It’s time to stop decorating your classroom. Sure, it’s important to put your best face forward. But displaying works better – and takes less time. Just make a simple shift in your classroom beautification strategies.
Ms. Sneed Wants the Ultimate Classroom
Our favorite fourth grade teacher was visiting Pinterest again. All of the gorgeous classroom decoration pins had her drooling. “This year,” she told her teacher friend, “my classroom will be Pinterest-worthy.” She showed Mrs. Abdullah some of her designs.
“Wow! This is ridiculously gorgeous!” Mrs. Abdullah exclaimed. Ms. Sneed beamed.
“Have you considered how any of this will increase learning?” Mrs. Abdullah continued. Ms. Sneed’s face fell.
“Furthermore, how will our principal get evidence of good teaching when he walks through?” Ms. Sneed looked like she would cry.
“Now, don’t fret,” said Mrs. Abdullah. “This is all beautiful. But decorating takes a lot of time. And it doesn’t really show what your kiddos are learning. You need to let your walls do the talking.” Ms. Sneed perked up a little.
As the year progressed, Ms. Sneed developed a new mantra: Don’t decorate. Display! She saved time. Furthermore, the walls of her classroom showed evidence of learning. When the principal came to visit, he told Ms. Sneed that the student work on her walls actually improved her teacher evaluation score.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways Ms. Sneed created classroom displays.
Decorating Your Classroom with Student Writing
Are you “pinspired”? Feel free to pin images from this post.
Ms. Sneed displayed a lot of student writing. She often asked students to illustrate their work, which added to the beauty of the bulletin board. This fables display was one of her favorites.
Decorating Your Classroom with Projects
Ms. Sneed looked for purposeful ways that she could turn projects into displays. For example, this astronaut research project included photographs to place next to student research.
Decorating Your Classroom with Anchor Charts
Although she hadn’t used anchor charts often, Ms. Sneed decided to give it a try. She found that creating questions ahead of time effectively guided her discussion. Engagement and learning improved. Additionally, she had a good looking graphic to hang on the wall.
Decorating Your Classroom with Learning in Action
Somehow, Ms. Sneed had never thought of moving learning to the walls. In the past, activities stayed on students’ desks. When she hung this set of arrays on the wall, a surprising thing happened! Kids were up, moving, and super engaged.
Decorate Your Classroom with Interactives
As she looked for new ideas, a new world opened up for Ms. Sneed. For example, she combined this pi timeline with some paper plate pi exit tickets. Voila! A beautiful (and educational) display.
Decorate Your Classroom with Novel Studies
One day, Ms. Sneed took down an old bulletin board. “What can I put here?” she wondered. The class was reading Elephant Run. “Hmm, could I display their summaries, vocabulary, and these maps?” Instant display! Ms. Sneed realized that ways to display learning are endless.
Decorate Your Classroom with Task Cards
Ms. Sneed loved task cards. But they were making a big, ugly mess on her table. No problem! She purchased a cardholder and slapped it onto an empty spot on the wall. As a permanent fixture in her room, Ms. Sneed just changed up the task cards. Whether students were working on whole numbers, geology, or parts of speech, the task cards were up and ready to go.
Decorating Your Classroom with Generalizations
When Ms. Sneed taught science, she asked kids to make generalizations. Instead of just an oral debriefing, her students now created a visual display. Once again, her new policy of displaying student work improved learning in her classroom.
It’s Time to Create Your First Display
Finding ways to create displays is fun and easy. You will save time – and your classroom will look fabulous. Furthermore, every person entering your space will see evidence of learning between (and on) those four walls. In addition, you can try these quick, creative bulletin board ideas:
- Use trade books. (Yep, just cut them apart.)
- Use clip art.
- Hang interactive elements.
- Electrify it!
Enjoy Teaching
Over the course of her career, Ms. Sneed realized that there were 6 steps to enjoy teaching. In order to survive, she had to organize, plan, and simplify. Then, to thrive, Ms. Sneed needed to learn, engage, and finally – dive in! Follow the Fabulous Teaching Adventures of Ms. Sneed and learn how you can enjoy teaching too.
