Time to inspire and motivate your students with these 4 fun bulletin board ideas that are perfect for schools, classrooms, or libraries!
Teachers at my school love IKEA. It's no secret that teachers love to hoard containers, love to be organized, and love to find deals... IKE...
How should I setup my classroom library? Here are some MUST-READ ideas to organize your books, how to create an inviting space for your students, and how to help fund your classroom library!
Smart school computer lab management tips for technology teachers and classroom teachers that spend time in their school computer lab.
What you put on your classroom walls should reflect what you teach. Read this article to get suggestions about what to post, how, and why!
Do you have an iPad in your classroom? Are you wondering how you can make use of it when there is only one device for all of your students...
Here are five practical steps you can take to manage multiple classes in the elementary classroom. I share things like grouping and classroom organization.
Do you want to discover how to make trees for classroom bulletin boards and walls? There are many ways to create a classroom tree. The trunk and branches are
15 classroom organization hacks to make teaching easier that every preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, and elementary teacher should know. FREE theme box labels too!
Colorful organization solutions for setting up and maintaining your classroom library that allow students to easily access the books they want to read.
If you were to pick up one of my classroom library books, you would probably see 3 different labels on them. I have tried SO many different organization and labeling systems over the years. My current system has worked well for my third graders, but before I dive into that, let's run through the disasters
Devouring books when I was a child was a passion of mine, so of course, I LOVE watching my little learners share that same passion! Let's face it, we spend hundreds of dollars (and thousands of Scholastic Book points) to ensure that our students have access to books they want to read. How do I manage that investment, using the least amount of time? I have enlisted the help of these two apps, which have totally saved my sanity when it comes to keeping my classroom library organized and readily available for my students. To help keep students accountable for the books they checkout from my classroom library, I use the FREE app: Booksource Classroom Organizer. Booksource Classroom Organizer is a free web-based program that helps you organize and inventory your classroom library. The most time consuming part of using this app is the set up. To catalog your books in the system, you must scan each bar code found on the back of each book in your library (a great job for parent volunteers or older students who want to "help"). The next step is to create a classroom roster. Once these two steps are complete it is super easy to check books in and out to students! Simply scan the bar code to check out the books, and when students are ready to return their books, students show you their book. With a click of their name and a click of the book title, the book is checked back in. To quickly access a book's Accelerated Reader level and point value, I use the app: BookScanner. Our school uses Accelerated Reader to monitor students' reading levels and independent practice. By using the BookScanner App, you can quickly and easily scan the bar code off the back a book to find any books' AR quiz number, reading level, point value, word count, and interest level. This app has been a total time saver when I get a large book order. It's also super useful when I'm at a book store looking for books, because with a quick scan, I can easily tell if a certain book is appropriate for my students' reading levels. This app is $1.99 and in my opinion, totally worth the small investment. The last thing I do to help keep my books from disappearing is: I stick a label on each book, with my name on it. No app required for this! Countless books have been returned to me because of these labels. And there you have it: a few ways to help you keep your growing classroom library manageable and easily accessible to your students.
Get organized and set-up your classroom! Tons of back to school tips to organize teaching materials, student work, books, math supplies, and more. You won't want to miss the FREE student labels!
FREE Visual direction cards to display the order you would like steps to be completed on your students' assignments.
A look inside my IKEA Classroom including the pieces I've used for storage and organization, and my black and white classroom decor.
I am a self proclaimed "Lover of literacy and all things organization" and I'm here to share 5 ways I cut the classroom clutter and organize student supplies, resources for the entire week, and that pesky pile of graded work!
If you were to pick up one of my classroom library books, you would probably see 3 different labels on them. I have tried SO many different organization and labeling systems over the years. My current system has worked well for my third graders, but before I dive into that, let's run through the disasters
Halloween math activities and reading comprehension can be so much fun with Halloween Project Based Learning! What upper elementary student doesn't love haunted houses and everything spooky? Turn that excitement into learning with a creative, engaging, hands-on Design a Haunted House Project! This project is not only perfect for classrooms already familiar with project based learning (PBL), but it's also ideal for teachers who are looking for ways to really engage students with a high-interest activity. Kick off your Halloween Project Based Learning Unit by showing several different videos or ads which highlight haunted attractions and persuade people to visit
Got a talkative class? Check out these 5 ways to quiet the chatter!
In my opinion, the library is the most important part of any classroom. It’s safe to say that I am obsessed with having an organized library tailored to my students’ wants and needs. Two years agoI decided to “ditch the bins” and seek a different form of classroom library organization. After seeing how much my ... Read more
If you're anything like me, I've changed my class library checkout system quite a bit over the years. I could never quite find something that worked well, that students followed through with and that was simple. Today, I've finally FORCED myself to sit down and write this post. I've been wanting to share my checkout system here on the blog for the past few years...but just haven't made the time to write a post. This is the simplest system EVER and I would never go back to any other system I've used before. Traditional class library checkout systems didn't work for me for various reasons. One of the classic systems, placing a shelf maker in the spot you borrowed a book from did not work for me because I wanted my students checking multiple books out at one time. I also tried having them fill out a class library log, but only a handful of students filled it out consistently and accurately. Not to mention, it was just too much of a headache to constantly monitor (especially that returned column). The second best system that I had was when I used Classroom Booksource. Image from Book Source. I blogged about that here. When I first used it back in 2012, it was really new. Now that it's been around awhile, I'm sure it is much more user friendly and easy to use. What I liked about using this site was I had an inventory of ALL my books. All I needed to do was scan the barcode on each book. Students would log into their account and check books out. This was good because I could see what books I had on hand as well as who had a book checked out if I wanted to use it for a lesson. I could also figure out who the missing book on the floor belonged to when nobody in the class would claim it lol. Although this system worked well for me, my students did sometime run into issues where they couldn't find a book they were checking out in the system. It was also time consuming for students and the setup was SUPER time consuming for me. It took me forever to get my entire class library uploaded into that database. All you need for this NEW and IMPROVED checkout system is a phone/iPad/tablet, books, and kids. You good?! I had a rotating schedule on when students could bookshop. Each day of the week, a different colored group would get to book shop first thing in the morning. They were allowed to choose 4 books and would keep those books in their book bags until the next time their book shopping day came around (the following week). Once they chose their books, they would simply come up to me, spread their books out and I would snap a photo of them on my phone. Even if I was in the middle of something, it took less than 5 seconds for me to snap their photo and delete their picture from the previous week. This system allowed me to see who had what book and monitor what was checked out. If a kid wanted to keep one of the same books and get a few new ones the following week, they would just choose their new books and come to get their picture taken as normal. If they wanted to keep all their books, they would just come and let me know and I would keep their old photo. Because I only had a few students shopping each day, it was totally manageable. I could also see this working as a class job. PRO TIP: Another thing that helps this system work seamlessly is by having an organized classroom library. This ensures that students can quickly and easily find books that they're interested in. I have all of my library books in bins and they are organized by favorite authors, popular book series, and genre. It makes it easy for my students to find books that they like and they can also quickly put back the books they are retuning (books are labeled so that students know what bins to return them to). Click here to check out the labels that I use to organize my library AND snag the free labels that go along with this organizational system. Are you just starting out building your classroom library? You may be interested in this post where I share Ideas on Expanding Your Class Library on a Teacher Budget. If you decide to try this system out, I'd love to hear about how it's working for you and your students. Feel free to leave me a comment or tag me on Instagram @Teachinginparadise :) Short on Time? Save this post for later!
Hi friends! So I have been kind of getting in back to school mode and thinking about what I want and what I need for the school year ahead. With that though, I often get overwhelmed and don’t even know where to look and then I end up spending 94% of my day on Pinterest ... Read more
Love podcasts? Check out this post in the form of a podcast episode on The Classroom Commute Podcast :
Start your year off right by decorating your STEM classroom to inspire your students to have fun, take risks, and have a growth mindset.
It's finally here! I know it has been long in the making, but I am so ecstatic to finally share photos from my new Vintage Circus Classroom with all of you.
Are you wishing you had a classroom assistant? Now you can with an Amazon Echo in the classroom! Here are 10 ways to use it in your classroom!
Organization Every Summer for the last 19 years, I have organized and created lessons and activities for the new school year. In the last 10 years, this has been increasingly...
Whether you have 1:1 devices or a few to share, are just going digital this year or have had access to devices in the classroom for years - here are some questions for you to ask yourself as you set up your digital classroom this year for smooth technology integrating! So cut down on wasted time by developing a clear plan for your digital devices and how and when they will be stored and used with these technology management tips. 1. How Will You Store Devices in the Classroom? Some of you will have this provided by your district. If
Yes, it has it's own board on my Pinterest account. I used to be embarrassed by how fascinated and excited I was about classroom libraries. I paroused thrift stores, hit up retiring teachers, and planned my weekends around library book sales for months leading up to my first year in the classroom. By the time I actually got my own room, I didn't even have enough space for all the books I had collected. Thankfully, Pinterest came along when it did and showed me that I wasn't the only person in the world obsessed with classroom libraries. Of course, that meant hours of my life were spent pouring over pictures, pinning everything from book bin labels to decor. I'm all about helping out other teachers and hopefully I can save someone out there time by putting a lot of ideas about this topic in one place (and also by offering a freebie at the end of this post). I guess there is also the chance that someone will stumble upon this post randomly and then become enthralled with cultivating the perfect classroom library and in turn end up spending a gazillon hours on Pinterest. If that is you, sorry in advance! Below are some of the many ideas I have found over the years. 1. Collection The first, and maybe the most important, question to answer is...how do you get books for your classroom? Teachers certainly can't afford to spend their entire paycheck buying a wide variety of texts (not with all the other classroom items we spend our paycheck on ;) ). Don't fret! There are many options out there. Like I mentioned above, I ended up with more than enough books on a substitue's salary and I didn't break the bank. In fact, I still have a couple bags of chapter books in my basement. -Retiring Teachers: If you don't know any retiring teachers, you can always look on Craig's List or keep your eye on your local newspaper. A lot of retiring teachers are looking to sell their entire collection of books for cheap. I ended up with a lot of goodies from a librarian who retired at the school I was subbing at. She used to be a classroom teacher and passed down classroom library books, teaching resource books, name tags, posters, stickers, etc. -Teachers at Your School: Many teachers probably aren't going to give you any of their new, shiny books, but that doesn't mean they don't have others they are willing to pass along. My first year, I had many teachers offer me books for my room because like me, they had more than enough (especially as they continue to replace older books with new purchases). My school also does a lottery at the beginning of the school year. Every August when we get back in our rooms and start to clear out the junk for a fresh start, we place all the items we no longer want in the front lobby. All week, teachers can stop by and place a post-it with their name on any item from class sets of books/magazines to teacher desks, easels, and pocket charts. On Friday, items are handed out to their new owners and the rest are donated. -Student Donations: My first year I had a parent ask if I needed any books because her child, who was the youngest in the family, had already read or outgrown many books. I said yes and was floored when a box full of shiny, crease-free, new-book-smelling, age appropriate chapter books came my way. I ended up putting old books on the wishlist every week on my classroom newsletter. I made it clear that parents did not need to go out and buy books for the classroom, but if they had old books around the house, I would be willing to take them. I got a lot of good books this way, of course some were not so good or not usable, but it was worth it. -Thrift Stores: Most thrift stores sell children's books, the hard part is finding the best price in your area. One thrift store near me sells books for $0.50 to $1.00 each. I was surprised when I first started looking, but then I found another thrift store 5 minutes away that sold 6 books for $2.00, and their selection was much wider. Do some shopping around and you might be surprised what you find. A lot of the time I would find gems that were in pristine condition and do a little dance in the aisle knowing that I was about to pay 33 cents for a book that would cost me $15.00 at the store. Thrift stores in my area are definitely cheaper than used book stores. You might want to check around to see if that is true for your area as well. -Book Sales: Library book sales are a gift from God. Okay, I might be being just a bit dramatic right know, but this is really where I got the bulk of my books. The libraries in my county have weekend long book sales 3 or 4 times a year. There are good prices on Friday and Saturday, but if you wait until Sunday you will make out like a theif! Sundays are brown bag days. One dollar a bag for all of the books you can fit into a brown paper grocery bag. Let me tell you, I was a master at stacking and cramming those books in there. I would walk away with hundreds of books for $4.00. I used to go to these so often that I devised my own method. I would go on Fridays or Saturday morning while most of the books were still there to see what they had and where it was. I would buy anything that I really wanted and didn't think would still be around on Sunday. I would also take note of where the books I wanted were, so I wouldn't waste any time later. You also can't really dilly dally on Sunday morning. I would get to the library at least half an hour before they opened. I ain't lyin' when I say there was a looonnnggg line by the time the doors open and the library crowd is not polite when there are books involved. There was all sorts of pushing and shoving when the doors were opened, but I would speed walk to the paper bag table, grab at least two, and write my name on them with my Sharpie as I headed over to the children's book table. Then, I really just started grabbing and shoving until my bags were full. Man, those were the days, just writing this makes me want to look up sales in my area. Anyway, I suggest you Google library book sales in your area and at least go once to see what all the Hullabaloo is about. Here is a website to help you get started, Book Sale Finder. 2. Location Where will your classroom library be located? I have seen some teachers place bookshelves along the back and side walls of the room. This really helps save space, but I have found that it doesn't create a library/book nook feel. I like to use a corner so I have two walls of space, but it is all in one spot. It is also a nice area for my students to read during Daily Five time. If you see the pictures from my 3 rooms below, you will notice that I always utilize my corners! 3. Organization My first year, I set up my library by placing all chapter books on one side and all pictures books on the other side. I organized each section by series and then genre or theme. The past two years, I have been sorting my books by just series/genre/theme. I place all the chapter books for the category in a basket and all of the picture books for the same category on the shelf next to the chapter books, to the right of the basket. I like this set up a lot more. In actual libraries students search by interest and not by chapter or picture book, so I wanted to replicate that. As you look at my classroom libraries below, keep in mind that the rooms in my school aren't that big. I would love to have space like some of the rooms I see out there, but you have the make the best of what you have. I love how neat and tidy The Plaid Apple is. If you have the space, this reading nook is great! This library from the 2 sisters is ah-ma-zing. I'm pretty that's all we would do all day long. This library is simple and purposeful. 4. Procedure My students all have book boxes for Daily Five. I stress to my students that they must keep their books in the boxes and not in the desks since that can damage the books and cause them to get lost. I don't let my students choose books in the morning (they were socializing too much and not completing their morning work) or during Daily Five time (they spent the whole time shopping for books and not reading). My students are each assigned days of the week. On Monday, Monday friends (about 5 or 6 students) can switch out their books in the morning. They get 15 minutes to do this and must be in their seat working by 9:10. At the beginning of the year, I teach students how to choose books that will last them a week. At 9:10, the "Daily Friends" bring their book boxes to me to check. Each student has a booklet in their book box and I stick a label rubric in and circle how they did. The categories on the rubric label that I am checking their box for are organization, nonfiction books, fiction books, and their writing notebook (I require them to keep their writing notebook in their box for ease of transitioning during Daily Five). I also take this time to make sure students have chosen appropriate books for their level and enough books to get them through the week. Sometimes I ask students to put back some books if I think they have too many and will end up not being able to finish any within the week. Two students every week are assigned the job of librarian in my classroom. It is their job to search the room for misplaced books and put them back where they belong. They also straighten up and organize my library every afternoon to keep it looking clean. 5. Tracking I don't really keep track of who has what book. My primary concern is to get the books into the hands of the students and they usually have about 8-10 books in their book box at any given time. That is way too many for me to keep track of for every student. The system I mentioned above, checking book boxes for "Daily Friends", gives me a good idea of where things go and who is reading what. There is incredible software out there that allows you to scan your books online and set up accounts for your students to check them out using a smart phone or tablet, just like a real library. I think this is awesome! I would use it if I could, but I don't have any tablets in my room or the patience to scan all my books. Other Ideas This source uses paper clips to attach read aloud books to the wall of the library. This source has a "book hospital" for torn or ripped books that need to be repaired. Themed libraries are always super cute, like this one from Proteacher. If you made it this far, you definitely deserve a freebie. Below you can download my Genre posters. The posters make a nice addition to my classroom library. I post them one at a time after teaching each genre. I hope I was able to give you some ideas or inspire you in some way. I know you all have tons of awesome ideas as well and I would love to learn from you. Leave me a comment to let me know how you do things in your room. See you soon! Click Here to view my Class Library Pinterest Board Click here to download Genre Posters
Here are some modern classroom decor ideas to help you transform your classroom into a vibrant and functional space that both you and your students will love.
Are you feeling the classroom library blues? Whether you have a huge book collection or you're just getting started, the cure is finding a checkout system that works for you. Read about traditional and technology options for book checkout systems. Part of Laura Candler's Advice from Real Teachers series.
I absolutely LOVE IKEA and even though the closest one to me is about 3 hours away, I always make a point to go a couple of times a year....
This 153 page editable bundle includes everything you need to decorate and organize a travel themed classroom! Includes: Ideas for a travel theme classroom Desk Name Tags* Student Binder and Folder Covers Class Schedule Cards* Behavior Chart* Small Supply Labels* Math Manipulative Labels* Large Supply Labels* Table Team Labels Center Labels* Months Days of the Week Calendar Numbers Class Job Cards* Teacher Binder Covers with Spines* Class Rules* a 24 page PowerPoint that allows you to edit the text on the items that have an * Please check out the preview to see a sample of the included pieces!
Set the stage for a fantastic school year with these fun, foundational, and differentiated September library lessons!
Looking for classroom decor ideas? Try some of these meaningful approaches to freshen up your middle or high school classroom.
There are three kinds of teacher-decorators: those who were born for Pinterest, those who can’t, and all the ones in between (such as the broke, the tired, and the I-have-no-time-to-decorate). However, making a classroom appeal to middle and high school students doesn’t HAVE to involve serious crafting or expensive, time-intensive projects. Check out these tips from me and Bonnie from Presto Plans as you prepare your classroom for the fall (or at any time of year that you want to give it a boost!) You might also like Sara's more recent blog post, Inside My Farmhouse Classroom Makeover. 1. Have a color scheme (if you can) Sara: My principal gave each teacher the paint for one accent wall, so that shade of turquoise inspired the rest of my blue decor: milk crates, bulletin board borders, etc. It helped unify the room to make it look pulled-together instead of random. I've also learned about the importance of contrast. Even a full-blown rainbow color palette can look clean and cohesive (instead of cluttered) if you pair it with black or white to balance it out. Bonnie: If you are looking for inspiration for colors that look great together, check out this Pinterest board. There are lots of combinations that will help you choose colors when you are shopping for classroom materials. 2. Stick to a few favorite fonts Sara: Just like businesses create a brand, you are creating a classroom “look” or persona that you will be known for... or, at least a mood you will create. (Friendly? Professional? Fun? Minimalist?) Try to pick a few fonts that most of your labels, signs, and other wall-hangings will consistently use. For example, I used the Google font Crushed to make and laminate labels for my whiteboard (see below), along with mint-colored painter's tape. 3. Make your classroom library a focal point Bonnie: Your class library should draw students in and works well as the focal point for any English classroom. Here are a few things you can do to make your library stand out: Give bookshelves a makeover by rolling them a new coat of paint and/or taking the shelves out and attaching wallpaper or scrapbook paper to the back. Put a few floating shelves on the walls near your library area where you can feature particular novels recommended by students. Add comfortable, flexible seating near a library to make it more welcoming. These items can be more expensive, so shop around online or scour garage sales until you find seating that may work. Use old books as decorations! When a book is unusable, find a way to repurpose it. One easy way to do this is to cut out the pages and write a reading-inspired quote in black permanent marker on top of the page. Frame the page and put it on your bookshelf! Sara: If your classroom library is small, nonexistent, or needs some attention, check out this blog post for more ideas about how to strengthen it. 4. Display student work Bonnie: Use student work as decor by making a framed gallery wall. All you have to do is pick up some inexpensive 8x10 frames (check your dollar store) and arrange them on your wall. When you get a piece of exceptional student work, add it into the frame! If you don’t want the hassle of buying and hanging frames, order a pack of mixed color picture mats and use them to frame student work on a bulletin board. Sara: Another way to get student work on display (while also practicing literary analysis!) is to have them complete this Quote Illustration and Analysis assignment; students use Canva (or any tool you wish) to make an inspirational or literary quote come to life. The results are stunning! 5. Use author-inspired decor Bonnie: Find ways to incorporate the authors you will be studying into your classroom decor. You can do this by featuring fun facts or by sharing quotes by the author. For example, I use an interactive Shakespeare Hashtag of the Week bulletin display that exposes students to one quote from a Shakespeare play each week. If you don’t want to make your own, you might even consider assigning an author to each student and having them develop a bulletin display with a biography, fun facts, and quotes that you can swap out weekly. Sara: Don't forget to interject moments of literary ALLUSION or author-inspired inside jokes as well, like my favorite light switch art... 6. Make your posters work together Sara: On at least one bulletin board or section of wall space, add some symmetry or consistency by hanging posters in a similar style (color, font, or other), or by displaying images that have a common theme. For example, check out these posters of stylized quotes to get some English class wisdom on your walls. Bonnie: If you are looking for some ideas of common themes you could use for posters, try some of these ideas that could work in any English classroom: funny grammar quotes or fails, literary terms or genres, author quotes, famous lines from literature, idiomatic expressions, or jokes using puns! To read more about my favorite bulletin board ideas for middle and high ELA, check out this blog post. "English is Weird" poster set 7. Make displays that are EASY to update Sara: Two of my favorite bulletin board spaces were ones that took VERY little effort in updating, so I didn't have the self-imposed pressure to redo the whole thing multiple times per year. For example, my Word Nerd Challenge is quick to update on a Monday morning because all I have to do is add this week's word to the list. (I made each word tile a magnet that can go on my whiteboard!) I also made low-prep Quote of the Week flipbooks of reading and writing quotes, which students often asked to flip FOR me. I used Command hooks and spiral binding to hang it on a cabinet. Do you have additional ideas? Tell us in the comments!
Ikea inspiration for your classroom! Check out these affordable, flexible, and fun ideas from the international retailer!
We need to rethink how we design our environments for students. The resources here will help you to use learning space design to transform your space.
