Wall of Fame

In each and every school I teach, you can always find me easily. Look for walls plastered with kids' work. The "Wall of Fame". Because I am a visual artist as well as a writer/teacher, I love decorated work. Poems decorated. Collage. Found word poems. I am known as the "display" teacher. Past students always say, "Oh, I knew where your room was, Ms. Beck. I could tell from the hallway". My husband treated us with pizzas for Shakespeare's birthday last week. I said, "Just look for the hallway. You'll find my room".

Not only does it please my aesthetic sensibilities, it creates a sense of pride in my students and the parents love it. Schools should be plastered with beautiful, carefully crafted student work. It's cheerful. It's productive. It's also motivating. And so much better than boring concrete walls.

I love when students slow their pace to look for their own work on the walls. Not only that, but they are learning. Stopping to read poems and not even conscious of it. What better way to learn than to read their peers' work?

As I prepare for rounds of interviews to secure that coveted permanent teaching position for next year, I pulled out my good old-fashioned portfolio. Not so much to see my resume, awards and letters of recommendations (that's all "on-line" now anyway), but to see the pages of displays of students' work. And it's a good device for interviews. Who doesn't love browsing through "scrapbooks"? Especially English teachers. Show-and-Tell.