Back to School...Classroom Decor, Things I Learned and Free Resources

 

It was very different teaching last year versus when I left teaching 17 years ago. So much has changed from technology to expectations. When I taught previously every high school used Geometers' Sketchpad and now there are free and easier to use programs like GeoGebra. Graphing calculators were a huge deal and it was hard to get students to buy them. We actually often had a class set or at least a few for the ones who could not afford them. Now if they do not have the calculators, they can use online programs like Desmos. Although I did not permit Desmos during tests since it was too hard to monitor what they were really doing on their devices with online searches and such. I discovered I liked Desmos better for some things because of the ease to use it. However, I still teach kids to use their graphing calculators because they are able to use them in standardized testing like the SAT and ACT. 

The other major change to teaching is the online resources. Between blogs, online curriculum, Teachers Pay Teachers and so much more there is information and ideas everywhere. It used to be you had a few resource books and then other textbooks to pull from or had to make something up yourself. Now there is so much out there and so many ideas. I found some amazing resources for teaching. First, I will admit I tend to look at Teachers Pay Teachers for free resources on various topics. If I don't find a free resource I like, I look at the ones that cost money usually to get ideas and then create something myself. There are also simple worksheets at sites like Kuta. 

One of my struggles last fall was figuring out the curriculum for my Consumer Math class. Our school did not have a set curriculum and the book was from the 1990s and thus very outdated. One of the first resources I found was the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They offer free lessons for K-12 teachers to use with students. I also discovered you could order free posters, booklets and even some of the lessons printed from them. The office was quite excited when I got five or so large and heavy boxes! I actually have some of the posters haning in my room in my consumer section. This year I have a section of the back wall for each subject I will teach. We hung the consumer math posters with Velcro Command Strips so I can change them out with other ones depening on the topics I am teaching. 

My next amazing resource for Consumer Math is Next Gen Personal Finance. They offer a semester, full year and now trimester consumer math curriculum that is free to download and use. It is almost all Google Docs, so it is easy to access and share. Plus, they have videos, games and different activities built in and extras you can add to any of the curriculum. In general, I love this curriculum and plan to use it for the full year this year. I didn't find it until halfway through the year last year. They offer things like a question of the day which ranges from various topics that are interesting and include things that go along with the various national history months. Scaffolded Math also offers a Consumer Math curriculum but it is not free. She does however have a Consumer Math Teacher Facebook Group to share ideas with other teachers. Needless to say with a year under my belt and all of these resources, I am feeling ready for Consumer Math this year!

At the end of last year, Hazel suggested I move my desk from the window corner to the front corner. I was never using my desk in the afternoon since the sun shone on my back and got too hot. We moved it and then we came up with a new arrangement for the desks. I found the kids were going to the tables closest to the door where the board was harder to see. Now we have all the desks in front of the board to force them to choose better seats. (Excuse some of the mess in my room, we are still in summer mode. I am tutoring a student every day and the head of the high school gathered books in my room plus Hazel is still helping decorate.) On the back wall you can see my three sections for my classes, Geometry, Consumer Math and Algebra 2. I found the lights on clearance last spring and grabbed some for my classroom. I hate using the overhead lights (and so do my students) and I find with the lights and three floor lamps we can get away with not turning them on even on dark days!

Over my board we hung most of the motivational posters I bought last year and some I got from American Mathematical Society. You can order posters from AMS for free (you have to pay shipping). There are 28 different ones including ones with Black mathematicians, female mathematicians, Latinx mathematicians, LGBTQ+ mathematicians as well as many about jobs involving math, etc. They have other resources that I have not explored much yet. Note the drawing on the board was left by another summer school student. I often have similar drawings left for me by the students. They seem to love to draw on white boards even though we have to erase them. It always seems a shame to erase their works of art. 

Since we talked about Consumer Math let me show you my geometry area. Last summer and throughout the school year I shared some various craft/project ideas for geometry class and to use as class decor. They are still in my room as are some of the posters I purchased for my room last summer. I also hung some of the projects from last year which I will probably trade out for this year's once I have some. The math blogs I follow have vocabulary walls. I wasn't sure about this. I began by making one from the first module of our new geometry book in a list form (hanging on right side). I wasn't in love with it and decided to go with the full page ones with pictures and more. I made them with Canva. I discovered educators can get a free Canva account!! You can even have groups with other teachers at your school and your students can get a free account off of yours for class projects!! Since this discovery last week, I have been busy making all sorts of new posters (which I use the worksheet format since I want to print them myself). 

In my Algebra 2 section I have some of last year's projects and some posters from AMS. The longer Function Transformation poster is free from Scaffolded Math. I backed it with some construction paper. I also made my own algebra posters involving intervals as well as function transformations. I'll share about my Wanted Poster in a bit!!

Last year I had two photos hanging on the wall near my desk. One was of my advisory and the other was from a dance. One of our seniors last year loved wearing his Spiderman costume to surprise people and he wore it to the dances. I got a photo with him and another student. Hazel had the idea of making a photo board where kids can add their own pictures. We went to Lakeshore Learning and bought this fun border and found the matching poster and our photo board is made. Hazel typed up a little note about it which we hung on the board for now but will move off the board as pictures come in. I think I'm going to go through my pictures from last year and order some prints from Shutterfly (with the app 4x6 prints are free--just pay shipping) to hang on it. It is a way to let the kids personalize the room and make sure they feel they belong. This bulletin board is behind my desk. There is also a bulletin board to the side of my desk.

Hazel took a bunch of posters, notes, and origami projects I had and decorated the bulletin board collage style. It is a bit busy, but I like it. I will change it around once the year gets going as I tend to hang projects on it. I made some posters based on ones I liked on Amazon (but most were sold out already). This includes my Wanted Poster for algebra. "x" is wanted in the poster which of course is perfect for algebra!!

I found some great math posters over at Math = Love including a link to these fun algebra aerobics posters. Hazel made us a sign for them making a new word--"Algebroics".  She shares many free posters and ideas there. She also shares many of her resources for her classroom. She and Scaffolded Math are my two main go-tos for ideas for decor and for lessons. 

Math = Love also shares amazing mathematical puzzles. This year I plan to do a weekly puzzle challenge. She provides tutorials to make some of the manipulatives for them or printable versions. I found miniature pentominoes at Shein for cheap. If you get these you can print all of her 11x17" pentomino challenges on 8x10" because they are half the size! I bought three sets because I plan to just have a puzzle station in my room and expect no more than three people at a time working on it. They also have SOMA cubes for cheap. They are not as fun as the magnetic ones available on Amazon but are half the price and easier than making them myself. And tangrams for little money. Again, I ordered three of each. I also bought myself a set of pattern blocks and some geo boards. Shein doesn't always have the best quality, but the prices cannot be beat!! 

The final thing Hazel decorated for me is my door. At our school, teachers go by their first names and a student made me a name sign last year so that went back up. (My room and the hallway were painted this summer, so everything had to come down last June.) I got several of the posters here (and one in the hallway) from Scaffolded Math. The other two I discovered over at Math = Love. They are winners of the North Carolina National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Annual Logo Contest. I printed some off and hung them here as well as on my bulletin board!

Are you a member of National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)? I joined again. I was when I first taught thirty years ago and actually helped run one of the national conferences in Boston. They have some amazing resources including problems of the week as well as lesson plans. My goal this year is to explore more of their lessons and resources for members. 

So that is what my classroom is looking like and my plans for the year. Plus all the free resources and some that cost money that I have found this past year and summer. If you teach math, drop me a note and tell me if any of this helps!!