Setting up a classroom, especially the first classroom that is all your own, is overwhelming! It’s tough to know where to start, and many teachers feel the need to create a Pinterest-worthy classroom before the first day of school – but that’s just not true! Your focus should be on making your classroom functional and comfortable, for both your students and yourself! Here are some tips to get you headed in the right direction!
- Setting up your classroom is actually not the first thing you should do to prepare for the school year! Your classroom should be set up around the routines and procedures that your students will utilize each day. Before you set anything up, think carefully about how students will turn in papers, where communal supplies will be and how they will be accessed, how students will get help if needed, and how students will see and interact with the main teaching area, just to name a few. It can be helpful to imagine you are a student and walk through a typical day in your classroom, paying special attention to the places you need to access. Then, make sure these areas are clear, organized, and easily accessible to all.
- Avoid themes. In my opinion, themes can be stressful to plan and can become outdated easily, meaning you’ll need to refresh and change things up more often. Instead, focus on a general color scheme of 2-3 colors and stick with it year after year. I use mainly cool tones in my classroom, so I have class decor that is mainly blue, black, and white. Then turn in bins I use, student supply cart, and bulletin boards are all variations on the color scheme, meaning they look good together and it’s easy as I’m shopping for classroom items to know what will match and what won’t. Also, these colors won’t go out of style, so I know I won’t need to start from scratch all over again!
- Use posters with a purpose- I recommend using classroom decor that serves a purpose, such as reference posters. Even in middle school, decimal place value posters, number lines, and other visuals can be so helpful to students and can stay up for most of the year. For ELA classes, spelling posters, plot diagrams, and character trait posters are great to leave up! Continue to model referencing these posters throughout your units to help instill the concepts in your students and really get the most use out of your classroom decor!
- Give every item a home – Create an organized system for backstock of items. I use labeled bins, which allows my instructional assistants or students to find items easily if they need to. Hold yourself accountable to putting items back where they belong! It’s much easier to organize when you are first entering a classroom than when you are 15 years in!
- Be open to change! Especially in your first few years of teaching, you will try new things and change your classroom arrangement when something isn’t working. It takes time to nail down classroom routines and routes, so get creative and try something new! Once you find a set up that works – take a picture! This will help you remember what you liked when things get moved around or you move schools!
6. Don’t buy all the stuff! It can be easy to think you need whatever