Something that stuck with me in grad school is that children's art is an expression of their experiences. It is how they make meaning, and organize their experiences. This applies to representational work that we typically see in children five+ years old (I.e. "This is a picture of me and my family"), but also to the non-representational work of younger ones, as what they are showing you in their art is not necessarily a recollection of how something looks, but an experience of how something feels. I.e. the back-and-forth lines on paper are a representation of one's experience with crayon. In Reggio Emilia terminology, this is part of the concept of "the hundred languages of children."
One of the languages of teachers is their bulletin boards. It is how we communicate to the school community, visually, the goings-on in our classrooms. Though they are often high up on the walls, out of arms reach, the children do notice these boards, and delight in identifying themselves and their peers in the pictures.
It became apparent to me that the board in Kitah Alef Bet was sorely in need of a makeover, as our group had gone through so many new experiences and grown together in only 2 short weeks. I needed to cull through the hundreds of pictures we had taken, organize our experiences, and make meaning. What I realized once I started arranging the pictures on the table in front of me, is that I was not just organizing their experience of school, I was organizing my experience as a teacher in this classroom. Designing the board became an art experience.
I wonder: Even if we don't always view our bulletin boards as artwork, is there some component of teacher self-expression inherent in all the bulletin boards we see?
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