Interesting Uses of the Smart Board part 1...

When students are role playing in front of the class, draw a set of theatre curtains (complete with theatre masks) on the Smart Board behind them. They seem, as a result, to be more willing to get up and perform in the Class Theatre.

And I feel very proud of having thought of this just as we were about to do role plays. Inspiration is a wonderful thing.

I think finding interesting ways to use ICT in classes is important, be it fun websites that can be used (for example the BBC's touch typing lessons website), or bringing up pictures to answer vocabulary questions- this is great for students with a low level of reading as they can see immediately what is meant- with low levels of English, a picture is worth 1000 words that students might not understand- because you can guarantee that there will always be some students who pretend they know what you're talking about when really they're confused. Of course this links to the first post I made- being a teacher has in part to be about knowing what questions to ask to check understanding, because students will almost never tell you when something is wrong. I gather from investigating the Smart Board notebook software that there's a section for pictures and another for attachments- this means I should be able to prepare everything that's going to go on the board ahead of time, without fussing about opening up files. Excellent! The Smart Board is growing on me- when it works. I'm about to go into an ICT lesson where I can't use it because someone stole the projector from the classroom.

That said, with particular groups, there will be students who do nothing but complain, and their attitudes have to be taken with a pinch of salt, though they should not be ignored. When a student says "this is boring" they might mean they're stuck and don't want to say anything. But "aw, Miss, that's long" (a phrase I've heard often this past half term) is often, and certainly was in the context that I heard it, indicative of a very short attention span.
"That's long" they say. "Yes." I think, "A whole paragraph! What a terrible person I am for making you read."