Walls Painted

Saturday was a blur; my friend Austin met me at 9:30, and we worked in my room clear through 1:00, finishing the sanding and beginning to actually use the IdeaPaint.

We were able to complete the entire back wall before he had to leave at 1:00. I took a short break, and was back to work by 1:30. I worked for another three hours afterwards, mixing and painting, until finally, seven hours after I'd begun, the walls were finally finished.

Before I post pictures, the top five things I learned from the experience, in no particular order.

1) They aren't kidding when they tell you about the odor. It is intense as I've ever experienced, even wearing a mask.
2) WEAR GLOVES. This was the one item I forgot at Ace Hardware, and it came back to bite me. IdeaPaint is not like any other paint; the bond it forms with whatever surface it touches is very hard, and very strong. Even the denatured alcohol that IdeaPaint recommends was unable to do the trick. Eventually I found that a strong exfoliant wash, a pumice stone, and hot water were able to, over time, get the paint off.
3) Have denatured alcohol on site to pick up spills and splatters. I didn't have it on site, so I'm sure there will be some scrubbing involved to clean up the 'Oops" moments.
4)  Recruit some help. I am grateful for the help Austin gave me, but I needed to have asked for help long before, and a simple two or three day project took a week, and dozens of hours of labor.
5) IdeaPaint is a tricky little devil sometimes. The instructions are very explicit not to try to spread it too thin, to make your 50 sq. ft. kit actually cover 50 sq. feet. The issue is that this stuff has the consistency of milk, and spreads incredibly easy. I found the kits lasting longer than I wanted them to. On the first wall we painted (the back wall), I had to fudge on the instructions and go back and repaint sections that I were afraid had inadequate coverage. It is supposed to be a single-layer applied paint, so I'm really hoping this isn't a deal breaker. I back rolled as best I could to try to ensure even consistency, but the wall in question still looks "streaky" in spots. To try to ensure a good writing surface, I'm going to let the wall cure for ten full days instead of the required seven.

Enough talking, here are the pictures. Because of the liquidy consistency of the paint, we did have a couple of spills/ splatters, which will need to be picked up, but I'm far too exhausted to  deal with that right now.

I was impressed by the glossy finish and the sharp lines.

I felt really good about this wall in particular.

A closer image of the high-gloss surface, with an "oopsie" next to it.

 Another wall I felt I did very well. Last wall I painted.

This is the wall I'm concerned about. If you look closely, you can see a lack of uniformity, or "streakiness," in certain spots. I don't mind this as long as it doesn't affect the writing performance. If it does, I guess I'll have to re-do this whole wall. Live and learn.

So now the waiting game begins. I'm going to allow ten days for the wall to cure before writing, which would put "The Day" at July 9th.

 

 

 

Sanding, Priming, and Messes, Oh My

This is a lot. The past three days I've recruited some help for the sanding stage, but my partner was not exactly reliable.

After wearing three pads of 150 grain sandpaper down to the nub, I was finally to start spackling some of the larger holes and imperfections in the wall.

And then the real mess began. I'm a pretty solid painter, in terms of a solid finished product, but I tend to wear a good amount all over me by the end of the day. I better be a tad more careful with the IdeaPaint.

It was a lot of work, but it was good to finally get the rollerbrush rollin.' I was pretty satisfied with the results, but will probably put on a second coat before the final sanding just to ensure a good writing surface.

Speaking of which, I'm a tad nervous about the smoothness/performance of the drywall, even though I've been reassured by IdeaPaint and by others that drywall is actually surprisingly "writable" with the proper sanding and priming. I guess the little bumps and knobs attendant with drywall make me anxious, but given the number of corporations and schools with IdeaPaint which undoubtedly use drywall, I'd be shocked if it ended up being an issue.

I also began to prime the top of the bookcase at the back of the classroom, and it's going to need three or four coats of primer, because it seems to be TOO smooth; it gets better with each application, though.

Thus far, some tips for those considering this for their classroom;

A) Be patient. The prep work is much more laborious than the actual application of the product. If you're anything like me, the moment you get the IdeaPaint by delivery you're ready to crack open a can and get going. Unless you opt for the more expensive IdeaPaint Create series, you're going to have a long period between receiving your product and applying it, and even Create has some prep work involved.

B) Recruit some help for the sanding; this was a massive undertaking to do myself. Also, get a lot of sandpaper. It goes quickly. I prefer the 150 grain.

C) Make sure you coordinate very well with your custodial staff; the staff at Eastside was stripping and waxing the hallway while I was in my room working, and I got "waxed" in at one point. This is also an especially important point given that many schools and districts paint and move furniture in the "off-season," and it's easily foreseeable someone's brand new dry erase surface getting messed up.

Still waiting on some good practices, procedures and strategies, guys!

Onwards

Sorry for the delay between posts, folks. Sometimes life gets in the way. My twin brother was in a pretty horrific car crash that, for a day or two, left us wondering if he'd make it. He broke ten ribs, his pelvis, a bone in his back, collapsed his lung, and ruptured his spleen. He spent four days in the ICU, and after a week in the hospital, is miraculously going home today.

So my classroom has been on the backburner. Today, though, I was finally able to get some things started.

IdeaPaint is awesome, but it is labor intensive, and requires plenty of prepping and patience. You have to sand the surface both before and after you prime, and then, after the sanding and priming, you get to use the actual IdeaPaint product.

The empty canvas-- floors freshly waxed



 

 First things first, I had to once and for all decide on what dimensions I wanted to be dry erase. I had played with a myriad of possibilities. The first, naïve idea was to have floor to ceiling become dry erase. Aside from the gigantic cost of such a project (probably close to $2,500), it was wholly unnecessary; the entire point of the dry erase was to make it easy to collaborate and express your ideas. No one was going to want to kneel awkwardly on their hands and knees, maneuvering around electrical outlets and dataports to jot something down (at least not my students), or stand precariously on a chair to draw something at near-ceiling level.

I settled on a 4.5 foot tall strip going around the entire room. The dry erase begins at a little above knee level, and goes to a little above the height of a door. That may or may not sound like a lot of space, but when you consider it's entirely uninterrupted horizontally, it's gigantic. This picture demonstrates, I think, the scope of the project. For a sense of scale, the first wall alone contains three times the writing space the whiteboard at the front of my room has.

Jackson loved helping outline in painters tape.

The writing surface doesn't fear corners.

 

 

So my four year old son and I began to outline the desired dimensions in blue painter's tape. We used a level to maintain a straight edge, and were able to get about half the measuring and taping done. Then we started sanding; IdeaPaint suggests sanding before and after priming to ensure a perfect profile onto which the paint may cure. I opted to use 150 grain sandpaper for the pre-prime scuffing and the recommended 120 grain sandpaper for the post-prime job. In both instances, it's important to use a dry, clean cloth to wipe away the very fine dust/debris left behind.

 

Easy.

 

 

We were only able to sand a relatively small section today; we will work throughout Wednesday and Thursday to measure, tape, and sand. Friday night (after a round of golf with my dad and brother), we will prime the walls. Finally, Saturday will be painting day!

 

In ten days this will be the first IdeaPaint classroom in the state.

 

Again, I encourage any and everybody to leave ideas for protocols, activities, games, procedures, or strategies using the surfaces of both the walls and desks! I hope everyone is having a great summer.









Let the chaos begin (and questions).

Ends of school years are intrinsically hectic undertakings, but mine is a little crazier than the norm this year.

First, I received my activity tables second hand from the district warehouse. They are in various degrees of disrepair, so I've been busy replacing, repositioning, or resizing the legs and such. The tops I'm not as concerned about since they'll be covered with IdeaPaint.

Speaking of IdeaPaint, it's finally here!

Now, unfortunately, the waiting begins. The district must first paint the walls themselves before I can go over it with IdeaPaint. That is scheduled to happen in two weeks, but given the penchant for redtape and delays in our district, it could be longer. As soon as it's done, however, I can begin the task of painting (of course using IdeaPaint's instructions as my Bible).

In the meantime, folks, I have two questions I'd like to put out there for everybody:

A) What ideas do you have for how to use these new writing surfaces? What kinds of activities/assessments/strategies, especially considering the collaborative nature of the classroom, would you suggest?

and

B) What protocols/procedures are a must in such a room? I'm thinking protection of investment and classroom management here.

 

Thanks, and have a good weekend/summer!

Idea Paint and Collaborative Learning

As I wrote in my prior entry, the necessity to change my classroom stems from various reasons, most importantly:
A) The need to physically and cognitively engage students and
B) The desire to inspire creativity and collaboration.

So what am I doing next year? First, I have already cleared my room of all the individual student desks. They have been replaced by tables which seat four students.

At these tables, I will seat permanent collaborative groups. Using students' 8th grade MAP scores, I will (as best as possible) station one high-achieving student, one low-achieving student, and two medium-achieving students at each table. The idea behind this is that higher-achieving students will benefit from helping to model and teach their groups, the lower-achieving students will benefit from the scaffolding provided by the higher-achieving peers, and all the students will benefit from the process of collaborating.

Of course, they shouldn't spend too much time sitting at all, thanks to the Idea Paint which I will be applying on all four walls of my room. Idea Paint is a relatively new product which turns any surface into a high-quality dry erase surface.

Students will do most of their work standing, literally writing on the walls. The IdeaPaint will also be applied to the tops of all the group tables. Students can collaboratively solve problems, take notes, edit each other's work, and brainstorm.

Here is a similar application of the idea at Killian Middle School:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzwrjP39Ocs

So what do you think? What are the concerns? How will I need to alter my procedures/methods? Ideas?

Things Have to Change

I have always considered myself to be a traditional teacher. While in college, I (naively) assumed that through sheer force of will, good public speaking, and content knowledge, a teacher could command the attention, respect, and engagement of even the most disinterested students.

When I actually got around to teaching, though, things started to change. I began as an 8th grade Language Arts teacher. I taught (then as now), almost entirely lower level students--struggling or even beginning readers. Students who, for a multitude of reasons (lack of parental involvement, the "entertain me" culture of the generation, the abhorrent effects of social media and texting on the English language), hated writing. I was shocked to discover my first year as a teacher that most of my 8th graders didn't even know their parts of speech (I distinctly remember learning these in 4th and 5th grade). Further, students were now openly anti-education. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention, but I don't remember students bragging about how little school meant to them, when I was receiving my education. Now it seemed it was almost students' Raison d'être to demonstrate their disdain for the system as a whole.

After four years, I finally received a position teaching Freshman English. The situation was not much different. I was banging my head up against the wall. Students willingly took zeroes on assignments that could fail them for the year. I screamed, begged, and bribed. Ultimately, I did make a pretty chilling discovery; these kids hate school because:

A) In most iterations, it isn't real-world applicable. I'm not just talking about kids asking "When will I ever need to know what iambic pentameter is?" I'm more speaking to the process. These kids have parents, older siblings, family members and friends in the workforce. They talk. They know that in the working world, very rarely will you be asked to sit in a 18x24 inch desk and individually write something on college-ruled notebook paper.

B) They're not engaged, cognitively or physically, and as it turns out, the two are linked. Long story short, there is now a preponderance of evidence demonstrating that if you want kids to learn, their butts need to get out of their chairs. They need to move. What I found is that many students today will gladly oblige a teacher who demands sitting in nice, neat, orderly rows in a calm, quiet, orderly fashion. It's just for the wrong reasons. They'll sit quietly; that's the best way to sleep.

C) School fails to take advantage of the fact that students are social animals. Schools (again, by and large) tell students that the classroom is for work and the hallways are for socializing and collaborating. We, as educators, miss out on a pretty powerful tool by failing to make our classrooms collaborative.

And finally

D) Students just don't learn "that way" anymore. Maybe we can talk about how they should learn, or how they used to learn, but what good does it do to simply complain about the effect Call of Duty has on learners? We have to meet kids where they are, and not as they should be.

And so, near the end of my sixth year of teaching, I decided to change what I was doing. My classroom next year will be different. It'll have permanent collaborative learning groups, where students are grouped in mixed ability teams. Assignments will be more inquiry-based. Instead of simply knowing how to identify a subject and a verb, a group will be solving problems (for instance acting as editors, researchers, grant-writers, screenwriters, boards, CEO's, et. al.). Finally (and what I'm most excited about), IdeaPaint, a paint which turns any surface into a dry erase surface, will stretch wall to wall, and will even cover the activity tables, which will take the place of individual desks.

My next blog post will detail the hows and whys of my classroom. In the meantime, peruse this video, and tell me how cool it would be to walk into a room and know that no matter where you were within that room, you could write, fully unconstrained.