[KarenH]

I love the colors of whiteboards, hate the noise of chalkboards.

However, if you've ever seen the "Chalkdust" math video series, the instructor does a great job with a huge piece of white chalk. I think he uses soft sidewalk chalk. Of course, with video, you can edit out squeaks, and the boards are always clean and neat. But even in real life, the soft chalk he uses would produce a nice, thick line that's much more pleasing than what you can scrape out of the hard, skinny bits usually found lying around a classroom.

Notes on whiteboard cleaning: Our church has a ban on red dry erase markers (and red beverages) because they stain worse than anything. People keep the boards clean by erasing them after each use. Simple Green is used for more thorough cleaning. I've found that rubbing alcohol will remove permanent marker from some plastic surfaces, but I haven't tried it with a white board.