Future Focused Reviews

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 Fre...

Countless educators around the world have come to realize that using individual student desks in the classroom fails to support the idea and practice of collaborative, interactive instruction. For this reason, many schools are now investing in tables as an alternative to desks for student use during the school day. While tables do promote collaboration and can open up new opportunities for learners, they share a common limitation with desks — users have to look down to work on them. When students write and draw at tables, especially during group activities, they tend to crowd over the tables, blocking the teacher’s view of the learning that needs to be observed and monitored. However, if students work on the large non-permanent vertical surface (NPVS) of a top-quality  dry erase wall  for problem-solving, brainstorming, and other class-related tasks, their thinking, and learning become visible to the teacher and everyone else in the classroom. Using an NPVS such as a dry erase wall ins...

If you’re a teacher who has a premium  dry erase painted wall  in your classroom, you’ve undoubtedly been in front of it many times taking notes during a problem-based learning (PBL) session, drawing a diagram to supplement a verbal explanation, or simply listing the main points presented in a lesson. In such cases, your dry erase wall serves as an invaluable tool for recording and communicating ideas and images to your students in a large, easy-to-see format. Regrettably, however, the ways in which dry erase walls are used in the classroom are often not especially original or creative. Generating mind maps, writing lists and outlines, and making drawings and graphs are the go-to dry erase wall activities for most teachers and students during the typical school day. However, it’s possible to use this classroom staple in much more imaginative and unusual ways to enhance the process of teaching and learning. Here are six novel dry erase wall strategies for your consideration that can add...

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 ...

What Kinds of Team Meetings Are Really Necessary? Unlike human beings, all business and organizational meetings are not created equal. When deciding on whether to hold a meeting or to use another communication strategy with your team members, you should first consider what type of meeting you need to host. In fact, a number of different meeting formats exist, i.e.  whiteboard wall meetings  and you can try various options if your present team get-togethers are not as productive and informative as you would like. Most meetings can be placed into a handful of general categories. The following are some meeting types that typically can’t be replaced with a different means of communication, such as an email or a phone call. Whiteboard Wall Brainstorming Sessions Coming up with creative ideas for product launches, new marketing strategies, company website content, and the like can be extremely challenging, even for those who are creative by nature. When team members try to think of innovativ...

August: A Month of Warmth and Happiness The name for the month of August comes from the Latin surname “Augustus,” meaning “consecrated” or “venerable.” According to the Gregorian calendar used in most parts of the world, August is the eighth month of the year. When August begins, and we race toward autumn, we feel a range of emotions from joy over childhood memories to nostalgia about more recent summers to enthusiasm about our plans for the upcoming seasons. Thoughts on August and the end of summertime often have a bittersweet quality. Below is a collection of quotes that reflect an array of ideas and emotions about August, offering inspiration to elevate your mood and kindle some happiness as you take pleasure in this time before fall begins. Post a quote or two on your dry erase wall every day or once a week to help you and your loved ones in the home office or home school feel more motivated for your daily tasks. The Love of August 1. “I love borders. August is the border between s...

Having a Dry Erase Wall in Your Classroom Can Change Your Life No matter what your experience as a teacher may be, and whether you teach at any level from preschool to college, in a private or public school setting, applying top-quality dry-erase paint to your classroom walls can significantly change your life as an educator and also the lives of your students as learners. From doing daily lessons to brainstorming ideas for class projects to creating storyboards for the upcoming class play, the immense, durable, and easy-to-use surface of a dry-erase painted wall allows for infinite levels of personal and professional transformation. Many Teachers Find Their Classroom Walls Need Serious Upgrades On your first day at your current school, when you entered your classroom for the first time, you no doubt looked around and had a variety of first impressions about the room’s interior decor, ranging from “That looks good” to “Wow, this really needs some improvement!” Generally speaking, the a...