For the Love of teaching is a podcast brought to you by teach starter. We say teachers hours each week by bringing them quality downloadable teaching resources for their classrooms to make your classroom. Buzz got to teach stutter.com If I walk into a classroom and I feel overwhelmed or a little bit flustered or your I can't find something straight away. Then there's there's too much stuff and I think especially if you want the kids to be really taking something out of these displays are not just there to be pretty fair interactive and you want them working with what is in your classroom. Then they need to be able to work with it. They can't have things everywhere distracting them constantly if there's too much stuff you take him nothing. Welcome Vanessa. Thanks for joining me. Thank you for having me. Today. We're going to be talking all about styling your classroom. Yes. It's one of my favorite things meet who so a little bit later on. We're going to be talking about posters and visual aids and that kind of thing you've incorporated into your room, but first to start us off. Congratulations, you have a beautiful classroom. I've had a good stalk on Instagram. Oh, thank you, and it looks like a really Lee Serene and calming space and it incorporates a lot of natural elements like plants and Timber and of course turquoise, which is my favorite color so calming so what made you decide to take this natural palette approach to your room as opposed to a bright colorful rainbow room, which is also beautiful engaging but not obviously the choice you made right? Um, so I feel like Teaches make choices about decorating a classrooms for a couple of different reasons and a big part of it is just who you are as a person and what makes you happy and what you enjoy working in and then you obviously look at the kids that you're teaching and adapt it for them as well. So I've totally had a rainbow classroom in the past and loved that space and had absolutely no issue with that space and then the year after that classroom, I had a different group of kids. Who were very spirited so nice. I just really liked it and totally get what you're putting down. Yeah, very very spirited. And I also had a large class and I decided that year that I wanted to try flexible seating. So I did flexible seating and then also made the choice to kind of try and calm down the color palette quite a bit and I just really liked the vibe of the class. This room and the students responded really well to it and I had then when I got this Performing Arts job and got the room. I was very excited first of all, because like what blank canvas I can go nuts and the thing with having a performing art space is that I don't have a lot of the restraints that I would have in terms of decorating if it was a normal classroom, so I don't have any desks. Yep. For example, I don't really have to worry about that. I was set of clipboards. In case we need to do the occasional writing task, but honestly, they are hardly used. So I don't have any desks. I don't need to store student books or student pencil cases or student drink bottles or things like that. So I don't have a lot of the things that if you are decorating a traditional classroom, you would have to think about so I think I've had a lot more freedom in terms of decorating it. So for me to begin with it was like I needed I need space. I need a lot of space because the kids are going to have to move and create. So I want a lot of space in the room. I want every piece of furniture to be purposeful so that it's storage and seating or you know, everything is there for a reason and I want kids to come in and be really excited to be in the space, but also really comfortable straight away because really for a lot of these kids I'm going to be asking them to step outside their comfort zone and to really push themselves. And you know, not every child is me not every child wants to get up in front of a class of before. What do you mean not everybody is extra? Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I really wanted that I wanted so that's why I have like the affirmations Mira and lots of you know positive talk around the room. And so tell me about the informations mirror. That sounds beautiful. So I wanted a mirror because doing drywall. I think it's really important to To be able to look in the mirror and see what your face and your movement is what's happening. So when I put in the mirror, I then decided I think I've seen on Little Miss bright and Instagram. He's one of my lovely Instagram friends back. She has an affirmations mirror and it has all these positive self-talk messages around the mirror so that when you know, yeah when you're looking in the mirror it kind of got those to look at and are things like you are kind you are brave take risks that sort of thing. Oh, that's amazing. Anything and so how big is the mirror? Is it like a full-length mirror just if any are gonna put on the on a door. I got my mirror from came up. I think it was $10 past Kmart. Say I'm a troll. Yeah. Love Came. Yeah the kids love it. They just come in and they see especially the Juniors but look not just the Juniors you see them all coming in and just kind of stand and look at themselves in the mirror for cute. Love it. Yeah, actually teach that we have some affirmations resources on our website as well. But yeah work really well with that you could place those around so I'll pop them in the episode description as well. But I think affirmations are so important for kids, especially like you said when when they're about to do something that is going to make them take them out of their comfort zone make them be a bit Brave do a break thing. Like really I know we have to cater to such a diverse range of Learners and they've all come from different experiences, but it's a really important part of their Learning Journey to have Performing Arts education so slightly. Yeah, why not make them feel super comfortable and happy and when I Got pictures of your room on Instagram. I just think that is a place that I would want to be that supposed to I would want my my own children to go to because I want to be ya know. I'm Karen to it. Yeah, I think that's really important. I think that's something that Sarah teachers happy said on her episode that I completely agree with is that you know, it's a this is a place that you spend so much time and you know, you want to be there. Yeah, and that that that feeling of just absolutely being happy. To be there and being really happy in your space that comes off to students and I pick up on that. Yeah, exactly. It's like I say, I'm happy life happy wife. It's like happy Teacher happy but it doesn't. Yeah, it's all it's all linked. Yes, exactly and you know half your battle is fought for you then if your kids are walking into the room and wanting to be there and feeling comfortable in the space, that's that's something that you've then starting with with. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that your classroom is a huge tool for that because part of making kids excited. To learn and we say having a buzzing classroom at teach start about having that kind of excited energy about learning stuff and education part of a huge chunk of it comes from your classroom a huge part of it comes from like your vibe to as an educator it like those things together are probably are reckoned the two biggest things that you're presenting on face value to your kids. So definitely important. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to put in the little caveat that I always try and put him when I put talk about decorating classrooms is that I love doing it. It is a huge passion for me. I love decorating the classroom and making it a welcoming space. But I know that it's not everyone thing like it can be quite the Hot Topic. It's not everyone's thing. It's not everyone's jam and not everyone wants to spend their time doing that. They might want to spend their time elsewhere. And I think that's also totally fine. I think as long as your classroom is a place that you are happy to be in and your kids are happy to be in your doing your job. Right and that could like you said that can look different for so many different people, you know a lot of Is that I've worked with to them being clutter-free or being minimalist is a really important thing for their mind space. So we're going to talk about the practicalities of decorating. Like I know you spend a lot of your own time doing this because like which I'm a teacher I get it we all get it. You don't know any time during the day. It's all after hours. So when people say well they should be doing something else. It's actually like it's our whole extra time. Yeah. It's like something we're doing because we like it. It's not we're not, you know hanging stuff up while our kids are doing somewhat. Eating that's not yeah, that's not what we do. So do you think teachers should do all the decorating before their students turn up for the I'm talking about classroom teachers here, obviously or wait and see what their classes like first and see, you know, if their kids that need a calm environment like your your classroom is if their kids that are highly visual Learners, maybe it would take six or eight weeks to kind of nut out there learning styles. What do you think? I mean, it's like a little bit of both, I guess because I mean realistically Clay your holidays is when you have the most amount of time to be able to do this sort of thing because as you said it's got to be done in your in out of four hours out of school time, but really when kids are there with you and you're putting things together as a class and they are seeing each display go up and having some input into that. They're going to take so much more ownership over it and there's no point in having a display there if the kids don't even know what it is and I am so guilty of that. I'm so guilty about I've had you know, I had the same class for a couple of years the same classroom and I definitely had a few displays that I left up because you know for me I'm like if I take it his way down gonna have to stop put something else there and that's going to take a lot of time. Yeah, so I'm not taking that down until I have something else to put up there but it kind of got to the point where I was looking at some of these just lays around the classroom and realize that the kids would have no idea what they were because they weren't even from that year. I hadn't been you know that yet. Yeah, we haven't used it. And referred to it. It was just something that was and yeah, it looked pretty but really is maybe it's just distracting them from the things that they wanted them to be interacting with. So sorry the necessary Basics and build up as Mo is that you're right? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, that sounds really positive because you're right like that first couple of weeks of school every year. We are just getting hammered. Like I remember there's so many midnight nights like every night you like just exhausted you don't have time. I'm to adjust your decorating in the first few weeks of school because not so much else going on. Yes, especially you have upgrades you can get the kids involved in decorating as well. Like they love to help putting up displays and sometimes you know, that display will not be so straight as right as as perfect as you might like. Yeah, but the kids really enjoy being involved in it. As I said, I've been checking out your Instagram a lot and a lot of your posters and visual aids in your room a printed in black and white So is there a conscious Choice behind this or is it like a budget tree thing and you're trying to minimize your copying expenses little bit of both? It's kind of a mix between aesthetic and functionality and budgeting I guess but I just especially like musical instrument labels that I don't need them to be multicolored and drawing Focus because I need them to just be highly functional. I need to know what's in that tub. And that's pretty much it. You know, they play but the same goes for you know, I've got the elements of drama which thank you very much teach starter little You're welcome. And thank you for the plug elements of drama music and I've chosen to put them in black and white. Yeah, I think in the room that I have at the moment. The more color that would be in there the smaller that would feel and the less Focus that would be on the things that I want that it to be on. So when I'm using each of those elements, I take it off the whole big display board and draw Focus to it. Okay, so that yeah, which I think is part of being an experienced teacher as you are is knowing when the students need need and what they need. So that's the Apple that you're able to do that. Thanks. No no most welcome. So No, but I think also like a lot of teachers. I remember we used to have a budget. I think it's like a 500 $500 a year photocopying original something like that. And once it was gone, it was gone like that was it so I would print as much as I called on black and white because then I could either back it on to a existing colored sheet or you know, just just to save money really but the thing is it's actually I reckon it's more effective having that bowl black type on a white background if the content is really key. Key to your students learning you don't want them to be trying to decipher between you know, squiggles and lines and jelly beans and other exciting things on the page. You just want them reading the content and that's a really good thing to do. If you want to put it on color you can put on colored paper or you know, there's lots of other different ways that you can do it and look as I said, I've definitely had colored resources before and colored classroom before and I don't have any issue with that is just kind of the aesthetic and the vibe that I've got with this year. So yeah different and it all fits in it all looks Thing I think you've done it. You've just totally smashed another Park. It's amazing. So how often you said before that you had once had the same displays up in your room for three issues. But how often now that you're a specialist do you change up your Decor? Oh, I mean not not very regularly at all because the things that I've got in there a tarp on the wall. I was very conscious about what I was putting up there and look it might change. This is I'm term one so I have I've been in there for almost eight weeks but not very long. Yeah, so things might change and things I'm gradually tweaking but because I didn't want to put up many displays the ones that I have up there are kind of the Bare Essentials. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. I like and I use my smart board for things or my whiteboard for things that I would want for just the week or just the lesson I put them up there. I've basically I've got the elements of drama music and dance. And that's it. Yep. And once you find stuff that works for you, you're onto a good thing like you don't want to change it too often because you have developed your teaching around that resource, you know exactly when you're going to draw on it in the lesson and went to revisit it. It's like becomes kind of part of your your thing and you're planning. So I think it's good that you don't change it to Orphan as well Vanessa. What are your top tips for having a beautiful classroom like yours on a tight budget? Oh, I'm talking to your school and saying If they are willing to give you some money for the changes that you want to make I mean when I went to flexible seating a couple of years ago, my school was amazing and super on board and definitely pay for a lot of the things they saw it wasn't out of my budget. I think teachers a lot of the time not all the time but a lot of the time we just pay for things because it's easier and you don't explore the option of actually know there is money there our schools that they can they can put towards it but secondhand. Yep as my main tip. Okay next. So much of the stuff I've got is country and Facebook Marketplace and tell them it's for your classroom. Yeah, it's for the children. I love it just guilt them into a better price. No, shame just be Shameless. I bought like I have so much stuff. You should see under my garage or my God. It is actually like the graveyard of classrooms passed its their tubs and tubs and Furniture it is and I just can't bear to get rid of it because I, you know, got it for such a bar. Price I feel like a lot of us teachers are like kind of bordering on Hoarders. They should probably do an episode of Hoarders just full of teachers. It would be like a Minefield and the amount of like laminated display is that I still have I'm never going to reuse that but no I printed it off and I laminated it. So I'm going to keep it forever. You might finally have that use and the thing is as soon as you throw something away, then you're like, I'm sure I had a post. Yeah this I've just got to find it and then you go digging and digging and digging and you like I lent it to someone and I didn't get it back. That is incredibly always remember never forget. You never forget a great Resort. So is there anything else you'd like to share about your classroom and all the beautiful work that you've put into it? I don't I don't know. I just I like I really enjoy being in there and I get such a kick out of when the kids come in and especially classes that I don't regularly have they'll come in for like karaoke club or something that's in my room and Like oh my gosh. I love this classroom. I just get the biggest kick out of it. Thanks. Just yeah, it's really it's really nice. The kids have given me such nice feedback on it and it's just been a really functional space to be able to use as well. As I said I want to be so I think well done. It is a beautiful room. I'm I want to eat all continue through it'll continue to evolve. I'm sure I'm already thinking about ways that I can change it and you know, No, make sure that it's perfectly suited to what I needed to be. We can't wait any trying to keep a night. Let's all keep an eye on Vanessa's Instagram. So she's Miss goody-two-shoes, which is the cutest name I've ever heard. So do go on and follow her keep an eye on her beautiful room as it as the evolution occurs because my teachings all about isn't it changing around and changing things up all the time. Salute leaving flexible biggest thing, isn't it? Thank you so much. Thank you for NASA for joining me on for the last teaching. Thank you. Very much for having me Brian. It's been an absolute Delight. Yeah, well done. Thanks for listening to this episode of For the Love of teaching. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app so that you get the latest updates on all the newest episodes.
Classroom setup is a big consideration for teachers. Planning, positioning, re configuring, decorating and optimising learning are all steps in creating a great learning space where you and your students feel comfortable.We all have different ideas on classroom set up, and Vanessa AKA Miss Goody Two Shoes shares her ideas and tips for creating a wonderful learning environment for your students to enjoy. From mindfully selecting displays and resources to bargain classroom shopping tips, Vanessa has some wonderful ideas for you. You can read more about effective classroom set up on our blog. Check out Vanessa's favourite Teach Starter resources, our Elements of Drama Cards and our You Are You affirmations bookmarks for kids. Join us in our new For the Love of Teaching Facebook group, where we chat about the podcast, feature live vids of guests, and talk teaching!Have you subscribed to For the Love of Teaching? Don't forget! It means you'll be the first to know whenever a new episode is released.For the Love of Teaching is a podcast by Teach Starter. We make quality, downloadable teaching resources that save teachers hours of time and make their classrooms buzz! 