Hey, teachers! We sure hope this message finds you lounging poolside with your favorite drink, soaking up the sun and the freedom and rest that comes with summer.
While nobody is ready to think about next school year quite yet, we know it’s always in the back of your minds as you navigate your summer adventures.
One thing that’s perhaps less stressful to ponder over the break is your classroom itself. In fact, it can be fun to explore new ideas for layouts, organization, and management of materials because it’s low-key and kinda dreamy (much like perusing Zillow for your dream house). Plus, you might get a little bit of retail therapy out of it!
Pinterest has piles and piles of excellent ideas, tips, and shopping lists for creating your dream classroom, but it can also be overwhelming. So we’ve rounded up a collection of ideas for you to browse while you sit in your stretchy pants.
Organization
- This teacher has collected her 10 must-haves for classroom organization.
- From color-coded supply caddies to brilliant password management/storage for students, here are 20 classroom ideas you’ll wish you’d had in your life years ago.
Turn the side of your filing cabinet into usable space, organize materials for absent students, and other genius organizational hacks can be found here.
Decoration
- Some teachers aren’t naturals when it comes to decorating a classroom. Here’s a great list to get your wheels spinning.
- This list includes interactive decor, like a classroom Instagram wall and student-managed bulletin board.
- Choose a theme, create a nook, or play around with flexible seating options. Here are 51 ideas to inspire a new look in your classroom this year.
Layout
- Find a seating arrangement that fits your personality and class activities from this list of 11 desk layouts from a pro. She explains the pros and cons of each layout as well as what kinds of activities each fits best.
- While it’s not always a possibility, flexible seating seems to be trending and is certainly an option to consider for a new school year.
- This teacher explains her favorite seating arrangement and sneaks in some solid teacher wisdom that anyone can use.
Miscellaneous Browse-Worthy Items
- Consider a whole class rewards system for the new year – together, your students can earn a read outside day, an evening without homework, an extra science experiment, etc.
- This post maps out review stations that are largely student-led. It’s designed for high school science, but certainly can be tweaked to fit any age and subject.
- Try out some new review games to shake things up a bit: 6 review games your high schoolers won’t hate; 5 no-prep review games.
- Keep this list handy – it’s a list of exit ticket prompts to wrap up your lessons.
- Here are some classroom management tips for chatty classes.
After 13 years in the classroom myself, one of the best lessons I learned was not to shy away from trying something new. I hope you find some inspiration today–and maybe even a spark of excitement for the upcoming school year!
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