So this past 3 weeks, I have been “earning my way” to #ISTE11. “EduStranded” in St. Louis wiped out the stash I had for the trip.  So I reviewed 864 links and Promethean flipcharts in 3 weeks (I categorized them and write a description). Sounds easy but really wasn’t. I had to open each flipchart to view it, add in ADHD, 2 kids, teaching and coaching job, and you see why I finished at midnight the last day it was due. But that is not the point here, sorry, you know I digress.

So after hours and hours looking at these I would find myself either getting excited about some or very frusterated with others.  You hear over and over people arguing against or for IWB. Some of these flipcharts I would look at and this “Yep, that’s why people hate these” then others would cause me to think “What a wonderful student-centered lesson, this is why IWB are not bad.” So I have decided to put in my 2 cents on these flipcharts.

The Good:

• Student centered: flipcharts where students create things
• Story telling flipcharts that have animation that act out stories being read by the teacher (yes I understand people don’t like teacher centered but I think all teachers should do a read-aloud with elementary kids)
• Flipcharts used a part of a learning center (make a set, choose correct path)
• Self correcting so students know they are wrong and can now search for correct answer without teacher involvement.
• Calendar Time flipcharts – yes more teacher centered BUT when I taught 1st grade this was really a time we bonded as a class, plus kids love to be in the spotlight to do their “job.” (BTW there are about 200 of these on Planet, so no need to make one.) 
• Student games – not whole class competitions, but where 1 or 2 students play to advance after problem solving activity.
• If it is to be used during a lecture, those only 4 slides long with videos and just pictures.
• Templates for students to use for presenting. Sometimes little ones or non-techy kids need a place to start.
• Short ones that are mostly used for a 3 minute formatitve assessment.

The Bad:

• Flipchart = PowerPoint. Need I say more?
• Pure lecture centered
• Class competition games – games like that work OK for our honors classes, those kids love competition, but my kids really take failure/losing hard.
• Covering 100 different topics in one flipchart just to make a cutesy theme. Keep one subject.
• Pages are just math problems and maybe a picture.

The Ugly:

• 30 slides of notes. If you have 30 slides of notes, your students hate you.
• Games or interactives that have a buzzer when wrong. The entire class does not need to know a kid is incorrect.
• Putting your name as a search word. That was just a peeve of mine and had to get it out there.
• No pictures, just bullet points. zzzzzzz
• No interactive anything, it is called an INTERACTIVE white board for a reason.

Ok so there that is my “How To Make a Flipchart Not Annoy Me” lesson. Really this is comes down to one thing – IWBs are a tool. Just like a pencil (remember that rant?), paper, text book, computer, whatever, if you use them for good, student learning will happen. If you use them incorrectly, then it is a waste of money.

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