There are a multitude of ways that people use KleenSlate Response Paddles to express themselves.

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Show us your unique expression on a KleenSlate Paddle for a chance to win FREE product from KleenSlate Concepts.

Take a picture of yourself holding the paddle with your creation.
Email it to sales@kleenslate.com
Write a brief comment about your image.
Include your name, address, and phone number.

This contest will be ongoing and have a winner every month till the end of the year. We will announce winners on Facebook and on our website.

Get busy! Get creative! Express yourself.

OK… Want to win some FREE products??? We are looking for photo/video feedback on how KleenSlate is helping you… These can be success stories, new inventive uses for products, inspirational, or just plain fun… The winner will receive $100 of free product (of your choice)! Also, the winner’s story and photo/video will be featured on KleenSlate.com and on our facebook. Contest ends NOV 7th 2011, so don’t wait…

Send your photos and videos to:

sales@kleenslate.com

*Please also include a few words explaining your submission and the story behind it

Get creative and send in your photos and videos NOW! don’t miss this great opportunity to win!

We are excited to see what you can come up with… Good luck!

OR

IMAGINE…Every Student has a KleenSlate Dry Erase Paddle… AND a Voice. You ask….they ALL RESPOND TOGETHER- most “GOT IT” just Sally, Bob and Mary need some help. You note it and make sure to get them some help. Tomorrow you can group the students by Colored Paddles and those students with YELLOW Paddles will get some remedial help to bring them up to speed. You move on…next lesson… There is something magical that happens when you have a classroom interacting and engaged in what they are learning. We believe in better communication tools for the classroom and we are apart of the solution. The KleenSlate Dry Erase Paddle is low tech and high touch. It is an affordable, kid friendly teaching tool that has everyone raising their hands.

Engaging every student

Questions or comments:
email: sales@kleenslate.com
Phone: (209) 588-0375

Teaching and inventing go hand and hand because teachers have to be resourceful and creative when seeking solutions to the challenges of the job. Alexander Graham Bell is perhaps one of the most famous teacher-inventors. As most school-age children know, Bell taught the deaf and invented the telephone, one of the most remarkable modern inventions. As a teacher of the deaf, all of Bell’s early experiments had to do with sound and communication.

While Alexander Graham Bell worked on advancing methods of communication for the deaf, and later for the general population, Louis Braille was an inventor-teacher who wanted to help the blind read and write. When he was three years old, Braille was accidentally blinded in one eye. Shortly thereafter, he lost the sight in his other eye as a result of a rare disease. He was sent to a school for the blind where he later became a teacher. Frustrated by a cumbersome method that used raised letters to enable the blind to read, Braille invented a system of raised dots and dashes—a creation that is today known by his name.  Frustration can be the source of invention!

Inventors recognize a problem, and they research and experiment to find the best solutions.  Victoria Knight-McDowell, a second grade teacher from Monterey California, was sick of catching colds from students in her classroom, so she began experimenting with developing a natural formula that would boost her immune system so it could better fight off cold-carrying microbes. She consulted with nutrition experts and herbalists. The resulting product was named “Airborne,” an effervescent tablet that contained 17 natural ingredients. She distributed her product among fellow school teachers and two years later it had became one of the fastest selling new retail products in history. Here again, an invention resulted from a teacher creatively solving a problem.

Teachers are often discovering better ways to manage their classrooms and sometimes these discoveries result in marketable inventions. Teacher/inventor Fran Rabello created the Yacker Tracker to help control noise in the classroom. The device is a little traffic light that shines green for appropriate conversation levels, yellow when the volume is rising, and red when talking is too loud and needs to stop. The Yacker Tracker helps remind students to self-monitor the noise level and prevents teachers from always having to shush them. Rather than thwart the learning that takes place in an active classroom, Rabello found a solution that develops communication skills and supports learning.

Another inspiration behind invention is improving efficiency and convenience in the classroom. When I was teaching, I often had trouble locating an eraser when using dry-erase markers. I got tired of using my finger or hand to erase small mistakes on the white board.  After doing some research, I invented an attachable eraser for the dry erase markers thereby solving the problem. Now, KleenSlate erasers are widely used in schools, hospitals, businesses, and homes. Frustration was the mother of that invention.

My next invention evolved from wishful thinking. My fellow teachers would tell me how much they loved their KleenSlate erasers and then say, “If only there were a whiteboard to go with them.” I quickly realized that they were asking for an individual hand-held whiteboard that students could use it their desks- like the small chalkboard slates that were once used in classrooms. The teachers knew that hand-held devices would provided a quick means of assessing student learning, allow for immediate feedback, and eliminate hours of time spent correcting papers to find out if the students had understood the concept. The solution came to me one day when I was in the dollar-store where I saw a pair of beach-ball paddles. I bought the paddles and some adhesive-backed whiteboard fabric and went home to create the first KleenSlate paddle prototype, which has since been developed into a handheld dry-erase board system with a marker and eraser stored in the handle. This turned out to be just what my fellow teachers wanted. The KleenSlate Responce Paddle was so successful that it won the prestigious, 2008 Teacher’s Choice Award by Learning Magazine.

There is no doubt that teachers often have inventive spirits and some of us actualize our inventions and take them beyond the classroom into the business world where they can be used by others. Some teacher-inventors, such as Alexander Graham Bell and I, possess an entrepreneurial spirit and take an invention and turn it into a business. Other teacher-inventors, like Fran Rabello and Louis Braille, are happy inventing, but prefer that someone else to take their ideas to market.

If you are a teacher who responds to frustration or wishful thinking by creating and inventing, consider developing your invention into a marketable product. If you do your homework and are willing to take some calculated risks, you will surely overcome any obstacles as you embark on the inventor’s journey.  Remember the beneficiaries of your invention are students and other teachers like yourself.

Author Julia Rhodes is a former teacher turned inventor who is now a sought-after speaker on inventing and entrepreneurship. Her first product, the KleenSlate attachable eraser for dry erase markers, revolutionized the dry erase marker industry and launched Julia into the world of entrepreneurialism. If you would like more information on KleenSlate products or need an inventor mentor, contact Julia toll free at 866-313-7273 or visit the web site: www.kleenslate.com.

Alison was on tour as part of her year abroad study in Africa, and she carried with her a box of the dry erase paddles. Here is a segment from her email message:

I wish you could have been there to see the look on the headmasters face as I told her how the dry erase paddles could be used. . . But it was the excitement of the children using the paddles that showed me what a wonderful communication tool it would become for each of them. Their smiles I will never forget as each of them gripped their paddles as a precious gift.

As you can see, your kind donation will ease the frustrations of the limited chalkboard space for the teachers, and provide the young Deaf students a voice when they do not understand the lesson. All of this will greatly increase the success of the teachers’ lesson plans in the classroom. This is especially important for a country with a very high level of illiteracy.

Messages such as this make my day. They help affirm all the hard work of taking an idea that popped into my head all the way to a product I can hold in my hand. Now that product is making its way around the world to be of use to others. What more could I ask for?

KleenSlate Commercial from a fan

NEW!!!

KleenSlate Concepts, home of award-winning dry erase products, introduces our newest edition, the Deluxe Response Paddle! Now, 8 x 10 writing surface, 8 colors and a variety of templates for the teacher to choose from. Included with each paddle is our new kid friendly dry-erase marker/eraser that snaps into the handle for easy storage. (Non-Toxic, Low-Odor, and Points Don’t Push In!) Our KleenSlate Dry Erase Paddles clean up with just water, but if suborn stains remain, add in a few drops of dish soap. See Care and Maintenance tab for more tips on how to maintain your dry erase boards.

When implemented into your lesson plans, this hand-held, 2-sided Response Paddle will make class more Engaging and Fun for your students, as well as improve communication and motor skills. The Response Paddle promotes interactive learning, improves retention and keeps students involved. It is a Quick Assessment Tool that allows the teacher to question the entire class and quickly evaluate who understands the material and who might need more help. As a result, teachers will make it through the lessons faster and spend their one on one time with those who really need it. Your students will love them! It is the perfect teacher’s tool for the classroom and works with any curriculum or age level. Give every student a voice, and see why teachers everywhere are raving about KleenSlate’s dry-erase products. Custom orders and PO’s are welcomed. Our friendly office staff is here to help you!

Contact us: Toll Free (866) 313-7273 or go to www.KLEENSLATE.com