:00):
Diamond Rule, because it's so valuable, and this is a nice easy gesture to make, it's sovaluable, so precious, that we keep our eyes on the target.
Perfect.
Okay.
And so the rules are great.
You're right.
They cover pretty much everything very simply and very easy to explain.
But I know the question teachers are going to have, well, what do you do when studentsdon't follow the rule?
(17:24):
Do you have a system to handle that or is it kind of up to the teacher?
wait, wait a second, Linda.
Are you telling me that we've got some kids who are not following the rules?
Is that what you're telling me?
I think it might happen occasionally.
All right, let's take the toughest rule of all, rule number two, raise your hand forpermission to speak.
(17:47):
We did a survey on Facebook of tons of teachers and we said, do a 15 minute lesson andcount how many times kids blurt out.
Kids are blurting out on average nationwide twice every minute.
That means in a 15 minute lesson you've got 30 blurters.
(18:11):
So you're spending all your time redirecting and scolding.
Teach, redirect, scold, rinse and repeat.
Linda, if scolding and redirection worked, I would write a book called, Scold Like a Pro.
You know, it doesn't work.
(18:33):
What does work?
First of all, you got to get the kids understanding the rules.
Second of all, you've got to get them to buy into the super improver, which is not thathard at all because they've already have the brain patterns that are linked to.
whole brain engagement.
(18:55):
And then what happens is a kid blirts out, you say, to, and every kid in class says, raiseyour hand for permission to speak.
So instead of you being isolated as the scolder, redirector, you're using scolding toreinforce and continue to teach.
(19:17):
When you say to, and everyone says, raise your hand for permission to speak.
They're with you, they're relearning a lesson that takes lots and lots of reps, and thenyou just start using super improvements.
All right, listen, we're gonna teach for five minutes.
Look, here's the timer.
If I see anyone improving and raising their hand for permission to speak, then they mightget a dice roll.
(19:43):
And Linda, you know what's better than a dice roll?
A dice roll with a nice green dice.
When you roll the dice in class, every eye is on you.
And this duplicates the super sophisticated engine that generates uncertain reward invideo games.
(20:04):
What is it going to come down on?
If it comes down on one, two, or three, you get a super improver star.
If it doesn't, four or five, you say, we got grit, we don't quit, which is the mostimportant lesson of all.
And a six is a reroll.
Listen to this.
You pick up the dice, Linda.
You think kids would be saying, one, one, two, three, no.
(20:26):
Kids chant six.
They chant six, six, six.
Why?
Because they want to see the dice a -rollin'.
Talk to a gambler.
You say to a gambler, why do you gamble so much?
It's not the money, it's the action.
(20:48):
Six is the action.
Six ignites the nucleus accumbens in the brain to secrete dopamine.
Yeah, so that's how you address one of the main problems and you keep addressing it.
Really good point for your listeners.
(21:10):
Do not become a teacher if it bugs you to repeat.
You
Linda, teaching is repeating.
That's what we're paid to do.
If you're in the lunchroom and someone says, I don't know how many times I have to tellkids this stuff, don't sit near them.
(21:32):
Teaching is repetition.
And if you're a basketball coach or a tennis coach or a music coach or a band coach or ananything, really good instructor, you're going to repeat and repeat and repeat.
Give me another question.
Come on.
I'm rolling.
no, this is great.
And I think you're, I mean, you're absolutely right.
(21:52):
And when teachers think about it, if you are very consistent and repeat every time astudent's blurting, you do that same thing, it's not gonna get fixed on the first, second,
or third, but eventually students are gonna pick up, this is what happens every singletime.
And that really does pay off.
Okay, other question.
You mentioned transitions.
And I think whole brain teaching, if I'm right, has a specific recommendation for how tohandle transitions as well.
(22:16):
Is that correct?
Sure.
The thing is, is that we must just take the transition of the classic one, lining up ortaking your seats.
In the book, Old Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids, second edition, in the book we sayuse the three P's.
(22:38):
When I say lines, everyone says lines, lines, lines as they line up.
When I say seats, everyone says seats, seats, seats as they sit down.
Do not teach how to line up when it's time to line up.
You don't have time.
So you've got problem with kids lining up?
(22:59):
Practice, practice, practice, lining up and sitting down.
And if while Jack is improving, he gets a super improver star and a dice roll.
If the whole class is improving, goodness gracious.
Everybody gets a super improver star.
Why do I care?
I got 240 to give away.
Everybody gets a super improver star and a dice roll.
(23:22):
Practice, rehearse, gamify instruction.
That's how we handle transitions.
Whatever the transition is.
Paper's out, paper's out, paper's out, paper's out, and boom, our hands are like this.
Improvement, super improver start.
Awesome.
Yeah, that's fantastic.
I knew it was something like that, so thank you so much for sharing that.
(23:44):
Okay, another question just, I'm just kind of, I'm just sharing as they're coming here.
Obviously, some of these things, you've said you've used these strategies across gradelevels, but there's certain things that seem more like, this would be really fit for
certain ages.
What do teachers do that teach older grades, like high school?
(24:05):
How much of this do you find that they have trouble where kids almost feel like it's, likehow do you adapt it for older kids?
All right, cards flat on the table.
Our experience has been, when I say our, mine and 20 or 30 or 40 other presenters.
the higher grade you teach.
(24:28):
The less interested you are in educational innovation and the more committed you are toplowing through the curriculum.
That's just the way things are.
Do we have high school and middle school teachers who flourish in the system?
Absolutely.
Are they typical?
(24:49):
Are they normal?
Or are they ordinary?
Not so.
But the thing is, is that this didn't start in kindergarten.
It started in college.
I'll tell you another story.
So I tried everything that you can imagine in 25 years to motivate my kids to look, toeven look like they were interested.
(25:10):
I said, I'll give you extra credit.
I even offered to pay them money.
I said, I'll write you a letter of recommendation.
I stood up on the desk one time and crowed like a rooster to teach the difference betweena purisism and rationalism.
I was out riding my bike one day two years later and a kid came up to me and he said, Iused to be in your class Mr.
(25:35):
Bill.
I said, do you remember the difference between empiricism and rationalism?
He says, no, but I sure remember when you stood up on the desk and crowed like a rooster.
All right.
The thing is, is that in middle school and high school, we've got to fish where the fishare.
The fish are not in the grade pool.
(25:59):
The fish are not in a right to a glowing recommendation.
The fish in general for most kids are not in the GPA pool.
And I realized that in class.
My college students were in a pool I'd never even thought about.
What did they want?
They wanted less homework.
That was the pool.
(26:21):
So I walked in, this is the beginning of Whole Brain Teaching, I walk in, I got a bunch ofballs of paper.
I say, when it looks like you're paying attention, and I mean sitting up and watching mewherever I go, it looks like you're paying attention, that's great, I'm gonna throw a ball
of paper in the right hand corner.
When it looks like you're nodding off or looking around, I had kids stare at the wall, thewall was more interesting than me.
(26:44):
So if it looks like you're not paying attention and you frankly don't care, I'll throw aball of paper in the left hand corner.
When class is over, I'm gonna count up the balls of paper.
If there's more right -hand balls, that's one page less homework for every extra right-hand ball.
If there's more left -hand balls, that's one page extra homework.
(27:05):
And as soon as I said that, Linda, I can see it to this day, three boys in the class, inthe back of the classroom, always sat slouching down.
As soon as I threw the first ball of paper in the more homework pile, they sat up and theypaid attention.
Now.
We went from balls of paper to a scoreboard and a lot of other stuff.
(27:27):
Yes, the system works in middle school and high school, but it is as big a change for themas it is for pre -K to five.
But pre -K to five teachers, we have just found are more flexible, are more interested ininnovation, and are more interested in gamification.
My colleagues in college did not care about instruction.
(27:50):
They cared about subject matters.
I was kooky, I cared about teaching.
That does make sense.
It's just maybe like less of a comfort level.
It's a little way more.
Maybe I think it's maybe more out of the comfort zone for a high school teacher than it isfor an elementary teacher.
But if I'm hearing you right, your encouragement is like, yeah, this isn't going to someof these strategies are not going to feel like they're going to feel weird.
(28:15):
You're not going to have to really like pull them out.
You're not to, you know, kind of sell it to your students a little bit.
But the encouragement is to really if it works, is it worth it?
That's the thing, no one is going to go home from teaching kindergarten or 12th grade andnot be exhausted.
(28:35):
It's super hard work.
But you have a choice between being exhausted,
because you're pushing a rock up a hill and it keeps rolling down over you between beingexhausted from exhortation and redirection and scolding, dog -tired, or be exhausted from
(28:58):
teaching kids in this, in a new method.
And we desperately need a new method.
So you're going to be tired, it's going to be hard, but the choice isn't between hard andeasy, it's between this hard or that hard.
Absolutely, yeah, and if you can catch that vision for the worthwhileness of it, I thinkthat's really, really exciting.
(29:20):
Well, you've shared so much with us today.
We have a little, just a few more minutes left.
Is there any, I know you have probably a million other things you'd love to share.
Anything else that's on your heart or that you think would be particularly helpful forteachers to hear right now.
This is what's occurring to me in the last few weeks.
K -2 teachers, we used to say kindergarten is a separate world.
(29:43):
K -2 teachers are a separate world.
And they need a special version of whole brain teaching.
So I'm going to write another book.
I'm weary.
But I'm going to write another book, Whole Brain Teaching, for kindergarten to secondgrade.
And.
It would take me a year to write the whole book, so I'm going to write it in episodes.
(30:04):
I'm going to try to get book one out by the end of the summer so that we have a way toreally help the kids.
Get this metaphor.
Let's close with this.
I'm very, very, very negative upon the state of education worldwide.
(30:27):
As I talk to teachers and principals all the time.
So I see that the great ship of education has sunk.
Teachers are in lifeboats.
Around them, kids are drowning in the waves.
(30:49):
We've got to pull them into the lifeboat and teach them how to row towards the goldenhorizon.
We don't do that by complaining.
We don't do that by yelling at them, hey, swim harder.
Pay attention to me.
(31:09):
We do it with love and concern in the same way we would save a life.
We are saving lives and we're losing a generation of kids from COVID forward.
Principals are telling me they're seeing kindergartners are coming in with a level ofdefiance they've never seen before.
And it's not going to get better next year.
(31:31):
It's not in the newspapers.
It's lived in the nation's classrooms.
So we've got to do things a different way.
We've got to save these drowning kids.
And Whole Brain Teaching is one way to do that.
Plus that, it's free.
Go to the website.
There's no pop -ups.
We used to have no ads on YouTube, except YouTube puts the ads on automatically.
(31:53):
So it's free, it's fun.
And I especially encourage teachers to join the Super Improver Facebook page.
And that's where all the action is happening.
We've got grade level Facebook pages, but...
I'm putting out new stuff sometimes, a couple times a week.
So it's a lot of fun and we're helping lots of kids.
(32:15):
Awesome.
Well, that was my last question was where can people go?
So the website, wholebrainteaching .com is the website, right?
And we'll make sure we link to that.
Any particular place they should go when they head over there or just kind of startlooking around?
go to day one.
We'll tell you how to start day one, minute one.
And also go to Facebook Superimprover.
(32:37):
And it's a closed group.
We will admit you to the group and you'll see all the latest stuff.
Also, we have a free book study, free book study coming up this summer led by SarahMetter.
It's seven weeks and it'll guide you through the book.
We've got a great.
Come one, come all conference in Crowley, Louisiana, led by the genius talents of AndreDeCetel.
(33:07):
Those are on the website.
So lots of great stuff coming.
Well, thank you, Chris, so much.
We so appreciate you being here and encourage everyone to check out the resources.
And once again, incorporate all of it or try out at least some of it in your classroom andsee how it goes.
So Chris, thank you so much.
My pleasure.
(33:29):
current teaching system, which is a massive failure, go talk to teachers, in the currentteaching system, we reward for ability.
That's called grades.
Linda, when you reward for ability, the kids with the most ability get the rewards.
(33:51):
And children find out in kindergarten if they're in that top 10%.
They're in a race they can't win if we're rewarding for ability because not everyone hasmaximum ability.
And if rewarding for ability worked, we'd just have to give grades, which is what we'redoing and it doesn't work.
(34:16):
But if we reward for improvement, if we reward for growth, then every kid can win.
We have special ed kids beating gifted kids because beautifully enough special ed kids cangrow more than gifted kids.
(34:36):
And then the parents of gifted kids come in and say, well, how come my daughter is notwinning at this super improver game?
And we say,
And the parent says, she's reading three grade levels higher.
And we say, your daughter's wonderful, but if she doesn't start growing next year, she'llonly be reading two grade levels higher.
(34:57):
Everybody's got to grow and everybody needs to be in competition, not with anybody else,but with themselves.
And that's the essence of our video game.
We have a game called Superimprover.
Go to wholebrainteaching .com.
Look it up.
In Superimprover, everybody starts as a turtle, and when we see five improvements, gosh,they're a panda.
(35:22):
And some more improvements, they're a kangaroo.
240 improvements throughout the year to get to the top.
There's no treasure chest in the world large enough to give away 240 improvements to 20kids and have them care about it.
Let me tell you this.
(35:44):
We've got this system called PBIS.
Have you ever heard of PBIS, Linda?
Yes, you have, my friend.
In PBIS, we're giving away tickets, gotcha tickets, when we see kids doing good things andthe tickets typically go to the student store or lottery.
We have schools where there's PBIS and whole -brain teaching, and the kids trade the PBIStickets for stars in Superimprover.
(36:12):
And what do they get?
They don't get squat, except they level up.
Picture this.
While Jack is at home playing a video game, his mom doesn't stand on his shoulder and say,come on now, Jack.
If you play harder and if you level up, I'll give you a handful of jelly beans.
(36:34):
No motivation is needed to play video games hard.
And...
In video games, we see grit that we never see in any other place in life.
Edison is revered because he tried 1 ,000 different filaments in an electric light to seewhat material would carry that fiery charge.
(36:59):
Turned out it was carbonized bamboo of all things.
So Edison, my goodness, he kept trying for 1 ,000 times.
Our kids outdo Edison.
Our kids are trying and trying and trying and trying because of the magical structure ofvideo games.
And I never talk this long, so I'm really enjoying this.
No, this is great.
(37:20):
And we'll link to the super improver underneath this video so you guys can easily findthat.
And I love that because, I mean, what you said, you know, differentiation is anotherbuzzword of the day and there's a lot of different ways to do that.
But really the goal is you want your top students to learn and grow.
You don't want them to stagnate and you want the kids who are struggling to learn and growand you want the kids, you want everyone to just learn, right?
(37:41):
And so I love that.
Puts everyone on a much more even playing field.
The goal is just to grow, to learn.
Welcome back to the Rise Up Summit.
I'm so excited to have Chris Biffle with us today.
A lot of you probably already know him.
He's the creator of Whole Brain Teaching.
And we are so excited to be talking with you today.
Chris, thank you so much for being here.
I'm always delighted to share old brain teaching.
Can you share before we get into it just a little bit of your background, your teachingbackground and what led you to come up with this concept?
(00:30):
All right, this is a good story.
So.
I taught philosophy, college philosophy, for 25 years and I was locked in lecturediscussion.
Is that the way you do college?
My favorite philosopher is Plato.
So I've been giving my Plato lecture for twice a year for 25 years.
(00:56):
I'd given it 50 times.
It was darn good in 1995.
So Linda, I do a magnificent.
Plato lecture.
I mean, I'd given it 50 times and it was all across the board and it was super clear.
And I was just riding high.
And I said to a girl in the front row, a good solid B student, I said, what did I justsay?
(01:21):
She said, I have no idea.
So I said to myself, gee, Willikers, I'm not going to get any better at the Plato lecture.
50 more years is not going to improve this.
So I came to the big decision, as we always do in teaching, the big wrong decision.
I'll give up lecture, I'm just gonna do discussion.
(01:44):
And philosophy is great for discussion.
Does God exist?
Do we have a soul?
What's the purpose of life?
How should we live?
Those are the big juicy questions.
So I did discussion, I didn't lecture, I just discussed.
I'm a son of the 60s.
I believe in discussion in a free -form classroom.
(02:05):
One day I had a great discussion.
Everybody, quote unquote, was participating.
I left the room and I counted up how many kids participated in a great discussion.
Now I had 35 kids.
I had seven participating in the great discussion.
If you have seven people participating in discussion, it feels magnificent.
(02:28):
That means 28 of them are out to lunch.
So I could do lecture, I could do discussion.
I thought the darkest thought,
that teachers could ever think.
You probably have thought it too.
I thought, maybe I should become a lawyer.
You know, that's a dark thought.
(02:49):
So I started trying stuff I'd never seen before.
Most of it failed.
And I began using some games that were kind of working.
And I was coaching girls middle school basketball at the same time.
And I used the techniques to coach basketball that I was using to teach ancientphilosophy.
(03:13):
Different population, different subject matter, different environment, and the sametechniques work astoundingly in both those two places.
That made no sense.
So I got a couple of former students who were then now teachers, one Jay Vanderfin inkindergarten, the other Chris Rexted in fourth grade.
(03:34):
And I said, look.
It's working in basketball at college.
They tried it out and we had 80 meetings in 95.
It blew up from there.
We decided from the start, we're not going to be a business.
We don't do cold calls.
We don't advertise.
All our online materials are free.
We're not going to be a business.
(03:55):
We're a movement and it's blown up.
Old brain teaching is used in a hundred countries.
We've got 200 ,000 podcasts downloads.
9 or 10 million YouTube views.
It's a big deal.
And it started with giving up lecture and discussion.
I guess there's a moral to that story.
(04:15):
Yeah, thank you so much for sharing that.
That is so fascinating to just hear and it makes sense just kind of built out of just thisproblem.
It's not, this isn't working, students aren't engaged and then, you know, trying thingsand coming across just really strategies that are really working well.
So some people listening are very familiar with whole brain teaching already, but somearen't.
(04:36):
So can you give kind of a brief synopsis of some of the high level things for those thataren't familiar?
Well, brain teaching is multi -sensory, but by multi -sensory we mean all the senses atthe same time.
So if I give you a definition, let's say I ask you a question, what's an adjective?
(04:59):
I want you to repeat that question over and over to your neighbor, then I'll call you backand I will explain an adjective changes or modifies a noun.
So you've seen it, you hear it, you're doing it, and you repeat it to your neighbor.
And in our game context, you're having a lot of fun.
(05:21):
So whole brain teaching, appropriately enough, is engaging the whole brain.
Now, here's the selling point.
Then to ask yourself, what makes video games so compelling?
Compelling.
Kids will play video games and almost
(05:42):
not even eat.
They will play video games at every opportunity.
What makes video games compelling is they are whole brain engaging.
You're seeing some stuff.
You're moving things.
You're hearing that music.
You're talking to yourself or someone else playing the game with you online and youremotions are going up and down.
(06:08):
And you're in a continuous search for uncertain reward.
Well,
There are board games about all different kinds of things.
Could there be an instructional game that uses video game like environment to motivatekids?
(06:31):
And the happy answer is after 30 years, yeah.
And the game is called Superimprover and we reward for improvement and we turn theclassroom into a living video game.
That's it, man.
Yes.
So can you share a little bit about...
I know we want to talk about kind of the classroom management side, but I feel like it isimportant that teachers understand just some of these ideas.
(06:57):
And I noticed a lot of teachers will use all of the whole brain teaching aspects andothers will pull in pieces.
So before we get into the classroom management side, can you share about just like themicro lecture and turn and talk concept, which I know is a really commonly used strategy?
Sure.
We start with our attention getter.
(07:22):
I say class and the kids say yes.
But if you say that four or five times, they will begin to zone out.
The problem in game playing, the problem in life, the problem in instruction ishabituation.
Linda, you can have chocolate cake.
on your birthday and it tastes great and then you have it next morning and it still tastespretty good but after three or four days of chocolate cake you'd rather have a bowl of
(07:52):
string beans.
Your brain becomes habituated to repeated identical stimulus.
So if we just said class yes or one two three eyes on me or god forbid flip the lights onand off which some teachers are doing it works for a little while then it wears out.
So we have all different kind of variations on class.
(08:14):
Yes, yo class, hey class, yabba doo class.
That is our attention getter.
And then we engage the brain with mirror words, which I'll demonstrate right now, me andyou.
Here we go, Linda.
Just repeat after me.
Mirror words.
Mirror words.
an adjective.
(08:34):
An adjective.
changes or modifies a noun.
changes or modifies a noun.
One more time.
One more time.
an adjective.
adjective.
changes or modifies a noun.
(08:55):
noun.
then I would say, mirror's off.
You'd say, mirror's off.
And I'd say, turn to your neighbor and repeat that over and over and over again, not justonce, over and over again, while I walk around the room and check comprehension.
I mean, think about it.
How many times do we teach what an adjective is or that sentences should have capitals orthat six plus seven is equal to 13?
(09:20):
We teach that for 12 years.
And I get kids in my college classrooms who never got it because it was teached withinsufficient repetition and insufficient emotional engagement in a deeply habituating
instructional system.
(09:42):
That's what happens.
Kids come in, they like the chocolate cake kind of on the first day and after a while moreand more and more chocolate cake, which is to say,
more and more junk from the treasure chest, obituates them, and makes them wish they wereat home playing Mario Brothers.
(10:04):
I'm kidding on my soapbox, but that's all right, I'm excited right now, go.
Well, this is just a really like a little bit of a light bulb for me.
And I hope for those of you that are listening to that, like that idea of just thehabituation that you have to keep things fresh.
You have to keep things different.
I noticed when you did the mirror, you didn't even do it the same way twice.
It was different both times.
And I do think, you know, repetition work has fallen out of vogue because of theboringness of it, the repetition of it.
(10:30):
But what you're saying is we need the repetition, but we just have to make it not.
boring.
We have to make it in ways that are interesting, that are different.
And then of course the whole brain method, you're using all different senses and it'sengaging your whole brain.
Am I tracking right here?
We're not doing too bad as a beginning whole -brain student.
We need contradictory things.
(10:52):
We need consistency.
You've got to keep using the same techniques.
And we need variety.
And so with mirror words, let's just demonstrate a few versions of mirror words here.
Here we go.
Mirror words.
Mirror Words.
(11:13):
Mirror words!
Mirror words.
Near words.
Mirror works.
it.
So consistency, mirror words, variety, different ways to do it, and we're engaging thewhole brain and we're lifting the emotions and we're creating, and we haven't really got
(11:35):
into it yet, but we're creating this beginning video game atmosphere where you don't quiteknow what's coming next.
Ask me about how we increase engagement.
Come on now.
I'm gonna tell you.
Listen.
Linda.
In the
and in a really fun way.
That is fantastic.
(11:57):
So to this point, we've talked about a whole bunch of ideas already, and we haven'tspecifically necessarily talked about classroom management, but I hope those of you that
are listening are recognizing this all goes hand in hand.
If you have students that are wanting to improve, that if you're engaging them, I mean,when I did that with you, I mean, I'm locked in.
I gotta pay attention.
I don't know what's gonna happen next, and I'm doing it, and it's very engaging.
(12:18):
So you're automatically eliminating a whole bunch of problems off the bat.
But I know you also have a system that specifically kind of addresses the classroommanagement side with your whole brain teaching rules.
So can we talk a little bit about that?
Love to.
So.
When we first sat down in 95 and I talked to these two elementary teachers and I said,well, what can we fix in your classrooms?
(12:43):
And they said right off the bat, transitions.
Transitions from A task to B task is where problems happen.
Teachers over and over again tell me they've got a hard time after six months stillgetting kids to line up correctly, much less get their math books out and their papers and
(13:04):
put their name at the top.
So rule number one, follow directions quickly.
There's my gesture.
Here we go, Linda.
I'm going to teach you all the rules.
Mirror words.
Rule number one.
Rule number one.
Follow directions quickly.
Follow directions quickly.
Rule number two.
(13:25):
Number two.
Raise your hand.
Raise your hands.
or permission to speak.
Permission to speak.
Rule number three.
Rule number three.
Raise your hand.
Raise your hand.
For permission.
For permission.
(13:45):
To leave?
to leave your seat.
You're excited to leave your seat.
Rule number four, make smart choices.
Make smart choices.
Rule number five.
Rule number five.
Make.
(14:06):
Make.
Our dear Dean.
Our dear team.
The wronger!
Stronger!
And then we recently added this last one, diamond rule.
Diamond rule.
Keep your eyes on the target.
Keep your eyes on the target.
Now Linda, we can teach those rules in the first day to third, fourth, and fifth gradersjust by doing mirror words and some other shenanigans.
(14:34):
In kindergarten, we're gonna teach one rule a day, but those rules cover every possibleclassroom behavior.
The first three rules are very specific.
We gotta get kids to follow directions quickly, and when they improve, they can get asuper improver star.
We've got to get kids to raise their hand for permission to speak.
(14:58):
And the problem there is kids don't have to raise their hand for permission to speakanywhere except the classroom.
So it's a new behavior.
And we can't have them wandering around the classroom.
So that solves three very, very specific problems.
There are other issues in instruction besides those.
So Make Smart Choices covers everything kids do in class.
(15:22):
on the playground.
In fact, taught philosophy for 40 years and all philosophers would agree you got to makesmart choices.
They just disagree on what those choices are.
And rule five, make our dear team stronger.
Kids understand what makes a team stronger and what makes a team weaker.
(15:43):
They do not understand what expectations are.
They do not understand what
being responsible is.
They have a foggy understanding of what being courteous or kind are all the adult words.
But they have been on teams and witness teams where kids are doing things that make theteam stronger and kids are doing things that make the teams weaker.
(16:11):
One of our problems in education is we use adult speak to teach kids.
And then the diamond rule is just a real good one.
I mean,
If kids are looking in the right direction, their visual cortex is engaged, you're halfwayhome.
So those rules cover a lot of stuff and we rehearse them.
(16:31):
We don't put them on the wall.
We rehearse them four or five times a day and then we have kids lead the rules.
It's one of the foundations of whole brain teaching.
Great, I have two questions.
So first, the diamond rule.
So is that, at first I wasn't sure if that was literal or metaphorical.
So it's literal.
Like look, actually look at what we're doing basically.
Okay.
reason we call it the Diamond Rule and not Rule 6, we're not keen on the number 6, and youcan just figure out why that might be.
(17:00):
Diamond Rule, because it's so valuable, and this is a nice easy gesture to make, it's sovaluable, so precious, that we keep our eyes on the target.
Perfect.
Okay.
And so the rules are great.
You're right.
They cover pretty much everything very simply and very easy to explain.
But I know the question teachers are going to have, well, what do you do when studentsdon't follow the rule?
(17:24):
Do you have a system to handle that or is it kind of up to the teacher?
wait, wait a second, Linda.
Are you telling me that we've got some kids who are not following the rules?
Is that what you're telling me?
I think it might happen occasionally.
All right, let's take the toughest rule of all, rule number two, raise your hand forpermission to speak.
(17:47):
We did a survey on Facebook of tons of teachers and we said, do a 15 minute lesson andcount how many times kids blurt out.
Kids are blurting out on average nationwide twice every minute.
That means in a 15 minute lesson you've got 30 blurters.
(18:11):
So you're spending all your time redirecting and scolding.
Teach, redirect, scold, rinse and repeat.
Linda, if scolding and redirection worked, I would write a book called, Scold Like a Pro.
You know, it doesn't work.
(18:33):
What does work?
First of all, you got to get the kids understanding the rules.
Second of all, you've got to get them to buy into the super improver, which is not thathard at all because they've already have the brain patterns that are linked to.
whole brain engagement.
(18:55):
And then what happens is a kid blirts out, you say, to, and every kid in class says, raiseyour hand for permission to speak.
So instead of you being isolated as the scolder, redirector, you're using scolding toreinforce and continue to teach.
(19:17):
When you say to, and everyone says, raise your hand for permission to speak.
They're with you, they're relearning a lesson that takes lots and lots of reps, and thenyou just start using super improvements.
All right, listen, we're gonna teach for five minutes.
Look, here's the timer.
If I see anyone improving and raising their hand for permission to speak, then they mightget a dice roll.
(19:43):
And Linda, you know what's better than a dice roll?
A dice roll with a nice green dice.
When you roll the dice in class, every eye is on you.
And this duplicates the super sophisticated engine that generates uncertain reward invideo games.
(20:04):
What is it going to come down on?
If it comes down on one, two, or three, you get a super improver star.
If it doesn't, four or five, you say, we got grit, we don't quit, which is the mostimportant lesson of all.
And a six is a reroll.
Listen to this.
You pick up the dice, Linda.
You think kids would be saying, one, one, two, three, no.
(20:26):
Kids chant six.
They chant six, six, six.
Why?
Because they want to see the dice a -rollin'.
Talk to a gambler.
You say to a gambler, why do you gamble so much?
It's not the money, it's the action.
(20:48):
Six is the action.
Six ignites the nucleus accumbens in the brain to secrete dopamine.
Yeah, so that's how you address one of the main problems and you keep addressing it.
Really good point for your listeners.
(21:10):
Do not become a teacher if it bugs you to repeat.
You
Linda, teaching is repeating.
That's what we're paid to do.
If you're in the lunchroom and someone says, I don't know how many times I have to tellkids this stuff, don't sit near them.
(21:32):
Teaching is repetition.
And if you're a basketball coach or a tennis coach or a music coach or a band coach or ananything, really good instructor, you're going to repeat and repeat and repeat.
Give me another question.
Come on.
I'm rolling.
no, this is great.
And I think you're, I mean, you're absolutely right.
(21:52):
And when teachers think about it, if you are very consistent and repeat every time astudent's blurting, you do that same thing, it's not gonna get fixed on the first, second,
or third, but eventually students are gonna pick up, this is what happens every singletime.
And that really does pay off.
Okay, other question.
You mentioned transitions.
And I think whole brain teaching, if I'm right, has a specific recommendation for how tohandle transitions as well.
(22:16):
Is that correct?
Sure.
The thing is, is that we must just take the transition of the classic one, lining up ortaking your seats.
In the book, Old Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids, second edition, in the book we sayuse the three P's.
(22:38):
When I say lines, everyone says lines, lines, lines as they line up.
When I say seats, everyone says seats, seats, seats as they sit down.
Do not teach how to line up when it's time to line up.
You don't have time.
So you've got problem with kids lining up?
(22:59):
Practice, practice, practice, lining up and sitting down.
And if while Jack is improving, he gets a super improver star and a dice roll.
If the whole class is improving, goodness gracious.
Everybody gets a super improver star.
Why do I care?
I got 240 to give away.
Everybody gets a super improver star and a dice roll.
(23:22):
Practice, rehearse, gamify instruction.
That's how we handle transitions.
Whatever the transition is.
Paper's out, paper's out, paper's out, paper's out, and boom, our hands are like this.
Improvement, super improver start.
Awesome.
Yeah, that's fantastic.
I knew it was something like that, so thank you so much for sharing that.
(23:44):
Okay, another question just, I'm just kind of, I'm just sharing as they're coming here.
Obviously, some of these things, you've said you've used these strategies across gradelevels, but there's certain things that seem more like, this would be really fit for
certain ages.
What do teachers do that teach older grades, like high school?
(24:05):
How much of this do you find that they have trouble where kids almost feel like it's, likehow do you adapt it for older kids?
All right, cards flat on the table.
Our experience has been, when I say our, mine and 20 or 30 or 40 other presenters.
the higher grade you teach.
(24:28):
The less interested you are in educational innovation and the more committed you are toplowing through the curriculum.
That's just the way things are.
Do we have high school and middle school teachers who flourish in the system?
Absolutely.
Are they typical?
(24:49):
Are they normal?
Or are they ordinary?
Not so.
But the thing is, is that this didn't start in kindergarten.
It started in college.
I'll tell you another story.
So I tried everything that you can imagine in 25 years to motivate my kids to look, toeven look like they were interested.
(25:10):
I said, I'll give you extra credit.
I even offered to pay them money.
I said, I'll write you a letter of recommendation.
I stood up on the desk one time and crowed like a rooster to teach the difference betweena purisism and rationalism.
I was out riding my bike one day two years later and a kid came up to me and he said, Iused to be in your class Mr.
(25:35):
Bill.
I said, do you remember the difference between empiricism and rationalism?
He says, no, but I sure remember when you stood up on the desk and crowed like a rooster.
All right.
The thing is, is that in middle school and high school, we've got to fish where the fishare.
The fish are not in the grade pool.
(25:59):
The fish are not in a right to a glowing recommendation.
The fish in general for most kids are not in the GPA pool.
And I realized that in class.
My college students were in a pool I'd never even thought about.
What did they want?
They wanted less homework.
That was the pool.
(26:21):
So I walked in, this is the beginning of Whole Brain Teaching, I walk in, I got a bunch ofballs of paper.
I say, when it looks like you're paying attention, and I mean sitting up and watching mewherever I go, it looks like you're paying attention, that's great, I'm gonna throw a ball
of paper in the right hand corner.
When it looks like you're nodding off or looking around, I had kids stare at the wall, thewall was more interesting than me.
(26:44):
So if it looks like you're not paying attention and you frankly don't care, I'll throw aball of paper in the left hand corner.
When class is over, I'm gonna count up the balls of paper.
If there's more right -hand balls, that's one page less homework for every extra right-hand ball.
If there's more left -hand balls, that's one page extra homework.
(27:05):
And as soon as I said that, Linda, I can see it to this day, three boys in the class, inthe back of the classroom, always sat slouching down.
As soon as I threw the first ball of paper in the more homework pile, they sat up and theypaid attention.
Now.
We went from balls of paper to a scoreboard and a lot of other stuff.
(27:27):
Yes, the system works in middle school and high school, but it is as big a change for themas it is for pre -K to five.
But pre -K to five teachers, we have just found are more flexible, are more interested ininnovation, and are more interested in gamification.
My colleagues in college did not care about instruction.
(27:50):
They cared about subject matters.
I was kooky, I cared about teaching.
That does make sense.
It's just maybe like less of a comfort level.
It's a little way more.
Maybe I think it's maybe more out of the comfort zone for a high school teacher than it isfor an elementary teacher.
But if I'm hearing you right, your encouragement is like, yeah, this isn't going to someof these strategies are not going to feel like they're going to feel weird.
(28:15):
You're not going to have to really like pull them out.
You're not to, you know, kind of sell it to your students a little bit.
But the encouragement is to really if it works, is it worth it?
That's the thing, no one is going to go home from teaching kindergarten or 12th grade andnot be exhausted.
(28:35):
It's super hard work.
But you have a choice between being exhausted,
because you're pushing a rock up a hill and it keeps rolling down over you between beingexhausted from exhortation and redirection and scolding, dog -tired, or be exhausted from
(28:58):
teaching kids in this, in a new method.
And we desperately need a new method.
So you're going to be tired, it's going to be hard, but the choice isn't between hard andeasy, it's between this hard or that hard.
Absolutely, yeah, and if you can catch that vision for the worthwhileness of it, I thinkthat's really, really exciting.
(29:20):
Well, you've shared so much with us today.
We have a little, just a few more minutes left.
Is there any, I know you have probably a million other things you'd love to share.
Anything else that's on your heart or that you think would be particularly helpful forteachers to hear right now.
This is what's occurring to me in the last few weeks.
K -2 teachers, we used to say kindergarten is a separate world.
(29:43):
K -2 teachers are a separate world.
And they need a special version of whole brain teaching.
So I'm going to write another book.
I'm weary.
But I'm going to write another book, Whole Brain Teaching, for kindergarten to secondgrade.
And.
It would take me a year to write the whole book, so I'm going to write it in episodes.
(30:04):
I'm going to try to get book one out by the end of the summer so that we have a way toreally help the kids.
Get this metaphor.
Let's close with this.
I'm very, very, very negative upon the state of education worldwide.
(30:27):
As I talk to teachers and principals all the time.
So I see that the great ship of education has sunk.
Teachers are in lifeboats.
Around them, kids are drowning in the waves.
(30:49):
We've got to pull them into the lifeboat and teach them how to row towards the goldenhorizon.
We don't do that by complaining.
We don't do that by yelling at them, hey, swim harder.
Pay attention to me.
(31:09):
We do it with love and concern in the same way we would save a life.
We are saving lives and we're losing a generation of kids from COVID forward.
Principals are telling me they're seeing kindergartners are coming in with a level ofdefiance they've never seen before.
And it's not going to get better next year.
(31:31):
It's not in the newspapers.
It's lived in the nation's classrooms.
So we've got to do things a different way.
We've got to save these drowning kids.
And Whole Brain Teaching is one way to do that.
Plus that, it's free.
Go to the website.
There's no pop -ups.
We used to have no ads on YouTube, except YouTube puts the ads on automatically.
(31:53):
So it's free, it's fun.
And I especially encourage teachers to join the Super Improver Facebook page.
And that's where all the action is happening.
We've got grade level Facebook pages, but...
I'm putting out new stuff sometimes, a couple times a week.
So it's a lot of fun and we're helping lots of kids.
(32:15):
Awesome.
Well, that was my last question was where can people go?
So the website, wholebrainteaching .com is the website, right?
And we'll make sure we link to that.
Any particular place they should go when they head over there or just kind of startlooking around?
go to day one.
We'll tell you how to start day one, minute one.
And also go to Facebook Superimprover.
(32:37):
And it's a closed group.
We will admit you to the group and you'll see all the latest stuff.
Also, we have a free book study, free book study coming up this summer led by SarahMetter.
It's seven weeks and it'll guide you through the book.
We've got a great.
Come one, come all conference in Crowley, Louisiana, led by the genius talents of AndreDeCetel.
(33:07):
Those are on the website.
So lots of great stuff coming.
Well, thank you, Chris, so much.
We so appreciate you being here and encourage everyone to check out the resources.
And once again, incorporate all of it or try out at least some of it in your classroom andsee how it goes.
So Chris, thank you so much.
My pleasure.
(33:29):
current teaching system, which is a massive failure, go talk to teachers, in the currentteaching system, we reward for ability.
That's called grades.
Linda, when you reward for ability, the kids with the most ability get the rewards.
(33:51):
And children find out in kindergarten if they're in that top 10%.
They're in a race they can't win if we're rewarding for ability because not everyone hasmaximum ability.
And if rewarding for ability worked, we'd just have to give grades, which is what we'redoing and it doesn't work.
(34:16):
But if we reward for improvement, if we reward for growth, then every kid can win.
We have special ed kids beating gifted kids because beautifully enough special ed kids cangrow more than gifted kids.
(34:36):
And then the parents of gifted kids come in and say, well, how come my daughter is notwinning at this super improver game?
And we say,
And the parent says, she's reading three grade levels higher.
And we say, your daughter's wonderful, but if she doesn't start growing next year, she'llonly be reading two grade levels higher.
(34:57):
Everybody's got to grow and everybody needs to be in competition, not with anybody else,but with themselves.
And that's the essence of our video game.
We have a game called Superimprover.
Go to wholebrainteaching .com.
Look it up.
In Superimprover, everybody starts as a turtle, and when we see five improvements, gosh,they're a panda.
(35:22):
And some more improvements, they're a kangaroo.
240 improvements throughout the year to get to the top.
There's no treasure chest in the world large enough to give away 240 improvements to 20kids and have them care about it.
Let me tell you this.
(35:44):
We've got this system called PBIS.
Have you ever heard of PBIS, Linda?
Yes, you have, my friend.
In PBIS, we're giving away tickets, gotcha tickets, when we see kids doing good things andthe tickets typically go to the student store or lottery.
We have schools where there's PBIS and whole -brain teaching, and the kids trade the PBIStickets for stars in Superimprover.
(36:12):
And what do they get?
They don't get squat, except they level up.
Picture this.
While Jack is at home playing a video game, his mom doesn't stand on his shoulder and say,come on now, Jack.
If you play harder and if you level up, I'll give you a handful of jelly beans.
(36:34):
No motivation is needed to play video games hard.
And...
In video games, we see grit that we never see in any other place in life.
Edison is revered because he tried 1 ,000 different filaments in an electric light to seewhat material would carry that fiery charge.
(36:59):
Turned out it was carbonized bamboo of all things.
So Edison, my goodness, he kept trying for 1 ,000 times.
Our kids outdo Edison.
Our kids are trying and trying and trying and trying because of the magical structure ofvideo games.
And I never talk this long, so I'm really enjoying this.
No, this is great.
(37:20):
And we'll link to the super improver underneath this video so you guys can easily findthat.
And I love that because, I mean, what you said, you know, differentiation is anotherbuzzword of the day and there's a lot of different ways to do that.
But really the goal is you want your top students to learn and grow.
You don't want them to stagnate and you want the kids who are struggling to learn and growand you want the kids, you want everyone to just learn, right?
(37:41):
And so I love that.
Puts everyone on a much more even playing field.
The goal is just to grow, to learn.
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