First Year Teachers: A Guide to Setting Up Your Classroom

As a first year teacher, you probably have a lot of good ideas you want to make sure you implement in your classroom. You've also probably gotten a lot of advice and ideas from others. One of the biggest mistakes a first year teacher can make is trying to do too much too soon! When you are setting up your classroom, it is best to start out simple. Think of the things you have to have first. Then add a few of your ideas that you really, really want and are especially excited about! Next take a moment and look things over. Evaluate whether or not your classroom is warm and inviting or whether it needs a bit more. Then add things one at a time until it feels right. You do not want a classroom that is cluttered and over stimulating. Don't judge your classroom based on what you see in classrooms with veteran teachers. Many veteran teachers would love the chance to start over with a clean slate! Below are some specific tips for different grade levels that may be of use for you. My best advice though is to keep it simple! You can always add more, but you don't want to end up with a cluttered mess.

Special Tips for Setting up a Preschool or Kindergarten Classroom: In general, the younger the students you are teaching, the more organized the classroom needs to be. First year Kindergarten and Preschool teachers are usually coming into classrooms already stocked with toys and games and books appropriate for their level. The first thing you will need to do is take inventory of what is there. You don't want to buy something that you already have!

Next decide what types of activities will take place in a normal school day and divide the classroom up into appropriate areas. If you will have large blocks of free play time, it is important that the student play area be broken up someway so that there are distinct areas for different activities. For example, a pretend play corner with a kitchen center and dress up bin, a book corner, a block and puzzle area. Brainstorm ways to keep different play areas separate from each other. Can low book shelves or free standing bulletin boards be arranged in such a matter to form walls? Can you use furniture as dividers? Be creative! Even different colored area rugs can be a way to break things up a bit.

Make sure that toys and learning materials are stored in a manner that makes them easy to pick up! Some teachers over organize making it extremely difficult to get everything back exactly right! Although organization is good, make sure you are not being unrealistic with your expectation. Clean up after a play session shouldn't take more than five minutes.

Think about how you intend to interact with your students. Are you going to be doing a lot of small group things? Circle time on the floor? Active games? Are the students going to regularly work on worksheets or workbooks or other seatwork? Will you be presenting lessons to the whole class at once? This will help you decide how to set up your work areas. You don't want to have to rearrange furniture all the time, so try to plan for the classroom set-up to work with all of your typical classroom activities.

Don't forget to arrange for adequate places for your students to store their personal things like coats, boots, and supplies. Make sure that you have adequate storage for your teaching supplies too. You don't want to have to search every time you need something! Create systems for storing students' work too. No one wants a teacher who loses their papers, or doesn't grade them or return them in a prompt manner.

Special Tips for Setting Up an Elementary School Classroom: First year elementary school teachers usually find themselves with fairly empty classrooms. Most districts do not feel that kids beyond Kindergarten age need many toys. Hopefully you will have a few basics like globes and maps and math manipulatives, but I have seen teachers facing totally bare classrooms. Don't fret if this is your situation. Just remember that there is an advantage in having a blank slate upon which to create your ideal classroom.

The first thing to think about is where your students will be spending most of their days. In traditional classroom, the students spend most of their time at their desk or a table shared with others. This is their home base from which they can reach out and participate in other activities and then return to when they are done. Although other methods of organizing students can work, there is something to be said for the simplicity of every student having a place to call their own.

After the "home bases" are set up, think about the other activities you want your students to do. It is usually best to have specific areas of the classroom set up for specific activities with the necessary supplies stored close by. If several different types of activities will be taking place at once, make sure that you use furniture or flooring or some other method of creating distinct areas to help keep the students organized and on task. Some areas you may want to create include a computer area, a reading area, an arts & crafts area, and an area set aside for you to work with small groups.

Storage is very important! You want to be able to find things quickly and easily. Inventory your available storage options and decide if you will need to purchase additional storage units. Although I don't think first year teachers should spend a lot of money on their classrooms, this is definitely an area where you don't want to skimp. No matter how many wonderful teaching materials you have, you won't use them if they can't be found and accessed easily!

Although many first year teachers are eager to decorate making the room truly theirs, this should be the final stage of setting up your classroom. After you have taken care of the organization, you can add all those fun things that say "you!" Remember to take into consideration the age of the students you will be teaching in the decorating process. Sixth graders will not appreciate the same sorts of things first graders will. If you have been collecting supplies for this special day but ended up with a much different grade level than you expected, just accept that some of your purchases might have to be put away for awhile.

Special Tips for Setting Up a Middle School Classroom: Middle school is a special time for students, a transitional time. No longer do they spend their days mostly in one classroom with one teacher, and the same group of kids. They now go from class to class making adjustments regularly throughout the day to deal with different expectations and different personalities.

Many first year middle school teachers do not set up their classrooms with the same care that elementary school teachers do. I think that this is a mistake. Your classroom is a place where you will be spending a lot of time. Although you will have more than one group of students during the course of a day, you still want your room to be a pleasant place for them to be. Your room should tell something about the things you teach and also about yourself. Sharing parts of your personality will make the students more comfortable sharing themselves honestly with you!

As with elementary school teachers, the first thing you should consider is how you expect your students to be spending most of their time. Will you be lecturing? Will they be working in small groups? Will you be having class discussions? Will some of the students work independently while you work with a small group? Although I would hope that you are going to use many different teaching methods over the course of the year, the truth is that most teachers have a few favorite methods that they tend to use most of the time. Set your classroom up with that in mind. You can move the furniture around for occasional variations, but you aren't going to want to have to do it regularly!

If you frequently illustrate concepts on the board, make sure that the students will be facing it. If you like to lean on your desk while you teach, put it at the front of the room. Some teachers prefer to stand independently or to use a podium or table. If you use an overhead projector regularly, make sure to allow room for it, and to have your classroom arranged so that all of the students can see the screen clearly. The same goes for if you regularly use a TV or a smart board. I remember being stuck behind an overhead projector in one class where we used it regularly, and it is no fun having to crane your neck all the time!

Remember that your middle school students are still quite young. Take that into consideration when setting up your classroom. Some middle schools start as young as fourth grade! These students may appreciate classroom decorations that you might think of as too immature for middle school. It is OK to appeal to your students' silly side.

It is also important for your students to feel a sense of ownership in their classrooms. Make it theirs. You can do this even if you are teaching different subjects over the course of the day. Provide special areas in the classroom for each class. Display students' work regularly and let them help with bulletin boards and other decorations. If you have classes that are doing different things, it is extra important for you to be organized. Have color coded paper trays for each class's homework. Use the same color to write their assignments on the board. Label the shelves in your supply cabinet in the same colors so that you can find the right supplies for the right class quickly!

Special Tips for Setting Up a High School Classroom: Many of the tips for middle school apply for high school as well; there are some special considerations to make for the older kids though. Remember that high school students are on the brink of adulthood and set up your classroom with that thought in mind. Most of them will not appreciate overly cutesy stuff. It is probably not a good idea to go with pop culture related themes either. Things change so fast and chances are you will not manage to capture something that is big right now.

What can you do? Keep things simple! Stick to the basics. Provide information. Any classroom can have a library of appropriate books. How about creating a career shelf with information about careers related to the subject matter you teacher? Consider related bulletin boards. As with middle school, if you are teaching different courses over the course of the day, stay very organized! You don't want to get things mixed up, and you want to make it easy for your classes to stay on track.

Once again, remember to allow the students to help make the space their own. Solicit ideas for bulletin boards. Sometimes teachers run contests. Take ten minutes to let the students brainstorm ideas for the classroom. Choose the ones you like best and use them. Although you want to have a classroom that is ready on the first day to tell the students both something about the subject they will be studying and something about you, it is OK to let things evolve.

Tips for Special Circumstances You May Encounter:

Not every situation is the same. Some first year teachers encounter extra difficulties in setting up their classroom. Here are some ideas for dealing with a few common problems.

Some teachers face classrooms that were not cleaned out by the previous year's teacher. If you are facing a garbage filled, overly-cluttered room, do not despair. Grab a trash bag and start tossing things out. Make sure you plan enough time for the downsizing. You will want to sift through your throwaways to make sure that you are not throwing out anything important! After you have gotten rid of the clutter, organize the keepers into piles and then start over, making it your own room. Do not be afraid of throwing things out! Chances are much of the stuff in the classroom hasn't been touched in years.

Another difficulty you might encounter is too much advice from the other teachers in your school or from your administration. You may even receive conflicting advice from other teachers and the administration. This is not the time to follow the leader. If you do, you will most likely regret it. It is OK to consider the ideas of others, but ultimately you need to go with what will work best for you. Most likely, you are a recent graduate, and you have been taught the latest methods with the most research behind them. Don't critique the other teachers, but it is OK to give them a friendly nod and a simple statement that that sounds like a good idea but you are going to try it this way for now. Standing up for yourself will set a good tone for the year.

Some teachers will find that there is an unwritten expectation that all of the teachers in their grade level will do things the same way. This can be a little trickier to handle than just too much advice. It is still important to set up your classroom to best meet your needs, but you may have to explain why, especially if you are the only one breaking out of a long held pattern. What is most important in this situation is that you do not inadvertently put down how the other teachers are doing things. Use phrases like, "I learned about this in college and want to give it a try," or "I am going to try something different and see how it goes. I like this lay out because..."

Resource teachers and special education teacher with their own classrooms for pull-outs, and specials' teachers also have unique needs in setting up their classrooms. If you read the earlier sections of this article, you will get some ideas that might work for you. Just remember to think about what activities your students will most often be participating in, keep things organized, let your personality show, and give the students opportunities to make the room their own, and you should be well on your way to having a classroom that is both inviting and functional.

Here is one last tip for first year teachers! Do not buy a lot of things for your classroom until you talk to the administration in your school about what things will be provided for you and about any discretionary fund that may be available for your use. You may also be able to request that the school purchase some things for you. You may want to talk to other teachers also to see how things actually tend to play out. (Sometimes it takes awhile before discretionary funds are available, and other teachers are likely to have a good idea of how long it takes for ordered items to arrive, and what things you are likely to run out of!)