Do I really need to keep every anchor chart displayed?
One time when I was teaching, an anchor chart fell onto a student. Yep, right on his head. I don’t know if you’ve heard what those sound like when they drop but imagine thunder and you’re just about there. It was terrifying. He was fine, maybe traumatized, but fine. I vowed to never hang them from my ceiling again.
Why was it hanging from the ceiling? You see, that year when I ran out of room on my walls to hang anchor charts, the next available real estate was the ceiling.
This ended up being a bit problematic because: 1) the students couldn’t actually even see them and 2) they fell on their heads. (Disclaimer: No students were hurt in the making of this story).
It was at this moment I asked myself,
“Do I really need to keep every anchor chart displayed?”
Answer: No :)
Just like all of those glorious before and afters on the Instagram decluttering pages, sometimes less is more. Once clutter is removed, you can actually find what you need (with a little breathing room as a bonus). Humans thrive in organized, clean, decluttered spaces. Research tells us our brains need this.
So children, who need even more support with regulation, need classrooms organized in a way that supports learning and leaves some breathing room.
How do you rein in the clutter?
I created physical boundaries for myself:
1 subject per bulletin board, and
only 1-2 anchor charts per area.
If I had a new anchor chart but the Math section was full, I reevaluated what actually needed to stay up and what I could “retire” for the time being.
Takeaways:
Do you need to keep every anchor chart up? Nope! (And I’d argue that displaying an overwhelming number of anchor charts can actually be detrimental to the learning environment. They can start to become wallpaper at best and hazards at worst.)
Sit at a student’s desk and take in your room from their perspective.
Can you even see the charts?
Is it information overload?
Are there any ways you could streamline the information to help create more breathing room?
Create a system and strategy for where you will hang your charts and what limits you will try to stick with. (I.e. one subject per bulletin board with 1-2 charts)
Once you have a strategy for what anchor charts to display and where, we can talk about how to display them (and what to do with the charts you aren’t displaying at the moment).
Looking for more Anchor Charts tips? Check out these posts!
