Thursday, August 5, 2021

Bulletin Board Ideas



Happy Thursday, friends! Today I'm sharing a couple of bulletin board ideas that I currently have up in my room just in case you're looking for an idea or two.  I've found that Middle School bulletin boards can be tricky because a lot of ideas seem too "elementary" but I still want them to be fun and visually interesting. 

Last week I was thinking about what to do on this one board next to my white board and I was thinking about doing an "All About Me" kind of board since we have TONS of new students this year and the idea kind of evolved into who I was in middle school and then eventually "things I'd tell my middle school self".



I started by printing off some of my own middle school photos and I can't stop laughing :) I vividly remember picking out the orange shirt at Limited Too (it had a band of multicolored stripes on the chest that you can't see) and the beaded necklace is screaming 1997.  I also remember how painstakingly I used to maintain my bangs.  Good times. 



I still don't think that anything will top this photo of me from 6th grade - I really don't remember whether this was an actual band photo or if we got to bring something with us for the photo and I chose the trombone - either way my "bitainer" (similar to a retainer but it held my jaw in place by wires) really steals the show.  I do remember that when I saw the photo I thought I looked SUPER COOL so there's also that :)


After that I typed out lots of little "motivational" things that I wish I'd known in middle school.  I was short on time so rather than reinventing the wheel I read through  this post and  this post and gleaned and then modified.  I doodled around them a bit going for a  "journal" kind of look and while I wish I had had time to track down some 90s stickers I think they turned out cute. 

When I got them all up on the board it wasn't nearly "full" enough so I printed off a bunch of images of things that were part of my middle school years and mixed those in and I LOVE how it looks!  





Keep in mind that I teach at a Christian school so several of mine are faith-based. 







My plan is to leave this up for the first month or so of school and then I'll save it for next year - I laminated everything so it'll last and I think it'll be fun to pull out every year.  I'm hoping that all the photos up there will make it appealing to the kids and even if one kid finds one little piece of advice encouraging I'll be over the moon.  

Several of y'all suggested that I get other staff members to join in on the board which I think is a great idea but would probably be better for a large "community" board (we have one like that outside of the office) and I think it would be so fun for every teacher to include a middle school photo and then one piece of advice.  This could work well for high school as well if you're looking for an idea for that age level.

On the other side of my whiteboard I have a pretty large collection of "math memes".  Kids look at this ALL THE TIME and I love it when they see a meme that would work and email it to me to print and hang up.


The "pro-tractor" one made me laugh WAY TOO HARD last week so THANK YOU to the sweet IG friend who sent that one to me...


... and the 89 degree angle one also had me rolling . Y'all know I love the office so the one on the bottom with Dwight also had me rolling.  It's hard to read in the picture but it says "I've got plenty of watermelons in my trunk" ;)


There are some memes that kids don't "get" at the beginning of the year because they don't know the concept yet, but I always tell them to hang on and then they get super pumped when they come into class and a particular meme is on the SmartBoard and is part of the lesson that day and they finally "get it" :) For example, the one below is the absolute value of "I'm Sad" and absolute values are a values distance from zero... so they're always positive.  I have a few up there that involve trigonometric ratios that some kids have to wait over a year to figure out... unless they go and google it on their own in which case they're looking up and learning about math concepts ON THEIR OWN which is a huge win in my book. 


I keep a file on my computer of all my memes so I turned into a PDF really quick and you can click  HERE to download and print the ones you want.  

PS - I laminate pretty much everything with  this laminator and  these sheets.  I love that it's a heavier weight lamination so I don't have to print on card stock and that I can laminate whenever and wherever I need to #teacherproblems (affiliate links)

14 comments :

  1. The All About Me bulletin board is my new favorite!! what a great idea!!

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  2. The world needs more teachers with a heart like yours. What seeds you are planting in these lives- I absolutely love it!

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  3. Love everything about this. You're kids are so lucky!!!!

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  4. WOW, Amazing boards! Love this! I wonder if there is something creative like this I could do with 2nd grade... Thank you for sharing- you are so incredibly creative!

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  5. Always love your creative ideas! This middle school bulletin board is so amazing...love all your quotes so much! Your students are so blessed to have you!!

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  6. I love all of the advice especially the spiritual ones that you are sharing with your students. This format should be impactful for middle schoolers.

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  7. I used your meme board for my high school math classroom! Thanks!

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  8. this is AMAZING! Do you have a PDF of the advice pieces as well? I would love a copy if you do!

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  9. Did you ever post a pdf of these? Would love to not have to recreate, but what a fun idea!!

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