In defence of messy whiteboards

I began teaching back when the world wide web was a mere cyber strand. It existed as a novelty but had not yet really begun to change the world as it would. As for whiteboards, they were interactive only in the sense that you had to wipe them clear, leaving a smeary blue residue until they finally received their big clean every half term break. In those halcyon days, a particular mark of teacher pride was always their board work. I even recall being assessed on it in observations; it was that big a deal.

I went to school in the mythic days of blackboards – both static and rolling varieties – with flying fag-ends of chalk bouncing off unwitting bonces and flung board rubbers exploding in cloudy white puffs against badly-behaved boys’ dark blazers. That would provide a talking point throughout any pupil’s day.

But my teaching career began as these more primal times were ending. Gone was the chalk that dried out teachers’ fingers and in came multi-coloured whiteboard markers that left them stained with ink instead. A brave new world beckoned. When learning how to teach, I even had classes on how to use a whiteboard properly. I was told nothing at all about computers and their screens. They were reserved for the computer science specialists, who hogged them then like ancient druids did their special stones. But I remember the lessons on how to use a whiteboard well.