2016-2017 Black and Gold Classroom

The summer before my first year of teaching, one of the things I was most excited for was to decorate my classroom. I had been filling my Pinterest boards with ideas throughout college and was ready to get cracking. Unfortunately, I was broke and could barely pay my first-months-rent, therefore, I needed to find a way to decorate without breaking the bank. I decided to go with a colorful polka dot theme that the kids loved. They told me how my room always felt so bright and comfortable when they came in for class. I take pride in the fact that students enjoy coming to my class, if for nothing else, than because they feel safe and happy.

With that being said, my second year, I decided to splurge a little and do some D.I.Y. and change things up. My principal had already painted several of the bulletin boards around school with black paint and it really made the contents stand out AND it eliminated the need for fabric and boarders. So, with a leap of faith and several hours during the summer, I painted the three bulletin boards in my room black and they turned out great! I absolutely loved how my room looked last year with all of my cheap and affordable finds and the style of the room. Here are some pictures to give you an idea of how it looked...

This is one of the D.I.Y. projects I mentioned. The podium was a oak color and I painted it with a small can of white acrylic paint as seen in the picture.

This is the finished podium and the wall with my small classroom library. I bought the black and gold fringe on Amazon from a graduation party business.

World Time Zone Wall... I know it's not a new idea, but I had tons of people ask me about it! The clocks came in packs of two from Amazon and were fairly cheap. I made the signs myself.

Gallery Wall - all of the frames were cheap finds from Goodwill or Wal-Mart. None of them were more than $4-5 and most of them were under $1. The empty frames I filled with spectacular student work throughout the school year. The kids were pretty excited to get on the "Frame Wall".

Ignore all of the junk on top of my filling cabinet. One of my favorite parts of my room this past year was the "Homework Board". I filled it out as best as I could Monday morning and this gave students a heads up as to what homework they would have for the week. It also served as a resource for students when they were absent to find out what they missed.

The area on the left is the Table of Contents for the class binders that students had. Instead of interactive notebooks, I use class binders that have a table of contents of all notes, readings, and worksheets from the year. Each worksheet is numbered and easy to find. The bulletin board on the right is a fun board for students in my computer basics class and also has key shortcuts for Macs.

This is what the other side of my classroom looked like on the first day. I always put up the purpose or "I can" statement for the day's lesson. The right side under the date is where I wrote bell ringers or told students what to take out.

Also, something that I absolutely loved was the date magnets that I made. I took some construction paper and printed out the days of the week and the dates for the calendar, laminated them, and stuck some cheap magnets on the back. It simplified my morning routine so much and if I ever forgot, my first hour kids were quick to tell me and even wanted to fix it themselves... There's something with magnets and middle schoolers... they are drawn to them!

This bullet in board was at the front of my classroom on the left as students walked in. It had the hall passes, a bin for missing work, the unprepared binder, my expectations for students, and the class schedule. Lastly, the right side is an area where I would post quarterly grades for students to check (I would of course use their student number, not their names).

I will be posting my progress and final pictures of the 2017-2018 school year classroom decor around August, so if you are subscribed, check your email for new posts. If not, then HURRY UP AND SUBSCRIBE ALREADY! ;)

Have a great summer!

#DIY #Classroom #Decor