Super Improvers Wall....and Whole Brain Teaching!

Hello everyone out there in the blog world.  I am extremely tired today.  I have been slaving working in my classroom the past two days trying to get everything together before the pre-school workshops begin. (You all know the ones where you sit and listen to people speak about the upcoming year, learn this and that, and almost fall asleep in the process... Just Kidding, I only nodded off once. LOL!).  Needless to say, the job is still not done (is the job ever done?)  But I am proud of the progress.  I wanted to share with you guys something from my classroom in three ways:

1. Background
2. Pictures
3. Freebie

You CANNOT beat that!  So let's get down to business. 

I have been researching some great ways to improve classroom management, motivation, and personal success in my students.  Whether we want to admit it or not, many students just do what it takes to get by and move on.  I wanted more for my students this year and set out to research some ideas.  Imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon Stephanie over at 3rd Grade Thoughts Whole Brain Teaching section.  I was immediately blown away and wanted to know more.  So I then set out to research Whole Brain Teaching (Isn't the internet wonderful?)  I found loads of information on Whole Brain Teaching and fell in love.  I knew that this was happening in my classroom.  First I had to learn how to implement it in my classroom and with the free resources on the official Whole Brain Teaching website....everything you need is there....FREE!  I learned all of the ideas and started creating some ways to do the things.... (Picture this... Alabama 2012, a teacher sitting in her bed mimicking "Class, Yes" and "Mirror".  Don't worry, if you are new to WBT, you will know what they are soon enough).  There are so many ideas and techniques behind Whole Brain Teaching:

• Class, Yes
• Teach, Okay
• Scoreboard
• Five Rules
• Mirror

and the one I will be talking about today....SUPER IMPROVERS WALL!

What is the Super Improvers Wall?

 The "Super Improvers Wall" is a  method used to increase student motivation.  It is self motivating and self differentiating! The "Super Improvers Wall"  is based off of students beating their own personal goals, whether they are academic, social, or behavioral. 

How do you use the  Super Improvers Wall?

This is very simple.  There are ten different levels that are used for the wall.  The levels can be whatever you want.  Many teachers have used levels that match their classroom theme or just general levels.   I chose to use levels that can be used throughout many different classrooms.  Students work towards receiving stars.  For every ten starts earned, students move up a level.  

Students can earn stars for many things.  They can earn them for academic, behavior, or both.  A student can earn a star for increasing in a certain subject or coming in the classroom appropriately after struggling with it.  Since we are a 7 Habits school, I loved the idea of allowing students to earn stars as I see them exhibiting 7 Habits behavior as well.  Some teachers use the wall for an entire year (and that was the goal behind the SIW idea), however, I think I will be doing mine every semester and having a Super Improvers Celebration for those who reached the highest level.  I am hoping this will motivate those who didn't really see the purpose behind improving oneself to work harder at reaching that highest level.

What does the Super Improvers Wall look like?

Each classroom varies in how it looks, and that is completely up to you.  I opted for a clip chart and recorder sheet.   Students will record their stars (improvements) and clip up a level when they reach ten stars (using clothespins) Check out the full view of my Super Improvers Wall in my classroom below (:

                    

The levels I have chosen was adapted from Tara over at Little Minds at Work.  I changed the levels a bit to match my age group and a general classroom theme.  My levels are:

1. Beginner
2. Learner
3. Challenger
4. Captain
5. Wiz Kid
6. Specialist
7. Perfectionist
8. Pro
9. Super Star 
10. Genius

      

I got the awesome graphics for this from Phil Martin.  He offers his graphics free.  They are awesome!

To keep track of the stars for each level, I created the Student Recording Sheet.  See below:

To reach the different levels each student must get ten stars. Students will just fill in the color for each level. (You can use the colorful star stickers and match up the color with the level they are on of just colorful dry erase markers.)

Now for the fun stuff.  I am sharing these with you!  Just click on the picture below to print and enjoy.

I love Super Improvers Wall and look forward to the motivational effect it will have on my students.  I will keep you posted.  Are you a Super Imrovers Wall user?  If you are, how do you use SIW in your classroom.  I love ideas.  If not, you should check it out and see if it will work for you.