Distracted students are the bane of every teacher — but at Mitchell elementary, Grade 4-5 teacher Jessica Wang is winning the battle against distraction. She owes that victory to two things. The first is whiteboard material that has been placed on the surface of her school tables, and the second is a basket of communal supplies.
“The whiteboard table reduces the amount of paper we use,” she explained. “Students take photographs of the work they do on the whiteboards and post it on their digital portfolios to create a record of it. The whiteboards enable a lot more collaboration between the children, as well as more responsibility, and when it’s time to get things done, they can do it right away on the whiteboard.”
The whiteboards on her 24 students’ tables add immediacy to any tasks being performed in the classroom, she added. “When kids ask each other for help, they often get distracted. With the whiteboard, they can help each other on the spot. This way, they can work it out together, right away, instead of walking around, getting a scrap piece of paper, and explaining what they need help with, instead of doing. Here they practise the strategy, do the strategy and move on in their work.”
Baskets of communal supplies have also helped students stay organized and focused. Before the baskets were introduced, Wang found children would spend 10 minutes walking around looking for a pencil. Or they would come to school with three pencil cases filled with markers and waste time looking for things. “Now they come to class where there is a communal basket on each table containing four pencils, four glue sticks, four erasers. This way they have all the materials they need in front of them, and when they’re finished with it, they return everything.” Having the whiteboards available has also reduced the number of accessories they need in the classroom, she reflected. “The whiteboards remove the distractions, help kids get ready to learn and help them to self-regulate.”
One area where she’s noticed a substantial difference is in the amount of collaboration occurring between students in the classroom. “The kids seem to go to each other for a lot more help, or to talk problems through, because they love to write on the tables,” she said.
“When we do group work, it’s been a wonderful tool, because it’s immediate, everyone sees it and when it’s done, you just erase it. The whiteboards are improving concentration and the quality of ideas and collaboration coming from students in the classroom.”
