New Session Palava! - Setting Up the Class

Putting Things Up!

Every class teacher knows that the beginning of a session is always a time to put things up in the classroom. It’s such a big deal because it creates your desired atmosphere for your classroom. Your students are looking forward to a beautifully decorated classroom, your supervisors will even give you their expectations and undoubtedly, your colleagues are also itchy to see what you are letting out of your sleeves.

What to put up?

While some teachers usually have a mental picture of how they want their classrooms to look like, others don’t. Some have a mental picture but do not even know how to bring it to life. Then ,confusion sets in for the first few hours, and when the ideas finally come, you are under pressure to finish up on time. (check for post on Classroom Display Ideas) by 7.00 GMT+1)

1.   Get a checklist. If you are like me, then you want to be sure you have all the basic requirements on check first. It differs from one school to the other (find out from your supervisor), when you have a checklist you tend to work smarter.

2.   Think about themes. You want to be sure you know what the school theme for the year is, this will give you ideas on important displays for your class.

3.   Your class goals. Every year, teachers start the session with a goal on what they would like to achieve with their pupils in class. To make some of these goals sustainable, you can build a display around it to help everyone stay focused.

Steps to set up the class

Getting a list of all your display items may seem like a great accomplishment, but that is only the beginning of your journey. You need to figure out how to get the displays done and then how to put them up nicely.

·       First things first. Decide which displays you want to create and the ones you would buy. Creative teachers prefer making a larger percent of theirs because they have wild ideas. It is okay to buy displays if you cannot create them, but the goal is to work towards learning to make yours because it is more economical to do so.

·       Ask for help. Identify colleagues who find it easy to set up their classrooms and ask them for ideas. This has worked for me many times. By the time you engage these people, you begin to get ideas that activate your own creativity.

·       Look for experts. You may not be great at designing your own displays or be able to get somethings done for yourself, it is okay to get someone who can help you. An expert could be your friend, spouse, a colleague, your child or a paid expert.

·       Get inspiration from colleagues. One easy way to get inspiration is to take a walk around your school, visit other classes and see what your colleagues are up to.

·       Go online. The internet has become a solution to many of the issues that teachers face. Teachers share tips and even show you how to get things done. You can get specific help by googling it, checking on YouTube, asking a question in you teacher communities, following creative teachers on Facebook, Instagram or just signing up on Pinterest.

Drop a comment if this was useful.