Central Elementary School Kindergarten teacher Jorie Asbury embraces a new method of teaching students. By utilizing an education reform movement known as Whole Brain Teaching, Asbury along with several other Central Elementary School teachers has implemented this new way of teaching and have experienced a large amount of success as a result.
“I have always been interested in how the brain processes information,” says Asbury. “The research behind WBT is incredible. Once I learned it was a research-based strategy and it activated all areas of the brain I was determined to implement it with my kindergarten students. It has really allowed the kids to be active participants in their learning.”
Whole Brain Teaching consists of a principal that teachers at every level share the same difficulties when it comes to students lacking discipline, background knowledge, and fundamental problem-solving skills. However, it also takes into account that all students respond to challenges, enjoy well-designed learning games and can make, in the proper setting, great academic progress.
“WBT teaches all types of learners,” says Asbury. “It is awesome to see all of the students engaged. The students really love it. It comes very naturally for me to implement the WBT strategies with my students.”
WBT describes their methods as “educational tomfoolery” which tries to ensure that students learn by having fun. Classrooms are filled with task-focused laughter along with humor and games to assist students in learning and retaining basic skills. By doing this, students have learned and are willing to follow the rules, rather than constantly defy them.
Implementing WBT in the classroom requires extensive knowledge of not only your students’ strengths and weaknesses, but how each of these factors interacts and fluctuate with the entire classroom dynamic as a whole. Once these dynamics and discovered its then up to each teacher to create a classroom that is engaging, fun and orderly.
“We have recently received an award from both Dr. Dudak and Dr. Weigel of the Portage Township Schools,” says Asbury. “We were given this reward because we have successfully stepped up to the challenge of implementing WBT classrooms and achieving success from them.”
For the future of WBT at Central Elementary School, Asbury hopes to continue successfully implementing these ideas in the classroom and potentially spreading these ideas to other teachers and schools. With thousands of teachers following a similar path and finding varying degrees of success, the potential for WBT in the Portage school system is only just beginning.
“Future plans are to continue implementing these strategies in the classroom,” says Asbury. “Hopefully by doing this we can one day inspires others as well.”