DRY ERASE WALL QUOTES FOR APRIL 2022

April: The Angel of the Months

April, the name for the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian or Western calendar, is derived from the Latin Aprilis, a word whose meaning is unclear. Some scholars think that Aprilis comes from the Latin words aperire (meaning ‘to open’) or apricus (meaning ‘sunny’) since in the Northern Hemisphere, April is a month of Sun and the new opening or growth of plants and animals.

Another explanation for the origin of the word April involves Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love, beauty, and reproduction. The ancient Italian people known as the Etruscans called her Apru. Since the Romans adopted many Etruscan traditions, they celebrated the same goddess in the month of April.

What’s the Origin of April Fools’ Day?

On April 1, people around the world enjoy playing practical jokes on their friends, relatives, and coworkers. Depending on local customs, the victim of such a prank is referred to as a fool or a fish (poisson d’Avril or ‘April fish’ in French). Although it’s uncertain when the April Fools’ Day custom of playing tricks began, many theories exist about its origins.

One likely reason we play hoaxes on one another on April 1st is that winter is over: in the Northern Hemisphere, March and April put an end to the long dreary period of winter and bring new life to the land and its inhabitants. In many cultures, this phenomenon was and still is celebrated with lively festivities, dancing, and people making fun of one another.

Whatever the origins of April Fools’ Day may be, the month of April ushers in a time of renewal in nature and often inspires people to start afresh in a career or another aspect of life. Posting some of the following quotes on your dry erase wall may offer you some inspiration or a touch of humor to go along with the fun-loving month that heralds the start of spring.

Ideas and Sentiments for Your Dry Erase Wall about April

1. “April is the month of setting goals. Dream big this month to achieve them, as your dreams have the power to turn the impossible into the possible.”
– Anonymous

2. “They who meet on an April night are forever lost in love if there’s moonlight all about and there’s no moon above.”
– Yip Harburg (US popular song lyricist and librettist)

3. “It is a sort of April-weather life that we lead in this world. A little sunshine is generally the prelude to a storm.”
– William Cowper (English poet and hymn-writer)

4. “Good things take time. That’s probably the reason April is the fourth month of the calendar.”
– Anonymous

5. “April, April, laugh thy girlish laughter, and the moment after, weep thy girlish tears, April.”
– Angus Wilson (English novelist and short-story writer)

6. “Oh, to be in England now that April’s there.”
– Robert Browning (English poet and playwright)

7. “Snow in April is abominable,” said Anne. “Like a slap in the face when you expected a kiss.”
– L.M. Montgomery (Canadian author), Anne of Ingleside

8. “April splinters like an ice palace.”
– Ruth Stone (US poet, author, and teacher)

9. “Oh, the lovely fickleness of an April day!”
– W. H. Gibson (US author, illustrator, and naturalist)

10. “Although I was born in April, I’m quite certain I was not fully awake until October.”
– Peggy Toney Horton (US writer)

11. “Well-appareled April on the heel of limping winter treads.”
– William Shakespeare (world-renowned English playwright and poet)

12. “April sunsets somehow recall my buried life and Paris in the spring. I feel immeasurably at peace and find the world to be wonderful and youthful, after all.”
– Henry James (US-born British author)

13. “April, the angel of the months, the young love of the year.”
– Vita Sackville-West (English author and garden designer)

14. “Plunge into the deep without fear, with the gladness of April in your heart.”
– Rabindranath Tagore (Indian poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter)

Thoughts of Nature in April

15. “The April rain, the April rain, comes slanting down in fitful showers, then from the furrow shoots the grain, and banks are fledged with nestling flowers.”
– Mathilde Blind (German-born English poet, fiction writer, biographer, essayist, and critic), “April Rain.”

16. “If April showers should come your way, they bring the flowers that bloom in May.”
– Buddy de Sylva (US songwriter, film producer, and record executive)

17. “I have seen the Lady April bringing the daffodils, bringing the springing grass and the soft, warm April rain.”
– John Masefield (English poet and writer)

18. “Black butterflies making love – April moon.”
– Mike Garofalo (US sports writer and announcer)

19. “Every tear is answered by a blossom Every sigh with songs and laughter blended April blooms upon the breezes toss them April knows her own and is contented.”
– Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (US children’s author), “April”

20. “I had not thought of violets of late, the wild, shy kind that spring beneath your feet in wistful April days.”
– Alice Dunbar-Nelson (US poet, journalist, and political activist)

21. “April is in the world again, and all the world is filled with flowers. Flowers for others, not for me! For my one flower I cannot see, lost in the April showers.”
– Richard Le Gallienne (English author and poet)

22. “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.”
– T.S. Eliot (US-born British poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic, and editor)

23. “When April comes with softly shining eyes and daffodils bound in her wind-blown hair. Oh, she will coax all clouds from out the skies, and every day will bring some sweet surprise. The swallows will come swinging through the air when April comes!”
– Virna Sheard (Canadian poet and novelist)

24. “April, by thy hand, caressed from her breast. Nature scatters everywhere handfuls of all sweet perfumes, buds, and blooms, making faint the earth and air.”
– Remy Belleau (French Renaissance poet)

25. “In April, the first soft, tender, delicate green of spring salutes the eye in every direction.”
– Joseph Grimaldi (English actor, comedian, and dancer)

26. “Daffodils blossom and tulips jostle to the front of the stage in April. I love these early perennials. They may be more modest, but they nearly all have that one special quality that a plant needs to transform your affections from admiration to affection — charm.”
– Monty Don (British horticulturist, broadcaster, and writer)

27. “April is a month of melody. In April, you can hear the warbling of mockingbirds and the chattering of squirrels.”
– Ellen Jackson (US educator and activist)

28. “And at the break of morning, we will hear the piping of the robin’s crystal clear, while bobolinks will whistle through the days when April comes!”
– Virna Sheard (Canadian poet and novelist)

Thoughts on April Fools’ Day

29. “Here cometh April first again, and as far as I can see the world hath more fools in it than ever.”
– Charles Lamb (English essayist and poet)

30. “Some people can’t be fooled on April Fool’s Day because they were fooled too many times during their entire lifetimes.”
– Akash B Chandran (Indian web designer)

31. Rhymes for April — let me sing The pleasures of returning spring … Fools are made, by far the worst, On other days besides the First.
– William Makepeace Thackeray, Albert Smith, Gilbert à Beckett, and The Brothers Mayhew (English authors), “April Rhymes,” The Comic Almanack for 1835

32. “The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.”
– Mark Twain (world-renowned US humorist and author)

33. “Yet still when the famed first of April returns … I dread the approach.”
– Matthew Gregory Lewis (English novelist and dramatist), “Grim, King of the Ghosts”

Dry Erase Wall Paint

DRY ERASE WALL QUOTES FOR FEBRUARY 2022

Dry Erase Wall Quotes for February: A Month of Hope and Anticipation

February is said to be the month of love, although it also suggests a hint of winter’s end and hope for the coming spring. Whatever way you think of it, the second month of the year is the coldest in the Northern Hemisphere and stands as a link between the frigid days of winter and the balmy days of springtime. The following is a collection of dry erase wall quotes that reflect a wide range of thoughts and feelings about February and about looking forward to warmer weather.

Although February may be a harsh time of year, you can still find happiness, continue to grow as a person, and live with purpose during the coldest of months. With this idea in mind, after reading the quotes, find those that you find inspiring, thought-provoking, or amusing, and periodically post them in a prominent spot on your dry erase wall. You can even decorate the passages with original artwork or doodles and memorize those you like the best.

Reflections on February

1. “February is short and very sweet.”
– Charmaine J. Forde (US writer)

2. “In February, there is everything to hope for and nothing to regret.”
– Patience Strong (English poet)

3. “February makes a bridge, and March breaks it.”
– Georges Hebert (French inventor, filmmaker, and physical educator)

4. “If January is the month of change, February is the month of lasting change. January is for dreamers. February is for doers.”
– Marc Parent (French-Canadian business executive, mechanical engineer, and philanthropist)

5. “Even though February was the shortest month of the year, sometimes it seemed like the longest.”
– Lauraine Snelling (US writer)

6. “February is the border between winter and spring.”
– Terri Guillemets (US writer)

7. “There is always in February some one day, at least, when one smells the yet distant, but surely coming summer.”
– Gertrude Jekyll (British horticulturist, photographer, and writer)

8. “While it is February, one can taste the full joys of anticipation. Spring stands at the gate with her finger on the latch.”
– Patience Strong (English poet)

9. “February, when the days of winter seem endless, and no amount of wistful recollecting can bring back any air of summer.”
– Shirley Jackson (US writer)

10. “Even winter, the hardest season, dreams, as February creeps on, of the flame that will presently melt it away.”
– Clive Barker (English playwright, film director, and author)

11. “One of the dangers of being alone in February is the tendency to dwell on past relationships. Whether you’re daydreaming about that ‘one that got away,’ or recalling the fairytale date you went on last Valentine’s Day, romanticizing the past isn’t helpful.”
– Amy Morin (US psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and bestselling author)

Mother Nature in February

12. “Today is the first of February, snowy, brilliant, but dripping with the sound of spring wherever the sun lies warm, and calling with the heart of spring yonder where the crows are assembling. There is spring in the talk of the chickadees outside my window and in the cheerful bluster of a red squirrel in the hickory.”
– Dallas Lore Sharp (US author and university professor)

13. “An adventurous swallow too early flying from the south, a vision of snowdrops in the snow, a day of April warmth lit by a slant February sun, are all hailed with pleasure as harbingers of a more gracious season on its way.”
– Oscar Fay Adams (US editor and author)

14. “On the wind in February, snowflakes float still. Half inclined to turn to rain, nipping, dripping, chill.”
– Christina Georgina Rossetti (English writer of romantic, devotional, and children’s poems)

15. “February brings the rain, thaws the frozen lake again.”
– Sara Coleridge (English author of instructive verses for children)

16. “February, a form pale-vestured, wildly fair, one of the North Wind’s daughters with icicles in her hair.”
– Edgar Fawcett (US novelist and poet)

17. “February, bending from Heaven. In azure mirth, it kissed the forehead of the Earth and smiled upon the silent sea, and bade the frozen streams be free, and waked to music all their fountains, and breathed upon the frozen mountains.”
– Percy Bysshe Shelley (English Romantic poet and social critic)

18. “A small bird twitters on a leafless spray, across the snow waste breaks a gleam of gold. What token can I give my friend today but February blossoms, pure and cold? Frail gifts from Nature’s hand, I see the signs of spring about the land. These chill snowdrops, fresh from wintry bowers, are the forerunners of a world of flowers.”
– Sarah Doudney (English fiction writer and poet)

19. “Fair maid of February, drop of snow, enchanted to a flower, and there within. A dream of April green who without sin was conceived, but how no man may know.”
– Fraser’s Magazine (19th-century English general and literary journal)

20. “The bitter winds in February were sometimes called the First East Winds, but the longing for spring somehow made them seem more piercing.”
– Eiji Yoshikawa (Japanese historical novelist)

21. “Late February days; and now, at last, might you have thought that winter’s woe was past. So fair the sky was, and so soft the air.”
– William Morris (British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, printer, translator, and socialist activist)

Amusing Views on February

22. “February is the shortest month, so if you’re having a miserable month, try to schedule it for February.”
– Lemony Snicket (pen name of Daniel Handler, US writer and musician)

23. “The only bubble in the flat champagne of February is Valentine’s Day. It was no accident that our ancestors pinned Valentine’s Day on February’s shirt: he or she lucky enough to have a lover in frigid, antsy February has cause for celebration, indeed.”
– Tom Robbins (US novelist)

24. “Cold and snowy February does seem slow and trying, very. Still, a month made gay by Cupid never could be wholly stupid.”
– Louise Bennett Weaver (US writer)

25. “Do not rely on February. The sun in this month begets a headache like an angel slapping you in the face.”
– Anne Sexton (US poet)

26. “February is for curmudgeons, whinge bags, and misanthropes. You can’t begrudge us one month of the year or blame us for being even crabbier, it’s so short. There is nothing good about it, which is why it’s so great.”
– Lionel Shriver (US author and journalist)

27. “I used to try to decide which was the worst month of the year. In the winter I would choose February. The reason God made February short a few days was because he knew that by the time people came to the end of it, they would die if they had to stand one more blasted day.”
– Katherine Paterson (Chinese-born US writer of children’s novels)

28. “Can’t wait until February 15th – the chocolate will be on sale. Oh, bargains, my first love!”
– Anonymous

29. “Groundhog found fog. New snows and blue toes. Fine and dandy for Valentine candy. Snow spitting. If you’re not mitten-smitten, you’ll be frostbitten. By jingy feels springy.”
– The Old Farmer’s Almanac (US reference book)

30. “February is merely as long as is needed to pass the time until March.”
– J. R. Stockton (US writer)

31. “The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism, but February. Spring is too far away to comfort even by anticipation, and winter long ago lost the charm of novelty. This is the very three a.m. of the calendar.”
– Joseph Wood Krutch (US author, critic, and naturalist)

32. “February is the most wonderful month of the year; you work for 28 days and get paid for 30.”
– Anonymous

33. “When God was making the months, I think February was a mistake, like a burp. There it was, small, dark, and prickly. It had absolutely no redeeming qualities.”
– Shannon Wiersbitzky (US writer)

34. “February days are a marketing gimmick; love happens every day.”
– Randeep Hooda (Indian actor and equestrian)

Dry Erase Walls

HOW TO IMPROVE THE READABILITY OF TEXT ON YOUR DRY ERASE PAINTED WALL

Although premium dry erase painted walls are designed to always allow for highly readable writing due to their large size and bright smooth surface, it’s essential to follow certain practices and maintain certain conditions in the surroundings to ensure that your wall functions at its best and the content on the surface can be easily read. The fact of the matter is that not everyone has the ability to produce beautiful handwriting, and even those who do may struggle to transfer this skill to writing on a Dry Erase Painted wall.

Writing on a dry erase wall just isn’t the same kind of activity as writing on a piece of paper. For one thing, you often can’t see a large enough area of the writing surface to keep your words evenly spaced and arranged in a straight line, and if you’re left-handed, the process becomes a question of exactly what to do with your hand.

In this article, we’ll address some of the common issues related to readability when writing on dry erase painted walls, along with steps you can take to remedy these problems.

Use Print Instead of Cursive Handwriting on Your Dry Erase Wall

Cursive handwriting is “joined-up” writing in which the letters are linked together, making it faster to execute because you need to lift your pen or marker from the surface less often while writing. During the 18th and 19th centuries in Great Britain and the United States, before the typewriter, cursive was the preferred style of writing for authors, poets, and professionals such as physicians and lawyers.

Nowadays, however, print handwriting also referred to as printing or block lettering, is more prevalent. In printing, the pen or marker is lifted from the surface after each letter is written. This style is considered clearer and easier to read than cursive writing and is often requested in filling out forms. Print handwriting is also best to use on your dry erase painted wall, as it allows viewers to more easily perceive what you’re writing without having to continually ask questions about the content.

On your dry erase wall, it’s a good idea to stick with hand printing of clearly defined and separated letters and pay attention to making your letters more distinct and easily readable than you would if you were printing on paper. The further away your audience is from your dry erase wall, the smaller the spaces between your letters will appear, so what might seem oddly spread out writing as you stand near the wall will look totally normal to people a few feet away.

Make Sure the Text is Big Enough to be Easily Read

Another issue you could encounter is that the text on your dry erase wall may be too small for viewers to read and understand. Staring at a computer or tablet screen for extended periods produces a strain on eyesight. And you don’t want to cause added eye strain by requiring your students in class or team members in the office to continually focus on your writing to understand the text. Your writing should be easily readable with a minimum amount of effort required to see it clearly. The vast surface area of a dry erase wall allows you to produce large letters, thus increasing readability even more.

Keep Your Wrist Still the Whole Time You’re Writing

Writing on paper is typically done through the action of the fingers and wrist, but writing on a dry erase wall is done on a much larger scale. For this reason, it’s essential to move your whole arm and shoulder while writing, allowing your shoulder to do the work so that you’ll produce much smoother and uniformly spaced letters. Also, writing is not the same as drawing, so when writing on a dry erase wall with a marker, you need to keep your hand and wrist still. Your hand should float smoothly over the dry erase wall as you write.

Avoid using your finger muscles, as your fingers should only be used to grip your dry erase marker. Too much finger motion can lead to a tighter grip on your marker and, in turn, cause tired muscles and uneven writing that’s hard to read. If you follow these instructions, you’ll produce content that’s easy to read and also keep yourself from experiencing writer’s fatigue when using your dry erase wall.

Use the Right Type of Dry Erase Marker

To ensure dark, even, distinct lines, maintain the pristine surface of your dry erase wall and protect the environment, always use high-quality, low-odor dry erase markers to write and draw on your wall. The money you save by buying inexpensive, low-quality markers will end up not being worth it in the long run, as the markings you produce will tend to be irregular and start to fade in a short time. These types of markers also emit chemicals such as ketone that are hazardous to the health of both humans and the natural environment.

If you’re experienced at writing on a dry erase wall, you can use chisel-tip dry erase markers, as they allow you to produce different thicknesses of stroke and different styles of writing. However, if you’re still developing your skill at creating a uniform and neat lettering on your wall, it’s best to opt for bullet-tip markers so you won’t have to be concerned about the angle or rotation of your marker when you begin to write.

Ensure that You Have Proper Lighting

Before starting to conduct or record in-person or video lessons or video conferences featuring a dry erase painted wall, make sure that the room you’re in is well-lit and free of distracting sounds and activity from others in the area.

Avoid or Reduce Glare or Excessive Light Reflection on Your Dry Erase Painted Wall

And although you want the environment around your wall to be well-lit, the issue of glare or excessive light reflection can come up when your camera used for a video conference or lesson is placed at an angle that catches the reflection of ambient light in the room, usually from a light mounted on the ceiling or wall, or from a projector. This issue should be remedied because it will distract from the lesson or conference and make it hard for students or team members to focus on the content presented on the wall.

The simplest way to resolve this problem is to remove the source of the glare. If this is impossible, position your video camera at an angle so that it won’t catch or reflect the glare. As a rule, locating the camera to the side of the dry erase wall or at an angle several feet from the floor will get rid of the excessive light coming from the center of the room because the camera lens is unable to capture glare from these angles. In this way, the glare won’t be noticeable, and what you write on the wall can be easily read.

Other solutions might include using a different light source such as sunlight or a lamp located far enough away from the camera so that its light is not captured by the camera.

Move Your Body with Your Writing as You Go Along

Remember to move your body along as you write on your dry erase wall. If you stand still, your body will naturally swivel as you write further and further away from your body. This effect leaves you with less ability to control the marker as your arm extends outward. It also produces a natural curve in your writing as your body sways like a pendulum, thus increasing the chances that your words will slant downward and make your content more difficult to read.

WORKING WHITEBOARD WALL – THE FOUNDATION OF A WELL-EQUIPPED HOME OFFICE

Working Whiteboard Wall: The Foundation of a Well-equipped Home Office
Working walls, also known as research walls, inspiration boards, research boards, design walls, and ideation walls, are large vertical surfaces used for displaying information, projects, actions, decisions, and ideas so as to enhance the thinking processes of individuals or teams in business, design, science, and other fields. The core notion underlying working walls is that physically placing sources of inspiration and work in progress in public view and engaging with them can help team members rearrange and expand their ideas and so come up with groundbreaking insights. In the design field, working whiteboard walls have also been called “artful surfaces” that externalize work-related activities to support designers’ day-to-day ways of working and thinking.

Types of Working Whiteboard Walls

Among the various types of working whiteboard walls are the following.
1. Ideation Walls
Ideation walls help in simplifying each stage of a process or plan and in promoting creative thought. They also assist teams in developing a focused approach to a problem or project by allowing them to display and study large amounts of information at once and keep track of changes in data and ideas.
2. Project Walls
Project walls are excellent for displaying information and images. With respect to reaching due dates, maintaining the flow of a project’s essential parameters, and assessing work in progress, it is crucial to make the information as visible as possible so teams can stay united in their efforts and aware of exactly what’s going on at any given moment and what might be happening next.
3. Roadmap Walls
Roadmap walls provide an ideal way to represent processes or successions of elements in ongoing projects, especially those that extend over long periods. They offer a way to identify difficulties and opportunities that arise throughout a project’s progression.

The Functions of Working Whiteboard Walls

Working whiteboard walls keep teams motivated in order to reach collective goals, and encourage others to learn, give feedback and share insights and information through visuals. These powerful thinking tools originated in the design field and were later adopted for use in classrooms, business offices, research labs, and other settings. Working whiteboard walls can accelerate and stimulate each stage of the thinking process and offer unique benefits that encourage highly creative thought.

The walls can help colleagues empathize with and get feedback from one another and from clients; bring focus to a large quantity of information; encapsulate the thought-generating process; display low-fidelity trial products and prototypes that teams and users can interact with, and keep a record of how creative ideas emerge and are tested over time.

These wall-sized displays on vertical surfaces can thus be used to stimulate user collaboration, allowing for easy visualization and making them especially useful for projects such as consumer research. Working walls are graphic media that assist in the attainment of goals and targets and the development of ideas. To support the growth of these ideas, the content of a working wall changes frequently, thus empowering and driving creative teamwork.

Whiteboard walls used as working walls are eco-friendly

But how can working walls be adapted for use in today’s ever-growing number of work-from-home environments? One highly practical, eco-friendly, and cost-effective way is to install a top-quality whiteboard coated wall, a large, durable, and easy-to-use writing and drawing surface that can make an effective working whiteboard wall without having to mount a tack board, which is the most common surface used to create working walls. Such boards are limited in size and, when made of cork, deteriorate from users continually inserting and removing push pins and thumbtacks over time. Also, cork is a plant-based product derived from tree bark and thus has natural defects, grooves, and cracks that can make the surfaces of conventional working walls uneven and may shorten their lifespans.

By comparison, high-quality eco-friendly whiteboard coated walls are exceptionally smooth and durable, and unlike cork-covered tack boards, can be written and drawn on and easily erased for ten-plus years of normal use. Every square inch of wall space in your home office provides a chance for you to be creative and to encourage yourself and your virtual team members to engage in productive interactions and joint decision-making through the use of a whiteboard coated wall, which can also function as a working wall.

Another material used for making tack boards is fabric-backed vinyl. Although more durable than cork, this product is non-eco-friendly, as one of its major components is polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is considered the most environmentally damaging form of plastic being produced today. The process of manufacturing vinyl has significant ecological impacts, as it involves producing the gas vinyl chloride, the building block of PVC, which is known to cause cancer. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found that containment of vinyl chloride at plants where it’s made is often inadequate, so the gas sometimes escapes into the surrounding air, water, and soil, causing a serious threat to plants, animals, and humans.

Also, because of the vinyl chloride and other ingredients used in its manufacture, vinyl emits hazardous volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) into the air for a period after installation. These toxic substances reduce the air quality in the immediate environment and can cause respiratory problems for those nearby. Thus, using a vinyl-covered tack board as a working wall can make the work-from-home office space a toxic environment, especially for those with sensitive respiratory systems.

Whiteboard walls eliminate the need to use strings for connecting items

With traditional working walls that consist of cork or vinyl tack boards, users in business offices, schools, police departments, and other settings typically pin or tack pieces of paper with relevant textual data, sketches, maps, and photos onto the walls. In this way, team members or students can see the various ideas, images, and bits of information involved in specific business projects, school lessons, criminal cases, and the like. Then pieces of string are often strung between the various items on the walls to show their interrelationships.

However, if a whiteboard wall is used as a working wall in the home office, there is no need to use pushpins and tacks to display items and strings to connect them. Instead, items can be hung on the wall through the use of GoodHangups, an innovative magnetic hanging system that may be used to post discussion topics, photos, maps, and other items relevant to a project being planned or executed. GoodHangups can be easily removed and reused, and they entail no drilling of holes into your wall. By using this unique system on a working whiteboard wall, you can fasten items in various places then use dry erase markers instead of string to make lines showing the connections among the items. In this way, you will avoid the hassle of having to stretch pieces of string between objects on your working wall and then having to remove and replace the strings when connections between objects change. Thus, with a whiteboard wall, each time a modification needs to be made, you can simply erase the lines you drew between items and draw new ones to reflect the new relationship.

The benefits of working whiteboard walls

The following are some of the many benefits offered by working whiteboard walls.

They provide a central reference point for presenting information. Considering the vast amount of data that emerge from team discussions during virtual meetings, it’s easy to lose track of what’s said. Thus, using a working whiteboard wall as an information hub for posting ideas, facts, and diagrams helps teams that work remotely to feel as engaged in and connected to a project as they would be in a regular office setting.

Working whiteboard walls also stimulate “outside the box” ways of thinking and thus help to generate new ideas. Coming up with innovations in project development is often challenging and requires inspiration, so you can use your wall to accelerate the ideation process, draw sketches, and create mockups that help team members make connections and produce breakthroughs.

Finally, the visual cues displayed on working whiteboard walls produce cross-contextual reminders about meaningful discussions, decisions, and thoughts that may jog the collective memory and keep you and your virtual colleagues interested and engaged in your work.

Whiteboard Wall Paint

HOSTING AN EFFECTIVE MEETING WITH A WHITEBOARD WALL

Hosting an Effective Meeting with a Whiteboard Wall
Holding a successful business meeting is a bit like landing a space module on the planet Mars. Keeping track of the seemingly infinite variables involved in the process appears hopeless, and conducting the perfect team gathering never seems to work out quite as you had planned. But unproductive company meetings aren’t as inevitable as they may seem. With the right communication tools and a touch of inspiration, you can conduct the meeting of your dreams every time you and your team members get together. One such communication tool is the premium whiteboard wall, which offers a highly durable and virtually endless space for presenting facts, expressing opinions, and coming up with creative ideas for product launches, marketing schemes, and the like.

Make meetings a team activity

To have your meetings become more than personal lectures by you, the organizer, it’s a good idea to take regular advantage of the distinctive viewpoints, experiences, and skillsets of your team members at all of your business get-togethers. Doing so can provide you with great opportunities to make your meetings more efficient, collaborative, and worthwhile, thus enhancing your company’s creativity, productivity, and bottom line.

Organize a Discussion

With the appropriate organization and guidance, collective dialog can bring about a more engaging meeting and generate more new and unique solutions to problems than a traditional lecture, even when a question-and-answer session is included. Devoting a specific segment of your meeting schedule to a brainstorming session is an excellent way to stimulate such group dialog. As the meeting coordinator, your job is to outline the goals of the session and to work in conjunction with your team to expand on ideas they come up with during the brainstorming process. With small groups, it’s easy to encourage free conversation among all the members present, but with large groups, it’s difficult. Thus, it’s more effective to separate the participants in a large meeting into smaller clusters then reunite them after a specific time period to discuss everyone’s ideas in the large group context.

Use Your Whiteboard Wall to Practice “Brainwriting”

Brainstorming is a key part of meetings where top-quality whiteboard-coated walls come into play. For both small and large gatherings, the quality of group discussions can be optimized by using the vast canvas of a whiteboard wall. In smaller meetings, a massive whiteboard wall provides ample room for everyone in attendance to brainstorm together through the use of mind maps, free association, and a host of other methods. In large meetings, however, it’s best to make use of the ample writing area of a whiteboard wall by first dividing the participants into small groups then asking them to use different segments of the wall to record their individual brainstorming ideas.

One novel brainstorming approach that’s popular today is known as “brainwriting.” In this partially nonverbal method, the participants use pieces of paper to write down three original ideas related to the session’s topic. Then after a designated number of minutes, the team members pass their ideas to the individuals on their right, who build from these ideas, adding bullet points, new creative approaches, etc. Next, after another several minutes, all the participants pass the pieces of paper again until the papers have gone all the way around the group. Once the ideas have made it completely around the circle, the participants deliberate and choose which ones are best suited for further discussion.

By ensuring that everyone has a chance to contribute and by removing the common bias favoring the first idea presented, this strategy helps alleviate two of brainstorming’s most significant drawbacks — lop-sided conversations and the anchoring effect, whereby people rely too much on the first piece of information presented to draw subsequent conclusions during the decision making process.

Brainwriting can be even more effectively performed on the vast open surface of a whiteboard wall. Instead of using small pieces of paper to write down ideas related to the session’s topic, participants can write their thoughts on separate sections of the whiteboard wall in large lettering for all to see. Then after a set number of minutes, each team member can move to a different part of the wall and build on the ideas written by the previous writer, adding as much creative input as they want. Next, after another few minutes, the participants move again until they’ve given their input on all the sections of the wall written on by the group. Finally, now that the initial three ideas and subsequent contributions of all the participants have been posted on the wall, the group can review one another’s thoughts and choose those that are the most interesting and worthy of further discussion.

In such an exercise, compared to the cramped writing spaces of notepaper, the vast area of a whiteboard wall promotes more intensive levels of creative thought. Individuals tend to feel freer to express their novel ideas when confronted by the large open-ended surface of a whiteboard wall. Also, using a smooth-flowing dry erase marker as opposed to a small pen also tends to stimulate people to freely bring forth whatever is on their minds. These qualities can be of great benefit in practicing brainwriting because having much more space to write on in much larger letters tends to trigger ideas that might not arise when a person is confined to using 8 ½” by 11” notepaper as a writing surface.

Make Use of Free Association aka Rapid Ideation

In rapid ideation, meeting participants write down all the ideas that come to mind in a designated amount of time before anything is discussed, analyzed, or expanded upon. When practicing this brainstorming technique, you’ll have to establish a time limit, or else you’ll risk losing the feeling of urgency among your team members.

This brainstorming technique can be helpful in avoiding the common problem of having an idea shelved before it has a chance to grow and develop. By letting all meeting attendees bring forth their thoughts before any critiquing begins, rapid ideation eliminates the premature quashing of potentially great ideas and lets them flow out without constraints. The time limit can also help to prevent people from talking themselves out of an idea before they even begin sharing it with others—a frequent brainstorming mistake.

Use Your Whiteboard Wall as a Medium for Visual Aids

Including finely crafted visual components in your meeting presentations can enhance communications with team members, making them feel more engaged and interested in the content you present. Employing well-produced slides and other high-quality visual media such as films and diagrams can help participants to better comprehend and feel involved with your material, and a whiteboard wall is an ideal surface on which to perform such visual work. Designing and conducting graphic presentations are becoming increasingly essential tasks for doing business in today’s high-tech world of telecommuting and virtual communications.

Record All Significant Ideas and Input for Current and Future Reference

When you do a virtual meeting presentation, you should make a habit of writing down all the significant ideas and data put forward by the attendees on your whiteboard coated wall for all your team members to view and provide feedback on as the meeting progresses. Then you can erase and add more textual content and visuals whenever fresh ideas and information come up. The large dimensions and easy visibility of the content on your whiteboard wall will enhance the quality of your presentations, your communications with team members, and your team’s note-taking during virtual meetings, thus helping you to develop your individual brand and professional persona and boost your company’s productivity and profits. Then, after your virtual meetings are finished, you can take pictures of the results that you and the team members produced on the whiteboard wall and send them to the participants and other relevant parties for future reference and input.

Dry Erase Wall Paint

Whiteboard Paint Reduces the Need for Electronic Devices

Whiteboard Paint Reduces the Need for Electronic Devices

Of the many environmental benefits of applying ReMarkable dry erase paint, one of the greatest is that it reduces the use of electronic products such as tablets and laptops, which generate an enormous quantity of waste that has devastating effects on Earth’s environment. As the amount of e-waste dramatically increases year by year, solutions for its proper recycling have lagged far behind. Although it is essential to give e-waste items to a certified recycling company that meets strict requirements for handling these materials, many individuals and businesses fail to do so. Their old electronics end up in landfills, producing toxic results for our air, water, and soil. The main hazardous substances to be found in discarded electronic products are lead, mercury, cadmium, zinc, yttrium, chromium, beryllium, nickel, brominated flame retardants, antimony trioxide, halogenated flame retardants, tin, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and phthalates. The presence of these and other toxins in our planet’s ecosystem can be greatly reduced through the use of whiteboard-painted walls in place of electronic devices.

Huge amounts of electronic scrap

poses a great risk both to the environment and to public health. Shortages in raw materials needed to make electronics have brought forth a new industry called “urban mining.”

The start of the 21st century has witnessed the generation of huge amounts of electronic scrap, whose careless recycling in both developed and developing nations poses a great risk both to the environment and to public health. As more people buy electronic gadgets, manufacturers are starting to experience shortages of the raw materials needed to make their products, so reclaiming and reusing the constituents of discarded e-products, called “urban mining,” makes good financial sense. A recent study conducted in China revealed that traditional mining of copper, gold, silver, and aluminum from ore is 13 times more costly than recovering these metals through the urban mining of electronic waste.

E-waste recycling involves taking old electronic devices apart

making it an expensive undertaking. Many companies illegally export e-waste to 3rd world nations where recycling is much cheaper but more destructive to the planet.

Proper or formal e-waste recycling typically involves taking old electronic devices apart, separating and categorizing their contents by material, and then cleaning them. Items are then mechanically shredded for further sorting through the use of advanced separation equipment. Companies that perform this service must adhere to strict health and safety guidelines and use pollution-control technologies that reduce the environmental and public health hazards of handling e-waste. All these procedures make formal recycling an expensive undertaking. As a result, many companies and countries illegally export their e-waste to developing nations where recycling methods are more cost-effective but also much more destructive to the planet.

In the unindustrialized nations where much of this illegal e-waste processing occurs, air pollution levels and concentrations of heavy metals are especially high around so-called “recycling plants,” as compared to other regions. These sites are typically backyard operations where impoverished local residents process the obsolete electronics by hand, separating them into parts to extract valuable metals such as gold, silver, and copper before disposing of the rest in landfills. Some metals and plastics are melted down, and those materials that can’t be feasibly processed accumulate in massive dumps near inhabited places and waterways. Sometimes, toxic fumes are inhaled directly as metals from the parts are burned in open bonfires.

Air-quality in e-scrap yards have highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins known

due to its e-waste industry. Dioxins are a group of chemically related compounds that are considered persistent environmental pollutants (POPs).

A typical site where these crude e-waste recycling methods are used is a cluster of villages in southeastern China known as the world’s largest dumping ground for electronic scrap from the United States. There local villagers remove solder from circuit boards over coal-fired grills, burn plastic casings from wires to extract the copper, silver, and mine gold by soaking computer chips in pools of hydrochloric acid. An air-quality study conducted in the area found that it had some of the highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins in the world due to its e-waste industry. Dioxins are a group of chemically related compounds that are considered persistent environmental pollutants (POPs).

Dioxins are found around the globe in local ecosystems, where they accumulate in the food chain, mainly in the fatty tissue of animals. These chemicals are highly toxic and can cause reproductive and developmental issues, damage the immune system, interfere with the action of hormones, and cause cancer. Due to their potentially lethal nature, prevention or reduction of human exposure is best accomplished through direct measures, such as strict control of e-waste recycling processes to reduce the production of dioxins. Another approach is the application of ReMARKable whiteboard painted walls in schools, offices, and other facilities to reduce the use of electronic devices, which are some of their main sources.

E-waste recycling is detrimental to the health of the workers

Chronic exposure to the pollution emitted from e-waste dumpsites causes high concentrations of heavy metals like lead, copper, zinc, nickel, barium, and chromium to be present in human blood.

For the above-mentioned reasons, the current global recycling system is detrimental to the health of the workers who improperly handle e-waste without protection from dangerous materials and is also a direct cause of contamination in the surrounding environment. Chronic exposure to the atmospheric pollution emitted from e-waste dumpsites causes high concentrations of heavy metals such as lead, copper, zinc, nickel, barium, and chromium to be present in human blood and may be related to hypertension, abnormally low levels of blood oxygen, and other conditions in people working in or living near the sites. The trigger for the air-polluting effect of e-waste is the fact that when the material is heated by overexposure to the sun, for instance, these metals along with other toxic chemicals are released into the atmosphere, causing one of e-waste’s most harmful effects.

Lead is found in almost all Electronic devices

which are becoming obsolete at an astounding rate. When lead is released into the environment near these dumpsites, it can damage the blood, kidneys, and nervous systems of people in the area.

Regarding lead, almost all electronics contain it, and today these devices are growing in number and becoming obsolete at an astounding rate. When discarded, some of our most advanced technological devices represent rapidly expanding and often unregulated exposure to this highly poisonous metal, which plagued even the ancient Romans. A University of Florida environmental scientist recently studied the ecological impact of the lead found in 12 different types of electronic items commonly discarded in landfills. In a report sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), he presented his finding that the items leached lead at concentrations above the EPA threshold for categorizing a type of waste as hazardous. When released into the environment near these dumpsites, lead can damage the blood, kidneys, and nervous systems of people in the area.

Arsenic is present in circuit boards, LCD displays, and computer chips

In large doses, arsenic is lethal along with being a known carcinogen, cited to trigger skin cancer, liver cancer, and other forms of the disease.

The air around e-waste dumps is also high in arsenic, various acids, and other potentially toxic chemicals, including mercury and brominated flame retardants. Concerning arsenic, the reckless disposal of e-waste constitutes one of the most common sources of the inorganic form of this poison. Arsenic is present in circuit boards, LCD displays, computer chips, and other electronic components, and as these parts accumulate in landfills, the arsenic present seeps into the surrounding land, affecting its soil chemistry and possibly the contents of groundwater as well. The presence of arsenic in groundwater and soil has varying effects on different organisms and may be harmful to both land and sea animals. In humans, ingesting arsenic in low doses causes irritation of the digestive system, and in large doses, it’s lethal. Arsenic is also a known carcinogen, being cited as a trigger for skin cancer, liver cancer, and other forms of the disease.

Health risks with chemicals from e-waste leaching into soil and groundwater also exist

The potential threat to groundwater quality is of special concern in those states that have yet to enact landfill-ban legislation to control such waste.

Another common method of e-waste disposal is to simply burn the unusable parts after sorting. Introducing arsenic into the atmosphere in this way also has serious implications for human and animal health. For example, research by the National Cancer Institute has shown a linear relationship between inhaling arsenic and the development of lung cancer, as well as a wide range of nervous disorders. Although many states in the US have enacted landfill bans for most consumer electronics and appliances, the dangers associated with the chemicals from e-waste leaching into soil and groundwater remain. The potential threat to groundwater quality is of special concern in those states that have yet to enact landfill-ban legislation to control such waste.

Considering the many harmful environmental consequences related to electronic waste disposal, choosing economical, long-lasting, and eco-friendly ReMARKable Whiteboard Paint is a sensible alternative for all types of applications since it minimizes the need for laptops, tablets, and other devices, providing a highly flexible medium for conveying information and ideas in offices, schools, and other settings.

Whiteboard Walls

PROPER SURFACE PREPARATION FOR A DRY ERASE PAINTED WALL

Your Wall Must Be Smooth

One of the most critical parts of achieving a successful dry-erase paint application is providing an absolutely smooth substrate beforehand. Make sure that your wall is as smooth as possible prior to starting your application. This is one of the sometimes overlooked aspects of properly prepping a surface to be covered with premium dry-erase coating. Any holes, cracks, or cuts on the wall must be filled in with spackling paste, otherwise known as spackling compound, a plaster-like substance that resists shrinking and is formulated mainly for use in filling in smaller holes and other imperfections in drywall or plastered walls. If the smoothness is questionable after a thorough inspection, give the wall a quick sanding with some 220-grit sandpaper once you fill in any dents and holes with spackling compound, then wipe it off with a microfiber cloth. This step is so important we’ll say it another way: Make sure your wall’s surface is nice and smooth from top to bottom and from one end to the other.

The smoother and more regular your wall feels before the dry-erase paint application, the more attractive it will look and the easier it will be to write on and erase after the coating cures. To achieve a perfectly smooth surface, besides filling in all holes, cuts, and cracks, you’ll also have to eliminate any raised areas on the surface, such as lumps and divots, no matter how small they may be. Thus, you can guarantee that all writing and drawing you do on the cured dry-erase coated wall will look clear and that you can write and erase without leaving any missed spots. So make sure your surface is as perfectly even as possible because after your base paint and dry-erase paint dry, you won’t want to have high and low areas where dry erase marker ink can collect in the low places. This will cause minute spots to appear on your dry-erase surface that will be hard to erase, thus compromising the surface’s condition and requiring sanding and a new application.

Your Wall Must Be Dry

Make sure that any fresh paint on the wall has dried for at least 24 hours before beginning to apply the premium dry-erase paint. For example, if you have recently applied a fresh coat of ReMARKable Tintable Base Paint to your wall, allow it to dry for a minimum of one day before installing the premium dry-erase coating. Waiting this period of time for the base paint to dry is essential to avoiding problems with your dry-erase paint application, such as bubbling, adverse chemical reactions, and poor adhesion of the topcoat to the base coat.

Another issue that results from applying the dry-erase paint over an insufficiently dry base coat is wrinkling, which results from solvents contained in the wet base paint underneath attacking the topcoat above as they try to pass through, causing the coating to wrinkle and look unsightly. Should this problem occur, you will need to let the wrinkled coating dry thoroughly and then sand the surface with 180- to 220-grit sandpaper, depending on how severe the wrinkling is. Next, a second layer of dry-erase paint should be applied, this time allowing the base paint to dry thoroughly before applying the topcoat.

Besides making sure that your base paint is completely dry, it’s essential to monitor the moisture on the wall and in the room before applying the premium dry-erase coating. This is a vitally important step because next to dust, moisture and humidity are the arch enemies of good adhesion for all types of paints and coatings. If you need to get your surface dry in a hurry, you can use fans or a dehumidifier to accelerate the process. And besides making the surface perfectly moisture-free, it’s important to check for dampness in the air where you’re applying the coating because excessively humid air will also cause the whiteboard coating to adhere poorly to your surface. If the humidity level is high in the room, open the windows and doors to let the air move around freely and, in this way, lower the moisture level before starting the coating application.

Your Wall Must Be Dust Free

If your wall has just a slight bit of texture, you can simply use 220-grit sandpaper to lightly sand the surface until it’s completely smooth. Then thoroughly wipe down the wall with a dampened microfiber cloth followed by a dry microfiber cloth, and you’ll be ready to begin your dry-erase paint application. Using a pole sander, also known as a drywall sander, will make the job of sanding go much more quickly. A drywall sander is a tool with a long handle and a wide sandpaper holder that’s used for sanding plastered walls, hard-to-reach ceilings, and textured walls and for removing bits of paper, dried paint, old coatings, adhesive residue, loose plaster, and the like from walls prior to painting or coating.

After sanding, remember that with all types of paints and coatings, dust is the greatest enemy of proper adhesion, so be extremely careful to remove all dust or debris such as hairs, lint, and wood splinters from your surface before starting to apply the top-quality dry-erase coating. Microfiber cloths or mitts are ideal to use for this purpose because microfiber materials are capable of removing dust and other types of debris on a microscopic level, and due to their exceptionally fine fibers, they leave behind no lint or dust after use. In fact, studies have shown that when fabrics made of microfiber material are used as cleaning tools, 99% of all the bacteria present on a surface are eliminated, and the material’s electrostatic properties give it an amazing capacity to attract and hold onto the tiniest of dirt and dust particles as well.

Dry Erase Wall