Teachers: Keep Control of Your Whiteboard
Posted by Robert Feeley on
A dry erase board, or whiteboard, is a very effective teaching aid, but to young students, it's play land! Everyone grab a marker and start drawing pictures, cartoons, and doodles!
As a teacher, setting the rules straight on day one is an important step to keeping your whiteboard a teaching tool as well as a fun way for kids to learn.
Probably the best thing to do prior to the start of school is to create separate sections on the board. One section in the top corner for the teacher's name, the day of the week, and perhaps the lesson for the day.
Another thing to consider are separate sections for students to come up and use for work-space. Depending on how much whiteboard space you have, it's good to have assigned sections for two, three, or four students. This way, they know that there are never more than the allotted number at one time. Three slots equals three students at a time. Hopefully this will keep a dozen kids from rushing the board and sparking a melee.
Keep the markers in the front! Kids have a tendency to walk back to their desks with the marker and suddenly your markers are all gone. Make sure there is an orderly procedure made clear to everyone that when done at the board, the cap goes on and the marker in placed in it's proper spot.
It's a good idea to assign cleaning the whiteboard to a certain student, and they usually see this as fun, and not a task. It's a good idea to have our Clean with Attitude cleaner because it's non-toxic and it works great!
If you have limited whiteboard space and you'd like to have more, please consider our Whiteboard in a Box product. It's very versatile and much less expensive than buying and installing a whole new whiteboard.