Transforming the Classroom - My Former Life as a Teacher

Once upon a time, in a land considerably South of Ohio, I decided I was going to enter the local College of Education and become a High School English Teacher.

While the journey wasn't all bad by any means, it certainly was not a profession I wanted to stick with, so after four years of teaching, I quit. I now enjoy unlimited fame and fortune as a steemit blogger and proud member of the #steemitbloggers. Setting that aside for the moment, I'd like to take you back in time to my first (and only) classroom and show you how it looked when I got it, and how I transformed it into a mystical place of learning and reverence for the English language.

This was it.

Kind of under-whelming, isn't it? I don't know if you've ever sat in one of those tiny desks, but for full-size high school students, it can be a pretty tight fit! As you can see, there were no books, no storage, nothing pretty to look at, and overall it had a rather depressing feeling to it. I believe that your environment shapes your willingness and ability to learn, so I started by taking a good look at the space to figure out how to make it most conducive to learning.

First of all, those tiny desks had to go. I knew I was going to ask my students to write, and research, and revise and there was no way they could accomplish all of that while fighting to keep their materials on the itty bitty platform in front of them. And any left-handed students were just out of luck with those right-handed surfaces. I began scrounging for better desks.

I eventually cobbled together a matching set of large wooden writing desks from all over the school. One of the other teachers happened to have a small classroom and happily traded his large desks for my teeny tiny desks! I really lucked out on that deal!

Next I wanted to do something about that chalkboard. My school had thoughtfully provided a digital SmartBoard, and they intentionally didn't provide chalk, so I figured I'd cover it and use it as a place to display student achievements. I also wanted to get the teacher's desk out of the corner. I prefer to have a clear line of sight down the hallway, so I planned to move the teacher's desk to the opposite corner. That way, if trouble was heading toward us I'd be the first to know instead of the last.

I used butcher paper matching the colors of my alma mater to disguise the chalk board. I created charts to track progress toward learning objectives, and I left space to hang finished student work as examples of what worked well. As this was my first year, I didn't have any samples to display, but in subsequent years I used this space for samples and to preview upcoming units. It worked quite well to help students who struggled to grasp the big picture in the same way as others.

This corner seemed to have quite a bit of wasted space, both on the floor and on the wall, so I set out to change that. I knew I wanted my desk tucked in the corner at the back of the room (affording that clear view down the hallway as previously mentioned), but I also wanted to create a space to encourage students to pick up a book or a magazine. Since storage space was decidedly limited, I again began to scrounge around the school.

I managed to find 4 rolling bookshelves that were perfect for my needs. They even had open storage space in the back where I kept supplies for the more creative projects we would complete. By the end of my time at the school, I'd found (and filled) another 3 bookshelves to put in the classroom. In addition to magazines, we had novels, graphic novels, coloring books, and reference books overflowing on the shelves. I added a word wall for our vocabulary for the week, and decided I wanted another place to highlight great student work.

Finally, I decorated my door to show off my alma mater. The mission of my school was to encourage every single student to graduate from a 4-year college or university, so we tried to keep the reality of college in front of the students every day. Decorating the door was a time-consuming and tedious task, as I had to make the paper decorations sturdy enough to stand up to about 100 ninth grade students daily. After selecting materials, including napkins with the Arkansas Razorbacks printed on them, I stapled them to the door. This was a heavy, solid wood door, so I had to use a commercial grade staple gun. Next, I used packing tape and taped over every square inch of the door. When it was finished, it was super shiny, tidy, and able to withstand the rigors of teaching for a full year.

Thanks for sticking with me. I'd love to see what you've done in your classrooms!

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