Whiteboards can be an essential tool for creating an engaged classroom. They provide teachers with a flexible, dynamic way of teaching key information, as well as allowing for engagement between themselves and the students.
When it comes to maths classes, whiteboards can be an especially useful tool to help facilitate learning. In this article, we’ll look at how teachers can get the best use out of whiteboards in their maths classes.
Encourage confidence using whiteboards
One of the best uses of whiteboards is as an aid for problem-solving activities.
Maths problems need careful thinking and analysis – something which requires being comfortable with making mistakes as part of the learning process. Using individual whiteboards in a maths lesson allows pupils to practice skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division without the fear of ruining a workbook. This provides them with a sense of confidence and reassurance that lets them explore their own learning. It also means that they can quickly make corrections if they do get something wrong which develops the skill of finding errors in their own work.
Moreover, whiteboards are useful at every stage of learning. This malleable teaching tool can be utilised for concrete learning with physical objects, pictorial techniques such as drawing visual representations, and abstract learning with number sentences.
Easily meet individual needs with live marking
Whiteboards also offer a great way for teachers to give instructions quickly and clearly.
They are ideal for teachers to communicate instructions in a prompt and clear manner. With live marking being more important in schools, whiteboards can be crucial in completing the assessment of learning, enabling the teacher to continuously engage with the students’ performance.
One of the primary benefits of whiteboards is that they provide an instant formative assessment tool that is key in live marking. This allows teachers to engage with the thinking, understanding and progress of all students at once.
With a whiteboard, teachers can easily see how students are progressing with a particular problem, allowing them to adapt to their individual needs. For those students who are particularly fast learners, whiteboards can be used to easily provide them with additional challenges and activities to keep them stimulated without disrupting the lesson plan for those who learn at a steadier pace. This benefit of using whiteboards allows for instant intervention, whereas with pen-to-paper methods, this opportunity can often be missed until it comes to marking work.
Create enthusiasm and make maths fun
To top it all off, whiteboards can make maths lessons entertaining!
Mini whiteboards can inject a bit of fun and imagination into maths lessons, aiding with student confidence and providing the enthusiasm required to address more difficult problems. To make sure that maths classes are successful, a balance between achievement and enjoyment must be found.
By giving students ownership of their learning using whiteboards, they can successfully commit the lessons to memory. Incorporating some fun into maths lessons with whiteboards helps pupils who find maths challenging make positive associations with the subject. Allowing students to share their thoughts and ideas using their boards makes them feel empowered and engaged in their own learning.
With individual whiteboards, students can practice without any pressure. Activities like number games are entertaining and encourage students to collaborate, while still providing them with the opportunity to exercise their Maths skills. Whiteboards also allow teachers to see and celebrate successes in the classroom, producing an atmosphere of enthusiasm and excitement.
The bottom line
In summary, whiteboards are a powerful tool for visualising learning in the Maths classroom. They help to get everybody involved, from the teacher to the students and can provide instant feedback on how all students are doing. Overall, whiteboards can be used to make maths lessons more interactive, engaging, and effective.
Discover some of our favourite maths whiteboards below, or shop the full mini whiteboard range HERE
