In most classrooms at Hays High, motivation posters can be found, giving advice to students. They can come in many different sizes and shapes, with quotes ranging from useful to not very useful. Do these posters do any good in helping students be motivated? Do students even look at these posters?

During times when I’m just spacing off when a teacher is lecturing, I often find myself reading these posters. A poster that I particularly like is the one in Mrs. Wagoner’s class. It is a picture of a horse that is grinning and has the quote, ‘Smiles never up in price and down in value.’ I feel like this is a really good poster because it encourages people to smile more.

Another poster that I really like is one that says, ‘Deadlines are closer than they appear!’ in Mr. Gasper’s room. I feel like this poster especially applies to me because I quite often procrastinate my assignments and wait until the last moment to do them.

While all of those posters are more for motivation, I have noticed some posters in certain science classes that have warnings. I distinctly remember one in Mr. Pollock’s room that talks about how a girl didn’t wear safety goggles and now she doesn’t need them anymore. The picture shown is of a blind girl with a seeing-eye dog.

Whether or not these posters actually do anything to help me, I don’t know. I think that they are interesting to read, and for the most part, they often have really good quotes.

Do other people actually read these posters? Or is it just me. It’s not as though as there is a club where the members discuss different motivational posters that they had seen in the last week.

Either way, I still think that motivational posters are cool and that more people should take the time to actually read them.

16nvuong@usd489.com