Fancy joining me on a bit of a board walk? :-) Image: Arturo Donato
My recent Wandrous Whiteboard challenge has been a great way for me to see how other ELTers use their white (or black) boards. I loved seeing Michelle Worgan's Babbling Blackboard depictions and, more recently, Shelly Terrell's Unplugged Student Interaction Whiteboard. In a topically similar but separate blog meme challenge, Mike Harrison also recently unveiled some shots of his whiteboard to demonstrate how he engages in scaffolding (as part of Karenne Sylvester's interesting ongoing Dogme blog challenge).
Quite apart from the specific activities associated with these posts, all of these whiteboard (and blackboard) snaps have really brought home to me just how important board work is and how fundamental it is to what we often do in classroom settings. In fact, if you were to ask me what sort of teacher resource book I might be interested in writing (and funnily enough, quite a few people have been asking me that of late!), it could very well be something along the lines of Board Work. But hey, why try and write a resource book when you could just collaborate online and share everything on the spot? :-)
The board is the classroom's most important (physical) window, in most respects. It shows so much about what we do and why as lessons unfold and progress.
Hence, I feel this urge to encourage more ELTers around the world to show us their boards. It doesn't need to be in response to a specific methodology/activity/technique challenge. I don't particularly care what you are teaching or how, I just reckon I and a lot of other teachers could learn a lot just by getting a quick look at your board!
So, may I be so bold as to call a Meeting of the Board(s)?
If you already have a blog, just go ahead and upload a snapshot (whether actual picture or diagrammatic rendition - and hey, if video works for you, so much the better!) of your board work. You could leave it at that or add some notes to put the board work into context as part of your lesson - up to you!
Leave a comment for me here below this post with a link to your work, and later I will put together a "minutes of the board meeting" post listing and showcasing your contribution.
Alternatively, if you don't have a blog but would still like to participate, you could send your board work picture to me and I will feature (and credit) it for you on that later post. To get in touch, send me a message on Twitter (@englishraven)!
Remember, this doesn't need to be anything special or elaborate. And if you're worried about not being able to illustrate well or even write all that neatly, just take a look through some of my recent posts -- I'm sure the pictures of my boards will make you feel a lot better about yours right away!
I really hope you'll join in...
Collaborative board work could just be one of many ways we help each other find a clearer path through the language learning landscape!
=D
