Power Teaching

[jsfowler]

Wow!! I had heard of this several times and totally blew it off; however, I have been looking into it the last few days and I think I am going to incorporate this into my classroom next year. I was really inspired by the videos on youtube. You can search "power teaching chris biffle".

Does anyone use power teaching methods in their classroom?

I am going to read more about this but what I have read so far is great. I suggest watching a few of the videos first so that you get a visual of what is going on. Then, here are a few sites worth reading...

http://homepage.mac.com/chrisbiffle/Menu38.html

http://classroompower.com/

[wtrafton]

very interesting

I am excited to read more

Thanks

[science_monkey]

This is an interesting classroom management technique. I can definitely see this would work beautifully for some people. As for me, it's a little too structured for my taste and almost comes off as a militaristic call-response type thing. There's something about the whole answering-in-unison deal that really makes me uncomfortable. I think I may try out some of the points suggested in Power Teaching, but not all of it.

For those of you who are more interested, here's the link to getting started with Power Teaching: http://classroompower.com/power-teaching-the-basic-steps-your-guide-to-getting-started/

[Bananas]

jsfowler,

I have come back to your thread several times to access the addresses to look them over and print. I will be looking these over during my summer when I am looking for reasons not to clean and organize. :) I just printed out four of the free downloads and will take them home. Thanks!

[jsfowler]

Glad I could help with the procrastination! My husband and I have two shirts that we like to wear on weekends.
Mine reads,
"Procrastinators Unite...tomorrow"
and his reads
"Top Ten Reasons to Procrastinate:
1."

[helen331]

It sounds great! I'll try to use it in my future class!

[seastarmath]

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I am definitely going to look into it!

[dtrim]

Oh, what a neat, neat post, js.

I've watched the videos, I've read the websites, now I'm going to set up the interviews.

I'm completely fascinated and I love the way teachers are incorporating learning styles into this teaching method.

Let's give js a 10-finger thank you: THANK! YOU!

[Bananas]

I have to post just to put tags on this thread. Each time I search for this thread, it never surfaces, so a tag will help me.

[syndilee]

I teach middle school, and not only have I used power teaching, but I've used it with so much success, it is just amazing. A fellow teacher came to my room and said, "You gotta check this out. It is so out there, but I think it will work." and she gave me several web sites to look at.

I instantly fell in love with it, and created a power teaching unit to teach bibliography (works cited) that was massively successful.

Since then, I've attended two Power Teaching seminars (they are always free!) and picked up more hints and clues t9o be more successful in the classroom than I thought could exist for an old veteran teacher like me.

It is well worth investigating... and using the scoreboard, the "Ok - teach" and the "Class, class" techniques made my end of the year triad one of my best teaching experiences ever. I hope you get the chance to find out more about it. It really, REALLY makes a difference.

[syndilee]

There are also amazing power teaching videos on teacher tube - just go to all videos, and type power teaching into the search.

[Brit]

Wow! I tried some of this stuff today, and it is SO COOL! I don't know how long it can be sustained -- my kids need a lot of change or things become less effective -- but the immeidate reward of the happy face really seemed to make it all work.

I found that the Teach/Okay worked only when I was realtively sure everyone understood because if some didn't, they couldn't teach, and fequently, it was the same kids not getting it or being spacy -- it drove their partners nuts.

The stuff I tried was a lot of fun, but wow, I haven't been this wound up myself in a LONG TIME!

[syndilee]

The trick to making the "teach-ok" work is to present smaller bites of info for the kids to teach. For example, when I first taught my 7th graders how to do a bibliography, I gave them the acronym A-T-C-P-Y or All Teachers Can Play Yatzi. We did goofy hand movements with the initials two or three times (turn to your partner, and show them ATCPY. Then, we took each letter (when I was sure they KNEW the letters) and taught the concept. A = Author. The kids did hand motions for "Last name comma first period" (the letter "L" in sign language, making a comma with their fingers, the finger sign for "1st", then a period with two fists on top of each other.) We repeated that three or four times before going on. To keep them from getting bored, they did it with one person standing, the other sitting, then switched off; they did it as loud as they could; they did it as softly as they could. All along, I'm giving points (or not) depending on how well they performed. As they do this, I walk around, making sure all the kids are getting it. We did this with the remaining letters (T = title; C=city; p=publisher; y=year.) I would have them do one letter by itself, then combine two letters together.

Although this is a rather detailed explaination, it amazed me to see kids, during the CST's, doing the hand motions to figure out Works Cited format.

In the fall, I plan to do a YouTube demo of the whole process. It is truly, truly, TRULY amazing!

[Brit]

Can teach-okay work for higher order thinking skills, not just rote knowledge?

[Martha]

I just spent some time looking at a few of the video's and reading the background to Power Teaching. There is a lot of "good stuff" there. It may not work for everyone, but I think I am going to see if it can work in my classroom this coming year. Thanks for sharing these ideas!

[syndilee]

Can teach-okay work for higher order thinking skills, not just rote knowledge?

Brit-
It works wonderfully with higher level thinking... Chris Biffle, the man in charge, uses it with college philosophy courses. It requires more prep time by the teacher, because you need to be sure what higher level skills you are aiming for. However, the same prinicipal of presenting info in small bits applies. On his YouTube power teaching site, I believe there is one sample video with him in his philosophy class.

One of the strategies that makes all power teaching MOST successful is the score board... and it works even with adults. I have modeled this in many classrooms at my school and have yet to find a class power teaching does not work for. (Even the most sullen of 8th graders begrudgingly did most of it when the score board was "beat the teacher, no homework")

[jsfowler]

For my scoreboard, I am going to do "Smiley Face/Frown Face". Every day the class has more smiley faces, they will receive 2 participation points...since I give A LOT of points, this will not add up to a big difference...but the kids don't know that. In the beginning I will make it VERY hard to get more smiley faces...with the occasional successful day to keep up thier motivation.

I plan on using Power Teaching during my "bellringer" and "mini-lesson" portions of our class...so that will only be 20-25 minutes a class. The rest of the class time will be spent in reader's/writer's workshop for independent reading/writing and conferencing which does not really lend itself to power teaching.