My Love for Curation

Prompt:  How do you curate student work - or help them do it themselves?

I absolutely love this prompt because one of my dream jobs is work as a museum curator.  This is the reason why my master's degree is not in education, but in history.  I actually began my master's degree before I became a teacher because I dead set on working in a museum as a curator.  Now, the option is still available, but I love the way the prompt has be reevaluating my role as an educator right now.  I've never considered my career as a teacher to include the job of a curator.  Who knew that I could actually be doing two things that I love most in the world?!


Here's how most of my student work is curated -

The Good Ol' Fashion Hallway
Ever since we were little, we have looked forward to see our handwork on display outside the classroom in the hallway.  As we get older, the assignments became less artistic, and the likelihood of this work being put in the hallway decreased tenfold.  Still, seeing your work on display gives you a sense of pride in what you have accomplished.  Some of my students claim to hate seeing their work out in the hallway (so I have them put their name on the back of the project), but then once they see it outside, they may change their mind.

I'm not going to lie, I'm not the best at keeping up with students displays in the hallways, but I do cover the inside of my classroom with student work.  I guess I kind of like to keep my student work within the confines of my room because I see their creativity and wonder as a secret that I want to keep to myself.  I promised myself that this year I would do better at allowing more people access to the awesome work produced by students (because it's freaking fantastic!).

Social Media
The joy of on-line social media is that it has provided teachers with the ability to post student work to a broader audience.  The accessibility and ease at which social media sites like Twitter and Instagram have provided in terms of displaying student work makes being a teacher fun!  I love that when I walk around the classroom and see students working on their assignments, I can simply take a picture of the process and post in on-line.

The students love the ability to log onto sites and check on the posts of the week.  The ability for a student to follow a class Twitter or Instagram account makes this form of curation most student friendly.  I've had students who have come practically skipping into class because I posted their assignment onto one of these sites.  What better way to get students excited about learning than to reach out to them on their favorite sites?

Interactive Bulletin Boards
Okay, so this a new idea for me.  I came across this idea from someone that I happen to follow on Twitter.  There was a link to a particular article detailing how a couple teachers have taken the traditional bulletin board and brought it to the updated world we live in today.  The central idea was to take an approach that includes the traditional format of displaying student work (bulletin boards) and including links (like QR codes) to multimedia created by students to further the information capacity on said bulletin board.

For me, this is an AWESOME idea.  I'm going to be trying this out with the first PBL our class has created.  The students have simulated a realigned NFL and developed various teams that could be added.  They've researched various components of what it takes to create a successful business plan as well as the various aspects of human geography.  Their research and presentations will both be presented this week.  I've already decided on putting all the components that they present outside in the hallway and links to their presentation videos via QR codes next to each team design.  Most of the students like the idea of being able to see other class periods' videos, but there were some that were apprehensive about the idea.  For the most part, I've explained that this will help them reflect better on their communication skills so as to better prepare for the next presentation.


I'm absolutely floored by the amount of creativity that is accessible via the touch of a button.  Technology is the medium in which we as teachers can find a way to connecting the lives of our students to the work they create in our classrooms.  The sooner we are able to accept these new tools, the sooner we will be able to reach out to our students.

-A