Before (August ’09) and after (June ’10) shots of our blog wall.

As we begin to say our goodbyes for the year, I felt it would be appropriate to highlight a view features of our classroom that have grown as we have progressed throughout the school year. First up is our blog wall…this wall was built to provide a visual to my students of who visits our blog. A push pin is place on our map every time we receive a hit from a country/city that is new to our blog. This became a source of pride for many of my students as they would begin to root for certain countries to visit our blog and to know that what they do in class is being recognized by a global audience. Currently we have had visitors from 90 different countries across the world, with a total of nearly 7,000 hits for this school year…not too bad for a bunch of hillbillies from Arkansas.

Also featured on our blog wall is a comments section. Last year I realized that I was receiving tons of fantastic comments from people all around the world, but my students never saw these comments because their internet usage doesn’t revolve around reading the comments section of my blog. With this problem in mind I decided to print off each comment that we get and put it our wall for my students to read. This worked out wonderfully and it became common place to see students standing at the wall reading the various comments from students, teachers, and random visitor from around the world. Not only was it great for my students to read the various comments, but it was also cool to see the comments section start to bleed over and dominate the entire board…all I can say is we have some really awesome friends that frequently comment and visit.
Before (August ’09) and after (June ’10) shots of the social studies and science walls of fame.

Next up in our year in review is our wall of fame. One thing that I have noticed in my limited experience as an educator is that teachers love bulletin boards. When I say love I mean that they love to decorate them with all kinds of cutesy type decoration that give a “cozy” feeling to their classroom. Me on the other hand I don’t much care for bulletin board decoration…I must of slept through that class in college. So what I decided to do with my boards is make them as messy as possible by littering them with student work. In the beginning of the year I established two wall of fame boards (science and social studies) with the intent to display what exceptional work looks like.

At the beginning of school I tell my students that the goal of this wall is to have 100% of my students represented on these walls. Now that we are at the end of the year I’m sure if we have 100% but I know we are pretty close. Every time a student would turn in exceptional work I would proudly display it on the wall and let it be known to the whole class. Much like the blog wall, this too became a source of pride for my students as many of them would strive to have their work displayed on these boards. This was also valuable because it gave students that normally don’t “shine” in academics a chance to have a moment and be proud of their work…even if it is just one class.
Various items from students that are displayed in my classroom.

Lastly I would like to bring to your attention our classroom decorations. Much like bulletin boards my strategy is not considered the norm when it comes to your typical teacher. I like to decorate my classroom as I would if I was ten years old and it is my own personal playhouse and not a classroom…I opt for jerseys, posters, flags, and messy bulletin boards over educational posters and such. These decorations are not just ones that I have brought from home but also items that have been donated by my students to display on our walls. I have had students bring flags, jerseys, t-shirts, and various other items from their favorite teams to proudly display.

As I sit in my room now and look at the bare walls, I’m reminded how much all the craziness that once covered my walls means to me. Often times visitors to my room would characterize it as “over-stimulating”, but to be quite honest I’m okay with that. Because the material that was over-stimulating to them reminds me of the type of year that we have had here and the relationships that were built between myself and my students.

Mr. McClung