TeachingEnglish
Improving my board work
Submitted by TE Editor on 29 July, 2009 - 16:15
One thing I am always trying to improve is my use of the board. An easy way to monitor this is to sit down in one of my learner’s chairs when the class finishes and look at my board, or even better, ask another teacher to look at it. Does what I’ve written make sense? Is it organized? Is the writing clear? Could I have laid out the information in a clearer way? Looking at the board, can I get a clear sense of what the lesson was about? These questions always help me find some way to improve.
By Paul Kaye
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Comments
It is very important to have your board well organised and clear. This is part of successful classroom management. Imagine if your board was not organised and Ss could not figure out what is written there. May God bless you.
Haider M (EL supervisor)
One of the ways of improving your teaching skills is to plan the work on the board as well. You may divide the board in as many sections as the material to be covered during the lesson. For example, grammar section, vocabulary section, you'd better put down the most important material in the middle section. You may also practise drawing some figures on the board, which can be used to explain some grammar material or the drawings may serve as the visual cues for constructing a story. And the last but not least tip is to have an appropriate body posture while standing at the board. Never stand with your back to the class.
Best wishes,
Eka
Georgia
Great advice about planning board work. It makes a difference! That way, you never "run out" of space, because you know exactly what's going on the board at any given point of the lesson. This is especially useful if it's a grammar-focused lesson. I find that planning in detail helps tremendously.
While the students are copying the information into their notebooks, I walk to the back of the room to check if my handwriting is clear and whether everything on the board is accurate.
I recently observed a teacher who came up with an amazingly simple technique for improving his boardwork: dividing the board into a 4-box grid at the beginning of the lesson.
Not a technique for everyone, but it helped him deal really well with his two boardwork problems, which were:
He was forced to write small enough to fit into each box. As a result, he had both more space and clearer writing.
Seeing as he filled one box at a time, it didn't matter if he didn't wipe anything off, because he always had another quarter of the board clean and ready to add to.
I was surprised at how simple it was (no detailed planning, special segments, etc, just a 4-box grid). But it really worked.
Hi,
To be honest, ever since I was a university student I hated writing on the board (blackboard, greenboard, or whatever colour it comes in!), and for the greatest part because of the existence of chalk! I couldn't seem to be able to properly wash off the somehow sticky chalk residue on my hands with water and soap! So according to me, I would ban all such boards which use chalk!
Regarding your personal improvement and proper utilizing of the board in class, I would give Heath's advice about board division a thumb up because I too can see myself doing it! What I do is whenever starting off with writing on the board I go to the back of the classroom and see for myself whether I am a crooked writer or not. Why not even try to improve your handwriting as a homework assignment? Be strict and do the best because practice makes perfect! If you have the opportunity and will to do so, why not stay a little longer after English classes and make use of the board on your own. You won't have any audience at that time so you can be alone with your thoughts. While doing this, don't forget to write down on paper in two separate columns what you have assessed your strong points and weak points are, and while trying to keep up the strong points, work a bit more to perfect your weak points.
That's my advice
Waiting for more!
Aneta
Hello everyone!
I have just graduated and will start my first year of teaching this week. I have found your posts very helpful because writing on the board is one thing I know I have to work on!
I will try the 4-grid division, it seems a great idea! I do want my board to look neat and to be of help for my little students.
Additionally, there is one thing that you have not mentioned: I think that colours help loads. You can have different colours for more or less important things, or one for highlighting vocab/grammar, etc. Don't you think?
thnx
To be honest, I come to think about this matter for the first time. Very few teachers (I can talk only about those whose work I observe day after day) use the board accurately. The idea of deviding into 4 parts seems to be nice and useful, need to try it!))
Using different colors is really useful. Both kids and adults like it
As for me I usually use the board for games, simple grammar charts, warm-ups, and picture story-telling. I prefer paper clip charts to ordinary chalk boards. You can always go back to previous material.
I still need to work on improving the board but these are some ideas I use.
I divide the board in 2 or 4 parts depending on the work to do, this way I always have space left.
I make a square in red at the side of my lesson for any points of revision or minor points that I want the pupils to observe.
Phonetic symbols are written in blue (just a few at a time)
The principal point of the lesson is underlined or encircled in red. (I often ask the pupils to tell me what I'm going to underline)
Their own language (French) is written in green
Most of the pupils, (young teenagers) stick to the same colour codes and find it fairly simple to isolate the important points on their page or to find them again for revision.