Teaching Welding Symbols and Fractions

For me one of the best ideas I stumbled on from another teacher was the use of little white boards and dry erase markers when teaching students how to read welding symbols, construction math and fractions.

I found that dry erase boards are great for working with students when teaching something visual. Instead of calling a student on the carpet to come to the front of the class and draw a welding symbol I keep a stack of boards along with a box of markers in my classroom. When I get to the chapters with welding symbols I pass out the little white boards and dry erase markers.


I then start asking questions to the class and having them draw the welding symbols on their white board. This allows the students to do their work or pose a problem, have students jot the answer down on their boards before sharing with the group.

I usually have half a dozen questions in a PowerPoint presentation with the question on slide one and the answer to the question on slide number 2. I ask the question - or read it off the PowerPoint slide  while students write down the answer they think is correct on their small whiteboards at their desk. It's simple, effective, and keeps the entire classroom engaged. It also allows the students to show you what they are doing without the embarrassment of coming up the to the front of the class.




The two main takeaways are 1) Increased Students Engagement and 2) Allows for a Quick Assessment: Everyone is participating and I can look and see what their answers are. For teaching fractions and welding symbols this is my best method.




Also once I have taught welding symbols I still keep putting welding symbol questions and fraction questions into the rotation of questions that I ask the students. This gets back to the spaced repetition theory and rehashing material that we have learned and don't want to forget.


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