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Teachers use different aids and equipment to help them make the lesson interesting. They can use simple board or more advanced interactive whiteboard, videos, work cards and many more. All of those are explained in this unit. The most basic ?help\" for the teacher is the board. The teacher starts with the clean board, makes sure the text is legible and easy to read, to write only essential and accurate information, use different colors to highlight important point of the lesson, and erase text that is no longer necessary. Interactive whiteboard, also known as smart boards, can make the lesson more interesting, but the teacher has to know how it works, have a good lesson plan and also have a back-up plan in case there are some technical issues. The teacher can also use overhead projector, which is good for focusing students attention. The material is prepared in advanced and the teacher does not write on the board as much, and does not turn his/hers back on the students. It is also a perfect tool for a feedback of written exercise. On the other hand, it can be complicated to set up, and sometimes the classroom needs to be reorganized in order for everyone to see material projected. Visual aids, like real objects, pictures, and photos, can be an effective tool to illustrate meaning, bring variety and interest in the classroom, attracts students? attention and it can be used to stimulate discussion and elicit language. Work sheets and work cards are also used in the classroom. They are very useful as a prompt for communication activities, reading, writing, and when learning new vocabulary. Cassette recorder, CD player, videos, DVDs, and video camera are also tools, teacher can use in the classroom. They bring a piece of outside world in the classroom, but they have to be used with a purpose (listening activities, noticing the use of particular tense?). The teacher should also be familiar with the use of particular technology, amount of time it needs to rewind (cassette), and make sure volume level is appropriate, and when using television (for videos and DVDs) that is big enough and in the right place so everyone can see it. Other aids, like dictionaries, resource books (used for adapting and supplementing the material in course books), photocopies, computers, and material from online sources, can also be used in the classroom. In this unit I learned about different types of ?tools\" that teacher can use in the classroom to make the lesson less boring and more productive. There are many different ones. Teachers can use books, objects, videos, even dictionaries. Each teacher can choose what kind of teaching aids they like, and feel comfortable using. I think that if the teacher does not feel comfortable with equipment (like overhead projector) and does not understand how it works, he or she should stick with pictures or real object or even nice and simple white board. Online sources can be a really good place to find ideas, topics, and even examples of lessons, and help especially new teachers to know where to start, what will work and what will not. Also a combination of different prompts can bring something new and existing to the classroom.
