!? WHITEBOARDS !?

How can we help motivate our students to participate and be more involved in class? One of the easiest, yet more expensive ways is to purchase an interactive whiteboard for your classroom. As classrooms become more up to date with technology, teachers need to make sure they stay on top of this technology. Our students are very comfortable using all the new toys, computers, video games, ect…. because they have grown up with them. As teachers we need to do all we can to stay ‘hip’ with the ever changing technologies.

First off let me start by saying I have never had access to a whiteboard previous to our class. During the entire time we were using the whiteboard for our game of Pictionary, I was trying to think of ways that I needed this in my classroom. I never came up with a reason that I HAD to have a whiteboard in my classroom. Now, in saying the previous statement, I thought of a couple ways that might make the whiteboard nice but not a necessity in my classroom.

In my classroom, I have a 8 foot wide screen and a projector on a cart. The cart is the first problem of a whiteboard, my school doesn’t mount any of our projectors to the ceiling, instead they place all projectors on carts. Adjusting the boundaries of the whiteboard would be a constant struggle with the projector on a cart. The second problem for my classroom would be the entire lab would have to be turned around in order for a whiteboard to work in my classroom. There is a shelf in my classroom that would make it difficult for students to reach parts of the whiteboard. A third reason that I had concerns about a whiteboard would be, if I let all my students use this whiteboard, what about my students in wheelchairs who couldn’t reach most of the board. I would not want them left out in the participation of the whiteboard. There might be products already made to help special circumstances like students in wheelchairs, I am just not aware of them.

In any lesson, using the whiteboard would get the students involved and letting them come up to the board would definitely increase their motivation. Coming up with five lesson ideas was a lot more challenging then one would think, but here are my ideas for how a interactive whiteboard would help my in my classroom.

1. When teaching my students Microsoft Publisher, using a whiteboard would be nice because I would not have to sit at the computer and demo what each of the tools in a toolbar does, I could stand in the front of the room and just click the buttons with my finger or the pointing tool.

2. Reviewing for a test. Whether reviewing using a jeopardy type game, or just having students go up to the board and explain the material we are reviewing.

3. When reviewing internet safety, when the students come up with ideas, they could write their ideas up on the whiteboard and then I could print out a review sheet based on their answers. Also, at the end of the period, we could use the notepad to review what we covered that day in the class.

4. I could use it to benefit my teaching when I am teaching keyboarding skills to my fifth graders. I would be able to have a wireless keyboard and be in the front of the room and demonstrate the Mavis Beacon program we use.

5. It would be a nice tool to use a whiteboard for my students PowerPoint presentations or when using Google Earth. During curriculum night when the parents come into my room for a summary of what I cover throughout the year it would be nice to demonstrate what their tax dollars are being spent on.

I am sure there are many other ways I would use a whiteboard, if I had one in my classroom. As long as a teacher was comfortable using a computer they would be able to use an interactive whiteboard. There would be a slight learning curve and maybe a little more work when you first start planning lessons around the whiteboard but after a little time I am sure it would pay off. I believe the biggest incentive to purchase a whiteboard is to motivate the students. As classrooms move toward the 21^st century classroom, whiteboards will definitely become more prevalent.