Prepare Classroom for First Day of High School

Decorations Enhance High School Lesson Plans for New School Year

Aug 8, 2008 Thadra Petkus

High school teachers can use student input and participation when decorating their classroom for a new school year. Collaborative activities foster positive interaction.

Are you tired of hanging up the same laminated classroom posters year after year? Do your bulletin boards seem to blend in with your putty-colored walls after a while? Are your creative efforts lacking luster? Maybe it’s time to change the focus of your classroom décor from decoration to purpose. High school students enjoy getting involved in their surroundings, so find ways to include them in enhancing a classroom that will promote learning and active student engagement.

Use Student Input

Students can serve as an invaluable resource for ideas when trying to revive a ho-hum classroom. One way to get the creative juices jiving is to ask students to complete a survey at the beginning of the school year to improve classroom decorating. Give the survey a bit of an unexpected twist by encouraging students to reveal their aesthetic preferences.

Possible Survey Questions to Include

• What colors make you feel happy or excited?
• What colors make you feel tired or depressed?
• Name something you’ve created (art, sculpture, drawing, poem, essay, poster) that you would be proud to display.
• Can you think of a title of a bulletin board that would attract teens?
• What types of print information would you like to see in this classroom (this should be content specific, so mention your focus of World Literature, Biology, or Geometry).
• What content could you add to classroom décor to make it feel more inspiring to you?

Collaborative Introductory Activities

Redecorating the classroom can be fun for everyone! It can easily create a positive learning environment. And what a great ice-breaker it can serve to be. Ninth grade students are especially uncomfortable the first few days of school. They may be entering from as many as ten different feeder middle schools or moving to a new state.

Students can find it tough to make friends (not to mention find their way to their locker!) Help ease the transition by using classroom decorating as an organically-derived, upbeat way to foster positive student interaction. Students will feel much less intimidated than being required to formally state their name, interests, and background to a circle of strangers.

Benefits of Shared Classroom Preparation

Students love to see their ideas put to action. Let them help you give your classroom a creative overhaul during the first few days of school. Ask them to contribute items that interest them and encourage them to identify an academic link to their contributions. In addition to revving up their interest in school, students will have their creativity piqued, and their interest in your course will skyrocket.

Fostering student interaction and getting to know your students individually will promote superior classroom management during the first few days of school. These decorating activities will set a tone of mutual respect, trust, and collaboration. Think of how much easier it will be to incite classroom discussion on your first few lessons of the school year if students already feel at ease with you and have gotten to know one another.

The copyright of the article Prepare Classroom for First Day of High School in Curricula/Lesson Plans is owned by Thadra Petkus. Permission to republish Prepare Classroom for First Day of High School in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

New Classroom