Column

White Board Disaster
by Valerie DeFrance

This time I share a tip I thought all instructors knew, but to my surprise discovered at our last state symposium, during a mini- presentation in an instructor's workshop, that this was not the case. In fact only one of the twenty or so in the room knew of this tip. 

If you have multiple instructors using a classroom, and the white board, the chances increase that you will have a 'white board disaster. '

Sooner or later one of the instructors will leave a lone permanent marker mixed in with the markers for the white board. The marker will lie there, unobtrusively, waiting until the opportune moment.  That moment when an instructor has failed to observe it is different from all the rest.  

Now suppose that 'less than observant' instructor is you. There you are, lecturing along, when you snatch up a marker to make a quick drawing on the white board. 

Suddenly, you gasp! To your horror you realize you have used a permanent marker on the white board.  You quickly try to wipe it away, only to have it behave like spilled activated charcoal when you try to clean it up, it just seems to spread even further but never really come off. 

Many of us have heard that using a permanent marker on a white board is total and complete disaster; that the expensive white board cannot be salvaged. So, now you are panicked by your thoughts of receiving a major punishment from the boss or client, if not being outright fired. 

At the college where I instruct they actually replaced the white boards with CHALK boards due to permanent marker errors! (cough, cough, not to mention all the chalk on your clothes and lack of nice bright colors!) 

Not to panic. The white board can be fixed. And you won't even have to go seeking out any special products to clean the permanent marker off the board as what you need is readily at hand.  (or tell your superior you made a boo-boo)

Using any white board marker, 'scrub' over sections of the permanent marker. Do small sections at a time so that you can quickly wipe all away with the eraser before it totally dries. Confine your eraser wipes, as much a possible, at the scrubbed area or you will continue to spread the bad marker. Using a towel or other cloth sometimes works better for staying within the boundaries. 

Indeed, you should see most of the permanent marker disappearing as you color over it with the white board marker- if you did not have a heavy hand with the 'bad' marker. If it does not completely wipe away and leaves bit of a colored residue, color over the area again and once again erase quickly.  For really tough cases, use one white board marker for the first scrubbing and another clean marker for the second scrub.

Be sure to discard the white board marker when they begin to lose effectiveness, and when you are done. If you have a substantial amount to remove you will use more than one marker.

For those of us who are using white boards that have sustained some scratches, we know what a pain this can be. Each time you 'travel' over the scratch with the marker you get hung up. This messes up your printing or drawing. 

Using clear or white finger nail polish can help. Try to purchase the fast drying kind.  Use two or three THIN layers, allowing it to dry in between layers. Try not to extend beyond the actual scratch any more than necessary.  This will wear off over time and need to be touched up again. 

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