When first receiving a teaching job or moving to a new school, some teachers go into shock. Believe it or not, things are not always prepared for you. Materials are not always accessible. Many times, teachers must make-do and make use of what they have instead of getting what they need or would like to have in their classroom.
This year I moved to a new school. At my old school I taught kindergarten for two years. I am also teaching kindergarten at my new school. Because I did not change the grade that I am teaching, I can use many lessons and ideas from my previous years. I am also very set in my ways of how I prefer to teach. At my old school I did not use chalk borders or white boards. I had one reading center cart board that I used. The boards in my room were bulletin boards on which I stapled all of my needs such as calendar, days of the week, etc. At my new school, the room was equipped with two huge chalkboards. In order to use my personal teaching aides I would have to place magnets on the backs to hang everything up on the chalkboard. Plus I would have to look at the ugly blue/green boards on a daily basis. This I could not deal with doing. Therefore, I found out that I could purchase hush board at our local construction shop. I covered the chalkboards with hush board and turned them into bulletin boards. Then I covered them with bright material and stapled up my items. The room looked one thousand times neater and more updated!
Another trick to getting rid of chalkboards (which are messy, ugly, and allergy causers) is to buy white shower board at a home repair store. Then have someone screw the whiteboard into the chalkboard. The board will not be magnetic but you can use it as a dry erase board. It is also a lot cheaper than buying new dry erase boards.
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