Monday, August 15, 2011

Can I say this?

I dislike posters.

I said it. I meant it. I love charts we create together (hello, connections!) as well as student work being hung around the room. Posters... no, I'll pass.

There's many reasons for this aversion, but here are a few:
- I can never find the one I need when I need it.
- I can never remember the ones I have in my classroom.
- If I put them up before school begins or after school, the kids have no connection to them.
- I tune out posters around me, so I'm willing to bet the kids do as well (again, no connection).
- They take up valuable wall space.

As I've been cleaning out my room, I've been getting rid of a lot of old posters. When I come across one I like and want to use in the future, I take a picture of it before getting rid of it. Here are two poems I want to use, but posters I don't want to store:
I saved the pictures in corresponding files on my computer and recycled the posters. Now, when I am teaching solids, liquids, and gases, I'll know that poem is in the file with the rest of the 'stuff' I have on that subject. We'll (re)write the poem together in class. Likewise, when I want a poem about winter, I'll find "Winter is Coming" in my winter folder inside my poetry folder on my computer.

Are my kids missing out on anything in my posterless classroom? Thoughts?

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