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Your Search for Bulletin Board Ideas Is Over!

Two educators who searched for bulletin board ideas on the Web and found little have solved the problem for the rest of us! Today, Education World talks about bulletin boards with teachers Kimberly Steele and Kathy Schrock -- both of whom created a useful bulletin board resource on the Net! Included: Links to ten bulletin board resources for educators across the grades!

Some teachers seem to have an unending supply of inspired ideas for classroom bulletin boards. Others struggle for ideas.

Some teachers turn over to students the responsibility for creating classroom bulletin boards. Other teachers use the same bulletin boards all year long.

Some teachers integrate bulletin boards into teaching themes. Others don't know where to begin.

Wherever your skills lie in the bulletin board creativity spectrum -- whether you're a fountain of original ideas or a desert -- take a little time to check out the Internet resources that Education World has gathered. You'll find dozens of great bulletin board ideas on a handful of Web sites created just for you!

"A room without bulletin boards is barren," teacher Kimberly Steele told Education World. "Students need to have something to look at besides bare walls. Bulletin boards teach, inform, inspire, and add a feeling of hominess to the classroom."

Steele, a teacher at Abe Hubert Middle School in Garden City, Kansas, created one of the best online bulletin board resources for educators, Ideas for Bulletin Boards. That resource is part of Steele's Kim's Korner for Teacher Talk Web site. "I originally created my Web site to share my ideas for teaching writing," said Steele. Soon, ideas for expanding the site came to Steele's mind. A bulletin board resource page was one of the results.

Educator Kathy Schrock created another excellent bulletin board resource, Bulletin Board Ideas for the School, Classroom, and Media Center. "I think bulletin boards and display areas are an important element of the classroom atmosphere," Schrock told Education World.

"The purpose of a bulletin board is two-fold," added Schrock. "First, it creates an area to showcase student work, which leads to greater self-esteem as students see their work displayed. Second, it provides an additional place for the classroom teacher to introduce a unit, stimulate interest, or just plain have fun with a topic!"

Schrock, district technology coordinator for the Dennis-Yarmouth (Massachusetts) Regional School District, created her bulletin board page as part of her popular Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators Web site. "I receive lots of mail from teachers each day, and I was getting many requests for bulletin board ideas," Schrock explained. "I decided to compile a list of some of the good sites. I also decided to offer to showcase boards that teachers would like to share."

Education World asked Steele and Schrock to share their all-time favorite bulletin board ideas.

Steele's favorite bulletin board is a simple one that she uses every year. "It is titled For Your Information, and it contains all the information students need to know," Steele said. Students find information such as the date, the school year calendar, monthly activities, lunch menus, daily bulletins, schedules, and other information. It's Steele's favorite because "it is the bulletin board my students refer to the most."

"I use a newspaper border and a black background for the bulletin board," Steele said, adding, "This bulletin board is a real time-saver because the students know to look there first for important information about our schedule. It is located in the spot that is easiest for them to access."

One of Schrock's favorite bulletin boards is one that's easy to adapt across the curriculum. That's why she likes it so much! "I created a board called Brush Up on the Internet, which featured paint brushes with Internet acronyms, such as FTP, URL, and so on, and paint cans with the meaning of the acronym spelled out," Shrock told Education World. "A board like this can be used for any subject area -- Brush Up on Your Times Tables, Brush Up on the Stages of Mitosis, Brush Up on Your Mystery Authors ... ."

MORE BULLETIN BOARD RESOURCES ON THE NET

• Classroom Displays and Bulletin Boards Barbara Colvin has gathered dozens of ideas for bulletin boards, including patriotic, motivational, end-of-year, holiday, and reading bulletin boards.
• Bulletin Boards for the Music Classroom After vainly searching the Net for bulletin board ideas for her K-12 music classroom, teacher Tracy King created this resource, which includes music-awareness bulletin boards, seasonal bulletin boards, and "bulletin boards that brag on your students."
• Bulletin Board Ideas Ideas for monthly bulletin boards, subject bulletin boards, and theme boards (including good work and motivating bulletin boards) are part of this Web page from the Web site The Teacher's Corner.

• Ideas for Bulletin Boards Part of Kimberly Steele's Kim's Korner for Teacher Talk Web site, this resource includes tons of ideas for bulletin board backgrounds and borders as well as ideas for puzzle and riddle bulletin boards and suggestions for interactive bulletin boards that involve students in trivia contests and questions of the week. And that's just the beginning!
• Bulletin Board Ideas for the School, Classroom, and Media Center Educator Kathy Schrock created this bulletin board resource that includes sample bulletin boards for all grade levels. Send Schrock your bulletin board photos and GIFs. She welcomes contributions from educators across the grades!

Have we missed any great bulletin board idea resources? If you know of other resources, please e-mail Gary Hopkins at ghopkins@educationworld.com.

Article by Gary Hopkins
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