Purchasing the ticket

What is Whole Brain Teaching and why did I decide to make it a part of my teaching?

After teaching for ten years I started to plan what I might do with some of my long service leave. I decided to travel to Italy. I was there for a month, ten days in Rome and then I joined a bus tour around Italy. Planning the trip was really exciting. On the day I picked up my ticket I felt overwhelmed with doubt and fear. People who heard I was going to Italy told me so many stories about all of the things that could go wrong. I was warned about gypsies who would throw babies at me so they could steal my bags. 

Even though my friends meant well, they frightened me with all of their 'what ifs'. i needed to remind myself why I had wanted to go on this trip in the first place. Then I looked at my packed bag and reassured myself that this was going to be an amazing adventure and I would gain so much from all of the new experiences I would have.

My life as a teacher has similarities to my planning a trip to Italy. When I first started teaching, it was a great adventure. After ten years though, I started to feel bored and exhausted and wondered if I could keep going day after day. I felt like I was spending more and more of the day dealing with disruptive behaviour rather than teaching. I knew that teaching was my 'calling' so I started to search for something that would put the pep and passion and joy back into my week. I fortuitously came across information about Whole Brain Teaching. The little research that I did sparked something inside me.

After reading the information on the Whole Brain Teaching website and viewing the teaching videos I decided to 'purchase a ticket'. However, teaching peers warned me about trying an 'American gimmicky system', so I finished the year feeling that I had nothing to give my students. I had let them down and I really didn't want to start another year of teaching if it meant a similar outcome. 

While on holidays I spent each day reading as much as I could about Whole Brain Teaching. By the time my holidays were over I had decided that I would introduce some of the strategies I had been reading about. I was ready to embark on a journey that would bring the life back to my teaching.

In my next blog I will discuss my first attempts at using Whole Brain Teaching strategies in my classroom.