Stair Risers With Meaning at Middle School

Positive Messages That Bear Repeating On Staircase Risers in Sayville Middle School 

Advertisers find advertising space in the most creative places to influence consumers. Many commuters to Penn Station are familiar with the use of the Seventh Avenue staircase risers to promote a Broadway show or for product placement. But this creative use of stairs can promote positive ideas with inspirational quotes as well.

The staircase of motivational sayings at Southside Hospital moved Speech teacher Mrs. Patty McLary to question “why not” at Sayville Middle School?  She saw the Middle School Commons stairs as the perfect canvas.

“Subliminal messages of positive affirmation,” Mrs. McLary explained, “can impact both your state of mind and resulting reactions to the situations you find yourself in.  Constant exposure to these types of influential sayings can affect thought patterns and community awareness.”

Mrs. McLary and her sister, a PE teacher at Brentwood Sonderling High School, wanted to explore how they could make this happen at their respective schools. They put their heads together and figured out what the project might entail.

At Sayville Middle School, Mrs. McLary enlisted the support of the Pupil Personnel Services staff to determine what messages would engage the students in thoughtful reflection.  She contacted the computer graphics department at Eastern Suffolk BOCES Islip Career Center to design the messages on vinyl and indicated which risers on the Middle School stairs would be best to showcase the sayings. Mrs. McLary was pleased by the installation efforts of the ICC students. “This project afforded students with disabilities the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned in a real job-like situation.”

Mrs. McLary was also pleased by the reaction the Middle School students were having while going about their busy school day on the Commons staircase as they read and reread the messages—positive messages that can always bear repeating.