DRY ERASE PAINTED WONDER WALLS FOR INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING

Inquiry-based learning is a student-centered instructional strategy that focuses on having students pose and examine questions to gain new knowledge. Occasionally, inquiry-based learning may involve a teacher presenting a problem or scenario for students to explore and address. In all approaches to inquiry-based learning, student questioning and research are at the core of the educational process and dry erase painted walls (aka “wonder walls”) can strengthen that core.

Student inquiries, thoughts, and analyses are emphasized and promoted, with a focus on students’ views about a specific question or issue. This approach is especially effective for creating initial student engagement and then guiding students to go beyond fundamental knowledge to a deeper awareness of critical thinking, evidence-based reasoning, and inventive problem-solving. In inquiry-based learning, students may complete case studies, group projects, or individual research projects, among other tasks. Making in-depth links with the content studied helps students develop skills that will be highly valuable in their future academic lives and worldly careers.

In inquiry-based learning, students come up with questions on their own, seek answers to the questions through research, share their answers and the knowledge they gained, and then reflect on the learning process they experienced. Instead of the teacher always choosing the topic or questions related to a study unit, the students have the freedom to select the questions on the topic they wish to investigate, then pursue their research and present their findings.

Although several types of inquiry-based learning exist, they all have the same outcome. Students make use of open-ended questions to guide their own learning in line with their personal interests; make appropriate connections among details; and thus deepen and broaden their knowledge base and research skills. This approach to education relates to an aphorism by Confucius: “I hear and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand.” Inquiry-based learning allows students to genuinely understand the content they study and to increase their wisdom in the process.

What Are the Advantages of Practicing Inquiry-Based Learning on Dry Erase Painted Wonder walls?

The inquiry-based approach to learning arouses students’ curiosity and provides opportunities for collaboration, which in turn increases their engagement and excitement about education. When students feel they have ownership of the learning process, their interest level rises, resulting in a deeper grasp of academic content.

Instead of traditional pedagogy, which is often dominated by teacher talk, teacher questions, memorization, and recall by students, inquiry-based learning supports students in planning and implementing their own educational process. Teachers thus become facilitators, not dictators of instruction. For students of all ages, increased motivation and a genuine love of learning are the outcomes of this method.

Inquiry-based learning is also a great way to provide genuine differentiation; that is, adjusting the pace, level, or type of instruction in response to individual learners’ needs, styles, or personal interests. The inquiry-based approach also helps to build self-reliance and independence and nurtures students’ preferences and pastimes. In addition, recent research shows that inquiry-based learning boosts student achievement levels and evens out the playing field in schools with children of diverse socio-economic backgrounds and cultures. When students are surveyed, they typically say they prefer inquiry-based learning over traditional teaching methods.

The Dry Erase Painted “Wonder Wall”: A Powerful Inquiry-Based Learning Technique

One highly effective strategy for practicing inquiry-based learning is to create a “wonder wall” on your dry erase wall, where students can write “I wonder” types of questions about specific topics with dry erase markers. Here you can also post artifacts to stimulate further questions. Post-it notes can be added to the wonder wall if students come up with additional questions and ideas in class or when they’re outside of the classroom and need a handy way to record their thoughts.

After it’s populated with a sufficient number of artifacts and questions, the wonder wall can become a resource for determining the next topic of study for the class. When generating a wonder wall, teachers should emphasize that all student questions are valid. They should also encourage questions that can’t be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” response but instead lead to in-depth research by students.

Creating a wonder wall is a great strategy to use in inquiry-based learning, as it builds a space where students can do the following:
· Get themselves thinking on topics they want to learn about
· Share their learning experiences throughout the inquiry process
· Keep their ideas and questions visible to others
· Interact meaningfully with their peers on topics of interest
· Discuss learning goals, measures, and evaluation criteria
· Share the evidence and outcomes of their learning process.

Dry erase painted wonder walls are meant to be built at the onset of a unit and should be kept active throughout the unit as they are living representations of students’ learning. Begin building the wall when you first invoke students to start thinking about the topic the class will be studying. Students will examine the artifacts you post on the wall and ask questions about what they’re seeing. This sets the students’ prior knowledge in motion and prompts them to share their ideas with their peers in a knowledge-building cycle.

Artifacts can be Hung on Your Wall with GoodHangups

The artifacts used to trigger student conversations and interest in a topic may include the following:
· physical objects
· photos
· drawings
· copies of internet articles
· videos
· fictional stories

Many teachers like to use pictures printed in color, especially if they don’t have access to real-life objects related to the topic for the unit being covered. Lightweight items such as photos, drawings, and printouts of articles may be posted by using GoodHangups, an innovative new hanging system consisting of a magnetized sticker and a magnet that can be mounted on your dry erase wall without damaging the surface.

The Role of Student Questions is Key to Constructing Your Wonder Wall

The use of a wonder wall at the start of an inquiry unit stimulates students to think about a topic by allowing them to ask questions and providing them with artifacts. The next step is to have the class ask more questions. As mentioned, they can use sticky notes to write down questions about what they see on the wonder wall. Use these notes to help students keep track of what the class is thinking about.

As students continue to share their prior knowledge and questions, the wonder wall is gradually constructed. These questions are the driving force behind the inquiry-based learning process. Arrange the questions according to themes and then use them to come up with goals for learning and criteria for success.

At some point, you’re likely to find gaps in the students’ knowledge that will need to be filled through teacher-directed lessons. Post the questions next to the artifacts on the wonder wall, and throughout the learning process, answer the questions and keep track of those that remain unanswered. It’s through your students’ questions that inquiry-based learning and the wonder wall are developed.

Avoid Answering Questions during the Inquiry Process

While using your wonder wall, if students ask questions, it’s important to avoid giving answers and instead have the students add the questions to the wonder wall and then find the answers by themselves. Leading students through lessons to ultimately give them the answers is not what inquiry-based learning and wonder walls are about. With a wonder wall, students need to work to find information and shouldn’t expect to have an easy way out.

Later on in the unit, you may have discussions about certain topics, and you’ll have to explain various concepts. But you should do this together as a class. In this way, instead of teaching your students, you’re facilitating their learning by providing the tools to find answers on their own.

Through the use of wonder walls, teachers and students enjoy the freedom to build a learning environment that meets the needs of all class members. Thus, inquiry-based learning becomes an effective means to create a place where learners enjoy finding the answers to questions and sharing their knowledge with their peers.

DryErasePaint

DRY ERASE WALL QUOTES FOR MARCH 2022

March: Bridge between Winter and Spring

The month of March gets its name from Martius, the first month of the ancient Roman calendar. Martius was named after Mars, the Roman god associated with war and believed to be an ancestor of the Roman people through his twin sons Romulus and Remus. According to legend, Romulus founded the city of Rome and the Roman Kingdom. Mars’s month Martius was considered the start of the season for warfare, and the festivals held in his honor during the month were paralleled by other activities held in October when the season ended.

Until around 153 BC Martius was also the start of the Roman calendar year, and several religious observances in the first part of the month began as New Year’s celebrations. March is the first month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, which includes Europe, North America, Asia, and a section of Africa, and it is the first month of fall in the Southern Hemisphere, which encompasses South America part of Africa, and Oceania.

One of the most iconic quotes about March says that the month “comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb,” meaning that the wintry weather at the start of March gives way to balmy spring-like days at the end. Over the centuries, this idea has been reiterated in various forms by writers and poets, some of whom are represented below, along with other thoughts and feelings about March that may inspire you or make you laugh as you look forward to the official start of spring on the 20th. Regularly posting one or more of these quotes on your dry erase wall may uplift your mood, provide you with a touch of fun, or offer some encouragement as you go through your daily routine.

Just like March weather, these quotes are variable — different writers have widely differing experiences and memories of March. One thinks only of the month’s seemingly boundless mud and late-season snow, while another looks forward to its warmth and happiness. What do you anticipate experiencing in the month of March?

Thoughts and Feelings about March

1. March: Its motto, “Courage and strength in times of danger.”
― William Morris (British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, and printer)

2. “Only those with tenacity can march forward in March.”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah (Ghanaian author and teacher)

3. “March is the month God created to show people who don’t drink what a hangover is like.”
― Garrison Keillor (US author, humorist, and radio personality)

4. “Poor March, it is the homeliest month of the year. Most of it is mud, every imaginable form of mud, and what isn’t mud in March is ugly late-season snow falling onto the ground in filthy muddy heaps that look like piles of dirty laundry.”
― Vivian Swift (US author and blogger), When Wanderers Cease to Roam: A Traveler’s Journal of Staying Put

5. “March comes in with an adder’s head and goes out with a peacock’s tail.”
― Richard Lawson Gales (British priest, poet, and folklorist)

6. “Winds of March, we welcome you; there is work for you to do. Work and play and blow all day, blow the winter wind away.”
― Anonymous

7. “One Christmas, my father kept our tree up till March. He hated to see it go. I loved that.”
― Mo Rocca (US journalist, humorist, and actor)

8. “March will come, and so will happiness. Hold on. Life will get warmer.” ― Anita Krizzan (US author)

9. “Every cold and dark phase ends and hence begins a beautiful phase of warmth and vibrance. Don’t believe? Just notice March.”
― Anamika Mishra (Indian author, travel blogger, and entrepreneur)

10. “How terrible a time is the beginning of March! In a month, there will be daffodils and the sudden blossoming of orchards, but you wouldn’t know it now. You have to take spring on blind faith.”
― Beatriz Williams (US author)

11. “March bustles in on windy feet, and sweeps my doorstep and my street.”
― Susan Reiner (US actress and producer)

12. “Match the right things in March.”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah (Ghanaian author and teacher)

13. “March is an example of how beautiful new beginnings can be.”
― Anamika Mishra (Indian author, travel blogger, and entrepreneur)

14. “March is here. It reminds me of sports day at school, 3rd March, full day on the field.”
― Faraz (Pakistani poet and scriptwriter)

15. “I’m a huge college basketball fan. I could sit and watch every game of March Madness and be happy. That could be a vacation.”
― Lewis Black (US actor and comedian)

16. “When March goes on forever, and April’s twice as long, who gives a damn if spring has come, as long as winter’s gone.”
― R.L. Ruzicka (US writer)

17. “As it rains in March, so it rains in June.”
― Anonymous

18. “Flowers and colors everywhere; I am so glad that March is here.”
― Anamika Mishra (Indian author, travel blogger, and entrepreneur)

19. “Spring officially starts this month, but unfortunately, Mother Nature tends to March to the beat of her own drum.”
― Anonymous

Impressions of Nature in March

20. “Daffodils, That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty.”
― William Shakespeare, (World-renowned English playwright and poet), The Winter’s Tale

21. “March came in that winter like the meekest and mildest of lambs, bringing days that were crisp and golden and tingling, each followed by a frosty pink twilight which gradually lost itself in an elf land of moonshine.”
― L. M. Montgomery (Canadian author)

22. “By March, the worst of the winter would be over. The snow would thaw, the rivers begin to run, and the world would wake into itself again.”
― Neil Gaiman (English author and screenwriter)

23. “Now when the primrose makes a splendid show, And lilies face the March winds in full blow, And humbler growths as moved with one desire; Put on, to welcome spring, their best attire.”
― William Wordsworth (English romantic poet)

24. “To welcome her the spring breathes forth Elysian sweets; March strews the Earth With violets and posies.”
― Edmund Waller (English poet and politician)

25. “A cloud comes over the sunlit arch, a wind comes off a frozen peak, and you’re two months back in the middle of March.”
― Robert Frost (world-renowned US poet)

26. “March brings breezes loud and shrill, stirs the dancing daffodil.”
― Sara Coleridge (English author and translator)

27. “Where did Gabriel get a lily, in the month of March, when the green is hardly seen on the early larch?”
― Grace James (English writer of children’s literature and folklorist)

28. “March winds, and April showers bring forth May flowers.”
― English Proverb

29. “March’s birth flower is the daffodil. It’s all too appropriate that cheerful yellow flowers represent the first month of spring.”
― FTD (US floral delivery service)

30. “One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of March thaw, is the spring.”
― Aldo Leopold (US author, naturalist, and environmentalist)

31. “Despite March’s windy reputation, winter isn’t really blown away; it is washed away. It flows down all the hills, goes swirling down the valleys, and spills out to sea. Like so many of this earth’s elements, winter itself is soluble in water.”
― The New York Times (US newspaper)

32. “As through the poplar’s gusty spire, the March wind sweeps and sings, I sit beside the hollow fire, and dream familiar things; old memories wake, faint echoes make a murmur of dead springs.”
― Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Art

33. “There is great pleasure in watching the ways in which different plants come through the ground, and February and March are the months in which that can best be seen.”
― Henry N. Ellacombe (British plantsman and author on gardening)

Dry Erase Paint

5 KEYS TO CREATING THINKING CLASSROOMS WITH DRY ERASE PAINTED WALLS

Countless educators around the world have come to realize that using individual student desks in the classroom fails to support the idea and practice of collaborative, interactive instruction. For this reason, many schools are now investing in tables as an alternative to desks for student use during the school day. While tables do promote collaboration and can open up new opportunities for learners, they share a common limitation with desks — users have to look down to work on them. When students write and draw at tables, especially during group activities, they tend to crowd over the tables, blocking the teacher’s view of the learning that needs to be observed and monitored.

However, if students work on the large non-permanent vertical surface (NPVS) of a top-quality dry erase wall for problem-solving, brainstorming, and other class-related tasks, their thinking, and learning become visible to the teacher and everyone else in the classroom. Using an NPVS such as a Dry Erase Wall instead of a table or desk doesn’t block understanding but shares it. Of course, it’s important to note that dry erase walls alone won’t be effective in creating a dynamic thinking classroom if they aren’t combined with productive, engaging learning tasks that challenge students to reflect deeply and work collaboratively.

Creating Vibrant Learning Communities with Dry Erase Walls

Having NPVSs such as dry erase walls installed in your classroom can help to develop positive, energized thinking environments and strong learning communities when you use the following techniques:
• Enthusiastically promote continuous student engagement
• Ensure that learning is always visible to both students and teachers
• Encourage easy collaboration among class members
• Give learners who have fallen behind in their lessons the chance to see successful learning strategies being used right before their eyes
• Let students engage in cautious risk-taking activities while learning that may not always succeed, but that will ultimately instill confidence
• Allow for trouble-free teacher observations that lead to more effective instruction and improved classroom management.

As mentioned, using dry erase walls to build a thinking classroom must be combined with vibrant, engaging learning activities in order to achieve successful outcomes for students and enhance their ability to reason and make thoughtful judgments.

Incorporating Dry Erase Walls Elevates the Level of a Thinking Classroom

One issue that many teachers struggle with in designing their classrooms is having sufficient wall space to conduct lessons and also post vital information needed for the teaching process. Teachers often like to use their walls to document the progress of student learning and to post course-related materials such as maps and charts, so the thought of keeping the walls open and bare for brainstorming and other group work isn’t appealing. A great way to get around this obstacle and one that’s less costly than installing traditional whiteboards or interactive whiteboards is to use premium dry erase paint – it’s brilliant!

Applying dry erase paint combined with using the innovative magnetic hanging system GoodHangups is the ideal solution. You can apply the paint to all four walls of your classroom, not just the front wall, and still, be able to write and draw freely while posting students’ work, notes, calendars, maps, and other items with GoodHangups. This system requires no drilling of holes for mounting. Each GoodHangups unit is composed of just a lightweight magnetic sticker and a magnet that can easily be placed alongside or on top of what you already have on your walls.

GoodHangups Can Take a Thinking Classroom to a New Level

You can simply mount the GoodHangups when you need to use them and take them down when you’re done. With these novel gadgets, you can also put up re-sealable plastic bags on your walls to hold low-odor dry erase markers and microfiber cloths for you and your students to use when writing and drawing during class time. Doing so can help save valuable storage space in your desk or supply cabinet.

Many teachers like to use dry erase walls in combination with GoodHangups because it allows them to convert any space into a thinking classroom space. Here students may wrestle with issues by taking multiple viewpoints, come up with informed opinions on a subject, and effectively convey their views to their peers by writing on the walls and using GoodHangups to post annotations and other items related to their work. Creating this type of dynamic, fun, and thoughtful environment for students is one of the most significant challenges teachers face, but teaching and learning in such a setting are both satisfying and enjoyable.

For the sake of variety, another option is to take your lessons into the hallway by also having dry erase paint applied to the hallway walls. In this way, you can use the hall as a supplementary learning space and also share your students’ ideas and images with the entire school community.

PBL Heightens the Impact of Dry Erase Walls in Thinking Classrooms

In order for students to effectively develop their cognitive and critical-analysis skills, they need to feel at ease with the idea of taking risks and sometimes failing in their efforts. The project-based learning (PBL) approach, by which students are able to exercise their mental muscles on genuine real-world problems, offers an optimum way to include the teaching of thinking in day-to-day course content. And what better way to do so than with dry erase walls and GoodHangups as tools for dynamic group interaction?

PBL projects may be easily written down on a dry erase wall for groups of students to examine and discuss in class and then annotate using dry erase markers, along with notes hung by GoodHangups. Through this process, a thoughtful classroom environment imbued with the “language of thinking” is created that’s useful for both students’ academic work and in their future careers. The language of thinking emphasizes reflective learning and distinguishes between reasoning that’s one-dimensional and trivial and reasoning that’s deep, carefully considered, and meaningful.

Teachers’ Questions Should Stretch Students’ Minds

Among the most basic forms of the language of thinking used in classrooms is teacher questioning. Teachers are often urged by administrators and parents to ask higher-level questions that stretch students’ mental limits and thus improve their critical thought processes.

Asking more “how” and “why” types of questions and fewer “when” and “what” types of questions is a key strategy in this approach.
But answering such questions alone has little direct impact on students’ overall ability to think. “How” and “why” questions may bring about some degree of deep thinking for a short time and could help some students develop improved cognitive abilities. However, if students are accustomed to just guessing or making quick judgments about the causes of events, they’ll undoubtedly continue to engage in shallow thinking.

Certain so-called deeper questions, such as “What did you think of that story?” or “Should humans be cloned?” are designed to get students to make personal judgments. And most young people can easily respond to such questions. But without being asked to justify and support their views, students are unlikely to mature intellectually. In a thinking classroom, the teacher’s typical comeback when a student answers a “why” or a “how” question might be “How did you arrive at that answer?” “What are your reasons for thinking that?” or “Have you considered this other option?” Such inquiries by teachers become integral parts of a thoughtful classroom culture and ensure that there is more to answering a meaningful question than a quick offhand response.

Building the classroom learning experience around “how” and “why’ questions is a necessary aspect of promoting deeper levels of thinking in students, but the answers to such questions should always be supplemented with relevant responses, thoughtful assessments, and detailed guidance on how to think about the questions’ meanings and implications.

HOW TO IMPROVE THE READABILITY OF TEXT ON YOUR DRY ERASE PAINTED WALL

Although premium dry erase painted walls are designed to always allow for highly readable writing due to their large size and bright smooth surface, it’s essential to follow certain practices and maintain certain conditions in the surroundings to ensure that your wall functions at its best and the content on the surface can be easily read. The fact of the matter is that not everyone has the ability to produce beautiful handwriting, and even those who do may struggle to transfer this skill to writing on a dry erase painted wall.

Writing on a dry erase wall just isn’t the same kind of activity as writing on a piece of paper. For one thing, you often can’t see a large enough area of the writing surface to keep your words evenly spaced and arranged in a straight line, and if you’re left-handed, the process becomes a question of exactly what to do with your hand.

In this article, we’ll address some of the common issues related to readability when writing on dry erase painted walls, along with steps you can take to remedy these problems.

Use Print Instead of Cursive Handwriting on Your Dry Erase Wall

Cursive handwriting is “joined-up” writing in which the letters are linked together, making it faster to execute because you need to lift your pen or marker from the surface less often while writing. During the 18th and 19th centuries in Great Britain and the United States, before the typewriter, cursive was the preferred style of writing for authors, poets, and professionals such as physicians and lawyers.

Nowadays, however, print handwriting also referred to as printing or block lettering, is more prevalent. In printing, the pen or marker is lifted from the surface after each letter is written. This style is considered clearer and easier to read than cursive writing and is often requested in filling out forms. Print handwriting is also best to use on your dry erase painted wall, as it allows viewers to more easily perceive what you’re writing without having to continually ask questions about the content.

On your dry erase wall, it’s a good idea to stick with hand printing of clearly defined and separated letters and pay attention to making your letters more distinct and easily readable than you would if you were printing on paper. The further away your audience is from your dry erase wall, the smaller the spaces between your letters will appear, so what might seem oddly spread out writing as you stand near the wall will look totally normal to people a few feet away.

Make Sure the Text is Big Enough to be Easily Read

Another issue you could encounter is that the text on your dry erase wall may be too small for viewers to read and understand. Staring at a computer or tablet screen for extended periods produces a strain on eyesight. And you don’t want to cause added eye strain by requiring your students in class or team members in the office to continually focus on your writing to understand the text. Your writing should be easily readable with a minimum amount of effort required to see it clearly. The vast surface area of a Dry Erase Wall allows you to produce large letters, thus increasing readability even more.

Keep Your Wrist Still the Whole Time You’re Writing

Writing on paper is typically done through the action of the fingers and wrist, but writing on a dry erase wall is done on a much larger scale. For this reason, it’s essential to move your whole arm and shoulder while writing, allowing your shoulder to do the work so that you’ll produce much smoother and uniformly spaced letters. Also, writing is not the same as drawing, so when writing on a dry erase wall with a marker, you need to keep your hand and wrist still. Your hand should float smoothly over the dry erase wall as you write.

Avoid using your finger muscles, as your fingers should only be used to grip your dry erase marker. Too much finger motion can lead to a tighter grip on your marker and, in turn, cause tired muscles and uneven writing that’s hard to read. If you follow these instructions, you’ll produce content that’s easy to read and also keep yourself from experiencing writer’s fatigue when using your dry erase wall.

Use the Right Type of Dry Erase Marker

To ensure dark, even, distinct lines, maintain the pristine surface of your dry erase wall and protect the environment, always use high-quality, low-odor dry erase markers to write and draw on your wall. The money you save by buying inexpensive, low-quality markers will end up not being worth it in the long run, as the markings you produce will tend to be irregular and start to fade in a short time. These types of markers also emit chemicals such as ketone that are hazardous to the health of both humans and the natural environment.

If you’re experienced at writing on a dry erase wall, you can use chisel-tip dry erase markers, as they allow you to produce different thicknesses of stroke and different styles of writing. However, if you’re still developing your skill at creating a uniform and neat lettering on your wall, it’s best to opt for bullet-tip markers so you won’t have to be concerned about the angle or rotation of your marker when you begin to write.

Ensure that You Have Proper Lighting

Before starting to conduct or record in-person or video lessons or video conferences featuring a dry erase painted wall, make sure that the room you’re in is well-lit and free of distracting sounds and activity from others in the area.

Avoid or Reduce Glare or Excessive Light Reflection on Your Dry Erase Painted Wall

And although you want the environment around your wall to be well-lit, the issue of glare or excessive light reflection can come up when your camera used for a video conference or lesson is placed at an angle that catches the reflection of ambient light in the room, usually from a light mounted on the ceiling or wall, or from a projector. This issue should be remedied because it will distract from the lesson or conference and make it hard for students or team members to focus on the content presented on the wall.

The simplest way to resolve this problem is to remove the source of the glare. If this is impossible, position your video camera at an angle so that it won’t catch or reflect the glare. As a rule, locating the camera to the side of the dry erase wall or at an angle several feet from the floor will get rid of the excessive light coming from the center of the room because the camera lens is unable to capture glare from these angles. In this way, the glare won’t be noticeable, and what you write on the wall can be easily read.

Other solutions might include using a different light source such as sunlight or a lamp located far enough away from the camera so that its light is not captured by the camera.

Move Your Body with Your Writing as You Go Along

Remember to move your body along as you write on your dry erase wall. If you stand still, your body will naturally swivel as you write further and further away from your body. This effect leaves you with less ability to control the marker as your arm extends outward. It also produces a natural curve in your writing as your body sways like a pendulum, thus increasing the chances that your words will slant downward and make your content more difficult to read.

SIX NOVEL APPROACHES TO USING YOUR CLASSROOM DRY ERASE WALL

If you’re a teacher who has a premium dry erase painted wall in your classroom, you’ve undoubtedly been in front of it many times taking notes during a problem-based learning (PBL) session, drawing a diagram to supplement a verbal explanation, or simply listing the main points presented in a lesson. In such cases, your dry erase wall serves as an invaluable tool for recording and communicating ideas and images to your students in a large, easy-to-see format.

Regrettably, however, the ways in which dry erase walls are used in the classroom are often not especially original or creative. Generating mind maps, writing lists and outlines, and making drawings and graphs are the go-to dry erase wall activities for most teachers and students during the typical school day. However, it’s possible to use this classroom staple in much more imaginative and unusual ways to enhance the process of teaching and learning. Here are six novel Dry Erase Wall strategies for your consideration that can add variety to your standard set of teaching techniques and hopefully increase your students’ excitement and engagement in learning.

1. Switching Note-taking Roles can Re-energize a Group Brainstorming Session

Instead of giving all of the responsibility to yourself or the designated note-taker during classroom brainstorming sessions, why not try exchanging roles throughout the class period? Having students hand over their dry erase marker to a fellow student can be an effortless way to liven up the course of a brainstorming activity and introduce new perspectives to a mind map or a starburst diagram being created on your dry erase wall. This technique also teaches students to adjust and get used to other people’s learning processes, thus improving their skills at partnership building and teamwork.

2. Turning the Tables Offers Students a Chance to Collaborate More Powerfully

As an alternative to continuously turning your back to students when writing information on your dry erase wall in class, it’s more productive to “turn the tables” and engage everyone in the teaching and learning process. Premium dry erase paint can transform any smooth flat surface in your classroom, such as a table, your desk, or students’ desks, into a blank canvas for writing and drawing.

When a number of dry erase painted surfaces are available throughout the room, your students can gather around to collaborate and become part of the teaching and note-taking process by writing down their ideas, adding comments, and discussing lesson material as a group. In this way, student-to-student relationships will be fostered, and brainstorming sessions will become more dynamic, engaging, and interactive, leading to productive teaching outcomes in any subject from math to language arts to history.

3. Make Note-taking a More Inclusive Experience for Students with Post-its

When acting as a note-taker during a brainstorming session, it can be exhausting and frustrating for a teacher to have to deal with the steady flood of ideas and questions coming from eager students. However, by combining a mind map that’s generated on your dry erase wall with personally written and edited post-it notes from the whole class, the activity of note-taking can become more wide-ranging and democratic, as all of the students have a chance to express their ideas and participate on an equal basis. In addition, by using this approach, everyone in the class gets the opportunity to be part of the note-taking activity while you still function as the central note-taker to guide the process along.

This technique works well to enhance student understanding, as it may often be challenging for a class to assimilate and respond to all the ideas being recorded on a complex, multi-tiered mind map. But using multi-colored post-it notes allows for students to add their own color-coded ideas to the wall and thus more quickly orient themselves to the complex thought processes and layers involved in a large mind map.

4. Turn the Use of Your Dry Erase Wall into a Digital Experience

Technology has always had a great deal to offer for the field of education, and these days many teachers are embracing electronic whiteboards in place of traditional framed whiteboards as go-to classroom teaching tools. However, not every facility or school system has the kind of budget that can handle purchasing expensive high-tech equipment such as interactive whiteboards. Also, electronic whiteboards can be hard to operate for teachers who lack strong technology skills or have not been trained in how to use these devices. Another problem is that in some classroom situations, it may be difficult for students to see and use interactive whiteboards effectively due to glare and other factors.
But a unique and less complicated way to digitize the whiteboard experience for your students is available for little cost, namely, the use of a dry erase painted wall in conjunction with a video projector as an instructional tool.

By using your video projector to project images onto your dry erase wall instead of a conventional projector screen, you can construct an exciting interactive learning environment in the classroom where visuals become supplements to your regular note-taking activities. In this way, your verbal explanations during lessons will become clearer and more engaging, and a new dimension will be added to your daily presentations that students are sure to appreciate and enjoy.

Focusing the class projector on the part of the dry erase wall you’re using to present lesson material will provide you with plenty of opportunity to create mixed media presentations and teach complex ideas in various subject areas through a blend of notes, videos, and even statistical data when appropriate. The low-gloss sheen of premium dry erase painted walls allows them to serve as excellent projection screens, so that clear visibility is always ensured for your students during lessons.

5. Spelling Bees and other Games for Younger Students Provide Variety

Dry erase walls are ideal to use with younger students with whom you can hold games and contests such as spelling bees and scrabble. Students are more likely to retain information like the proper spelling of English words when they write them down by hand, especially on a vertical surface such as a dry erase painted wall. Writing and drawing on vertical surfaces has been shown to enhance students’ learning ability and psychomotor development in a number of ways.

To hold a spelling bee, divide your class into groups of three or four, call out words that you’re currently studying, and allow the students to take turns spelling out the words on your dry erase wall. Turn the activity into a friendly competition by offering the winning group bonus points or a small reward for their efforts.

6. Capturing the Contents of a Day’s Lesson is a Great Way to Preserve Notes

While leaving at the end of the day or at lunchtime, many students use their phones to take pictures of the classroom dry erase wall as a reminder of the topics discussed or to provide them with notes when studying for tests. In such cases, readability can be an issue, but as always, there are apps to address this problem. Multiple scanning apps are now on the market that can turn your students’ dry erase wall photos into easy-to-read PDF files to make life a lot easier and more organized for everyone.

These are just a few ways to use whiteboards in the classroom. Not only are whiteboards a great way to engage students, but they’re cost-effective and better for the environment.

Capture it
Students often leave the classroom taking pictures of the whiteboard as a reminder of the discussed topics during readings or for an overview when studying for the exam. Readability is an issue, though. But, as always, there is an app for that! There are now multiple scanning apps available that will turn your whiteboard pictures into easy-to-read PDFs that will make life a bit more organized.

DRY ERASE WALLS CONTRIBUTE TO PRODUCTIVE LEARNING ZONES

Nowadays, devising well-defined learning zones within classrooms and throughout school buildings are viewed as a key to fostering 21st-century high-impact learning, where students are actively engaged in the educational process, and learning extends beyond the classroom to outdoor areas and even the workplace. For teachers and designers, this approach creates both challenges and new opportunities to come up with creative solutions.

High-impact learning has caused an increased demand in education for flexible spaces that address the individual needs of students who have diverse intelligence and learning styles. Children, adolescents, and adults acquire knowledge in a variety of ways beyond traditional “cells and bells” classroom settings, and learning zones are designed to address this diversity.

Learning Zones Empower Students to Help Educate Themselves

Recent decades have seen a sharp increase in the drive to support collaborative learning and other project-based instructional methods by developing classroom learning zones. These areas, both inside and outside a school building, give students the power to become active participants in their own education and personal growth.

Today’s learners are connected with one another and with the world through electronic media and possess a strong desire for instant access to information through various means. They’re at ease in both real-life and virtual settings, and seek out interactive and communal activities where they have the power to express their voice freely. They are also competent at self-directed activities and can swiftly adapt to new technological advances. This type of quick thinking ability is valuable because most of the careers that young people will be exposed to in the future have not yet been created.

Learning Zones Provide Ideal Places for Spontaneous Learning

From the standpoint of educational space planning, designers and architects have responded to the needs of today’s students by increasing the development of learning zones, which can exist at any location in a school and its surroundings, including outdoor areas. Nowadays, education is taking a more flexible approach, and interest in encouraging spontaneous interactions among learners is on the rise. Thus, today’s educational space designs don’t tell students that “food is available here and learning happens here.” Technological advances, especially Wi-Fi, are redefining the nature of learning environments.

Even tiny areas and hallways are now viewed by designers and educators as effective learning zones, as long as supervision is present to monitor student activity. Zoned spaces allow for the maximum adaptability and serviceability of the existing environment within school buildings, which contain both zones and sub-group zones. Within a given educational facility, it’s possible to find geographical areas that are ideal for active, collaborative learning, such as the media center, computer lab, woodshop, social gathering space, and tutoring center. Within the classrooms, both independent learning and group learning zones can be found.

Dry Erase Paint is Ideal for Application in Learning Zones

Since learning zones throughout a school building are designed to foster spontaneous learning activities, top-quality dry erase paint is ideally suited for application in these areas. When students have ready access to the large open expanse of a dry erase painted wall, they can give free rein to their imaginations in impromptu group brainstorming sessions for class projects, in solving problems for math assignments, and countless other activities.

Dry erase painted walls stimulate student engagement and enthusiasm by offering large spaces to express ideas in learning zones anywhere in a school building. When students experience the great height and width of a dry erase wall, they feel empowered to free associate and brainstorm for as long as they like, and then erase and start all over again.

This sense of freedom to explore and express ideas supports the goal of designers creating learning zones for today’s evolving school culture. Education in the 21st century has become a much more complex process than it was in decades past. We have advanced from a manufacturing-based to an information-based global society, and the need for learning environments that promote creativity and higher-order thinking skills has expanded accordingly. Analysis, evaluation, and the creation of new inventions, along with advanced entrepreneurial skills, have become essential to the educational goals of today’s teachers and students.

Educators now want to make deep-level research and collaboration easier for students, and one of the most straightforward and trouble-free ways to help do so is by applying and using dry erase painted walls in our schools’ ever-expanding learning zones. The large dry erase surfaces encourage collaboration and the practice of intensive research by allowing multiple students to work on topics and questions at the same time and engage in dynamic give-and-take that can lead to a deeper understanding of the most complex issues.

Dry Erase Paint May be Applied in Learning Zones for All Grade Levels

Elementary schools generally have the most significant number of zoned spaces. Here students rotate through various learning centers throughout the day, mostly in the classroom or library. In middle school/junior high and high school, learning zones are being created within the classroom where students break away for active and collaborative learning activities.

The concept of learning zones or centers is being increasingly used in the primary grades. At this level, students stay in one or two classrooms throughout the school day, so the rooms tend to need these kinds of distinct zones. In these grades, dry erase walls constantly come in handy, as young learners study in the same area and have easy access to the walls for various class-related tasks.

Here again, dry erase painted walls are perfect for installing because they offer students a fun and exciting way to write, draw and doodle as much as they like for as long as they like and learn their course content at the same time. Research has shown that young children benefit significantly from doing school work on vertical non-permanent surfaces (VNSs) like dry erase walls, which enhance both their cognitive and psychomotor development.

Students in Higher Grades can also Profit from Dry Erase Walls

As students get older, learning becomes more about attentive listening and less about exploring and discovering. Zones designed for students of upper-grade levels, such as the small group space and the demonstration space, are set up in classrooms or areas devoted to particular academic subjects. In these grades, where more flexibility of movement is possible, learning zones also exist in other parts of a school building outside of classrooms. And all such areas are excellent candidates for the application of premium dry erase paint.

Creating Learning Zones Involves Arranging Furniture

Designing and delineating specialized learning spaces in a school building ultimately comes down to the appropriate use of furniture. The furniture in various parts of a school needs to be easily rearranged to create settings for one-on-one, large-group, small-group, and project-based learning activities, along with performances, presentations, and lectures. In other words, classrooms must allow for easy transitions from learner-led to teacher-guided types of lessons and school activities.

Tables that feature a height adjustment function and can be merged together are common choices, as is lightweight furniture on wheels for easy moving. In addition, classroom chairs should allow for body movement to help students keep their minds focused during lessons. A learning zone’s overall arrangement is also essential, with the teacher’s desk and chair being generally in the middle of the space, not in front all the time. The surfaces of all the furnishings in a learning zone can easily be coated with top-quality dry erase paint to add greater functionality and more opportunities for communication during teacher-student interactions.

Collaborative learning and individualized learning are creating the need for many of the zoned areas that are emerging in today’s schools, and both of these instructional strategies are well served by having premium dry erase painted surfaces available throughout a school for all students to use.

Dry Erase Wall Paint

DRY ERASE WALL QUOTES FOR FEBRUARY 2022

Dry Erase Wall Quotes for February: A Month of Hope and Anticipation

February is said to be the month of love, although it also suggests a hint of winter’s end and hope for the coming spring. Whatever way you think of it, the second month of the year is the coldest in the Northern Hemisphere and stands as a link between the frigid days of winter and the balmy days of springtime. The following is a collection of dry erase wall quotes that reflect a wide range of thoughts and feelings about February and about looking forward to warmer weather.

Although February may be a harsh time of year, you can still find happiness, continue to grow as a person, and live with purpose during the coldest of months. With this idea in mind, after reading the quotes, find those that you find inspiring, thought-provoking, or amusing, and periodically post them in a prominent spot on your dry erase wall. You can even decorate the passages with original artwork or doodles and memorize those you like the best.

Reflections on February

1. “February is short and very sweet.”
– Charmaine J. Forde (US writer)

2. “In February, there is everything to hope for and nothing to regret.”
– Patience Strong (English poet)

3. “February makes a bridge, and March breaks it.”
– Georges Hebert (French inventor, filmmaker, and physical educator)

4. “If January is the month of change, February is the month of lasting change. January is for dreamers. February is for doers.”
– Marc Parent (French-Canadian business executive, mechanical engineer, and philanthropist)

5. “Even though February was the shortest month of the year, sometimes it seemed like the longest.”
– Lauraine Snelling (US writer)

6. “February is the border between winter and spring.”
– Terri Guillemets (US writer)

7. “There is always in February some one day, at least, when one smells the yet distant, but surely coming summer.”
– Gertrude Jekyll (British horticulturist, photographer, and writer)

8. “While it is February, one can taste the full joys of anticipation. Spring stands at the gate with her finger on the latch.”
– Patience Strong (English poet)

9. “February, when the days of winter seem endless, and no amount of wistful recollecting can bring back any air of summer.”
– Shirley Jackson (US writer)

10. “Even winter, the hardest season, dreams, as February creeps on, of the flame that will presently melt it away.”
– Clive Barker (English playwright, film director, and author)

11. “One of the dangers of being alone in February is the tendency to dwell on past relationships. Whether you’re daydreaming about that ‘one that got away,’ or recalling the fairytale date you went on last Valentine’s Day, romanticizing the past isn’t helpful.”
– Amy Morin (US psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and bestselling author)

Mother Nature in February

12. “Today is the first of February, snowy, brilliant, but dripping with the sound of spring wherever the sun lies warm, and calling with the heart of spring yonder where the crows are assembling. There is spring in the talk of the chickadees outside my window and in the cheerful bluster of a red squirrel in the hickory.”
– Dallas Lore Sharp (US author and university professor)

13. “An adventurous swallow too early flying from the south, a vision of snowdrops in the snow, a day of April warmth lit by a slant February sun, are all hailed with pleasure as harbingers of a more gracious season on its way.”
– Oscar Fay Adams (US editor and author)

14. “On the wind in February, snowflakes float still. Half inclined to turn to rain, nipping, dripping, chill.”
– Christina Georgina Rossetti (English writer of romantic, devotional, and children’s poems)

15. “February brings the rain, thaws the frozen lake again.”
– Sara Coleridge (English author of instructive verses for children)

16. “February, a form pale-vestured, wildly fair, one of the North Wind’s daughters with icicles in her hair.”
– Edgar Fawcett (US novelist and poet)

17. “February, bending from Heaven. In azure mirth, it kissed the forehead of the Earth and smiled upon the silent sea, and bade the frozen streams be free, and waked to music all their fountains, and breathed upon the frozen mountains.”
– Percy Bysshe Shelley (English Romantic poet and social critic)

18. “A small bird twitters on a leafless spray, across the snow waste breaks a gleam of gold. What token can I give my friend today but February blossoms, pure and cold? Frail gifts from Nature’s hand, I see the signs of spring about the land. These chill snowdrops, fresh from wintry bowers, are the forerunners of a world of flowers.”
– Sarah Doudney (English fiction writer and poet)

19. “Fair maid of February, drop of snow, enchanted to a flower, and there within. A dream of April green who without sin was conceived, but how no man may know.”
– Fraser’s Magazine (19th-century English general and literary journal)

20. “The bitter winds in February were sometimes called the First East Winds, but the longing for spring somehow made them seem more piercing.”
– Eiji Yoshikawa (Japanese historical novelist)

21. “Late February days; and now, at last, might you have thought that winter’s woe was past. So fair the sky was, and so soft the air.”
– William Morris (British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, printer, translator, and socialist activist)

Amusing Views on February

22. “February is the shortest month, so if you’re having a miserable month, try to schedule it for February.”
– Lemony Snicket (pen name of Daniel Handler, US writer and musician)

23. “The only bubble in the flat champagne of February is Valentine’s Day. It was no accident that our ancestors pinned Valentine’s Day on February’s shirt: he or she lucky enough to have a lover in frigid, antsy February has cause for celebration, indeed.”
– Tom Robbins (US novelist)

24. “Cold and snowy February does seem slow and trying, very. Still, a month made gay by Cupid never could be wholly stupid.”
– Louise Bennett Weaver (US writer)

25. “Do not rely on February. The sun in this month begets a headache like an angel slapping you in the face.”
– Anne Sexton (US poet)

26. “February is for curmudgeons, whinge bags, and misanthropes. You can’t begrudge us one month of the year or blame us for being even crabbier, it’s so short. There is nothing good about it, which is why it’s so great.”
– Lionel Shriver (US author and journalist)

27. “I used to try to decide which was the worst month of the year. In the winter I would choose February. The reason God made February short a few days was because he knew that by the time people came to the end of it, they would die if they had to stand one more blasted day.”
– Katherine Paterson (Chinese-born US writer of children’s novels)

28. “Can’t wait until February 15th – the chocolate will be on sale. Oh, bargains, my first love!”
– Anonymous

29. “Groundhog found fog. New snows and blue toes. Fine and dandy for Valentine candy. Snow spitting. If you’re not mitten-smitten, you’ll be frostbitten. By jingy feels springy.”
– The Old Farmer’s Almanac (US reference book)

30. “February is merely as long as is needed to pass the time until March.”
– J. R. Stockton (US writer)

31. “The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism, but February. Spring is too far away to comfort even by anticipation, and winter long ago lost the charm of novelty. This is the very three a.m. of the calendar.”
– Joseph Wood Krutch (US author, critic, and naturalist)

32. “February is the most wonderful month of the year; you work for 28 days and get paid for 30.”
– Anonymous

33. “When God was making the months, I think February was a mistake, like a burp. There it was, small, dark, and prickly. It had absolutely no redeeming qualities.”
– Shannon Wiersbitzky (US writer)

34. “February days are a marketing gimmick; love happens every day.”
– Randeep Hooda (Indian actor and equestrian)

Dry Erase Walls

DRY ERASE WALL QUOTES FOR APRIL 2022

April: The Angel of the Months

April, the name for the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian or Western calendar, is derived from the Latin Aprilis, a word whose meaning is unclear. Some scholars think that Aprilis comes from the Latin words aperire (meaning ‘to open’) or apricus (meaning ‘sunny’) since in the Northern Hemisphere, April is a month of Sun and the new opening or growth of plants and animals.

Another explanation for the origin of the word April involves Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love, beauty, and reproduction. The ancient Italian people known as the Etruscans called her Apru. Since the Romans adopted many Etruscan traditions, they celebrated the same goddess in the month of April.

What’s the Origin of April Fools’ Day?

On April 1, people around the world enjoy playing practical jokes on their friends, relatives, and coworkers. Depending on local customs, the victim of such a prank is referred to as a fool or a fish (poisson d’Avril or ‘April fish’ in French). Although it’s uncertain when the April Fools’ Day custom of playing tricks began, many theories exist about its origins.

One likely reason we play hoaxes on one another on April 1st is that winter is over: in the Northern Hemisphere, March and April put an end to the long dreary period of winter and bring new life to the land and its inhabitants. In many cultures, this phenomenon was and still is celebrated with lively festivities, dancing, and people making fun of one another.

Whatever the origins of April Fools’ Day may be, the month of April ushers in a time of renewal in nature and often inspires people to start afresh in a career or another aspect of life. Posting some of the following quotes on your dry erase wall may offer you some inspiration or a touch of humor to go along with the fun-loving month that heralds the start of spring.

Ideas and Sentiments for Your Dry Erase Wall about April

1. “April is the month of setting goals. Dream big this month to achieve them, as your dreams have the power to turn the impossible into the possible.”
– Anonymous

2. “They who meet on an April night are forever lost in love if there’s moonlight all about and there’s no moon above.”
– Yip Harburg (US popular song lyricist and librettist)

3. “It is a sort of April-weather life that we lead in this world. A little sunshine is generally the prelude to a storm.”
– William Cowper (English poet and hymn-writer)

4. “Good things take time. That’s probably the reason April is the fourth month of the calendar.”
– Anonymous

5. “April, April, laugh thy girlish laughter, and the moment after, weep thy girlish tears, April.”
– Angus Wilson (English novelist and short-story writer)

6. “Oh, to be in England now that April’s there.”
– Robert Browning (English poet and playwright)

7. “Snow in April is abominable,” said Anne. “Like a slap in the face when you expected a kiss.”
– L.M. Montgomery (Canadian author), Anne of Ingleside

8. “April splinters like an ice palace.”
– Ruth Stone (US poet, author, and teacher)

9. “Oh, the lovely fickleness of an April day!”
– W. H. Gibson (US author, illustrator, and naturalist)

10. “Although I was born in April, I’m quite certain I was not fully awake until October.”
– Peggy Toney Horton (US writer)

11. “Well-appareled April on the heel of limping winter treads.”
– William Shakespeare (world-renowned English playwright and poet)

12. “April sunsets somehow recall my buried life and Paris in the spring. I feel immeasurably at peace and find the world to be wonderful and youthful, after all.”
– Henry James (US-born British author)

13. “April, the angel of the months, the young love of the year.”
– Vita Sackville-West (English author and garden designer)

14. “Plunge into the deep without fear, with the gladness of April in your heart.”
– Rabindranath Tagore (Indian poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter)

Thoughts of Nature in April

15. “The April rain, the April rain, comes slanting down in fitful showers, then from the furrow shoots the grain, and banks are fledged with nestling flowers.”
– Mathilde Blind (German-born English poet, fiction writer, biographer, essayist, and critic), “April Rain.”

16. “If April showers should come your way, they bring the flowers that bloom in May.”
– Buddy de Sylva (US songwriter, film producer, and record executive)

17. “I have seen the Lady April bringing the daffodils, bringing the springing grass and the soft, warm April rain.”
– John Masefield (English poet and writer)

18. “Black butterflies making love – April moon.”
– Mike Garofalo (US sports writer and announcer)

19. “Every tear is answered by a blossom Every sigh with songs and laughter blended April blooms upon the breezes toss them April knows her own and is contented.”
– Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (US children’s author), “April”

20. “I had not thought of violets of late, the wild, shy kind that spring beneath your feet in wistful April days.”
– Alice Dunbar-Nelson (US poet, journalist, and political activist)

21. “April is in the world again, and all the world is filled with flowers. Flowers for others, not for me! For my one flower I cannot see, lost in the April showers.”
– Richard Le Gallienne (English author and poet)

22. “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.”
– T.S. Eliot (US-born British poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic, and editor)

23. “When April comes with softly shining eyes and daffodils bound in her wind-blown hair. Oh, she will coax all clouds from out the skies, and every day will bring some sweet surprise. The swallows will come swinging through the air when April comes!”
– Virna Sheard (Canadian poet and novelist)

24. “April, by thy hand, caressed from her breast. Nature scatters everywhere handfuls of all sweet perfumes, buds, and blooms, making faint the earth and air.”
– Remy Belleau (French Renaissance poet)

25. “In April, the first soft, tender, delicate green of spring salutes the eye in every direction.”
– Joseph Grimaldi (English actor, comedian, and dancer)

26. “Daffodils blossom and tulips jostle to the front of the stage in April. I love these early perennials. They may be more modest, but they nearly all have that one special quality that a plant needs to transform your affections from admiration to affection — charm.”
– Monty Don (British horticulturist, broadcaster, and writer)

27. “April is a month of melody. In April, you can hear the warbling of mockingbirds and the chattering of squirrels.”
– Ellen Jackson (US educator and activist)

28. “And at the break of morning, we will hear the piping of the robin’s crystal clear, while bobolinks will whistle through the days when April comes!”
– Virna Sheard (Canadian poet and novelist)

Thoughts on April Fools’ Day

29. “Here cometh April first again, and as far as I can see the world hath more fools in it than ever.”
– Charles Lamb (English essayist and poet)

30. “Some people can’t be fooled on April Fool’s Day because they were fooled too many times during their entire lifetimes.”
– Akash B Chandran (Indian web designer)

31. Rhymes for April — let me sing The pleasures of returning spring … Fools are made, by far the worst, On other days besides the First.
– William Makepeace Thackeray, Albert Smith, Gilbert à Beckett, and The Brothers Mayhew (English authors), “April Rhymes,” The Comic Almanack for 1835

32. “The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.”
– Mark Twain (world-renowned US humorist and author)

33. “Yet still when the famed first of April returns … I dread the approach.”
– Matthew Gregory Lewis (English novelist and dramatist), “Grim, King of the Ghosts”

Dry Erase Paint

DRY ERASE WALL QUOTES FOR NOVEMBER 2021

November: The Norway of the Year
In the Northern Hemisphere, November signals the entry to winter, the season of cold, dreary, blustery weather. But it’s also a time of tranquility, of introspection, of cuddling with loved ones and animal companions, of comfort foods, of get-togethers with family and friends. In November, you get to take a deep breath of crisp fresh air and settle into late fall and holiday preparations. It’s a holiday month, but instead of the hustle and bustle of December’s holidays, it offers a more serene sense of family togetherness without the pressure of buying and exchanging gifts. The quotes below reflect an array of feelings, images, and thoughts about November that will hopefully brighten your day or give you food for thought when you post them on your dry erase painted wall.

Thoughts and Feelings about November

1. “November always seems to me the Norway of the year.â€
~ Emily Dickinson (US poet)

2. “November is the most disagreeable month in the whole year,†said Margaret, standing at the window one dull afternoon, looking out at the frost-bitten garden. “That’s the reason I was born in it,†observed Jo pensively.â€
~ Louisa May Alcott (US novelist, short story writer, and poet), Little Women

3. “Fallen leaves lying on the grass in the November sun bring more happiness than the daffodils.â€
~ Cyril Connolly (English literary critic and writer)

4. “Welcome, sweet November, the season of senses and my favorite month of all.â€
~ Gregory F. Lenz (US writer)

5. “Fear not November’s challenge bold — We’ve books and friends, And hearths that never can grow cold: These make amends!â€
~ Alexander Louis Fraser (Canadian poet and clergyman), November

6. “The thinnest yellow light of November is more warming and exhilarating than any wine they tell of. The mite [small amount] which November contributes becomes equal in value to the bounty of July.â€
~ Henry David Thoreau (US naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher)

7. “Don’t wait until the fourth Thursday in November to sit with family and friends to give thanks. Make every day a day of Thanksgiving!â€
~ Charmaine J. Forde (US author and poet)

8. “She stands In tattered gold Tossing bits of amber And jade, jewels of a year grown old: November.â€
~ Zephyr Ware Tarver (US poet), A Queen Makes an Exit

9. “Some of the days in November carry the whole memory of summer as a fire opal carries the color of moonrise.â€
~ Gladys Taber (US author)

10. “This is the month of nuts and nutty thoughts — that November whose name sounds so bleak and cheerless — perhaps its harvest of thought is worth more than all the other crops of the year.â€
~ Henry David Thoreau (US naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher)

11. “No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease, No comfortable feel in any member – No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds — November!â€
~ Thomas Hood (English poet, author, and humorist), No!

12. “November at its best — with a sort of delightful menace in the air.â€
~ Anne Bosworth Greene (British-American author and essayist)

13. “Thanks for time to be together, turkey, talk, and tangy weather. For harvest stored away, home, and hearth, and holiday. For autumn’s frosty art, and abundance in the heart. For neighbors and November, nice things, new things to remember.â€
~ Aileen Fisher (US writer and poet), All in a Word

14. “The month of November makes me feel that life is passing more quickly. In an effort to slow it down, I try to fill the hours more meaningfully.â€
~ Henry Rollins (US singer, actor, presenter, comedian, and activist)

Mother Nature in November

15. “The wind that makes music in November corn is in a hurry. The stalks hum, the loose husks whisk skyward in half-playing swirls, and the wind hurries on. A tree tries to argue, bare limbs waving, but there is no detaining the wind.â€
~ Aldo Leopold (US author, philosopher, naturalist, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist)

16. “There is always a November space after the leaves have fallen when she felt it was almost indecent to intrude on the woods, for their glory terrestrial had departed, and their glory celestial of spirit and purity and whiteness had not yet come upon them.â€
~ L.M. Montgomery (Canadian author)

17. “The house was very quiet, and the fog — we are in November now — pressed against the windows like an excluded ghost.â€
~ E.M. Forster (English fiction writer, essayist, and librettist)

18. “In November, the trees are standing all sticks and bones. Without their leaves, how lovely they are, spreading their arms like dancers. They know it is time to be still.â€
~ Cynthia Rylant (US author of children’s books and librarian), In November

19. “If it is true that one of the greatest pleasures of gardening lies in looking forward, then the planning of next year’s beds and borders must be one of the most agreeable occupations in the gardener’s calendar. This should make October and November particularly pleasant months.â€
~ Vita Sackville-West (English author, garden designer, poet, and journalist)

20. “The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night, Ya-honk! he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation: The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listen closer, I find its purpose and place up there toward the November sky.â€
~ Walt Whitman (US poet, essayist, and journalist), Leaves of Grass, I Celebrate Myself

21. “The body is like a November birch facing the full moon And reaching into the cold heavens. In these trees, there is no ambition, no sodden body, no leaves, Nothing but bare trunks climbing like cold fire!â€
~ Robert Bly (US poet, essayist, and activist), Solitude Late at Night in the Woods

22. “Bare are the places where the sweet flowers dwelt.
What joy sufficient hath November felt?
What profit from the violet’s day of pain?â€
~ Helen Hunt Jackson (US poet, writer, and activist), Autumn Sonnet

23. “The wild November comes at last Beneath a veil of rain; The night winds blow its folds aside, Her face is full of pain. The latest of her race, she takes The Autumn’s vacant throne: She has but one short moon to live, And she must live alone.â€
~ Richard Henry Stoddard (US critic and poet), November

24. “Every year, in November, the crowning and majestic hours of autumn, I go to visit the chrysanthemums. They are indeed, the most universal, the most diverse of flowers.â€
~ Maurice Maeterlinck (Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist)

25. “Splitting dry kindling on a damp November day — wind-chimes tinkling.â€
~ Michael P. Garofalo (US poet and philosopher), Cuttings

26. “Cornstalks from last summer’s garden now lean toward the kitchen window, and the November wind goes through them in a shudder. Their thin tassels spread out beseeching fingers, and their long bleached blades flutter like ragged clothing.â€
~ Rachel Peden (US newspaper columnist)

27. “Most people, early in November, take last looks at their gardens, and are then prepared to ignore them until the spring. I am quite sure that a garden doesn’t like to be ignored like this. It doesn’t like to be covered in dust sheets, as though it were an old room which you had shut up during the winter. Especially since a garden knows how gay and delightful it can be, even in the very frozen heart of the winter, if you only give it a chance.â€
~ Beverley Nichols (English writer, playwright, and public speaker)

28. “When shrieked The bleak November winds, and smote the woods, And the brown fields were herbless, and the shades That met above the merry rivulet Were spoiled, I sought, I loved them still; they seemed Like old companions in adversity.â€
~ William Cullen Bryant (US poet, journalist, and newspaper editor), A Winter Piece

Dry Erase Wall

IS A WHITEBOARD THE SAME AS A DRY ERASE BOARD?

Traditional framed whiteboards are extremely popular and handy media for communicating in business offices, classrooms, retail shops, restaurants, hospitals, and countless other settings where quick memos, schedules, creative ideas, sketches for work projects, and other types of text and imagery can be presented in a clear easily accessible way. With whiteboards, writing and drawing are effortless because words and images can be presented with just a few quick strokes of a dry erase marker then easily erased with a swipe or two from a special marker eraser or a piece of cloth. Also, writing and graphics may be displayed in a great number of bold, exciting colors that allow for easy viewing and for color coding of various topics or categories so that viewers can clearly understand the relationships among different images, ideas, and facts. However, despite their popularity, handiness, and widespread use around the world, many people are confused about the meaning of the terms “whiteboard” and “dry-erase board,” with some believing that they refer to two different things.

The Terms “Whiteboard” and “Dry Erase Board” Have the Same Meaning

To clear up this confusion, you can rest assured that the expressions whiteboard and dry erase board are synonymous; that is, they have exactly the same meaning. All whiteboards are by nature dry erase boards, since a special dry eraser is all that’s required to remove writing and other marks from their surfaces, as opposed to chalkboards, which often need to be cleaned off with a water-dampened cloth. Many people use the term whiteboard instead of dry erase board simply because these types of surfaces are most often colored white; however, dry erase boards are available in other colors as well, such as light blue, pink, yellow, chartreuse, lavender, and more. Materials like white melamine and white porcelain are almost always used in the manufacture of dry erase boards because white is an excellent background color that makes any writing or drawing displayed on it stand out and be readily seen by both users and others in the area. To create the greatest contrast between dry erase marker ink and background, people usually choose dark or brightly colored markers to let text and images be viewed clearly against a board’s white surface, with black and dark gray being the most common colors of ink made for writing or drawing on a dry erase board.

The Different Types of Whiteboards Vary Greatly in Quality and Price

Although dry erase boards are almost universally white, many people are unaware that several kinds exist on the market and that the boards can differ significantly in terms of quality, durability, and price according to the material used in the manufacturing process. The many varieties of whiteboards available are typically advertised as being made of a non-porous surface material that can be easily written or drawn on with dry erase markers and then quickly cleaned off with a cloth or a special dry ink eraser. The most common types of raw materials used in manufacturing dry erase surfaces are melamine, ceramic steel (aka porcelain steel, porcelain enamel, or vitreous enamel), glass, and paint.

Melamine Whiteboards Have Several Disadvantages

Melamine whiteboards are constructed of a kind of paper infused with resin that’s applied to a base material or substrate such as medium-density fiberboard (MDF) or particleboard. The main advantages of melamine-coated boards are that they are less heavy and initially less expensive than other types of dry erase boards like those made of porcelain steel or glass; however, the surfaces of melamine-coated boards are more highly prone to staining, ghosting, and physical damage than the other surfaces, so they typically have to be replaced every few years, especially if written on, erased, and cleaned often. This, of course, creates added ongoing expenses for schools, companies, and organizations that may already be on tight budgets. Melamine whiteboards are also non-recyclable so that when they wear out and are discarded, they end up being sent to landfills, thus generating large amounts of unnecessary waste material and increased damage to the natural environment.

Melamine dry erase boards differ considerably in terms of quality, and this is based largely on the amount of melamine resin that’s applied to the substrate during the manufacturing process. Some melamine whiteboards will remain relatively clean and tend to resist smudging and ghosting, even after a period of use; however, others will begin to smudge and ghost in a matter of only a few days or weeks, and even those that don’t ghost at first will eventually do so. These problems occur because of the high permeability of melamine surfaces, which often begin attracting and holding dry erase marker ink on the first day of use. So, despite their seemingly non-porous surfaces, melamine whiteboards actually contain countless microscopic holes that absorb more and more dry erase marker ink over time and eventually undergo ghosting, whereby large gray areas appear, and what’s written or drawn on them fails to completely disappear when erased, so that faint remnants or “ghosts” of the markings on their surfaces remain behind, hence the term “ghosting.”

Ceramic and Porcelain Steel whiteboards are Costly and Difficult to Install

Ceramic steel whiteboards have a smooth glossy surface that’s produced by spraying a raw mixture called frit, which contains glass particles, onto steel sheets and then firing the sheets in high-temperature ovens. Although ceramic steel dry erase boards are more resilient and easier to clean than melamine boards, they are also much heavier and bulkier, so mounting ceramic whiteboards on walls is a multi-person task often done by professionals. Ceramic steel dry erase boards are also considerably more expensive than melamine boards, and by their nature, are likewise limited in terms of surface area due to the size restrictions imposed by their frames.

Quality Dry Erase Paint Eliminates the Issues Associated with Standard Whiteboards

Based on your personal or professional needs and the characteristics of your home, work, or teaching environment, it’s important to consider the pros and cons of the various types of dry erase boards on the market and then determine the sort of dry erase surface that you want to have. In light of the numerous drawbacks associated with traditional framed whiteboards of any size, surface, or price, it’s understandable that shrewd business managers, organization heads, educators, and others seeking a modern, alternative writing surface are increasingly turning to whiteboard coated walls to meet their needs. Major international corporations and educational institutions such as Facebook, Starbucks, Harvard University, Yale University, and the University of California Berkeley have all chosen to install premium dry erase coating in their corporate offices, classrooms, research facilities, and other venues. These world-class companies and schools recognize the great potential that whiteboard-coated walls have for inspiring creative thinking and novel approaches to traditional ways of working, teaching, and learning. The vast expansiveness and open-ended nature of our frameless whiteboard coated surfaces bring out the best ideas and thinking abilities in staff, teachers, and students alike.

All it takes to create your own huge whiteboard canvas in a business office, retail shop, classroom, residence, or other venue is to apply one layer of the top-quality dry erase coating over a suitable base paint. In this way you can have a surface that’s highly durable, non-porous (impermeable to marker ink), easily written on, economical, attractive, immune to ghosting and smudging, and warranted for ten-plus years of continuous use before needing replacement. Whether you choose to call it whiteboard coated or dry erase coated, your wall will be much larger and more accessible than any standard dry erase board made of melamine, porcelain steel, or glass and be as easy to write on, erase, and clean as the highest quality traditional whiteboard money can buy.

Dry Erase Wall