Teaching is more than just passing along information. It’s creating an environment of engagement and curiosity. Students appreciate a lively classroom that inspires them to gain valuable career and technical education skills, and to get certified.
How can you create an environment that gets students excited about certification? Teachers across the world have shared photos of inspiring spaces, classrooms where students’ enthusiasm can be channeled in a positive direction. We’ve seen classrooms with certificate walls, trophies, posters and much more to promote career and technical education and certification – now it’s time for you to utilize these same ideas in your space.
Here are some ways to liven up your classroom in 2019:
- Forget Google calendars for a minute – take it old school and print a free Microsoft Excel calendar. Fill out all of the important exam, certification and competition dates and post it on the wall.
- Download free motivational desktop wallpaper to your machine along with the machines in your computer lab.
- Create a massive certification wall of fame. Either post certificates, names, or photos to recognize every individual who earns certification.
- Print a poster to recognize CTE month in February.
- Promote the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship and Adobe Certified Associate World Championships in your classroom with free posters and flyers. Many teachers also post local leader boards to encourage students to take the top spots.
- Request a program kit to help promote certification programs to your students. We encourage you to request one new program kit each year for all of the certification programs you offer. These include posters, window clings, a lapel pin, and more!
All of these ideas will take just a few minutes to get rolling, but they will help to build excitement for your certification programs. Now, get busy and send some pictures of your classroom progress to bahabeachsocial@pearson.com so we can share your great ideas!