Managing resources: equipment and teaching aids

THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING AIDS

There are many different ways in which a trainer can make the learning experience more interesting and memorable for learners. One technique is to use teaching aids. These are things used in the classroom to aid teaching and training.

1. THE BOARD

It is the most common tool that we can find in a classroom, ehether it is white, black or green. It is essential to develop a class because teachers can use it to  organize, explain , and to develop a class in order to obtain the maxium effect.

• There are four basic prequisites of using the board:

      - Start with a clean board, Don´t start your lesson with reamains of someone else´s still up.

      - Write legibly and neatly.

      - Use the right implement. You have to use the white board marker, chalk

      - Try to keep the board as clear, straightforward.

• At what stage in the lesson should the board be used?

When the eriting up is done depends on the type of lesson and the student´s normal styles of learning. sometimes, the students are impatient when the teacher is writing things during the oral part of the lesson. 

2. The overhead projector

An overhead projector is a variant of slide projector that is used to display images to an audience.

ADVANTAGES: 

• The overhead projector facilitates an easy low-cost interactive environment for educators. 
• Teaching materials can be pre-printed on plastic sheets, upon which the educator can directly write using a non-permanent, washable color marking pen. 
• This saves time, since the transparency can be pre-printed and used repetitively, rather than having materials written manually before each class.

DISADVANTAGES: 

• An overhead projector enables you to present individual, static transparencies that contain business information and statistics.
•  If you're accustomed to sharing movies, sound files and illustrated documents from your notebook computer through a digital projector, stepping back to older technology may prove challenging.

                                       

3. VISUALS 

Visual aids help you reach your objectives by providing emphasis in a different way than speaking. Clear pictures, graphs, or models multiply your students level of understanding of the material presented, and they can be used to reinforce your message, clarify points, and create interest.

Visual aids engage your students and require a change from one activity to another: from hearing to seeing and sometimes touching. They enable you to appeal to more than one sense at the same time, thereby increasing your student’s understanding and retention level. With drawings, posters, transparencies and other visuals, the concepts or ideas you present are no longer simply words - but words plus images. 

4.FLIP CHARTS

• ·          Each sheet of paper should contain one main idea, sketch, or theme.
• ·          Words, charts, diagrams, and other symbols must be penned in a large enough size to be seen by people farthest from the speaker.
• ·          Use and vary the color. Also, check from a distance to make sure the color works well and is not distracting.

5. PHOTOGRAPHS

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Photographs can be effectively used to do the following:

• Compare historical events or practices with current ones
• Illustrating concepts or ideas that are unobtainable locally
• Bring local images familiar to students into the classroom to make instruction more real
• Ask students questions about what they think caused the situation they are viewing
• Pictures of diseased plants or animals are excellent for making preliminary diagnoses
• Photographs can be used to assist students in identifying different types of plants, animals, equipment, etc.

6. THE CASSETTE RECORDER

It is one of the language teacher´s most useful tools, all the coursebooks and many other published EFL materials are accompained by cassettes.

USING THE CASSETTE RECORDER:

* You have to know how to use the machine, inserting the cassette.

* Check the availabity of the cassette

* Before the lesson, put the cassette ON 

In summary, resources help students understand the object of the lesson the teacher isconveying. Additionally, it helps the teacher to test whether the students have improved their understanding of the given subject. Without resources, the whole teaching process could be very boring, and there would be no information that backs up the topic that the teacherwould be working on. Resources provide the questions that follow the current stage of the syllabus, and an in-depth understanding of the subject material at hand.