Flip Charts

For the past week, the class has been introduced to a new concept of modern teaching: flip charts. When I think of teaching students, I think of having them do worksheets at their desk, group projects at centers, or a teacher directly instructing the students. What I do not see a lot of is student interactions at the front of the class. With the new introduction of this nifty technology of flip charts, I can see my students being able to mold their learning styles in new ways. How can a flip chart add to the students' learning styles? Flip charts are on interactive smart boards that are positioned at the front of the class. Students are able to write and do many other cool things on the smart board. With the ability for students to engage with the rest of the class with these smart boards, the students are able to show others their work and explain how they came to their conclusion. If the students are able to teach others their ways of figuring out the answer, the other students are able to see various perspectives instead of their own and the teacher's.  

Another thing that I found interesting and helpful about the smart board is that the students are able to take informal quizzes on the board by placing their answers in the right spots on charts. By doing this, they are able to talk about how they came up with the answers and help challenge the other students to come up with the answers, too.

One thing that I am nervous about to learning how to make these and finding out different ways to engage the class. I think this project coming up where we have to make our own flip charts will be really helpful for me to find out new ways to do this.