I'm thinking about replacing some of mine, but not sure whether they really help or not. What do you think? If you think they do, which posters? I just haven't found that they even get noticed that much...if they don't help, do you NOT put them on your walls?
For posters to work for my students, I need to make sure I plan activities where students are required to use them. I also make sure they're very similar to the notes I give them. When I do this most of the time my students use the posters in the classroom frequently for reference.
My students every year are obsessed with my "Carol" poster from Flinn Scientific. I have made a few posters from vistaprint (free, plus shipping) for my walls. Students do look at them during downtime. I mostly like to put quotes on my signs and such. I'm in a high school.
I think you'd be surprised at just how often kids look at posters. If I have content posters up on the wall for awhile but take them down for the test, almost every kid in the room will turn to where the poster used to be during the test... even if I only drew attention to it once or twice in class.
Mine are entertaining or inspiritational, not educational. I do put up a "problem of the week" in my homeroom. A few of the kids always enjoy it.
I mostly have inspirational ones and rotate them during the year. A teacher in the county who is a brain and learning expert said that the kids do look at the posters and do absorb them even if it seems they don't.
To me, the key is to make the posters interactive. For example, I have a wall of quotes and posters of books that have been made into movies. I encourage kids to add quotes from their own favorite books, and I think many of them try different books because of those quotes. I also have a "grammar" wall with some humorous grammar posters and one that I make called "You're doing it wrong (incorrectly)!" It's divided in two with a YES side and a NO side. Whenever I spot things in their writing or conversations that are grammatically incorrect, I put them on the poster. They LOVE it, and they love to catch each other and have me add things to the wall. My third wall is all Simpsons posters that allude to great art, literature or film. Each semester, I give them extra credit for identifying one of the original pieces. They have to bring in a picture of the original, tell us what it is or what it's about, then show us how the Simpsons version connects to it. (I have about 50 of these posters!)
I have a few 'inspirational' mini posters in my room. All the content related charts in my room are class created and since the students' thoughts are reflected on them, ido think they have educational value.
I teach in a very rigorous school and I teach the year everyone thinks is hardest (11th). So I really try to make my room a calming space. There are no posters. At all. Instead, I hung framed paintings (granted: they're posters, so...) from the National Gallery (very modern), a black and white historic photo, an original political cartoon from the 1870s, and a small painting by an artist discussed in one of our readings. I also have a number of potted plants and little objects (shoe lasts, boxes, little bronze sculptures). I want students to feel relaxed and focused, so I've tried to make my space reflect that. I *do* think students look at posters, though, and my favorites when I was a student were quotes.
I rotate my posters our for whatever skill we are working on, I think that they pay more attention to those rather than having a bunch of them all over the place. I also use anchor charts a lot and the kids refer to them a lot because they had a part in creating them and know where they are to use as a reference.
I have some movie posters on the wall. I also have one with the school missions statement and SWPBS expectations (required.) I have a few others up with silly reminders about rules that are related to film ("Quiet on the set!" "It takes many calls to make a movie, but only one to ruin it." and a few others) that I made on Vistaprint. Our walls aren't supposed to be that cluttered, and mine really aren't. I mostly put them up to cover icky places in the paint.
I have posters of where the touch math dots go on each number. My students used these quite frequently. If I wanted them to practice without the resource, I'd just have them face the other way. I also had a short vowel poster and alphabet chart that my students used a lot. Most of my students are ELL's, so they sometimes don't remember how to say the letter but can find it on the poster. I had a sight word one for spelling that they also referenced a lot. Other than that, my posters were just for fun- to brighten up the room or add a little humor.
Thanks, Czacza! I also had maintenance paint my bulletin boards a dark, dusty purple (leftover from painting the Middle School hallways). So the room is cream and purple with the paintings and whatnot. And hardwood floors. And big windows. Honestly, I love it. It's the prettiest place I've ever taught. Plus, it's a creaky old building and I love how it feels (very historical, right?).
I put up movie posters and a few informational posters that were chosen mostly for visual appeal, plus a huge geological map of our state. I use some of them for educational posters, but mostly they are there to make our room look nice, engaging, welcoming, and interesting. Live also found that if I stick a poster on cave formation in between posters for 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow, students are more likely to read it. I also put up art prints like Bierstadt's Yosemite, Warhols's Vesuvius, and others that have subject matter that relates. I always like to bring art examples into lessons where possible. These I rotate by unit except for the Warhol which is a personal favorite.
All of my posters are made specifically for lessons so I think they are useful. I take that back. I do have one Garfield poster that is just for fun.
We had a discussion about this during preplanning yesterday. It was decided that if you don't teach what's on the poster, and if you don't reference it often, then it probably shouldn't be on your wall. The thinking behind that was that it can teach students that what's on your wall is unimportant. We weren't including things like cute welcome banners, but things like posters about paragraphs, clocks, times tables, etc. that are not used throughout the year.
This is something I thought would be great (if I ever got my own classroom). Use the walls interactively!
Over my white board, I have posters of different places all over the world. My students love those and are always asking me questions about the places in the pictures. The posters I use the most are the ones with maps on them. I have a big world map on one of my side walls that I use quite a bit, and a map of Europe in the front of the classroom that I also point to a lot. I have pull-down maps, as well, but the posters are actually easier to see.
I use posters to create a warm and welcoming environment. Students like them because they create a positive classroom tone.
I make sure to use my posters if I have them. I also try to rotate them, so they are relevant to what I'm teaching at the time. I've had kids tell me that they remembered such-and-such from a poster in my room when testing time rolled around.
You guys who have the movie posters and posters of places, where do you usually buy them? And book posters, I would love to get some of those...
I make all my posters... or they are created along with the students. Students sometimes add Post-It notes to charts.
Similar to Ms. Jasztal, my posters are hand-made, but by the students. Once we cover something, like finding the LCM, I'll have the students make a poster then hang the best explanation on the wall. I also have a "word wall" but again, this is completed by the students, I push using math vocabulary in class so when we learn a new word they write it on the wall with the definition and an example.
