Celebrate Students’ Victories with a Brag Board

written by Martin Donahue, Slippery Rock University

Not long ago I was preparing to schedule student teacher observations and field experience visits. I then discovered it was that time of the year when standardized tests took over our schools. Schedules change and teachers and administrators are overly stressed ensuring proper procedures are being followed. Some students care a great deal, while others not a bit. And of course the purpose of all of this testing is to tell us how our students, teachers, and schools are doing, and to compare each of them with others around the state, county, region, and nationally.

Perhaps your health and physical education classes have escaped the specter of standardized tests? Or maybe you are accountable for fitness tests, motor skill assessments, or have to create your own student-based learning outcomes? In either case, I believe that most teachers, parents, and administrators will tell you these standardized tests fail to adequately express the full story of what America's students, teachers, and schools are achieving. Stories of great academic achievements rarely reference test scores. There is so much more that my students, my fellow teachers, and I do that can't be easily assessed by standardized tests. These are the real victories that I believe are most important, and I think we should celebrate more than the means, medians, and standard deviations the testing agencies report to us.

I first saw the first "brag board" at the fitness center where I worked out. People could post their latest accomplishments, goals attained, and personal bests. I decided this was a great idea I could use to celebrate students' real progress toward becoming lifelong movers that was not revealed with fitness tests. My original brag board started out as a white board where students could write their accomplishments in and out of class. For younger grades, I would often be the person to select content. For example, my second graders told me they were able to do the swing step while jumping rope at recess so I told them to put that on the board. The white board was short lived and quickly replaced by a large sheet of white paper. I did away with the white board because we quickly started to run out of room but I didn't have the heart to erase anything. The papers create a lasting celebration of student success.

The drawback to the paper was that not every student had a chance to contribute. I suspect some students did not feel comfortable contributing even though they could post anonymously if they wanted to. Eventually I created a writing assignment that I used for the brag board. The prompt was "What I learned to do in Physical Education?" (modified slightly depending on grade level). This gave every child in the school an opportunity to contribute to the brag board. I recommend this method for all teachers as an ego booster and as a way to impress your school administration with writing content integration. A lot (not all) of the stories I got back were great, and really show the impact a Physical Education teacher can have.

I have shared a few stories below. How do you post 400 brags on one bulletin board? Clear sheet protectors! Each class had a clear sheet protector and I just rotated the submissions from front to back each day. Hint: if you print in landscape you can use the three holes in the sheet protector for thumbtacks. Ten years ago I move out of K-12 public schools to pursue a career in higher education. My brag board no longer exists but I've continued to think of ways I could have kept it going and updated with technology. Now the brag board could be a wiki, or blog to which the students can post.

An added benefit is that keeping your students' brag board contributions provides additional data on your PE program's effectiveness. Along with other assessments you already do, you will also have testimonials from students to demonstrate the impact your PE program has. I'd like to share some of the stories that have been shared on my Brag board. Unfortunately through multiple moves the original stories in the children's words no longer exist, but here is what I remember from some of the stories my students shared:

Stephanie learned to ride a bike (She drew me a picture of her riding in her driveway). Stephanie was a fourth grader with Down's syndrome who wanted to learn how to ride a bike. Once a week throughout the winter, in the time between lunch and the next class she would come to the gym and ride a bike. I remember this being much more difficult than I ever anticipated when I first agreed, but I also remember the smile that lit up her entire face as she rode around the gym. A lot of nervous moments for her aide and me because paying attention and looking forward were skills that she needed to work on.

Patrick a pre-kindergartener drew me a picture of him skipping. Patrick was an obese child who struggled with a lot of skills, locomotor skills in particular. I remember him having to stop and take a break from hopping between two poly-spots about 15 feet apart.

Bill now plays in an afterschool basketball league. Bill was not involved in any organized sport teams or leagues. He wrote this on the brag board after he signed up for the local basketball league. We had recently learned basketball skills in class. I guess I sparked enough interest for him to continue to play. I think his favorite thing was being part of a team.

John can do a round off. John was a second grader who was quite skilled in tumbling skills even without much instruction. In fact I remember most of his tumbling was off-task behavior that I was usually correcting. I mentioned to his mother that he really enjoyed tumbling and was better than most students, so she signed him up for gymnastics lessons that it turned out he loved. I apologize for the money I may have cost that family!

Candice and Angela expanded their creative dance routine and performed it in the school talent show. Each year I had an assignment to create a dance including a certain number of Laban number concepts and skills. I know they had a particular interest in dance and were proud of what they came up with. Coincidentally the talent show sign-ups were happening so they added some refinements and did their class routine.

Sidney ran for 30 minutes without stopping. Sidney was not active, appeared healthy, not overweight, but cardiovascular endurance was a real struggle. One day during a running lesson she was able to run for 30 minutes straight. I remember her actually being disappointed because she missed the 3 mile goal, so I asked her if she had ever run that long before. She had not, so I said, "Put it on the board."

I don't pretend to be the best teacher ever. I routinely meet public school teachers whose classes and the impact they have on children blows me away. It's one of the things I love about supervising field experiences and student teachers. But I've noticed that within our public schools it's hard for our students to brag about themselves or for physical educators to brag about our achievements. If you give your students a chance to brag about what they have learned from you, what you'll really see is a list of thank you's.

These are real world examples of how we as Physical Educators are making an impact that no standardized test shows. My colleague Lou Slautterback has a quote he shares often in presentations, "The students we teach are infinitely more important than the subject matter we teach them." I have heard him say this a number of times and when I do I almost always think about my brag board. The brag board gives students the opportunity to tell you what's important to them. It also reminds teachers that it is the students that are most important, not the test scores they produce or the categories these create.

Biography: Martin Donahue is an Assistant Professor in the Physical Education Department at Slippery Rock University. He received his B.S. at Castleton State College with concentrations in Teacher Education and Athletic Training. Dr. Donahue continued his education by receiving his M.S. in Athletic Training at Indiana State University. Traveling further west to New Mexico State University, he completed his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Critical Pedagogy. Dr. Donahue is certified in Athletic Training. He is also certified in K-12 Physical Education and General Science in Texas.

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