American novelist Gail Goodwin famously said, “Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.”
Keeping a class focused and interested requires performance abilities regardless of the topic at hand. And to put on a show, teachers employ all kinds of props. There are teachers who use dramatic pointers like an old cane or laser pointer.
Teachers who dress like Ms. Frizzle to keep their students if not necessarily on task, then at least mesmerized.
And still others who break out every possible tool to drive home a point — videos, projections, music, instruments, dance, literally whatever it takes. And so as you can imagine, a mask lanyard isn’t just a piece of PPE for a teacher. It’s another teaching tool.
By using a mask lanyard, a teacher can remind students to protect themselves, a tricky concept especially for those working in elementary education. By demonstrating good health protocols, a teacher can lead by example. But that’s not where the learning stops.
A mask lanyard can be a teaching tool in a variety of other ways and that begins with customization. By adding a little personalization to a mask lanyard, not only can a teacher help students embrace good safety practices, they can also better express themselves.
That’s what we’ll look at in this guide: 5 fun ways teachers can customize mask lanyards.
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State Your Name
So much of education is about identifying oneself. It begins in primary school when students learn their ABCs which eventually leads to teaching them to spell their own names. By personalizing a mask lanyard, with their name on it, a teacher can help their students learn their name and how to spell it.
With Specialist ID’s great mask lanyards, like the MRI Safe Mask Lanyard with 2 Slim Plastic Clips - Open Ended Badge & Facemask Holder (2140-540X), a teacher could easily personalize the wide lanyard with embroidery spelling out their name.
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Just Bead It
What did we do before Etsy? I’ll tell you what? A lot of DIY fails, that’s what. Thanks to this crafting megasite, you can find nearly anything you can imagine when it comes to personalization. Want a beaded mask lanyard that looks more like a necklace than a PPE item? Etsy. Want to give all of your students mask lanyards with their names beaded at the end? Etsy. Want a chain lanyard that looks like a fine piece of jewelry? Etsy.
For a teacher who wants to show her students what freedom of expression truly means, Etsy is a great place to get personalized mask lanyard looks.
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Show Some Patriotism
Educating students on the history of this nation is something that begins as early as Kindergarten. A teacher can signal their love of country by wearing a mask lanyard that displays the red, white, and blue.
The USA Made Adjustable Face Mask Lanyard from Specialist ID isn’t just a nice salute to the good old US of A. It’s also designed to be as comfortable as possible with an adjustable slider that can tighten to hold a mask in place, perfect for busy teachers running around a classroom all day who don’t have time to constantly tug and pull at a mask.
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Button It Up
The beauty of a wide lanyard is that there’s plenty of space to attach a favorite bit of flair—for instance, a button. This could be something as simple as a button featuring an A+ or an apple, the trademarks of teachers everywhere. Or it could be something more progressive like a button that says “Celebrate Diversity” or a button that says “Ally”—subtle but important messages, especially for a teacher at a high school where some students could be looking for a safe space or person to turn to.
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Make it Fun
Best way to have a little fun with a mask lanyard is to make the entire contraption fun. A teacher could get really creative by decorating their mask to look like a mouse face then letting the lines for the whiskers connect to the lanyard. Just think of how much more fun story time would be—“If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” anyone?—if a teacher used their mask and face mask lanyard part of the performance?
Naturally, this isn’t the extent of all the ways you can customize a mask lanyard. Ask any elementary student: puff paints, bead, clay, name the medium and you can likely play with it to perk up a mask lanyard.