2gether We Are Better- Bulletin Boards

I am linking up with Angie and Ashley for this #2getherwearebetter. Super excited to be a part of this fabulous bunch. These two changed my summer, drastically. (All in good ways) 

I am not back yet. My room is being used for staff development this week so I can't really share anything with you yet. But here's how I think bulletin boards should be used in classrooms. 

I think bulletin boards should show off student work. I have been missing that in middle school. I would hang stuff up in the hallway, but not often. I can't wait to do that this year. This year I plan to  display their work inside the classroom and allow students to select what they want on the board. I want the classroom to be more about student ownership than my decorating attempts. 

Can't wait to share with you what I am doing this year!

 I love interactive bulletin boards. 

I have a Sudoku bulletin board, Math Boggle and  Number of the Day that I cannot wait to incorporate this year. Some will be early finishers work and some will be part of my Daily 5. 

Source: Lessons with Coffee

Super excited for my black pocket chart to store this activity!!!

My plan this year to have a Science Interactive Board as well. Here in Texas our 5th graders take a state test for Science as well as Reading and Math. I think this will be a great addition to my class. 

If you aren't going to use the bulletin board for learning then its just a pretty picture.  

Word walls are great, but if you don't have students USE them, they are just space fillers. 

I have had this in my room for several years. 

I refer to it often. Even for unit tests but for benchmarks and state testing as well. 

Test Taking Strategies 

Something I did with my middle school students is create the bulletin board with them. 

The school year would start off with a large bulletin board like this: 

As we learned a new concept, I added notes and it ended up like this: 

Disclaimer: These are two different years, had to find pictures I had on my computer. 

This is a Brain Dump. I have blogged about this several times. You can read about it here and here. 

It was extremely successful with my sixth graders because we created it together and used it ALL THE TIME. 

One year I did this: 

Super easy for me,  but not as effective for students. 

The following year I went back to filling it in. (That's the big yellow paper one, just not filled in yet) 

I am super excited to get started on my classroom this year because I have given a lot of thought as to what type of environment I want to build with my students. I have some great resources I have found and I can't wait to share the classroom reveal with you. It's quite a challenge for me this year because I am teaching all subjects now, not just math. 

Be sure to check out the other link ups and come back because next months linky will be CLASSROOM REVEALS where I can show off my completed bulletin boards,