My classroom has come a LONG way! Not only am I changing things before each new school year, I am constantly changing things during the year! I think that it is easy to want your classroom to be Pinterest perfect and insta-worthy, but this is not realistic. Our classrooms not only have to be a place that we like to be in, but they have to be a place where our students feel safe, comfortable and able to learn!
I learned this right away in my first year of teaching. One quick example is the way I stored my table toys. I had them in colorful bins on a wooden shelf. The way the shelf was, the bins were tilted sitting on the shelf. My students COULD NOT put these away independently. After a few days of school that first year I quickly realized that I had to come up with a new method. I could go on and on about all of the things that I have changed. Not only did I change a lot of the physical ‘look’ of my classroom, but I also changed a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. For example, since my first year I have revamped by closets and labeling system probably 100 times. Not only to make them look better (yes I had comic sans font my first year) but to also make it more FUNCTIONAL for myself and my classroom assistants!
I wanted to post these pictures to let first year teachers, and even 2nd, 3rd year teachers know that PROGRESS is more important than PERFECTION! Your classroom, mine included, will NEVER BE PERFECT!!! We are always getting new students with different personalities and they all need different things. We as humans are always changing and like or dislike different things. Even though I love the way my classroom looks now, I am already thinking about how I will have to modify certain things to fit my student’s needs and the needs of my class as a whole. Just yesterday (2nd day of school) I had to add more stickers to the floor in certain places to help my students be more independent during different times of the day. It was not my plan to do this, but my students needed it, and in a few weeks when my students are fully independent when getting their seat work or putting their sticker on their chart, I will be thankful for those small changes I made!
I hope this helps some of you. I am no expert whatsoever, but I do think that after 3 years of setting up my classroom I have learned a lot! Good luck to everyone who just started their school year…I have a feeling it’s going to be a good one 😉
XO, Rachel
