Week One- Chalkboard Reno

Well week one of our two week induction program is in the books. It was over 90 degrees every day and we sat in un-airconditioned meeting every day! We also had a few hours of class time thrown in here and there and I got to finish solving my biggest classroom problem!

 When I moved into my classroom last year I had an AWFUL chalkboard that was absolutely covered in adhesive. I had no idea what to do about it and in my first year special ed teacher panic I just covered it. It was basically just a pretty but less than functional wall all year!

I wanted something more functional but still pretty. I had coated the other half of my chalkboard with chalkboard paint, because it wasn't as bad, however it didn't hold up well. I decided I was going to remove the adhesive. I consulted with my friends at the WeAreTeachers Helpline on Facebook and they gave me tons of suggestions to get the stuff off. I tried nail polish remover, rubbing alcohol, goof off, graffiti remover with no luck. I broke one scraper and left one early August day covered in sweat with no progress made!  I had a board that looked a bit like this!

I went with my backup of covering it. I decided to recoat the other chalkboard, over my whiteboard and the top of this board, and then create a cork board that was the same height as my current white board. I measured and found out that buying cork squares was going to cost me over $60. So I came up with the idea of Foam Board from the dollar tree. I ended up using 5 pieces to cover the board. 

I first created a grid on the chalkboard with painters tape. Applied hot glue to the tape and stuck the foam board on the hot glue. I cut it to fit exactly with a box cutter (who thought to trust me with a box cutter?) I ended up with something like this!

I let it sit for a week while I went on vacation before we started our induction and when I came back it was still stuck to the board! I then just treated it like a typical cork board You have to be a little more gentle with things because the foam board doesn't grip staples as firmly. 

Total Cost:  $8
Painters Tape- Free ( I had it from painting my bathroom last summer)
Box Cutter- Free (My dad put one in a tool kit when I moved out!)
Hot Glue- $1
Foam Board- $7 (I bought extra too!)

Next up:

• Finishing bulletin boards
• Organization- IKEA tomorrow! 
• Interactive notebooks
• Manuel Sadosky famous Hispanic bulletin board
• Making a teacher binder and a sub binder
• Classroom Twitter? Classroom Website? Classroom Blog? What is best
• Donors Choose project (A Place To Learn)
• JUMPSTART