Mini whiteboards doing their magic again! This time we are using them to re-tell our latest TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) story and again they provide a great conversation scaffold for students whilst also ensuring they are active, speaking the target language with various classmates and hopefully engaged in the task!

Here is how it works:
Having already spent a few classes developing our latest story together this task is used as a way to review the key structures from the story.

1. I start by telling the students that because I am really REALLY old I have a terrible memory and they have to help me remember our story. I then proceed to consistenyl tell the story with incorrect details. For example "Brad Pitt estaba en Elefante-land?" to which all the students almost always respond enthusiastically with big smiles saying "No!!!! Es ridiculo! Brad Pitt estaba en Canguro-land" or whatever it may be.

2. Once we have revised the whole story this way as a class I ask each student to divide their mini whiteboard into four quadrants and to draw any four scenes from the story. Only one word is allowed on the entire whiteboard if they choose to use a sign or something in their drawing. I give them 2 minutes to do this, otherwise some people get carried away a turn into mini 'Picassos'!

3. Next we all get up out of our seats (this is key... it keeps them awake!) and go into pairs. If it is an odd number I too will have a whiteboard and have done my world famous matchstick men works of art on it!

4. In their pairs each person has to explain what is happening in their scenes. After about 60 seconds the listener is encouraged to ask questions for clarification or to make incorrect statements that the teller must correct. They then switch over and go through the process again.

5. Here is the key part - once both students have explained their scenes they exchange whiteboards, put the new whiteboard high in the air and have to go and find a new partner. Now they have a new whiteboard to work with. Some students (the first time you do this) might query the strange drawings they have been handed but this is why the listening part of the exercise is so key. In fact, bad drawings are almost better as the lack of detail or clarity forces the new whiteboard proprietor to recall even more details from the story.

6. The whole process now repeats itself with whiteboards swapping various hands throughout the activity.

​Students really like this one! They get to move around and talk to different people and are constantly receiving more repetitions of the key structures. At the end you may want to choose one student to explain the scenes on the board they were left with at the end of the task. I have also sometimes taken a whiteboard myself at the end (usually one with particularly good artwork to highlight the creative skills of that student) and again I will explain all scenes with incorrect details to force the students to use those structures again to correct me.

If you have done anything similar or work with TPRS do let me know! I am always keen to hear your feedback.

So teachers, students (and parents!) are all currently back at school and getting used to early starts, homework and school uniforms again. For me this is a big year as I have started work in the International School of Lausanne now, about 1 hour from my previous school, Leysin American School, in Switzerland. Already it feels very different as I have left the hectic schedule of a boarding school for the equally hectic, albeit different, environment of a day school.

Luckily for me, like so many other teachers, I love my job. I know to some people the words 'love' and 'job' should never go together but its true... sorry! The dreaded 'going back to work' is really not that much of an issue for me when the end of August rolls around (in fact I actually look forward to it) but getting used to the pace and energy required does take a few weeks. Now, to be clear, that is not to say that I don't like my summer holidays... that would be 'completamente ridículo' as we might say in class! I knew this year in particular would be tough at the start as I would have to become familiar in the new school's systems and get to know my new students but so far it has been fantastic. My colleagues have been so helpful and nice, the leadership team is genuinely inspirational and the students are nothing short of amazing. 

Leaving the wonderful setting of Leysin and all the amazing friendships I made there was always going to be difficult. Especially having to leave behind some of my students and the great basketball team I was coaching but this is part of the nature of teaching and moving jobs. No matter when or where, you will always be letting some people down when it comes time to move. It was made easier though by the stream of emails and messages I received from both ex and current students wishing me well and talking about things they remembered in class. I've shared just two of them here below (with their permission) which might show you why so many of us love being teachers. Thank you to all my wonderful students for taking the time to write to say thank you. It means so much. If you are reading this and haven't told someone (anyone, not necessarily your teacher) how grateful you are for whatever it might be they did for you, stop what you are doing and write to them now. It will make their day, their year even.

Yes, as teachers, we will never be millionaires. But we will be profoundly rich in so many other ways.