Jackson teacher embraces 'whole brain' method

When Staci Glass steps in front of her third-grade class at West Lane Elementary School in Jackson, she's ready to get her students involved on every level using a technique called whole brain teaching that involves movement, hand gestures, peer teaching and a chance to beat the teacher.

On Thursday, Glass is teaching her class about two- and three-dimensional shapes. Clapping her hands, she gets the students' attention to tell them what to do next.

"Oh, class," Glass says.

"Oh, yes," the class responds.

"What are some other three-dimensional shapes you see around our classroom?"

"The globe," one student answers.

"What 3-D shape is our globe?"

"A sphere!" the class said.

"A sphere is round like a ball," the class says twice.

"Jellies teach peanut butters that a sphere is round like a ball," Glass says.

Partners face each other at their tables and repeat the lesson, then Glass asks them to switch so the student playing teacher becomes the student, prompting the children to say, "Uh oh. Switch." When Glass notices excellent peer teaching, she gives the class points on the classroom whiteboard.

"[It's] a very effective way to reach all types of learners," Glass said of whole brain teaching. "It has a lot of movement with it and the students teach each other. It goes into the critical thinking aspects. Most every skill has a gesture that they use and they teach each other, so it just encompasses the whole brain."

Glass recently won the Association of Teacher Educators Distinguished Clinician of the Year Award, which includes a plaque and a cash award. She was nominated by Larry Bohannon, an associate professor in elementary, early and special education at Southeast Missouri State University.

Cynthia Matthew, principal of the third through fifth grade campus, said whole brain is a departure from the old-school "sit and get." Because the technique involves students teaching their peers, it offers high retention.

"In my classroom, my students are talking a lot," Glass said. "I do the initial instruction, but while I'm teaching the initial instruction, they're also doing the movements and kind of repeating what I say.

"Then they turn to each other and teach and do the movements to each other as well, so they can see the movements that go with the skill we're learning. They can listen to their partner teach about the skill; they hear it; they see it; they're doing it, so they're fully involved; and they're speaking," Glass said.

The scoreboard -- the classroom whiteboard -- is a motivator for students as they try to beat the teacher or get a hash mark for good peer teaching to earn points for fun activities. Other West Lane teachers use components of Whole Brain Teaching, but "maybe not to the extent" Glass does, Matthew said. She said Glass and her colleagues also use other teaching techniques.

Bohannon nominated Glass for the award for her work with Whole Brain and presenting it to other area teachers and those studying to be teachers. Susan Floyd, a reading teacher at West Lane who also uses whole brain teaching, presents it with Glass.

Glass learned about whole brain teaching in 2009 and became especially interested in using it after attending one presented by the technique's founder, Chris Biffle.

She and Floyd have traveled to other workshops around the country and attended a national conference on the subject. Biffle made Glass and Floyd co-directors of Whole Brain Teaching of Missouri, which prompted workshops at Southeast Missouri State University.

Two of Glass' students, Madelynn Adams and Keagan Long, both 9, say the class is cool. They like doing the hand gestures and being able to talk to each other because it helps them learn more and retain more information.

"We get to earn points when we're doing good stuff, and it's kind of fun," Long said. "When we have a scoreboard, when we win it, we get to a dance party or something."

Adams said the class needs to beat the teacher by at least one point and be on their best behavior to do something fun. The atmosphere makes the children look forward to going to class every day.

"It's kind of like going to a little activity class more than going to a third-grade classroom," Adams said.

If next year's teacher doesn't use whole brain teaching, school won't be the same, the two students said.

"I'll probably get bored," Long said.

"I probably will, too," Adams said.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address: 338 N. West Lane, Jackson