Back-to-School Ready!

As all teachers can relate, the last few days of my vacation were not spent daydreaming, basking in the sun, or sleeping in. Instead, I was knee-deep in preparing my classroom for opening day. And as many  teacher-nerds can attest, back-to-school prepping is not something I dread, but instead it is something I look forward to at the end of every summer.

In this post, I would like to share how I set up my middle school classroom as well as some organizational and decor tips. If I were to describe my philosophy for decorating and organizing my classroom in just three words, I would say it is practical, functional, and affordable. While having a theme is cute and easy on the eye, it is not who I am. If you look at my classroom, you will notice that I do not follow a specific theme, I use all the colors of the rainbow, and there are no motifs:

Having a color scheme is awesome, I mean, I use color schemes when decorating my home. However, when it comes to my classroom, I like to take advantage of bargains, hand-me-downs, what's readily available, etc. Therefore, filtering all the available resources out there to only a few colors can leave my pocket stranded since I will very likely have to spend more money to get just the right colors for my classroom.

I believe that you can still achieve a polished, neat, and inviting atmosphere without having to marry a color scheme or theme and without breaking the bank.

Let's face it: school can be a drag sometimes. Therefore, I love to infuse bits of my personality and some humor into my classroom decor, so this hallway log had to have one of my favorite creations of the 21st century: the meme!

I fall for anything that lights up and this lightbox from Big Lots is just too irresistible to pass up. Plus, infusing my classroom with bits of home decor makes it that much more inviting and relaxing for students.

Please ignore the extra laptop cart to the right of the picture...I promise it will not be there once school starts! Anyway, this summer I was really inspired by the book The Growth Mindset Coach: A Teacher's Month‑by‑Month Handbook for Empowering Students by Annie Brock and Heather Hundley and the messages on my student work bulletin boards reflect just that.

This summer I spent much time experimenting with Canva which allows users to create all sorts of publications, print and digital. I am absolutely in love with the ease with which I can create advanced and professional-looking displays. I created this classroom sign announcing my classroom website on Canva in just under 10 minutes.

The theme for the first unit of the year is Bold Actions, so I printed inspirational quotes on photo paper from my local Walmart and pasted them on a neon cardstock strip...done!

I surrounded my agenda board with magnetic borders, laminated the neon labels I purchased from Dollar Tree, and used the Today Show symbol for the word "today." Again, I like bringing in aspects of my personality and things I like.

Last summer, I painted this canvas as part of a paint-and-sip party my sister and I held at my house. We actually just watched a YouTube video to make our paintings. Although I do not think my painting was great, when my students see it they cannot believe I made it; this is a great way to show them a side of myself they might not get to see throughout the year. I got the idea of the Bookmark Logs from the book No More Fake Reading by Berit Gordon, which is a must-read for any Language Arts teacher that wants to kick up their students' engagement with their independent reading books!

Again, the book No More Fake Reading really took my independent reading game to the next level. It gave me ideas and reasons for reorganizing my classroom library in a way that is appealing for my middle school students. Now my next goal is to grow, grow, grow my collection. Just last week I was able to purchase around 10 books from my local thrift store for only $12. These books aren't boring and old either; they are current bestsellers in excellent condition. Also, as you can see, I do not marry a color scheme here; I found the mint baskets for a really good price at Big Lots, the clear boxes are from Dollar Tree, and my school supplied me with the blue bins. In my opinion, the area still looks put-together and appealing even though the items don't match.

A closer look at the book baskets. Creative labels such as "Hopeless Romantic" and "Middle School Years" draw students' attention...thank you No More Fake Reading for yet another great idea!

This bin is located right next to the independent reading area. I made the sign with Canva and got the idea from...you guessed it...No More Fake Reading. I will place short stories and articles organized by reading level to keep unprepared students from becoming distracted and distracting others.

I created an area on the window for students to post sticky notes of favorite lines they pull from their books. I started it off by posting favorite lines of my own. I can't wait to see the collage of sticky notes on the window!

The view from my desk. :)

Here's a video collage I made with all the pictures I explained above and then some:

I wish all of us teachers a successful and purpose-driven school year. As the saying goes, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." I think teachers know this all to well! Share your comments and questions below and if you have any classroom decor and organization ideas, please feel free to share those as well.

With Love,

The Curious Teacher