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[beatitude]

On my campus, there is a lot of building renovation going on. This is a good thing, because it means I get to teach in new classrooms equipped with all of these great gadgets like Elmos and digital projectors. The one thing I don't like, however, is having to use dry erase boards. There is something satisfyingly primitive about using chalk to make a mark on a piece of rock that is missing when I have to use a smelly chemical pen to scribble across a piece of plastic. Plus, those stupid pens become useless after five minutes with their caps off. Chalk is cheap, tactile, environmentally friendly, and long lasting.

Does anyone else here miss their chalkboard?

[iomhaigh]

They'll take my chalkboard out of my cold dead hands.

[sarabee]

At my current institution all of the classrooms have chalkboards.  I am always covered in chalk dust.  I miss dry erase markers.

[concordancia]

H NO!!

Firstly, I do not write on a piece of rock, we have the green, painted boards at my U. No satisfying primitiveness here, just old and shabby.

Furthermore, I am in the humanities. The most acceptable color is black. It loses it coolness when covered in a fine white dust, proves embarrassing when I lean against the chalk tray or just absently wipe my hands on my behind. Besides, I would rather be giddy from the chemical smell than sneezing from the chalk dust.

Now, give me a Smart Board so that everything could be recorded and uploaded.

[mended_drum]

Some of our buildings, mostly in the sciences, use dry erase boards.  Mine, however, was just restored with blackboards (that are actually black).  I like them better, but I suspect that it's mostly because I'm not used to writing on dry erase boards.

[licaone]

I hate dry erase board. I hate the chemical smell, I hate the black dust stains over my shirt, I hate the fact that to wash them I have to apply to more smelly chemicals.

Fortunately, in most of our classrooms we still have the old chalk boards. When I got my current job one of my conditions was that they would give me an office with a chalk board.

[gennimom]

I prefer dry erase boards. So many more colors to chose from!

I knew a teacher once who kept having allergy issues. She once coughed so hard she broke a rib. They replaced her chalk board with a dry erase board, and, voila! No more allergy issues.

[cc_alan]

On my campus, there is a lot of building renovation going on. This is a good thing, because it means I get to teach in new classrooms equipped with all of these great gadgets like Elmos and digital projectors. The one thing I don't like, however, is having to use dry erase boards. There is something satisfyingly primitive about using chalk to make a mark on a piece of rock that is missing when I have to use a smelly chemical pen to scribble across a piece of plastic. Plus, those stupid pens become useless after five minutes with their caps off. Chalk is cheap, tactile, environmentally friendly, and long lasting.

Does anyone else here miss their chalkboard?

Only keep the cap off for very short periods of time. Instead of listing pros and cons, I'll gripe about both-

Dry erase:

1. The markers stink. "Low odor"? Hah!

2. The black dust sucks.

3. Some markers are harder to erase than others.

4. Can't erase with your hands unless you want marker residue on your hands and clothes.

Chalk boards:

1. The chalk dries your hands. Yes, chucks help minimize it but it's still a problem.

2. Chalk dust sucks.

3. Chalk only erase well with a washing.

4. Can't erase with your hands unless you want chalk dust all over your hands and clothes.

Alan

[john_proctor]

There's chalk dust on the jacket sleeves of my soul.

Using chalk is about 20% of my job satisfaction.  The staccato rapraprap on the slate satisfies me more than I can express and is incorporated into the rhetorical flow of my very speech.

[gennimom]

Tip: If you have a dry erase color that won't erase off your board, scribble over it with a fresh marker then erase. Comes off every time. Or else get white board or glass cleaner.

[scheherazade]

If you don't want to deal with dry erase marker caps, they do make retractable ones.

[cc_alan]

Tip: If you have a dry erase color that won't erase off your board, scribble over it with a fresh marker then erase. Comes off every time. Or else get white board or glass cleaner.

That's an easy one! I need to try it.

Alan

[gradgirl]

I hate teaching in rooms with blackboards. The chalk dust gives me instant sniffles and makes me cough.
Then again, this could also be because the blackboard rooms are also the old, stuffy,
last-renovated-in-the-1950s rooms.

[gennimom]

Tip: If you have a dry erase color that won't erase off your board, scribble over it with a fresh marker then erase. Comes off every time. Or else get white board or glass cleaner.

That's an easy one! I need to try it.

Alan

I can't remember who told me about it, but I was grateful!

[prytania3]

We have no more chalk boards--all dry erase boards.

What I don't miss is breathing in chalk dust and wearing chalk dust all over my black outfits.

I like the dry erase boards better for the most part, but if I write a lot on the board, some of the markers can get toxic.

I have found the problem is not the board so much as the markers. For example, OfficeMax markers suck. Smelly and hard to erase. Expo markers, OTOH, are much better.