Hello, This is my first year of teaching, and I will be teaching 7th grade Technology Applications (also coaching girls volleyball, bball, and track ) :thumb: I just found out which room I will be in, and I have 2 really long walls that are completely blank right now. They don't have bulletin boards or anything on them. I really want my class to be colorful and inviting, and I dont want to have huge areas of empty wall space. So far all i have made is a section for the class rules, which I made using 4 different colors. I plan to have an area for extra credit options, but other than that I can't decide what to do! I want to have a word wall somehow, and I would like to display student work (which will be somewhat difficult since it is a technology class and we are not always printing work). If you have any suggestions at all, please let me know! I also plan to post a few funny posters, but so far I have only found 2 that I like and I would like to have more like 5 or 6. :help:
If you don't have bulletin boards, buy some foam board and use spray adhesive to cover them with fabric. I've used hot glue to attach the boards to the wall.
A lot of people use discount sheets to create boards if you need that defined space. I had one empty wall in my room and decided to use it for a Word Wall that so I can make the words nice and big. For more complex topics you could even make a web of the words : ) Do you have the students making any projects? If so, hang those on the wall. You could label the wall with something like "Great Job!" or "Mrs ----'s Stars!" etc so the wall has something on it to indicate it won't be blank forever. Even if they're not doing a lot of print work, you could incorporate some in. For example, my kids are make posters of their goals for the year, and coming up with inspirational quotes that we can hang on the wall. My "neighbor" has her kids making personality posters. You can always ask kids for stuff you can hang. Chances are you've got some budding artists or photographers who would be thrilled to have you hang their work.
I think it would be good to do a Technology in the News or some kind of current events board. Challenge the kids with bringing in stuff to hang. For right now some quotes from Steve Jobs could be there until you have more things there.
I'm in the same position as you. 1st year; empty 7th grade classroom Originally I became obsessed with creating the perfect classroom by the first day of school (This Wednesday...eek!) I spent about 200 dollars on stuff for my room and even that did not go very far ( I got some wall maps, inspirational posters, bulletin borders, and poster board). The money did not go far and my room is brighter but still not what I imagined. I was preparing my self to go spend some more of my personal money when I picked up my copy of First Days of School to brush up. Wong says that new teachers do not need to kill themselves making their class a showroom by the first day of school. We simply do not have the resources and could better spend our time planning and prepping. So, I have decided to let my room be a work in progress. It is clean, safe, and inviting which will have to do for now
