Fake Expo

In case you haven't heard recently, teachers tend to be underfunded, underpaid, and overworked. 

Well I have a little tip to help the teachers out there just the tiniest bit.

I am fortunate to have several white boards in my classroom.  White boards are great, but they are quite difficult to keep white.  I tend to be a little anal about keeping my classroom clean and looking nice.  The fact that there was an odd blue film on the boards even when I cleaned them really started to burn my biscuits. 

I inherited expo board wipes and expo spray cleaner.  These are wonderful tools, however replacing them when they run out can be quite pricey.  I'm not a huge fan of pricey so I did a little experimenting and now I have my own white board cleaner that works wonderfully!

Ingredients

12oz spray bottle
5oz water
5oz isopropyl alcohol 70
Few drops of your favorite essential oil

Directions

Combine all ingredients in spray bottle.  Shake to mix.  Spray and clean!


I've been using this mixture in my class for about a week and I absolutely love it!  The equal parts of alcohol  and water cleans all my writing off the white board.  I used eucalyptus oil which not only has antibacterial properties but keeps my room smelling nice (and not like children's feet).

I use a rag when I clean my board, I've found that the expo erasers are not very effective in cleaning the board after the first few uses.  I try not to use paper towels because they create extra waste that is unnecessary when I can just use an old rag from home.  I take the rag home on the weekend and wash it with another load of laundry.