Because I teach two, sometimes three, sections of the same Language Arts class, I often found myself erasing and rewriting material on the chalkboard several times during the day. One activity that I like to have my students do on a regular basis is proofreading written passages. It got to be a hassle to write a passage on the board, have the first group do the activity inserting proofreading marks, then having to erase it and write it again for the next class. Then I stumbled upon a clever yet simple idea!

You can create non-erasable chalk by making a solution of sugar and water and soaking the chalk in it. Once the chalk is somewhat dry, it becomes non-erasable. You can write material on the chalkboard and erase over it, yet it remains. The non-erasable chalk wipes off the board with sponge and water, leaving no tell-tale marks like some chalkboard pencils do. Store the chalk in a sealed jar and you can use it over and over. If it begins to lose its properties, simply resoak it in more sugar water.

My proofreading activity has become so much easier for me. With the non-erasable chalk, the passage I write on the board remains for all the classes, but the proofreading marks, written with regular chalk, are easily erased before the next class arrives.