It’s that time of year again, when schools reopen their doors for students who are eager to learn about their favorite subjects. One of the most important academic tools is the markerboard/chalkboard, a simple writing surface that transforms the classroom into an educational collaborative space, and here we will show you why bigger is better.
In the early 19th century James Pillans, a high school headmaster in Scotland, revolutionized education and created one of the world’s first chalkboards by mounting his student’s slate tablets into a large format writing surface to teach geography lessons. Up until this point educators would need to spend time individually with students to conduct lessons on their individual tablets; creating a collaborative writing space changed the game and allowed multiple students to be taught at once and offered a new level of academic efficiency.
The average size of the typical classroom writing surface is 4’x6’ or 4’x8’ and this is good for a teacher to write large enough for their students to see from the front to the back of the room, but space runs out relatively quickly and then whatever is there has to be erased. Instead of this approach, wouldn’t it be great if the writing surface spanned an entire wall and the whole lesson could remain up for students to reference everything from beginning to end? This is where Claridge comes in with our Marker Wall Systems which are available in both porcelain and glass surfaces. Keeping all the information visible for the entire period can be invaluable in assisting in the learning process, especially if you are someone like me who is a notoriously slow note taker.
Allowing for more information to be written is a great perk but the larger surface also allows for more student collaboration. Most of us can remember the terror we felt when being asked to come up to the board and work solo in front of the class, and while it is important to confront and work through those fears, it is also advantageous for multiple students to be able to walk up and work simultaneously and ease that anxiety. There are many benefits to educational experiences that are social and engaging including an increase to student self-esteem and responsibility, promotion of student-faculty interaction, and development of higher level thinking and self-management skills.
At Claridge we believe in providing a great learning environment for all students and think that our Marker Wall Systems are a great solution. Talk to one of our writing surface experts today to see how they can help make your floor to ceiling writing dreams a reality.