DEFINITION:

A square or oblong piece of thin wood or other material used for some special purpose.

HOW TO USE THE BOARD?

Do you have a blackboard, a whiteboard or an IWB? Whatever type of board you have in your classroom it is important to be organized and to put yourself in your students' shoes for a moment. What do they see when they look at your board? In this article we will consider ways of getting the best use out of your board and perhaps give suggestions for exploiting your board in a different way.

a) Board basics

Your students should have a clear, uninterrupted view of the board. Be careful that you don't block learners sitting at the sides of the room. When you write something on the board move away quickly so that students can see what you have written.

Especially with classes of Young Learners you need to develop the ability to write on the board with eyes in the back of your head. Don't turn your back on the class for too long. Good teachers have the ability to write on the board while still keeping a sharp eye on their students!

Write clearly on the board and make sure that you have written words/text big enough for everyone to see from the back of the class. With chalk and blackboard make sure that you wash the board often so that the writing stays clear. With a whiteboard make sure that the pen you are using is in a color that everyone can read - black or blue are best.

Practice writing in straight lines across the board, particularly if you have students who are not used to Roman script. In some languages letters may look slightly different or handwriting styles may be different. Point out the differences to your students and make sure they can read clearly what you have written.

Check what you write as you write. Many students have visual memories so we must be careful about accuracy of spelling and grammar, especially if we intend students to copy it down in their notebooks to learn.

Check with your students that they are ready for you to clean the board. If you are waiting for some students to finish copying or doing an exercise don't leave the others twiddling their thumbs. Ask them to make a personalized example or start the warm-up for the next exercise orally.

THE BOARD

b) Organizing your board

If your board is messy and untidy then what your students write in their notebooks will be messy too.

c) What we can do with the board

We can use the board in many ways in the classroom, not just for writing up new vocabulary. You can use your board for giving instructions, reinforcing oral instructions. For example, just writing up the page number and the exercise on the board in a large class saves a lot of repetition! When doing group work or project work use the board to organize your class - write up a list of who is doing what in each group.

It is a good idea to divide your board into sections. Have one part for use during the lesson which can be cleaned off and re-used. Use another part for important information which can stay there for the whole lesson. For example, you could write up a list of the basic aims/activities for the lesson so that your students know what is coming. Tick items off as they are achieved during the class. At the end you can review the lesson aims for students to evaluate what they have learnt.

For older learners you could write up other important information - key grammar points or vocabulary needed for the lesson, or test dates etc. With Very Young Learners it is better to write this kind of information at the top of the board. Leave the lower part empty for you and the students to write on. Remember they probably won't be able to reach the top half of the board.

-You can write up messages, exercises, short texts or items for correction from oral activities. Colored chalks or pens are very useful for writing up dialogue parts.

-Use your board to provide records of new words, structures, how a word is used. Or brainstorm new vocabulary with the class in a spider gram. With more advanced classes you can provide a record of a class discussion, or give help with planning for writing e.g. for exam tasks.

d) Displaying

You can use the large surface of your board to display all sorts of items - posters, pictures and flashcards. Use large pictures for class oral work but have students come out to the board to point to or talk about various items. Magazine pictures can be used for a variety of oral activities. Flashcards can be used for many games apart from simple matching activities.

e) Playing games

We can play many different games using just the board. Teachers need a repertoire of board games as warmers, fillers or lesson-ending activities which require no preparation.

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-Try to encourage students to come out to the board to choose select, order or describe pictures. All of these will make your classroom more

interactive and avoid too much teacher talking time.

-You can display other items such as authentic materials - e.g. maps, adverts, photos, as well as learners' own work. Remember that you don't have to stick to the board.

-You could display items around the room, particularly if they are not large enough for the whole class to see at the front. Ask your students to move around and look at the materials.

Apart from the traditional games of hangman, and noughts and crosses (answering questions for O or X) you can play many others

Pictogram' can be played with all levels (Draw a picture and guess the word). With younger learners spelling races are very popular.

Word games are an excellent way of settling classes and revising vocabulary. Use anagrams or jumbled sentences or for Very Young Learners words with missing vowels.

f) Using visuals

You don't have to be a genius at drawing to use pictures and drawings with your students. In fact, the worse the drawings are the more fun! Try to master basic stick men and faces with expressions, especially if your students are young learners.

g) Final tips

-Ask students to come out to draw, write, present or even work. You could allow one group to work at the board when doing a group task.

-Use your board as support for your voice - to give instructions, examples and feedback.

-You can use board activities as an aid to discipline - settle a noisy class for example by giving a quick copying exercise or word game. Write a child's name up on the board if they are talking too much instead of just telling them off.

-Your board is an organizational tool too. Use it as a memory store for things to do or keep you on track with a lesson. Remember the more organized you are on your board, the more organized your students will be too.

Try to make your board as interactive as possible.

-Drawing pictures is an essential skill for explaining texts and stories to our students. Practice story-telling with basic pictures on the board. Remember you can ask your students out to the board to draw too - this is a fun activity at whatever level. You can create picture stories with your students and use these for further oral or written work.

-Other visuals which are useful to draw are large-scale pictures such as maps, a plan of a town, a plan of a house/school/new building etc. These could be used with stick on cut outs to provide a wealth of language practice.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BOARD

First, when the teacher writes clearly the learners will have a great chance to assimilate the lesson better. There will, also, be no confusion among the learners. They will write down as clearly as the board is. Hence, there will be no SPELLING problems.

Second, the learners will habituate themselves with CLEARNESS and TIDINESS. They will care for their notebooks. How can a teacher blame his / her learners for untidiness or indifference while he / she is untidy?

Third, the board is the teacher's FACE. It reflects the teacher's seriousness and assiduity.

In the classroom, the board has three-meter approximately. We have to divide it into three parts the first of which is devoted to the notes, the utterances and / or the structure rules. The second part is left blank as a reserve for more notes or utterances. I often need it for extra materials. The last part is used for further explanations; sometimes for drawings, crosswords, quizzes, or puzzles...

I have to use different colors when writing. The board looks colorful and attractive. This fostered the learners to care for their copy-books that's why I am thinking of holding a school exhibition for them. I always us the BLUE pen for the known words, the RED for the new lexis and the GREEN for the affixations or the suffixations. Look at this example:

E.g.  * Do (in red) you like (in blue) lettuce (in red)?

     - Yes, I (in blue) do (in red).

Here the focus is, grammatically, on the auxiliary verb (do) and, lexically, on the word (lettuce) because among the objectives of my lesson the interrogative form and the acquisition of new lexis related to fruit and vegetable. 

E.g. * Do (in red) es (in green) your brother / sister like (in blue) pepper (in red)? 

   - No, he / she (in blue) does (in red) not (in green).

Here, again, the focus is on the interrogative and the negative forms, and on the new word "pepper".

Thus, both grammar / structure and vocabulary run smoothly and naturally.

To sum up, here are some tips that you may find helpful in using the board.

DIVIDE YOUR BOARD (at least two parts). WRITE MORE CLEARLY. USE DIFFERENT COLOURS to draw the attention of your students to specific

remarks/ notes. MOVE TO THE BACK OF THE CLASSROOM FROM TIME TO TIME to see how your

board looks like.

WHAT IS THE INTERACTIVE BOARD?

An interactive board is a piece of hardware that looks much like a standard board but it connects to a computer and a projector in the classroom to make a very powerful tool. When connected, the interactive board becomes a giant, touch-sensitive version of the computer screen.

Instead of using the mouse, you can control your computer through the interactive board screen just by touching it with a special pen (or, on some types of boards, with your finger). Anything that can be accessed from your computer can be accessed and displayed on the interactive whiteboard, for example Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, photographs, websites or online materials.

Using special software included with the interactive whiteboard, you can also interact with images and text projected on the board: rearranging them, changing their size, color, etc. This offers a much more interactive experience than using a standard whiteboard or using a data projector alone.

THE INTERACTIVE

BOARD

SMART Board, ActivBoard, eBeam, Mimio and Webster are some of the most widely used at this time. There are some resources for interactive whiteboards. Some are specific to a certain brand, but the ideas can still be used on most of them. We aren´t specifically recommending a certain brand. Some teachers of the deaf like the SMART Board because they don´t have to use a digital pen to write on the board, hindering their signing. Some of the more portable systems like the Mimio and the eBeam are good for more transient classrooms. The ActivBoard has a lot of built-in templates and resources; but there are probably more online resources for the SMART Board (at this time).

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INTERACTIVE BOARD IN THE CLASSROOM

Interactive whiteboards are used in many schools as replacements for traditional whiteboards, or video/media systems such as a DVD player and TV combination. Even where traditional boards are used the IWB often supplements them by connecting to a school network digital video distribution system. In other cases, IWBs interact with online shared annotation and drawing environments such as interactive vector based graphical websites.

Potential issues

Permanent markers and use of regular dry erase markers can create problems on some interactive whiteboard surfaces, because interactive whiteboard surfaces are most often melamine, which is a porous, painted surface that can absorb marker ink. Punctures, dents and other damage to surfaces are also a risk. Some educators have found that use of interactive whiteboards reinforces an age old teaching method teacher speaks, students listen. This teaching model is contrary to many modern instructional models.

In addition, interactive whiteboards allow teachers to record their instruction and post the material for review by students at a later time. This can be a very effective instructional strategy for students who benefit from repetition, who need to see the material presented again, for students who are absent from school, for struggling learners, and for review for examinations. Brief instructional blocks can be recorded for review by students. They will see the exact presentation that occurred in the classroom with the teacher´s audio input. This can help transform learning and instruction.

OTHER WAYS TO USE INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS IN THE CLASSROOM

Save lessons to present to students who were absent Use the built in maps to teach continents, oceans, countries, or states and capitals. Present presentations created by student or teacher. Have students create e-folios including samples of their work and narration Teach whole group computer or keyboarding skills Brainstorming Take notes directly into PowerPoint presentations. Reinforce skills by using online interactive web sites