Much to my surprise the
Most Popular Posts on my blog for 2011 all centered around bulletin boards! I like this, because we spend a lot of time at my school on bulletin boards. We gave up the "fluff and stuff" boards years ago to move to boards that are a "window into the instruction in the classroom." They are teaching boards. They are learning boards. They have common elements, such as posting the standards, student work with commentary, and a description of the lesson or the lessons leading up to the artifacts. The best bulletin boards are those that are taken from a naturally occurring lesson. A special lesson should never be taught just to get a bulletin board, but the bulletin board should be a natural lesson plucked out of the sequence to highlight the learning. It doesn't have to be a final lesson or project with a completely finished piece of work. It can be a lesson anywhere in the progression and the work can be at the beginning, anywhere in the middle, or at the end. I think the reason that I so often write about bulletin boards is because they chronicle the student work. Take a look back at these posts from 2011.
A Board Walk, February 2, 2011
Bulletin Boards: Are They Worth It? August 8, 2011
First of the Year Bulletin Boards September 21, 2011
Pattern Book Bulletin Boards December 6, 2011
And so we end 2011 with a look back -reflection - and welcome the new year! We've been waiting for you 2012.
That is so interesting! I'm glad you shared your most popular posts! It surprises me that it was all Bulletin Boards. Not that they aren't great posts to share, but just suprised they were all the most popular! Come to think of it, there isn't much out there on bulletin boards, so that must be why.
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