The sun is shining, it's a beautiful day outside and you have the task of trying
to keep the attention of a room full of children from wandering beyond the classroom. It sounds like a tough task, doesn't it?
In ordinary circumstances it would be. It can be difficult to engage a whole class if you don't put enough thought into the lesson to begin with. When you have additional distractions such as the nice weather, you have an uphill battle to make your lesson into a success.
Clearly you need a focus for your lesson and for the children as well. Trying to wing it' and hope for the best is not going to be enough. Think of how you can zone in and grab their attention beforehand so you are prepared for the lesson in the best possible way.
For instance, start thinking in images as well as thinking about what you want to teach them. You need to make your lesson more exciting and interesting to pay attention to than the weather! The children are likely to be excited and lively when they enter the classroom, so think about how you can use that to your advantage.
If you use images as part of your lesson you will instantly have a way to get the attention of your class. Writing messages on a chalkboard is not enough think about introducing an interactive whiteboard instead. It gives you far more versatility and it also enables you to bring the children into the equation in a much easier and stronger way.
In addition to this you can also appeal to everyone, no matter what kind of learner they happen to be. Some prefer images; others prefer hearing the lesson and still more like to get involved in a more practical way. By using whiteboards like these you can draw everyone in and use them to your best advantage no matter what subject you might be teaching.
Most children appreciate being shown something rather than being told something. Let's say someone tells you all about penguins and where they live. Now suppose they show you all that information on an interactive whiteboard that enables you to actually move images around and explore the world of the penguin in a way you've never been able to do before.
Which situation would enable you to retain the most information, do you think?
Most people would pick the second one. Provided you have enough interactive whiteboard resources at your disposal you can draw the attention of the kids away from how nice it is outside more easily than you might think. In fact you might even have trouble sending them away at the end of the lesson.