Inspire change with custom motivational posters
What motivates you to accomplish your goals? When times are challenging, are there certain quotes or mantras that help get you through? Capturing and sharing our motivation can help us persevere through challenges and obstacles towards our goals, as well as inspiring others to tackle new challenges and create positive change.
Why motivational posters?
Educators and students face so many challenges in a not-quite-post-pandemic world. Finding and forming connections and making inspiration explicit can help us to lift ourselves up, and more importantly lift each other up, with the challenges we face in teaching and learning day in and day out.
I always keep quotes that inspire me in direct eyesight of my desk. One of my favorite quotes from Amanda Gorman’s poem The Hill We Climb is, “There is always light, only if we are brave enough to see it. Only if we are brave enough to be it.” This quote lives on my computer desktop where I can pull it up at a glance no matter where I am working and remind myself that no matter how challenging things get, we must still strive to be the light.
When my students had a big event approaching that required encouragement, a favorite class activity was to give each other inspirational notes. This started out as Post-It notes, and evolved into digital motivation cards and posters. Students would save these digital tokens of encouragement as their desktop background to glance at when they needed a boost. This was such a simple activity, yet it was so powerful for building community and maintaining motivation.
What to know before you start
Before you start creating your own motivational posters, make sure you identify the 5 W’s: Who, What, Where, Why, When. Why do you need this poster? What is the inspiration for the poster? Is it meant to engage or to keep someone motivated? When would this poster be most impactful and where would this poster be seen?.
The bottom line is, will this poster help bring joy and inspiration to you or your students? If the answer is yes, then let’s make that motivational poster!
Steps to create a motivational poster
1. Select a quote that inspires you.
Are you setting out to accomplish a new goal, inspire your students towards a common purpose, or inspire yourself to stay focused and motivated? Think about what you are trying to accomplish, and if you already have a favorite quote to use.
I often like to pull quotes from the students themselves or from my colleagues. One strategy to generate quotes from students is to have them interview each other. Perhaps the topic is, “What are you most excited about learning?” In partners, one student shares while the other takes notes, then vice versa. Afterwards, they can each pull a favorite quote that inspired them and generate a poster for their partner!
No favorite quote? No worries! It is as easy as searching “[keywords related to the poster you want to make] + quote”. If you know of an author, poet, or singer/songwriter that you usually glean inspiration from, then search their name specifically. There are no shortage of quotes out there — just make sure if you pull a quote from the internet that it is from trusted sources and that you cite both the author and the work it is from.
2. Find an image that relates to your quote.
You found your quote? Excellent — now time for the design fun! This is where the magic of Adobe Express comes into play. If you are logged in with your education account, then you have access to an extensive and student-safe library of stunning Adobe Stock imagery. You can also find amazing templates within the tool by searching “motivational poster.” We’ve included a few templates below to get you started!
Resources to get started
Motivational posters go hand in hand with goal setting. Knowing what we want to achieve and when and how we will get there is so important, and then you can discover the right motivational statement to keep you and your students focused on set goals. Check out my Lightning Learning course (less than 30 minutes) on Goal Setting with Adobe Express to learn more about the power of goal-setting, and access templates and activities to cultivate a growth mindset.
You can also access additional resources and templates on motivational posters here!
