What are you up to this time, Nick?
People were very generous and the boards were shown to be used successfully in the schools, so I want to do it again for our next group of schools.
What - exactly - is 'the board'?
It's a small white board with a plastic surround, about 14 inches by 9. It comes with a pen that has an eraser attached to the lid. They're good quality and the pens are guaranteed for a year.
Why boards?
It's the single simplest way to increase participation in the lessons for all the students. The teacher can communicate with everyone in one go.
And the cost?
They're about $1.20 normally, but if you buy 'in bulk' it's possible to get a bit of a discount. So $US0.85 (about £0.60 or €0.79).
How many do you want to buy?
Well, we want to give each teacher at the training a set. 40 will normally do, but sometimes they need a few extra. We have 67 schools, five teachers from each so that's 335 class sets which is 13,400.
Can't the schools buy them themselves?
They don't have a budget for it. They have a budget for general spending, but it's very tightly specified what they can and can't buy. If we want to put 200 in each school, it's too big a lump sum in one go.
What happens when the pens run out or they lose the boards?
Replacing a pen costs $0.12 - so it's quite possible to find the small amounts now and again. The boards should last a few years and will not all need replacing in one go, so it should be possible to keep replacing.
How do you get them to the schools?
We give them to the teachers at the teacher training college when they do our course. They take them back with them. The boards are delivered in a truck in boxes of 40. Some schools won't have five teachers, so we will spread the spare boards around the teachers with large class sizes. That worked last time.
When are you buying them?
We hope to do the next set of training in November. But however much funding we have by then, we can make sure the boards get distributed.
People were very generous and the boards were shown to be used successfully in the schools, so I want to do it again for our next group of schools.
What - exactly - is 'the board'?
It's a small white board with a plastic surround, about 14 inches by 9. It comes with a pen that has an eraser attached to the lid. They're good quality and the pens are guaranteed for a year.
Why boards?
It's the single simplest way to increase participation in the lessons for all the students. The teacher can communicate with everyone in one go.
And the cost?
They're about $1.20 normally, but if you buy 'in bulk' it's possible to get a bit of a discount. So $US0.85 (about £0.60 or €0.79).
How many do you want to buy?
Well, we want to give each teacher at the training a set. 40 will normally do, but sometimes they need a few extra. We have 67 schools, five teachers from each so that's 335 class sets which is 13,400.
Can't the schools buy them themselves?
They don't have a budget for it. They have a budget for general spending, but it's very tightly specified what they can and can't buy. If we want to put 200 in each school, it's too big a lump sum in one go.
What happens when the pens run out or they lose the boards?
Replacing a pen costs $0.12 - so it's quite possible to find the small amounts now and again. The boards should last a few years and will not all need replacing in one go, so it should be possible to keep replacing.
How do you get them to the schools?
We give them to the teachers at the teacher training college when they do our course. They take them back with them. The boards are delivered in a truck in boxes of 40. Some schools won't have five teachers, so we will spread the spare boards around the teachers with large class sizes. That worked last time.
When are you buying them?
We hope to do the next set of training in November. But however much funding we have by then, we can make sure the boards get distributed.