Wrapped in Charlotte's Web

This week I was able to participate in a nostalgic part of being a teacher. I was able to put together a bulletin board that is outside of the classroom. The students have been participating in finding research about animals and their life cycles. From this unit my CE is reading Charlotte's Web to them.
The students had an assignment working in groups they were assigned a certain farm animal. The students research books, and other resources to find out specific details and characteristics about their animal.

The groups were cows, chickens, horses, turkeys, pigs, and sheep. Once the groups completed the research they were than able to turn the information into a summary of the animal. The students worked in groups to write a paragraph about their animal.

What I did not realize is how much work goes into the process of bulletin board making. My CE told me that making bulletin boards is sometimes thrown to the back burner because of the necessity to teach the standards. My CE told me that making bulletin boards were important for the self-esteem of the students. In making a bulletin board in which their work is displayed shows students that you are proud of them, and helps boost quality in work, if they feel that this will be put on the bulletin board.

Anyway, back to being hard work. The students had the easy part of doing the research and writing a paragraph. Once the paragraphs were written I had to go over each letter with a permanent black marker, so that it would be legible once posted on the board. Once this was completed the students had colored a huge picture of their animal so I had to laminate both the paragraphs and the pictures. After that I had to take down the previous bulletin board that had been displayed. Once everything was laminated I then had to put all of their work up on the board. As a reminder I am 5'7", and the bulletin board is as high as over six feet. I had to stand on a chair and work with a stapler and glue gun to reach all over the board.

I am so thankful that I have able to participate in creating this because it gives me an idea of what teachers do other than just making lessons and teaching them. I would probably attach this learning experience to standard one of the NCTPS, teacher demonstrates leadership, in which I am empowering students to be proud of their work.