Bulletin Board Ideas:
In my observations of many elementary education classrooms I have seen quite a few good ideas that I have written down for when I receive my first classroom. Sometimes I draw inspiration for bulletin boards from what the students are watching on TV outside of the classroom. An example that I came up with is the hot television show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” Many of the elementary aged students watch this show, and they identify with it because the content of the show is directly related to what they are learning in school. An idea for a bulletin board in my first classroom is “Are You Smarter Than Your Teacher?” In this bulletin board design I would have a photo of myself in the center and a series of lines radiating outward from that photo, and each time a student asked me a question which I didnt know the answer too and that I deemed appropriate and educational as it relates to any of the content that we are studying in the classroom I would add there picture to the end of one of the lines. I would then have the student research the answer to their question, and provide an answer. I would then type up the question with the answer to be posted next to the students photo, and they would be labeled “Smarter than their teacher!”
Theme Studies:
One theme study that I developed for a literacy course at SUNY Oswego was called “Cities of the World: Where would you like to go?” In this themed unit I was using a literacy center to cover a broad concept, which was cities. This literacy center has tiered reading level books about different cities around the world, and offers a multicultural perspective of cities. Also icluded in this center are handouts detailing instructions for an ELA project where students write out journal entries about the city that they chose to visit, why they chose the city, and what they would most likely see in that city which is different or similar to what they see in the town or city which they currently live in. The project also allows for students to view the concept from a Social Studies perspective. Each student creates a passport and we discuss travel, modes of travel, and restrictions of traveling in and outside of the United States.
