Welcome to 510

I feel that, too often, when it comes to high school classrooms, decor gets overlooked. I realize that having stimulating colors and pictures around the room is less important to teenagers than to younger students, but it is my opinion that it does make a difference. I wanted my room to be warm and comfortable and to evoke a safe feeling in my students. 

When it was time for me to begin decorating my classroom, I wanted to be sure that I kept this in mind. I spent months leading up to the start of the school year keeping my eyes open at thrift stores, yard sales, and clearance sections looking for odds and ends to create a cozy feel in my room. I spent a great deal of time over the summer crafting and dreaming up possible plans. When the time came to decorate my room I set out with all of my hoarded decorations and went to town!

About half of my materials.

It took me about 10 hours and several pairs of helping hands to get my room put together, but in the end, I was pleased with the results. Of course, there are about a million more things that I would like to do, but there will be time for that as time goes on. Now- let me take you on a mini tour of my room!

The kid's LOVE the Readbox

My "Readbox" is one of my favorite parts of my room. It is stocked full of a huge variety of books that my students are able to help themselves to. In a high schooler's schedule, it can be hard to find time to get to the library, so I think this is a great solution! The kids think it's great, too.

Adventures ahead!

I love, love, LOVE my sign. My parents made it for me out of a reclaimed pallet over the summer. Pretty much everyone who steps foot in my room is excited about it. It was hard to narrow down which literary places to include- perhaps I need another one!

Computer station

I'm lucky enough to have some student computers in my room. There wasn't a whole lot that I could do with this section of the room- far be it from me to try to mess with that many computer cords. So I tried to spruce it up with some fun signs that I found on Pinterest. 

All my favorite posters

I surrounded my SmartBoard with my absolute favorite posters. They add some fun to the empty space but aren't too distracting for the students when I'm teaching. 

Fun Harry Potter quote.

I'm a Harry Potter fiend, so I try to sneak in references where I can. I love this quote and I thought "How perfect for over the light switch!" 

Posters make ugly cabinets much better!

When I was student teaching, two of my students had all of the teachers in the building sign a good luck poster for me. And true to 8th grade boy form, it was a One Direction poster- because that's what they think all girls like. When I got my own classroom I knew this poster had to make its way in. The freshman girls don't seem to mind it too much, either :)

View of the room

Posters, posters, everywhere. In all the boring, blank spaces I stuck fun colorful posters. I've got a huge variety- everything from Joseph Campbell to Wu Tang. 

Banned Book Shelf

 This is another of my favorite aspects of my room.  I added this section in when we studied Banned Books week. You would not believe how quickly these books fly off the shelf. And don't worry- I have a system to make sure they are allowed to read them, but that's the subject for another post.

That is a quick tour of my classroom. I think that I was able to do what I aimed for in creating a cozy, safe environment in which my students are happy. I know I feel happy when I'm in my room, that's for sure.