I finally finished my new bulletin board today and I’m so excited to share it with you!
I like my bulletin boards to do more than just look pretty. My goal with this one was to make an interactive board that would be fun for my students to use when they needed a break from their schoolwork but would still involve using some thinking skills. I also wanted something that kids of all ages could enjoy. And, yeah…I wanted it to look good, too.
My classroom is decorated and labeled in dots and I wanted to play off that theme. What has dots? A Twister board! I was going to make a homemade board with a white flat twin size sheet and laminated paper circles but happened to find a Twister game at the thrift store for $1.00! I stapled the mat to the board and used border from Dollar Tree to pretty up the edges.
Next, I wanted to turn each dot on the Twister mat into an activity. I decided to choose one type of activity for each of the dot colors. Red dots became Scattergories boards, blue dots turned into Logic Puzzles, green dots became Sudoku, and yellow dots turned into Boggle boards. After I cut out paper circles in matching colors to be just a tiny bit bigger than the Twister board dots, I printed the games, cut them out, glued them on the paper circles, and laminated them. After cutting off the extra lamination, I used self-stick Velcro dots to attach them to the Twister board. I also added letters to the board so it reads Brain Twister.
I then grabbed folders that matched the dot colors and filled them with directions, response sheets, answer-check sheets, and anything else that would be needed to play. I used scrapbook paper (cut to 8.5” x 11” so it would fit in my laminator) and my letter cut-out tool (I got it for like $4.00 on Zulily and it’s awesome) to make “pockets” that were stapled to the board after laminating to hold the folders.
I am so happy with how it turned out and I’m super excited to introduce it to students tomorrow!
Do you make interactive bulletin boards? I would love to hear your ideas!
When I get a new student in my class, I give them a slip of paper that says, “What I Want My Teacher to Know.” I explain that it’s totally optional, but if they choose they can tell me a preferred name, preferred pronouns, how they learn best, a fun fact about them…anything!
I’ve been trying very hard to remember and respect preferred names and pronouns, and I tell them if I mess up they can absolutely correct me. The relief that some of them express to me because of this is palpable. They feel valued for who they are as individual, unique human beings…as they should feel.
I agree with the school district’s decision to suspend him. But, not everyone agrees with me…especially the teacher who got suspended.
The president of Alliance Defending Freedom, Michael Farris, the organization defending the teacher in court, said, “Educators are just like everybody else—they have ideas and opinions that they should be free to express.”
Sounds nice on the surface, but let’s dive a little deeper.
My statement when kids ask about my political beliefs is, “It’s not my job to teach you WHAT to think; it’s my job to teach you HOW to think.” Let’s say that wasn’t my stance and I shared with students that my opinion about Donald Trump is that he is a racist, misogynistic liar, rapist, and cheat who should spend the rest of his days in a dank, moldy cell. I’m pretty sure the Alliance Defending Freedom would NOT be lining up to say my ideas and opinions should be free to express to students in school.
And they would be right—I shouldn’t say that in school. I would never say that to students. When you are a teacher, It’s. Not. About. You.
So back to our teacher colleague who refuses to address students by their preferred pronouns (and I’m also inferring preferred names even though it isn’t explicitly stated). I have a few problems with his stance.
First problem: the teacher himself uses a preferred name. He does not go by his given name of “Byron;” he goes by “Tanner.” Umm, hello, irony? Hypocrite? Double standard? Grr (insert eye roll here).
Second problem: It’s. Not. About. Him. When you step into a classroom—especially a public school classroom—you are there for any and every kid who walks through your door. It doesn’t matter what country they’re from, what language they speak, what religion they are, what disability they have, who their parents are, what gender they identify with, or if they live in a million dollar mansion or public housing. It is 100% about what is best for that child. Full stop.
Third and fourth problems: It’s not about his religion. Yes, he retains his freedom of religion in his classroom but he does NOT have the right to inflict that belief on others. It also has nothing to do with freedom of speech. A teacher can’t say anything they want in their classroom with no chance of consequences. I can’t teach that the earth is flat or that calculus is derived from Satan (even though it seems like it could be). If my religion says the earth is 6,000 years old, can I as a science teacher inform my students of that instead of what science has agreed upon? I really hope not.
No, the earth is not only 6,000 years old. Source: this dinosaur.
Fifth problem: Why is it okay to teach students that respecting them is optional, but respect for teachers is demanded from students? Because adults are…older? That seems weird. The reason I think I’m able to have such good relationships with my students is that I respect them as individuals and don’t see them as “just a bunch of kids.”
Did the teacher feel his beliefs were not being respected? Probably. I wonder how his students felt. Probably the same—not very respected. We have to remember the most important people in our classrooms are our students, and they deserve our respect. If you aren’t willing to love every kid who walks through your door—the smelly kid, the loud kid, the gifted kid, the refugee kid, the star athlete, the chess prodigy, and the trans kid—please find somewhere other than a classroom to spend your days. Our students do not deserve judgement from us. They deserve the best from us.
One of the best things about being a teacher is getting to have fun at work every single day. I have never understood uptight, grumpy, inflexible adults who continue to be teachers. Why would anyone want to spend their days like that, and why would you subject children to your bad attitude? I really don’t get it. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Anyhoo, no matter if my setting is a school or a hospital, I like to try to make our space as close to a “regular” classroom as I possibly can. And I believe that all classrooms should have fun in them!
So for the days before Thanksgiving break, we had a Thanksgiving Throwdown in our classroom. I had morning classes (teens) versus afternoon classes (the “littles”–kids 5-13). Whichever group had the highest average of students completing their exit tickets and staying on task until clean up time was the winner and got candy the next day. The kids enjoyed it, and so did the hospital staff! Oftentimes I would find nurses looking over the stats or overhear conversations in the hallway about “Our kids need to do their exit tickets today!” It was great.
The day we returned from Thanksgiving break I was taking down the sheets from my door and a hospital staff co-worker came by genuinely sad, asking if we were going to keep doing it. Well, yeah, of course we can! So the next day I introduced our Snowball Fight! The concept is pretty much the same. Whichever group has the highest percentage of students completing exit tickets wins a snowball. The same goes for the highest percentage of students on task until clean up time and the highest average on the behavior scale. Ties mean each group gets a snowball, so each group can get up to three snowballs every day. Our current prize is three snowballs equals candy for your group. I had thought about doing a bigger prize at the end of month before break, but since I won’t have the same kids then, I didn’t think that would be fair, so for now I’m sticking to candy, but if anyone has other ideas, please leave a comment and let me know!
Do you use contests in your classroom? What do you do? I’d love to hear about them!
