My principal brought an idea to me today that I'm struggling to turn into a reality. Our kids put grafitti all over the walls, the lockers, the bathrooms, themselves...anywhere that is still long enough to draw on, they are all over it. So how do we channel that into positive writing experiences?
He wants to do a grafitti wall in our school so that students will have a place to write freely and maybe we'll see the outside grafitti decrease. This intrigues me. How does this work in a school? Do we use plywood? Chalkboard paint? How do we keep gang signs off the board? Where is it located?
So this is my mission...and I need some input. Has anyone tried a grafitti wall in their class or their school? What works? What doesn't? What are the benefits? Advice needed!
1 comment:
When I was a dorm president in college, we had a graffiti problem in the elevators [visiting VMI cadets were nasty]...So we "wallpapered" the area around the elevator doors with clear contact paper and hung permanent markers. The contact paper was great - easily removed once full AND could be cleaned using finger-nail polish remover if offensive. I've since discovered that the Expo cleaner works on permanent markers on transparencies.
We could do the doors of the library b/c they are centrally located AND an adult looks at them several times a day. Using permanent markers would cut down on the "erasing wars". Set the rules at the start that gang related graffiti will be "cleaned" either with the remover or replacement of the contact paper. Once a "sheet" was full, we could hang it somewhere and at the end of the year [or if the experiment gets canceled] it all can be thrown away.
Alternative to that would be to use craft paper on the doors and just cover with black poster paint when offensive or replace with new. I do like the chalk paint but see three problems - usage of non-chalk writing implements, "erasing wars", and not permanent [isn't that part of the appeal?]
I'll add more if I think of anything else!
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