Face Time: Using Student Pictures in the Classroom!

I’m so excited to back on board for this month’s Bright Ideas Blog Hop! I hope you’ve already spent some time this morning clicking through all of the awesome posts – I know I have! 🙂

As our school year has started to wrap up, I asked my kiddos to share some of the things they loved about being a part of “Team Sparter” – a mash-up of my name with my teaching partner’s name. One of the responses that surprised me was, “You use our faces in the hallway and on our work sometimes!” So, I thought I’d share a bit about that with you.

I remember reading Ron Clark’s Essential 55 book years ago and coming across the tip to use your students’ faces on work pages and around the room whenever you can. It seems like such a simple tip, but it really does have a big impact!

At the beginning of the year, we spend a couple of days putting our display boards together for the hallway. Parents LOVE looking at these during Open House and it makes it really easy for the kids to switch out current work pieces during the year. One less thing for me to do, too!

On the first or second day of school, their morning work is to color a “paper person” that resembles them. It’s funny to see which kids immediately start to try and recreate the exact outfit they are wearing. 🙂 While they do that, I go around and snap a quick picture of their cute faces. Not to mention, the bobblehead look is pretty freaking hilarious! 🙂 

I try to get a new picture around Christmas time because their faces change a LOT in 3rd grade. Whenever we get a new student, our Papparazzi team (2-3 kids) is responsible for helping the new student put together their own display board and take a “head shot” for them to use.

We use the pictures to jazz up published work as well…

These were up during our Leadership Day a couple of weeks ago, and I had a couple of visitors tell me how much they enjoyed reading the kids’ pieces and looking at all of their bobbleheads. 🙂 I’ve also used them in place of name tags on our Homeworkopoly board, as labels on job cards, etc. It adds a bit of “spunk” to our classroom and we like it that way!

I hope you’ve enjoyed our “Face Time” tip. Please make sure to check out the link up below and find some more incredibly bright ideas to use in the last weeks of your year. Or, if you’re like me – start saving them up for next year! It will creep up quickly!

If you enjoyed hanging out with me today, make sure you follow me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest for more great ideas!