Inspiring Students

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Home : 2003 : January : 25

Inspiring Students
By Sue W

Last year I purchased a bulletin board set with the words,"Be the best you can be." It was one of the best investments yet! I had it above the whiteboard with the intention of changing it, but it was so good that it stayed
up all year. When we started this fall, the first thing Victor, a student I was working with again, did, when entering the room was to see if it was there. This year I have seen a set of it in or outside 3 other classrooms in our building. I work with remedial reading with 1st through 3rd graders. Over the year it sparked discussion of what that means and became some of the first words

my students read and/or wrote.
There are great posters of sports figures, etc. stressing excellence. I try to have a different motivational poster each month.
Another thing that works wonders is having a file with samples of kids' work from the beginning of the year. I've had files before for my own use, but didn't realize the tremendous value of sharing it with students. You can pull things out occasionally with individual kids, I try to be sure it is only used positively to show them how they are growing. When I did this in January with one little gal she asked to see it daily for about 2 weeks!