Bulletin boards to Whiteboards

My new classroom has one good-sized whiteboard flanked by 2 bulletin boards. The previous teacher used the ends of the whiteboard to write down Objectives, Homework, etc. This took up a lot of the usable space, and I want to be able to use the whole whiteboard during lessons. So I have a plan to turn them into whiteboards. Then I can use one for the 6th grade, and the other for the 7th.

I bought plexiglass and cut it into appropriate sizes. This didn’t work as well as I had hoped, and there are some chips gone from when I was breaking off the extra. *sigh* Then I spray painted them white and mounted them to the existing bulletin board with the white side in, and the smooth side out. I should be able to use them just fine.

Should. You know how that works. It looks like colored dry erase markers erase just fine. But black doesn’t want to erase. Water didn’t work. Isopropyl alcohol didn’t work. Fortunately Acetone did.

So I’ve ordered some white dry erase contact paper from Amazon. It’ll arrive after classes start, but that’s OK. We’ll just have to see how it goes.


[[update 9/24/2013]]

The contact paper arrived and has been working pretty well. It was tricky to install, and there are wrinkles where I didn’t manage to get it just right. There is a bit that doesn’t want to stick on and starts peeling up, but overall it’s holding well. Oh, and all the dry erase colors erase just fine.