Usually the whiteboard is used as a presentation medium by the teacher, but children love to use it as well. We use the whiteboard as a learning tool for children as well as a teaching aid for teachers.
To enable my reception class children to reach the board I made “a magic wand” - a decorated piece of dowling rod with fabric wound round the end so that it doesn’t scratch the whiteboard. This acts as a pen when one of the real interactive pens is detached from its socket.
Children can then undertake exercises such as match-up games in groups, on their own or as part of the class. For example, I might ask them to find all the pictures (from clip art or scanned in) of objects beginning with “h” or ask them to put the letters of high-frequency words in the right order.
I also detach the rubber interactive pen and use “the magic wand” as an eraser in, say, exercises on “more or less” - “add two more sweets” or “show me two sweets less”.
They all love it; they think it’s really a magic wand and as soon as I get it out I’ve got their attention.
Hayley Farthing, class teacher, Llandogo Primary School, Llandogo, Nr Monmouth
More about ICT at Llandogo on page 28