I just LOVE having my students use white boards! It’s so easy to revise, compare, and collaborate between groups without having to use paper. It’s not that my classes don’t use paper for projects but for daily activities I prefer using the white boards and student notebooks.

Real white boards can be expensive! And with class sizes at 30 I can not afford that many boards lol So I looked up ideas on Pinterest and decided to use shower boards from Home Depot, which were a little less than $15 each for an 8’x 4′ board. I asked Home Depot to cut them into 2′ x 2′ squares (which they did for free upon learning I was a teacher!), which meant I got 8 student boards per one shower board. I wanted my boards to be big so that students had plenty of space for stoichiometry…and now that we’ve done such much modeling this has proven very helpful!

Complaints? I don’t have any, but others say their shower boards didn’t last very long. I’ve had mine for 3 years; they still work great with very little residue marks left over from previous uses (and I use these with all my classes all year long). I typically don’t leave marks on the boards over night as I need them for each class. When I have left it over night it does become a little harder to scrub off the markings.

How to clean them? I wouldn’t (and haven’t) used regular marker board spray simply because these aren’t real marker boards and that spray contains chemicals that will break down the shower board material, thus possibly resulting in the staining when used again. Honestly I haven’t actually cleaned mine with any kind of spray…..I’ve been told that windex and magic erase markers work well. I may try it this summer.

For me the use of these boards has far outweighed any possible issues. I also use them for station directions and really anything that comes up, rather than deal with paper shortage issues.

If you have any questions just let me know!

***Side note: Amazon does have great deals on the smaller boards if you are looking for a different option. I would check there or the area in the front of Target. I’ve found small boards for $3 in that location as well.