Returning to work after Christmas, I decided I wanted to make better use of my mini whiteboards. They have always been stored in large box at the front of my room and distributed as needed, which meant their use was always deliberately planned for (not a bad thing) as I would have to factor in handing out boards, pens, and rubbers.
The only solution I could think of was to have these items on desks permanently. I had several concerns about this. Would students be distracted by them? Would equipment get damaged? What would I do when I had to change rooms for someone else to teach in my classroom?
During the first week of term, I explained to every class that the boards would be on desks every lesson, clear instructions would be given when we needed to use them, and I expected everyone to take care of the equipment they were using. Every row had enough sets of equipment for each seat rather than each student – this makes it super easy to see when pens or rubbers are missing.
I started to see the benefits immediately:
- Whole class responses to key questions
- Increased buy-in from students as they felt able to make mistakes
- No wasted time giving out resources
Board use is better when I am clear with my instructions on how to use them, we now have a pretty good routine around this. My script usually goes:
“Ok, on your boards please…question…thinking time…question reminder…one more minute for completion…ok and boards up in 3…2…1…show me your boards.”
Repetition of this has made the process super smooth. Students know exactly what is coming and this allows them to concentrate on the question they’ve been given rather than the procedure of using the whiteboards.
I’ve insisted that all students are expected to answer every question when using the whiteboards. Our mantra is “a guess is better than a blank” so it’s no issue if an answer is wrong but all students must take part. I still have some students who try to opt out, but I’ll prompt where possible or highlight the expectation that this is something they should know and they need to do better – I make no apology for having high expectations of all students.
As the whiteboards are available permanently, I have many students who now opt to complete their starter quizzes on the boards and again, see better buy-in with students attempting all questions, most of the time. It’s also much easier to check compared to peering over shoulders into exercise books. For those classes who are using booklets, the boards ensure students can do the starter quizzes without needing extra paper and the logistics that go with this.
So, after a whole term working in this way, my reflections are as follows:
Pros:
- whole class response = better assessment of all students understanding
- repetition of key questions to embed specific phrases/credit-worthy answers
- flexibility to use the boards and check understanding at any point
Cons:
- quality of whiteboard pens – cheap ones don’t last long enough, still working out a solution to this
- some students still try to opt out, I just need to keep pushing on the expectations of this
- some damage to rubbers but they are cheap sponges so easily replaced
Overall, it’s made a significant different to my classroom practice and to my students understanding and recall of key knowledge. I can’t imagine teaching without them now!
Love Teaching, Love Learning 
On return to school after Covid the decision was made that every child would be provided with a whiteboard and pen of their own. The reason behind this was our teaching community had recognised that one of the most positive and powerful outcomes of face to face teaching was seeing what the pupils were doing (no surprise I guess but the lack of this through Covid made it more obvious), however we also recognised that when the chat was used by the pupils it gave us a really clear picture of how every pupil was doing. Whiteboards just made sense to us all as the mist highly effective method if blending the two.
Now, when you walk around our school you will see whiteboards being used in the majority of classes. They are a powerful piece of equipment which gives the teacher the opportunity to adapt their lesson multiple times, if necessary, and the pupil the opportunity to demonstrate their strengths but also their weaknesses without fear.
I cannot work without them, i use them for immediate feedback, to deepen the pupils understanding and to test for misconceptions.
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