Secondary Classrooms: 18 Things to Consider When Decorating
An Elementary Teaching Blog with tips, ideas and freebies for your classroom. For new teachers and seasoned teachers alike!
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!
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These favorite classroom management ideas and tools are easy, inexpensive and effective classroom management solutions for any classroom.
This eye-catching bulletin board poster is perfect for any math classroom! Help your students memorize square roots and perfect squares and add to your cute classroom decor!
Classroom management and thinking through how my classroom will run is more important than the decorations and arrangement! Do you agree? My classroom has several different strategies set up; and as needed, I will adjust accordingly as my students arrive and I learn their needs. Today, I have 8 Classroom Management Tips for you to […]
This multiplying & dividing integers poster will look GREAT in your middle school math classroom! Use this bulletin board set on your word wall or as an anchor chart. Your 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th grade math class will really benefit from this DIY poster!
Do you have helpers in your classroom? Many teachers have asked over the years about how classroom helpers work in our classes. Here are the top three questions: "Why do you have classroom helpers?" "How do you organize our helpers?" "Can you help me get mine started?" Here are our answers: 1. It helps build a community. 2. The children take on a responsibility/leadership role. 3. Helps the classroom run smoothly. 4. Reduces the teacher's workload. 5. Children LOVE taking responsibility for our room! Each Monday the children look forward to their new jobs! We rotate the jobs because more that one child usually enjoys a job. We like to give every child an opportunity to try each job. Sometimes they find they really enjoy a job that they thought they wouldn't like. Every classroom has a different plan for changing helpers and you have to find what works for you! *Alison loves to change her helpers Friday before she leaves for the day. It is just part of her routine and she feels great about getting it done early! *I love to change mine with the kids on Monday morning as part of my "Monday Morning Routine." It helps us ease back into our week! *Another friend of mine changes her helpers every two weeks because one was too fast. Once the helpers are assigned and posted on our "Helpers" chart the week starts. I never forget who has a job because the chart is there to refer to and the kids know their jobs and take pride in having them. My answer is "YES!" We have several helpers to match what you might need in your room. They are also editable and you can change the job titles & add your students names. You can even add your own cards to match on the "blank" card pages. Once you choose the theme/style that matches your classroom, putting it together is easy peasy! Here is the set I used last year: I backed my cards after I printed them with yellow cardstock to match my color scheme. There are so many ways to display your helpers, here are a few of the ideas we have used: We have attached them on ribbons and used clothespins for the names. We have placed them in a pocket chart and just tucked the children name card next to the job. We have placed them on a magnetic surface, too! These are just some of the jobs in the pack! Best thing, they are EDITABLE! You decide what the names of the jobs are. Here is our selection in a variety of themes: (You can click on any picture below to see it in our store.) Don't see what you need? Contact us at [email protected] to get your request on our list of projects now! Have other ideas for jobs, we would LOVE to hear them. Please comment below or send us an email. Happy Teaching!
Photo Source: F is for First Grade Help your kiddos remember what it means to be a good listener with this super cute diagram featured over at F is for First Grade! Melissa took it a step further and put together a printable worksheet to use along with the diagram she found on First Grade Garden that will give your kiddos a chance to show everything they know about being a good listener. Check it out: Photo Source: F is for First Grade Head over to F is for First Grade to grab the FREE worksheet!
Corkboard Connections is a blog written by Laura Candler who enjoys connecting terrific teachers with amazing resources!
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As I work to empower my students, this year I added student jobs to band and orchestra. Students now get to fulfill specific roles.
There are many procedures that you teach at the beginning of the year. Some of them you know by heart. But, it seems like there are always a few that you forget to teach until you have an "oops!" moment. Phone calls are one of those procedures that I forget to teach my class until I get my first phone call. Then it is the big "Oops! I really need to add that to my procedures list next year". Somehow I forget to do that because you know what the beginning of the year is like, crazy busy with a big dose of overwhelm-ness thrown in for good measure. Learn from my mistakes and add what you want your students to do when the phone rings to your procedure list. The next time the phone rings, you'll be glad you did. At the beginning of the year, there is always a larger percentage of your class that blurts out. For some students, it takes them a while to get back into school mode. For others, it can be a matter of: ANXIETY: Beginning of the year can be a scary thing. Think about your last job interview did you ramble on more than you normally would? This is how it is with the nervous type of blurters. They are anxious. With time, they will adjust to the expectations of your classroom. Sensitivity and patience works best with these type of students. Heavy handed discipline or laying-down the law does not work with an anxious blurter. All that does is make them more anxious and prone to blurt more. Try to ignore their blurting as much as possible. Making connections with them during work time or recess will help make them more comfortable with you and at school. The smallest comment like "I noticed you working really hard on your journal today" can pay the biggest dividends with them. IMPULSIVITY: Some students are impulsive and excitable by nature. It could be also be a matter of maturity. Check their birthdate. Were they born between May - August? Whether it is their nature or a matter of maturity, there are strategies that you can use. The parking garage is a strategy to use when you are teaching a whole group lessons. Some students that blurt respond well to a visual reminder. I made small stop signs and kept them everywhere that I kept one at my reading table, carpet time, white board, and all the other places that I taught. I didn't stop what I was teaching when one of my students blurted, I held up my small stop sign that I put on a popsicle stick. The student quickly learned what the sign meant and without any verbal directions from me, stopped interrupting the lesson. Here is a freebie for you. Do you have colleagues that pop in when you are teaching? Sometimes there is a reason why it is necessary to ask you a question during your instructional time. But, many times questions could wait until you have a prep period, or before/after school. If you have co-workers that are making a habit of popping in at the wrong time you can handle it different ways. Talk to them, privately, if it is becoming a problem. Shut your classroom door during the day when you are teaching and don't want to be interrupted. This works as a visual cue for most people. If you don't want to be interrupted after school when you are catching up on paperwork, close your door then, too. It works as well after school as during the day. Did you hang a marker board outside your dorm room in undergrad? People left you notes if you were sleeping or not in your room. I have seen teachers used this same type of method. They kept a marker board or even a small table with a pad of paper and pen outside their classroom door. People can write a note and leave it in the basket. The first school I taught at was a Catholic School. Students were taught to stand up next to their desk, face the person who enters their classroom, and greet them with either "Good Morning Mr./Mrs. ___ or Good Afternoon Mr./Mrs. ____". It was to show respect and greet the person when he or she came into a classroom. People rarely visited other classrooms during the instructional time, because the greetings clearly demonstrated that you were interrupting our class. Looking for more tips? Check out my Classroom Management Pinterest board. Click on the picture below. Fern has a few tips to share with you, too. Be sure to hop over to her blog! Each week, Fern and I share a Tuesday Teacher Tip. We love to read teacher blogs and the latest teacher idea books and hope you do, too! Stop by Fern's blog and my blog each week for our latest tips. We hope you will share your ideas, too. Each week we will choose one person who shared a tip on our blog who will get a $10 shopping trip. We will announce the winner on the following Tuesday's post. Do you have a interruptions, blurts, or other distraction tip to share? Be sure to include your email so I can contact you if you're the winner of the $10 shopping trip. You must leave your email address in order to win. Looking for more ideas? Click on the pictures below. An InLinkz Link-up http://teach123-school.blogspot.com/2014/08/interruptions-blurts-out-and-other.html
Great ideas and resources for teaching solid figures in a kindergarten or first grade classroom. Download a FREE anchor chart about solid figures.
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This adding & subtracting integers bulletin board set will really help your math class and will look GREAT on your wall!
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My classroom game is on POINT this year! I am a secondary science teacher with limited wall space. I’ve wanted to figure out a way to spice up my classroom decor with authentic, colorful materials and anchor charts. As a science teacher, my wall space is covered with cabinets and whiteboards, leaving little room for […]
The classroom posters in this post have helped my students throughout our quadratic functions unit from the vocabulary they see to solving word problems to working with the graphing calculator and using the quadratic formula. I wanted to share them for free in this post in case you have any algebra or algebra 2 students who need extra support through their graphing quadratics unit.
Look for some apple math activities for the Fall season? Try out this apple fraction activity with a fraction book and a fraction spin game!
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Everything you need to know about teaching 5th grade categorized and organized by topic for easy reference.
Take a closer look.
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Are you looking for some activities for teaching suffixes? Check out these free materials including activities for Google Slides, videos, anchor charts,
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Teaching geometry can be FUN! Take a look at these geometry videos, books, anchor charts, activities, games, and freebies! Perfect for 1st and 2nd grade!
Looking for some lesson plans ideas for dialogue, imagery or point of view? Then this post is for you!
Great ideas and inspiration in this middle school classroom reveal - from decorating to small group areas to hanging posters and anchor charts.
So many ways to help learning stick!
