While many teachers choose to fill their walls with traditional educational posters, science teacher Jacob Klein takes a different approach: he puts up memes, a type of cartoon with words that reference something amusing, all around his room in an attempt to bring some laughter and comedy to his students.

“I enjoy making the memes,” Klein said. “They’re fun to get inspired, especially as like, the culture around things changes with different memes or different things that show up in pop culture, like the whole six, seven. It’s fun to kind of lean into those things.”

Klein got the idea from his colleague, technology coordinator Trina Popple. Before she was a tech coordinator, she was a science teacher and made memes about science safety. He took her idea, but added his own twist.

“A lot of them are about just day to day, school stuff, how kids interact with stuff, what it’s like to be a teacher, having that perspective,” Klein said.

According to Klein, there is no set order or formula for creating his memes, except to ensure that they make students laugh.

“It’s those ones that I know kids can relate to and they can laugh at, but that are accessible to everybody, I would say,” he said.

To let other students not in his classes experience his memes, he keeps some posted in his window for passersby to see.

“The ones I decided to put up are the ones that I think are the most relevant to students, that they’ll actually understand,” he said. “And the ones that are kind of real things that I’ve experienced as a teacher and that kids have done, like the one I have on my own window of the door, the kid that tells you that he’ll be in Monday morning, they never show up, that has happened a lot before.”

Klein also has some other memes up his sleeves, some that don’t end up on the wall.

“I have made memes for specific hours of the day,” he said. “I don’t typically put those up, because unless you were there, you’re not really on the inside of the joke.”

Students appreciate having a reason to laugh and the uniqueness of his decorations.

“I think they’re funny, and that it is super sweet that he cares enough to try to make us laugh,” sophomore Jenna Jackson said.