classroom decor

Best Secondary Resources for Back-to-School

Planning for back-to-school just got easier with this carefully curated list of ideas, tips, suggestions, and resources for your secondary classroom – in any subject!

1) Teacher Planning and Organization: Calendars, planners, notes, Oh My! The list goes on and on for what the teacher needs to get organized and feel ready-to-go for the first days of school. For me, that’s my planner and my high-level curriculum map. In the past it has been hard to find a planner perfectly suitable to the unique schedules of the secondary world, so I made some. And then I made some more! Now I have a fun line of different themes tailored specifically to the various schedules in a middle or high school – in traditional and digital formats.

Choose a planner that works for you, and get comfortable with it. I like a planner that is only for planning because it helps me keep focused. Watch a quick Facebook live video where I explain how I set mine up, and I also wrote a blog post explaining how to get the most out of your planner. Read that post here.

My friend Lauralee over at Language Arts Classroom wrote about her process for classroom organization over on her beautiful blog. You can read her ideas here. And her back-to-school pack of goodies will establish consistency in your secondary classroom from the first day of school with this organizational bundle. Included are an editable presentation covering routines, procedures, and expectations; hallway passes; a parent letter; Google Classroom Backgrounds, and syllabus. The design is clean and simple and made with older students in mind. So pretty!

2) Classroom Decor: Decorating and organizing my classroom is probably one of my favorite things to do to get me in the mood for back-to-school. I don’t always do a lot with decor each year, but I always try to bring in one or two things new. I’ll pause here to address the camp of people that say, “It’s not about the room. The kids just want to meet you, the teacher.” That’s true… to some degree. However, I think the room needs to be as clean and organized as possible to create a welcoming environment, but I think the aforementioned sentiment comes from the place where teachers go regarding overspending and unhealthy comparing. To read more on that topic, swing by this blog post: How my trip to Magnolia Market helped me prepare for back-to-school. With that said, I’d love to share some cute student-centered and student-created classroom decor supplies and ideas. If an activity can double as classroom door (AKA – the kids create it and I don’t have to), then that is perfect to me. For all my secondary math friends out there, take quick trip over to Math in the Middle’s blog and read her post on setting up your middle school math classroom. She has tons of practical ideas and pictures! Scaffolded Math and Science does just that for her middle school math classroom with her back-to-school math pennants. Some pennants ask students to fill in information about themselves (name, birthday, favorite color, favorite class), some have numbers of the Fibonacci Sequence within the Spiral, and others are more open-ended for coloring or adding what you’d like to see on the pennants. Super cute!

O Some Great Stuff for English Teachers has her students create “Share Your World” globes that reveal their true identities. Perfect classroom decor and icebreaker all in one! I typically have my freshmen do a Soundtrack of their Life, but I think I’ll add this activity in as well!

The growth mindset trend continues to grow, and I think that’s because it’s actually something that makes sense and works! Chalk Dust Diva has a no-prep set of posters she made for any subject at the secondary level that you could use a million different ways! Promoting growth mindset is also an excellent way establish a positive classroom climate, and Chalk Dust Diva has a creative presentation and reading lesson that will teach your student what it means to have a “growth mindset” and how the views and beliefs they have about themselves impacts the decisions they make and the lives they lead.

Sometimes just putting a few posters around the room will help spruce things up a little, too, and I love reminding students that how we treat each other is so important. Grab my free anti-bullying awareness posters here. They are super easy to print and go!

3) Housekeeping: We all have to satisfy requirements from admin, ensure communication with parents, track data, make sub plans, keep attendance, and more. Here are a few resources to help make all that easier. Math by the Mountain keeps office hours, and she posts them for students and parents. This idea really helps students respect boundaries and take ownership. Elly Thorsen fixed up a parent and student survey in English and Spanish, which I think is awesome to already have that done! It provides information about how to contact family members, the strengths and areas of need of the student, and other helpful information to know as a teacher.

Unfortunately, a major issue we have to plan for is absenteeism. Free to Discover created a cute set of absentee slips to help students stay organized if they have been out. They are free; grab them here. I also write weekly assignments on the board each week and post the list on the Google Classroom stream. Having a method for tracking data is another item on our back-to-school list, and I like to set up a way for that to be student-centered. Take a quick look at a blog post I wrote about how I track data. It’s super simple, and best of all — it’s authentic and collected by students! Read that post here. Grab my data pack here… or get it in a money-saving bundle of other great back-to-school goodies for any subject at the secondary level here.

Sub plans are another item on my back-to-school to-do list as well. I usually grab the matching Sub Plans label (from the planners I make) and fix up a new 3-ring binder with the daily schedule, class rosters, seating charts, and school emergency plan. Then, I’ll add a few emergency lessons in another section just in case of an unexpected absence. In my high school English classroom, I typically use my Hot Topics Info Text lessons because they are no prep and have the substitute instructions sheet included.

4) Classroom Climate: From the moment students step foot in the classroom, they need to feel welcomed. Even though, we may not as secondary teachers do a hug or high five with each student who enters, we can set a positive and inviting tone. Icebreakers and team building games play a role in creating a welcoming environment for students. Teens love to talk, but they are pretty insecure when it comes to speaking up and out in class. These conversation starters from Pathway 2 Success are a flexible way to get kids chatting. The 170 task cards are the ideal mix of questions regarding self, home, friends, school, family, and beliefs. They would be awesome to help students share information, open up, and begin to form positive relationships.

Escape games are still really hot right now, and I know my kids would love to participate in one as an icebreaker on the first day of school. Presto Plans won’t let her middle school students zone out on the first days of school! Her back-to-school zombie escape game is highly engaging! It can be used in English class as it incorporates some ELA skills, but can also work for any other subject.

Lit with Lynns created one that will work with any class. Her game includes a crossword puzzle, a completely EDITABLE syllabus accompanied by a syllabus scavenger hunt, and a get to know other students activity. I love that it’s a quick 3-puzzle game, so it doesn’t take up too much time, but lets kids have a little fun! Barraug Books and Curriculum goes old school for her back-to-school team building game: Cup Towers. While students are racing against the clock to build the tallest cup tower, you are evaluating their strengths and interpersonal skills. It’s a win-win!

Since I’m not a science teacher, it didn’t even occur to me that part of setting up a classroom climate should include safety measures until I saw this science lab for teaching science lab safety from Strawberry Shake! This resource contains everything you need to get your students started safely in your lab or science classroom, and I think your middle school science kids would love it.

Andrea from Right Down the Middle has a cool idea for incentives, which an excellent tool for positive classroom management. Students are able to earn reward incentives through their kind deeds, actions, and performance in class, then they cash them in at various times during the year.

Bell ringers are probably the #1 activity teachers need in their toolbox to set the stage for class right from the beginning of the year. Part of classroom climate, to me, is structure and order. Bell ringers say to students: We are going to be serious about work and have purpose in this class. Content-specific bell ringers are meaningful for your subject matter, and they teach students to get busy and orderly right from the start of class. Spanish teachers can also set things up for each day of school with Angie Torre’s Spanish Bell Ringers. They are packed full of tasks to challenge your high school students. I love use to grammar bell ringers with my high school English classes. Ten minutes each day covers a lot of ground in grammar, and my students are working from bell to bell.

Last but not least, are the classroom rules… but going over classroom rules doesn’t have to be boring! I created these fun emoji puppets that I use every year with my high school students on the first day of school.

If setting up station rotations is more your idea of fun for addressing classroom rules and procedures, check out of a few of these ideas: With Tween Spirit’s back to school stations, students search the syllabus, take selfies, and more. Room 213 sets up stations, too, and she has students setting goals, meeting classmates, and learning rules.

5) Activities and Lessons: A teacher can never have too many back-to-school activities, in my opinion. It’s like a girl with her shoes – something to match each outfit and/or situation. If you are like me, once you do a few icebreakers and go over classroom rules, you are ready to get to work. A good place to start is with review. Real Lessons for the Teenage Mind has a bundle of review activities for English skills that would be perfect for your middle school students because they combine authenticity, movement, competition, and collaboration to make sure your students stay engaged and build a positive classroom culture in the first week. I like to use my 100 Words Every High School English Student Should Know list as a pre-test to see where students are with their Tier 3 Vocabulary. Science teachers can review key terms and even lab safety with The Lab’s Back to School Science Color by Number Activity Bundle.

If you teach middle or high school Spanish, you are going to love The Stress Free Spanish Teacher’s Spanish Llama Mystery Pictures. We all have that crazy picture day right at the beginning of school, and these are so clever. I laughed out loud when I saw them!

Once the first few days are over, then what? Start looking at long-term units and units that build on each other through the year. OCBeach Teacher has her students working on writing prompts that encourage students to think critically about situations requiring problem solving. Teacher of any high school subject who want to get in more reading and writing this year could take a look at my no prep Article of the Week Resource. Reading pedagogy suggests that students are most successful with a text when they revisit it more than once with a different and meaningful purpose each time. The “article of the week” approach does that. Get ready for standardized reading assessments and improve your students’ reading and comprehension skills a little at a time week over week!

I also love this email etiquette mini unit from Reading and Writing Haven. She said, “You might be surprised to learn that 91% of people check their email daily. It’s a real-life skill. Email is the #1 app used on a smart phone. In short, email matters. We need to teach students how to represent themselves well when communicating in this genre.” Melissa is passionate about helping teachers help kids gain the skills they need to function in the real-world, and this mini unit is the perfect way to set kids up for success during those first days of the year.

Luke Rosa from Students of History says, “As all teachers know, it is [going to be] a long school year. Over the course of [the next] 180 school days, there are bound to be point where both you as a teacher, and the students, are burned out, bored, or just otherwise not excited about the curriculum.” Bookmark his blog post, “6 Awesome Insta-Worthy Classroom Activities.” I plan to visit it throughout the year to give myself a little boost when the activity idea bank starts running low.

Here’s to a great school year. Please feel free to link up in the comments what you use and do successfully for back-to-school!

Love this content? Join a group! There are already tons of ideas, freebies, and fabulous teachers in my new groups, and joining is simple. Just click over to the following links, answer a few questions, and voila! Thanks again for following along my classroom stories and small-business journey, and I really do hope you to see you over in my new “backyards” where we can chat and share all things English and Yearbook.

Written 7/2019

Cover Photo Matt Raglan

End-of-Year Reflection: Top Five Classroom Success Stories of 2018

It seems to me that 2018 has been quite the long year… but then again it does feel like I was just rounding the corner of 2018 not too long ago, and here we are already at 2019. One of the most important things we can do as teachers is reflect, and so that’s why I love this annual blog post. It’s been my new year tradition for the past several years (2015, 2016, 2017), and choosing only five moments is always so hard, but here goes: My top five classroom success stories of 2018! This year in review…

1) Read-o-Lution: Reading is the hallmark – the cornerstone – of any English classroom, but let’s face it: In today’s time, even reading can sometimes take a backseat to everything else we cover. And with our teens walking around with tiny TVs in their hands at all times streaming the latest Netflix Original or watching the newest Youtube sensation, there isn’t much reading going on. I started the second semester (Jan 2018) with a focus on reading and having my juniors make a reading resolution or “read-o-lution” after studying an article about the importance of reading. If you are a Common Core state, you can use the reading passage from Appendix A to discuss the importance and value of reading. If not or if you just want something ready-to-go for the new year, I have this super simple informational hot topics lesson on how Reading Is Good For Your Brain. Throughout the year, I implemented my Article of the Week program, too (another blog post to come on that this year but you can get the materials for it here now). We also read more full-length short fiction texts in class, and my honors students read an out-of-class novel for book clubs. (See more about my book clubs here). I also set up a mini classroom library, and students checked out books all year long that way. I left their poster up the rest of the semester, and many students truly did make efforts to take reading more seriously and achieve their reading resolution.

2) Podcasts: I love introducing students to something new, and surprisingly Podcasts were actually kinda new to my students. They had, of course, heard of them, but they never really listened to them. Again… why would they when they could just watch something on the tube? I actually used Podcasts two ways this year. First, with my yearbook staff, we listened to a Podcast crime series when we finished our book. Up and Vanished (Season 1 carefully edited) was the perfect way to get my staff engaged. They completed a casebook to keep track of their listening and crime solving. That casebook is free in my TeachersPayTeachers store. Second, in my English class, we did some spooky Podcasts from Lore during Halloween, and students took notes on a podcast worksheet I created. (Get those here.) Then, they wrote their own spooky stories. My students wrote some really amazing stories: We had many laughs and many spooky cold chills, too! Readers of my email newsletter Teaching Tidbits with Julie Faulkner got that activity for free back in October. Be sure to sign up for that email at the bottom of the page, so you don’t miss anymore goodies. You can also see some of my Podcast suggestions via this link over to my Facebook page at Julie’s Classroom Stories.

3) Victorian Tea Party: Another focus I had this past year was on careers. Whether students were going straight to a career or college after senior year, I still wanted them to be focused on their futures in terms of where will they work when it’s all said and done. I’ve found that this year especially, my students are so uncertain about what they want to do, and they don’t even really have any idea what’s out there. I’m going to be adding a few more career-based lessons in the new year to possibly help students get a better idea of what their options are and what might be a good fit for them. But this project was an interesting way for students to really think about who they are as a person and what they’d like to become — just like our gal pal Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion/My Fair Lady. Hats are a huge symbol in this text, and I wanted students to not only understand and recognize that symbol and it’s role in the characterization, but I also wanted them to make text-to-self connections as well. I loved seeing how their hats turned out, and it was a fun way to make a class party text-based. See this activity and all the instructions here in my TpT store.

4) Sieve and the Sand Experiment: I’ve lost count how many times I’ve taught Fahrenheit 451 over the years, but this year I did something new that I’d never done before: a science experiment. No we didn’t burn anything… though it alarms me how many people want to burn books as part of teaching this unit. (Insert “I dunno” emoji here.) This was actually an experiment that brought the text to life and helped students get hands-on with Bradbury’s choices. I hid a few “surprises” in the sand for students to find, but ultimately, my goal of them being able to use the experiment as a jumping off point for discussion during book club meeting was super successful. I was really proud of how they went back to the text to see what Bradbury said and truly analyzed Montag’s memory. Get my 451 unit here.

5) Character Stockings: About once a year I can get it together to make a huge reading display outside my classroom door. I wish I could do it more often, but quality over quantity, right? This year, we were inspired by Fahrenheit 451 to design a hearth and decorate it for Christmas. I drew the outline for the hearth and printed up the stockings using clip art. Several of my students drew the fire and bricks and put on the finishing touches with paint. Each student then chose one character from the novel and designed a stocking for that character using text-based details. I LOVE the way it turned out!! I’m so proud of it, I’ll probably be “one of those people” who leave their Christmas decorations up year-round. LOL!

As you can probably see, this year was about all about a focus on reading — fiction and nonfiction. I wanted students to see the value in reading and truly immerse themselves in it. Making text-to-text connections, text-to-world connections, and text-to-self connections really taught students to dig in and read closely. I think the reading focus paid off: Just seeing students doing more guided reading in class and independent reading out was fulfillment enough, but we also saw major improvements in ACT reading scores with students making gains of 5-6 points on the reading section and some students scoring 30+. That sounds like a great year to me! Share your best moments of 2018 below, and here’s to having your own classroom success stories in 2019!

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Journey Classroom Theme Ideas

Last year I moved into a new classroom, and it was worth the wait. I had been hoping I’d eventually have the opportunity to move into this room because it was so much bigger. It has tons of cabinets and even an office! Once I found out I’d be moving, I knew I wanted to do a new theme – and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Over the past few years, I’ve been collecting journey-themed items because that idea just really inspires me. Hopefully this post of my classroom makeover journey – see what I did there 😉 – will inspire you, too. I’m also doing this post a little different from my normal 5-point posts. I’m just going to give you tons of pictures because when I’m looking at classrooms that what I always want more of! Enjoy!

THE OFFICE BEFORE

I had to do a lot of cleaning out and cleaning up before I could even move into the room. The office space – below – was so full when I got there that I could barely open the door enough to get in. After tons of work and some help from my very talented hubby, I have an amazing, private office space. Those shelves — he made those!

THE OFFICE AFTER

My favorite part of the office is the beautiful collage wall. I found the items at yard sales, antique stores, and clearance racks all summer long. I just picked things that I loved, and we figured out a good layout for the items. On the wall across from the windows above the filing cabinets, I hung two vintage maps that I rescued from the closet in this room. On my desk I have my re-purposed lamp. (See the tutorial on how to do that here.) I also grabbed these galvanized picnic bins for holding desk items. I even went all out and made a matching planner. You can get that here.

^^Only pic I had a of my wall maps!

^^The burlap curtains came from Amazon, and I moved them over from my other room. You could easily grab some burlap from a hobby store and whip up your own to save money if you sew.

THE CLASSROOM BEFORE

The classroom also needed a lot of cleaning up and cleaning out, but look at all the space and storage!

THE CLASSROOM AFTER: WALLS

One of the first things I tackled was hanging up my signs and posters.

^^ I found those cute and authentic street signs above the cabinets at a local antique store.

^^ Next, I wanted to display places where I’ve traveled because they bring back good memories for me, and it turned out to be a good conversation starter with my students. In the center is a handmade plaque I got from a local artisan that reminds my students and me that no matter where we go, home is always at the center.

^^ This classroom even has sinks! I wanted to infuse as much text as possible into the room, so I made these journey-themed posters with poetry for above each sink. Get those posters here FREE. I had them printed at Walgreens.

^^ I used remnant linen fabric to line the bulletin board and the two borders came from here and here.

^^ Hall pass signs, classroom rules, bulletin boards, and even the mirror by the door are all decked out with the journey-themed touches. Get all those posters here FREE. Again, printed at Walgreens.

^^ These weekly road map signs for daily tasks are a must for my classroom, and they are easy to make. Here’s how I did it. I bought these weekly calendar posters and put them in these frames. Now, if you had access to large paper to make a poster or even just a poster board and nice handwriting :), you could get away a lot cheaper! I made one for each subject I teach. I put the calendars in frames, and I use a dry eraser marker to write on my daily topics. I do this on Monday so students (me too) can see the plan! Get the weekly road map sign here free.

THE CLASSROOM AFTER: STUDENT DESKS

I’d never done grouped seating arrangements before, but I really loved the idea of giving it a try. I have to say that it was successful, and I will be doing it again this year. I didn’t want anybody’s back to the board, so I came up with this formation. It also gives plenty of room for my big kids to have their own space (I have juniors and seniors).

I searched and searched for ideas for towers that would fit my theme, work for the space, and look right for bigger kids. The tins and towers weren’t cheap, but I had done some fundraising to get enough money to cover it. Plus, the towers came from Target and they were on sale and I used a coupon! I got the tins here from Amazon. I put highlighters, colored pencils, and red pens in the tins on the first shelf. I fixed wipes, tissues, and GermX in baskets on the 2nd shelf, and we used the bottom shelf for our textbooks. The towers were really handy for the students.

I printed the signs at Walgreens, glued them to construction paper, put them in a sheet protector, and used paper clips to fix them to the towers. Get the group signs here free.

OTHER DETAILS

^^ This take-one basket is a strategy that I’ve done for years. I put it on a cart next to my door and put daily handouts in it for kids to pick up on their on their way in. Here’s a quick video I did to explain more.

^^I teach English, so reading is a BIG deal in my classroom. I wanted to create a little spot to highlight the novels we would read as a class in the year. I didn’t put the names of the novels because I wanted it to be a bit of a mystery and conversation starter, so I just used symbols and objects that tell the story. The little suitcases are from a fun brand of clothing I love that my friend sells and she gifted them to me (Matilda Jane). I cut pieces of cardboard and glued map-themed scrapbook paper to it that I salvaged from my sister’s collection to make the story boards. I used scrapbook stickers, and luckily they were either on sale or clearance. The two novels pictured are Columbine and Their Eyes Were Watching God. In addition to the stickers on the story boards, I put other 3D objects like the pears, passport, game controller, etc. The little area did draw attention, and after we read the novels, the symbols started to make sense!

^^ It’s a little hard to see, but on this counter I placed my grade-me basket, calendar, stapler, etc. and my graduation card board. That’s really the thing I love most over there. Over the years, I’ve collected the graduation invites and cards seniors have given me, but they were shoved in the drawer. Now, though, they are the perfect symbol for the end of this journey – the goal – for students before they take the next path in life. I love to display their accomplishment, and it gives younger students a reminder of what they are working for. I just bought one of those fabric photo boards from Hobby Lobby and done. It was getting a little crowded, so at the end of the year this year one of my students surprised me with another one as a gift!

^^ This is my work space. It’s a little counter in the corner. Read here about how I set up my teaching station.

^^ I fixed these little gift bags and tags to do assigned seats on the first day! Get the tags here FREE!

I hope you enjoyed this tour of my classroom, and I hope you found some ideas that will inspire you on your journey this year!

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Heart to Heart with Secondary School Teachers February 2016 Blog Hop

Thank you for joining us on this Valentine’s Day Blog Hop where some great secondary teachers are sharing confessions from the heart about teaching!

1) I like when former students come
back to visit me or see me in a restaurant and say hey! It’s always funny
because they don’t know if they should call me Julie or Mrs. Faulkner. They
usually choose Mrs. Faulkner!

2) I like having student work to hang
on my walls because I hate making bulletin boards. I’m even guilty of having a
cute activity planned but run out of time in class to do it, so I send it home
for extra credit just so I can hang it up!

See
those cork strips pictured where I hang student work up in the hallway? Here’s
how I did it to get a quick and cheap alternative to those expensive bulletin
board strips. Just get the square cork boards that in come in packs at the Dollar
General or Staples and cut them into strips. Hot glue them to the wall, and voilà!
You have instant cork strips for a couple of bucks.

3) I’m always afraid of having a typo
or spelling error in my worksheets or lessons since one of my favorite things
is it to find them in the real-world!

Grammar Fails in Real World, Bell Ringers Proofreading, Ta

Grammar Fails from Real World, Bell Ringers Proofreading,

4) Keep Calm and Have a Red Coke is
my motto. Is it bad that when my students see me drinking a “red coke” they
know it’s been a bad day?

5) Probably one of my favorite things
about teaching is creating lessons and activities that students enjoy and can
connect to. I love trying new teaching strategies or texts. I have a few texts that
I teach over and over each year, but I’m always rotating others in and out
because something in the class, news, or world inspires me to develop a
lesson. That keeps me busy, but I like not being stuck in a rut! See all my other goodies in my teacherspayteachers.com store!

An InLinkz Link-up

Vintage Rock Star Glam Secondary Classroom Decor for Back to School

It’s typically not a secondary kind of thing to do to have a classroom theme. And I certainly never have in all my years of teaching in 7-12 classrooms had an all-out classroom theme like, say, they do in elementary schools. However, I can say there is great value in having a “theme” of sort – even in a secondary classroom. I like to be super-organized, and a theme/scheme works well for me and the students. My theme is “Rock Star,” and on the first day of school we talk about what my theme is and we have a mini lesson on theme development. I chose the rock star theme because 1) I love music and 2) It sets the “stage” for how we are going to be “owning it like rock stars” every day. Yeah, that may be a little cheesy, but I love cheesy, and it really does work.

I’ve had the rock star theme for several years now, but it was actually pretty “thrown together.” I hadn’t put much effort into the look of it in terms of cohesion or cuteness. It was definitely time to jazz it up a little. I love anything vintage, burlap, pink, and chalkboard, so I decided to put that all together for a shabby chic, glam rock star themed classroom! I had plenty of items in my classroom with “good bones,” they just didn’t match or have much style. I picked a few areas to make focal points of the room, and here are the results.

These curtains could be done a couple of ways. I ordered these ready made inexpensive burlap valances from Amazon and hung them with spring rods. However, there are a number of tutorials out and about for making no sew curtains out of burlap. Everything is better with burlap!

The door is, of course, the first thing students see when they come to your classroom. Like I said before, theme is very important in an English classroom, and we talk about it on day one. So, I wanted them to be aware of it right away – hit them on the head (literally!) Yeah, I did have to pull it up a little higher so my junior and senior boys could walk under it!

This little area is much more functional now with the date blocks, sharpener, and journal buckets all in one place. Plus, now it’s all in one place nearby the weekly playlist of assignments, which I really want them to look at often! I’m so proud of my little chalkboard lamp. It was my granny’s lamp, and I loved having it in my classroom. However, it was green and the shade was dry-rotted. I found that ah-mazing burlap shade at Goodwill for $3.00!!!! After a coat of primer and some chalkboard spray paint, I had a shining jewel for about $10 bucks.

Keeping with my Rock Star theme, I made song quotes chalkboard prints and hung them above where students store their bags. My bulletin boards are covered with black fabric (easier and more durable than paper) and fun layered border. I also smile every time I look at my mirror with the V.I.P. sign above it! I do believe the best boards and walls are student-centered and low-maintenance. See my post on student-centered bulletin board ideas here!

I inherited my podium from a teacher friend my first year of teaching! In its former life, it was a wallpaper stand at a paint store. How cool is that? It wasn’t, however, very fancy. I rolled on a couple layers of chalkboard paint, and now my students and I can write new quotes on it whenever we want! My “I’m Done” box also got a makeover. Here I wanted to add a little bit more pink to the room, so I just bought this durable basket from Michael’s. I used the rest of the chalkboard spray paint on the tray where students return handouts.

It’s not perfect, but I think my classroom is ready — now onto planning.

See MORE classroom decor and organizational pics at these posts, too!

Student-Centered Bulletin Boards

Formula for Classroom Success Planning

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An InLinkz Link-up

Student-Centered Bulletin Boards for a Secondary Classroom: 5 Ideas to Make Your Walls Work for You and Your Students

Does anybody else feel this way? I always try to have my room ready before students walk in on the first day; it just helps me feel more put together and prepared. I love to be crafty, but like most secondary English teachers with 75+ kids a day, I just don’t have the time to replace monthly boards with elaborate and often pricey art. Plus I want my classroom full of juniors and seniors to feel comfortable, too, so nothing too over-done or too Disney Channel or too, well, you get the picture!

The solution is simple: I picked a relevant theme that can stand the test of time, planned “bulletin boards” that are student-centered, and designed my room around that theme so not only do the elements match, but they also develop the theme. I chose the theme “Rock Stars” because I like to use that concept to inspire, inform, and motivate my students. I tell them we are on stage like a rock star performing from bell to bell every day! I even let them share with me their concert-going experiences on the first day of school, and we talk about how the star is giving 100% for the entire show. It is a fun way to cover rules, get to know each other, and it is a simple yet purposeful theme. Here are 5 ideas for making your walls student-centered, creative, and easy to update.

1) Weekly To-Do or Objectives List – It doesn’t have to be much; just the
title or objective what’s to be covered each day will do. I also like to put
up-coming tests and homework in red ink.

2) Interactive Word Wall with Key Subject-Specific Words
for the Unit – Again, nothing fancy here, but it does
help guide the focus of the unit and provide a fun interactive way to review at
the end.

3) Student Celebrations in the form of data. – My data board tells the story of the results of our weekly
grammar quizzes. I take the averages of all my classes and post them.
Sometimes I make it a challenge and they can compete against other classes for
a prize! Additionally, the students chart their personal growth in their
folders.

4) Student Celebrations in the form of
student work. When it comes to student work, I always
post creative tasks and projects, and I almost always post everyone’s work.

5) Organize memos, schedules, and forms in colorful folders – I just use push pins and pin the
folders to the board. This way things don’t get lost, scattered, or look
cluttered. Since I am also the yearbook teacher, and we use my classroom
as the yearbook room, this type of “bulletin board” works perfectly
for everything we need, too.

An estimated 50% of my walls are covered with cabinets, technology, and
whiteboards. The other precious real-estate consists of my “décor.” My
classroom theme hasn’t changed for several years now, but my boards are always
up-to-date and changing. My strategy for keeping the boards
up-to-date so students get don’t get bored is all in the content and purpose –
boards with need-to-know information and moments of celebration for students.In a secondary classroom, it is often unique to find a room with creative
and cohesive decorations, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. The best décor is the kind that is
thoughtful and doesn’t take much time to create but packs a huge punch and puts
students first!

See MORE classroom decor and organizational pics at these posts, too!

Vintage Classroom Decor

Formula for Classroom Success Planning

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