Whole Brain Teaching- Loving the behavior!

One of my fellow teachers had a small workshop on Whole Brain Teaching- I was sold!  For those of you who do not know about this, there are 5 simple rules:
1.  Follow directions quickly.
2.  Raise your hand for permission to speak.
3.  Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat.
4.  Make smart choices.
5.  Keep your dear teacher happy.

I'm sure you have seen this all over Pinterest and TpT.  I wasn't sure if I could start this in the middle of the year, but we were almost at break when I went to the presentation.  After break I told the kids about it and they seemed pretty pumped.  They love rule #5!  (And so do I!)  Our favorite part:

The color chart for our behavior!  This is just a test run, so it isn't very pretty yet.  I had to see if it would work- it does!Since taking this picture, I added a Cubs mini-basketball hoop at the top.  Kids that end up on purple or pink get to take a few shots.  Weird incentive, but it's free and it works!

Amazing.  Love it.  I used to have the jerseys with the kids' numbers on them (which I still have) and a strike board with three baseballs labeled 1, 2, and 3.  Three strikes and you're out!  The problem is, once a kiddo gets a strike, what incentive is there to make smart choices for the rest of the day?  And what incentive is there for the kids who are behaving?  On the color chart, everyone starts on green and the goal is to stay on green or move up for making smart choices.  When a not-so-smart choice is made, they move down.  However, there is the opportunity for the rest of the day to move back up.  I have seen so much improvement in behavior, and I already had a pretty fantastic class!  They are working harder to work as a team and help each other, and they even tell me when they think other kids deserve to move up for helping them or for making a smart choice.  Having the 7 level spectrum also gives me some leeway to be a little more picky about the type of behavior I want to see.  Before I wouldn't give strikes unless it was something pretty big, but now I can sort of fine tune behavior, and I love what I am seeing from my kids!  Kids love to get caught "being good" and are so proud when after moving down, they get to move back up.  Our days are just so much more positive now!

I just wanted to share a small success for those who maybe haven't heard of this plan.  Loving it!