#VNPS
I recall reading about #VNPS (vertical non-permanent surface) last spring and thought this is such a quick way to get students out of their seats and truly collaborating! The transformation that this is making in classrooms is more than incredible and more than I could ever imagined!I know what you are thinking, I already use whiteboards in my class [at their seats]
and I am going to respond....."this is different."
So you are thinking, so I take my whiteboards and put them on the walls??
"Yes... and...."
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| Wipebooks up in a classroom that dedicated group area collaborative spaces |
Here's how it all started... at the end of the year I received a grant at Inspire Loudoun (a teacher-run professional learning day where Loudoun County Public Schools teachers come together to share best practices in teaching with technology and more). As I no longer had my own classroom, I needed to use the money to support multiple middle schools...
I started doing some research on what might have the biggest impact on several math classrooms; this lead me back to my research of #VNPS!
I would love to whiteboard walls from floor to ceiling or wink walls or adhere huge whiteboards across walls in all classrooms-- and my grant wouldn't have even touched more than one classroom. I started back on Twitter and ran across the company Wipebook. With my grant and their educational discount based on quantities, I was able to purchase 18 sets of 10 whiteboard posters. Each individual poster can easily be adhered to the wall and are about 2ft x 3ft. Additionally, there are two sides on each poster a side that is blank and another side that has light graph lines. I know many teachers permanently adhere (hot glue/3M/etc.) the graph side up as it is so light that teachers feel like it is good for math use all the time! I have no affiliation with Wipebook and I just find their products affordable and hold up pretty well. If I had my choice with no cost associated I would absolutely want to have Winked walls floor to ceiling in every math classroom!
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| Students work together and switch roles every minute to resurface prior knowledge on coordinate planes |
How have I seen it utilized?
- Resurfacing prior knowledge in groups
- Work with your group to write everything you know about coordinate planes
- One marker
- Students switch every thirty seconds
- or use the Muscle/Brain technique
- One student is the muscle (writer) other 2-3 students are the brain (communicates thinking). The brain writes other's ideas, if they have an idea they would like to contribute they must pass the marker to another student.
- Practicing a skill after a mini-lesson
- Engaging in Rich Math Tasks such as www.openmiddle.com (that's for another day) and countless others
- As a central work place for groups during 3-Act Math Tasks or group tasks
- As a place for students to reflect on at the end of the day and write thoughts and group collaborative goals in the future?
- As a huge support to create a thinking classroom environment on a daily basis (if you haven't heard of Peter Liljedahl please look him up, and consider creating a thinking classroom in your math class!)
- What other ways have you seen this utilized?
What makes #VNPS so great?
- Gets students standing and out of their desks
- Centers group attention on one vertical space (not individual boards, with individuals doing the work), this easily promotes collaboration.
- Decreases risk (with dry erase marker, standing and groups)
- Can be paired with #VRG (visibly random grouping). We will dive into that another day!
- Easy to use in your class
- Students can have roles
- Teacher can formatively assess and support where needed
- Can be used for Gallery Walks
- Saves time as students help support other students
- Great for pulling small groups (and still be able to monitor the rest of the class)
- Can be easily integrated into your day to day math classes, not a big overhaul!
What are some of your reasons why?
Want to increase engagement instantly? Try it out! If you do, let me know how it goes!
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| Students collaborate at a large whiteboard on an Open Middle problem |
