DIY Classroom

I've been writing blog entries to reflect on my daily teaching practice. I must admit that sometimes I forget about the readers. My intentions are not to grab views but rather to document my own journey and share my passion. Thank you if you are popping by for the first time, or returning here for another post.

I want to share a few photos of the 'before' and after shots of my Visual Arts high school classroom. I teach in an extremely old demountable. It smells a bit funny. Everything is still in progress as I am always looking at new ways to improve the classroom.

A reader asked if I have funding for all the furniture and stationary items in my classroom. I have been using the same furniture for years. Recently, a coworker's father closed his book contacting business and I have been going CRAZY with the free supplies. I have been contacting walls and tables with the assistance of fast finishers. My friend's work place was disposing off tissue papers, colour paper and some laminating sleeves. These are probably the only donations I have so far for my classroom.

Being an art teacher, I am lucky to have supplies to hot glue guns, glue sticks, markers, colour cardboard etc. It helps with the DIY projects inside the classroom.

I have purchased a few things here and there with my own budget. The school does not supply any funding for decoration unless you have apply to make your room a 21st century classroom. I will make another post about a room which I have redesigned using the school's funding. Every faculty was asked to choose one room to redesign. Unfortunately, my room is not one of the funded classrooms.

I find that digging through my home allows me to declutter and use some of the goodies to decorate my classroom.

However, I have still purchased a few things here and there. One of the main reason I went a bit obsessive is due to my restrictions on 1. No makeup purchases this year 2. No clothing purchases this year. Hence, I focus on other things now:

-A chime $59. I gently hit the chime when the class gets noisy. Every class starts off with 5 virtual rewards points per lesson. Each tap means they lose one virtual point.

-Classroom Management signs $15. When I remember to use these signs, I lift them up to remind students of my expectations without the need of straining my voice.

-Smiggle $32. I purchased colour tins for around $1.35 each (a total of 10 was purchased). I use the five colour tins to store 6 pencils, 6 pens, 1 glue stick and 1 rubber. This avoids students from wandering the class for a pencil and prepares them for class. The colour tin matches the colour of their table. This helps minimise lost resources and gives students more responsibilities. Another five tins are used to store paddle pop sticks with student names. If I want students to answer questions, I draw out a random name. The rest of the money was used to buy a funky lanyard and keyring for myself (teachers need to rewards themselves too).

-Grey magazine basket/holder $30. I use this when I need to carry a lot of paperwork. It looks better than a plastic basket from the supermarket. This is used during parent teacher night and year meetings. It helps me look a bit more professional as a Year Adviser.

-Cute folder tabs $20. This was not a necessary purchase but it helps to make me like my job more. Pretty stationaries are an eye candy!

-Teachers Pay Teachers Day Planner $18.05. This is a smart purchase as I get free PDF for all the years after 2017. I don't need to invest in a teacher diary and can edit and print a planner suitable for myself.

-Kmart plastic coins $2 x 10 packets. I use the coins as an incentive on top of the whole school rewards program. Every lesson the class can recieve up to 3 coins. At the end of the fortnight the best class gets to have a paddle pop stick draw. A name will be drawn out and the student will receive a small prize (stationary etc). At the end of the year the best class gets a pizza party. This is a class vs class competition.

-Rewards box $50 approx. I purchased a range of stationary from Aldi during the back to school sale. The prizes last long as I only draw out a prize once a fortnight for ONE student.

-Reject Shop jars and box tray $36. I purchased the jars to place the coins in and the box tray to carry all the jars and the colour tins with resources.

-Officeworks supplies $110 approx. I purchased ink, machine label maker, labels, hole puncher, pens etc.

-Aldi stationary $95 approx. I purchased a desk planner to scribble down important dates, rose gold pen holders, rose gold bin for my staffroom, 2 in 1 office cutter and scissors for home use.

-Super Cheap Auto storage box $50 approx. A red sturdy storage box was purchased to put all my art supplies. This storage box allowed pens to be stored in. Bunnings offer cheaper storage boxes but they are only for small pieces such as clips, staples, rubbers etc.

-Kmart supplies $20. The party section in Kmart is super awesome. I purchased pom poms for my classroom to add some colour. I also used 2 x $2 black party table cloth to cover the back wall. I also purchased a $3 bike horn to use as a attention grabber in outdoor settings.

-Woolworths stationary $120 approx. I went crazy and purchased heaps of stationary goods. 6 x small whiteboards were purchased to allow students to work in groups. I have yet to test them out. It might be also useful to get them to hold up signs with speech bubbles when I take photos for the school Facebook page. The rest was used to purchase Dymo labels for the label maker, pens and markers.

-Clocks $20. I recently purchased a timer and a wall clock for my classroom. They are a MUST.

Above: Photo of my nephew when he visited my art classroom late last year.

Above: The storeroom still needs PLENTY of work. This photo only shows a small section of the storeroom. I will take an 'after' photo when the storeroom is ready. I have been too busy to clean it up.

Above: A photo from last late last year.

PHOTOS FROM THIS YEAR

Above: Front of the classroom

Above: Teacher's view. I ran out of contact paper. I have enough for only one more table. 

Above: A few students stayed back at lunch to work on their designs. Students are normally in school uniform but today is mufti day.

Above: Back wall with 'Happy Notes'.

Above: Wall between bookshelves