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Interactive Bulletin Boards

Gerri Harvey

After slaving away at developing an eye-catching, creative a bulletin board, do you ever wonder if anyone is actually reading it? I decided to add a new twist to my bulletin boards this year and make them interactive as a way to increase inteest and measure impact. My first interactive board turned out to be easier than expected and also kind fun. The approach I used is adaptable to any bulletin board.

Create a Health Trivia Contest based upon the information on your board. Use your daily notices or announcements to let the students know that there will be a week of Health Trivia questions whose answers can be found on your bulletin board. Have classes, not individuals, submit answers. Asking for class responses accomplishes three things: 1. It helps invest the classroom teachers in the activity, rather than just a few shining star kids. 2. It requires that the questions and answers be discussed in the classroom 3. It saves you, the school nurse, a ton of work. Thirty responses are easier to process than 500.

My first intereactive bulletin board was on Eastern Equine Encephalitis, which has been a frightening public health threat in New Hampshire since late summer. After seven confirmed human cases and one death, my state department of communicable disease surveillance appealed to schools to help educate parents and students about prevention and recognition of symptoms. How nice it was to see teachers coming by with their whole class to read my bulletin board!

Responses were to be submitted to me in writing and to include grade and teacher. When a class submitted correct responses I announced the classes in the next mornings's announcements and repeated the questions and the correct answers. This recognized the classes who responded while providing the same information to those who didn't. I added a star to the bulletin board with the grade and teacher of classes who had correctly responded to the questions. At the end of the week, I had many Health Stars!

The fifth grade class with the most stars offered to make some posters to help spread health messages. On open house night, students made sure their parents came by to see the message and the stars. By making my bulletin board interactive I went beyond having a catchy visual with a message to having a compelling lesson that truly captured the children's interest.



	Interactive Bulletin Boards Gerri Harvey After slaving away at developing an eye-catching, creative a bulletin board, do you ever wonder if anyone is actually reading it? I decided to add a new twist to my bulletin boards this year and make them interactive as a way to increase inteest and measure impact. My first interactive board turned out to be easier than expected and also kind fun. The approach I used is adaptable to any bulletin board. Create a Health Trivia Contest based upon the information on your board. Use your daily notices or announcements to let the students know that there will be a week of Health Trivia questions whose answers can be found on your bulletin board. Have classes, not individuals, submit answers. Asking for class responses accomplishes three things: 1. It helps invest the classroom teachers in the activity, rather than just a few shining star kids. 2. It requires that the questions and answers be discussed in the classroom 3. It saves you, the school nurse, a ton of work. Thirty responses are easier to process than 500. My first intereactive bulletin board was on Eastern Equine Encephalitis, which has been a frightening public health threat in New Hampshire since late summer. After seven confirmed human cases and one death, my state department of communicable disease surveillance appealed to schools to help educate parents and students about prevention and recognition of symptoms. How nice it was to see teachers coming by with their whole class to read my bulletin board! Responses were to be submitted to me in writing and to include grade and teacher. When a class submitted correct responses I announced the classes in the next mornings's announcements and repeated the questions and the correct answers. This recognized the classes who responded while providing the same information to those who didn't. I added a star to the bulletin board with the grade and teacher of classes who had correctly responded to the questions. At the end of the week, I had many Health Stars! The fifth grade class with the most stars offered to make some posters to help spread health messages. On open house night, students made sure their parents came by to see the message and the stars. By making my bulletin board interactive I went beyond having a catchy visual with a message to having a compelling lesson that truly captured the children's interest.