Magnetic Chalkboard

I had this great idea this past summer to make a magnetic chalkboard.  Our school room is small, so I had to make the best out of our space as possible.

The chalkboard right after it was painted.  It hadn't been used at this point.

I thought this would be the perfect solution.  I needed a large magnetic board for AAS and I could also use it as a chalkboard without taking up more wall space (which I don't have a lot of!).  Well, there are two problems right off the bat with this solution that I didn't foresee.  Problem #1: In order to use it as a chalkboard, we had to take down all those magnetic letters and put them back up when needed.  I'm teaching 3 different levels of spelling at the same time, so there are different letter combos.  Short story long, We had to repeatedly take all the magnets down and put them back up throughout the school day in order to write up on the board - as opposed to just taking a select few down and changing them if we didn't need it for a chalkboard too.  Problem #2:  Washing the board (which you have to do - reasons to follow) slowly takes away the chalkboard and magnetic paints over time.

Washing the board:  There are a couple reasons why you would want to wash the board before putting the magnets up.  Reason #1: The magnets don't stick well if the board is covered in chalk dust.  Reason #2: The board looks unsightly (dirty looking) when it is just erased without washing it.

Example of the board freshly erased

Now I'm the type of personality that likes my chalkboards shiny black.  This just drives me crazy!  Even after it's washed, it still has a slightly dirty look to it.  I guess I could get over that fact, if that was the only problem with it.  But what I don't like the most is that it 'demagnetizes' after repeated washings.  We are daily having letters fall off the board.  And it's VERY frustrating when you're in the middle of teaching.

I had said after I painted the board to begin with, that I would never do it again.  And I so desperately want to stick to that.  I remember that the magnetic board paint was a pain in the behind to wash out of the roller.  It got stuck all over the sides of our utility sink and it will adhere to any metal that you touch with it.  The chalkboard paint is a very thin paint.  Therefore, no matter how careful you are, it splatters.

The only solution I can come up with, is to repaint the magnetic paint on the wall, cover it with wall paint and use it as a magnetic board.  It won't need washed, so it shouldn't lose its magnetism.  My other thought was to have some screws sticking out of the wall above the magnetic board and I could hang my old chalkboard up on those.  When the board is not in use, I could just set it off to the side or in the hallway or something.

Anyway, I am very disappointed in the whole magnetic chalkboard.  In my opinion, there are way too many disadvantages to it, and not enough positives to make me want to redo the whole thing.  Sigh.

Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out an acceptable solution to take care of my teaching needs while making the best use of my space possible.