caption id=”attachment_1503″ align=”alignleft” width=”300″ caption=”First Graders practice writing equations”][/caption]Without a doubt, my absolute favorite teaching tool is the individual white board. Way back when the earth was still cooling and I had just started my teaching career, I laminated white poster board and cut them apart to make my own super cheap version. Today I have a little more money, so I have my own commercial set of 30. And they get used A LOT.

Why do I like white boards so much? First of all, kids love them. There’s something about using a dry erase marker and being a being able to wipe off your work. Kids never seem to get tired of it. And that’s good. Because, like I said, they get used a lot.

But the main reason they are tops on my list has to do with my role as a teacher. It’s my job to help kids learn. And with a white board, I can see very quickly if my lesson is making sense to each individual student in my class. And, if not, I either re-teach on the spot or take note of the students I need to work with in small groups later on.

Let me give you an example. I was working with a group of first graders recently. (The photo above comes from that group.) I was doing an activity where I quickly showed them a pattern of dots (think: dice) and their job was to mentally add ‘2’ to the number of dots they saw and write it on their white board. After a few moments, I had the class “show me” their answers. By glancing quickly around the room, I could see who, was having difficulty with this type of mental math.

I do tell students that if they absolutely do not know the answer, simply write a question mark. “Question marks are okay,” I say. “They tell me I need to re-teach something and since that’s my job, I need to know that.”

I also have students use white boards when they’re working on solving a problem together. Then, I have pairs of students come up to the front and share their work.

I really do believe that the individual white board has made me a better teacher. Catching a mistake in real-time allows me to immediately address it with that child. And when this happens, it helps prevent a bad habit from forming. This fits in nicely with brain research about the importance of immediate feedback. Besides, they really are fun to write on.

BTW, in the above photo we had a few minutes before recess so I had the first graders pull out the white boards and practice writing equations of their choice. Walking around I noticed the equations on this board which started a conversation about patterns. Do you notice the patterns?

TIPS: I keep the white boards in sets of 6 in a plastic container along with 6 dry eraser markers and 6 “erasers” (cut-up old shirts). This makes it super easy to pass out or have the table collector get for the group.

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