How2Day: Student Recognition Bulletin Board Ideas

Praising students may encourage them to work hard even when they are not in your classroom. student #2 image by Adam Borkowski from Fotolia.com
When students go above and beyond what they are asked to do, you want to reward them with something nice. Publicly recognizing them for hard work and good behavior is a great incentive for future excellence. With a bulletin board and a few simple ideas, you can not only encourage the student who stands out, but also the other students who are working toward success of their own.

When a student gives someone a compliment, helps out a teacher or does something unselfish, you want to recognize him for his good deed. This will help promote a positive environment in your classroom or school. Draw or print out a large baseball mitt and pin it to your bulletin board. Then when a student performs a positive act--such as helping a classmate carry her books--write down the student's name and the act on a piece of colored paper. Pin that to the mitt as a way of "catching them in the act."

Teachers obviously want their students to excel in the classroom. One way to promote individual achievement and a sense of community is to do a bulletin board that recognizes the class' grades as a whole. Draw or cut out a beehive and queen bee and tack them onto your bulletin board. Then assign each student to make his or her version of a worker bee. When you have an upcoming test or essay, pick a certain number of A's (depending on your class size) that the queen bee must have in order to survive. When a student makes an A, she can tack her worker bee onto the board. The students will be recognized individually, but they will also be motivated as a community to "save" the queen bee.

Attendance is important at all levels of education. Recognizing students for coming every day can instill in them a sense of pride and relay to others that perfect attendance is possible. For this idea, transform your bulletin board into an old west theme. Dye blank paper in tea and burn the edges to give it a worn look. Tack this to your bulletin board with a sign at the top that reads "Wanted for Perfect Attendance." Then take black and white photos of students who excel and place them on the board.

How2Day