Bill Chamberlain, a social studies teacher at Noel Junior High School, recently purchased four interactive tables for his classroom with a grant from the McDonald County Schools Foundation.
The tables have whiteboard surfaces and are round with cutouts for the seats. They also have wheels so they can be easily moved. Chamberlain allows three students to a table so they do not get too crowded. He has other seating in his classroom as well. There is a countertop that goes along the wall at the back of the classroom, providing several other places for students to sit. He said the countertop has a smooth surface, so it can be used as a whiteboard as well.
Chamberlain said before he got the new tables, he had rectangular folding tables and round folding tables, but they took up a lot of space.
"These are cut out so they have a smaller footprint," he said. "The kids like them, especially being able to move them. The ability to use them as a whiteboard is nice as well. We use them for vocabulary words, to draw pictures of vocabulary words, things like that."
He said some of his students prefer to use a Chromebook, some prefer pencil and paper, and some prefer the whiteboard, so it gives them another option.
"Just as furniture they've been great. Having the whiteboard surface on them is a bonus. The size and shape of the tables have worked out really well," he said.
He added the class can move the tables out of the way to have an open space for Morning Movement. Morning Movement is a program at the school that gives students an opportunity to exercise in the morning before classes.
"When you're looking for tools, the more uses you can find for them improves the investment in them," Chamberlain said. "A tool that does one job is not as useful as a tool that does many."
Chamberlain teaches American history and world geography to seventh- and eighth-grade students.
General News on 03/14/2019