Category: Bulletin Boards (Page 2 of 4)

School starts tomorrow. We have extra breaks during the school year, and the regular breaks that other schools have are longer for us. It’s nice to have those times off, but we pay for them with a shorter summer.

I’ve been back in my classroom for more than a week now. My work started slowly, but I’ve been getting better as I’ve gone along. My room was ready yesterday. Today is for getting papers and handouts ready. I’m also making lists of things I want to say on the first day.

Of course, part of my classroom preparation has been putting up a new bulletin board. My school doesn’t have a Bible verse for each year. I should suggest that. Instead, I looked for this year’s Lutheran Schools Week verse. It’s 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24. Here’s my take:

It was another work day at school yesterday. I got my bulletin board done. I want to use the Getty’s “By Faith” in chapel this year and showed it to our pastor. He likes it and to go along with it, has decided that we are using Hebrews 12:1 and 2 for our Bible verse of the year. To make it easier for the little kids to remember, he pulled out three phrases: “Surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, let us run the race, fixing our eyes on Jesus”

For my bulletin board, I used a technique I’ve used before: copying pictures from an old yearbook. In this case, its a yearbook from 2006/2007 – ten years ago. It’s my “cloud of witnesses” – students who have attended the school in the past. I’ll of course talk about the current student body being a cloud of witnesses too.

I traced the running man from a projection. It’s magic marker dots.

The other boards I worked with yesterday were the white boards I got off of Craigslist. I pulled off my co-worker Kayla’s old chalk boards (which were painted sheets of metal), drilled new holes, and screwed in the white boards. It was made much easier by the fact that there was a ledge under the old black boards that held the white boards while I drilled and screwed.

So beautiful and so much brighter. I forgot to take a ‘before’ picture.

We had our staff retreat day on Tuesday. This year, we met at the pastor’s house, and he led us through various team activities. One of our exercises was to determine a Bible verse that will be our theme for the year. We chose Isaiah 40:31a “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles”

Since I had the theme verse for the year, I could do my bulletin board. I actually have done this verse before. I looked at the design here at Bradaptation so I wouldn’t duplicate it. As I was looking at old bulletin board designs, I noticed that they were more complex than what I’ve done at my new school. I think my goal has changed. I want to teach the verse, so my designs are simpler and the verse is more prominent.

HERE is the old design for Isaiah 40:31, and here is the new one:

Poor Richard font. I thought it looked solid and communicated strength.

I used the projector to trace and color the wings,and the shield is traced from a wall hanging that Debbie gave me. Thanks, Debbie!

Now that the bulletin board is done, I can do the rest of the room. I will have to finish today, because there is a new student orientation tomorrow. Yikes! There’s nothing like a deadline to help you get things done!

Yesterday was Retreat Day at school. Each year, the pastor plans a team-building activity for the staff. Last year, they went to a different church and had a prayer retreat. This year, the pastor wanted to do something different. We got divided into three teams, and were tasked with the job of making candy. We were given chocolate chips, and $7.50 to spend at a Korean grocery store nearby. After cooking in the kitchen at school, we had to go into the community and have some stranger do a taste-test and choose their favorite.

It was a lot of fun. The candies were tasty. My group didn’t win, but I did get to know them better, and we got to eat such delicious sweets.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of any of the proceedings. Instead, I’ll post a picture of my classroom bulletin board. Before the day started yesterday, I finished stapling everything up. The theme verse for the year is 1 John 4:16. I decided to go with a simple design.

The eighth graders have chosen their verse for the year. It’s one that was used three years ago. As we were going through the selection process, I almost told them the verse had been used before, but there didn’t seem to be any good reason. The verse they selected is Philippians 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. I like the New King James version, because it says “Christ” instead of just “Him”.

After the kids select a verse, I always make a bulletin board. It was particularly challenging this year, because I’ve already done this verse, but I was able to come up with something. I stayed after school and put it up yesterday.

When I think “strength”, I think Superman. This time, instead of using Superman’s silhouette, I used his emblem and his colors. I think it turned out okay. The letters aren’t completely centered, but that just adds to its charm, right?