Interactive from the start: A student-made display

The Brown Bag bulletin board engages students immediately because they're in charge. Tack a brown paper grocery bag to the bulletin board. In the bag, place assorted "raw materials" related to a specific topic. Raw materials may include pictures; excerpts of texts from the Chumash or Siddur; maps; posters; information copied from textbooks; information downloaded from a Judaic website; or any materials that promote understanding of the topic. Assign a group of 3 or 4 students the task of transforming the materials in the bag into an interesting display that will teach about their topic.
Have construction paper, scissors, glue sticks, markers, and thumb tacks available for students to use.

As an extra challenge, don't tell the students what the topic is. Let them decide the topic based on the contents of their bag. Be sure to give the group a chance to explain their display to the class.

Groups of students may be assigned different bags and topics over time, until all students have had a turn.

Very important - students should add a "created by_____________" card with their names to their completed display.

Remember - Put Up and Point Out - incorporate student made and teacher made displays into your lesson plans.

Coming up...cumulative displays - a real teacher's aide!

Shabbat Shalom.

No Dinos Here! - Interactive classroom displays

Don't be intimidated by the expanse of blank walls and empty bulletin boards in your classroom. Don't worry that art skills are not your strong point. (They're certainly not mine!) My next few posts will offer suggestions to help you deck your walls with lively learning.

To start, we present the All-Purpose Tree display - a design for all seasons and topics. Tack a leafless tree shape (roots, trunk, branches) to a bulletin board or patch of wall. The shape may be cut out of brown paper. Art teachers call this paper "mural paper" and they may let you have some. If you prefer something more dimensional, twist brown paper grocery bags into branches. The tree shape remains on the wall throughout the school year. Leaves, blossoms, fruit, and labels may all be added to convey changing sets of information.
Since we want students to interact with the display, let them create some add-ons.

For example, for Rosh HaShanah, students can cut out leaves on which they write New Year's Resolutions or Mitzvot they hope to perform in the coming year. Once the High Holidays are over, students can reclaim their leaves or the leaves can be put in an envelope to be opened on the last day of school, giving students a chance to see how many resolutions or Mitzvot they acted upon.

The bare tree can teach Hebrew roots. Tack the 3 letters of a Hebrew word root to the root section of the tree. Students search Hebrew texts or prayers for words built from that root. They write the words they find on fruits of different shapes and attach the fruit to the tree branches. As Hanukkah nears, the root aleph, vav, resh ("or" - light) is especially appropriate.

Continue with pink blossoms containing facts about Tu B'shvat - and on throughout the year.

Let your lesson plans grow around this "Tree of Knowledge."

In future posts...more display ideas for walls that teach.

Classroom Displays: Dino on Board

As we think about classroom displays, consider this FAQ. Do students really look at and learn from those painstakingly assembled wall displays? Students may have a vague sense that there is Jewish stuff on the walls and bulletin boards, but their attention is probably more focused on their friends' smart phone apps or Silly Bandz. I actually have proof of this!

While teaching American History to 8th graders in a Jewish Day School, I put up numerous bulletin boards and wall displays. I had a strong feeling that while the administration appreciated my effort, the students paid scant attention to these displays. One day, I put a picture of Tyrannosaurus rex right in the middle of a bulletin board depicting heroic highlights of the American Revolution. As far as I know, T-rex never rode with Paul Revere! Weeks passed. We had moved on to the Articles of Confederation and not one student had noticed the dino hanging out with the Minutemen. Finally, I pointed out the giant reptile about to devour the Patriots. My students laughed and regarded the whole incident as a quirky "teacher thing."

The moral here is Put Up and Point Out! Create displays with specific interactive activities in mind. Walls can teach, but only if you integrate what's on display with what's in your lesson plans.

Coming up...Wall and bulletin board displays that engage, enlighten, and even entertain.

Welcome - Baruchim Habaim

Shalom. Welcome. Jewish Educators are very accomplished multi-taskers. Many of us have families to tend to, other jobs, and community involvement. My blogs will try to convey information in a way that, if you wish, you can immediately apply the ideas presented.
I was amazed to receive an e-mail reminding me that the first Religious School in-service at the synagogue where I teach will take place in a few weeks - What! Back-to- School already!
Before starting to plan for the new school year, think over the past year. What worked? What didn't? What changes are in store (different grade level, different ability level, new textbooks, new priorities, students with special needs, etc.)? If your religious school director hasn't scheduled individual meetings to discuss expectations for the coming year, take the initiative and plan a meeting, yourself. Once you know the room, grade, approximate number of students, and topics you'll be teaching, you can use the remaining "vacation" days to get a head start on preparations for opening day and beyond.
After meeting with my Religious School Director, (more accurately, Director of Lifelong Learning), I was excited to discover that I'll be teaching modern Hebrew, using a new textbook, rather than the Siddur Hebrew course that I've taught for the past few years. I'll still be teaching Grade 6 in the same classroom that I used last year.
With this information as an example, let's see what initial preparations can be made in the next few weeks.

Space for Jewish Learning: Walls that Teach
If your classroom looks like mine, it has blank walls, a few bulletin boards, a "teacher's" desk in the front of the room, desks or tables and chairs, a chalkboard, and possibly a storage cabinet and bookcases. All in all, a well-equipped classroom...for the 1960's! Anything more high-tech or up-to-date is seldom in Religious School budgets. That's the reality. It's up to us to transform this bland space into a stimulating learning environment... starting with the walls.

^Divide up the wall space into the various topics that you'll be teaching, for example, Israel, Torah, Brachot/Prayers, Holidays, Hebrew Language.

^If you taught last year, you may already have items on the walls. Were these items useful and relevant to the lessons? Are they in good repair - not torn or faded? Are they appropriate for the coming year's curriculum? What else might be added to catch students' attention and reinforce learning?

^Finding items for wall display may be as easy as checking your synagogue or community Teacher Resource Center. If there is no Teacher Resource Center, there may be a supply closet or cabinet in the Education office. Ask and look around. Summer is an especially good time for uncovering resources that may not be in plain sight.

^Textbook companies are another source of wall displays. Often a textbook series has posters and flashcards that go along with the program

This is just the beginning! Future posts will continue to explore the classroom environment and many other ways to prepare for the new school year.