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Trainer: Class!

Audience: Yes!

Trainer: The next technique is very simple. Whenever you want to make a big point, totally focus your class, you say “hands and eyes.” Your class repeats

“hands and eyes”, folds their hands and stares at you. Let’s try it “hands and eyes!”

Audience: (folding their hands and staring at you.) Hands and eyes!

Trainer: Great job. The first time you do this, you won’t believe the quality of your students’ attention. Everyone will be focused, looking at you, wondrous!

I’ve now taught you five Power Teaching techniques: Class-yes, the 5 Rules, Teach-Okay, the Scoreboard and Hands and Eyes. Using big gestures, teach all these to your neighbor. Teach!

Audience: Okay! (The group explains what you said to their neighbors.)

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Script 6: Switch!

Trainer: Oh class!

Audience: Oh yes!

Trainer: Hands and eyes!

Audience: Hands and eyes!

Trainer: In our classes we have chronic yackers and chronic listeners. We want the chronic yackers to learn to listen and we want the chronic listeners to start talking. So, imagine I have counted you off in 1’s and 2’s. I want the 1’s to be the teachers, use gestures, teach everything I’ve taught you. I want to the 2’s to be the students, use listening gestures, encourage your teacher. When I shout “Switch!”, I want you to shout “Switch!” and then the 1’s will be the students and the 2’s will be the teachers. Let’s practice shouting “Switch!” Switch!

Audience: Switch!

Trainer: That wasn’t loud enough. That’s a point for me. (Marking on the Teacher side of the scoreboard.) Mighty Groan!

Audience: Awwwww.

Trainer: Class!

Audience: Yes!

Trainer: Let’s try that Switch again. Switch!

Audience: (louder this time) Switch!

Trainer: Great! That’s a point for you. (Marking on the student side of the Scoreboard.)

Audience: Oh, yeah!

Trainer: Great. Now, teach your partner everything I’ve taught you. 1’s teach the 2’s. Switch when I say switch. Teach!

Audience: Okay!

(After about a minute, shout Switch and everyone switches. Switch a few times and then get your students’ attention.)

Trainer: Class, class!

Audience; Yes, yes!

Trainer: Hands and eyes.

Audience: Hands and eyes!

Trainer: You’ve now learned Power Teaching’s Big Six. Use the class-yes, with various tones to get your students’ attention. Review the classroom rules

frequently, and as you teach, call out a rule whenever you want to correct a

student’s behavior. Teach-okay is a powerful technique for involving your students in your lessons. Students love to teach each other. The Scoreboard is a powerful motivator. But remember the plus/minus 3 rule. Always keep the Smilies and Frownies, or the Teacher vs. Student scores within three points. Use Hands and Eyes whenever you make a large point. Shout Switch when your students are teaching each other, so that all your students are getting practice in speaking and

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listening. Now, explain this to each other, use high energy … and maybe, just maybe I’ll let you out early for your break! Teach!

Audience: Okay! (The group explains what you said to their neighbors.)

PRACTICING TEACH-OKAY

Trainer: Class!

Audience: Yes!

Trainer: Now, that you’ve learned the Big Six,you’re ready to practice the one difficult skill in Power Teaching. Teach-okay is the hardest aspect of Power Teaching to master. You must learn to speak in short units, usually from 30 seconds to one minute. We became teachers because we love to talk! I want the 1’s to stand up, teach the 2’s for 30 seconds and then I’ll call Switch! You shout Switch and then the 1’s will sit and the 2’s will become the teachers. Teach

anything you want about Power Teaching, but try to finish your lesson before I say Switch! Okay, Teach!

Audience; Okay!

(Continue calling “Switch!” every 30 seconds for three minutes. Then, follow the list below, switching every 30 seconds for three minutes at each step:

-- your students add graphic gestures and teach for 30 second intervals (model the difference between “floppy” and graphic gestures.)

-- the teaching student begins with “class” and then uses graphic gestures for 30 second intervals.

-- the teaching student begins with “class” and then uses graphic gestures, teaching an actual classroom lesson (not information about Power Teaching.)

-- divide the class into groups of three. The teaching student begins with

“class”, uses graphic gestures, teaches an actual classroom lesson and finishes with

“teach!”. The student listens while his mini-class teaches each other and then taps one of the seated students on the shoulder. This student stands and becomes the new teacher. You should move around the room and encourage those who are hesitant. Model speaking and listening gestures; let this continue for about ten minutes and then conclude as follows.

Trainer: Class!

Audience: Yes!

Trainer: Teach your neighbors everything you’ve learned about Power Teaching.

Use high energy, big gestures, really get into it! Teach!

Audience: Okay! (The group explains what you said to their neighbors.) -- Conclude by guiding your class through the Brain On Power Teaching diagram (pg. 37). Then ask your class to give you a mighty oh yeah and hand out the evaluation sheet (pg. 38).

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Suggestions

The six scripts above with ample time for your group to practice Teach-Okay should take about an hour. For a two hour seminar for elementary school teachers, strictly on classroom management, add the following in this order:

• Jay Vanderfin’s Card Practice System

• Levels

• the Guff Counter

• Please-Okay

• Independents

• Bulls-eye Game

Descriptions of all the above are in “Teaching Challenging Elementary Students” available as a free download at:

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

For middle school/high school teachers, introduce, in the following order:

• Levels

Descriptions of all the above are in “Teaching Challenging Teens” available as a free download at the site listed above.

For three hour seminars for teachers of any level, move on to “The Power Student Olympics” available at the site above. “The Power Student Olympics”

download contains descriptions of how to use the SuperSpeed Reading and SuperSpeed Math games in a highly motivating game in which students set and break personal records.

Here are answers to several common questions often posed by teachers.

Question: Do you use Power Teaching all day? It seems like it might be tiring?

Answer: The beauty of Power Teaching is that you can use it as often as you wish. Like any new system, it will take some time learning and may, initially, feel tiring. However, every time your class is involved in teaching each other, you have a small rest. In addition, instead of going home tired from having hassles with your class, you’ll go home tired from successfully teaching them.

Question: What rewards besides more or less recess can be offered for winning the Scoreboard game?

Answer: We use anything (except candy and prizes) that we know will motivate students. Music, videos, art, less homework, anything doled out in very small amounts can be used as a reward. As the year progresses, you can increase the reward from one minute of a video to two minutes and so on. If you use more

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or less homework as a motivator (extremely powerful) then begin by giving slightly more homework than normal. You can then reward with less homework later; your students will end the year doing exactly the amount you wish, but they will have it doled out in larger and smaller amounts. We especially recommend using games from the Power Student Olympics as rewards. It is amazing to see how hard students will work to gain the privilege of setting and breaking personal records in our SuperSpeed reading and math games.

Question: Do students get tired of all the Mighty Oh Yeahs, Mighty Groans, and so forth?

Answer: So far as we can tell, no. The key is variety. Change your tone of voice, let different students lead the rules, add Levels to the game, change the rewards. Students of all ages like short breaks to be silly ... Power Teaching gives them lots of opportunities for on task silliness.

Question: What, in a nutshell, is Power Teaching all about?

Answer: Power Teaching’s goal is to create student engagement. That is all we are trying to do. When the teacher says “class!” and students respond “yes!”

that is student engagement. When the teacher shouts “switch!” and the students respond “switch!” that is student engagement. Repeating the five classroom rules, giving Mighty Oh Yeahs and Mighty Groans, energetically teaching neighbors, using “hands and eyes” ... everything we do is to create the magical beginning of learning, students engaged with their instructors.