Making A Difference with-“Teach-Okay”

An old Japanese proverb states “Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.” Whole brain teaching has taught me how to be a great teacher, and the teach-Okay method is turning my students into great teachers who are accountable for their own learning as well.

When you are instructing your students you should break your information down into chunks at a time.  A student’s brain can only process so much information at a time.  With the “teach-Okay” method the teacher chunks his or her lesson and allows time for students to respond and teach one another. 

According to WBT, this technique allows you to engage your students in all four learning modes: seeing, saying, hearing, and doing.  When a student participates in teach-okay they have engaged all of the brain’s primary cortices.  According to the www.wholebrainteaching.com, “The longer a teacher talks the more the students will loose.” 

With my class, I do Power Instruction; I break up my lesson into short chunks so they students will be able to process the new information.  During he teach-okay method, students will partner up and do the teaching.  I present the information to my students, and then I clap 2 times and say ‘”Teach”!  My students respond by clapping twice, saying “Okay, and turning to their shoulder partner.  According to the WBT QuickStart E-Book, the students should mimic your tone of voice.   I have watched Power Teacher videos and webcasts as well in order to try to perfect this component of whole brain teaching.  When I perform Teach-Okay, students copy my gestures when teaching their partner and mimic my tone of voice.  As they are teaching one another I circle around the room and check for understanding and comprehension of concepts.  It is a great way to assess students!  The videos suggest getting your class back by saying, “Class-Yes”.  This works like a charm!  Teach-Okay has changed they way my students learn for the better.  For my information go to www.wholebrainteaching, sign-up and start downloading free E-books today!

Here is another set of sings from Stephanie at 3rd Grade thoughts.  (www.3rdgradethoughts.com) I love the chevron print.  I have these signs displayed on a thick zebra ribbon.  I hang them on my wipe-off board in the front of my classroom. 

Download these signs from TPT.