Over the last year and a half of teaching as an Auxiliar I’ve built a kit of useful bits – found in any local Chinese bazaar – that have aided and enhanced my classroom activities here in Spain. From bolstering limited whiteboard space to adding an interactive element to activities, they make lesson a little easier for the teacher and a little more stimulating for the students.
[1] Wipe-clean boards
These are the old sticky laminated pages that used to be used in photo albums (remember those?). These have so many uses.
- give them to students with a fine whiteboard marker (also available in bazaar shops) for team brainstorming or to write down team answer in a quiz.
- stick a worksheet inside the board (under the plastic laminate) to create a re-usable sheet that students can write on with their whiteboard markers
- stick on cards in kinaesthetic exercises. Some more ‘excitable’ students can sabotage rival teams by blowing away paper cards being rearranged on a table. Blutac them to a board first to stop this happening (and prevent little bits of your game being lost!)
- prepare blutac blobs – don’t lose valuable attention time by trying to get a blutac blob that you need to stick something up on the board. Have a load of them read to use on one board.
- protect delicate visual aids by sticking them to the boards while transporting
[2] Rolls of plastic
In some classrooms you have a choice of either the whiteboard or the roll down projector screen. Perhaps at times you want to project your powerpoint display onto the board, but also add notes at the same time. A roll of transparent plastic (actually intended to be used to protect book covers) makes an excellent side whiteboard. (Note: you have to be sure there is no light reflections that make it difficult to read.)
Last year, I found it particularly useful for:
- creating extra ‘whiteboard’ space
- pre-writing whiteboard material (where projectors were not available)
- create a permanent resource by drawing images in permanent marker on one side (eg body outline) that students can then label (on the reverse) with whiteboard markers.
- change the dynamic of a classroom by turning a side wall or back wall into a whiteboard
[3] Soft ball
This is an obvious one, but having a cheap soft ball stuffed in your bag is a great idea. In activities where the students have to give feedback – or even ask each other questions in a chain – a ball can give the whole thing a bit more energy. I found this particularly good for sport or ‘laddish’ classes, who were reluctant to take part. Classmates would give their friends difficult throws to catch – giving them just the right level of rebellious free-will in a lesson that might otherwise have turned them off.
[4] Dice
Another obvious one, perhaps, but at times finding a set of dice in a school or college can be tricky when you’re rushing to your next lesson. But they are not just useful for games – any practice or feedback session can be ‘game-ified’ by numbering activities and asking students to roll the dice. (Eg – label questions one to twelve on the board and a student rolls the dice to see which one they have to answer in feedback. Or in groups, practise present continuous where 1 = I, 2=you, 3= he etc. )
[5] Big plastic folders
This is more for you than the students. If you plan to get creative and use lots of materials with ‘bits’, then do yourself a favour and buy a stack of plastic wallet folders. The ones pictured are ideal – big enough to hold the wipe-clean album boards (see number 1) and with a button clip to keep it falling out all over the place. (I originally would put things in plastic ring binder wallet and would arrive in class to find them tipped all over the inside of my bag.)
TEACHER PETE 