Okay so I promised I would give you all the details on my classroom decor, so here it is! I'm still not 100% finished with the decor, and to be honest I'll probably never truly be finished. I'm sure I'll continue adding new things every now and then as time goes on. But for now, here are the most important parts!
So let's start off with the streamers. When I was looking up classroom decor on Pinterest, I didn't find much at all for high school classrooms. Instead, I found a lot for Elementary schools. Honestly, I loved it all. Elementary classrooms are always so bright and colorful, whereas high school is usually more drab and prison-like. I decided to treat my classroom like and elementary one with a tad more sophistication. So I went to the dollar store and bought some streamers. They came in two packs of each color, and I honestly only needed one. I cut them into strips long enough to reach from the carpet to the bottom of the whiteboard and twisted them as the ran up/down the wall. I saw this technique used to look like seaweed (green only) in the Pinterest photos for under the sea themes and I loved it. I took it almost all the way to across the bottom of the white board.
At the top of the whiteboard, I have my felt apple string thingy. I bought it at Target in the dollar section. I see so many teacher using the Target ABC letter one, but I chose the apples. I'm glad I did because no one at the school ended up having them. On the right and left of those, I got some cute little "posters" and printed them out then glued them onto rainbow card stock. I really liked them so I laminated them for future use. Since there were only 6, I taped 3 on each side of the projector.
Sitting on the whiteboard tray is my name plaque. This was actually made for me by one of my friends. H got the wooden plaque and the black letters from Michael's Craft Store, and he glued them down using wood glue. On the black of the plaque is a string to hang it up, but since we aren't allowed to put holes in the walls, I just lean it up against the whiteboard. I have a command hook somewhere, I'll break it out eventually.
If you look closely, you'll see a lot of little army men. Basically, a student did a project for my theater class and after grading, I gave it back to her. She decided not to keep it, so I took the army men out of the project and placed them all around the classroom. I placed them ever so wisely, each aiming at each other, while the injured ones lay across the window sill.
The boarders on my wall were a DIY made by yours truly. I have a whole post on how I did them HERE.
Next to the boarders, you'll find my no name clip board. I created this myself as well. Similar to my name plaque, I used a hanging wooden plaque from Michaels Craft store and glued on some rainbow clothes pins from Target's Dollar Section. I then attached some letters to spell out "No Name" at the top and wha-la. Beauty and function.
The art and colorful papers on the wall are all projects from my students. I love to see my students show off their creativity, and the best ones make it on the wall. To keep them working hard, I offer extra credit and candy to any student whose artwork makes it up there!
When it comes to furniture, I bought most of it myself. The student tables and chairs were already there, but I bought both bookcases and the table behind my desk. Walmart usually has great deals around Autumn on dorm furniture, so I grabbed them at really great prices as well (including my microwave!)
Once thing I will always suggest to new teachers is to keep a mini fridge in your classroom. I personally keep a mini fridge and a microwave just in case. My fridge is always stocked with cold waters, string cheese and sandwich supplies just in case I forget to bring something to eat. They also come in handy during end-of-the year potlucks! One thing I did hear on my first staff day at school was that some of the subs at our particular school have been known for stealing food from teachers' fridges. I thought that was the weirdest thing! So if you can find a fridge with a lock, it might be a good idea!
Among my friends, Ive been called the crazy bottle lady. I recycle. I have no shame. I went to Walmart to find a blue or green recycling bin with a lid but I couldn't find any that were big enough and still affordable. I ended up buying the red trash bin and printed off some recycling pictures from the internet and taped them on top. It has done pretty well throughout the year!
My crates are just normal file crates from Walmart. I got them in different colors to hold my file folders full of student work and handouts. I ended up only really needed two, so one holds napkins, plates, cups and utensils for lunch, and the other just sits around without a purpose. Although I would prefer keeping important files locked up, I think they're a great idea for those paper that aren't as confidential. Being that I had to buy my own file cabinet, I didn't want to spend over $60 so I settled for a few crates in addition to my small 2 drawer cabinet.
