My First Travel to Trujillo

THE BOARD

THE BLACKBOARD/WHITEBOARD

This is your main piece of equipment in most schools and it is vital that you use it well. Not every school provides unlimited access to photocopiers!

However, the amount of English acquired by students is not linked to the amount of equipment at the teacher’s disposal. So don’t despair if you have little more than a blackboard to work with.

BOARD USES

The board is for drawing students’ attention to new language, checking understanding and summarizing your lesson. Consider that what you write on it and how you write it will be copied into notebooks and imprinted on students’ minds. It therefore needs to be uncluttered, well organized and useful for study purposes. Random jottings which end up covering the whole board are not effective. We also need to practice writing clearly and simply on the board, in a straight line, large enough to be seen at the back.

Disruption is caused during classes when pupils can’t read or understand your notes and when you spend too much time at the board without involving them. The two key factors are presentation/layout and organized and selective content.

GOOD AND BAD USE OF THE BOARD

DO	DO NOT
Maintain eye contact with the class while writing, standing without hiding what you are writing.	Write with your back to the class in silence (as students can take this as a chance to chatter).
Write as quickly and clearly as you can. Limit the length of texts or instructions. If possible, prepare a text beforehand if you have access to an empty room.	Spend a long time at the board (as it can cause boredom and disruption).
While writing, keep their attention by reading key words and phrases and getting choral repetition at each pause.	Hide what you are writing with your body. Fail to involve students.
Tell students at which point you want them to copy, such as at the end. ‘Don’t copy this yet. You can when I have finished’ or ‘This is on your handout. Don’t copy it’. Remember to stand back and give them time to copy.	Start writing with no instructions to the class (otherwise they will try to copy, not listen and struggle to see what you are doing).
divide the board into distinct sections with the Centre for main structures or language points, one side margin for key vocabulary and a space for temporary items (to rub out as you go along). Select only the important points.	write everything that crops up in the lesson so the board becomes overcrowded and messy (this leads to disorganized note-taking – no matter how much you tell students not to copy everything, they will think it is all vital).

TIPS FOR MAKING BEST USE OF YOUR BOARD

      Underline important features or use different coloured chalk/pens.

You can highlight points which might be difficult for your students, such as, auxiliaries, irregular endings, use of pronouns or contracted forms.

      Use tables for prompting. You can build these up with students and can use them for controlled practice

       Use diagrams, mind maps and time-lines to clarify abstract concepts such as time, space, quantity. 

BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS

You don’t need to be a great artist to draw on the board since the drawings are best kept simple, showing only important details. Stick people, simple objects and faces with different expressions can become part of your repertoire. Refer to Andrew Wright’s 1,000 pictures for teachers to copy, published by Longman ELT. This is an excellent resource. It is practical and comes with good ideas for using the drawings.

WHITEBOARD

A whiteboard (also known by markerboard, dry-erase board, dry-wipe board, pen-board and greaseboard) is a name for any glossy, usually white surface for nonpermanent markings. Whiteboards are analogous to chalkboards, allowing rapid marking and erasing of markings on their surface. The term whiteboard is also used to refer to interactive whiteboards.

The term whiteboard is also used metaphorically to refer to features of computer software applications that simulate whiteboards. Such "virtual whiteboards" allow one or more people to write or draw images on a simulated canvas.

 TYPES OF WHITEBOARDS

      WHITEBOARD PEN

The whiteboard pen (also called a whiteboard marker or dry erasable marker). It is a non-permanent marker and uses an erasable ink that adheres to the writing surface without binding or being absorbed by it.

      INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD

An interactive whiteboard (IWB), is a large interactive display that connects to a computer. A projector projects the computer's desktop onto the board's surface where users control the computer using a pen, finger, stylus, or other device. The board is typically mounted to a wall or floor stand.

They are used in a variety of settings, including classrooms at all levels of education, in corporate board rooms and work groups.

USES FOR INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS MAY INCLUDE:

      Running software that is loaded onto the connected PC, such as a web browsers or other software used in the classroom.

      Capturing and saving notes written on a whiteboard to the connected PC

      Capturing notes written on a graphics tablet connected to the whiteboard

      Controlling the PC from the white board using click and drag, markup which annotates a program or presentation

      Using OCR software to translate cursive writing on a graphics tablet into text

      Using an Audience Response System so that presenters can poll a classroom audience or conduct quizzes, capturing feedback onto the whiteboard.

ADJECTIVES PERSONALITY

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE ADJECTIVES

PARTS OF THE BODY

FOOD